PaintShop Pro X2 (Any version should work)

Animation Shop

Scrapkit Used : Pixie Wonderland TS By Laura's Designz @ Butterfly Blush

Tube Of Choice

I Used Cookies By LKDesigns

Font Used :Sweetheart Script-Limited

Eye Candy 5 Impact > Gradient Glow

Elements Needed From Kit :

Elements 12, 76, 91, 13, 3 , 22, & 43

Lets Begin :

Open a 800x650 new image, transparent

Click on your paint bucket tool , then select the color White (#ffffff) and click on your blank canvas, this will give you the white background which most times looks better with an animated tag.

Open Element 12, copy & paste it as a new layer, re-size it to 65%, position it on the center of your canvas.

Open Element 22, copy & paste it as a new layer, re-size it to 15%. Go to Image , click Mirror, and use your move tool to position this element to the right side of your pond.

Go to Adjust , click Sharpness, then click Sharpen.

Add a drop shadow to Element 22.

Now lets open Element 43, copy & paste it as a new layer, re-size it to 40%, use your move tool and position it to the left side of your pond. Go to Adjust , click Sharpness, then click Sharpen. Add a drop shadow.

Open Element 76, copy & paste as a new layer onto your canvas, re-size it to 65%. Now in your layers pallet move this layer to the bottom, just above your white background layer.

Still in your layers pallet, right click on your fence layer, duplicate it, then go to Image, Mirror and now use your move tool to position your fence so that most of it lines up with the other one. 

The reason I duplicated and mirrored this element was because I wanted the end post on the other side as well.

Open Element 3, copy & paste as a new layer onto your canvas, re-size to 50%, position so it is behind your pond and mushroom house.

Now in your layers pallet, move this layer below all layers EXCEPT for your fence layer.

So keep it above your white background & fence layers.

Now still on your Element 3 layer, right click , click duplicate , go to Image, then go to Mirror, Keep doing this until you have approx. 4 trees.(Element 3) Now using your move tool spread them across the back of your pond. 

Once you have 4 trees (Element 3) where you want them, go to your layers pallet, and click the 4th tree layer, right click , click merge, then merge down, continue to do this on all of the tree layers until they become on layer.Now go to Adjust, click Sharpness, then click Sharpen. Add a drop shadow.

Open Element 51, copy & paste as a new layer onto your canvas, re-size to 10%, Position on your tag to the left side by your mushroom house, in your layers pallet, right click on your Elements 51 layer and duplicate it and position it around the front of your pond. Do this 6 times to cover the entire pond.

Once you have all of them positioned right click on the top layer of the Element 51 layers, click Merge, then click Merge Down. Do this until ALL 6 become ONE layer. :-)

Once they are all on the same layer, go to Adjust, Sharpness, and then click Sharpen. Give a small drop shadow. Not to much. You don't want them jumping off the screen.

Open Element 13, copy & paste it as a new layer onto your canvas  re-size to 15% then re-size again to 90%. Position so it looks like it is floating on the pond. 

Go to your layers pallet, right click on your Element 13 layer, click Duplicate, and position it on your pond. Do this until you have the desired amount that you want.

Get your "Freehand Selection" tool, Now in your layers pallet, select your pond layer (Element 12)

Now back on your canvas, you need to outline the pink flower that is already on the pond, (not the ones we added earlier, if you need to you can close those flower layers off so you don't get confused)

Now with your Freehand Selection tool, settings to , Point To Point, Add (Shift) Feather 0, Smoothing 0.

Now click and outline around that flower on the pond (the pink one) Making sure that you end where you started, once you have it all outlined double click right where you ended, (If your marching ants disappear then you didn't stop where you started so you will have to outline it again :-(

K, so once you get the marching ants dancing around your flower , go to your layers pallet and make sure you are still on your pond layer, right click, then click "Promote Selection To Layer"

Now on your keyboard, select Ctrl & d to deselect. Now you have a seperate layer of just that flower.

So now on that Promoted Selection layer we just made in your layers pallet, move it up so that it is either right above or right below your Element 13 layers that we duplicated. (Meaning the other pink flowers)

Now starting with the top flower layer, right click , then click Merge Down, do this until ALL the pink flowers (Element13) including the one we Promoted To Layer, become one layer. 

Once they are all one layer go to Adjust, Click Sharpness, then click Sharpen. Add a VERY light drop shadow. In your layers pallet rename this layer to "Flowers" so we know which layer to come back to , to animate it.

Now open your tube of choice, I am using cookies by LKDesignz, , but you can use whatever you would like. 

Copy & paste your tube of choice onto your canvas, re-size to 25% (Again this is for the tubes I used) Now using your move tool, position this tube down to the lower left corner of your pond but in front of your mushroom house. In your layers pallet right click on your tube layer, click duplicate, now on your duplicated layer go to Image, then click Mirror, now using your move tool and position your duplicated tube over to the lily pad that is in your pond. Re-size your second tube to 80%.

Now in your layers pallet, on each tube layer, right click and duplicate. So you will now have 4 tube layers. Go to the duplicated layer of EACH tube, go to Adjust, Click on Blur, then click Gaussian Blur, set to 3.00 then change your blend mode to overlay. (Remember do this for both of your duplicated tube layers.)

Now on your original tube layers which would be the bottom layer of each tube, give them a drop shadow.

Credits/Copyright information.

Once you have your name added, you must convert that layer to a raster layer, so go to your layers pallet, on your name layer, right click and click Convert to raster layer.

Now go to Effects, scroll down to your plug-ins, then find Eye Candy 5 Impact > Gradient Glow. Settings of your choice. Click ok

Give your name a drop shadow.

If you wish not to animated you can stop here , be sure to save your tag!!

If you wish to animated, lets continue on :

In your layers pallet, click on your flowers layer, go to Adjust, Click Add/Remove Noise, then click Add Noise, Set your settings to Uniform, 30 Monochrome checked, click ok.

 

Now open your Animation Shop, Then go back to your PSP, on your canvas bar right click and click Copy Merged, now to back to your Animation Shop, right click, click Paste As New Animation. Now go back to your PSP, click your undo button 1 time. Go to Adjust > Add/Remove Noise> Add Noise, only change the noise setting this time to 35. Click Ok

Now right click on your canvas bar, click Copy Merged, go to your Animation Shop, right click on the frame we just put there, click Paste, then click After Current Frame.

Then go back to your PSP, click undo 1 time, go to Adjust>Add/Remove Noise, then click Add Noise, this time change the setting to 40. Click Ok.

Go to your Animation Shop one last time, click on the second frame then right click, click paste, then click After Current Frame.

Now you want to view your animation, if you are happy with it lets crop your tag to get rid of any extra canvas that we didn't use, then re-size to your liking and save as gif file!!

Thats it!

As always thank-you so much for trying my tutorial, If you would please send me anything you make using my tutorial as I would love to display it on my blog.