Thank You Card in PaintShop Pro

Make a Thank You card in PaintShop Pro

See the youtube video version here: https://youtu.be/ycnqf_dwH1s

This tutorial was inspired by a thank you card I received in the mail.  I liked the design and wanted to replicated it in PaintShop Pro.

The first step is to create the rainbow background.  For this I just used a cloud-type brush, and worked my way from one corner of the image to the other, transitioning the colors to follow the rainbow pattern.

After laying all the base colors, I changed the opacity to 50% and blended the transition regions.  The final result is the following:

To add some variance for experimentation purposes, I used the Smudge brush with a large size and randomly swirled different parts of the background.  This yielded the following image:

Next let's work on the top layer of the card, what I'll call the "cut-out" layer.  We are going to make this one using vector graphics.  To start off, let's make the border.  On a new vector layer, draw a rectangle vector graphic.

Next we need to select the Pick tool, and right-click the rectangle and select Convert to Path.  This makes the object modifiable with the Pen tool.  So let's select the Pen tool, and select the straight line drawing option.

From here, draw an inner rectangle that will act as the region we'll cut out, so we can see the background.  Hold Shift while clicking and positioning the points for the corners to ensure the lines end up straight.

Once you get to the end where the points should connect, create the final point near the starting point.  Then carefully click and drag that 'end' point over the starting point until you see the word 'join' appear.  When you see that word, and release the mouse button, the inner rectangle should be a complete shape.

At this point if you right click that new inner line you created and select Reverse Contour, you should then see that that line is drawn in the opposite direction, and therefore is rendered as a hole cut into the original rectangle.

Next lets add some text.  To prevent the existing vector object from messing up your placement of the text, you can add the text on a new layer (then combine it later).  Use the Text tool to add some text.

Next we add some vector preset shapes to add some detail, and essentially 'connect' the text to the border.  For the original card this is necessary so the text is connected to the rest of the card, and in our case it just helps guide how we lay the objects out.  For my example, I chose an existing clover/flower type object.

I varied the size, and tried to fill most of the space, being careful to ensure there was overlap between the flower, text and border.

At this stage this is pretty good.  Since everything above the rainbow layer is a vector object, we can merge them (merge down, or merge visible).  Now lets say we wanted to make all of that white instead of black.  We can highlight all the objects on the vector layer, and just change the color.

Finally to give it more of a 3D look, we can use Layer Properties to add a drop shadow, and even a slight bit of bevel.

This will yield the final result:

Hope you learned something.  Thanks for dropping by.