Fabergé Egg
Created by: Cassandrablue

You will need Dragonfly's Sinedots II filter. If you don't already have it you can download it from the link on the left. Put the filter in your plugins folder, or a sub-folder.

The download file contains the .cfg needed for the tutorial, plus my top, base and jewel tubes which you can use if you wish. You can use a top, base and jewels of your own if you prefer. Put the Sinedots .cfg file in the same folder as the Sinedots filter and put the tubes into the folder "My Documents\My PSP8 Files\Picture Tubes" (or whatever folder you use for your picture tubes). The tubes are in PSP 7 format, so they will work with both PSP 7 and 8.

Step 1: Create a New Image:

– Width and Height = 300 x 300 pixels
– Resolution = 72 pixels/inch
– Background = Raster Background
– Color depth = 16 Million Colors
– Transparent = checked

Set your Foreground Material to a dark color and flood-fill your image with it. This is just so that the Sinedots image shows up, you can change the background later if you want to.

Open the Layer palette, double-click on the layer and rename it to 'Background'. Then add a new raster layer named 'Lace'.

Step 2: Creating the Sinedots Image

Go to Effects || Plugin Filters || DragonFly || Sinedots II.

To open the preset click on the Open button in the bottom centre section of the screen (arrowed). Use the navigation box that appears to locate the folder that you created for your .cfg files and open the file "sg_eggs.cfg".

To open the dropdown list of presets that this .cfg file contains, click on the little arrow of the name field (circled). I have included several presets which make good egg shapes. The one that I am using in this tutorial is called "egg3", but feel free to choose one of the others if you prefer. You will be able to see the image in the preview window, but don't click on OK yet.

Click on the Color box and in the colour dialogue box choose white. Some of the presets are on a black background and for this tutorial it needs to be transparent, so if the preset that you've chosen is on a black background (you can see it in the preview window), click on the Blend dropdown list and choose "screen".

Now click on OK. You should have one layer that is black and a layer above it that is transparent with a white Sinedots image on it.

Step 3: Creating the Egg Shape

Next we will make an egg to fit inside the Sinedots shape. Add a new raster layer naming it 'Egg'.

Activate the Selection tool and use these settings:
– Selection type = Ellipse
– Mode = Replace
– Feather = 0
– Anti-alias = checked

Start at the centre and drag outwards to select an ellipse inside the lacy Sinedots shape. The exact size is up to you, but to give you a rough guide I have drawn the shape of my ellipse (shown in yellow) in the screenshot on the left.

Now that we've got the selection the right size to fit into the Sinedots shape, we can hide the Sinedots layer while we make the egg, so click on the eye of the 'Lace' layer in your Layer palette to turn off its visibility.

With the 'Egg' layer active, flood-fill the selection with your choice of colour (I have chosen a light blue: Red = 200, Green = 232, Blue = 232; HTML = #C8E8E8).

Don't deselect yet – we will keep the shape selected until the cutouts and highlight are finished.

Step 4: Adding Noise, Cutouts and a Highlight to the Egg

Go to Adjust || Add/Remove Noise || Add Noise and use:
– Gaussian = selected
– Noise = 25%
– Monochrome = unchecked

Now we will use a Cutout effect to give it some shape, so first go to Selections || Float, then to Effects || 3D Effects || Cutout:
– Vertical offset = 10
– Horizontal offset = 10
– Opacity = 60
– Blur = 30.69
– Shadow colour = Black

Apply another Cutout effect, but change:
– Horizontal and Vertical offset = -4 (minus 4)
– Opacity = 50

To add a highlight change the Foreground Color in your Materials palette to White.

Add a new raster layer naming it 'Highlight'. Activate the Paintbrush tool and use these settings:
– Shape = Round
– Size = 30
– Hardness = 80
– Step = 25
– Density = 100
– Thickness = 100
– Rotation = 0
– Opacity = 100
– Blend Mode = Normal

Paint a curved line in the top right corner of your egg shape, similar to the one shown in this screenshot.

Go to Adjust || Blur || Gaussian Blur:
– Radius = 12.00

Now you can deselect with Ctrl+D (Selections || Select None).

Make sure you are on the 'Highlight' layer, then go to Layers || Merge || Merge Down.

Turn the visibility of the 'Lace' layer back on and move it above the 'Egg' layer, either by dragging it up in the Layer palette, or make sure 'Lace' is the active layer and go to Layers || Arrange || Bring to Top.

Step 5: Making the Lace Stand Out

We will make the lace stand out more by adding a Drop Shadow, but we need more space to work in first.

Go to Image || Canvas Size:
– Lock aspect ratio = unchecked
– Width = 400 pixels
– Height = 500 pixels
– Placement: Click on the centre box to select it.

Make the 'Background' layer active and flood-fill with your background colour again to fill the gaps.

Make the 'Lace' layer active. The Sinedots preset that I used for the lace is very fine, so the layer needs duplicating to thicken it. If you chose one of the thicker presets you won't need to duplicate and merge down. I also found that the thicker presets didn't need to be sharpened.

Go to Layers || Duplicate, then go to Layers || Merge || Merge Down.

Now go to Effects || 3D Effects || Drop Shadow:
– Horizontal and Vertical offsets = 1
– Opacity = 57
– Blur = 3.96
– Colour = Black

Go to Adjust || Sharpness || Unsharp Mask:
– Radius = 2.00
– Strength = 50
– Clipping = 5

You should have 3 layers, the lace at the top, the egg in the middle and the background at the bottom. Make sure that the top layer is active, then go to Layers || Merge || Merge Down.

Step 6: Adding a Base and Top

In the download zip file I have provided tubes for the base and the top in a choice of silver or gold. You can of course use a base and top of your own if you prefer. In this step, I assume that you copied the tubes into your PSP 8 Tubes folder, but you can also just open them in PSP and copy and paste them into your image.

Add a new raster layer. Activate the Picture Tube tool and choose either the "sg_gold-base" or the "sg_silver-base" with Scale=100.

Place the base at the bottom of your egg. You can adust the position with the Move tool if necessary.

Go to Effects || 3D Effects || Drop Shadow:
– Vertical offset = -3 (minus 3)
– Horizontal offset = 3
– Opacity = 70
– Blur = 8.00
– Colour = Black

Add a new raster layer.

Change the picture tube to the "sg_gold-heart-top" or the "sg_silver-heart-top" and place the top at the top of the egg, adjusting the position if necessary.

Go to Effects || 3D Effects || Drop Shadow and apply the same settings as before.

Hide the 'Background' layer.

Go to Layers || Merge || Merge Visible.

Make the 'Background' layer visible again.

Step 7: Decorate Your Egg

Decorate your egg with jewels or beads. There are some of my jewels available on my web site which you can use if you wish, or you can use your own.

Place them on separate layers, so that they can be moved, and it is also easy to delete any that you don't want to use. I used the jewels at a scale of between 50 and 75, but the size depends on what jewels you use and how large, or small you want them to be, so experiment.

When you are happy with the decoration, hide the egg and the background layers, and make sure that one of the jewel layers is active. Then go to Layers || Merge || Merge visible.

Turn the visibility of all layers back on. Make sure the layer containing your jewels is active.

Go to Effects || 3D Effects || Drop Shadow:
– Vertical and Horizontal offsets = 0
– Opacity = 50
– Blur = 8
– Colour = Black

This will make the jewels stand out a little bit.

Next we will give a Drop Shadow to the egg, so make the 'Egg' layer active and go to Effects || 3D Effects || Drop Shadow, but change the settings to:
– Vertical offset = -6 (minus 6)
– Horizontal offset = 11
– Opacity = 60
– Blur = 19.80
– Colour = Black

Decorate the 'Background' layer in any way that you wish. For the one shown in this tutorial I flood-filled the background layer with a linear gradient and then applied a Mosaic-Glass effect (Effects || Texture Effects || Mosaic Glass), using the default setting (for the default settings, just click on the curved arrow at the top right of the dialogue box.

Finish with a frame of your own choice.