This tutorial was written by me on December 29, 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 Tube:  I am using Verymany's beautiful tube "New Year Night 4".  Please do not use this tube without a proper license.  You can purchase this beauty here.

PTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "The New Year" created by Doodle by Design.   You can purchase her awesome kits here.

PTU Animation:  I am using Rebel Dezigns awesome animation from pack 135.  You can purchase her awesome animations at CDO here.

Mask:  Miz_Mask 365 by Mizteeques. Thank you for your awesome masks.  You can download it from her blog here. I am using the png versions for this tutorial.  

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

Font of choice for your name. I am using Sweetheart.

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).

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 Mizteeque's mask into your tag and click the check mark.

Drag paper 1 into your tag.  Click the check mark.  

Standing on the paper layer, right click and create a clipping mask.

Drag element 149 into your tag. Click the check mark and move to the top left of the mask.

Drag element 54 into your tag. Resize 20% and move to the top left corner of the mask.

Drag element 158 into your tag. Click the check mark and move to the top center of the mask.

Drag element 35 into your tag. Click the check mark and move to the top left of element 54.

Drag frame 4 into the tag and click the check mark.  Move to the upper left of the mask.

Select the paper mask layer.  Drag paper of choice into the tag, I used paper 23.  Resize it so it fits your frame.  I just pulled and pushed the corners of the paper until is was an approximate size of the frame.

  It's ok if it stick out past it.

Select the frame.  Using your magic wand and holding down the shift, click inside each opening of the frame.  Select>modify>expand by 3.

Select the paper layer.  Go to Layers>Layer Mask>reveal selection.

We are going to be working under the frame and paper layer.

Select element 158 layer.

Drag element 66 into your tag. Click the check mark and move to the top right of the mask.

Drag element 105 into your tag.  Resize 20% and move to the upper left between the two snowflakes.

Drag element 139 into your tag. Click the check mark and move to the top of the frame.  Duplicate, Free Transform>-90 degrees.  Move to the left of the frame.

Select the original element 139 layer.

Drag element 95 into your tag.  Resize 20% and move to the upper left corner of the frame.

Drag element 126 into your tag.  Resize 10% and move to the right of the black and silver flower.

Drag element 101 into your tag.  Resize 10% and move to the upper left corner of the frame.  Duplicate and move to the right over the black and silver flower.

Drag element 86 into your tag and resize 30%.  Move to the upper left of element 139.

Drag element 162 into your tag and resize 60%.  Move to the upper left corner over the flowers.

Drag element 3 into your tag. Resize 40% and move to the right of the mask.  Right click and rasterize layer.  

Make a selection around the bottom of the keyboard that is sticking out from the bottom the frame and hit delete on the keyboard.  Select none.

Drag element 33 into your tag. Resize 40% and move to the bottom of the frame.  See mine of placement.  

Select the frame layer.

Drag element 137 into your tag. Resize 50% and move to the left side of the frame.

Drag element 13 into your tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom left corner of the frame.

Drag element 14 into your tag. Resize 40% and move to the left side of the frame over the black leaves.

Drag element 17 into your tag. Resize 40% and move to the bottom right corner of the frame.

Drag element 60 into your tag. Resize 26% and move to the left of the clock.

Drag element 65 into your tag. Resize 30% and move to the left of the bottle.

Drag wordart 3 into your tag. Resize 35% and move to the bottom right of the clock.

Drag element 59 into your tag. Resize 15% and move to the bottom left of the card.

Drag wordart 12 into your tag. Resize 50% and move to the bottom of the frame.

Drag wordart 38 into your tag. Resize 50% and move to the bottom of the card.

Drag element 102 into your tag. Resize 15% and move to the bottom of the clock.

Drag element 42 into your tag. Resize 25% and move to the bottom of the disco ball.

Drag the main tube into the tag.  Resize 35% and move to the upper right side of the frame.

Drag element 163 into your tag. Resize 40% and move over the tube's skirt.

Drag element 78 into your tag. Resize 10% and move to the bottom of the tube's legs.

Drag element 113 into your tag. Resize 15% and move to the bottom of right the bow.

Drag element 15 into your tag. Resize 15% and move to the bottom of the bow.

Drag element 82 into your tag. Resize 30% and move to the bottom of the bow.

Drag element 26 into your tag. Resize 30% and move to the bottom of the ribbon.

Drag element 31 into your tag. Resize 30% and move to the bottom left of the ribbon.

Drag element 55 into your tag. Resize 45% and move to the bottom of the lantern.

Drag element 46 into your tag. Resize 10% and move by the cat's tail.

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.  

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 and hold down the shift key, select the layer under the paper layer.  Rick click and paste layer styles.  

Select the frame layer, 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 Rebel Dezigns 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 paper layer under the frame layer.

Back to the animation.  Click on Group 1 and drag it into your tag.  Ctrl+T and resize 40%.  Move to the the left side of the frame.  See mine for placement.  

Duplicate the group layer and move the duplicate group to the top right of the frame.  Rename Group 2.

Now standing on the group layer 1, holding down the ctrl key, left click on the mask icon on the paper layer.  

You should see marching ants.  Still standing on group 1 layer, go to Layers>Layer mask>reveal selection.  

Repeat the above step for group 2.

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 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.

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, Timeline.

Next is animating.

If you have not animated before, please see Rene's tutorial on the basics of animating (link in the beginning of the tutorial).

Select Create Frame animation.

Click on the little icon at the right end of the animation timeline 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 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 other and typed 0.15 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.

Ok now here comes the tricky part.

Select frame 13  and duplicate this frame.  On frame 14 layer, click on the eyeball of group 1 to hide it.  Duplicate this frame 8 more times so you have a total of 22 frames.

Pay close attention to which frames you are selecting.  The following frames should be visible of the groups.

Frame 10. Group 1 Frame 19 - Group 2 Frame 1.

Frame 11.  Group 1 Frame 21 - Group 2 Frame 3.

Frame 12.  Group 1 Frame 23 - Group 2 Frame 5.

Frame 13. Group 1 Frame 25 - Group 2 Frame 7.

Frame 14 Only group 2 should be visible and frame 9.

Frame 15 - Group 2 Frame 11

Frame 16 - Group 2 Frame 13

Frame 17 - Group 2 Frame 15

Frame 18 - Group 2 frame 17

Frame 19 - Group 2 Frame 19

Frame 20 - Group 2 Frame 21

Frame 21 - Group 2 Frame 23

Frame 22 - Group 2 Frame 25

Select frame 1 and play your animation.

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.  Click on image to enlarge it.

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