New Page 1

For this tutorial you will need: Jasc Paint Shop Pro. A trial version may be downloaded HERE

If you would like to use my rose and heart tubes, they may be downloaded HERE and the texture (linen.bmp) that I used can be found HERE. Just right click on it and save to your PSP7 Textures folder. I received permission from Dee to offer her D_gold fold pattern for this tutorial so you may download it HERE. Again, you just need to right click and save it to your PSP7 Patterns folder.

LET'S BEGIN

1. Open a new transparent file about 500 X 500. Rename this layer Background and add a new raster layer. Name this layer Heart1. Set the styles box as shown in the screen shot. Foreground should be set to pattern. Select D_ Gold Fold at a scale of 100% and an angle of 0. Set the background to null.

Choose the Preset Shapes Tool. Set it to Heart 1, anti-alias should be checked and your line width should be set at 11. (See the screenshot below) Starting at the top left corner draw out your heart shape so that it fills most of the file.

2. With your magic wand set at Match Mode RGB Value, Tolerance and Feather set at Zero and Sample Merged unchecked, click inside the heart. Now choose Selections/Modify Expand and expand the selection by 2 px. Add a new layer and name it Inner Heart. Floodfill with the color of your choice. (I used #E2C6CE) Go to Effects/Texture Effects/Texture and choose linen.bmp. See screenshot below. I went with the default settings, but you may do what you like. Then choose Selections/Invert Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow and apply a shadow of Vertical and Horizontal 1, Opacity 100 and Blur of 17.3. I used #554144 as the color for the shadow. Selections/Select None.

3. Go to your layer palette, Click on Heart1 and Duplicate that layer. Rename the duplicate layer Heart2. Layers/Arrange/Bring to Top. Making sure that All Layers is NOT checked Image/Resize/ and resize by 75%. See Screenshot below. (If you want your heart bigger or smaller, just change the percentage) With your magic wand set at Match Mode RGB Value, Tolerance and Feather set at Zero and Sample Merged unchecked, Click inside the heart. Now choose Selections/Modify Expand and expand the selection by 2 px. Then choose Selections/Invert Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow and apply a shadow of Vertical and Horizontal 1, Opacity 100 and Blur of 17.3. I used #554144 as the color for the shadow. Selections/Select None.

4. Add a new layer and call it rosetop. Open your gin_rosetopper.tub and place it on the heart graphic. (I like to place it in the middle and then use the mover tool to position it where it looks best.) Effects/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask using the settings shown below. Then Effects/3D Effects/DropShadow using the settings Vertical 4, Horizontal 1 Opacity 100 and Blur 17.3. Once again I used #554144 as the color.

5. Add a new layer and call it rosebottom. Open your gin_rosebottom.tub and place it on the heart graphic. Follow the instructions as in step four with the exception of the drop shadow settings. In that box change the Vertical to 1 and the Horizontal to 5.

6. Add a new layer and name it Text. I used my heart for a Sig Tag so I typed my name into it, but you could choose to put in a valentine message or a poem or just anything you'd like. My settings for the text and style boxes are shown below. I used the D_Gold Fold as the pattern for the outline and I used #773B52 as the color for the fill in my text. I also added a drop shadow using the settings of 1 for both Vertical and Horizontal, 100 for the Opacity and 1.5 for the blur. I used #554144 again for the shadow color.

7. If you'd like to add more things to your heart, add a layer for each one. I am including a tube of a thin gold heart that I made from the heart outline in my tutorial. In my Valentine I added two of those. You might want to add them where you could entwine them with the other outlines, or you might have something else you'd like to include. If you add the little hearts, they will not stand out unless you give them a drop shadow. Use the same one as is used in step 6. For every heart I also did a Colors/Adjust/Brightness/Contrast using the setting of 20 in each box. Also, if you'd like to put your Valentine on a background, just click the bg layer and flood fill and texturize however you'd like. Once you are satisfied with your results, you can merge the layers visible (with the bg clicked off) and export as a picture tube, or merge all layers flatten to frame the graphic or use it in some other way. You will probably want to resize, but if you do, make sure to use the Unsharp Mask to bring back the clarity.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it. If you encounter any problems, I'll try to help. You may email me HERE Thanks so much for trying it!