*** PREPARATION ***

For this tutorial you will need:

Paint Shop Pro, which you can get at the Jasc site

Plug-ins of your choice, although I will be using only effects that come in Paint Shop Pro.

A graphic of your choice, or you may use the one I'm using for this tutorial.  This is an image from one of my click art CD's, a simple background picture.  If you'd like to use this image, right click and save it to your hard drive:

Here are the icons for the tools we will be using for this tutorial:

  Selection Tool
  Preset Shapes
  Object Selector
  Flood Fill
  Mover
  Promote Selection
  Magic Wand
  Save (probably the most important of all)
  Undo (this button should be your "best friend")

The best advice I can give you is to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!!  There's not much worse than losing all your hard work due to a program or computer lock up or melt down!!!  So...save your work often...I will be putting reminders throughout the tutorial:

Save 

As with any of my tutorials, please feel free to use any image, colors, effects you'd like to create you own unique design.

Okay, let's get started...

***** DICING AND SLICING ***

1. Open the image you are using for this tutorial in Paint Shop Pro.

2. Duplicate your image (Shift +D) and close the original for safe keeping.  If needed, resize your image to make it more manageable (I recommend no larger than 300x300 pixels).

3. Save your duplicate as "my_tile.psp".  The psp file extension will keep all layers intact while we are working on our image.

4. Right click on your Background layer (in your Layer Palette) and click on Promote to Layer.

5. Click on Image/Canvas Size and increase the size of your canvas by 50 pixels for both width and height, checking both center boxes. (When the Change Canvas Size box opens, it will show you the Current Width and Current Height.  Add 50 to these numbers for the new settings.)

6. Make your foreground color a bright color that will stand out from your graphic (for mine I chose a bright yellow: #FFFF00) and make your background color null.

7. Click on your  Preset Shapes Tool and use the following settings:

8. Choose a focal point for your graphic and draw a rectangle shape around your focal point:

9. Because we are drawing a vector shape, your rectangles will be created on a separate layer.

10. Using your imagination, continue drawing different size rectangle shapes on your image, overlapping them slightly, until you have most of your graphic covered:

11. If necessary, zoom in on your image and make sure that your rectangles are not out into the blank canvas so far that they do not enclose your graphic - we don't want any blank areas inside our shapes.

12. You can use your  Object Selector Tool to click on any of your shapes and move them if necessary.

13. Change your foreground color to white.
 

  Save

  ***** CREATING OUR FRAMES ***

1. Once you are happy with the size, shape and location of your rectangles, click the + next to Layer 2 on your Layer Palette to expand the layer.  Then turn off the visibility for all but the first Rectangle:

2. With Layer2 active, click on your  Magic Wand tool, and use the following settings:

3. Click inside your rectangle shape.

4. Make Layer1 active and click on   Promote Selection (Selections/Promote To Layer).  This section of your graphic is now on a new layer called "Promoted Selection".

5. Make Layer2 active and with your magic wand (same settings) click on the rectangle itself (the yellow portion in my case).

6. Turn off the visibility for Layer2 (the rectangle layer).

7. Make your "Promoted Selection" layer active and click on your Flood Fill tool and fill this area with white.

8. While still selected, go to Effects/Texture Effects/Sculpture and apply the gold sculpture effect:

9. Rename your "Promoted Selection" layer to "Image 1".

Save 

10. Make Layer 2 active and visible; then repeat steps 1 through 9 for each of your rectangle shapes:

• Turn off visibility for all but the rectangle shape you are working with

• Click inside your rectangle shape with your Magic Wand

• Click on Layer1 and promote your selection

• Make Layer2 active and click on the rectangle itself

• Turn off the visibility for Layer2

• Make your "Promoted Selection" layer active

• Flood fill with white

• While still selected apply your sculpture effect

• Rename your "Promoted Selection" layer accordingly:
  "Image 2"; "Image 3", "Image 4", etc.

• Save 

11. When you have completed all sections of your image, turn off the visibility for Layer1 and Layer2.  You should end up with something like this:

12. Click on your  Mover Tool and start rearranging your different pieces. 

• TIP: The mover tool is not "Layer sensitive", so it is not necessary to change your active layer for each piece

13. While moving your images, you can also rearrange the order of your image layers, which will bring different sections of your image to the foreground.

14. This is a color coded copy of my image to show you how I "moved" my pieces:

14. Play with your image until you get an overall effect you are happy with.  Here's what I ended up with:

15. As you can see, my images got moved all over the place.  This part is limited only by your imagination...make the graphic uniquely yours!!!

16. When you are happy with your placement, delete layer2 (the layer with your rectangles).

17. Choose a color for your background, and flood fill Layer1 (your original graphic layer) with your background color. 

18. Merge all layers and save your file as a jpg or gif file.

For the following image, I made my background white, to place on this page because I wanted it to blend with the page:

18. You can also choose a different background color and add a frame to your picture:

  Save