Season's Tidings Tutorial

This tutorial was written by Amber Howard on November 25, 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 PinupToons.

This tube is the retired bonus tube from October 2012, and is not available for purchase.

You can purchase PinupToons’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
Tube or close up of choice
Font of choice — I used House Holiday TTF
Scrap kit of choice — I used Monti’s part of the 2014 Christmas Scrap Collab available only through the month of November at CDO.
Mask of choice — I used BeckyMask019.

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

Ready? Set? Go!

Open a 500x500 canvas and flood fill with #7a7a7a.

Open MS-CDOChristmasCollabKit-2014-Paper2 if you are using the Christmas Collab,

or a paper of choice if you are not.

Resize your paper to 500x500.

Copy and paste into a new layer on your canvas.

Layers – New Mask Layer – From Image.

Choose your mask from the drop down menu. I used BeckyMask019.

Source Luminance checked, click okay.

Merge your mask layer as a group.

Objects – Align – Center in Canvas.

Open MS-CDOChristmasCollabKit-2014-Element4 or an element of choice.

Resize to 350 pixels wide.

Copy and paste into a new layer on your canvas.

Arrange at the bottom of your mask layer.

Objects – Align – Horizontal Center in Canvas.

Add a drop shadow to your element layer.

I used V&H: 2, Opacity 60%, Blur 6.00.

Open your tube or close up of choice.

Resize as needed, and then copy and paste as a new layer on your canvas.

Arrange the tube in your layers palette between the element and mask layers.

Position where you would like it to go, and then add a drop shadow of choice.

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

Duplicate your shadowed tube layer.

On the duplicate apply Xero– Porcelain with the blue channel set to 0.

Apply Xero – Radiance with the default settings.

Apply Xero – Mistifier with the default settings.

Change the settings of your modified tube layer to Soft Light.

Lower the Opacity to 50%.

Delete the grey background layer as it’s not needed anymore.

Merge visible. 

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

Add an optional gradient glow.

Choose another font and add your name.

Once you’re happy with the placement of your name, convert to raster layer.

Duplicate your name layer.

On the original, apply a gradient glow with the Fat settings and a thickness of three.

Adjust – Add Noise – Random, 100%, Monochrome checked.

Add a drop shadow of choice to this layer.

I used the following drop shadow using Eye Candy 6 – Perspective Shadow, the Drop Shadow: Height 0 preset and the following additional settings:

Crop the excess canvas away.

Save as .png and you’re done!

Thank you so much for trying this tutorial! I’d love to see your results!