Funkadelic Paisley Overlay

I made this overlay using Scrapping Cop's Paisley Dingbat font. Her terms of use have been included in the zip file. I used this overlay to make papers for my part of the Funkadelic blog train. Those papers were then used to make some of the alphas. I thought that other people might also enjoy using it so I am posting it as a pre-train freebie.

Overlay

Swirled Lollipop Script

Boy, does this preview suck. I need to go to remedial preview school. Here is a lollipop script to show how the swirled brad can be modified into other items. You will need Eye Candy 5: Impact to create the bevel and glass effect. I didn't have this script tested, so please leave a comment if it works for you in another version of PSP (or if it doesn't).

Script

I have also gotten myself listed in Scrapper & PSP Promote. It sounded like a really neat idea. Though, I have to say that the majority of my visitor traffic comes through Digifree.

Coloring a JPEG Overlay in Photoshop

This is another requested tutorial. Though, I'm feeling disheartened about my Photoshop tutorials because so few people seem to see them (ie, lack of comments). At the same time, I have several people passive-aggressively whine at me for not providing Photoshop tutorials. Being blamed for not writing Photoshop tutorials and having people ignore my Photoshop tutorials is extremely disheartening. I wonder if it is even worth writing these tutorials. Am I just here to be abused?

I will be using the Retro Circle overlays from Scrapping Cop in my example. Deb has kindly provided permission. If you want the overlays, you can get them at her blog.

Supplies:

Retro Circle overlays

It is more difficult to color an overlay in Photoshop than in Paint Shop Pro because the basic color selection tools are designed to be fuzzy since with a photograph or artwork, it is better to have edges that blend well.

1. Open up the overlay.

2. The overlay will serve as a template. Because the basic image is in shades of gray, in order to obtain clean selections we must increase the contrast. Image > Adjustment > Auto Contrast or Alt + Shift + Ctrl L to make the shades of gray distinctly different from each other. It is possible to see the ugly artifacts caused by the JPEG compression after the auto-contrasting.


3. Next, we must fix the artifacts on the overlay. Apply the median filter (Filter > Noise > Median) with a radius of 2 pixels to smooth out the artifacts. If the JPEG has been suffered from high compression, the size of the radius may need to be increased.



4. All the coloring will be done on a new layer. However, first we must set up the selections for coloring the new layer. Go to Select > Color Range. Use the dropper tool to pick a color from the overlay.




5. We need to fix the selection so that it isn't quite so ugly. Go to Select > Refine Edge or Alt + Ctrl + R.


6. Modify the selection.


Radius = 1.0
Contrast = 50
Smooth = 1
Feather = 1.0
Contract/Expand = +1

7. Go to Select > Save Selection. Give the new selection a name. I called it Color 1 because I'm unimaginative. Click Ok to save the selection.


8. Go to Select > De-Select or Ctrl + D to unselect the selection.


9. Repeat steps 4-8 until all the colors have been saved as selections.

10. Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Shift + Ctrl + N).


11. Go to Select > Load Selection and load your first selection. In my case, this is Color 1.


12. Fill the selection with the color, gradient or pattern of your choice (Edit > Fill or Shift + F5).


13. Repeat steps 11 and 12 for each color.

14. Go to Select > De-Select or Ctrl + D to unselect the selection.


15. Apply the Median Filter with a radius of 4 to get rid of the jagged edges.


The overlay is now re-colored.

Swirled Brad Script

Here is a script to go along with my swirled brad tutorial. You will need Eye Candy 5: Impact to create the bevel and glass effect. I didn't have this script tested, so please leave a comment if it works for you in another version of PSP (or if it doesn't).

Script

Swirled Brad (PS)

It was requested that I write up the Swirled Brad for Photoshop. However, it is much more difficult to make a swirled brad in Photoshop than in Paint Shop Pro, so my suggestion is to not use Photoshop unless you are a sucker for punishment.

Plugins Required:

Eye Candy 5: Impact
Graphics Plus

1. Open a new canvas 200 x 400.


2. Fill the canvas with a color by going to Fill (Shift + F5) and then clicking the drop-down menu and selecting Color. You can then choose a color from an existing palette with the dropper or type in a hex code.


Mode = Normal
Opacity = 100%

3. Re-size the canvas (Alt + Ctrl + C) to 400 x 400. You may need to click on the drop-down menus to change from inches to pixels.


4. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color.


5. Click Ok on the New Layer dialog. Do not change the default name or later steps may be confusing.


6. This will bring up the Solid Color palette where you can either use the dropper to choose a color from an existing palette or type in a hex code.


7. Move the new color layer (Color Fill 1) under your original layer by clicking on it and dragging it down.


8. Merge the two layers (Layer > Merge Visible or Shift + Ctrl + E). Now you will have one layer called Color Fill 1.


9. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool.


10. Turn on the rulers (Ctrl + R) for aid in selecting a 200 x 400 rectangle. If the ruler is in inches, right-click the ruler to change to pixels.


11. Select a rectangle that is 100 pixels from the top and 100 pixels from the bottom.


12. Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.


13. Ctrl + D to De-select.

14. Use the Pinwheel plugin from GraphicsPlus to create the pinwheel of colors. GraphicsPlus is freeware.

Repeator =7
Spinner = 0
Scaler = 48

15. Filter > Distort > Twirl to spin the pinwheel.

Angle = -60

16. Use the Elliptical Marquee tool to select a circle.


17. Shift + Ctrl + I to invert the selection.

18. Clear the selection by pressing the delete key.


19. Shift + Ctrl + I to invert the selection.

20. Apply Eye Candy 5: Impact Bevel.

Basic
Bevel Width = 32.00
Bevel Height = 40
Smoothness = 30.00
Round Corners = 0
Bevel Placement = Inside Selection
Darken Deep Areas = 0
Shade Interior = Checked
Surface = None

Lighting
Direction = 270
Inclination = 75
Highlight Brightness = 40
Highlight Size = 75
Highlight Color = White
Shadow Color = #404040

Bevel Profile = Button

21. Apply Eye Candy 5: Impact Glass.

Bevel
Bevel Width = 32.0
Bevel Smoothness = 30.0
Round Selection Corners = 0
Bevel Placement = Inside Selection
Glass Color = #c0c0c0
Opacity = 0
Tinting = 8
Refraction = 50
Inner Shadow Opacity = 41
Drop Shadow Opacity = 0
Shadow Offset = 0.0
Shadow Glow = 0

Lighting
Direction = 90
Inclination = 70
Highlight Brightness = 75
Highlight Size = 75
Highlight Color = White
Reflection Map = None

Bevel Profile
Factory Profile = Button

The swirled brad is now complete.

Camping Kit

Here are the elements for Camping. This kit comes with:

• 6 binder clips
• 3 brads
• 3 ribbons
• 3 frying pan tags
• 1 pebble alpha
• 5 popsicle sticks
• 2 popsicle stick frames
• 2 tents
• 2 sleeping bags
• 1 lantern
• 1 fire
• 1 flashlight (on)
• 1 flashlight (off)
• 1 compass

Kit

There are not many links for the blog train this month. Only a few people decided to share. To get other parts of the Camping kit from Scrap Kit Challenge, visit:

Humbug Graphics Galore
Ryn Creations
A Fish Design
Kathy's Scraps

Camping Quick Page

I made popsicle sticks because I wanted to make this quick page. You can get the popsicle frames as part of my camping kit.

Quick Page

Coloring a JPEG Overlay

I wrote this tutorial because I didn't want to forget how I tweaked a JPEG overlay to have multiple colors. Lots of people offer free overlays and because of size, these overlays are saved in JPEG format. In general, with an overlay, you are supposed to make it a new layer on your canvas, then change the color and blend mode of the overlay layer. However, what happens when you see an overlay and you say, hey, I wish I could color the overlay different colors? It doesn't work very well because when an overlay is saved as JPEG "from any software package, the file information is compressed to create a smaller file. The compression produces artifacts-unwanted image problems—that can appear as halos or color leakage beyond the edges of objects, checkerboard problems on smooth backgrounds, or blocky-looking areas in an image."¹ Artifacts even happen even at low levels of compression. So, I have worked out a way to modify the speckling so that it is still possible to manually change individual elements of an overlay.

I will be using the Retro Circle overlays from Scrapping Cop in my example. Deb has kindly provided permission. If you want the overlays, you can get them at her blog.

Supplies:

Retro Circle overlays

1. Open an overlay in Paint Shop Pro.

2. Go to Adjust > Add/Remove Noise > JPEG Artifact Removal.



Strength = Maximum
Crispness = 2

3. Go to the Color Replacer tool.



4. Set your background color to the color that you want to replace and your foreground color to the new color that you want.

Brush = +Default
Shape = Circle
Size = 5
Step = 25
Density = 100
Thickness = 100
Rotation = 0
Tolerance = 5

5. Click on the Replace All Pixels button.


This is what it looks like if you do not try to remove the artifacts.


6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all the colors in the overlay have been changed.


7. From afar, the image looks nice, but when you zoom in to 100%, you can see ugliness at the edges where the colors meet.


8. We are going to apply the Median filter to smooth out the edges (Adjust > Add/Remove Noise > Median Filter).

Film aperture = 5

9. Then we'll recover the edges with the Edge Preserving Smooth filter (Adjust > Add/Remove Noise > Edge Preserving Smooth).

Amount of Smoothing = 20

Coloring is now complete. If you want the overlays that I colored, then you can get them as my part of the Funkadelic Blog Train.


¹ Paint Shop Pro Help Files

Swirled Brad

I'm in a tutorial writing mood, so I'm trying to record the ways that I am making different elements for various kits that I am working on. I often go back and read me own tutorials in order to find settings for effects and plugins so these tutorials are very useful for me. I hope that they are also useful for other people.

This tutorial will show you how to make a swirled brad. Using a larger-sized canvas and different Eye Candy Glass settings, you can create other items, such as lollipops or round hard candies.


Plugins required:

Eye Candy 5 Impact

1. Open a new canvas 400 wide by 200 high.

2. Fill the canvas with a color.

3. Change the canvas size to 400 x 400 with the original canvas at the top.

Width = 400
Height = 400
Top = 0
Bottom = 200
Left = 0
Right = 0

4. With Match mode set to RGB Value and a Tolerance of 5, fill the bottom half of the canvas with an alternate color.


5. Use the Pattern effect (Effects > Reflection Effects > Pattern) to create alternating stripes.

Horizontal offset = 0
Vertical offset = 0
Rotation angle = 0
Scale factor = 26
Number of columns = 3
Number of rows = 3
Horizontal shift = 0
Vertical shift = 0

6. Use the Kaleidoscope effect (Effects > Reflection Effects > Kaleidoscope) to create turn the horizontal stripes into a pinwheel.

Horizontal offset = 0
Vertical offset = 0
Rotation angle = 0
Scale factor = 0
Number of petals = 7
Number of orbits = 0
Radial suction = 100
Edge mode = Repeat

7. The swirl is made using the Twirl effect (Effects > Distortion Effects > Twirl).

Degrees = -60

8. Go to the selection tool and make sure that Circle is chosen as the Selection type. Click on the center of the swirl and draw out a selection until some of the pinwheel stripes start to narrow.


9. Crop to the selection (Shift + R). This nicely eliminates all the extra parts of the pattern and re-sizes the canvas.



10. To make a three-dimensional brad, use Eye Candy 5 Impact Bevel.

Basic
Bevel Width = 32.00
Bevel Height = 40
Smoothness = 30.00
Round Corners = 0
Bevel Placement = Inside Selection
Darken Deep Areas = 0
Shade Interior = Checked
Surface = None

Lighting
Direction = 270
Inclination = 75
Highlight Brightness = 40
Highlight Size = 75
Highlight Color = White
Shadow Color = #404040

Bevel Profile = Button

11. Add some gloss to the brad with Eye Candy 5 Impact Glass.

Bevel
Bevel Width = 32.0
Bevel Smoothness = 30.0
Round Selection Corners = 0
Bevel Placement = Inside Selection
Glass Color = #c0c0c0
Opacity = 0
Tinting = 8
Refraction = 50
Inner Shadow Opacity = 41
Drop Shadow Opacity = 0
Shadow Offset = 0.0
Shadow Glow = 0

Lighting
Direction = 90
Inclination = 70
Highlight Brightness = 75
Highlight Size = 75
Highlight Color = White
Reflection Map = None

Bevel Profile
Factory Profile = Button

The swirled brad is now complete.


I made some lollipops and brads (or candies) in the colors of my Beach Babies kit. Feel free to use them. Of course, this means that I ended up scripting the tutorial. Is anyone interested in the scripts?

Lollipops and Brads