Fancy Text Plaque

Open the image that you wish to work from. To be able to work with many of the tools in PSP, your image needs to be one with 16, Million Colours (24 bit). If you are having any problems being able to use any of the tools, check this out first.

Choose Colours > Increase Colour Depth >16 million colours 24 bit), OR
Press <Shift> + <Ctrl> + <0>

Please note that most of the screen shots have been reduced to 80% for faster loading, so yours will look different to these. Also remember to SAVE often!

Step 1. Open up new transparent image.....size 500 x 300.

Choose a fill for the text...I copied a 100 x 100 piece of photo of some flowers in my garden....now minimize it.

Set your styles to Foreground Null...and Background the pattern of your choice.

Step 2. Click on the on your taskbar and choose the font that you wish to use for your text...I chose TagsXtreme for mine. When you have it set the way that you want it...click ok.

Step 3. Once it is in your image, you can stretch it or move the letters any way you want to. You can do that by grabbing your and selecting the vectored text...go to 'Objects' and 'Convert text to curves'....then 'As Character Shapes'...I chose only to stretch my whole text a wee bit.....make sure that you leave some room around the text as we are going to expand on this. Convert to Raster layer.

Step 4. Now grab the dropper tool and select a colour from your text as a background colour. It is up to you whether you choose a light or dark colour. Highlight Layer 1 on your layer palette and using the flood fill tool, apply the chosen colour. Go back to layer 2 where your text is on and apply a drop shadow...choose a contrast to your background fill.....V 1 H 1 Opacity 78 Blur 7.1

Step 5. Still on layer 2...your text layer...Select All...Float...Modify...Expand 15....

Select...Invert...go to layer 1 and delete....you should be left with the text and a black border. Repeat the Select and Invert so that the black border is selected.

Step 6. Apply EC 3 Jiggle with these settings:

I then chose a blade Pro preset for the finishing touch...the texture I used was called 'Granite' but you can choose any you wish to suit the image you are making.

Finished. *s*

Here is another variation....if you play around with fills, filters etc. you can get some terrific effects which can be used on your web pages, sig tags and so on.

I used the EC 4 Glass filter on my text before adding the drop shadow to it. After cutting out (this time I included the centers of some of the letters) I then applied a 'clear glass' Blade Pro preset to it...changing the shape to the fourth one from bottom of menu...increasing the radius to 31 and reducing the height to -94...I then added a cutout to the finished plaque.

Lastly, this one using both text and a tube...merged together after working on the text...I used EC 3...Glass...weave...Jiggle on this image....added several drop shadows to the same layer...black to make it stand out...white as a contrast...also used the undo button so many times that I decided not to try to write down every little step. The fun part for you is to experiment and see what you can come up with.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with and I hope that you enjoyed this quick and easy tute....thanks for doing it. *s*