This tutorial was written by me, Lori, on Dec. 6, 2009.

And it was written for those who should already have a basic knowledge of working with PSP. I used Paint Shop Pro XI. Do not copy this tutorial and post it through any group or claim it as your own. Please share a text link only.Any resemblance to any other tutorial is strictly coincidental.

 If you use this tutorial please send me a copy of the tag you made with it to my e-mail to the left. I'd LOVE to see the creations and post into my slide show! Thank You!

Supplies needed

Tube(s) of choice, I used Joel Adams, you must purchase a license found here.

FTU Scrapkit by Krissy called "My Boys Christmas" No longer available. 

Template128 by Beth of Blistfully Beth and can be found here.

Font of choice (I used Santa's Sleigh)

Plugins: Eye Candy 4000, Alien Skin Xenofex2, and Xero

Animation Shop: I'm using Jasc Animation Shop3

Please remember to stop and save often.

Add drop shadow of choice as you go. Refer to my example as needed

Let's Rock this Tutorial!!

Open the template in PSP, using your shortcut keys on your keyboard (SHIFT+D) duplicate the template as a new image. Close the original.

Open papers 1and 4, resize as needed. Ex: when I look at the blue bar where it says what I opened, it tells me what percentage I'm viewing it at. For me it's 74% so I resize to 74% making it 100%. Minimize for later use.

Open CandyCane of choice, go to Image-Rotate Right. Copy and paste above Skinny Pink Rect layer, arrange over the rectangle and resize to to fit. Delete Pink rectangle and White rectangle frame.

Go to Pink Rect Horiz layer, Selections-All-Float-Defloat add new raster layer and flood fill with color of choice. Delete Pink Rect. layer.

Go to White Frame Horiz layer, Selections-All-Float-Defloat-Modify-Expand by 1, add new raster layer and flood fill with color of choice. Delete White Rect. layer

Go to Striped Oval layer, With your magic wand set to Mode: Add(shift) and Matching Mode set to Color; select all the pink. Selections-Float-Defloat-Modify Expand by 1. Add new raster layer and flood fill with the red color on the CandyCane. Select None.

Back to Striped Oval layer, with magic wand set to same settings, click on the white, add new raster layer, flood fill with the whiteish color on the CandyCane.Select None.

Back to Striped Oval layer, with magic wand set to Mode: Add(shift) and Matching Mode set to None, click on the white again, add new raster layer and flood fill with the red color on the CandyCane.Go to Selections -Float-Defloat-Modify Contract by 6, hit the delet button on your keyboard. Select None. Arrange this layer above all the striped layers and delete the original one.

Go to WhiteOval layer, With your magic wand set to Mode: Add(shift) and Matching Mode set to Color; click on the pink. Selections-Modify-Expand by 2. Add new raster layer copy and paste paper4 into selection. Select None, delete original layer.

Go to Striped Oval layer, With your magic wand set to Mode: Add(shift) and Matching Mode set to Color; select the White. Selections-Modify expand by 1. Add new raster layer copy and paste paper1 into selection. Paste tube of choosing add drop shadow, duplicate layer, on the original layer go to Adjust-Blur-Gaussian Blur set to 20.00. Go to Selections-Float-Defloat-Invert go to the original tube layer and copy tube layer and hit the delete key on the keyboard, Select None.

Go to the copied tube layer, Effects-Xero Porcelian using these settings: 50-128-128-0-0-255, set the layer visiablity to around 45.

Go to Smooches layer, change color to black.

Add other elements of choice.

Go to Wordart layer. With your magic wand set to Mode: Add(shift) and Matching Mode set to Color; click on the white inside the word Mistletoe. Add new raster layer and flood fill with green. Select None. Go to Effects-EyeCandy4000-add Gradient Glow, with the Glow width set to 3.75 and the color set to fat make sure both boxes are red. With your magic wand set to Mode: Add(shift) and Matching Mode set to Color; click on the glow. Go to Adjust-Add noise with the settings set at: Uniform, Monochrome checked and Noise set to 70. If not doing animation you may Select None now and stop here and resume after this paragraph.
Otherwise-DO NOT SELECT NONE-Duplicate this layer 4 times, go to Effects-Alien Skin Xenofex2-Constellations with these settings. Star Size:5; Size Variation: 12; Edge Star Density:8; Overall Star Density: 2; Over ride:100; Twinkle Amount: 100; Twinkle Rotation: 45; Keep original Image; Random Speed: 1528. Do this with each layer, but change the speed by clicking the 'Random Speed' button.

Go back to Wordart layer, carefully erase the word mistletoe, change the rest of the word art color to red.

Add new raster layer at the bottom, with your selection tool set to circle, draw out a circle, flood fill with a green. Go to Adjust-Blur-Gaussian Blur set to 20.00. if you need to stretch out this to go past the tag.

Add main tube, arrange to the left.

Crop and resize to liking.

Add name, Copyright info and license and save!

If no animation stop here.

For Animation:

Save image as a .jpg with one mistletoe layer at a time, name the layers 1,2,3,4. Go to animation shop wizard, Settings: Click Next after each setting: Same size as the first image; Transparent; radial buttons clicked: Centered in the frame and With the canvas color, repeat the animation indefinitely, each animation frame at 30 (you may want to play w/this to your liking); add each jpg image. View animation and if happy save as a .gif!

Thanks for Rocking Out my tutorial, I hope you enjoyed! ~Lori