This tutorial was written by me on February 13, 2021. 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 Tube:  I am using Verymany's beautiful tube "Forest Elf 11".  Please do not use this tube without a proper license. You can purchase it here.

PTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "Elfs, fairies N gnomes" created by Bella Caribena.  You can purchase her beautiful kit here.

PTU Animation:  I am using Kiya Designs awesome animation 179 from pack 59.  You can purchase her awesome animations here.

Mask:  Included in the kit.

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

Font of choice for your name. I am using Kirstine which you can purchase here.  

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 but the resizing will be different :).  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 often.

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 mask 3 into your tag and click the check mark.  Move to the top right corner.  Duplicate, mirror and move to the bottom left corner of the canvas.

Drag element 31 into the tag.  Resize 47% and move to the top right of the top mask.

Drag element 11 into the tag.  Click the checkmark and move to the top of the top mask.

Drag element 22 into the tag.  Click the checkmark and move to the top left of the top mask.

Drag element 34 into the tag.  Click the checkmark and move to the right of the tree.

Drag element 24 into the tag.  Click the checkmark and move to the right over the waterfall and tree.

Drag element 135 into the tag.  Resize 10% and move onto the tree slightly to the left.  See mine for placement.

Drag element 72 into the tag.  Resize 75% and move to the left of the tree.

Drag element 33 into the tag.  Resize 80% and move to the bottom of the tree.

Drag element 136 into the tag.  Resize 15% and move to the bottom right of element 33.

Drag element 122 into the tag.  Resize 27% and move to the top right of element 136.

Drag element 13 into the tag.  Click the checkmark and move to the bottom of element 33.  Duplicate and move to the bottom left of the mask.  See mine for placement.

Drag element 10 into the tag.  Resize 63% and move to the bottom left of waterfall.

Drag element 37 into the tag.  Resize 54% and move to the bottom right element 33.

Drag element 12 into the tag.  Click the checkmark and move over the grass.

Drag element 36 into the tag.  Resize 57% and move to the bottom left of element 33.

Drag element 18 into the tag.  Resize 38% and move to the bottom of element 36.

Drag element 94 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the bottom of rock.

Drag element 125 into the tag.  Resize 28% and move to the bottom of left of the rock.

Drag element 123 into the tag.  Resize 28% and move to the left of the bird in the tree.

Drag element 60 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the left in front of the mushroom.

Drag the main tube into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the center of the tag so it looks like her hand is on the unicorn.

Drag element 15 into the tag.  Resize 22% and move to the bottom of the tube.

Drag element 7 into the tag.  Resize 27% and move to the bottom right of the tube.

Drag element 8 into the tag.  Resize 32% and move to the bottom of left of the tube.

Drag element 108 into the tag.  Resize 43% and move to the bottom right of the tube.

Drag element 63 into the tag.  Resize 38% and move to the bottom center of the tube.

Drag element 9 into the tag.  Resize 56% and move to the bottom right of the tree house.

Drag element 66 into the tag.  Resize 36% and move to the bottom left of the tree stump.

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

Drag element 30 into the tag.  Resize 14% and move to the top of the rocks.

Drag element 67 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the bottom left of the book.

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.  The sizing in the screen shot will be different. Click on the chain link then on the longest side type in 650 Pixels.  All other settings are the same.

Oh almost forgot we need to drop shadow all of our elements.  I actually do the drop shadow at the end :)

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, holding down the shift key, select the top layer.  Right click and paste layer styles.  

Drop shadow complete :)

Select the tube layer, right click and duplicate.

Standing on the duplicate layer, right click and clear layer style.  Go to Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur and type in 3.  Click ok.  Change the blend mode to soft light.

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 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 odd the 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, 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 waterfall layer.

Back to the animation.  Click on Group 1 and drag it into your tag.  Ctrl+T and resize 35%.  Move to the bottom of the waterfall.  

Close the original animation and don't save changes.

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 Timeline viewer is open on the bottom of PS.  I you do not see a row that has Timeline on the bottom, go to Windows, Timeline.

Next is animating.

In the Timeline Window, click on the drop down option in the center of the viewer.  Select Create Frame Animation.

Click on the four lined icon at the top right corner of the Timeline viewer then 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 14 and hit the trash can.  Repeat for all the remaining frames.  You should be left with 13 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. It will be highlighted in blue.

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 the eyeball a couple of times to make it visible in all the animation frames.  It's a Photoshop thing.  Do not touch the group layer.

Next, I want to slow down the animation.  With the first frame selected, hold down the shift key and click on frame 13.  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.

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