Sand and Sea Frame

Although I named this tutorial 'Sand and Sea Frame' I was just influenced by
the picure I framed, the frame itself has nothing to do with sand, or sea.

This tutorial is in two parts, on this page we will create the
framed image. If you want to go on to make some side panels and
create an Incredimail Letter with your image you can go on to page 2.
Experienced letter creators please feel free to do your own thing

Step 1.
Open the Joyce mask in psp
Go to Image...Rotate Right...
minimise the mask so it's out of the way

Open the image that you want to frame. This tutorial uses a portrait style image. If
you want to use a landscape style image you could rotate it left, or right, then at the
end of the tutorial rotate the image back again , it would make an interesting variation.

Resize your image so that the width is 450 pixels, psp will automatically set the height.

Use the dropper tool to select a dark colour from your image for
your background colour (right click), or use black #000000.

Make the foreground of your palette pattern fill and
choose the Speckle Goldfill pattern Angle=0, Scale=100

Step 2.
Your image needs to be a background not a layer.
Go to Layers...Merge...Merge All (if this option
is greyed out your image is already a background)

Go to Selections...Select All...
Effects...3D Effects...Cutout....
Use these settings :-
Horizontal offset=0
Vertical offset=0
Opacity=100
Blur=25
Colour=Black
Fill interior with colour= unticked

Select None

Step 3.
Go to Image...Add Borders...
We are going to create a different size border
for the top and bottom than for the sides, so
untick the symmetric box
Left and Right=60
Top and Bottom =75
Right click on the colour box and choose your background (dark) colour

Step 4.
Go to Layers...New Raster Layer...
Flood fill the new layer with your pattern
(the speckle goldfill)

Go to Layers...New Mask Layer...From Image...
In the Source Window dropdown list choose 'Joyce'
Create mask from Source luminance
Invert mask data = unticked

Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Group...

Step 5.

Activate the Selection Tool
Selection type=Rectangle Mode=Replace
Feather=0
Antialias=unticked

Select a strip approximately 5 to 10 pixels wide down the left
side where the image meets the border, running from the
top of the horizontal gold panel at the top, of the image
to the bottom of horizontal gold panel at the bottom of
the image (see screenshot below)

Add a new raster layer
Flood fill with the speckle goldfill pattern

Deselect
Go to Layers...Duplicate...
then Image...Mirror...Mirror Horizontal...(in older versions Image...Mirror...)

Step 6.
Hide the background layer by clicking the eye
for that layer in the layers palette, go to
Layers...Merge...Merge Visible...
Unhide the layer by clicking the eye again

Go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow
(if your background colour is black you may
not need the drop shadow, so this is optional)
Horizontal and Vertical offsets=1
Opacity=75
Blur=5

Go to Layers...Merge...Merge All (flatten)

Step 7.
Open up the Joyce mask that you minimised earlier. We are going to
rotate it back to it's original position before applying again.
Go to Image...Rotate Left...
minimise the mask so it's out of the way

Back on the image we are working on, go to
Image...Add Borders...
Symmetric box-unticked
Left and Right=75
Top and bottom=80
Colour= your background (dark) colour

Step 8.
(this step is the same as step 4) Go to Layers...New Raster Layer...
Flood fill the new layer with your background pattern
(the speckle goldfill)

Go to Layers...New Mask Layer...From Image...
In the Source Window dropdown list choose 'Joyce'
Create mask from Source luminance
Invert mask data = unticked

Go to Layers...Merge...Merge Group...

Step 9.
Select a strip of about 5 to 10 pixels similar to what we did in step 5
but this time the selected strip runs horizontally and goes right
across the image like this screenshot.

Add a new raster layer
Flood fill with the speckle goldfill pattern

Select None
Go to Layers...Duplicate...
then Image...Mirror...Mirror Vertical (in older versions ..Image...Flip..)

Step 10.
(this step is the same as step 6) Hide the background layer by clicking the eye
for that layer in the layers palette, go to
Layers...Merge...Merge Visible...
Unhide the layer by clicking the eye again

Go to Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow
(if your background colour is black you may
not need the drop shadow, so this is optional)
Horizontal and Vertical offsets=1
Opacity=75
Blur=5

Go to Layers...Merge...Merge All (flatten)

Step 11.
Go to Selections...Select All...
Image...Add Borders...
Tick the symmetric box
Add a symmetric border of between 5 and 10 pixels
the colour doesn't matter
Go to Selections...Invert...
Flood fill with speckle goldfill
Before you deselect you can add the following drop shadow,
here again if your background colour is black you may
not need it, so it's is optional)
Effects...3D Effects...Drop Shadow
Horizontal and Vertical offsets=1
Opacity=75
Blur=5
repeat the drop shadow using minus 1 for the
horizontal and vertical offsets

Select None

To see my other tutorials click Here

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Thankyou Kevin for testing this tutorial

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