Tut - Chocolate Love

Chocolate Love

This tutorial is my own creation and based on my own ideas. Any and all similarities with any other tutorial is purely coincidental.

Please do not upload to or offer this tutorial on any other site without asking me first. Thank you.

Material you will need:

PaintshopPro – I’m using PSP X2, but you should be able to follow the tutorial in any version.

A scrap kit – I used the yummy and beautiful  kit Chocolate Lovers by Passion4Digiscraps, which you can purchase here.

A font of your choice.

A tube of your choice – or use one of the two included in the material (both created by me).

A mask –I used WSL 81 and 311, created by Weescotslass, which is  included in the material. Check out her blog here for further masks.

No filters required.

You can get the material here.

Now, let’s get started. It might be helpful if you choose the elements you wish to use beforehand, and open them up in PSP prior to starting the tutorial. That way, you have them handy when following each step.

Also, you don’t have to slavishly follow each positioning nor setting – play and experiment a bit, especially if you use different elements.

If you are unsure how to position an element, refer back to my sample tag.

I do assume you have at least some to moderate experience and understanding of PSP.

The DropShadow throughout the tutorial remains the same: V/H 1/-3 O/B 45/6.95.

Resizing throughout the tutorial is done with “Resize all Layers” NOT checked.

Open a new image, 500 x 500, transparent background.

Open LStation_Roundelement, copy&paste, Resize 30%.

Open tube, copy&paste and Resize to liking, move underneath frame.

Option 1: if you don’t want your tube to ‘stick out’ of the frame, simply click with your Magic Wand inside the center frame, Selections – Modify - Expand by 2, go to your tube layer, Selections – Invert, and hit “Delete”.

Option 2: if you would like your tube to ‘stick out’ of the frame, here is the way I did (but feel free to use whatever method that’s easiest for you).

With your Magic Wand, click inside your center Frame, Selections – Invert.

With your Eraser Tool, erase the parts you don’t want to ‘stick out’. I only erased the parts closest to the frame, to make a bit of “space” between the frame and the tube.

Once you have a bit space, Selections – Select None.

Use your Freehand Selection Tool – Point-to-Point to select the rest of the tube you wish to erase.

Optional: use your Soften Brush on the edges of the tube where you erased parts of it.

Apply Dropshadow.

New Layer, and move it underneath frame layer.

With your Magic Wand, click inside the center of the frame, and the  oute/ lower right part of the frame.

Selections – Modify – Expand by 2.

Some part of the corners of the bottom right frame will not be selected this way. To select these, use your Freehand Selection Tool, Point-to-Point, and set the Mode to “Add”, and then select the corners.

Open LStaton_PaperRed1, copy.

On your new layer, paste into selection.

Selections – Select none.

With your Magic Wand, click in the frame section right underneath the center, and into the upper left part.

Selections – Modify – Expand by 2.

Again, use your Point-to-Point, Mode “Add”, to select any and all corners.

New layer, and move underneath frame layer.

Open LStaton_ChocPaper2, copy.

On new layer, paste into selection.

Selections – Select none.

Highlight frame layer, and merge down twice (frame, and both paper layers).

Apply Dropshadow.

Open LStaton_FeatherRosePearl, copy&paste, Resize 23% and move it on top of the tube layer, a bit to the bottom left.

Apply Dropshadow.

Open LStaton_VelvetBow2, copy&paste, Resize 25% and move to the right side of the frame.

Optional: depending on how you placed the bow, you might like to erase the upper part of it.

Apply Droshadow.

Open LStaton_CandyBox, copy&paste, Resize 10%, Free Rotate – Right – 10 degrees.

Move underneath bow layer, and a bit to the right.

Apply Dropshadow.

Open LStaton_FluffyFlower1, copy&paste, Resize 15% and move underneath frame layer and to the right, Duplicate.

Original: move it a bit up (next to the head of the tube).

Apply Dropshadow.

Copy: Free Rotate – Right – 17 degrees; move it down a bit (closer to the candy box).

Apply Dropshadow.

Open LStaton_FluffyFlower2, copy&
paste, Resize 10% and move underneath the flower layers and to the right, Duplicate.

Original: move underneath lowest FluffyFlower1 (between candy box and FluffyFlower1).

Apply Dropshadow.

Copy: move between the two FluffyFlower1’s.

Apply Dropshadow.

Open LStaton_butterfly2, copy&paste, Resize 10%, Free Rotate – Right – 8 degrees.

Apply Dropshadow.

New layer, Arrange – Send to bottom.

Selections – Select All.

Open LStaton_SilkPaper3, copy.

On new layer, paste into selection.

Selections – Select none.

Layers – Load/Save Mask – Load Mask – MaskWSL_311.

Fit to layer, show all masks, source luminance checked; invert transparency NOT checked.

Merge group.

New Layer, Send to bottom.

Selections – Select all.

Open LStaton_LeafPaper, copy and on new layer, paste into selection.

Selections – Select none.

Layers – Load/Save Mask – Load Mask – MaskWSL_81.

Fit to layer, show all masks, source luminance checked; invert transparency NOT checked.

Merge group.

Optional: I lowered only the opacity of the second mask layer (the bottom one created with the LeafPaper) to 60% but feel free to lower opacity of both or neither masks.

Optional: resize mask or use your Deformation Tool, if necessary, to tweek your mask layers to your liking.

Now, the next step is to add any further text, copyright information and your watermark to the graphic.

Feel free to merge all layers visible and then resize to your liking or crop the image.

If you prefer a transparent background, save your tag in PNG format.

Otherwise, if you select the JPG, it will automatically add a white background.

Should you care for a different colored background:

New layer, arrange, send to bottom, and floodfill with your color of choice.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

XOXOXO,

Dani