Butterfly Brush Stationery for Outlook Express

This tutorial is written for the novice Paint Shop Pro user.  It has a lot of screenshots so that the beginner can get through it with as little confusion as possible.  A note for beginners.  When you see a command like Layers > Merge > Merge Visible, the line is pointing to the Text Menu at the top of your screen.  This command directs you thru the nested commands under the Menu Item.

Materials and tools needed:

Paint Shop Pro
Tube of Choice.  Download the tube I used by clicking on the picture below.

Start with a tube with clean, defined edges.   I do not know who tubed this butterfly but will gladly give the tuber and artist credit for their work if you know them.  If you want to use my tube, click on the butterfly to download the tube.

Open the tube you want to work with. Press Shift+D to duplicate the image.  Always work with a duplicate. Delete any extra layers in your tube, ie. background, watermark, accents, etc. so that you have a single image on one layer to work with. Minimise the original so that you can open it later.

Make sure that your layer palette is open.  If not, press F8 to open it.

Prepare your Material Palette while you have the tube open.

Use the Eyedropper in your tool palette to pick a soft pastel color from the tube. Click on a soft/light color in your tube once to set the foreground color. I picked #e0c0ca. Click on the background color window to set the background to white. Click on the pastel-colored box in the material properties palette and select the Gradient Tab. Click on the down arrow next to the example box and look for Foreground-background in the selections window.   Use the following settings:

Angle: 315
Repeats: 5
Style: Linear

Selections > Select All
Selections> Float
Selections>Defloat

Image>Crop to Selection

Image > Resize
Resize the image to no more than 500 X 500 pixels.  (You won't have to do this if you are using the tube I included or one that is less than 500 pixels on the longest edge.)

Image>Greyscale

Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness and contrast with these settings:

Effects > Edge Effects > Enhance
Effects > Edge Effects > Enhance More

Image > Increase Color Depth > 16 million

File > Export > Custom Brush
Give your brush a name. (I always use numbers in front of the name so that I can find my own brushes quickly at the top of the list.) Use PSP's default settings for the rest of the export process.

Open a new image

In case you forgot the material palette settings:

Foreground color: #e0c0ca
Background color: white
Foreground set to gradient with these settings:

Floodfill the new image with the pastel gradient.

Adjust > Add Remove Noise > Add noise - 4%. Gaussian and Monochrome checked



Layers > Duplicate
Make sure that the top Layer is highlighted.
Image > Mirror

Click once on the word Normal in the Layer Palette to bring out the Flyout window
Choose Multiply

Click and drag the slider next to the word Multiply to lower the opacity of this layer to 48%.
Click and drag the slider on the bottom layer and lower the opacity to 48%.

You will see that your image is almost transparent. Lots of grey square showing thru both images.

Layers > New Raster Layer


Open the original tube. Use the eye dropper to pick a darker color from the tube, one that compliments the pastel you chose for the gradient. I chose #944152.  Set your foreground to Color in the Material Palette.

Select the paintbrush from your tool bar. Click on the little dropdown arrow next to the brush example picture to bring up your selection box. Scroll to find your new butterfly brush.

Change the size to 154 and the opacity to 100.


Layers > New Raster Layer

In the upper right hand corner, stamp your brush once, making sure that you don't go outside the edge of the image with the brush. You can use the Mover Tool to position it once it is stamped. Leave a little space on the top and left of the butterfly.

Layers > Duplicate Layer

Image > Mirror

Use the Mover tool again to drag the top butterfly to the left, just under the first one.

Your image will look like this.

Layers > Merge All (Flatten)

Time to make it into a seamless tile.

Effects > Image Effects > Seamless Tile

Show tiling preview is checked
Tiling method: Edge
Direction: Bidirectional
Width: 100%
Transition: 100%

File > Export > JPEG Optimizer.

Set compression value to: 20
Click OK

On the next screen, give your file a name and choose where to save it. Click Save.

**** Once you have exported your file, you can colorize your image for a variety of pastels and export each one with a different name.

For a quick stationery for one time use, open Outlook Express.

Click the Create Mail icon.
Format > Background > Picture
Browse to where you saved your background and select it.

To position your text in your stationery, click the indent icon until your cursor is on the right side of your butterflies.

Type away and enjoy your new stationery. For a saved Stationery Tut using OE's wizard, click here.

vetch