Stained Glass Shop: Tutorial 1

Tutorial 1: Starting out with the pattern

Note: For more complicated patterns, do not use the lime green/bright color method. You need to read over my File Saving Tutorial and follow the steps there for good transparencies. Also, when I work with detailed patterns, I add a new layer, flood fill with a solid color, then move that layer to the bottom. Having a solid color behind the pattern helps you to see what you are doing.

When you download a pattern choice, the first thing you need to do is open it in PSP and increase it to 16 million colors. Right now they are in gif format, 2 colors. This makes for a faster download for you.

You will notice that these first patterns have a simple design. There are several choices you have at this point. The first choice is what size you want to work with. If you decide you want the image smaller, use the pixel resize method to avoid blurring of the pattern lines. The next choice you have is whether or not you want to keep this as a simple suncatcher, a transparent gif, or do you want it to be a framed picture? Let's start with the suncatcher.

I'm going to use Pattern 18 for this. The first thing I'm going to do is do flood fill the background with a lime green. Next I will choose 3 glass images to fill the 3 sections of the rainbow, using Pattern Fill. Remember, in order to use an image as a pattern fill, you have to have it open in PSP. Now that the glass for the 3 main sections is filled, I'm going to skip right to the soder lines. The reason is that I'm actually going to use a gem tube for the jewels on the rainbow.

Use the magic wand to select the black lines. On the color palette, make sure white is the bottom color. When the lines are selected, hit delete. While the now white lines are still selected, use Blade Pro, I used the pewter preset, to change the lines to that stained glass soder look. Now you can add the gem tube to each jewel.

To make this a transparent gif, first make sure that lime green color is now the bottom color on your palette. Screen captures below will show you the settings I use when decreasing to 256 colors. I've found these settings work the best. Decrease your image to 256 colors. Set the transparency and proof. Use the red/yellow image on your toolbar. Don't have that on your toolbar? You should!

You should now see the checkerboard background instead of the green. Save your image as a gif
.

And here is how the finished suncatcher would look:

Now, let's say you want to make this a framed image instead. There is a little more work involved, so follow me to part 2 of this tutorial.

Patterns & Lines 2

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