Ornaments

I appear to have moved back to the main scrapping category at Digifree.  Woo.

Here are some Christmas Ball Ornaments made by my Script Testing Team.  They are from Lena and Lou.  If you are interested in the Christmas Tree, come back for the Holiday Train.  It will be part of that kit.

Elements

Christmas Ball Script

This script will make four different kinds of Christmas ball ornaments.  The user can choose from a matte or glossy finish or a gold or silver hanger.  My Script Testing team also made a huge bunch of samples since I had them test this script 3 separate times.  I will offer them soon because they all look so pretty.

Script 

And, have you seen the new categories offered by Digifree?  I was mis-categorized yesterday, but hopefully that has been corrected now.  We'll have to see what the computer thinks tonight.

Christmas Ball Ornament

This tutorial will show you how to make a Christmas ball ornament in Paint Shop Pro.

Supplies:

Balls and Bubbles Preset

1.  Open up a new canvas.  Mine is 600 x 600.

2.  Use the Balls and Bubbles effect to generate the ball.  I have provided a preset as the three different lights are hard to reproduce.  Unzip the preset into your Presets folder (usually, My Documents > My PSP Files > Presets).  Click the preset dropdown menu and select the HGG Christmas Ball preset.  Then, to customize, change the material in the surface tab to whatever color, gradient or pattern you want.

This is what the canvas will look like after Balls and Bubbles.

3.  Increase the height of the canvas (Image > Canvas Size).  I re-sized my canvas to 600 x 800.

4.  Select the Rectangle Tool.

5.  In the Material Palette, set the foreground material to transparent.  Set the background material to a nice metallic gradient.  I chose Metallic gold 02 which comes with PSP.

Angle = 90
Style = Linear

6.  With the Rectangle Tool, draw a rectangle at the top of the ball.  This will be the cap.

7.  Right-click on the rectangle and select Convert to Path.


8.  Go to the Object Selection Tool (or Pick Tool).  Press and hold the Ctrl key.  Hover one of the bottom corners of the rectangle and draw to the outside of the canvas, turning the rectangle into a trapezoid.

9.  Go to the Pen Tool.  Select the node at the bottom left of the trapezoid.  Right-click, select Node Type and then Curve Before.

10.  Pull the handle down to create a curve.

11.  Select the node at the bottom right of the trapezoid.  Right-click, select Node Type and then Curve After.

12.  Pull the handle down to create a curve.

13.  Select None.

14.  Create a new vector layer (Layers > New Vector Layer).  I called mine Interior.

15.  In the materials palette, invert the gradient.

16.  Go to the Ellipse Tool and draw a small ellipse at the top of the trapezoid.

17.  Convert the vector layer into a raster layer (Layers > Convert to Raster Layer).

18.  Darken the ellipse with Brightness/Contrast (Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast).

Brightness = -30
Contrast = 10

19.  Go the Materials Palette and swap the Foreground and Background Materials.  Change angle of the foreground gradient from 90 to 0.

20.  Go to the Circle Tool, make sure the line style is +Solid and that the width is 9 or 10.   Draw a circle over the ellipse.  This circle will be the hook for hanging the ornament.

21.  Convert the vector layer to a raster layer.

22.  Apply the inner bevel effect (Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel) to make the ring look three-dimensional.

Bevel = 3
Width = 20
Smoothness = 30
Depth = 19
Ambience = 15
Shininess = 91
Color = White
Angle = 319
Intensity=30
Elevation = 30

23.  In the Layers Palette, select the Interior layer.  Select All (Ctrl + D).

24.  Float the selection either by clicking on it or with the float command (Ctrl + F).

25.  De-float the selection (Ctrl + Shift + F).

26.  In the Layer Palette, select the remaining vector layer.

27.  Convert to the vector layer to a raster layer.

28.  Hit the delete button.

29.  Move the layer to the top.

The Christmas Ball is now complete. I am working on a script, but it needs to be tested.

Stitched Puffy Felt

This tutorial will show you how to make stitched puffy felt in Photoshop.  If you do not want the stitches, then skip the stitching steps. I wrote this tutorial in CS3, but it should work in other versions of Photoshop.

Create the Felt Pattern

1.  Either make or find a felt pattern. You can use the felt pattern provided for the PSP Puffy Felt tutorial if you do not have a felt pattern.  Open it in Photoshop.

 

2.  Go to the Edit menu and select Define Pattern.

3.  Give your pattern a name.

Puffy Felt

1.  Open a new canvas 900 x 900.  If you choose to use a larger canvas, then you need to change the size number in the styles or the middle of your object will look too flat.

2.  I am going to use a custom shape, but you can use anything you like.  Go to the custom shape tool.

3.  Make sure shape layers is selected.  Choose your shape.  I chose the heart shape which came with my Photoshop CS3.   Set the color you wish the shape to be.  I used #fdc0ff.

4.  Go to layer styles (Layer > Layer Style) and set the Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Color Overlay and Pattern Overlay.  Remember to increase the size option in each style if you have chosen a larger canvas.

Inner Shadow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

Choose the same color as your object.

Pattern Overlay

Select the Felt Pattern that you created earlier.  If you are using my felt image and you are creating an image larger than 900 x 900, then you need to increase the scale proportionally.  For example, if you make a 2400 x 2400 image, then you need to increase the scale 2.6X or about 266%.

5.  In the layer palette, right-click on the layer and select Copy Layer Style.

6.  Go the Path Palette and right-click on the Vector Mask (if you are using a custom shape).  Choose Make Selection.  If you already have a Raster Selection, then you can skip this step.

7. Now that you have a selection, make a work path from the selection.

8. Make a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Shift + Ctrl + N).

9.  Increase your canvas size to 1000 x 1000 (Image > Canvas Size or Alt + Ctrl + C).

10.  Select a brush for creating the edging around the object.  I chose a basic round brush because I wanted a flat, plain edge.  Permanent Marker Medium Tip is a brush preset in the Dry Media Brush set that comes with CS3.  The actual brush is Hard Round 32.

11.  In the Path Palette, stroke the path with the brush to create an edge around your shape.

12.  Return to the Layer Palette and right-click on the new layer.  Then choose Paste Layer Style.

The puffy felt shape is now complete.

Stitching

1.  Open a new canvas.  Mine is 50 x 100 pixels.

2.  Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to draw a rectangle.

3.  Fill the rectangle with black.

4.  Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset to save the rectangle as a brush.

5.  Give the brush a name.

6.  Go into the Brush Palette and increase the spacing in Brush Tip Shape to allow for single stitches.  If you make the brush in the same direction as I did, then change the angle to 90.

7.  So that the stitching will follow the shape of the object, go to Shape Dynamics in the Brush Palette.  Make sure that Angle Jitter Control is set to Direction.

8.  Return to the canvas with the puffy felt object.  Make a new layer (Shift + Ctrl + N).

9.  Go to Edit > Transform Path > Scale.

10.  Resize the work path so that it now outlines the edge of the puff.

11.  Press the Return or Enter key to commit to the warp.

12.  Stroke the path with your stitch brush.

13.  In the Path Palette, click the trashcan and delete the work path.

14.  Go to layer styles (Layer > Layer Style) and set the Drop Shadow and the Bevel and Emboss styles.

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

The puffy felt object has now been stitched.

I'm not sure if people want my layer styles, my felt pattern or my stitch brush.  Please a comment if you are interested in these items.