Here are two selections for this lesson. One is the basic circle and the other is selection for the apple. Just click and download this and unzip to selections folder. This is a pretty simple tutorial making country look plates. I hope you enjoy it. I am pretty new at this tutorial writing business so please bear with me and if you find mistakes please let me know so that I can fix it..thank you *S* Okay let's get started then... Open up a new image 300 X 300 with transparent background. Add a new layer.
Choose your selection tool/circle/antialias/NO vector, or you can use the selection I have already made. Go to middle of new layer (it helps if you have your rulers on..put cursor at 150/150 and draw out a circle. I filled up most of area..use your own discretion on this. Flood fill this area with a color of your choice. I used #008000. Go to Selections/Modify/Contract/9 then hit delete button. Now use your Magic Wand and click on the colored area. Apply bevel, these are the settings I used.. Using Magic Wand click in the center and then go to selections/modify/expand by 1. Then add new layer fill selection with complimenting color..I used #FFDEA9. Again go to Selections/Modify/Contract/30. New Layer. Now we will add a drop shadow to this selection. These are the settings I used... then go back to drop shadow again and change settings to Vertical and Horizontal to 1 and change opacity to 20..apply. This is your basic plate. I merged visable now and named it plate. The plate is now ready for some decoration. Create a new layer (you can choose to name your layer, I don't. Click on your brush tool. Then click on the little brush in the right corner and choose custom. The triangle is #5 I chose these settings.. I chose color #C00000. I set my cursor at 150 at the top and clicked on the outer rim of plate 3 or 4 times I did the same thing for the bottom. Then went to the sides and set cursor at 150 on the sides and added triangles there also. This is what I have now... I then went to Image/Rotate/and rotated this to 60/Right. Add new layer and do same things and rotate to 30/right. New layer and filled in triangles at top bottom and sides again. You could also chose to do a copy of first triangle layer and paste as new selection then rotate which I tried doing the first time through but ended up having to erase the original triangles and reapplying. After you have added all the triangles and are happy with how it looks you can once again merge layers. Open up new layer for center decoration. You can use the apple selections I have included with this tutorial or chose to do it from scratch. Here is how I did it...Click on Preset Shapes tool and locate the Apple 1 shape and click on retain shape. Vector unchecked. Click in area of center of plate and draw out the apple..it doesn't matter where it is laying for this is a new layer and you can click on the move tool and move it where you want it. I then went to selections/select all/float and I then saved the selection to alpha channel and named it apple. I then deleted the apple that I had on the plate (it was black and I didn't want that). I then went to load alpha channel and loaded the apple again. I then clicked on my air brush tool using the same color that I used for the triangles. Here are my settings for the air brush tool... I then sprayed the color to my apple and then changed the color to a dark brown and sprayed in the stem. Now merge all layers and your plate is done. PSP TIP: I received this tip from a class mate of mine in Fly By Night Graphics. To visit her page go to Missy's Graphics. If you want to use another graphic..or tube on the plate..Set the layer blend mode to dissolve, and lower opacity....gives that "sprayed" effect.;) I made 3 different plate designs but you can choose anything that you want. On one of the plates I put the apples around the rim of the plate also. I just copied the apple layer before I merged and I pasted as new image and then resized it and copied again and pasted around the rim using the same rotate numbers as before and flipped some of the apples. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and enjoy making your own plates. Thank you for taking the time to do this tutorial. For a great Wrought Iron Rack Tutorial to hold your plates go to Angie's Art. She writes a great tutorial. You will enjoy her site!
