The *C* Swirl

This backgrounds on this page are what we will be making ;)

This background is super simple - but can be modified in so many ways, some of which I will share with you here - others, I'm sure you'll find yourself ;)

BUT - before we get started I want to make as public as possible a HUGE thankyou to the PSP community for your support during the last few months as I battle breast cancer! Your notes and thoughts have been appreciated more than words can convey - thankyou!

The *C* Swirl tutorial is dedicated with love to every woman who has fought this battle! But especially to my friend Cea who was also diagnosed when I was - we're gonna beat this!

And no, the *C* in the tut title doesn't stand for cancer ... it could though LOL - it stands for the courage to conquer this ;)

OK - on with the tutorial ;)

To complete this tutorial you'll need an image and an idea of exactly what you want to do with it ;)

The eBook of this tutorial is here

** I used PSP 9.1 for this tutorial, but I'm sure this can be done with any version **

OK - lets get started

1. Open the image you want to use, press shift D to duplicate, then close your original

2. Resize your copy down to around 300 pixels, then apply seamless tiling with the settings below

3. Apply a gaussian blur with a radius of 10

4. Go to Effects>Distortion Effects>Wave and apply the following settings

5. If you add seamless tiling here, you have a nice background, you can turn something like the image below left, into something like the image below right

BUT, just by adding a few plugins or effects you can change the look of your background dramatically!

Add your favourite FM Paint Engine setting followed by FM Tile Tools Blend Emboss before tiling the second time and you can change your background to look like below ... adds a whole new dimension!

If you want to make a nice stationery background, then rather than apply your wave to your tile, apply your tile to your stationery first, this stretches the wave - if you'd like the full size stat back below (without the huge watermark in the middle LOL), then click here, I hope you enjoy!

Try adding noise, different textures, pretty much anything before applying the second seamless tile and your backgrounds change every time but keep that gorgeous swirl!

That's it - all done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial ;)

If you have any problems or questions, please don't hesitate to contact me