| Create A Mask - 'Ivy Leaf' PSP8 & PSP7 Tutorial by ©Neenee - ©UniqueBoutique Designs *Written January 12, 2004* Please feel free to link to or copy this tutorial for your own use. While there are many mask tutorials out there- this one is of my own imagination - any similarity to any other is purely coincidental
Download trial version of PSP 8 download leaves_ivy PSP tube here We are going to start out with a very simple/basic mask to show you how you can create your own using vector shapes and paint tubes ( all masks must be created using black and white) Open a new transparent 400x400 image and floodfill with black - click on Preset Shape Tool - Rounded Rectangle tick off Anti-alias and Create As Vector - width 6 - choose white as your foreground color and null ( close) your background color - and draw from left to right and downwards- your graphic should look like this 
Go to Layers- Convert to Raster - Using your Magic Wand- place it inside the white of the rectangle - In both PSP 7 & 8 go to Selections- Modify- Feather - number of pixels (7) click OK- you will now see an expansion - the marching ants are no longer hugging the white line - but is spread out from it - flood fill with white 3 times - this 'soften's your white border - go to Selections- Select None - Layers - Merge Visible Draw another rectangular box using width of 3 inside the first one as shown - go to Objects - Align - Center in Canvas - with Magic Wand click inside this white line and once again go to Selections - Modify - Feather - Number of pixels (7) - flood fill with white - 3 times - go to Layers- Merge Visible Go to Layers- New Raster Layer - add ivy vine at size 50 - add one or several and positon as wanted ( rezize, rotate whatever you like) this is how I did mine 
Since masks must be created in Black and white - we need to change the color of the ivy vines to white- go to Selections - Select All - click on
Selections tool and click inside the vines- they should look like this flood fill with white being sure all vines are also colored in - use your magnifying tool if you can't see Almost done! Go to Layers- Merge Visible - now we need to save this in .msk format so it can be stored in your mask folder for future use In PSP 8 - go to Layers - New Mask Layer - From Image - be sure your Source Window matches the name of your image you are saving- in my case it says Image 1 (there is a scroll bar there- match it up with your image name) Use the settings below - click OK 
You will now notice your mask has changed in appearance - it should look like this one Go to Layers - Load/Save Mask - Save Mask to disk - it will look like this click Save How to save mask in PSP7 : Go to Masks - New- From Image - Source Window will say This Window- Create Mask From Source Luminous ( tick this one) then click OK ( do NOT click Invert Mask Data - leave this blank) - this is the image you will see on your work space 
Go to Masks - Save To Disk - be sure you are saving in PSP 7 Mask folder - and name your mask where it says File Name - click Save Bg's by Neenee | 
