LightBox Tutorial
  For this tutorial you will need one of Treasure Designs Country Kids. If you do not already have one that you have created please click here. You can also use a tube of your choice. Just make sure that you can meet the artist terms for use. The Country Kid shown is half the size and you should not use it. Please do the tutorial and make your own. ![]() This tutorial was written with the beginner in mind so bear with me you experienced users. You may save this tutorial to be viewed off line because I don't know how to make white text print out. After all why waste our card stock on this right...LOL :) 1.) Ok now we are ready to begin. Please open
up your Country Kid tube that you are going to use. Go up to Windows on your
Menu bar and scroll down and click on Duplicate. Minimize your original tube, you will
use it at the end of the tutorial. You will now be working with Image 1.
2.) Make sure your layer palette is open and visible you
can do this by clicking on this button on top of your
menu bar.
3.) Go up to Layer on your menu bar and scroll
down to add a new layer and name it background. Flood fill it with your
paint bucket any color that is not in your tube.
I chose a green color. You should now have two layers showing on your Layer
Palette, Background and Image 1.
4.) Move the Background layer under Image 1's layer.
To do this just left click on the background layer and drag it
below the Image 1 layer. Might take a couple tries but you will get it. :)
5.) On the Layer Palette there is a window box
with a slider button and the number 100.
Move this slider down so it fades out the picture of the tube to where you can
still see it good, but it is almost gone. I set mine at 22.
It should now look like this.
6.) Go back up to Layers/Add New Layer and name it Hat.
7.) Click on your Magnifing glass and then on your tube graphic and make it one
to two sizes larger. This will help you see better when you begin to trace out
your pattern.
8.) Click on your Draw tool . In the draw tool options
window use these settings. Type is freehand. Width is 1. Line style is a
straight line. Anitilas checked. It should look like this.
9.) Set your background color to null and
foreground color to black. With your draw tool you are going to trace around the hat. It might take
you a few times but practice makes perfect. Trace a little bit of the hat and
lift up on the left mouse button, but try not to move your mouse off course.
If you make a tiny error use your
Eraser tool and take away the part that is bad
and retrace it with the draw tool.
10.) Notice that I drew a line through the face. You need to close off all lines to the differnt parts
of your pattern. You will also want to make sure some of the lines are longer on the Pattern, so that
other parts will have something to be glued to.
11.) This part is optional. You might want to label your hat so you know
what it is. To do that Click on the text button
a new window will open up and you just type in hat or whatever you want to
name this pattern piece. I think it comes in handy myself when you go to print
out your pattern. Also if you decide to print your pattern out on colored Card
Stock you will have a better idea of what will be printed on what colors.
Saves time tracing and cutting out, believe me and because we flipped the tube at
the beginning of the tutorial the ink is on the back side and not the front when
you print it out.
12.) Next we go back to our layer palette and you see the little eye glasses?
Click on those little glasses and a red X will show up. That closes off the
hat layer. The traced hat disappears and you can begin to trace another part
of the pattern, without it being in the way. Cool Huh!!
13.) We have done a lot of work lets save it in
PSP format so we do not lose what we have done. We want to use the PSP format
so if for some reason the computer crashes or shuts down we can pick up almost
were we left off or work on it at another time. It never hurts to save often. To
save it in PSP format we need to go up to file. Then down to "Save As" and a
window will open up. In the Save in Window you scroll to a place were you can
find the graphic again. In the file name window, type in the name you want to
call your graphic, include no spaces. In the Save as type. Make sure you
scroll till it says *.psp and *.tub. Then click the Save button.
14.) Next we go back up to number 6 on the tutorial
and follow it all the way back down to here. Till all pattern pieces have been
traced. On the next layer name it hair and the next layer face you get the idea.
When you have all the pattern pieces traced turn back on all the eye glasses by
clicking on the little red X's. This is what your Pattern should now look like.
Kind of messy but it will not be soon. :)
15.)On the layer palette click off all the glasses again, except for the bottom three. They should be Background, Image 1 and Hat. Make sure that you are on the Background layer and left click on it once and drag it up to the little trash can. Do the same with the Image 1 layer. We no longer need these layers. When the window pops up and ask are you sure you want to delete this layer click yes. Do not close out this image.
16.)Now we need to open up a new Image. To do this go up to file then new. A new window will open up use these settings. Click ok. The new image will appear in your work area.
17.)Click on your Pattern image. Look at your layer palette and make sure you are on the hat layer and the eyeglasses are not Xed out in red. Go up to your menu bar and click on edit. Scroll down to copy. Now click on your new white Image and go back up to Edit on your menu bar and then scroll down to paste and over to new layer. Your tracing of your hat should now be in the center of your white image. Now move it up to one of the corners of the image to get it out of your way. 18.)Move up to the next layer. Repeat 17 and 18 until all pieces have been put onto your new image. You can now close out your traced image. Your image should now look like this. Looks better doesn't it. :)
19.) Go up to your menu bar, to Layers and scroll down to Merge, then over to Merge all flatten. 20.) Now you can take your selection tool and
draw a box around the pattern to cut off some of the excess white. After you
have drawn your box and are happy with the amount of white you have taken off.
Go up to your menu bar to Image then down to Crop to selection and it will be
cut away. If you are not happy with the amount of white you are taking off
with the selection tool, hit the arrow back button up on top of your menu bar
or CTRL "Z" at same time will take you back one step or erase what you have just done.
21.)You should now only have two images in your work area. The original tube and the your pattern. Go up to file/then down to Print Muliple Images. A new window will open and both your images will be on the left hand side. A new page will pop up in the middle of the work area. Be patient it will show. :) 22.)Click on one of your Images with left mouse button and drag it over onto the page. Repeat this with other Image. If one does not fit on page let it scale to fit page. 23.)Now go up to your menu bar and either click on the printer Icon or go to file then down to print. 24.)You can save this layout by going up to File/Save Layout. You can only open up your layout in this part of the PSP Program. It is a handy way to store your Patterns for later use. Just make sure you store them where you can find them again. You are now done. Isn't this a long tutorial. The more times you do it the faster you will become. Hope you enjoyed it and learned a little something. Please visit the rest of my website and check out my other tutorials. Here is what my finished Paper Piece looks like. Well not quite finished yet. It was 95 degrees out and 100 at least in my house today. I touched her and I ruined her apron. So I am going to have to pop it off and do again. After the apron fiasco I decided not to do the hat yet. We are suppossed to get cooler weather or hubby is suppossed to hook up the air conditioner this weekend. So you will see a new and improved Courtney first part of next week.
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