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Special Effects
Dyan Cross - Captain's First Mate
Digital Deck Crewmember
I was playing around with some Paint Shop Pro Special Effects, and came up with some interesting backgrounds. I thought it would be fun to go over some of them, especially since some of the images I came up with were a little strange looking (okay, in one case, really UGLY!), and I was surprised how nice the finished paper turned out.
- Open striped paper and resize to 600 pixels square
- Click the Effects Menu>Reflection Effects>Kaleidoscope and choose the Default. Change the number of petals to 5 and OK
- Click the Effects Menu>Photo Effects>Seamless Tiling, choose the Default and apply. You now have the center image below.
- Open a new image, as large as you want your finished paper to be, choose this tile as a pattern, set the scale on 10% (you may have to adjust the scale depending on how large your blank image is), and fill the image. (For directions on how to choose an image as a pattern, see my January 2006 article, item 6 in the second portion).
Below are the original striped paper by Janelle Paige, my kaleidoscope tile, and the filled paper. The tile is a little strange looking, but the finished paper is very pretty:
Okay, let's do the ugly one next!
- Open the flower image
- Click the Effects Menu>Reflection Effects>Kaleidoscope and choose the settings to the right. (I actually chose the Randomize feature - looks like a pair of dice and is circled on the image to the right. I kept clicking until I saw an image that looked promising.)
- Click the Effects Menu>Photo Effects>Seamless Tiling, choose the Default and apply.
- Open a new image, as large as you want your finished paper to be, choose this tile as a pattern, set the scale on 10%.
Here is my original flower image, the tile, and the filled paper. Hard to image that image produced that tile, isn't it? The choices are endless, and changing one little setting can change the whole look of the paper.
Let's try a different effect.
- Open Striped Paper
- Click the Effects Menu>Reflection Effects>Pattern and choose the default settings. Lo and behold, you get a diamond pattern!
This pattern effect works on images also. Here I took an image of a dogwood flower, applied the Effects Menu>Reflection Effects>Pattern at default, except I changed the Scale Factor to -30. I filled my image, using a scale of 30% and then sharpened the image several times.
Here are a few cards I made from the "diamond" and "dogwood" papers. For the train card, I used my diamond pattern as well as the original striped paper. On the ship card, I used my pattern at 50% to fill the larger square, then at 30% to fill the smaller square.
I am sorry to say that this will be my last article for SSReflections. I have been here since the very beginning, starting with spotlights on Rubber Stamp companies, then doing articles on fonts, and finally moving over to the Digital Playground. I've enjoyed every minute and have made some wonderful friends, both on the Crew and among the readers of our wonderful Ezine. I will miss you.
Please feel free to email me at dyan.cc@verizon.net with any digital questions you have, and visit my personal web site http://dyan.topcities.com. I continue to post my cards and tutorials there. Thanks so much for your support and kind words over these last three years.
Dyan Cross
dyancross@ssreflections.com
Digital Deck Crewmember
Reflections Publishing Group, LLC
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