Christmas Cracker Tutorial PSP 7 Christmas Crackers are a British Tradition if you don't know what they are, I found a site that explains them, here is a link Absolutely Crackers This tutorial was created 1st December 2002©Copyright Artwork by EssexGirl please do not copy it, or put it anywhere else without my written permission. *NOTE* Sometimes the links for filters change, it's difficult (and a lot of work) to keep changing them on individual pages, so I have created a page with links to filters and programs that I have used in my tutorials. That way it is easier for me, because when there are changes I will only have one page to update and hopefully better for you, because I'm less likely to miss a page out when doing the updates :) You will find links to filters/programs used in this tutorial Here the link will open in a new window Filters and programs used in this tutorial :- Paint Shop Pro Dragonfly's Sinedots II Super Blade Pro OPTIONAL Eye Candy 3 Materials :- There is a text file included in the zip, if you don't know where to place the items. My xmas_cracker.cfg and silvery sparkle SBP preset Here some images have been made smaller to shorten file size

Step 1. Open a new Image 300 x 100 transparent. Flood fill with a dark colour and add a new layer Go to Effects...Plugins...Sinedots... Open the sg_Xmas_cracker.cfg and choose the challenge_K preset. The cfg contains a few other presets that also make good crackers, but you may need to experiment with the image size and the overlap on the duplicate layer if you use these. Have fun with them. If you are new to sinedots and don't know how to open the .cfg file click HERE for more information Some presets use different 'blend' settings and it is important for this tutorial to make sure that the blend in the sinedots setting is set to 'screen' like this:-

Step 2. Go to Image...Canvas Size... Change the canvas size to 500 x 200 Ticking the centre vertically box and unticking the centre horizontally box. Put 0 in the left box and 200 in the right box (you can also put the left and right figures the opposite way round for a slightly different cracker). Make your bottom layer active and flood fill with your dark colour, then make layer 2 active again. Go to Layers...Duplicate...then Image...Mirror... Turn off the visibility of the background layer by clicking the glasses in the layer palette, go to Layers...Merge...Merge Visible... Rename the merged layer 'cracker'. Turn the visibility of the background back on.

Step 3. If you want to change the colour of your cracker, there are lots of ways to do this. A nice easy method (my favourite) is to lock the layer transparency by clicking off the red X covering the padlock of the appropriate layer (far right in the layer palette) Then flood fill with colour, pattern or gradient. If you use this method don't forget to click the red X back on to the padlock afterwards. For this example I flood filled with a gradient. That is the basic cracker shape, but with all those holes in the lacy sinedots shape the goodies would fall out so we will make a lining :) If you prefer to skip the lining go on to step 6.

Step 4. With the 'cracker' layer active, and using the Magic Wand, match mode=RGB tolerance=0 feather=0 sample merged unticked, click on the blank area surrounding the cracker to select it. Go to Selections...Invert... Go to Selections...Modify...Contract... Contract by 2 pixels Add a new Layer and name it 'lining', then Go to Layers...Arrange...Move Down...

Step 5. Make sure that your 'lining' layer is active and flood fill the selection with the colour or gradient that you want to use for your lining, then de-select. For this example I have used a linear gradient Foreground-Background Angle=90 Repeats=5 foreground=red #FF0000 background=green #004000 You can also get a nice effect by lowering the transparency in the layer palette. Here I have lowered the transparency of the lining to 56

Step 6. Next we are going to frill the edges. Some of the screenshots here use different coloured crackers. I have given some alternative edges. For all of the examples in this step I used the Selection Tool (type=rectangle feather=0) to select a strip, or strips at right end of the cracker. Jiggle Edge With the 'cracker' layer active select a narrow strip approximately 12 pixels wide, on the right outside edge of the cracker as in the screenshot. Effects..Plugin Filters...EyeCandy 3.1...Jiggle... and use the Ragged Edges preset. This seemed to work better on the right side than the left, so after selecting a narrow strip and applying the Jiggle to that side, de-select. Go to Image...Mirror... This will reverse the sides so now you can select a strip and apply the jiggle and it will go in the same direction as the first side.

Step 7. My second alternative edge is Jiggle Edge with SBP This is a variation on the Jiggle Edge. Selected a narrow strip (approximately 12 pixels wide) at the edge of the second frill, as well as the outside edge. If you hold down the shift key while selecting, you can select and apply any effects to both strips at the same time. After applying the Jiggle, but before de-selecting go to Effects..Plugin Filters...Flaming Pear...SuperBladePro And apply a preset of your choice. The preset I used is called sg_silvery sparkle and is available for download at the top of the page, but you can use another preset instead if you like.

Step 8. The third alternative is Wave Edge Select a strip approximately 20 pixels wide as in the screenshot. Go to Effects...Geometric Effects...Wave and use these settings Horizontal Displacement Amplitude=5 Wavelength=35 Vertical Displacement Amplitude=5 Wavelength=35 Don't de-select yet. Make the 'lining' layer active. There are two options here. You can apply the Wave to the same selection on this layer, which will make it exactly the same shape as on the 'cracker' layer, or you can de-select and make the selection again in a slightly different width. When the wave is applied the edge has a different curve. You may have to undo adjust the position of the selection a few times before getting the result you want, but I liked the effect, it seemed to give a more 3D look. When you have finished De-select. In the same way as in the Jiggle Edges, before applying the Wave to the left side, go to Image...Mirror... To reverse the sides. You will need to mirror the lining layer as well.

Step 9. Wave Edge Variation As a variation on the Wave Edge you could also select a strip on the edge of the second frill and apply the Wave to that as well.

Step 10. You can finish by decorating your crackers with tubed ribbons, flowers, beads, or whatever you want. If you want to tube them, delete the background layer, then go to Layers...Merge...Merge Visible. If you resize, don't forget to sharpen the image. (Effects...Sharpen...Sharpen...) Here are some examples that I have made using some of the presets that you will find in the cfg provided.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Available in e-book formHere Thankyou to my great testers To see my other tutorials click Here

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