Supplies:
Tube: https://www.cdoestore.com/product-p/ruththompson-9-1.htm
Scrap: https://www.cdoestore.com/product-p/scrapaork_rosemarysbaby-mini.htm
Font: foxglove-script
Mask: AoRK-Mask-1388 and 1368 from package 28
Animations: rebeldezignsanimation-731 and rebeldezignsanimation-52
Remove Black Action
Please do not use any of the licensed supplies without purchasing them first.
This particular tutorial is NOT for beginners. I will try to break it down as best I can, but it could be very confusing for a new user.
First off, unzip all supplies.
Open Photoshop.
Open a new 800 x 800 pixel canvas. Be sure it is set to 72ppi resolution.
You can always resize later.
Thanks to Gail Wilson for this little trick, we can eliminate a step later in the tut.
Layer > New Layer…
You will now have TWO blank layers on your tag. The bottom layer should stay blank for the entirety of the tag creation.
Edit > Fill… this layer with white. You can change this to whatever color you like to match the website you will display it on, though.
Place the mask 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.
Make sure your mask layer is highlighted in the layers panel.
Now go to the actions panel. Highlight the AoRK_Remove Black action and hit the play button at the bottom of the panel.
Your mask should now be isolated. Don’t worry about the dark areas you still see. You won’t see them in just a minute.
Place your paper on your canvas.Right click the paper layer in the layers panel and choose Create Clipping Mask.
Viola! Perfect masking.
Repeat this process with the other mask and paper.
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.
Instead of telling you exactly where to put what and what size to use, I am just going to show you a animated image of what I did. This way, you can create your own version of the tag without doing exactly what I have done.
When placing your elements, you can transform them again by going to Edit > Free Transform. Just be sure you hold the shift key to constrain the proportions.
As you can see, it is pretty random. I just place the items where I think they might work.
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 all of your element layers (click the top one, then shift + click the bottom one) and right click again. This time, choose “Paste Layer Style.”
It makes a HUGE difference to add shadows:
If you would like to remove the excess shadows from around your tag, I have explained how to do that HERE.
Now that we have all of that done, time to add the next details. Tube and text. Fun!
Choose where you want your main tube to be placed.
Now drag and drop your tube onto the canvas. Resize and adjust it to your liking. Always make sure you constrain your proportions while resizing. Hold the Shift key while you drag the corners.
Add the same drop shadow you did before.
Resize before adding copyrights!
We want to make a pattern for our text layer.
***** If you have already done a tutorial using these steps, you can skip it and move on to the text part.
Open a new image. File > New 300×300 pixels should be good enough.
Fill the layer with gray. Some version of a middle gray, or you can go to
Edit > Fill… and choose 50% gray from the dropdown.
Filter > Noise > Add Noise
Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
Edit > Define Pattern… Name it whatever you like. We will be using this as the stroke on the text layer.
You can now close the image without saving.
Back to the tag.
Highlight the top layer of the layers panel.
Grab your text tool and add the name you would like. 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. But… ignore it! We don’t need it.
Highlight your dragon tube layer.
File > Open… choose an animation that you’d like to use. I am going to show you how to use the 25 frame animations that I have at CDO. This first animation is from Package 52. This is Animation-154.
You will see that all 25 layers are open and unhidden in the layers panel.
In the menu, choose Select > All Layers.
Layer > Group Layers
Now right click on your group in the layers panel and duplicate. BUT DON’T HIT OK, YET!
In the duplicate dialog, choose your tag from the dropdown box. If you haven’t saved by this point, you should see an “Untitled-1” option. (but you definitely should have saved before now. Remember, always save often.). This time, we are naming our group, because we are going to be adding a second one soon.
After you have chosen your tag, hit ok. You can close the animation file without saving.
Back to your tag.
You need to resize and rotate the whole group using the Edit > Free Transform option. Be sure you are resizing the whole group, not just one layer. Don’t forget to hit the check mark at the top of the window to apply the transformation.
Place the smoke as if it is coming out of the dragon’s mouth.
Now highlight one of the lower-most layers of the tag. I chose the Moon layer.
Open your next animation. I am using the storm animation from Package 731. This one is Animation-2198.
Group and duplicate the animtion just as you did above. This time, name the group “Storm”.
On the right side of your animation panel, click the 4 horizontal lines. Choose the option that says “Make Frames from Layers.”
Now, this made a mess of things, didn’t it?? LOL! But no, not really. You will see that it created a frame for every layer in your tag. And that’s ok!
Click on the first frame in the animation panel. At the bottom of the window, there is a trashcan icon. That deletes the frame. Delete all of the frames that aren’t part of the storm animation. You should be left with 25 frames that contain only the storm animation layers.
You will see that your tag only has one animation layer visible in each frame. You want this!
You can collapse the group again now, so you don’t mistakenly unhide layers in there. Click on the little arrow icon beside the group icon in the layers panel.
Click on the first frame in the animation panel. Duplicate the first frame by clicking on the [+] at the bottom of the panel. Go to your layers panel and unhide the first frame of the “smoke” animation.
Click on the first frame again and delete it using the trashcan icon at the bottom of the panel. We do this so that the first smoke layer doesn’t show up in ALL frames.
Now click on the second frame of the animation panel. In the layers panel, unhide the second layer of the smoke animation.
Now click on the third frame of the animation panel. In the layers panel, unhide the third layer of the smoke animation.
You see where I am going with this? Repeat this for every frame of the smoke animation.
Collapse the group after you have completed the spacing.
Hit the play button at the bottom of your animation panel. It should look something like this. If it doesn’t, you will need to delete the animation and start over. Click the horizontal lines at the top right of the animation panel and “Delete Animation” and then begin from the start of this animation part of the tutorial.
In the animations panel, click on the first frame.
Are you on the first frame of the animation yet? Good. Now we can continue.
In the Layers panel, unhide the color fill layer from the beginning of the tut by clicking the little square box beside the layer thumbnail. An eye should appear…
But, for any of you who have followed other tutorials of mine, you notice that you don’t need to click 3 times anymore!! Thank you Gail!
Now, one by one, unhide all of the layers to your tag. DON’T touch the animation layers, though! Those are already spaced out the way they should be. Leave those alone.
Now we are going to be doing a little altering to the name font layer.
Highlight the LAST layer of the animation panel. Open the blending options of the text layer again. We want to change the pattern stroke. The one that has the noise pattern.
When you hover your tag with the blending options open, you will see that your cursor turns into the move tool. Give your tag a good few swipes of the move tool to get your pattern moved A LOT. As you move it, you will see the glitter around the font change. Remember, move it A LOT.
Now hold the shift button on your keyboard and click the first frame of your animation panel. This will highlight all of the animation frames.
In the top right horizontal lines button flyout panel thing… Choose the “Tween” option and use these settings.
Now, you can click play at the bottom of the animation panel to check out your creation!
If you would like to make your animation smaller, you can highlight all of the odd numbered frames and then click on the little trashcan icon at the bottom. I like to keep mine at full size. It’s just nicer for digital picture dispaly 
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.