July 4th Firecracker

This tutorial was written on June 19th 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

Tube of Choice, I used the artwork of Keith Garvey, you must have a proper license to use his work please visit MPT, mypsptubes - HERE .
FTU Scrap Kit '4th July' by Nichole @ Envied & Admired - HERE .
Template Used - Independance by Gothic Realm - HERE .
No Mask Used.
Plugin Used - Eye Candy 4000, Gradient Glow.
Effects Used - Textured Effects, Weave.


(Open all supplies and save mask to psp folder before you begin)

Lets Get Started

Open the template, hit shift & d on your keyboard,this pastes the template as new image, close the original template. Delete the info layer.
Go to image and choose resize, select width & height to 80%, smartsize checked and make sure the tab resize all layers is checked, click ok.
Activate the bottom white layer, go to image, select canvas size and choose 500x500, click ok, if you get any transparent image showing grab your floodfill tool and fill with white.
Whether you resize here or at the end is up to you, i just find it easiest working this size.

Activate the Square layer, go to selections, select all, select float, select defloat then paste a paper from the kit as a new layer, resize a bit if needed then go to selections and select invert then hit delete on your keyboard, go back to selections and select none, delete the original layer and on the layer you just created go to effects, select eye candy 4000, gradient glow and use the following settings :-
Glow Width - 3.00 .... Soft Corners - 25 .... Overall Opacity - 100 .... Colour - White ... move the colour slider half way along to the centre to give a bolder glow effect. click ok.

Repeat that step on the layers named Star and Stars, use different papers and delete the original layers.

Activate the Large Rectangles layer, go to adjust, select brightness/contrast and move the brightness slider all the way to the right (255) the rectangles will now be white, click ok, go to effects, select textured effects, weave and use the following settings :-
Gap Size - 2 .... Width - 4 .... Opacity - 2 .... Weave & Gap Colours - #ff0000 .... Fill Gaps - Checked. Click ok, now go to effects again and select eye candy 4000, gradient glow, add the same glow as before but change the colour to #ff0000.

Repeat that step for the Small Rectangles layer but this time change the colour of the weave to #2f3bae and also the glow colour to #2f3bae.

Activate the wordart layer, i left this white and added a gradient glow with 2 different colours to this layer, to do this go to the gradient glow effect, on the first colour slider select #ff0000, click to add a 2nd slider and use #2f3bae, move your sliders to where you want them to determine ho bold the glow will be then click ok and move this layer to the top of your tag.

Activate the bottom white layer, take one of the firework elements from the kit and paste as a new layer, resize a bit to your liking then move the element to the left of your tag, when happy with psoition and size go to layers, select duplicate then go to image and select mirror so you now have fireworks on both sides.

Take one of the frame elements from the kit and paste as a new layer, resize till its sitting nicely around the other template layers, see mine as example, go to effects and choose eye candy 4000, gradient glow, use the following settings to add a glow to the frame :-
Glow Width - 3.00 .... Soft Corners - 25 .... Overall Opacity - 100 .... Colour - #2f3bae ... move the colour slider half way along to the centre to give a bolder glow effect. click ok.

Activate the bottom white layer again and grab your eclipse tool from the tool palette, in your colour palette set the foreground to null and background to a colour of your choice, now draw out a large circle just a little bigger than the frame, go to adjust, select blur, choose guassian blur and set to 20.00, click ok.

On the top layer of your canvas now, paste your tube as a new layer, resize as needed and place where you want it, add a dropshadow.

Add any other elements from the kit, i added a few balloons, buttons & stars but the choice is yours here, place each element as a new layer and resize as needed, add a dropshadow or the gradient glow to your elements.

Now crop or resize your tag in the usual way if you want to.

Add your name, I used the double glow on my name same settings as before
Add artist info and copyright info.
Save as jpeg or .png.

and we're done i think lol.

Thanks for trying my tutorial and i hope you enjoyed it

would love to see your results,

hippiedaze@hotmail.com