Curled Ribbons For Scrapbooking

Specially created for Charity

Objective: To demonstrate a quick simple way to produce curled type ribbons and the effects of shifting the layers to achieve different effects.

Tools Used: Selection Tool, Edit Selection, Flood Fill Tool, Pick Tool, Move Tool

Palettes Used: Materials Palette, Tools Toolbar, Tool Options Palette

Effects Used: Geometric Effects, Skew, Flip Image, Mirror Image, Add/Remove Noise, Texture Effects, Blinds, 3D Effects, Inner Bevel

Types of Layers Used: Raster Layers

Digital scrapbooking is one of the biggest sectors next to photography for the uses of Paint Shop Pro. With that in mind, we thought it might be fun to show how easy it is to learn to create your own high quality digital scrapbook elements in Paint Shop Pro.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create curled ribbon using the selection tools. We will also show you a simple way to manipulate the layers in order to get different appearances for the direction you want the ribbon to "curl". This is the element we have recieved several emails for, so, without any further ado, here we go! Have fun!

Step 1

Usually when it comes to creating these types of embellishments, it requires extra canvas space. It would be impractical for me to show you monstrous screen shots of my workspace, so you will need to rely on trial and error. But the outcome is awesome.

Start by creating a new image 400 X 400 pixels. Set the background color to #a5a4a0.

On the Materials palette, set your Foreground color to #000000 and your Background color to #808080

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

On the Tool Options palette, Selection type: Rectangle

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Now were ready to make the pattern.

Start by creating a rectangular selection in the center of your canvas:

Selections > Edit Selection

Your selection is now a salmon pink color:

To help us with the curl look, let's introduce a new tool.

Effects > Geometric Effects > Skew... and use the following settings:

Our selection has now taken a new shape:

Now let's take our selection back out of edit mode.

Selections > Edit Selection

On the Tools toolbar, select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection:

Selections > Select None

Step 2

This is the most important part to the whole tutorial. In order for it to look right, we're going to cut some pieces off of this to complete our pattern.

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

On the Tool Options palette, Selection type: Ellipse

Create an elliptical selection along one side of your image. You can move it into position by holding down on your RIGHT mouse button and dragging it into position.:

Now we want to offset it slightly, so we'll put our selection into edit mode.

Selections > Edit Selection

Select the Pick Tool(P) from the Tools toolbar.

Grab it from the center node and rotate it slightly:

Take the selection out of edit mode

Selections > Edit Selection

Now hit the DELETE key on your keyboard:

Don't select yet! We still need to cut the other side.

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

Now, hold down on your RIGHT mouse button to drag it to the opposite corner like this:

Now the fun part. We want to protect a portion of the upper right corner of our image. This will will make better sense in just a second. To do this, we're going to add to our elliptical selection.

On the Tool Options palette, Selection type: Rectangle

While holding down on the Shift key on your keyboard, add the small rectangular selection to cover our upper right corner:

Your selection should now look similar to this:

Selections > Invert

Now hit the DELETE key on your keyboard

Selections > Select None

Your image should now look similar to this:

Now the final piece to our pattern.

Layers > Duplicate

Image > Flip [Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + I]

Image > Mirror [Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + M]

On the Tools toolbar, select the Move Tool (M)

Line the duplicate image up with the bottom of our original image:

Layers > Merge > Merge Down

At this point you may want to create a selection and save it to the Alpha channel.

Selections > Select All [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + A]

Selections > Float [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + F]

Selections > Defloat [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + Shift + F]

Selections > Load/Save Selection > Save Selection To Alpha Channel... > Save

Don't de-select yet!

Step 3

Now let's get rid of our pattern.

Layers > Delete

On the Materials palette, set your Foreground color to #dfd9db

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Let me explain this next part. We're going to fill this selection, but we're going to use the Background color first.

On the Tools toolbar, select the Flood Fill Tool (F)

Right click with your mouse inside of the selection to use the Background color:

This darker color represents the border of our ribbon. It can get a bit confusing here so please bare with me as I try to carefully walk you through the next few steps.

Let's place the selection in edit mode.

Selections > Edit Selection

On the Tools toolbar, select the Move Tool (M)

Using the arrow keys on your keyboard move the selection to the right eight pixels:

Take it out of edit mode.

Selections > Edit Selection

Now hit the DELETE key on your keyboard

IGNORE THE SELECTION!

Layers > Duplicate

Using the Move Tool (M) very carefully move the duplicated image to the other side of our selection. You may have to release the mouse a few times in order to see the selection itself:

Join it with the original image.

Layers > Merge > Merge Down

Now lets add the inner portion of the ribbon.

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Now we'll fill it with the Foreground color.

On the Tools toolbar, select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection:

Don't deselect yet! The next step is to start adding the effects to the ribbon.

Step 5

To make the ribbon appear to be made out of cloth type material, let's add three effects here.

First we'll add noise.

Adjust > Add/Remove Noise > and use the following settings:

Effects > Texture Effects > Blinds... and use the following settings (Color: #c0c0c0):

We're going to repeat the Texture Effects only this time we'll remove the checkmark from Horizontal.

Effects > Texture Effects > Blinds... and use the following settings:

Selections > Select None

Your image should now look similar to this:

On the Layers palette, highlight the Raster 1 layer:

Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel... and use the following settings:

Effects > Texture Effects > Blinds... and use the following settings (same settings as above just place the checkmark back in Horizontal):

Now lets join the Layers together.

Layers > Arrange > Move Up

Layers > Merge > Merge Down

At this point this is where you would add another layer and add what ever goodies you want. For the sake of keeping the sizes down we'll skip this part.

Step 6

Now the easy part. Creating the rest of the "curl".

Lets resize what we have so that we've got more room on the canvas.

Select the Pick Tool(P) from the Tools toolbar.

On the Tool Options palette you can adjust the Scale X(%) and Scale Y(%). I recommend starting around 70:

Layers > Duplicate

Image > Mirror

Now we'll darken this one up just a bit.

Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast... > Brightness: -35 Contrast: 15 > OK [Keyboard shortcut: Shift + B] 

If you don't see it yet, let me help you.

On the Tools toolbar, select the Move Tool (M)

Now, line up the top left edge of the duplicate layer with the top left edge of the original layer:

That looks better!

On the Layers palette, highlight the Raster 2 layer:

Layers > Duplicate

Layers > Arrange > Bring to Top

Now use your Move Tool (M) and move it over until the bottom left edge lines up the bottom left edge of the darker colored image:

Here's a couple of neat tips!

Look at the direction of the ribbon.

Now,

On the Layers palette, highlight the second layer down from the top:

Layers > Arrange > Move Up

Produces this:

Now try this.

Layers > Arrange > Move Down

Again

Layers > Arrange > Move Down

Examples

Most of these examples were created by duplicating the image (leaving the original beneath it) and playing around with the Effects > Texture Effects > then modifying the layer blend modes.