EASY~PEASY MINI MOUSE MAT

Paint Shop Pro Tutorials by Karen

I am writing this tutorial by popular request , after I made a set of mouse mat adoptables for my website. I made the graphic up myself, it is really easy and fun to do. You will need to download the zip file containing the mouse tube and mat selection HERE ( unzip the "mouse.tub" into your tubes folder, and the "mousemat.sel" into your selections folder. If you don`t have a selections folder, now is the time to make one, it will come in handy for tutorials!) You will also need a photo or picture of your choice and also a wood effect fill pattern. If you don`t have one right click and save mine below. To use, open in psp and minimise (click the minus sign at the top). It will now be temporarily available to use from your patterns pallette. Got everything you need?...lets begin!

Open your chosen picture and resize it to 218 x 172 pixels ( if you can`t get it exact, it will need to be 172 pixels high and as close to 218 pixels wide as possible, or the selection won`t work properly.)(fig 1)

Now go selections / load from disk. Find your selections folder and click on the "mousemat.sel"  and click "open". You will notice the pic I used couldn`t be resized to exact width, so I now get this message (fig 2)

If you get this, just click "yes" and the selection will place itself to the left of your pic ( so make sure nothing you want to keep is too far to the right!) if you don`t get this then the selection will automatically place itself in your pic. (fig 3)

Next go edit / copy / edit / paste as new image and close the original, it is no longer needed (fig 4).

We now need more blank canvas to work on, so go image / canvas size and set as fig 5. Click OK (fig 6)

Now go effects / 3D effects / inner bevel and set as fig 7 then click OK.

Next go layers / new raster layer (fig 8) OK.

Click on tubes tool, right click it and select tool options and find the mouse tube. Set it as in fig 9 and close the dialogue box.

Click on your image to place the mouse on it, then click on your mover tool and use the pointer to position the mouse to the right, as in fig 10.

Now go layers / merge / merge visible then effects / 3D effects / drop shadow (fig 11)

Next go edit / copy / edit / paste as new image and close the original. Start a new image as in fig 12.

Now go effects / texture effects / sculpture. Find your wood effect fill and click OK,(fig 13) then go edit / paste as new layer. Add another drop shadow as in fig 11. Your mouse mat will now look like it is on a desk top.

Now go layers / merge / merge visible then go effects / 3D effects / inner bevel, change settings as in fig 14 and click OK.

That`s it, your own mini mouse mat! If you want to use it as a sig tag, just leave out the wood effect stage, and save as a transparent gif or tube it and use from there for best effect.!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial which was written for PSP V 7, but should adapt for other versions. Close window to return to index If you didn`t come here from the tutorials index and want to go there now CLICK HERE