Wompie's Making Bordered Buttons with PSP Tutorial
xmas41buttons.jpg (28205 bytes)
This tutorial is dedicated to all of my Graphic Buds. I've learned so much from all of you and decided it was time to "give back." Thank you all and Merry Christmas!

Find a pattern, color or fill that you want to work with. I am always so inspired by Jane's tubes and fills and found this fill at Jane's Fills.

Jane has graciously given her permission for me to offer her fill and tubes on this tutorial for supplies. Here are two versions of her fill:

xmas41.jpg (46469 bytes)  xmas41b.jpg (23316 bytes)

Here are the coordinating tubes: (unzip them and export them as tubes in PSP.)

Tube Zip File

I crystallized the pattern and made a coordinating crystallized solid tile using a tutorial I found at Dizzinz.

For the purposes of the bordered buttons, I will use the original fill (not crystallized) and matching tube.

The software you will need for this tut is Paint Shop Pro version 5 or 6 and Eye Candy plug in. I also highly recommend Blade Pro for adding beautiful effects to your text.  I'm sure some of the same effects can be achieved without Eye Candy or Blade Pro, they just happen to be my favorite plug-ins.

If you would like to make buttons using the images I've used, here is the crystallized solid tile:

xmas41solidtile.jpg (2738 bytes)

xmas41bar.jpg (38833 bytes)

Open a new image 200 x 200, transparent background.

Flood fill (the little paint can tool) with your background image. Here are my tool options settings:

tut1.jpg (23892 bytes)   tut2.jpg (23382 bytes)

*Add a new raster layer* (layers...new raster layer...ok)

Select the preset shapes tool. (the little rectangle and ellipse right below the pencil) Make sure your foreground color is set to a contrasting color from your background. Here are the settings:

   tut3.jpg (17300 bytes)

Starting at 100, 100, draw an ellipse to 185, 61. (See coordinates at the bottom left-hand bar in your Paint Shop Pro.) Your image should look something like this:

tut4.jpg (36497 bytes)

(I added the square border for viewing purposes. Your image won't have this.)

xmas41pg2.jpg (28101 bytes)
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