Thought I'd share a couple of masks I made tonight.  Here is a preview of them:

You can  DOWNLOAD HERE on Box Please leave me some luv if you like em.  ♥

This is the tag we'll be making and what you'll need:

• Tube I used was by Selina Fenech which was available for purchase through CILM which is no longer open and the artist is not currently selling her art 

anymore, hopefully soon though!  If you don't have this tube, just find another pretty tube to use, mermaids have an awesome effect on this tut!  Please do 

not use the tube I used without a proper license to do so.

• Filters I used were VM Toolbox Zoom Blur, Toadies Plain Mosaic Blur, Xenoflex 1 Show Door, Xenoflex 2 Constellation, Xero Porcelain, Super Blade Pro, 

Eye Candy 4000 Glass, and Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow.

• Font used was Aquarelle which is a pay font and I cannot supply, however any pretty font will do.

Okay ready, let's go, this is super easy!  Back to the old style psp tags we learned on before scrapping came into the picture lol!

•  Open a new image 700 x 700 with a white background.  We can hide the white layer and re-size as needed.  Paste your tube onto the canvas and I applied a gaussian blur of about 10 to it.  I duplicated a few times and flipping them as I went.  In the end you want a blurry mass of the tube LOL!  If it's taking up the majority of your canvas, re-size down so it's only about half as some of the filters take up a lot of space and you don't want the effects cut off.  

•  Make sure that your background and foreground colors are on white otherwise you will have some very funky glows that you didn't look for.  Apply VM 

Toolbox Zoom Blur, I used settings of 105 and 60.  Re-size your effect a little bit.  Apply Xenoflex 1 Shower Door to this effect, I had settings of 50 and 20.  

Duplicate the image and re-size by 90% and apply Toadies Plain Mosaic Blur, I had all my numbers at 15.  Zoom in a lot!  Grab your magic wand too and select those black lines and press delete.  Leave selected and select invert selections and apply Super Blade Pro coconut ice setting.  Leave your selections active for the next step.

•  Paste tube as a new layer, making sure that your selections are still active.  I moved mine over the right side and down a little.  Press delete on the tube layer, this way only the stuff in your selections stay.  Change the blend mode to Luminance (Legacy).  On your original tube mirror it and copy.  Paste it onto your working image and do the same thing (move into position this time on the left, press delete, and change blend mode).  Once happy with all this select none.  If you're not happy undo until you can fix what you don't like.

•  On the Toadies and SBP effect layer, select all, float, and defloat and apply Xenoflex 2 Constellation to this layer to give it some sparklies if you wish.  The settings I used are below here:

•  Paste your main tube as a new layer, re-size if necessary and sharpen.  I applied Xero Porcelain to give the tube a nice glowing effect and of course a drop shadow.  At this point I re-sized my tag to it's ending size and sharpened and bits that needed it.

•  Add a new layer and type whatever text you want, I typed Siren of the Sea as it seemed fitting with the mermaid and all.  I typed it in a nice pretty blue color from my tube and applied Super Blade Pro coconut ice and and of course Eye Candy 4000 Glass and Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow with a drop shadow.  Add a new layer and put in the artist's copyright information as well as your taggers line if you use one.

•  Just add your text, I used the same font and settings for my name as I did on the Siren of the Sea wordart I made.  

•  Hide or delete your white background, optimize as a png and voila you're done!

That's it!  I hope you've enjoyed this very easy tutorial. 

This tutorial was written by Tonya on May 16, 2011 and absolutely no part of this tutorial may be taken or used without my express permission.

This is the tag we'll be making and what you'll need:

•  I used a mask from the awesome Melissa, please leave some love if you download.  I used mask 6.

• Tube I used was by Keith Garvey which is available for purchase through PSP Tubes Emporium, any tube that you wish to use will do though.  Please do not use the tube I used without a proper license to do so.

• Filters I used were Xenoflex 2 Constellation, Xero Porcelain, Super Blade Pro, Eye Candy 4000 Glass, and Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow.

• Brushes of choice

• Font used was Caramel Candy which is a pay font and I cannot supply, however any pretty font will do.

Okay ready, let's go, this is super easy!  Back to the old style psp tags we learned on before scrapping came into the picture lol!

•  Open up a new canvas 700 x 700 with a white background.  (If you don't like the white background you can close it off later no worries).  Chose 2 matching colors from your tube to create a foreground-background gradient.  I used 2 peachy colors from the tube that I used.  I had mine set to sunburst in the gradient style at a 0 degree and repeats of 4.  Add a new layer and flood fill that layer.  Apply Melissa's mask 6 to it.  DO NOT MERGE yet lol.  

•  Paste the closeup of your tube on top of the gradient layer but below the mask layer.  Re-size if you like, I didn't bother to do that, I just moved it over the right a bit.  Duplicate and mirror and arrange so it looks however you want.  Merge down so that your 2 closeup tubes are on one layer.  Duplicate.  On the top copy apply a gaussian blur of about 5 and choose the Screen blend mode and lower the opacity to about 55.  On the gradient layer, I applied Xenoflex 2 Constellation with the following settings:

•  Merge your mask layer group.  Add a new layer under the mask layer and making sure that your materials palette still has your gradient colors selected apply a doodle brush in a couple places so that it looks like it's peeking behind the mask layer.  See my tag as an example.  Add another layer and still beneath the mask layer, I added a few more brushes, the ones I used were by Distinct but anything with a swirly pretty pattern will do beautifully.  This is where you can make your tag truly your own.

•  Copy and paste the tube as a new layer on top of the mask layer, I used the half body one (or full tube) instead of the close-up here.  Re-size to your liking and once happy, apply any tube effects you like such as Xero Porcelain (for example), drop shadow, etc.

•  Because I don't like when tubes are 'cut-off' so to speak I wanted to hide how her legs ended, so I took my preset shape tool, set on ellipse with the foreground closed off and background just using one of my peachy colors from my gradient I made earlier.  I drew a nice oval and once I was happy with where it was positioned, I converted to a raster layer.  Select all, float, de-float and apply Super Blade Pro with the 'coconut ice' setting.  Once happy, select none.  

•  Add a new layer and grab your brush tool again (LOL I love using brushes!) and I added some cloud brushes over the oval just to give it a bit of a dreamy appearance.  You may find need to do a few of them.  Once happy, re-size your tag to it's final ending size however you want that to be.  Do an sharpening of images that need it and of course any drop shadows if not done already.  Add a new layer and add your artist copyright information and if you use a tagline.  

•  Now just do your text, I had mine placed on that oval we made earlier and used the font Caramel Candy however any nice pretty font will do.  I just used the peach color I did my oval in and applied the Super Blade Pro coconut ice setting again, as well as Eye Candy 4000 glass (it gives a little extra shine to it) and then gradient glow with Eye Candy 4000 and of course a nice drop shadow.

•  Hide or delete your white background, optimize as a png and voila you're done!

That's it!  I hope you've enjoyed this very easy tutorial. 

This tutorial was written by Tonya on May 16, 2011 and absolutely no part of this tutorial may be taken or used without my express permission.