This tutorial was created by Darlene on February 26, 2008. Any similarity to any other tutorial is strictly coincidental and not intentional. Many thanks to my testers Glennda and Judy...your time and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I'm using PSP9 but you can use any version.

1. In PSP open up a transparent image 200x200 pixels. This will be large but I like to have lots of room to work.

2. With your paintbrush Size 1 and watching your numbers at the bottom of your workspace, start at (100,0) place a dot, hold down your shift key and place a dot at (100,199) You should now have a straight line down the center of your grid.

With your paintbrush start at (0,100) place a dot, hold down your shift key and place a dot at (199,100) you should now have a straight line across the center of your grid. This is what you should have so far:

3. Set your background color to null, grab your preset shape tool…Ellipse, Create As A Vector and drag out a shape similar to the one below. Click on Objects…Align…Center in Canvas. Convert to Raster Layer. This will be our guide for placing our shapes.

4. Open a new 10x10 transparent image. Set your foreground color to #ff9c9c or another color of your choice and draw a bead shape like the one below:

5. Floodfill the center of your bead shape with #ffd6d6 or a lighter shade of the one you have chosen.

6. Right click and copy the bead shape you have just drawn and painted.

7. Back to your 200x200 image and create a new raster layer. Paste your bead shape as a new selection and position dead center at the top. I have made mine a bright blue so that you can see better where to position it.

8. Continue to paste as a new selection around the first quarter of your ellipse shape.

9. Layers...Duplicate...Image...Mirror. You may have to adjust this duplicated layer so that it lines up with the very top bead. Your left hand side may not line up exactly as your right side, but that’s okay. In your layer pallette, right click on your Copy of Raster 3 Layer and Merge…Merge Down.

For PSP7

Hide your two grid layers by clicking on the eye in your layer pallette.

Highlight one of your bead layers and Merge Visible.

10. Now duplicate this merged layer…Image...Flip. Once again you will need to line things up. Layers Merge. This is what you should have so far:

11. You can now delete Layer 1 and Layer 2. You should now have this:

12. Copy and paste your remaining layer as a new image.

SHADING THE BEADS

1. Now lets shade those beads!! With your Magic Wand click inside the center of one of your beads...Selections...Modify...Select Similar (all your bead centers should now be selected).

2. Selections...Invert.

3. Effects...3D...Drop Shadow using these settings and the darker color you chose for your bead shape.

Your frame is now finished! I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions or problems, please don't hesitate to contact me here