Making a watermark in Paintshop Pro

Thank you Julie for asking me to share this tutorial :)


Hopefully you'll be able to follow this tut and will be adding watermarks to your photos easily afterwards.

I am using PSP 7 for this tut, although other PSP versions will do this too.

1. Open up a new image with a transparent background, mine measures 300 x 300 pixels.



2. use the bucket fill tool to add a base colour (any darkish colour will do, this is purely to be able to see the actual watermark whilst working on your design)

or skip the above and open a new image with a darkish background (I always use a transparent image to start with so have transparent as default)

3. Add a new raster layer (Layers > New Raster Layer)




4. On Layer 2 (click on layer 2 on the layer palette to select) ... click the paint brush tool and select a background design from the list, I chose this skinny flower design and added 2 flowers



5. Add a drop shadow

6. Make the opacity less by sliding down the slider in the layer palette on layer 2 only, I took mine down to 30%

7. Add another raster layer

8. On Layer 3 ... click on the text tool and add your text in white, I chose verdana font and typed 'Handmade By'

and on the same layer (layer 3) I added the word 'Inchy', but in a different font and bigger...

9. Take the opacity of layer 3 down to 60%

10. Crop around your watermark so that there isn't loads of space around it

11. Now we'll get rid of the background colour, click on Layer 1 in the layer palette and then hit the delete button on your keyboard, the background should now have gone and you will have a transparent background again

12. Merge all the layers into one (Layers > Merge > Merge Visible)

13. Make your watermark into a picture tube... (File > Export > Picture Tube)

14. Give your watermark a name

That's it, you've done it! YAY!

Your watermark is ready to use and is available to add to your photos

See how it is slightly see-through?

also, you can alter the size of your watermark by sliding the percentage scale so that you can fit your watermark onto a large layout or a tiny inchy ;)

Happy PSP'ing !!!

Jo xx

A note from Julie :~ Thanks so much for a great tutorial Jo :)

Check out Jo's Siggi Shop blog

She is a whizz with Paint Shop Pro and has made beautiful blog headers including the Inspirational headers!!

Her rates are very affordable too and she has the patience of a saint and is a really lovely lady to deal with :)

How to make a piped handle for a bag

There are some gorgeous bags being made around blogland lately. Sadly, none of them by me (it's on my list ... okay??).

Check out this little beauty by Marmaladekiss. Julia said she'd had problems with making the handles, so I thought I'd pop a quick tutorial on about how I do it.

You will need:

Piping cord, whatever size is suitable for your bag style
A strip of fabric to cover your cord
A small amount of sticky tape
A loop turner (a very inexpensive bit of kit which you will get from most sewing shops, and very handy to have! I think mine cost less than £2)

First of all, this is what a loop turner looks like. You could probably make one from some stiff craft wire, bent over at the end to form a hook.

To work out the size of the fabric strip, fold your fabric in half, with the cord in the middle until it is covered, then measure 1cm (you need 1cm either side of the cord, for the seam allowance). Press the strip flat.

Fold in half right sides together, without pressing, and sew the edges together. Backstitch at the ends , but don't sew right up to the end. Trim seam allowance.

Insert loop turner.

Poke the prong through the farbic at the end, and secure the hook in place.

Fiddle until you can pull the fabric back through the tube. (I forgot to trim my seam allowance, just pretend, OK?)

Gently pull the fabric through itself, until eventually it comes out the other end of the tube

Unclip the loop turner. Poke the loop turner back through the tube. Wrap a small amount of tape around the end of you piping cord. Push the loop turner up into the tape, starting at the open end, push it in between the cord and the tape until it comes out of the tape, then secure the loop in place.

Gently pull the cord through. Press the handle with the cord inside, which acts as a mini seam press and avoids nasty crease marks.

Easy when you know how!

A note from Julie :~ Thanks Anna!!

Check out Anna's fantastic Marmadaisy blog for more sewing tips and tutorials :)

Lets Talk Hat Pins...

After seeing many of a card with a stick pin attached & plenty of discussion on the PTI Forum I decided to hunt out the pins and some beads to make my own, all materials used came from Jilly Beads

I started with a selection of beads and spacer beads.

Choose the beads you want to use and set them to the sideready to start adding them to your pin, The tiny lille silver tube that you can see is a crimping bead this will be the last bead you thread onto the pin shaft.

Start to thread the beads onto the hat pin shaft by adding the bead that you want at the top of the finished hat pin first, once you have all of the beads thread onto the pin shaft push them all to the top of the pin so that they sit tightly together.

The last thing to do is add a crimping beed to the pin, you push the crimping bead close up to the already added beads and nip it onto the hat pin with pliers this crimping bead will hold all of the other beads onto the pin and stop them from sliding on the pin shaft.

Here are 2 of the finished hat pins

A note from Julie :~ Thank you for a brilliant tutorial Jak

Go and visit Jak's Crafters Kitchen Blog to see more inspiring creations and click HERE to see a card featuring one of Jak's lovely hat pins

If you decide to use Jak's tutorial to make your own hat pins please leave a comment with a link to your creation so that we can have a look :)

Vicki's 'One Sheet Pocket Book' Tutorial

I have seen different variations of this, but I call it the "One Sheet Pocket Book". It's made out of one sheet of 12" x 12" paper and ends up with 8 pockets. The pages are 4" tall and approximately 2 5/8" wide (after binding).

This is such a cute size! It's definitely purse-size and can be used for holding so many different things.

In this picture, I have put some stamped images in the pockets. Wouldn't this make a great gift for a stamping friend?! Once they use up all the images, they can re-use the pocket book for something else. Here are some other ideas I've came up with for this little book:
Use it to hold
* gift tags *
* business cards *
* ATC's (altered trading cards) *
* wallet sized photos *
* phone numbers/addresses *
* credit cards *
* gift cards *
The possibilities are endless!
___________________________________________
ONE SHEET POCKET BOOK
Supplies:
One 12" x 12" sheet of paper or LIGHTweight cardstock (I used double-sided)
Bind-It-All
1/2" O-wires for the Bind-It-All
Scor-Pal
Paper trimmer or scissors
Adhesive
Stamps, ink, ribbon, etc.


Directions:
1. Using the Scor-Pal, score the cardstock at 6" (red/orange line in diagram).
2. Turn the cardstock over and score at 2" and 10" (blue lines in diagram). The reason I say turn it over is with the Scor-Pal, it is recommended that you fold your score lines with the bump on the INSIDE when possible. The indentation should be on the outside. It has to do with the way the scoring divides the fibers in your cardstock.
3. Now turn the cardstock 1/4" turn and score at 3", 6", and 9" (green lines in diagram).
4. Place adhesive as shown by the aqua lines in the diagram in four places. Fold at the 2" and 10" score lines, adhering them closed at the ends.
5. Using a paper trimmer or scissors, cut on the FIRST 6" score line made in step #1. You'll cut from the 3" score line all the way down to the bottom edge (orange line in diagram).
6. Accordian fold each side until it looks like the picture above. Obviously in this case, all of your folds will not have the scored bump on the inside/indentation on the outside. But you will have a general guideline for folding. Also, as you can see - my ends have not been glued together yet in this photo as I've instructed to do in step #4. So do not be confused, LOL!
7. The two pockets at the bottom in the picture above will be adhered to each other, back to back.
8. The entire book is too thick to fit into the Bind-It-All at once so you have to punch the holes in stages. First of all I punched holes in the two center folds at the same time.
9. Then I punched each of the other two folds, one at a time. Make sure you're punching all of the holes on the same side of the book, with the pockets all on the same side.
10. Insert the 1/2" O-wire with the Bind-It-All. Usually when binding books, they recommend that you flip the back cover around to the front before putting your O-wires in. But you can't really do that with this little book. So the ends where your binding wires meet each other will show on the outside.
11. Embellish as desired with stamped images, ribbon, etc.

I did not add a cover because I used lightweight cardstock. But you could add a cover if you wanted, and also use alternate binding (ribbon, staples) if you do not own a Bind-It-All.

Here is one made with ribbon as the binding.

And I stamped Avery address labels to seal the edges of the pockets. This way, you get a wider opening on the inside of the pocket than if you use adhesive on the edges.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

A note from Julie :~ Fantastic tutorial Vicki Thank you!!

Go and check out Vicki's Angel Stamper and Hook Happenings Blogs she is one talented lady!!

If you use Vicki's Tutorial please leave a comment with a link to your creation so that we can come and visit your blog :)