Maybe Checkered But

This tutorial was written on June 1st 2009 by Susan aka Hippiedaze.
The idea for this tag is off my own head lol and any resemblance is purely coincidence.
General Knowledge of psp is required, tutorial was written in psp 9 but will work in other versions.

Supplies Needed

Tubes of Choice, I used the artwork of Ismael Rac, you must have a proper license to use his work please visit MPT - mypsptubes HERE .
No Scrap kit used.
Template Used - #19 by Mirella @ Scrapity Scrap - HERE .
Mask Used - WSL Mask #82 by Chelle @ Wee Scots Lass Creations - HERE .
Plugin Used - Eye Candy 4000, Gradient Glow.
Pattern Used - Graphic #25 & Graphic #19 both these are included in the standard psp 9 library.

(open all supplies and place mask into your psp folder before we start)

Lets Get Started

Open the template, hit shift & d on your keyboard, this pastes the template as new image, close the original template. Click on the bottom white layer and go to image, select canvas size and choose 500x500 smartsize, click ok. You will have more room to work now.

Activate the layer named Raster 3 (Rectangles), go to selections, select all, select float, select defloat, the marching ants should be blinking, go to layers, select add new raster layer, make sure you choose transparent, click ok, now go to your colour palette and choose 2 colours for a gradient, i used a grey and white, click the foreground colour tab and look for the tile that says foreground/background in the droplist, select this and with your floodfill tool click the rectangles to fill with gradient, delete the original layer then add a dropshadow to the new gradient layer.

Activate the layer named Raster 4, go to selections, select all, select float, select defloat then take your close up tube and paste as a new layer, i resized mine to 120%, bicubic so it filled more of the square, do not deselect yet, click back on the raster 4 layer, go to layers, choose add new raster layer, grab your floodfill tool and fill the square with the same gradient you used before, now go to selections and select none, delete the original layer and add the dropshadow to the new layer.

Activate the layer named Raster 2, repeat select all, select float select defloat then go to layers, add new raster layer, transparent, click ok, now in your foreground colour tab, click pattern, look for the pattern fill that says graphic 25, select this as your fill, now go to the canvas and click inside all the little shapes to fill with the pattern, once all are filled go to effects, select eye candy 4000, gradient glow and use the following settings :-
Glow Width - 3.00 .... Soft Corners - 25 .... Overall Opacitiy - 100 .... Colour - Black or colour of your choice. Go to selections now and select none. You can also delete the original layer.

Activate the bottom white layer, go to layers, select add new raster layer, transparent, now go to your foreground fill tab again and click it to open the pattern grid, look for the pattern named Graphic 19, click ok, grab your floodfill tool and fill layer with this pattern, now go to layers, choose load mask from disc and find the mask you choose at the start (WSL Mask #82) make sure the following settings are checked :-
Fit to canvas - checked .... Source luminace - checked .... Invert transparency - unchecked.... Hide Mask - checked. Click ok, go to layers, merge group. I used the deform tool to make it fit nicely with my tag.

Click the bottom white layer again, grab your eclipse tool from the tool palette and set your foreground colour set to null & background to a colour of your choice, draw out a largish circle in the centre of your canvas just a little bigger than your mask, when happy with this go to layers and convert to raster layer, go to adjust, select blur, guassian blur and set radius to 20.00, click ok, i also reduced the properties of this layer to around 70.

Now you can add the circle text if you wish, using the eclipse tool again set foregroun to black (doesnt matter what colour as it will be deleted after), background colour set to null, draw another circle in the centre of your canvas, do not convert to raster this time, once happy with circle grab your text tool make sure you set to create as floating selection, click on the circle, you should see a wee half moon shape with the text icon, choose a font and type out your text of choice, i choose ' I maybe checkered but im still a babe' type this till its all the way around your circle, once your happy with this go to layers, add new raster layer and move this down below the floating text layer,, now click back to the floating text layer and go to selections, select none, delete the vector layer now and add a dropshadow to your circle text layer.

Activate your top layer now and paste your main tube as a new layer, resize if needed and place where you like it, add the droshadow to this layer too.

I used no other elements but pls feel free to be creative and decorate your tag the way you wish.

Add name, artist info and copyright info.

Save as jpeg or .png. and we're done lol.

Thanks for trying my tutorial and i hope you enjoyed it would love to see your results,
hippiedaze@hotmail.com