Snowflake Miracles

I’m writing this tutorial using Photoshop CC.  I am assuming the reader has a basic working knowledge of  the Photoshop program.  I believe the instructions should work with various other versions, but they are not tested on any other version.

This tutorial is my own creation.  Any similarity to any other tutorial is not done purposely or knowingly (aside from the fact that the process is pretty similar in most tutorials).  J

Supplies I used for this tutorial:

• Poser -  Snowflake by Designs by Norella.  It is PTU and can be purchased here.  Make sure you register and receive your license from the website to use this tube.
• Kit – Winter’s Love by Wicked Princess Scraps.  It is FTU and can be downloaded  here.
• Font – Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly.  It is a free font and can be downloaded  here.

Abbreviations:

SS – Screen Shot

DS – Drop Shadow

B&E – Bevel & Emboss

Common  Steps:

Instructions:

Open the folder that has your Kit elements in it.

Open  the PSD file of your tube.

Open a new working canvas sized 700 px by 700 px with a transparent background.

Add your Snowflake tube and resize her to fit the canvas.  Position her to the right of the canvas.  Add a DS to Snowflake.  I like to use an angle of about 120 degrees.

From your kit, add the Twig Frame and resize it to about 400%.  Position it to the left of Snowflake.  Drag the layer below Snowflake.  Add DS.

Next add paper PP2 and resize it so it covers at least all of the empty part of the frame.  Going beyond the empty area is fine as we are going to clip it to fit.  Make sure the paper layer is below the Frame. 

Select the Frame layer. Select the Magic Wand tool and click inside the empty part of the frame.  Make sure it selects the entire empty space of the frame.  Now from the main menu choose:  Select > Modify > Expand.  Expand the selection by at least 5 pixels.  Then Inverse your selection (Ctrl + Shift + I).  Now all of the canvas except the empty part of the frame is selected.

Click back on the paper layer to activate it.  Right click on the paper and select Rasterize layer.  Then press the Delete key on your keyboard.   Voila, now your paper should be all gone except the portion in the center of the frame.

Now go back to your original tube file (not the one in your working canvas, but the one still open from the beginning).  Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to draw a box around just the part of the tube you want to display in the frame.  Copy (Ctrl + C) the selection.

****Note:  If you are working with a multiple layer tube, you may need to save the image you are using as png file  with only the layers you want turned on.  Then you can open up the png file and use it to copy from.

Go back to your working canvas and paste (Ctrl + V) the selection.  Make sure the layer you are working with is above the paper layer.  Resize the selection from the tube to fit inside your frame.  Once you like what is being displayed inside the frame.  Right click on the layer and select “Create Clipping Mask”.  This trims away any part of the pasted in selection that falls outside of the trimmed paper.

Add the word art from the kit next.  Position it at the bottom of the canvas and resize it to fit in the empty space.  I chose 347% and added a layer to make it stand out more.  I also added a B&E using the Outer Bevel Style, Technique Smooth, and Up Direction.  And a Stroke in red with a size of 1.

At this point I like to add the background.  You can either use a mask or the Brush tool.  For this one I used my brush tool with a cloud brush and a red from Snowflake outfit.  I then just painted random areas until I liked how it looked.

From here you can add whatever other elements you like and resize them and position them as you want.  Below is a list of what I chose to do.  You can choose to use the same ones or experiment with other elements.  All of these I added in order from the bottom up between the bottom layer and Snowflake.

•  Added Flourish above the bottom  layer and resized it 497%.  Made this off center toward the left.
• Added Flowerflourish above that layer and resized it 1375%.  Made this off center toward the right.
• Above the Twigframe layer I add Leaves resized to 249% and positioned it so that it over lapped the top of the frame.  Added DS.
• Added Popflowerbranch layer to the left side of the frame.  Resized to 241% and added DS.
• Added the Leaf to the left side and resized it to 214%.  Added DS.
• Added Branch to the left side and resized it to 178%.  Added DS.
• Added Branch2 to the bottom  resized to 178% and rotated slightly.  Added DS.
• Added Redribbon to the middle of the canvas so that is ran along the bottom of the frame.  I just resized it to stretch slightly over the left side.  Added DS.
• Added Blingleaf beside Branch2 and resized it to 195% and slightly rotated it as well.  Added DS.
• Added Bauganvilleflower to the left side of the frame  resized to 218%, slightly rotated and added DS.
• Added Rosecorsage to the left grouping and resized it to 378%.  Added DS.
• Added Blingflower resized to about 185% to connect the grouping at the bottom and the grouping on the left so that it slightly overlapped both.  Added DS.

Add your name to the top middle of the tag using the font of your choice.  I chose Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly and a type size of 100.  Then I applied  a complimentary style to it.

The last step is to be sure to add the proper artists copyright and save as a .png file!

Thank you for trying  my tutorial.  If you would like to offer any feedback, please comment on the blog and let me know if you have questions or suggestions to improve the instructions.