Skill Level: Beginner
Author:  Merlene Guldager
Home Page: Gold Acres Designs
Software:PhotoImpact v 7+ or Paint Shop Pro v 7+ or higher

What you will need:

A photo or you can use mine here
My slatted Tubes here

Let's Begin...

1. Unzip the tubes and place them in your PSP tube file. If you use PI just unzip them.
   
   
2. Open your graphics program and a new blank image or canvas. If you want your tag to be transparent then use a transparent canvas. A good size for a finished tag is around 300 pixels high, but I like room to work in so I recommend 500 x 500 pixels to start.
   
   
3. Now in PSP click on the Picture tube tool and select the one you want to work with. In PI choose the Stamp Tool and then click the attrubute tool bar to open the Drop box and choose 'Import Picture Tube' and navigate to where you stored your unziped Slat tubes. You can import them all if you hold down the control key while you click each one and then choose OPEN.
4. With the Tube selected click approximately in the center of the blank canvas..
   Once you have it on the canvas you can do a lot of things with it.
   In PSP use the magic wand to select all of the slats by clicking on a
   blank part of the canvas and then go to Selections/Invert. In PI it is already selected.
5. Now open the image you want to place inside the slats and click Copy.
   Make the tag Canvas active again and click Edit/Paste/Paste into Selection or Fit Into Selection.
   
   
   
   
6. In PSP only add a new layer and name it TEXT.
   
   
7. Now go to your Text tool and click anywhere on the slat canvas and then choose a nice font and write your message. Be sure to choose a contrasting color for the text so it will show up nicely over the slats. Add a shadow to the text, and position it where you want it. You might also add a similar shadow to the slats.
8. Resize your tag. Click on the CROP tool and draw a rectangle around your slats and text and double click inside the selection lines to crop it. Optimize and save as a GIF if you want it transparent or a JPEG if you don't. In PI be sure the box next to transparency is checked, and click on the MASK tab. Use the eyedropper to select the color of your shadow. Then click OK to save and give your tag a name.

There are lots of other things you can do with the slat tubes. You can use any image that is larger than the Slats are. Once you have the image pasted you can click on the Transform Tool and re-shape the slats anyway you like. Have fun with them... Below are some examples of other tags made with the same image.

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