Embellishment Lesson #1 - Ribbon Bows

In this series of tutorials we are going to be talking about some embellishments that you can make for digital scrapbooks, cards even web sites. In this lesson we will learn how to make ribbon bows. Like this one.

This can be saved as a tube and used over and over again. Let's get started.

Open a new Raster image 300 X 300, 200dpi, transparent background. We will be using the Draw Tool or Pen Tool

, in the settings of the Tool Options Menu choose Draw Freehand, making sure that the create on vector is checked as well as the anti-alias.

We need to set the width to 12, and the tracking to 30. (Some older versions may not have the tracking option) Next we need to choose a gradient for our ribbon. I have chosen a gold gradient which you can find here.

You can choose any gradient you wish. Now with the draw tool draw a loop starting from the center point of the image up and out

and back around. Don't be afraid it isn't perfect the tracking will smooth it out. It should look like this:

You will notice that this loop is on its own layer. Go to Effects / 3D Effects / Drop Shadow and put a drop on the loop. You will get a message saying that your layer will be converted to a raster layer, this fine just click OK. Your Drop Shadow settings should look like this.

Add the drop shadow. With the Pen Tool again draw another loop starting from the same area and up and out like this.

Again you will see that we have a new layer for this loop, as we will for every loop here after. We can now add the drop shadow to just this loop in the same way as before.

Continue making loops around for at least 6 full loops adding a new layer and drop shadow to each. It should now look something like this.

Now draw a small loop in the center of the beginning space like this.

to make it look like a knot. Again with the draw tool draw a long strand of ribbon floating off to the left from the knot, then give it a drop shadow. And another strand to the right. Your image should look similar to this:

This is our finished product. You can now add it to your available tubes or save it as a .pspimage or .tub in your PSP files. You can use this same technique to make wider ribbon bows in all colors. Give it a try and let's see some of your results!!

These instructions work for both PSP 9 and 11 (XI)

Have fun!