Complete Picture Framing Kit: Lesson 1

Welcome to the all purpose, complete, easy to use, picture framing kit. In the next few pages we will cover a simple, but perfect, technique for creating picture frames of any sort.

The sequence breaks down into

1. Take one original picture, increase the size of the canvas to accommodate a frame
2. Add our special framing template into a new layer
3. Flood fill each element of the special template with the frame type of your choice
4. Add drop shadow, colour, finish etc of your choice.

You really ought to download the Complete Framing Kit with 100 scans ready to use.

Step 1:


1. Start with the picture you want to frame
2. Adjust the size of the picture to the correct dimensions for your final output.
3. Adjust the canvas size so there is sufficient space around the picture to take your frame.

   If you want to work with our tutorial files ppen the file "a_test.psp" in the framing kit.

   To make this tutorial clear, we suggest you make your actual picture around 500 wide by 300 high. Then adjust the canvas size, so the total canvas is 800 wide by 500 high.

   Step 2:
   

4. Load these two templates
5. Adjust their size so that they are the same size as the shortest dimension of your picture. In other words, if your picture is 800 x 500 make them 500 pixels square.
6. Load them as new layers into your picture, above your image, one at each end of the canvas. It should look like this.
   
7. Making sure you only have the blue and yellow template layers visible, select Layers, Merge, Visible. N.B. It is important you only merge these two layers, make sure they are the only ones with the "rainbow/visibility" icon set in the layers dialog box.

   Step 3:
   

8. You may at this stage want to cut a hole in the template so you can see your picture underneath. The hole you cut must be the size of your finished visible picture.
9. The simplest way is to double click the area selection icon. In the dialog box enter the left and top values as the width of your frame (e.g. 50), the bottom and right values are the width of your image, less the width of your frame (e.g. 800 - 50 = 750) and the same for height (500 - 50 = 450)

   

10. Making sure you have the blue/yellow template layer selected, cut the selection (Ctrl-X)

    Step 4:
    

11. Now open up a suitable pattern, the Complete Kit includes a wide selection of wooden frames and many others. We'll use a pine style here.
12. Now select the flood fill paint bucket.
13. Set the Fill Style to Pattern
14. Select the Options button, and for the image, select the pine image
15. Tolerance should be 0 and Opacity 100.
16. Now flood fill the top blue section

    

17. Rotate the picture 90 degrees, and flood fill the top yellow section.

    You need to rotate by 90 degrees so that the grain of the wood runs along the length of the frame.

    

18. Repeat this two more times to complete the frame. Rotate once more to bring the picture the right way up.