Using Digistamps and Brushes ...Part Five Colouring and Shading a Digistamp in PSP

 

Open your PSP  this will work in all versions... Im using psp9 here  however some of the newer ones will have the tools in a different place..

  What you'll need:    Digistamp:  Colour Palette : Background Paper

Download the supplies I've used

To read about digistamps and how to install PS and AI brushes got to the files pages above or click here 

 

Part One

 

 Open PSP and put your Digistamp and your colour palette on the workspace

Note: make sure you work each step on a new layer as set out and be sure to pay attention to layer moves ...

here we go

 

 

Step One 

 

In your Layers palette rename the frame  to "BASE"

Select your magic wand tool   and use these  settings

 

 

 

On your frame click inside the 4 outside panels you should see the marching ants 

 

 Go to  Selections : Modify : Expand :

We want the marching ants to be just over the edges of the black lines so we wont have any empty spaces later the lines here are quite thick so Ive set mine at 8 pxls

 

 

 

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

 On this new layer flood fill your panels with your choice of colour

ADD A NEW LAYER : 
Go to  Effects : 3d Effects : Cutout

 

Using the settings below add a darker version of your colour (or you could use black if you have chosen a dark colour) and click ok

if you think your shadow is not dark enough you can go back and change the shadow colour or just repeat the last step

 

on your layers palette merge your shadow layer down into your colour layer

then drag the merged layer down under your base layer

 

 

Click on your Base Layer

 Deselect Selections

 

 Step Two

Select your magic wand tool  with the same settings

 

 On your frame click inside the 4 outside Hearts you should see the marching ants

 
 Go to  Selections : Modify : Expand : 8 pxls

 

 

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

 On this new layer flood fill your  with your choice of colour

 

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

Go to  Effects : 3d Effects : Cutout 

 

with the same settings add a shadow of a darker colour than your hearts and click ok

you can change this colour by going back if you dont like it or repeat the step if not dark enough

on your layers palette merge your shadow layer down into your colour layer

then drag the merged layer down under your base layer

Deselect  your Selections

 so far you should have this

and your frame should look like this

Step Three

Select your BASE Layer

Select your magic wand tool  with the same settings

On your frame click inside the 4  Thin Inside panels you should see the marching ants 

 

 Go to  Selections : Modify : Expand : 8 pxls

 

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

 On this new layer flood fill your panels with your choice of colour

ADD A NEW LAYER : 
Go to  Effects : 3d Effects : Cutout

 

Add a shadow of a darker version of your colour the fill space is smaller here so I lowered the blur to 50%

on your layers palette merge your shadow layer down into your colour layer

then drag the merged layer down under your base layer

Deselect  your Selections

 

Step Four

Select your BASE Layer

Select your magic wand tool  with the same settings

On your frame click inside the 4 Thick Middle panels you should see the marching ants 

 Go to  Selections : Modify : Expand : 8 pxls 

 

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

 

Open your backing paper and colourise it to match your frame colours

 

Heres what I used 

 copy your paper 

 select your frame and paste the paper into the selection

ADD A NEW LAYER : 
Go to  Effects : 3d Effects : Cutout

 

Add a shadow of a darker version of your paper  the space is larger so i upped the blur to 100%   (we will darken this later )

 

 

On your layers palette merge your shadow layer down into your colour layer

then drag the merged layer down under your base layer

Deselect  your Selections

 

You should have this 

 

If you like you can merge all your layers now and use your pretty frame  but we are going to add some highlights and make it even prettier now...

 

Working on our outside panels layer 

 

Selections: Select All : Float : Defloat

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

 

Select your Airbrush with these settings

 

 

 

With White as your foreground colour draw a line in the centre of the panels starting and ending just short of the frame

(if it helps you can rotate the image 90 degrees to get the long panels neat and straight)

 

 

 

Blur : Gaussian Blur : Radius 8

 

Lower the layer opacity in your layer palette to 70%  

 

Merge this layer Down to the outside panel layer and deselect

Step Six

 

Repeat the Last step for the Inner panels  

Changing the settings for the Airbrush to this

 

 Notice I have changed the size and the opacity to 45 due to the size reduction of these panels

 

Step Seven

 

Working on the Hearts layer 

Selections: Select All : Float : Defloat

 

 

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

 

Select your Airbrush with these settings

 

Notice I have changed the size to 35 and the opacity to 45  and the blend mode to Luminance 

 

With a darker version of your heart colour draw a small V shape around the dent at the top of the hearts

 

 Reduce the layer to  60%

 

Merge this layer Down to the hearts layer and deselect 

 

Step Eight

 

Working on the thick Middle Panels layer 

 

Selections: Select All : Float : Defloat

 

 

ADD A NEW LAYER :  

 

Select your Airbrush with these settings

 

Notice I have changed the size to 200 and the opacity to 65 

 

wWith the very centre of the brush on the marching ants  draw round the panels

including the  connecting slanted lines 

 

 Do this for all the panels  but only go over the connecting lines once

 

 reduce the layer to  50% 

 

Merge this layer Down  and Deselect 

 

Merge All Layers 

and you should have something like this

 

So now i have shown you  the Basic  steps  use your own colours and settings  

I have included a harder  stamp in the supplies for you to get used to changing brush and shadow settings 

 

Try:  Using a very pale version of your colours for the highlight instead of white

Try:  Whilst adding  the white highlight you can repeat the cut-out if  you feel the shadow is not dark enough

Try:  Adding a drop shadow to the stamp

Try:  Using all Papers instead of colours

Try:  Using different textures on different parts

 

I hope this has helped even a small bit

Enjoy