Birth Announcement Frame

Created February 7, 2002 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
This is my own creation, any similarities to any other tutorial on the Internet are unintentional.
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you

 

My niece, Kelly Anne, gave birth to her daughter last month and I wanted to make something special for her. I came up with the above frame and thought it would make a nice tutorial. We will be using only PSP to create this frame, although for the text and border I did use a Flaming Pear Silver preset. You can use any preset (Blade Pro, Silver, Ulead, etc.) or color that you choose. I also made a mask for this frame that I will share with you.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP and filters at an intermediate level. I am sure this can easily be done in Version 6 with a few adjustments in paths but I have only used Version 7 so I can't make promises *S* Don't forget to SAVE your work often!

You will need:

JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
My Flower Mask - You can get it HERE
** unzip into your PSP Masks Folder
A baby picture ~ Sorry, you can't have mine, but I'm sure most of us have a baby picture that you can use.

Step 1:
Open a new image 300x400, 16 million colors, transparent background. Set your foreground to the color that you would like your frame to be. I used #FDF2DB.

Step 2:
Add a new layer, and name it frame. Flood fill with your foreground color.

Step 3:
Pick up your selections tool, , set at Ellipse, feather=0, antialias checked.

At coordinates 150x200 draw out the size oval that you would like. Press delete. Keep selected.

Step 4:
Go to Selections-->Modify-->Expand. Enter 8 pixels. Keep selected. Go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply the following settings:

Keep selected. Go to Selections-->Promote to layer. You can name this layer ring. Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply the following drop shadow. Deselect and save.

Step 5:
Add a new layer, name it mask. Set your foreground to #F89C9C and your background to #78E8E7. In your foregrounds style choose gradient, foreground background. With the following settings; top style - angle 0 - repeats - 5.

Flood fill your layer. Go to Masks-->Load from Disk. Navigate to your md-flower.msk and press open.

Go to Masks-->Delete. It will ask you if you want to delete to the current layer. Say yes. Save.

Step 6:
Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply the following settings to your mask.

Step 7:
Activate layer1 and add a new layer naming it picture. Click on the picture of the baby and make a copy of your picture (Ctrl+C). Go back to your frame image and activate the frame layer. Pick up your magic wand (tolerance and feather at 0) and click on the transparent area. Activate your picture layer. Go to Edit-->Paste-->Into Selection. Keep selected and Save.

Step 8:
Add a new layer, name it cutout. Go to Effects-->3D-->Cutout and apply the following settings:

Deselect and save.

Step 9:
Add a new layer and name it hilights. Set your foreground to white and your background to Null. Pick up your draw tool, , set at freehand - width 4. Draw 2 lines for hilights as shown below.

Go to Effects-->Blur-->Gaussian Blur set at 2.98

Save. Go to your layer palette and close your mask layer, frame layer and layer1.

Make sure you are on the ring layer and go to Layers-->Merge-->Merge Visible. Rename this layer picture. Save.

Step 10:
Go to your mask layer and add a new layer naming it text. I made each of my texts on different layers. The name on one layer, date of birth on the next and weight on the third. Of course, you may put anything you want on your Announcement frame. This makes it easier for moving the text around the way you would like it. I set my foreground to Null and my background to white, as I used a preset from Flaming Pear's Silver filter. You can use Silver, Blade Pro or Ulead Art Textures presets or just a color if you like. Open your text tool and type in the text you want. Make sure floating and antialias are checked. Click OK.

Keep selected and add the same drop shadow as you did for the mask. Here's how mine looked after the text was entered.

Step 11:
We're almost done! Merge all of your layers. Change your background to white if you are going to be applying a preset or to the color you would like the border to be if not. Go to Images-->Borders. Make sure that Symmetric is checked and add a border of 20 pixels. Pick up your magic wand and click on the border, you will have the marching ants around your border. Apply your preset, if you are using one. Go to Selections-->Invert. Effects-->3D-->Cutout and apply the following settings:

Reapply your cutout, but change the Vertical Offset to Minus 5 and the Horizontal Offset to Minus 10. We're done! Now you have the perfect gift for the proud, new parents.