Purrfect Christmas Tutorial

This tutorial was written by Amber Howard on November 27, 2014. Any resemblances to other tutorials are completely coincidental. Scripting and translating of this tutorial is forbidden. Do not copy and paste this tutorial anywhere else on the internet. Please link back to the main blog instead.

In this tutorial I used the artwork of Maryline Cazenave.

You can purchase Maryline’s artwork and a license through CDO.

Please do not use this or any other artwork without purchasing a proper license first.

Supplies needed:
PaintShopPro — I used X7 but any version will work.
Animation Shop
Tube and/or close up of choice
Font of choice — I used Mastoc.
Cluster frame of choice — I used a cluster from Tasha Playground’s Cluster Pack 3, available at CDO.
Snow animation of choice.

Plugins needed:
Eye Candy 6 — Perspective Shadow
Eye Candy 5 Impact — Perspective Shadow
Eye Candy 4 — Gradient Glow
Lokas Artistic Effects — Gel
Xero — Porcelain
Xero — Radiance
Xero — Mistifier

Ready? Set? Go!

Open a 400x400 canvas and flood fill with white.

Set aside for now.

Open up your cluster frame. I used ScrapTP_Cluster3a.

Hit Shift + D to duplicate the file and then close the original.

Hide the following layers in your layer palette:

Layers 4, 9, 15, 12, 16, 2, Background

This should leave you with the following layers still visible:

Layers 5, 6, 14, 10, 11, 3 copy, 8, 13, 3, 1

Add a drop shadow of choice to all of the layers, including the frame.

I used V&H: 2, Opacity 60%, Blur 6.

Merge Visible.

Next go to Image – Resize and resize by 350 pixels wide. All layers checked.

Copy your new cluster frame and then paste it into a new layer on the 400x400 canvas we created earlier.

You can now close the cluster frame file.

Take your magic wand with the settings Mode: Add, Match: Color, Tolerance 20.

Select the inside of the frame layer.

Selections – Modify – Expand by 26 pixels.

Add a new raster layer below your cluster frame.

Open up a paper of choice, or the paper that came with Cluster Pack 3.

Copy the paper and return to your 400x400 canvas.

Paste the paper INTO selection, making sure the empty raster layer is still active.

DO NOT DESELECT.

Open up your tube or close up of choice.

Copy and paste it into a new layer above your paper layer.

Position where you would like it.

Selections – Invert.

Hit the delete key on your keyboard once.

Selections – Select None.

Duplicate your tube layer.

On the original add a drop shadow of choice.

I used the following drop shadow using Eye Candy 5 Impact – Perspective Shadow:

On the duplicate of your tube, apply Xero – Porcelain with default settings and the blue channel set to 0.

Apply Xero – Radiance with default settings.

Apply Xero – Mistifier with default settings.

Change the settings of this layer to Soft Light and then merge down into the original tube.

Image – Mirror – Mirror Horizontal.

Make sure your cluster frame is active.

Copy and paste your tube as a new layer.

Resize your tube as needed. I resized mine by 50%. All layers unchecked.

Position around your cluster frame and add a drop shadow of choice.

I used the following drop shadow using Eye Candy 5 Impact – Perspective Shadow:

Hide your white background, paper, and modified tube layers so that your cluster frame and small tube are the only ones visible.

Merge visible.

Rename this layer toppings.

Hide your toppings layer.

Make your paper and modified tube layers active again.

Merge visible.

Rename this layer snowflakes.

Make your toppings layer active and visible again.

Choose a pixel font of choice and add your credits and tagger’s mark.

Choose another font of choice and add your name.

Convert your name to raster layer and duplicate.

On the original layer add a gradient glow and drop shadow of choice.

I used Eye Candy 4 – Gradient Glow to add a 3.00 medium thickness gradient glow.

I also added the following drop shadow using Eye Candy 6 – Perspective Shadow with the Height 0 preset and these additional settings:

On the duplicate of your name layer go to Adjust – Add/Remove Noise – Add Noise with the following settings: Gaussian, 50%, Monochrome checked.

Next apply Lokas Artistic Effects – Gel with the default settings, making sure to turn the Color Overlay off. 

Merge the two name layers into one layer.

If you are NOT animating save as .png and you’re done!

***ANIMATION***

Open your snow animation of choice in Animation Shop and check to see how many frames it has.

The one I am using has 10 frames.

Back in Paintshop, open up your white background layer.

Crop away the excess canvas.

Hide your toppings, name, and credits/tagger’s mark layers.

Edit – Copy Special – Copy Merged.

Over in Animation Shop, paste your background as a new animation.

Duplicate this layer so that it has the same number of frames that your animation has.

Switch to your animation.

Edit – Select All – Edit – Copy.

Switch back to your background layer and then go to

Edit – Select All – Edit – Paste – Paste Into Current Frame.

Arrange your animation to cover the paper/tube portion of your background and then click once to place.

Back in Paintshop, hide your white background and snowflakes layer.

Make your toppings, name and credits/tagger’s mark layers visible again.

Edit – Copy Special – Copy Merged.

Switch back to Animation shop.

Make sure that Propagate Paste is selected in your drop down menu so that it copies to all frames.

Edit – Select All – Edit – Paste – Paste Into Current Frame.

Arrange to cover the snowflakes layer like it’s supposed to and then click once to place.

Run your animation to make sure it’s smooth and doesn’t have any of the animation showing outside of your frame.

Save as .gif and you’re done!

Thank you so much for trying my tutorial! I would love to see your results!