This tutorial was written in March 2002 and  © by Lady Oz.  You have my permission to make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY .  If you think that my work is good enough and would like to create a  TEXT LINK to my tutorials, or share them with a group, please let me know.  This tutorial belongs to this site and I wish it to remain here.

What you create from my tutorials belong to you, to do with as you wish....I hold no claim to them...but I would love to see what you create from them. ;o)

You will need the following programs to complete this tutorial:

• PSP 7   though you should be able to also do it in earlier versions. If you haven't got this program but would like to try before you buy, then you can download a trial copy.

• Eye Candy  4

• My Scissors Gradient  goes in Gradients folder

• Scissors Preset  goes in the Presets folder

• Scissor Handles Preset  goes in the Presets folder

• EC 4 Glass setting  (put in the 'Glass' folder, which you will find in your EC 4 folder.

I have reduced the size of most of my screen captures between 60 and 75 % to keep the downloading time down.  Your images will, obviously, be bigger than these!

A golden rule to remember is to save your work often...you wouldn't want an 'illegal operation' or computer freeze to delete what you have spent so much time doing.  So have your auto save activated...but I always save my work myself at crucial points that I don't want to lose...well, I have been known to forget..#@$%!  ;o)

  Okay, are you ready? then away we go!

Open a 400 x 200 transparent image.

 Select Preset shapes  Rectangle Vector and Antialias checked, Line width 1...Foreground Null and...Background, scissors gradient

Draw a long thin rectangle.. Click on node edit .move the top right node in slightly (diagram 1) and the bottom node out...so that it creates an angle like as the one in diagram 2. 

 Convert to Raster Layer.
...call this 'Upper Blade'

Save!

Go to Effects...Inner Bevel and these settings:

 

With your selection tool set on Rectangle, draw around your blade and then click in the middle...it should be surrounded by marching ants now.  go to Effects...Plugins...EC 4...Glass and from Settings choose  'Scissors'

Then go to Colors...Adjust...Brightness/Contrast and use these settings.

Deselect.

Save your work!

Now for the lower blade!

Preset shapes  Rectangle, as before...Vector and Antialias checked, Line width 1...Foreground Null ...Background...Scissors Gradient (but this time with the invert gradient box unchecked). Draw a long rectangle shape a little shorter than  the first blade, this is because we are going to lengthen at one corner.  Click on your Object selector tool and select node edit.

 Add an extra node by holding down Ctrl and clicking on the line where you want it to go ...we need one in the center of the right side. Change the node type to Symmetrical....shown as above.   Move this center node outwards to form a point. 

Convert to Raster Layer and call this layer 'Lower Blade'.  

Save your work!

 Apply the Inner Bevel with the same setting but  the Angle changed to 177 this time. 

 Selection tool set on Rectangle, select your lower blade, in the same way as before. Apply the  EC 4 Glass Scissor setting as before.

Add the Brightness/Contrast as previous...Brightness -10...Contrast 0

 Now move this layer under the Upper Blade Layer and grab your deformation tool

Move your mouse until you see the arrows as in the pic above...then grab that handle and rotate the blade until you have it at the same angle as below.....you may also have to adjust the size of your lower blade to match up with the upper blade.  Click 'Apply' when you are finished adjusting...you won't be able to do anything else until you do. ;o)

Merge visible these two blade layers.

Save your work!

We need a centre piece to keep the blades together.

Select Preset shapes  Rectangle...Vector and Antialias checked, Line width 1...Foreground Null and...Background, scissors gradient.  Draw a small rectangle at the left end of your blades and make the point in the same way as we did the lower blade....Convert to Raster Layer and call it 'Center'.  Apply the Inner Bevel with previous settings...then EC 4 Glass and then Brightness/Contrast setting, as we did for the Upper Blade. ...move it into position, slightly overlapping the blades, so that there are no gaps. Your Center layer should be the top layer with the blades under it.

     

Next we apply a Drop Shadow with these settings:

Now for the stud that keeps all these parts together!

Preset shapes Ellipse...Vector unchecked and Antialias checked, Line width 1...Foreground Null ...Background...Scissors Gradient.

Add a new Raster Layer...draw a small circle, hold down the shift key at the same time and it will give you a perfect circle...if you want one that is! ;o)

Okay, done that?  Now apply the Inner bevel with the settings below.
 

Add the drop shadow...same as for the previous 'Center' layer.

Merge Visible your Blades, Center and Stud layers and call this layer 'Blades'

Are you saving? :o)

We now need some handles to be able to use these blades...a bit tricky otherwise. ;o)

Preset shapes Ellipse...Vector and Antialias checked, Line width 12...Foreground  A color of your choice...Background...Null

Draw an oval shape for the first handle. Click on your Object selector tool and select node edit.....move the top centre node down a wee bit and grab its side handles, one at a time, and move them up a wee bit...nothing too drastic here. Convert to Raster Layer and call this 'Handle'  Deselect for now.

Add a layer!

Preset shapes Ellipse...Vector unchecked (unless of course you want a fancy shaped handle again) and Antialias checked, Line width 12...Foreground  your chosen colour...Background...Null

Draw a smaller oval shape for the second handle. ....I used a pair of dressmaking scissors that I own as a guide for my shapes.  Yep! they inspired me.  *evil grin*  Convert to Raster Layer and call this 'handle2'  Deselect for now. I hid this layer until it was needed again.

Now we need the bridge parts to connect the handles to the blades!!

Preset shapes Rectangle...Vector and Antialias checked, Line width doesn't matter...Foreground....Null ...Background...your chosen colour

Draw an oblong shape. Click on your Object selector tool and select node edit, add two extra nodes in the centre top and bottom. Change the node type of each of these to Symmetric....then move each one down slightly, to make a curved shape. You may have to adjust the size accordingly to fit both the blades and your first handle.

When you have it fitting properly, change to Raster Layer. 

Merge visible your 'handle' and 'bridge' layers and rename to 'Big handle'

You will need to move your 'blades' and 'Big handle' down to make room for the smaller handle at the top of the image.  Also the 'Blades' layer needs to be at the top of the layer palette. Your image should now be looking something like this:

Save!

Nearly finished...need its partner now!

Preset shapes Rectangle...Vector and Antialias checked, Line width doesn't matter...Foreground....Null ...Background...your chosen colour

Draw another oblong shape but a bit longer this time. Click on your Object selector tool and select node edit, add two extra nodes in the centre top and bottom. Change the node type of each of these to Symmetric....then move each one down a little bit more than the last one you made.  As in the last instructions, re-adjust the size so that it fits in nicely with the blades etc. Convert to raster layer.

Merge visible this layer and the 'handle2' layer and rename it 'small handle'.

Move into position so that it fits neatly in with your blades and first handle.  When you have it right, merge visible all your handle and bridge layers.  Apply an Inner bevel:

Deselect...then Merge Visible your 'blades' and 'handles' layers.

That's your scissors made and ready to tube.

 

 

Have Fun! and  Email if you have any problems!

 

 

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