Happy Easter Duckies

For Danish and French translation, click on the flags.

For this tutorial you will need the materials in the zip file below.

Thanks go to Mou for the beautiful tubes used. Please visit the tuber sites listed on my Links page.

Use the bookmark below to mark your place along the way.

Unzip the materials into a working folder. Open the materials in PSP, copy and close originals. Export the feather brush into your PSP/Brushes folder. You will need plugins Graphics Plus, SinedotsII and Penta to do this tutorial. I have used PSPX4 to create this tutorial but you may use an earlier version. It is assumed you have a working knowledge of PSP.

1. In Materials Palette, set Foreground to #e8e1b2, Background to #844500.

2. In Materials Palette, create a Gradient using Linear, Angle 45, Repeats 3, Invert unchecked.

3. New/New Image 700px by 650px. Flood fill with Gradient.

4. Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur, Radius set to 20.

5. Effects/Penta/Color Dots. Use settings below.

6. Layers/New Raster Layer.

7. Effects/Dragonfly/SinedotsII. Use color #f6f6b0 in settings below. Move the Sinedot downward a little.

8. Open Mou_friends in colors.pspimage. Copy/Paste as New Layer. Move flowers toward center bottom of image.

9. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow, Vertical -18, Horizontal 14, Opacity at 71, Blur 33, color #000000.

10. Open Mou_cute duck. Highlight Raster 2, Copy/Paste as New Layer. Move to bottom right corner of image.

11. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow, Vertical -18, Horizontal 14, Opacity at 71, Blur 33, color #000000.

12. Highlight Raster 1 of Mou_cute duck, Copy/Paste as New Layer. Move to center bottom, overlapping first duck.

13. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow, Vertical -18, Horizontal 14, Opacity at 71, Blur 33, color #000000.

14. Open mou_easteregg.pspimage. Copy/Paste as New Layer.

15. Image/Resize/Resize by 75%, Resize all layers unchecked. Move easteregg to left of Raster 1 duck, toward the bottom.

16. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow, Vertical -18, Horizontal 14, Opacity at 71, Blur 33, color #000000.

17. Duplicate mou_easteregg. Image/Resize/Resize by 75%, Resize all layers unchecked.

18. Move to bottom toward the left corner overlapping a little over larger egg.

19. Duplicate resized egg. Image/Mirror. Move mirrored egg to right side of image, placing below Raster 2 duck.

20. In Materials Palette, change Background color to #990c06. Keep Foreground color set to #e8e1b2. No Gradient.

21. From Text tool, choose font TypoUpright BT, (TT0939M_.TTF), set to Size 150, Stroke 1. See example for settings.

22. Type out the words "Happy Easter".

23. Effects/3D Effects/Drop/Shadow, Vertical 2, Horizontal 2, Opacity 50, Blur 2, color #000000.

24. From Paint Brush in tool bar, select the meldir_featherset_12 feather brush. Give it the settings as in example below.

25. Change the Forground color in Materials Palette to #ffffff. Stamp the feather once using the Foreground color approximately under the E in the text word Easter.

26. Image/Add Borders/Add 50px border, Symmetric checked, color #303f0a.

27. Using Magic Wand, click on 50px border to activate it.

28. Effects/Graphics Plus/Cross Shadow. Use default settings.

29. Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel using settings below. Repeat. Selections/Select None.

30. Add your signature and Convert to Raster Layer if necessary. Merge/Merge Visible. COPY.

31. Save image as Happy Easter Duckies.jpg in your working folder.

32. Open Animation Shop. Paste as New Animation in working space.

33. Edit/Duplicate image until you have 23 frames in all. Highlight FIRST frame. Edit/Select All.

34. File/Open ArasimagesFallingFeathers.gif image.

35. Working with the feathers.gif, highlight the first frame, Edit/Select All. Edit/Copy.

36. Working on the Happy Easter Duckies .jpg image, Right click INSIDE the first frame/Paste/Paste into Selected Frame and place the feather inside the frame. Place the feather approximately below the first P of Happy. Left click into place.

37. Animation/Frame Properties. Set to 14. Click View/Animation and if you want it to float faster or slower, change the number. Lower number is faster, higher number is slower.

38. View/Animation. See that the feather is falling across the image, ending at the bottom right corner. If not, use UNDO arrow and redo steps #34 and #35 changing the position where you place the feather until you are satisfied and the speed to your liking.

39. Once all is working properly, File/Save As. When the box appears, name your tag and name the place where you are saving it. Save. As boxes change, continue to click Next, Next, Next then Finish.

You are done! I hope you enjoyed the journey and Happy Easter to you. Hugs! Ara

A big thank you to Evatexas and PamelaD who tested this tutorial for me.

If you are going to use this tutorial for stationery, cards or place the tutorial/tag on another site, I would appreciate you contacting me for permission, giving Arasimages credit for the original tutorial and if possible, a link back to my site. Thank you.