Country Heart Plaque
Well I thought it was about time I did a new tutorial. I hope you like this one. I got the idea from a picture hanging on my wall here at home. It isn't too difficult to create. The only part of it that I have included is a little flower design I am using in this graphic (But you could choose to make your own if so inclined). Click HERE to get the flower in zipped format.
Okay let's get started on this project. Open up a new image 300 x 600 transparent background (you can resize after it is completed, which is what I did). New layer flood with white. Select All then contract 20 then invert. Foreground is Null and Background is set to pattern style and choose a wood fill (I used stained wood setting, which should be in everyone patterns choices. I set the angle to 90 and filled the selection. Leave selected and go to Effects/Inner Bevel and choose the setting of "Soft Edge" from the drop down menu there.
Now select the Magic Wand tool and click on the center white area of your image. Go to Selections/Modify/Contract and contract by 30. Choose a good country color. I used #B5B6DF and flood fill this selected area. Now we will go to Selections/Modify/Contract and contract by 15 then hit the Delete key to delete the center area. Now using the Magic Wand again click on the blue part to select it and apply the same inner bevel setting that you used before. I chose to do a little airbrushing here while it is still selected. I chose white as the color and here are the airbrush settings I used and sprayed around the selected area at random. I think it gives a more country look. *S* Love Country!
Next I applied a drop shadow and then deselected. Here are the drop shadow settings...
This is what our graphic is looking like now.....
Now go back to layer 1 and add and new layer. Flood fill this layer with white. Now the center should be white. Go back to layer 2 and click with magic wand on the middle. Go to Selections/Modify/Contract and contract by 25. Go back to layer 3 which is the white layer and flood fill this area with a rose country color. I used #DE9090 Go back to Selections/Modify/Contract and contract by 10 then hit delete key again. (Forgot to tell you that we will be using the selection/modify a lot during this tutorial *S*) Use Magic Wand and select the rose color and apply the same inner bevel we have been using all along and then airbrush on some white again same settings. Now you can deselect.
New Layer. I used the selection tool set on rectangle and selected an upper area in the center and filled it with #ECBCBC then airbrushed with white. Then selected a middle area and used the country blue color and airbrushed it and then lower selection and did the rose color with white airbrush again and this is what we have now...
I now merged layers...merge visible.
Add new layer. Foreground color null Background color white. Go to preset shapes and chose Heart Shape 1 and draw out a heart shape in the top rose colored area. Then move it into place and copy and paste as new layer two more times. This is what we have now.
Now decorate your hearts any way that you like here is how I did mine using the line draw tool mostly along with some airbrush. I went to the layer with the first heart and used the magic wand to select the top heart and left it selected so i could clean up edges after I finished decorating it. After decorating just invert your selection and hit delete to get rid of anything going over the edges. This is what mine looks like now..
Now I went to Selections (boy use this a lot don't I? *S*) Anyway this is the Selections at the top. And chose Select All and then Selections/Float after that and now my heart is selected and I applied a cutout effect of...
I then applied the same cutout except I changed to -2 and -4 on the vertical and horizontal. Next I applied a drop shadow with these settings. I only applied the drop shadow one time. Then deselect.
I then went to the layer with the middle heart and applied the same cutout and drop shadow after doing Selection/Select All and Selections/Float on it first. Did the same thing to the layer with the top heart. Deselect and then merge visible.
Now I opened up the "Homemadeflowerstencil" that I have enclosed with this tutorial and I copied it and pasted it around the inside edges. Once I have it like I want it I just merged layers and Whalla You're Done! I resized mine by about 65%. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any problems with it feel free to contact me via e-mail and I will see if I can help you. Here is also another version of the same tutorial that I made.
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