Faberge Egg

PSP8 and PSP9

*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

Materials :-
There is a text file included in the zip,
if you don't know where to place the items.
My sg_egg3.cfg, and tubes Here

This tutorial assumes that you already know where to find
the tool boxes and palettes and have set up the workspace
and preferences to suit yourself.

Some images have been made smaller to shorten file size

Please Note*

My tutorials were written for people to learn
from, so PLEASE DO NOT SCRIPT THEM.

Step 1.
Open a new image 300 x 300 transparent, flood fill with a
dark colour, I used black. (this just makes it easier
to see the sinedots image).
Name this layer background.

Add a new raster layer naming it 'lace'.
Go to Effects...Plugins...Dragonfly...Sinedots II...
If you are new to sinedots and don't know how to open
the .cfg files and the presets that they contain,
click HERE for more information

Open the sg_eggs.cfg preset. Click the little window
at the bottom of the sinedots screen to get the drop
down list of presets. The one I am using in this tutorial
is egg3, but you can choose one of the others if you prefer.
Before clicking ok we want to change the colour.

Click on the 'color' box and choose white, or another colour
if you want to. Some of the presets are on a black background
and for this tutorial it needs to be transparent, so if the
preset that you've chosen is on a black background(you can
see it in the preview window), click on the blend window
and from the dropdown list choose 'screen'.
Click OK

Step 2.
Next we will make an egg to fit inside the sinedots shape

Add a new layer naming it 'egg'.
Activate the selection tool and make the
selection type=ellipse mode=replace
feather=0 anti-alias ticked
Starting in the centre of the image (co-ordinates x150 y150
drag outwards with the mouse to select an ellipse inside the
lacy sinedots shape. The exact size is up to you, but to
give you a rough guide I have drawn the shape of my
ellipse in this screenshot.

With the 'egg' layer active flood fill the selection with
your choice of colour I have chosen #C8E8E8.
Don't de-select yet, we will keep the shape selected
until the cutouts and highlight are finished.

Now that we've got the egg the right size to fit into
the sinedots shape, we can hide the sinedots while we
finish making the egg, so open the layers palette (F8)
and click the eye on the 'lace' layer hide it.

Step 3.
Go to Adjust...Add/Remove Noise...Add Noise...
and use Gaussian, 25%, with monochrome unticked.

Now we will use cutout to give it some shape, so
Go to Selections...Float...
Go to Effects...3D Effects...Cutout...
Vertical=10 Horizontal=10 Opacity=60
Blur=30.69 Shadow colour=Black

Apply another cutout, but change the Horizontal and
Vertical settings to minus 4 (-4) and the Opacity to 50

Go to Selections...Defloat...but don't de-select yet.

Step 4.
To add a highlight change the foreground
colour of your palette to white.

Add a new layer naming it 'highlight'.
Activate the Paintb4rush Tool and use these settings
shape=round size=30 hardness=80 step=25 density=100
thickness=100 rotation=0 opacity=100 blend mode=normal

Paint a curved line in the top right corner of your egg
shape, similar to the one shown in this screenshot.

Go to Adjust...Blur...Gaussian Blur...
blur with a radius of 12.00
Now you can de-select

Step 5.
Make sure you are on the 'highlight' layer.
Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Down...

Turn the visibility of the 'lace' layer back on
and move it above the egg layer, either by
dragging it up in the layer palette, or make
sure 'lace' is the active layer and go to
Layers..Arrange...Bring to Top.

We will make the lace stand out more by adding a drop
shadow, but we need more space to work in first.

Step 6.
Go to Image...Canvas Size...
Make sure that the 'Lock aspect ratio' box is unticked.
Change the width to 400 pixels and the height to 500
Select the centre box in the placement section.

Make the background layer active and flood fill with
your background colour again to fill the gaps.

Make the 'lace' layer active
The sinedots preset that I a used for the lace
is very fine, so the layer needed duplicating
to thicken it (if you chose one of the thicker presets
you won't need to duplicate and merge down, I also found
that the thicker preset didn't need to be sharpened).

Go to Layers...Duplicate...
Then go to Layers...Merge...Merge Down...

Go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow...
Horizontal and Vertical offsets=1
Opacity=57 Blur=3.96 colour=Black

Go to Adjust...Sharpness...Unsharp Mask...
Radius=2.00 strength=50 clipping=5

You should have 3 layers, the lace at the top,
the egg in the middle and the background at
bottom. Make sure that the top layer is active
Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Down.

Step 7.
In the download zip file I have provided
tubes for the base and the top in a choice
of silver or gold. You can of course use a
base and top of your own if you prefer.

Add a new layer.
Activate the Picture Tube Tool and choose
either the sg_gold-base, or the sg_silver-base
Scale=100
Place the base at the bottom of your egg.
You can adust the position with the
Mover Tool if necessary.

Go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow
Vertical offset=minus 3 (-3) Horizontal offset=3
Opacity=70 Blur=8.00 colour=black

Add a new layer. Change the picture tube to the
sg_gold-heart-top, or the sg_silver-heart-top
and place the top at the top of the egg,
adjusting the position if necessary.

Go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow
Apply the same settings as before.

Hide the background layer, go to
Layers...Merge...Merge Visible...
Make the background visible again.

Step 8.
Decorate your egg with jewels or beads. There are some
of my jewels available in the link at the top of the page
which you can use if you wish, or you can use your own.

Place them on seperate layers, so that they can be moved,
it is also easy to delete any that you don't want to use.
I used the jewels at a scale of between 50 and 75, but the
size depends on what jewels you use and how large, or small
you want them to be, so experiment.

When you are happy with the decoration, hide the egg,
and the background layers, make sure that one of
the jewel layers is active
Go to Layers...Merge...Merge visible.
Turn the visibility of all layers back on.

Step 9.
Make sure the layer containing your jewels is active.
Go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow...
Vertical and Horizontal offsets=0 Opacity=50 Blur=8 colour=black
This will make the jewels stand out a little bit.

Next we will give a drop shadow to the egg, so make
the egg layer active and add a drop shadow, but change
the settings to Vertical=minus 6(-6) Horizontal=11
Opacity=60 Blur= 19.80 colour black

Decorate the background layer in any way that you wish.
For the one shown in this tutorial I flood filled the
background layer with a linear gradient and then applied
Effects...Texture Effects...Mosaic Glass... using the
default setting (for the default setting, just click on
the curved arrow at the top right of the dialogue box.

Finish with a frame of your own choice.

This is another example using different colours.

I have adapted this tutorial for the PSPUG it can be found
there under my screen name of cassandrablue.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Thankyou to my very helpful testers
To see my other tutorials click Here

If you wish to contact me you can find an email address to use included on my Site Map
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