SLC

Create your own photoshopped father’s day card so your dad knows just how you care… then add a little twist for a chuckle!!

You will need:

• Computer (with Photoshop)
• Printer (with ink) and some Glossy Photo Paper

If you don’t have Photoshop yourself, try to find yourself a computer in one of the labs at the University/College or you can attempt this using GIMP, as we discussed in one of our previous posts.

Step 1 – New Document

Create a new document:-

Height of 5 inches
and width of 7 inches and resolution: 300.
For the purpose of this tutorial or playing: h: 600px, w: 450px and r: 72.

Step 2 – Shaping Our Tie

Using the pen tool (p) or polygonal lasso tool (l), map out the sections for the tie.

In a new layer with the main part of the tie selected, fill it with a light colour of your choice. I’m going for a white and blue tie so the base will be the white.

Step 3 – Stripes

Now in a new layer above our base and using the rectangular marquee tool (m), create a solid bar with the colour we want our stripes to be.

Duplicate these laters down the full length of the tie and clip them to the base layer by selecting all the stripe layers and going to Layer » Create Clipping Mask.

You should now have your layers arranges as above and your card looking like below.

Step 4 – Happy Fathers Day

Next, grab a nice big fat font and in seperate layers input your wishing words.

Arrange these over the lower stripes using the Move Tool (v) and scale / rotate them down into place where they best fill the stripes. If you do not have ‘Show Transform Controls’ checked for the move tool, you can access this via the main menu: Edit » Transform » Scale AND Edit » Transform » Rotate

Step 5 – Few touches

Finally, on the tie base layer add a standard drop shadow just to lift it off the page a little and apply a light gradient on your main background layer. If you like, you could play with some more advanced ideas and give your background / shirt a checkered pattern or fabric texture. We’ll keep things simple for the time being.

Step 6 – Knot

To create the knot, just replicate steps 3, 4 and 5 but have the stripes travel in the opposite angle.

Step 7– Shirt

To give the appearance of a shirt colar, use the Polygonal Lasso Tool again and fill the layer with white. Apply a lighter drop shadow on each colar, perhaps not as distant either so as not to detract attention from the message on the tie.

That’s you done on the outside front of the card, now for the sentimental message…

Step 8 – A little twist

Write inside your message, print it and sign it. Done.

Of course, we don’t always have to be serious so here are some alternative ideas for the inside ;]

Happy Fathers Day!

The SLC Team.

It comes round once a year but it’s sometimes hard to catch, especially if you’ve had your head in the books studying all the time. Mothers Day is tomorrow though and if it is something that’s slipped your mind, don’t panic, just pop on over to one of the sites listed below and send a little card over to show her you’re still thinking of her.

Care2.com

123Greetings.com

BlueMountain.com

DGreetings.com

If you’re feeling especially bad for forgetting – or you’re looking to plan something a little extra – you could always pop over to the SLC Directory and find some nice place to go out for a meal. Failing that, go in hunt of a big bouquett of flowers and chocolates!

Happy Mothers Day, to mums everywhere.

The SLC Team

If you’re still unsure where you’ll be taking yourself and friends this St. Patrick’s Day (that’s Tuesday, 17th of March 2009), have a look below! We have some of the best promotions for St. Patrick’s Day around Dundee and especially so if you’re a student!

Fatsams – St. Patrick’s Day

Green Foam party in Fatsams live
Drinks Promos available all night!
Paddy’s day pitchers £6
Selected Drinks £1/£1.50

Liquid – St. Patrick’s Day Party!

All drinks £1 all Night
£3.50 admission all Night

Abertay Union’s BIG St. Patrick’s Day Bash!!

The Biggest St Patrick’s Night in Town, Open till 3.30pm
It’s an all day party and we have:-
4 BANDS, 4 DJ’S , 2 STAGES AND IRISH DANCERS
Give aways aways and much much more.

Free Entry : 9am-6pm
£2 entry after 6pm

The Balcony – St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations

Faer Company play Celtic and Ceiligh Music from 9pm-5pm
General Franco with current rock covers from 7.30pm-10.30pm
Irish Stew and all day breakfasts served from 11.30am-7.15pm

All this and more can be found on the SLC, Social Life directory!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! …and remember to wear something green

The SLC Team

A post-it with your name on it will do a while, yes but why not create something a little more funky or a little more ‘you’? In this tutorial, we look at how to create a glowing name door sign using photoshop so your friends know just where to find you.

You will need:

• Computer (with Photoshop)
• Printer (with ink)
• Glossy Photo Paper

If you don’t have Photoshop yourself, try to find yourself a computer in one of the labs at the University/College or you can attempt this using GIMP, as we discussed in our last post.

Step 1 – New Document

Create a new document:-

Height of 5 inches
and width of 7 inches. Best way to do this is against the photo paper you will be using.
Resolution: 300 (or just 72 for the purpose of playing)

Step 2 – Gradient

Using a large brush, with a soft edge, select a colour you would like for your door sign and slightly off to the left, apply a single brush stroke/dab.

I’ve chosen #993300 for the purpose of this tutorial, giving us a deep musky setting.

Step 3 – Texture

In a new layer above, set your colours back to black/white and apply clouds ( Filter > Render > Clouds ).

Set the entire layer to overlay mode and bring down the opacity to around 34 – 50 percent.

Step 4 – Our First Glow

Select the pen tool and draw a wavy line with maybe four or five anchor points.
If you need some further guidance using the pen tool, there are a plentiful supply of tutorials around the internet. Like this one, or this one

Once you have drawn your path, create a new layer and select your brush with white. Making sure you have a hard edge set on your brush, apply a few strokes until you find a suitable size for your path. Once you are happy, delete the current brush strokes and switch back to your pen tool. Right click on your path and select ‘Stroke Path…’ find Brush in the drop down and check ‘Simulate Pressure’.

Click OK..

Apply the following layer style properties to achieve a nice even glow around your lines.

(click to enlarge)

Repeat this step on a new layer until you have some sweeping lines you are happy with.

Step 5 – Additional Details

If you have a few glowing lines that cross, rastorize each of the layers still keeping them separate. You can do this by creating a new layer above, right click on the new layer and select ‘Merge Down’.

With a white brush, half opacity, apply some strokes where ever your lines cross. This will just give the appearance of reaction where they touch and give your door sign a little more energy.

Step 5 – Insert Your Name!

Finding a font that suits you and your design, type in your name.

Copy the layer properties from one of the lines previously with an additional layer style of ‘Color Overlay’, selecting a colour close to the glow of one of your lines and lightening this slightly in the colour picker. This will just take away from too vibrant and stark a white.

That’s you! Finished. Just print it out and stick it up!

About the author
Alex is a graphic / web designer and an avid photographer. He runs his own blog over at Zen Elements which is the basis portfolio for all that graphic/web stuff he does as well as the ongoing publishing of articles and tutorials.

Thanks for reading!
The SLC Team

You’re may well be wondering, what and WHY are we talking about GIMP / GIMPs?

Well, now on version 2.6.4, GIMP is a free, open-source image manipulation program. Hey, it even says it in the name! GNU Image Manipulation Program – GIMP. As it is completely free to download/use, it will hopefully come in handy for you in future design tutorials here on The SLC Blog, as an alternative to Photoshop.

Step 1 – Download GIMP!

You can [DOWNLOAD GIMP HERE].

It is available on a wide range of operating systems; Windows, Linux & Mac.

Step 2 – Install GIMP.

After you have downloaded the install package, locate it on your system and double click to initiate the install. It is a VERY straight forward to install and unless you want to specify anything specific, you’ll be clicking only 3, maybe 4 buttons.

Step 3 – First look at GIMP.

(Click for larger view)

Upon first glance, it may be a bit daunting but as you begin to use GIMP and the tools it provides, everything soon becomes second nature.

Step 4 – Your First File

Click File -> New and setup a new canvas 125 pixels wide by 125 pixels tall.
Click on OK.

Step 5 – Some Text

Next, select the ‘Text Tool’ or press ‘T’ on your keyboard.

A popup box will open, requesting the text you wish to input. Enter your name/alias and click Close.
You can use the properties in the Tool Properties area to select font/size/colour/etc…

Step 6 – Some image

Now, you could spend some time brushing in an image or using the pen tool to create something but for the purpose of ‘first steps’, we’ll import an image we have blatently stolen from somewhere. Lets use the SLC avatar

Copy and paste your image (if not the SLC avatar) in a new layer. You can do this using the hot keys on the keyboard (Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V) or Edit -> Copy/Paste.

Step 7 – Scale & Positioning

The next trick is to make the graphic we have imported fit where we want it. For this, you will need to use the ‘Move Tool’ (also ‘M’ on your keyboard) and the ‘Scale Tool’ (Shift + T on your keyboard).
&

Carefully, click on the image and drag down until you get the scale that you are looking for and your image in the position you want.

Step 8 – Gradient

Finally, just so that we can see our text better against our image, we will apply a gradient. Select the ‘Blend Tool’ or press ‘L’ on your keyboard.

Create a new later behing the text and in your gradients panel, select ‘FG to Transparent’. This will use your foreground colour to full opacity.

Select your foreground in the Toolbox as white or a light colour and on your canvas, drag from the bottom up. To get the desired effect, you might wish to apply a second gradient in the same later.

Step 9 – Save

The last thing to do is save your file ( File -> Save ).
Using the ‘Select File Type’, you can save as a gif, jpg and a few other formats.

So, this has been your introduction to GIMP and hopefully it will be of use to you in upcoming design tutorials here on The SLC Blog or anywhere else on the interwebs you may donder!

About the author
Alex is a graphic / web designer and an avid photographer. He runs his own blog over at Zen Elements which is the basis portfolio for all that graphic/web stuff he does.
Also thanking Shelley/Soulcreates for the inspiration of introducing GIMP on the SLC world.

Thanks for reading,
The SLC Team.