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.

• Tube I used is by Lorenzo DiMauro which I purchased at his site please do not use this tube if you do not have an appropriate license to do so! This tube is in honor of my good friend Raqual and I wanted to do a tag and tut with it that would help get the important message to GET SMOOSHED!

• Mask I used was from Creative Misfits blog, you can get it here I used KyLie_Mask_mf01.

• I used a template by Punky Butts and you can get it here, I used template 49.

• I love filters lol, so here's what I used: Super Blade Pro (coconut ice setting), Xero Porcelain, DSB Flux Bright Noise, Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow, Eye Candy 5 Perspective Shadow, Tramages Tow the Line, Filters Unlimited 2 (used paper texture Wallpaper Fine, but any texture effect of choice will do if you don't have the filter).

• Gradient of choice, I used PinksHaveIt_CC.

• Fonts used were Black Rose and Harmonica, unfortunately Harmonica is pay so I cannot provide that one, but use whatever font you like.


Okay ready, let's go, this will be fun and easy!

• Open up Punky Butts fab template, duplicate the image and close out the original. Delete layers of Credits, Wordart Frame, Wordart, and dots, as pretty as they are, I ended up not using them. Turn visiibility of background layer on and I increased canvas size so it gave me more room to work and I could see what I was doing better. I changed my size to 850 x 650 lol I know that seems huge but we will re-size and crop and all that good stuff later. Okay now let's work from the bottom up on this fab template.

• On Strip layer, change that to a pink color that matches your tube, below is a screen shot of what mine looked like. After changing the color, I applied Filters Unilimted Paper Textures Wallpaper Fine. If you don't have the filter just use a different texture effect of choice (under Effects, Texture Effects, Texture). I then applied a very slight gradient glow using the filter Eye Candy 4000 using black and the pink I'd changed my Strip to. See my tag as an example.


• Hearts2 layer, using manual color correction tool again, I changed the color to the pink color I had changed the strip too, just change the source color from the blue to the pink color the hearts currently are. Once done, select all, float, defloat and apply Super Blade Pro coconut ice setting. If you don't have that filter, you can apply a nice inner bevel instead. After applying the SBP filter, I applied a gradient glow, just a nice subtle one like on the Strip layer. Repeat these same steps with the Hearts 1 layer.

• Heart right layer, select all, float, defloat, add a new layer, I contracted the selection by 2 and flood filled with the gradient I chose to use. Select none and delete original Heart right layer, leave selections active. Let's go and paste the tube as a new layer now as long as we still have our selections. I didn't do any re-sizing on it and once happy with the position of the tube, invert your selections and press delete. I changed the blend mode to Luminance (Legacy). Select none and on the heartframe right layer, I used manual color correction tool to change to a pretty pink color, my target was #d9748d and applied an inner bevel of choice. Repeat these same steps on Heart left layer, I just had a different part of the tube as the focal on this one. See my tag for reference.

• Circle layer, before we do much modification to it lol, lets get our tube in there nicely. select all, float, defloat, invert selection, contract selection by 1. Paste tube as a new layer, re-size if you need to at all and once happy with placement, grab eraser tool and erase and part that hang over the circle on the bottom. Select none. Now click on the blue in that layer and I used manual color correct to change the color to one that matches the tag. Leaving selection active, I applied Filters Unlimited Paper Texture Canvas Fine. If you do not have that filter, you should be able to achieve similar pretty effect using the texture effects within psp. Select none. Now select the black area of the circle using your magic wand tool and apply Tramages To the Line, I just used the default settings. However I wanted to make them lines pink lol! So leaving selections as is, I zoomed in a bit and applied manual color correction. Reason for zooming in a bit is to easier select the color of those gray lines as the source, and the target be a pink color from my tag. See screen shot below for example. Select none when done with that and then I applied a gradient glow around the whole layer using the pink and black.



• Lil hearts top layer, using the manual color correction tool, I changed them to match the dominant mauve color I've been using in the tag. Once done to your liking, select all, float, defloat, and I applied Super Blade Pro coconut ice and then apply gradient glow as used before. Now we've got our template basically done, let's pretty it up with some minor effects, we're almost done woohoo!

• On the background layer, add a new layer, and flood fill with the gradient of choice you are using for this tag. Apply KyLie's gorgeous mask and once happy merge layer group. Do any re-sizing if need be of the mask layer. At this point I also cropped any of the excess and also re-size your tag to what you want your ending size to be. Sharpen any layers that need it. I applied Xero Porcelain to the main tube layer, using the default settings. Apply drop shadows to your layers at this point, I like to drop shadow pretty much every layer lol. I used Eye Candy 5 Perspective Shadow but if you don't have that filter the drop shadow in psp will work beautifully as well.

• Back up to the top of the layers, I added a new layer and typed the text "Get Smooshed" in place of the original wordart that came with the template. In light of the pink ribbon on the tube, I wanted to add an important message for this tag. I used the font Black Rose and once happy with placement, I applied DSB Flux Bright Noise, intensity set at 39, and Mix selected as well I applied a nice subtle gradient glow to the words to make them pop out a bit and a blurry drop shadow.

• Add the artist's copyright information and your tagger's watermark to the tag. All that is left is to do your text. I used Harmonica font using the gradient I had used in the tag previously and applied Super Blade Pro coconut ice and gradient glow and of course a nice blurry drop shadow. Close off the white background layer if you prefer transparent backgrounds and save as a png and voila all done, I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.




This tutorial was written by Tonya on April 3, 2010, 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 coincidental and unintended.

 • Template from Rose and Bru which can be found on Rose's blog here (post of March 8, 2010), thank you so much ladies for the awesome template!

• I used a tube of Lorenzo DiMauro which I purchased and is available for purchase at his site. Please do not use this tube if you do not have appropriate license to do so.

• Texture of choice, here is the one I am using in this tut, you're welcome to save. I've had this one for ages and I'm sorry I don't know where I got it, but if it's yours please let me know so I can either give you credit you deserve or remove, thank you ♥


• I used Filter Factory M Motion Trail, Tramages Tow the Line, Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow, Super Blade Pro (sg_Iris setting), Xero Porcelain, Eye Candy 5 Perspective Shadow for filters. OMG I do love my filters lol.

• Font I used was Bilbo which is a pay font, so I cannot supply but any font of choice will do nicely.



Okay ready, let's go make a very simple tag!

• Open up Rose and Bru's fabulous template, duplicate the image and close out the original. Delete Raster 8 (credits layer). I left the mask layers as is, I was so lucky to find the tube I wanted to use matched the template so well lol but if yours is not the case, what you can easily do is colorize those layers to match colors in your tube using the manual color correction tool. Choose the original color as the source color and whatever color you want as the target. Sometimes it's necessary to play with it a little, but I do love that tool.

• I deleted the bottom left pink circle. On the Top Right Pink Circle, colorize using the manual color correction tool, have the pink that it currently is as the source, and change to a purple in your tube (I used #b7379b). Now in your material palette have your background set to a pink color (I used #eb6a8e) and apply Filter Factory M Motion Trail with default settings. I then applied Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow, settings of 3, 25, 100 on the first tab and here is what my 2nd one looks like:




Duplicate this image, mirror and flip it, so it takes the place of the one we deleted. The reason I didn't just apply the same effects was because the motion trail didn't look the same I liked this one better LOL.

• Top and Bottom black rectangles, I just applied a gradient glow setting to these layers. Basically the reverse of the one I used above as the dominant colors basically reversed. Small heart layer and Hottie text layers, I used manual color correction tool and changed the colors to match the purple I used previously. On both layers, I applied a nice gel-like inner bevel setting and then another nice gradient glow setting (similar to the first one I showed example of). Gradient glitter circle, I didn't make any modification to at all.

• Black Circle, I applied Tramages Tow the Line and because my dominant colors are purple and black, I used the manual color correction tool to change the silver/white colors of the filter to be the purple I'm using. To do this, zoom in a lot and then bring up your manual color correction tool to select a silver color as the source, and your purple color as target. I actually had to do the manual color correction twice, play around with it see what works for your tag.

• Circle dot layer, again using manual color correction tool change the white to purple, I applied inner bevel setting that I used on the Hottie and small hearts layers. Then applied gradient glow as in example above.

• Center Pink Circle, I did select all, float, and defloat, add a new layer and flood filled with a gradient that I created using my central black and purple colors, using angle of 45 and repeats of 3. Leave selected, delete the original center pink circle as we no longer need it. On that flood filled layer, add a new layer again, grab your texture that you are using, copy, and on your working canvas image, paste as a new selection in that new blank layer you just added. Select none. Now the color doesn't quite match so you know what we're going to do? Yes of course manual color correction tool LOL, I chose a color for the source, the one I used was #afb1cd and my target of the purple, turned it real pretty. I also changed the blend mode of the texture to Screen. You can do soooo much with textures and playing around with the blend modes!

• Pixel words I changed color to black using the manual color correction and then applied a gradient glow, just had a veryyyy slight one this time just the purple color, I don't want the words over-powered with color considering how little the words are.

• Whew! Template finished and doesn't it look pretty? Let's add our tube now. Re-size to your liking and place her in there nicely. I want to have her fit in nicely so layer we flood filled with our gradient, select all, float, and defloat, invert your selection and contract selection by 1. On the tube layer, grab your eraser tool and erase the bottom part of the tube that hangs over that circle. I just love that tube with this template, I swear it was created for her!

• All that's left now is do any finishing effects on the tag that need be and I didn't re-size the tag at all as the template was just perfect for my tagging needs and I try not to re-size if possible if there are any pixel fonts involved, it blurs them too much. So I just applied my drop shadows using Eye Candy 5 Perspective Shadow, if you don't have that filter by all means use the drop shadow in PSP it works just as good! I applied Xero Porcelain to the tube, just to give her a nice glow to match the tag.

• Add the artist's copyright information and your tagger's watermark. I chose the font Bilbo for my text, and applied Super Blade Pro to it, using the setting of sg_iris. Which that one gave it a bit lighter purple than I liked so again using manual color correction tool, changed it to match closer to my tag, applied a gradient glow as used above, and of course a drop shadow. Close out the white background layer, and save as a PNG and voila you're done! Lots of effects and explanations and hopefully you learned a fun technique in this tutorial.



This tutorial was written by Tonya on March 30, 2010 and absolutely no part of this tutorial may be taken or used without my express permission. Any similarities to any other tutorial is purely coincidental.

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

• I used a mask from Creative Misfits here, please leave some love if you download.

• Tube I used was by Anthony Guerra which is available for purchase through CILM, 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.

• Template I used was a collab template by Vicki and JayLyn of Creative Misfits, the one I used was Vicki_JayLyn_Temp1. Please leave some love if you download.

• I love filters so I used Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow, Eye Candy 4000 Glass, Eye Candy 5 Perspective Shadow, Xero Porcelain, and Tramages Cirquelate

• Font I used was Inspiration which is a pay font so I cannot supply, but any font of your choice will look beautiful!



Okay ready, set............ TAG (this is super easy I promise!)

• Open up Vicki and JayLyn's awesome template, duplicate image, and close out original so you can re-use again later. Delete the credits layer and change the canvas size to 624 x 550 so there's a lil more room to work. Unhide white background layer so you can see better what you're doing. Okay let's work our way up the template!

♦ Glitter Circle: change the color to black, using your manual color correction tool. Your source color would be the white currently there and target change to black. If happy press okay. I added a very light gradient glow here using a purple color in the tube. Settings on first page is 5, 25, 100 and on 2nd page here's what mine looked like:



♦ Circle: create a foreground-background gradient with 2 colors from your tube, I chose black as background color and foreground be the purple color prominent in my tag. Change the angle to 45 and repeats to 3 linear style. With the Circle layer, select all, float, defloat, add a new layer and flood fill with the gradient you created. Select none and delete original Circle layer. I applied Tramages Cirquelate to this layer.

♦ Stitched Circle: change the color from white to black, I used manual color correction tool to do this. I applied the light gradient glow I used earlier to this layer to make it stand out nicely.

♦ Glitter Rectangle: repeat same steps as with the Stitched Circle layer.

♦ Rectangle: select all, float, defloat, add a new layer and flood fill with the gradient you created and used on the Circle layer above. Select none and delete the original Rectangle layer. I applied the subtle gradient glow to this layer.

♦ Raster 1 (the pixel words): change color from black to a lighter color, I used #9997e5 using my manual color correction tool.

♦ Glittered Small: change color from white to black using the manual color correction tool.

♦ Small Circle: select all, float, defloat, add a new layer and flood fill with your created gradient. Select none and delete original small circle layer.

♦ Raster 2: apply inner bevel setting of choice and then I applied Eye Candy 4000 Glass to mine, just a nice clear one to give it some pretty shine. Also to make it stand out nicely I again applied Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow, this time I modified it a bit, play around with whatever settings you like, I added more purple settings in mine and also some black. I also applied a blurry purple drop shadow to it.

♦ Raster 3: change the stars from the turquoise color to a purple color from tube, or color of choosing. I applied a gradient glow to this layer as well, changing to a black and then purple setting.

Doesn't our template look purdy? Alright the hard part is over, lets just pretty it up some.

• On your smaller circle layer, the one filled with the gradient you made and flood filled........ select all, float, and defloat and paste tube of choice in as a new layer. The tube I used did have a closeup with it so I used that and of course had to re-size down. Once happy with placement, invert selections, contract selections by 1 and press delete to remove all parts hanging over the circle. I changed the blend mode to Dodge on this one. Leave selections active for next step.

• Next paste main tube as a new layer, re-size if needed. Being that you still have your selections active, grab your eraser tool and erase and parts hanging over you don't want. Once happy select none. If need be sharpen and on my main tube layer, I applied Xero Porcelain to the tube to give her a nice translucent glow. At this point do any drop shadows you want to do, I used Eye Candy 5 Perspective Shadow but if you don't have that filter the drop shadow in psp works just fine too.

• Let's add our pretty mask! On the background layer, add a new layer and flood fill with your gradient you created and then apply the mask, I used szg587. If happy, merge layer group. I re-sized the mask layer by 95% and I noticed on the bottom the edge was a bit sharp so I used my smudge tool to push the layer a little so it blends in better.

• Add the artist's copyright and your tagger's watermark. Also at this point I changed the dpi resolution to 72.00 as it's important that be done in accordance with CILM's TOU. Then I just added my text using font Inspiration with the purple color, I had applied my inner bevel setting as before and then Eye Candy 4000 Glass, and Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow with a nice blurry drop shadow.

That's it! I hope you found this tutorial easy and fun to do.



This tutorial was written by Tonya on March 20, 2010 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:

• Tube I used was by Kel from Roses N More and very generous terms are right on site, the beautiful flowers are FTU, one of the floral frames seem to work best.

• Filters I used were just for the text: Super Blade Pro and Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow, but not needed for the actual tag.

• Font used was Marnie Regular, not sure if it's pay or not, but any font of your choosing will work.



Okay ready, let's go!

1. Open up a blank canvas with a white background. I chose to use a starting size of 450 x 450.

2. Paste your floral frame tube of choosing onto your blank canvas. Do any re-sizing if you need now.

3. On your frame layer and using your magic wand tool, select inside, try to get as close to the edges of the frame as you can and the expand your selection by about 5 or so. This should end with you having all the inside of your frame selected nicely but not over the frame edges.

4. Add a new layer below your frame and flood fill with a very light color of your tube. In my example, I used the code #eee9f9. Now you'll see it's very light, that's okay we are going to pretty it up yet! Leave your selection as is and add another layer on top of the flood filled layer and below your frame.

5. Here we are going to add a texture brush, use any that you have to your liking, I love to use texture brushes as they add something a little different to it. I'm sorry I don't remember which texture brush I used but there are zillions out there, just use one you think looks purdy. You may need to increase the size of your brush, I made sure that one click would cover the whole area, no guessing as to where to click then. I used a darker purple color for that texture. Select none. See how only the area inside that selection got the brush effect?

6. Okay lets add yet another layer under the frame. Add a wordart text brush here. Just something purdy to add to the tag, the one I used was saying of A heart that loves is always young. This was one I can't share, but again there are loads of them out there so just use one of your fave sayings. I used a dark purple for this one, #4d38a4 if using the same colors I did.

7. Now I wanted to add just a little back blur to it. To do this, be on your frame layer and select all, float, and defloat, and choose feather selection. (You can find this by going to Selections, Modify, Feather) I chose to feather by about 40. Add a new layer right above your white background, we want this at the very bottom of all the other layers. On that blank added layer, flood fill with that darker purple color and this should give a nice blur behind the tag itself. Now do any cropping you wish.

8. Now add your text, I used the font Marnie Regular with the color #4d38a4 and applied the coconut ice Super Blade Pro setting and then a slight gradient glow and drop shadow. These are just whatever you like best though for your text.

9. Add the copyright and your watermark to the tag.




This tutorial was written by Tonya on January 20, 2009 and absolutely no part of this tutorial may be taken or used without my expression permission.