Picket Fence Tutorial for PSP 7

This tutorial was made using PSP7, but PSP 6 should work as well. You will need the Filter Sweetflux.I have loaded it so you can download. Make a new folder in your PLUGINS and run the SETUP in the zip file. Make sure it installs to the new folder you made. It will show up in your plugin listing as "dsb flux".

I have the main Fence slat as a sel. file (put this in your PSP selection folder) and one tube for the bottom slat in a zip file. I also included the TinkerToy font. You can download them HERE.

I'm not an expert Tutorial writer so if you have any questions or trouble with this tutorial you can reach me at..missyz@axs.net

Picket Fence Tutorial

Open an image 400x400 transparent . Add a new layer and name it Slat 1. Go to Selection, Load from Disk and find mzpicket2.sel. Flood fill this with the color #F1EEE5. Go to effects, Artistic Effects and choose "Enamel" with these settings:

With selection still made.....add a new layer and name it Contrast. With the new layer selected, choose your spray can tool. Use these settings. Change your foreground color to #9C875A and spay some random spots in the empty selection. Do NOT deselect.

Go to your filters and choose the dsb flux filter...BLAST. Use these settings.

Next go to Effects....Edge...Trace Contour. Your image should now look something like this.

Deselect and shut off your layer 1. Merge visible the slat 1 and contour layer. rename this layer Slat 1 again.

Duplicate your slat 1 layer and rename it slat 2. Go to Image....rotate and use the settings: Left .....5..free. Move it just to the right side of the middle slat and duplicate the layer. Name this layer slat 3 and mirror it. You can move them around now..or wait till you have the next 2 layers made. Highlight the Slat 3 layer...and duplicate it. Again rotate with the same setting. Name this layer slat 4. Duplicate this layer, name it slat 5 (are you still with me...lol) and mirror it. Use your mover tool to get the slats in position, something like this.

When you have the slats in line like you want, make sure your layer 1 is turned off and merge visible layers. If you want you can name the new merged later "Back, or "jees I"m glad that parts done!"

Open the Slat tube that was included in the zip file. ( I saved you some work here!) Copy the Slat and paste as new layer. Position it close to the top. Paste again as a new layer and using the Deformation tool, turn it just a bit so it slants down from the other board. Paste 1 more time as a new layer....and position this slat toward the bottom. Using the deformation tool again, push the ends in to make it a bit smaller. You can use the mover tool to move them around to your liking. You should end up with something like this. This shows the Deformation tool on the bottom slat.

Turn off the bottom layer if its on, and the BACK layer. Merge the three top slats. and add a drop shadow.

Turn the BACK layer on now and merge it, and the top slats. OK....here is where I made a slight change. Go to colors.....colorize, and set the HUE to 0...and saturation to 8. I liked this color change. If you don't, you can undo and keep the original color we had. Go to effects.....Sharpen....and sharpen the image once. At this stage I copied the image and pasted as a new image. I exported it as a tube for future use without text on it.

Now...lets Put some text on our fence! DO NOT make a new layer..unless you are using PSP 5. I am using Tinker Toy font, and the same color we used for the contrast. Click on text tool and using vector text, If you need more help with Vector text you can view my Vector text tutorial HERE.

Put down the first word you want. All the text will be on one vector layer. Your text layer should look something like this.

Turn and twist the word so it fits on the fence, using the object selector.

Add the next word and fit it on the second slat, and the 3rd word on the bottom slat. Since it's vector...if you click on one of the words...you can move it. When you have the text the way want, right click on text layer and "convert to raster. Go to Effects....texture effects....sculpture and choose these settings. This is something you can play with. If you would like another color play around with the different looks.

I duplicated the text layer. I thought it made it stand out more. When you are happy with the text. Merge visible layers and add a drop shadow to the merged layer.

Flood fill layer 1 with the color of your choice. You might want to do this before you add the drop shadow so you can see if the shadow is to you liking.

Guess what.....it's time to decorate!

I'm not going to tell you how to decorate. Use some flower tubes ......birdhouse....anything you want. If you use some flowers..you can erase part of them to make it look like they twine around the fence. Just make sure you put each tube on it's own layer so you can play!

When you have your tubes all in place...merge layers and crop your image. You might want to add a frame around your new graphic.

BRAVO......if you followed my wacky way of doing a tutorial......you did GOOD!

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