I haven't had any good ideas for the next tut until this weekend. I made some flowers like this for a kit I posted over on my scrap blog today so I thought I'd write up a tut on how to make these. Hopefully it will be of interest to some!
This tutorial was written 1 April 2012 using PSP 9 but should work in other versions as well.
Filter needed: Xenofex 2.2 ~ If you don't already have this filter, it is available from Alien Skin directly for free. It's an older filter which is no longer for sale. You can find the link for it here on Alien Skin's site - http://support.alienskin.com/entries/20693386-old-installers.
1. To begin, open a new transparent canvas. If you want to follow along exactly with my steps, mine is 500 x 500 pixels. As always though, this should be doable for whatever size you'd like your end result to be so start with the size you have in mind.
2. In your materials palette, select any color, gradient, or pattern that you'd like to use to make your flower in the Background/Fill Properties box. The color I chose was #217159. I've set my Foreground/Stroke Properties box to null because I don't want a color on the edge of my circle.
3. Activate your Preset Shape > Ellipse tool.
4. Choose the Circle shape at the top in your Mode selection, and put a check mark in the 'Create on vector' box. We'll be drawing the shape as a vector object so that it can be aligned to the center of the canvas. That way we can stack all 3 layers neatly on top of one another.
6. Convert the vector layer to a raster layer so the filter effects can be applied. When you have a vector shape, your filter menus will be grayed out, not allowing you to select any of the filters. You can either change it to a raster layer by using the Layer menu at the top or by right clicking on the layer itself in the Layer palette. I usually just right click on the layer, but either option works the same.
7. Now that the shape is a raster layer, effects can be applied. I first apply a texture, but that's entirely optional. The texture seems to make it look more like a piece of paper or even a piece of fabric in the end result. Texture is located in the Effects menu. I used 'Hatch fine' in my example, but again, you can use any texture you'd like. My settings are shown in the screenshot below.
8. Next, I'm adding the Crumple effect (Effects > Plugins > Xenofex 2.2 > Crumple...). The settings I used were as follows:
Crumple size: 37.85; Crumple Force: 51; Distort Image checked; Direction 60; Inclination: 58; Brightness: 31.86; Size: 54.87; Color: white; Light Boost: 58.
Those same settings are shown in the screenshot below. If your circle is a different size than mine, you may want to tinker with those settings. You'll be able to see a preview displayed in the filter window before you apply the effect so just move the sliders around until you like how the preview looks. Once satisfied, click the OK button to apply the effect.
9. Next, I applied Xenofex 2.2 > Burnt Edges to create a bit of a ripped look on the edges of my circle. The settings I used are as follows:
Expand selection: 5; Burn Width: 8; Roughness: 5; Burn Color: #174D3D (see the next step below to see how I chose that color); Opacity: 61
10. When selecting the color to use for the Burn Color in the Burnt Edges filter, first select the color which shows in your Background/Fill box. It should be the same color you used when you drew your circle. In the image above, there are 2 small boxes beside the larger Burn Color box - one is my teal color I drew the circle with and the other is a pink shade (that just happened to be the color still in my foreground material although I had set it to null & wasn't using it for anything). Click on the one which matches the green color.
Then, to choose a darker shade of that same teal color, click on the larger Burn Color box. In the Color window that opens, find the setting for L. Changing that value will adjust how light/dark the shade is. So, to pick a darker shade of the same teal, I changed the setting I've circled below from 73 down to 50. If you're using a different color than the one in my example, that value will vary from color to color. Just lower the number though to create a darker shade - or even raise the number if you want a lighter edge. Once you've adjusted the color value, click the OK button to close the Color window, and click OK in the filter window to apply the effect.
11. That finishes off what you'll be doing to the bottom layer of the flower. Just repeat the above steps to create two more gradually smaller circles on top of this larger one. Each time you apply the two filters (Crumple & Burnt Edges), click on the Random Seed buttons in the filters before applying them. That will create some differences between each of the layers so that they aren't cookie-cutter copies.
12. Once you have 3 layers finished, go back and add a large blurry drop shadow on the smallest top layer and the middle layer. Just activate the layer in the Layers Palette by clicking on the name. In my example, the smallest top layer is called Raster 4, and the middle medium-sized layer is called Raster 3. So make sure Raster 4 is the active layer by clicking on it, and apply a drop shadow (Effects > 3D Effects > Drop shadow). Click OK to apply, then activate Raster 3 by clicking on it in the Layers Palette. Apply the same drop shadow to that layer as well.
The drop shadow settings I used are Horizontal & Vertical = 0, Opacity = 60, Blur = 15, Color = black or #000000.
13. Merge the visible layers (Layers > Merge > Merge Visible - that will keep the background transparent). Then crop the canvas to the layer to remove the excess empty space around the flower.
14. Finishing touch - you can add another final tiny circle on the top and apply either a chrome effect to make it look like a brad or pin or a glass effect to make it look like a glass or acrylic button. Again, that's optional. For mine as below, I used Eye Candy Impact > Chrome.
Once finished, yours will look something like mine as shown below.
As always, any results you create are yours to do with as you please. I hope all the steps were written clearly enough to follow easily & that I gave enough screenshots so no one got lost. Feedback is always appreciated! :)
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