Frosted Christmas Ornament

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	Paint Shop Pro v.7
	Gradients	Selections
	Flood fill	Drop shadows
	Selection tool	Smudge
	Gaussian blur	Cutouts
	Geometric effects	Ornament Top
	Alpha channels

Complete my snowflake tutorial first, but don't add a background of any sort. Minimize for later use.

Step 1: Set your foreground color to #C00000 and your background color to #DD6161. Open a new image 500 x 500 pixels, background transparent.

Flood fill using the gradient style option in the style palette. Choose the #1/ Foreground/Background palette.
Use the radial style as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1

Step 2: Now we're going to get rid of that ugly bump in the center. With the selection tool set as a circle, place your cursor right over that ugly spot and expand outward as shown in figure 2. Now go to effects/ blur/ gaussian blur set to 5 and deselect.
	Figure 2

Step 3: Go to effects/ geometric effects/ circle. Resize layer 50%. The resize all layers should NOT be checked, but the maintain aspect ratio should. Do not sharpen if you are in the habit of doing so after resizing. Use the mover tool to slide your orb down a few pixels, but not all the way to the bottom.

Step 4: Use the magic wand with the all opaque setting, no feathering to select all pixels. Next, go to selections, modify, expand by 1. Save to alpha channel by going to selections/Save to alpha channel (Selections/Save to alpha channel) Hit the okay button and name this selection orb. Now go to selections/modify/feather at 20 and save to alpha channel. Name this selection feathered orb. Deselect.

Step 5: If you want a different colored ball, now is the time to change it. Go to colors/ Colorize and adjust the hue and saturation. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast to make a deeper or lighter shade of the color you have chosen.

Step 6: Go back to your snowflake image, copy and paste it as a
new layer. Depending upon the size of the snowflake you made,
you may have to resize it some. Use the mover tool to slide the
snowflake above the orb, but so that it still overlaps at least
the top portion. See figure 3.

Figure 3

Step 7: Here's where your one of alpha channels will come into play. Make certain that you are working on the snowflake layer. Go to selections/ load from alpha channel and select the "orb" selection. Unless you have the marching ants hidden, they should now reappear around your orb. Go to selections/ invert and hit the delete key on your keyboard. Next add a drop shadow using the settings as shown in figure 4. Use the mover tool to slide what's left of the snowflake down a couple of notches so you can do the next step.

Figure 4

Step 8: You will be performing this next portion on the layer containing your orb. Go to your layers palette and make certain that this is the active layer. Go to the retouch tool and select the smudge option from drop down menu. Change your settings to match figure 5. Place your cursor as close to the top center of your orb as you can. Now slide your mouse up just a few notches to create your stem. Slide the remnants of your snowflake back the upper edges of your orb and merge visible.
	Figure 5

Step 9: Add 2 new layers. Load the feathered orb selection from the alpha channel. You will be applying cutout effects on both of these layers. On one layer use the settings as shown in figure 6 and on the other, the settings from figure 7.

Figure 6

Figure 7

Go to your layers palette and hide the layer containing the merged orb. Now make certain that you have one of the cutout layers selected and merge visible. I know this looks kind of strange at this point, but we're getting ready to fix that. Return to the load from alpha channel and select the orb selection. Invert and hit your delete key. Now deselect.

Step 10: You may have noticed that the cutouts have made your image look a little jaggy. Quick fix! Go to Effects/ Noise /Edge Preserving smooth. Change the setting to 30 and apply. If still a little too jaggy, repeat.

Step 11: Now add to the "stem" an ornament topper of your choice and merge visible. You are now ready to tube it, decorate with it, whatever you choose to do.

Download the PDF of this tutorial here.
Download Free Acrobat Reader here.

	Updated 02/06/02
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