This tutorial was written in June 2003 and  © by Lady Oz.  You may make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY.  If you would like to LINK to my tutorials to share them with others please let me know.  What you create from my tutorials belong to you to do with as you wish....I hold no claim to them other than my tutorial rights.

Aida Cloth Tapestry....in PSP 8.


 This is what we are going to make...hopefully. *g*  The whole idea of this tutorial is to get you familiar with the tools of PSP 8 and to encourage you to play around with settings and features in this great new program....the finished image is just an added bonus. I'm hoping that you are going to astound me with your creativity and ideas. *s*

 


What you will need.

  • PSP 8      Which is what I did this tutorial in....if you haven't already got it, you can download a trial version.

  • An image of your choice. OR  you can use the one that I have used, which is of a local shot here in South Australia.  It may be a good idea to use this one first anyway, so that you can get the idea of how to accomplish this sort of result....it isn't one of terrific quality but suits the purpose. *g*  Right click on image and save to your own hard drive.

Please note that most of the screen shots have been reduced to 70% to 90% for faster loading and because I have used so many of them; therefore the quality of the shots are not so good.

Please remember to SAVE often!

 

Step 1.  Open up the image that you wish to use....make a copy of it...Shift + D and close the original. 

Let's work on the copy.  If it shows as a background in the layer palette, then  promote to layer.

Duplicate layer twice....naming the first copy 'threshold' and the second copy 'trace contour'.

 

 

Step 2  Trace Contour Layer...To do this, click on 'Effects'...'Edge Effects'....Trace Contour... now lower the opacity to about 60 and change the blend to 'Overlay'.....or try a few more blends if you are not happy with this result.

Below is a shot of how it looks before we change the layer blend and after we do this step.

        

 

Step 3 Threshold Layer.....Click on 'Adjust'.......'Brightness'..'Threshold'

It of course depends on the image that you have chosen as to which is the best settings in this and the following steps....use the lever and play around...remember that it is not going to bite you. *g*

 

...apply a setting of about 87.  OK

 

Now the shots below show what your image look like with the top layer turned off and then again with it turned on....just to let you know what each layer should look like and so that you do not get you confused. *s*

     

 

Still on your threshold layer...we need to add a mask layer, so to do this we select 'Layers'....New Mask Layer...From Image. 

  

A window will then pop up like this, which will show the name that you have given your image...click OK

 

Keeping the Opacity at 100 but change the blend to 'Soft Light'.  Your layer palette should now look something like mine at this stage.

Highlight the Mask-threshold layer and grab your eraser tool.

With the above settings, erase some of the image in different areas...I did around the main objects mainly....which gives it this faded look in parts.  You may or may not see anything much happening here....but if you turn off the top layers, then you should be able to see where you have erased parts of your mask....it also depends on the image that you used too as to whether it is an obvious change or not. 

Merge all layers.

         

Step 4  This is where we add the texture to the image.  Click on 'Effects', 'Texture Effects'...'Texture'....'Plaid' with these settings.


I  added an Automatic Saturation Enhancement at this stage.....which can be found here....'Adjust'....'Hue and Saturation'

Step 5  Next step was to add a 30 symmetric border and using the Dropper tool, to select a shade from my image ....which in this case was a light golden shade. 

     

 

 I then selected the border with the magic tool and applied the same texture as in the previous step. 

Next we add some vector text...but the effect we are after, which is an idea from Gary Barton *see footnote*, needs a Preset shape outline for us to apply the text too.  My image is rectangle so that is the shape I needed to use.

Click on Preset shapes...Foreground a dark colour   Background: Null

Draw a shape to nearly, but not quite fill the image that you used.  

 Let's center our shape... 'Objects'...'Align'....'Center in canvas'.

Hit the little arrow on your Styles palette and switch the foreground and Background...if you wish to use a different colour for your stitching, then please do so.

Okay, click on A tool, place your cursor on any part of the rectangle's sides and when you see the A with the curve click on it to add text.

Play around with different characters for a great stitch effect...the one that I have used here is the bracket symbol above the number'9'....just keep adding the characters until they go right around the rectangle...making sure that they do not overlap.  Alter the kerning and leading until you are satisfied with how it is panning out. 

 

 Once you have the look that you want ...OK it and get out of there.

 

Now we are back in the main window and maybe there are some characters there that are spoiling your effect, in the case of my image, I didn't want the corner pieces left in.

So to get rid of these annoying characters, 

Click on 'Objects'....Convert Text to Curves...As Character Shapes.  Now to get rid of the ones that you don't want....click on 'Object Selector' and then select the character you want to remove.  *If you are having trouble selecting these individually, maybe you have grouped them by some chance...try right clicking and choosing 'ungroup'....it happened to me so that's how I know. *s*

 

This is optional but I finished off the stitching by adding a new layer and setting my paintbrush to a size 3 step 25...then added a dot on the end of each stitch...in one line.... copy pasted this line onto the other end of the stitches in that line....copied this layer and pasted onto a new layer...this time selecting the stitching on the opposite side...I think by now you get the gist and you may have an easier method.  You could also add a line by using a ready made dotted line...but that is far too straight for my liking and I don't sew that straight either *g*   Merge all layers.

 I then added another border of contrasting colour and then a small border of 3 adding an inner bevel to this last border.  Just to let you know that I stitched this Aida cloth on to the frame myself...using the freehand line tool, size 2 and the stitching colour, I drew a loose thread....untidy beggar, I know.....now I've just got to sew the main area. *g*

Finished!

 

 

Now I'm not into this type of work in the real world, though I did do a huge tapestry about 20 years ago and which has pride of place on my dining room wall, so I welcome and encourage all those creative ideas to start rolling in...I'm ready to lap them up. *dg*   

 

*A HUGE 'thank you' to Gary Barton for both his great idea of the character symbols around individual character shapes and also for giving me permission to expand on his mini tutorial....if you are interested in some awesome scripts, visit his site where you can also be added to his newsletter for regular updates...you won't be disappointed.  I will add that Gary is in the process of redesigning his site at present so he does not have all his work available as yet....but he does have the scripts etc.

On the next page are some samples as contributed by my wonderful tutorial testers, Auntie Em, Vera and Hannah.

Page 2

 

Have Fun! and  Email if you have any problems!

 

 

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Tutorial by Mary Newton aka Lady Oz aka Lady Newtonia © 2003