This tutorial was written by me on January 30, 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 PS.

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 Adobe Photoshop 2021 but this tutorial should work with any version.

You can download the 7 day trial of PS here.

PTU Animated tube: I am using Kiya Designs new animated Lady Mishka tube "Christina".  I am using the Pink Angel psd file.  You can purchase this beauty at Kiya Designs store here.

Kiya also has a non animated Lady Mishka tube "Christina" if you do not want to use the animated tube.  You can purchase this beauty here.

PTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "Cupids Arrow" created by Bella Caribena.  This kit is available for purchase at Bella's store here.

PTU Animation:  I am using Kiya Designs awesome Valentine Bonus Pack which is available for free with any $10.00 purchase. 

This bonus pack is only available until January 31, 2021 You can purchase her awesome animations here.

Mask:  DD Valentine21_2 by Dangerously Delicious Designz. Thank you for your awesome masks.  This mask is no longer available.

Please see Rene's Animation How-to for PS here.  

Font of choice for your name. 

Plug in: None

Drop shadow of choice.

Please read all the Artist's/Designer's TOU.

To open an image, I click on the element or paper in the file folder and drag it into PS.

To transfer an element or paper in PS to my tag, I left click and drag it into my working canvas.  

The other way is to left click and drag the element from the folder right onto your tag. 

Either way you will get the same results :).  I will be using the both method for this tutorial.

For resizing and rotating I use the Ctrl+T command.

To mirror or Flip go to Edit, Transform, Flip Horizontal (mirror) or Flip vertical (Flip).

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

Let's get started.

Open a new 800x800 transparent image.  We will resize later.

Go to layers, New fill layer, solid color.  When the pop up window appears type in FFFFFF and click ok.

Drag paper 6 into the mask.  Click the check mark.

Drag Dee's mask into the tag.  Click the check mark.  

Now comes the fun.  In the Layers pallet, click on the Channels tab.  You will see four mask layers.  We want to work with the RGB layer.  

Holding down the CTRL key, click on the RGB thumbnail.  You should see marching ants.

Now click on the Layers tab and select your paper layer.  Go to Layers>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.  You can now delete the original layer mask above the paper layer as we no longer require it.

Drag paper 4 into the tag.  Click the check mark.  Holding down the Ctrl key, click on the mask icon on the paper below.  You should see marching ants. Go to Layers>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Change the blend mode of this layer to Darken.

 

Drag element 14 into the tag. Click on the check mark.  Move to the top right of the mask.  

Select the layer under the frame and drag paper 2 into the tag.  Resize 29% and move under the frame.

Select the frame layer.  Using your magic wand, click inside the frame.  Select>Modify>Expand by 3.

Select the paper layer under the frame.  Go to Layers>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Select the frame layer.

Drag element 28 into the tag.  Click the check mark and move to the top of the frame.

Drag element 27 into the tag.  Click the check mark and move to the bottom right of the frame.

Drag element 29 into the tag.  Click the check mark and move to the bottom left of the frame.

Drag element 39 into the tag.  Resize 60% and move to the left of the frame.

Drag element 53 into the tag.  Resize 67% and move to the bottom left of element 39.

Drag element 60 into the tag.  Click the check mark and move to the bottom left of the frame.

Drag element 12 into the tag.  Resize 67% and move to the bottom of element 60 about midway.

Drag element 3 into the tag.  Resize 36% and move to the top center of the frame.

Drag element 18 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the left of the arrows.

Drag element 34 into the tag.  Resize 36% and move to the bottom of the heart sucker.

Drag element 8 into the tag.  Resize 19% and move to the bottom of the couple.

Open Kiya's Pink Angel psd file in PS.  Starting from frame 10, hold down the shift key and select frame 1.  Hit Ctrl + G on the keyboard to group the frames.

Drag the group into your tag and resize 70%.  Move to the group bottom of the mask.  Click on the arrow by the group folder to expand it.  Now click on the

eye of each of the frames to hide it but leave frame 1 visible.  Click on the arrow by the group to hide the layers again.

Drag element 22 into the tag.  Click the check mark and move to the bottom of the tube.

Drag element 19 into the tag.  Resize 50% and move to the bottom left of the cloud.

Drag element 20 into the tag.  Resize 18% and move to the bottom left of the ribbon.

Drag element 10 into the tag.  Resize 24% and move to the bottom of the envelop.

Drag element 32 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the bottom left of the envelop.

Drag element 16 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the bottom of the diary.

Drag element 9 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the left side of the basket of the air balloon.

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

Crop away any extra space.  

Image, Image Size and resize 650 on the longest side.  See my settings below.

Oh almost forgot we need to drop shadow all of our elements.

Select the element on the bottom of your tag in the layer pallet and double click it.

A layer style window will pop up.  Click on Drop shadow. and use the following settings.

Now right click on the layer you just applied the drop shadow.  Click copy layer style.

Now click on the layer above and hold down the shift key, click on the top layer.  Right click and paste layer style.    Drop shadow complete :)

Add your copyright and name.

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

Might want to grab a coffee :)

Open Kiya Designs Val Bonus 01 psd file in PS.  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 layers.  Starting from layer 25, hold down your control key and select each  of the following layers:

25, 23, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 5, 3 and 1.

This will give us the 10 frames to match the tube frame layers.  

Go to Layers, Group layers or Ctrl + G on the keyboard.  You will see group 1 folder at the top. Make sure Group 1 is selected.

Select the layer you would like the animation to be placed.  I selected the paper layer under the frame.

Back to the animation.  Click on Group 1 and drag it into your tag.  Ctrl+T and resize 50%.  Move to a spot you like best inside the frame.  

Close the original animation and don't save changes.

Standing on the group layer, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the mask icon on the paper layer just under it.  Now go to Layers>Layer Mask>Reveal selection.

Click on the little white arrow beside Group 1 to expand it.  Click on the eyeball of each layer to hide it but leave frame layer 1 visible.  Click on the arrow beside group one to hide it as we do not want to accidentally make any changes.

Next make sure your animation viewer is open on the bottom of PS.  I you do not see a row that has Animation (Frames) on the bottom, go to Windows, Animation.

Next is animating.

Click on the little four line icon at the right end of the animation screen then select make frames from layers.

When the pop up shows select  Make Frames from Layers

You are going to see a big mess in the animation window but we are going to fix this.

Click on the first frame and click on the trash can in the animation window.  Repeat this until you reach the first frame of the animation.  

Now you should be at the first frame of the animation.  Click on frame 11 and hit the trash can.  Repeat for all the remaining frames.  You should be left with 10 frames in the animation window.  This is the amount of frames for our animation.

This next step is very important.  Any changes you do from here you must be on frame 1 in the animation window unless otherwise stated. 

Go to the bottom of your tag in the layers pallet.  Make sure you have animation frame 1 selected.

Click on the eyeball beside each layer to make it visible.  For the white base layer you may have to click on it a couple of times to make it visible in all the animation frames.  It's a Photoshop thing.  

Do not touch the animation group layer.  For the Tube group layer just click on the eyeball for the group.  We will come back to this.

All layers visible with the exception of the tube animation?  Yes, ok next step.

I learnt this from playing with Rene's tutorials (link in the beginning of the tutorial).

With frame one highlighted, make sure all your tube animation is hidden.  All tube animation hidden?  Next duplicate the first frame.  This should give you 11 frames.

Select frame 2 in the timeline window and unhide the first frame of the tube animation.  

Select frame 1 in the timeline window and delete it.  You now should have 10 frames again.

Frame 1 should have layer 1 of the tube animation visible.  

Now select frame 2 and unhide frame layer 2 of the tube animation.

Repeat the above steps for each of the animation frames.  Once you have reached frame 10 and unhide the tube animation, click on frame one again so you don't accidently make any changes.

Next, I want to slow down the animation.  With the first frame selected in the timeline window, hold down the shift key and click on frame 10.  This will select all the frames.

Next, click on the little black arrow beside the 0 sec as we want to change the speed.  A pop up window will appear.  

I selected 0.2 Sec.  Now click on the play button to view the animation.  Click on it again to stop it.

Click frame 1 again so we don't accidentally make any changes.

Now to save our tag as a gif.

Go to File, Export save for Web (Legacy).

A new pop up window will appear.  Change the settings to my screen shot below.  Click on the image to enlarge it if needed.  Click save.  My screen shot will look different but the settings are the same for animating.

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