This tutorial was written by me on August 23, 2020. The results are of my own imagination.  Any resemblance to another tutorial is purely coincidental.  

Please DO NOT claim this tutorial as your own.

This was written assuming you have a working knowledge of PSP.

Please keep in mind that I write the tutorial as I am creating it.

Sometimes I may not explain properly where to place things so please see my example if you are ever in doubt :)

Supplies needed

I am using PSP 2018 but this tutorial should work with any version.

Animation shop (optional)

PTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "Autumn Mouse" created by Hania's Design.  You can purchase the kit at Elegance Fly here. 

PTU Tube:  I am using Sheokate's beautiful tube Valentine Mouse.  Please do not use this tube without a proper license. I am using the extented license tube for this tutorial.  You can purchase this beautiful tube at Elegance Fly here.

FTU Animation:  I am using Rebel Designs's freebie 4 animation.  Thank you Rene for your awesome animation.  You can download it from her site here.

Mask:  I used the one that came with the kit.

Please remember to read the artists/designers TOU.

Font of choice for your name.

Plug in: None

Drop shadow of choice.

Vivienne's Paintbox has awesome drop shadow settings that I use a lot.  You can find the settings here and check out her awesome tutorials :)

Anytime you resize an element or tube you should sharpen it.  Go to adjust, sharpness, sharpen.

Let's get started.

Remember to save your tag often in case psp crashes.  I always save my tags as a pspimage.  It keeps all the layers and if you make tags for others you will always have the template.

Open a new 750x800 transparent image.  We will resize later.

Add a new layer and flood fill with white.

Open element 60, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 70% and move down to the bottom left.  Duplicate, resize 90%, flip and move to the top right.  Merge down.

Open element 19, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 80%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the top left of the mask.  See mine for placement.

Open element 49, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 70%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the top right of the mask.

Open element 31, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Move up and to the left slightly.  See mine for placement.

Open element 75, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Drop shadow and move to the top of the tree so it covers the sharp edge of the web.

Open element 25, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 40%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the middle of the web.

Open element 99, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 70%, mirror and sharpen.  Move to the bottom of the mask slightly to the right.  Select the magic wand and click inside the frame.  Selections, modify, expand by 20.  Add a new raster layer and drag this under the frame layer.  Open paper of choice.  I am using paper 59, copy and close the original.  Select the new raster layer and paste into selections.  Select none and drop shadow the frame.  Move the paper up and to the right slightly.

Open element 26, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 70%, sharpen and drop shadow.  

Open element 40, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 70%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the right of the frame. 

Open element 45, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 70%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the bottom of the mask.

Open element 59, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 50%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the bottom left of the frame. 

Open element 03, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 40%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the top of the sign. 

Open element 39, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 40%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the bottom left of the frame. 

Open element 93, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 40%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the bottom right of the frame. 

Open element 24, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 20%, sharpen, mirror and drop shadow. Drag this under the mushroom house layer and move to the bottom right of the house.

Open element 5, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 30%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the bottom left of the branch. 

Open element 58, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 50%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the bottom left of the stump. 

Open element 41, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 30%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the bottom left so it is on top of the cheese. 

Open element 68, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 50%, sharpen and drop shadow. Move to the bottom left of the door on the house. 

Open element 48, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 40% and sharpen.  Move to the bottom left of the cheese.  Duplicate, mirror and move to the bottom right of the mushroom house. Drop shadow each layer.

Select the layers you wish to use.  Edit, copy special, copy merged.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 18%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move down to the bottom so it looks like she is sitting on the leaves.

Open element 69, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 30%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the bottom right of the tube in front of the lantern.

Open element 92, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 70%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the bottom left of the tube so it looks like it is resting on her leg.

Open element 65, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 30%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the bottom of the tube in just to the left of the right knee.

Open element 72, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 30%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the bottom left corner of the straw.

Open element 64, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 40%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the bottom right of the tube in front of the right knee.

Open element 04, copy and close the original.  Select the top layer and paste.  Resize 30%, sharpen and drop shadow.  Move to the bottom right of the tube by the knee of the extended leg.

Add any other elements you like and make any adjustments to the layers.

Crop away any extra space.  Resize 650 on the longest side, all layers checked.

Add your copyright and name.

If you do not want to animate.  Hide the white background layer Save your tag and export as png.

Animating the tag.  Make sure your tag is saved as a psp image file as you do not want to loose it if psp crashes.

Might want to grab a coffee :)

Open Rebel Dezigns psd file in psp.  Shift + D to duplicate it and close the original.  Do not save any changes as a psd file will merge into one layer.  We do not want this to happen.  You will notice that there is 25 layers in this animation and it does not have the group layer.  That is ok as we are going to learn how to do this so it matches the animation layers of the tube.

We need to group all the odd layers.  Starting from layer 25, hold down your control key and select each odd layer so the next one will be 23 then 21 etc.  Once all the odd layers are selected (the layers will be highlighted in blue) we need to group them.  All odd layers selected? 

Next we need to group these layers.  Go to Layers, New layer group.  Scroll all the way to the top and you will see Group 1 with all the odd layers as sub layers.  

Select group 1, copy and close the original.  Select your tag layer and paste.  When you paste grouped layers it will always go to the top.  Standing on group one select the link icon to link all the layer.  Click the arrow beside the new group to hide all the sub layers.

Drag this group down the layer pallet to a spot you like.  I dragged it down to just above the cloud.  Resize by 50%.  Select group 1 and mirror.  Select the pick tool and moved it up to the top of the tree.  See mine for placement.  

Expand the group layer and hide all they frames by clicking on the eyeball beside each frame.  Leave frame 1 visible.

Ok we are now finished our tag and ready to animate.

Open Animation shop and go back to psp.

With only frame 1 of the animations visible, edit, copy special, copy merged.

Back to Animation shop.

Edit, paste as new animation or keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V.

**Back to psp.

Hide Frame 1 by clicking on the eyeball and unhide frame 3 by clicking on the eyeball. Edit, copy special, copy merged.

Back to Animation Shop.

We need to paste after current frame.  Go to edit, paste after current frame.  Keyboard shortcut  Shift+Ctrl+L**

Repeat from **to** until you have 13 frames in animation shop.  It will tell you on the bottom right corner how many frames you have.  

Go to file Save as, gif and click next and next until you hit finished.  I use the default settings.

Select all, Ctrl+A on the keyboard.  Animation, Frame properties and change the animation speed to 15.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial.  I would love to see your results.