Reflective Moments

Created January 16, 2002 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
This is my creation, any similarity to other tutorials on the Internet is unintentional
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you

 

I was going through a crafts magazine today and in the "second time around" section there was an old frame that had been transformed into an elegant mirror. It looked like something that would really be neat to do in PSP so I set out to recreate it. I was quite pleased with how it turned out. This tutorial uses a lot of borders and will have very few screenshots. I also use Super Blade Pro, although I am sure you could substitute Ulead Art Texture if you don't have SBP.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP at an intermediate - advanced 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*

JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
Super Blade Pro ~~ You can purchase it or get the demo version HERE

Step 1:
Open a new image 200x300, 16 million colors, transparent background. Set your foreground to white and flood fill your image.

Step 2:
Change your foreground to gradient and choose the Metallic that comes with PSP. Choose the top style, which is Linear Gradient and set the angle to 90.

Add a new layer and flood fill with your gradient. Go to your layer palette and reduce the opacity of this layer to 55.

Step 3:
Go to Layers-->Merge-->Merge Flatten. Set your background color to black. Go to Image-->Borders. Make sure that symmetric is checked and add a 1 pixel border. The reason for doing this is because there is a little white in the Metallic gradient and when you need to select the border in the next step the magic wand picks it up.

Step 4:
Change your background to white. Add another border, but this time make it 5 pixels. Pick up your magic wand (tolerance and feather set at 0) and click on your border.

Step 5:
Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Flaming Pear-->Super Blade Pro. I used the gold_shiny preset, but of course you can use whatever gold you would like. Keep selected.

Step 6:
Go to Selections-->Invert. Effects-->3D-->Cutout and add the following settings.

Keep selected. Reapply the cutout, but this time change the Vertical Offset to Minus 5 and the Horizontal Offset to Minus 9. Keep Selected.

Step 7:
Selections-->Invert. Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and add the following Inner Bevel. Deselect and Save.

Step 8:
Change your background color to #FDF2DB. Add another border, this time 15 pixels. Select the border with your Magic Wand. Go to Effects-->Noise and add 50% Random Noise. Keep Selected.

Step 9:
Go to Effects-->Blur-->Motion Blur. Chose 90 for the angle and 30 pixels for intensity. Keep Selected. Reapply the Motion Blur, but change the angle to 180 and the intensity to 10. Deselect and save.

Step 10:
Change your background color to white. Add a new border, 10 pixels. Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Flaming Pear-->Super Blade Pro and use the basic_mirror preset. Keep selected. Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply the following settings. Deselect and save.

Step 11:
Change your background color back to #FDF2DB and add a border of 30 pixels. Select your border with your magic wand and apply your noise at 50%. Apply your motion blur at the 90 degree angle and 30 pixel intensity. Deselect and save.

Step 12:
Change your background color back to white and add a border of 12 pixels. Select your border with your magic wand and apply your Super Blade Pro basic_mirror preset, but change the height to 15.

Deselect and Save.

Step 13:
Add another border of 10 pixels. Select your border with your magic wand and apply the gold_shiny preset, or whatever preset you used in Step 5, from Super Blade Pro. Go to Selections-->Invert and apply your cutout twice. The first time with the vertical offset set at 5, horizontal offset set at 9. The second time change the vertical offset to Minus 5 and the horizontal offset to Minus 9. Deselect and Save.

Step 14:
I told you there were a lot of borders *grin*. This will be the last border that you use. Change your foreground to patterns and choose the Paper pattern that comes with PSP. Add a border of 15 pixels and select it with your magic wand. Flood fill your border with your paper pattern. Go to Effects-->3D-->Outer Bevel and apply the following settings:

You're done! Here is the mirror without any decorations.

You can now add any decorations that you would like. Make sure that you add new layers for anything that you add. I had a Victorian Lady tube that I placed in the mirror and reduced the opacity to about 62 to make it look more like a reflection. I also had some flowery tubes that I added to the border. Use your imagination and let your personality show through. Remember if you are doing this for a group lesson you will want to resize your finished creation.