This is the tag we'll be making, another nice easy scrappy tag. So, here's what you'll need:

• Tube I used were by Jennifer Janesko and can only be used with a license which can be obtained at CILM however any tubes you want to use will do. Her art tubes are now available for purchase at CDO here.

• Mask I used was by the talented Vix, you can get it here scroll all the way to the bottom, it was Christmas mask 6, please be sure to read and follow her TOU.

• The filters I used were Super Blade Pro, Eye Candy 4 Gradient Glow, and Toadies What Are You.

• Font used was Pirouette LT Standard, but use whatever font you wish.

• I used the scrapkit A Vintage Christmas by the very talented Designed by Stina which is available for sale at Scraps with Attitude.


Okay ready, let's go!

• Open a new image, I start always with 700x700 you can re-size and crop later whatever is needed. Paste frame 1 as a new layer, re-sizing to your preference. Using your rectangle selection tool, draw around a little bigger than the middle of the frame. Underneath frame, add a new layer, using paper of choice, paste into selection. I used paper (I used paper 24). Keep selected and paste your tube as a new layer above the paper you just added but beneath the frame. Re-size to your liking, invert selections, and press delete. Select none.

• On paper layer beneath tube, select all, float, and defloat, and with your foreground on a color of choice (I used a dark red color from my tube) choose a texture brush and click a few times in that selected area. This just gives it a slight reddish tint behind to add a lil definition.

• Above white background layer, select all, add a new layer, insert paper of choice into selection, I used paper 24 and applied mask. I then merged the layer group and re-sized a little and made it more central behind frame. I then duplicated the masked layer, moved duplicate below original and applied Toadies What Are You filter (default setting). I duplicated the filtered layer, mirrorer and using my deform tool turned one of the layers to my liking. I merged all 3 masked copies together. Pretty snowflakes huh? At this point, I re-sized my whole image to what I wanted my ending tag to be.

• Add any elements here. I added the tree, re-sizing and the wordart piece. The wordart piece I used was by Melissa of Sentimental Style, this is from her former group Scrappy Expressions and she states no sharing, but whatever Christmas piece you like will work. Add artist's copyright and your watermark info now too if you like. Also you can of course do your text however you wish. I used a dark red color for the text, used super blade pro coconut ice setting, eye candy gradient glow (whatever setting you like best), and a nice blurry drop shadow.

• Now the animation, that got a bit fiddly. Here is the animated snow I used to do my tag, please do not change filename.

In PSP, hide all layers except the masked snowflakes and the white background layer. I know many don't like white backgrounds but AS not very nice sometimes if not used ~sigh~, copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Duplicate so you have a total of 10 layers (as snow as 10 layers also). Drag the snow animation onto the masked snowflakes.

• Back in PSP, invert your selections. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Propagate paste to appropriate location of your finished tag. Copy and paste Christmas tree separately into AS as a new animation. You want to watch and see how big that layer is. Okay bring snow into PSP. Crop to the size the Christmas tree layer is. In mine it was 235x318. Now paste the tree on top of snow animation in PSP (I promise there's a reason for this lol). Select all, float, defloat, and invert selections. On each snow layer, delete. This will make the snow be only the shape of the tree. After done, delete Christmas tree layer, save the animation with a new name and open in AS. Drag that animation on top of the Christmas Tree on the tag. So now we have our falling snow behind the frame and on the tree. Hope that wasn't too fiddly for ya. ♥


That's it! We're done, I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and I look forward to seeing what you create with it.



This tutorial was written by Tonya on November 15, 2009, absolutely no part of this tutorial may be taken or used without my express permission. Any part that may be similar to any tutorial is purely coicidental and unintended.