This tutorial was created February 12, 2006.
©Copyright Ginny Hopping/Bunny's Attic.
please read my
* Terms of Use *
Here's what we're going to make. I added the border so you can see the actual image, but your
finished tile will not have a border. The second tile is muted and I'll show you how to do that, too!
Grab the supplies and play along!
I want to thank Diana for testing this tutorial for me and you can see her results here.
I made a second example here.
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This tutorial was written using PSP10 and can be done in Version 8 and 9.
Feel free to use any tube you like, change the font and, of course, the text, too.
~ You will need ~
Paint Shop Pro 10, a 30 day trial can be downloaded here.
My hand drawn tube here. Open in PSP.
The font "Breastbomb" here. Open and minimize on your desktop.
This is how I make seamless tiles ..
Width 132 pixels, Height 180 pixels with "Lock aspect ratio" and "Resize all layers" checked.
(If you are using another tube resize to so the height is no taller than 180 pixels.)
Using your Text Tool with these settings ....
Apply your text like below ...
Using the control arm on the vector box turn your text like below ...
Using the Mover tool move your text like below and go to Layers / Merge Visible.
Now go to Effects / Image Effects / Seamless Tiling and use these settings ...
You can play with the settings, transition and tiling method, anything goes.
Do make sure you check "Bidirectional" so it will tile seamlessly, though.
That's it for this tile. Before we save it let's make the muted tile.
Start by making a duplicate ( Window / Duplicate ) of your first tile.
Go to Layers / New Raster Layer.
Using the Flood Fill tool fill this layer with white.
In your Layer Palette lower the opacity of this layer until you like the effect.
Go to Layers / Merge Visible.
Save both your tiles as .jpgs and enjoy!
Try experimenting with different tubes, background colors, top fills and opacities.
If you would like to put this all together using a stationery script we'll do that next.
If your pc is not set up to view stationery please go to the Letterman Stationery site.
Click on the "Starting" link located below the "Scripts, Help and E-Mail Tools Header" in gray.
Follow the instructions and then come back to get started on your stationery.
I recommend installing a program called "Copy File Path". This program adds a "Copy File Path (file://)" item to the
right-click context menu. By clicking on it, the full forward slash file:// path is copied to the Windows clipboard. You
can then paste the path into your stationery script. It saves a lot of typing of complicated file names.
Copy and paste the script below into Notepad and save it as seamlesstile.htm to
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery
(you can change the name to suit your stationery when you are done making the changes.)
(Notepad will show the whole script in black so you might also want to print this section
of the
tutorial so you can see the colors for each area that needs to be customized.
Just
hi-light the script and choose "print selection" in your printer preferences.
)
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>
<STYLE type=text/css>
<!--This section is for adding color to your scrollbar colors -->
BODY,HTML {
scrollbar-face-color:#C0C0C0;
scrollbar-highlight-color:#FFFFFF;
scrollbar-3dlight-color:#C0C0C0;
scrollbar-darkshadow-color:#000000;
scrollbar-shadow-color:#808080;
scrollbar-arrow-color:#FFFFFF;
scrollbar-track-color:#E0E0E0;
}
</STYLE>
<!-- here are all your borders in blue text, you can change the colors and the size. The first group is the border that
goes around the edges of the stationery and the second group, tab 1, are the small double borders around the table. -->
<STYLE>BODY {
BORDER-RIGHT: #ffffff 2px groove; BORDER-TOP: #ffffff 2px groove; BORDER-LEFT: #ffffff 2px groove; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ffffff 2px groove
}
.tab1 {
BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 3px double; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; BORDER-TOP: #000000 3px double; PADDING-LEFT: 5px;
PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; OVERFLOW: auto; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 3px double; PADDING-TOP: 5px;
BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 3px double
}
<!-- here are your dotted borders in blue text, and your Font, size and color in aqua -->
.td1 {
BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 3px dotted; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; BORDER-TOP: #000000 3px dotted; PADDING-LEFT: 5px;
FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; OVERFLOW: auto; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 3px dotted; COLOR: #000000;
PADDING-TOP: 5px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 3px dotted; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<!-- Here you can change the background color for the stationery and add the path to your background image -->
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff background="your seamless tile here">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<!--This is your main table, you can change the background color, table width, spacing and padding here. -->
<TABLE class=tab1 cellSpacing=6 width="85%" align=center bgColor=#ffffff>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD class=td1>
<!--This is where you will add the file path to your main image -->
<DIV align=center><IMG alt="" hspace=0 src="your custom image here"
align=baseline border=0></DIV>
<TD class=td1>
<DIV>Hi-light and type your text here.</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></BODY></HTML>
Now open Outlook Express and look at the Create button, you will see an arrow there. Click on that arrow and then Select Stationery. Find the seamlesstile.htm and click on OK. Click on the Source button (at the bottom) and you will see the htm
coding. You can make the changes now and you can check your progress as you go by hitting the Preview button.
**
If you don't see the Source tab go to View/ Source Edit. **
There are comment tags within the script ....
<!--instructions will be within these tags-->
these will tell you where you can make changes in the script.
Scrollbar colors are shown in red,
Font attributes in aqua,
Borders in blue,
Images in pink
Table background colors in green.
Make absolutely sure that when you paste in colors and paths that you do not delete ANY of the code or spaces.
If you do, the stationery will not work and you will have to start over again with a clean script. When you are done creating your stationery you can save it as an .eml file and use it again. Go to File/Save As (not Save as Stationery) and give it a name and save. This saves the stationery as an .eml file. I keep my .eml in a separate folder in My Documents. Just double click on the saved .eml and it will open just like it does in Outlook Express.
If you would like to take a beginner stationery class I would recommend Alottafunstationery.
You can find their site here .. http://alottafunstationery.tripod.com/OE6.htm
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial!
©ginnyhopping/bunny's attic 2006