Supplies:
Tube: https://www.cdoestore.com/product-p/enysguerrero-package-51.htm
Scrap: https://www.cdoestore.com/product-p/scraphonored_ib-shirou-18-1.htm
Font: https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/bucanera-antiqued-family/
Mask: 611, 622, and 627 from Package 13
Filter: https://filterforge.com/
Please do not use any of the licensed supplies without purchasing them first.
First off, unzip all supplies.
Open the mask(s) you would like to use. You don’t have to use the ones I have chosen.
Select > All
Edit > Copy
This will save a “selection” of the white areas in the mask.
You can now close that mask.
Open a new 800 x 800 pixel canvas. Be sure it is set to 72ppi resolution. You can always resize later.
I usually add a color fill layer to the tag so it is easily changed should I use it on a different color website. Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color…
White usually works with most websites.
Place the paper on the canvas that you would like to use. You can either drag and drop it onto the canvas from your file browser, or you can use the File > Place… method. Just browse to the folder with the kit when prompted.
With the paper layer highlighted in the layers panel…
Select > Edit in Quick Mask Mode.
Edit > Paste
This will leave parts of the paper in red. This is good! If it doesn’t, then you will need to open and copy the mask again.
It seems that our mask was too big for the tag. Let’s fix that.
With the red “quick mask” still in effect, go to Edit > Free Transform
Fit the red mask inside your tag.
Select > Uncheck the Edit in Quick Mask Mode.
Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection
Magic, right?? now you don’t have to worry about having an extra clipped layer.
Instead, you have a mask thumbnail attached to your paper layer.
Place another paper on your canvas and repeat the process with any other masks you want to use.
That’s it! How easy is that?
Now, time for the elements! This is where the real magic begins.
You can drag and drop items straight from your file browser into the canvas. This makes it faster to place items.
For now, I only have the 3 masked papers and a frame.
We need to add a fill layer to the picture frame.
Highlight the layer UNDER the frame in your layers panel. Now drop the paper you would like to use onto the canvas.
Grab your selection wand from the tools panel. If you can’t find it, check out the basics page for a better understanding of the tools layout.
The Selection Wand options should look like this at the top of your window:
Click on the center portion of the frame.
In the upper menu of Photoshop, click on Selection > Modify > Expand…
Expand your selection by 2px.
Now highlight your paper layer.
Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.
Now you have a fill to your frame. Easy Peasy!
This is my result.
This technique may not be used very often, but it is nice to know the little things, too. Pay very close attention to placement and order.
Highlight the paper layer that you just put inside your frame. Drag one of the tubes onto your canvas. Position it within the frame and right click it in the layers panel. Choose to Create Clipping Mask. You can alternatively hold the ALT or OPT button and click between the layers to quickly clip your layers.
Highlight the frame layer. Drag your second tube onto the canvas. Position it where you like. I have also added the 3rd tube to the tag. This is totally optional.
Now… Highlight all of your layers EXCEPT the white background layer. You can highlight the bottom-most layer and then hold the shift key and then highlight the top-most layer. This will quickly highlight all of the layers. But remember, NOT the white background layer.
Layer > Group Layers
Expand the group again by clicking the little arrow beside the folder icon in your layers panel.
Down to your masked layers…
Hold the CTRL key on your keyboard and click on the MASK of that layer. The mask is the black and white thumbnail image.
This will add a selection to just the masked area.
Hold the SHIFT key and the CTRL key. Click on the second mask. This will add the second mask to the selection without deselecting the first one.
Keep holding SHIFT and CRTL. Click on the third mask. Yay! All masks are selected.
Highlight the group folder icon again in the layers panel.
Down at the bottom of the layers panel, there is a rectangle with a circle in the middle. Click that. This will add the selection as a mask to the whole group.
If you are using tubes that have a flat edge, this is a good way to fit it in the tag without erasing any of the tube. Great, isn’t it??
Adding new elements OUTSIDE of the group is a little tricky. Highlight the group folder icon (if it isn’t still highlighted).
Drag another element onto your tag. You will see that it ended up inside the group. We don’t want that. So, in the layers panel, click and hold the element. Drag it up and outside of the group. You will notice that it is successfully in the right place when a highlighted line appears above the group.
This will be the only one you need to drag out of the group for the moment. Continue adding elements above your newly moved item highlighted.
You can position them where ever you like.
We definitely want to add some shadows to our elements. Without shadowing, the tag will just look flat. The secret to a good tag, is a good shadow effect.
Right click (or ctrl+click) a layer and choose “Blending Options.”
I add a drop shadow and an outer glow. The glow enhances the effect a bit.
Now after you have hit OK, right click the layer again and choose “Copy Layer Style.”
Highlight each of your other element layers and right click again. This time, choose “Paste Layer Style.”
It makes a HUGE difference to add shadows:
Resize before adding copyrights!
Highlight the top layer of the layers panel.
Grab your text tool and add the name you would like.
You can change the color of your font without fully editing by clicking the color box in the Properties panel. If you do not see the properties panel, you can go to Window > Properties. You can then drag this panel to fit in a tab of another panel.
You can learn more about that here: https://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/managing-panels-photoshop-cc/
Once you have your text on your tag, position it just where you want it and add a layer style. This is mine:
That leave us with the non-animated version of the tag! If you wold like to keep the JPG version, you can save here. Simply File > Save As… and choose the jpg option from the drop down box at the bottom of the dialog.
Here’s where it starts getting complicated. We want to add animation!
Make sure your Animation Panel is open. Window > Timeline (or Animation, if you are on earlier versios)
You will need to click the “Create Frame Animation” button. If you do not see this button, please refer to THIS page for more information about the timeline.
You will see that your first frame is already there.
Highlight the topmost layer of your tag. Add a new layer by clicking the little [+] at the bottom of the layers panel.
Edit > Fill… this layer with 50% Gray.
Filter > Filter Forge > Filter Forge 10
This will open the filter in a new window. But before you do anything, go to this link:
https://www.filterforge.com/filters/4362.html
Over on the right side, there is a button to Open it in Filter Forge. Click that and Filter Forge will do some work and then open the filter in your window.
These are the settings I used. (bottom left panel)
Click Apply and let Filter Forge do it’s work.
Duplicate the layer.
Grab your move tool and align them where they are perfectly touching at the borders. Because of the Seamless Tiling option of Filter Forge, we can create a seamless animation.
Right click the top filtered layer and merge down to the bottom filtered layer.
Select > All
Layer > Align Layers to Selection > Top Edges
Layer > Align Layers to Selection > Left Edges
Set the blend mode of your layer to Soft Light.
In the animation panel, duplicate the frame by clicking on the [+] at the bottom of the panel.
With your second frame highlighted:
Select > All
Layer > Align Layers to Selection > Right Edges
Select > None
You won’t see any changes yet.
Highlight the first frame of your animation panel again.
In the top right of your animation panel, click on the 4 horizontal lines. Choose Tween… from the flyout menu.
You can choose as many frames as you like for this animation. Smaller numbers will result in smaller file sizes, but I prefer to have a nice smooth animation. I am choosing to add 24 frames.
This actually gives you a total of 26 frames.
Since the first and last frame are exactly the same, you need to delete one, so a pause doesn’t occur in your animation.
You should now be left with 25 frames.
You can now click play at the bottom of the animation panel to check out your creation!
If you would like the animation to be below certain layers, you can drag the “cloudy” layer up and down in the layers panel without affecting the animation.
I am just keeping it on top for this tutorial.
Oh, right! Don’t forget to set your frame delay.
Highlight all of your frames in the animation panel. Highlight the first frame and then hold shift. Click on the last frame. Now all frames are highlighted.
Click on the little arrow beside the time of the last frame. This will bring up a popup for more “delay” options.
Now you will need to save your animation as a gif file.
In your animation dialog, use these settings:
My “Forever List” can find their tags in their Fotki Folders.