Ding Mask

Materials Needed:

• Paintshop Pro
• Ding Font "Nature" - download from http://www.houseoflime.com/
• Any photo or jpg - I used one of the weekly WETS shared in the email group.  You can download it here.

Open and minimise your ding font. I use a Font Manager to temporarily open fonts for use in PSP. 
You can download The Font Thing here.


Select your text tool using these settings:

Open a new image, 400 X 400 pixels - Transparent background.
Floodfill your background with white.

Set your background color to black and hide your foreground.

Open the ding font you plan to use.
Font: Nature - Upper Case C

Click on your canvas near the top left of your image, and type a Capitol C.

Make sure all of the design is contained inside of your canvas.

Right click on the Vector Layer in your layer palette. Convert to Raster Layer.
Drag your design to the top left of your canvas.

Layers > Duplicate.
Image > Mirror
Select your mover tool and click once somewhere on the top right design.
Repeatedly tap your left arrow key to move the top design and line up the two panels.
(By using the keys on your keyboard, your pieces will hold their vertical alignment.)

Hide the bottom (white layer) in the layer palette.
Layers > Merge > Merge Visible.
Layers > Duplicate
Image > Flip

Layers > Merge > Merge Visible
Selections > Select All
Selections > Float
Selections > Defloat
Image > Crop to Selection.

Deselect.

Unhide the bottom layer.  Ooops!  It disappeared!
Floodfill the bottom layer with white again.
(When you crop to selection, it crops the white background to the selection too.)

Layers > Merge > Merge Visible

Adjust > Color Balance > Negative Image

Effects > Texture Effects > Blinds with these settings

Width: 3 Opacity: 53 Color: White Light: checked

This is what your mask will look like.

Save your mask. You can save it as a .jpg or you can save it as a .pspmask in C:\Documents and Settings\__user_name\My Documents\My PSP Files\Masks. Minimise it for now.

Open the picture you plan to use.
Press Shift + D to duplicate the image. Close your original to work with another day.

Layers > New Raster Layer

Floodfill your top layer with a solid color. I used the dropper tool to pick a soft yellow (#fff7b7) from the light above the door.

Right click on the top layer in the layer palette and choose New Mask Layer > From Image
Browse to the mask you just made. Create mask.  Invert mask data UNCHECKED.


Right click on the Group Layer in the Layer palette and select Merge > Group.

Effects>3D Effects> Inner Bevel

Bevel #3 Width: 8 Smoothness: 4 Depth: 4 Ambience: 0 Shininess: 0 Color: White Angle: 315 Intensity: 39 Elevation: 30

Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow

Offset: Vertical: 5 Horizontal: 5 Opacity: 100 Blur: 5 Color: Black

Add your watermark or signature and merge all layers (flatten.)
Export your work as a jpg with a compression of 8.

I hope you enjoyed this tut.
vetch