This tutorial was written by me on December 31, 2023. 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 2024 but this tutorial should work with any version.

You can download the 7 day trial of PS here.

PTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "Mardi Gras Combo" created by Carita Creationz.  This gorgeous combo contains 2 kits which one was not released before.  You can purchase this gorgeous combo here.

PTU AI Tube:  I am using Mardi created by Carita Creationz.  You can purchase this beauty here.

Check out the rest of her store where you can find all her gorgeous kits, AI tubes and CU products here.

PTU Animation:  I am using Kiya Designs awesome animation 190 from pack 63.  You can purchase her animations at her store here.

Mask:  Mask Viv_0041 by Vivienne's Digital Tagging. Thank you for your awesome masks.  You can download it from her blog here. I am using the png versions for this tutorial.  

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.

I am using paper and elements from both kits.  For the Mardi Gras kit I will use MGK for the Mardi Gras Queen kit I will use MGQK

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 Vivienne's mask into the tag.  Resize W: -29.79 x H: -26.94% and move to the upper center of the tag.

Drag paper 1 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize W: -28.99 x H: -26.23% and move over the mask.  Once happy with placement, right click on the paper layer in the layers pallet and select create a clipping mask.

Drag EL22 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 36.90% and move over the mask.

Drag EL26 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Move to the upper right side of the mask.  Duplicate and mirror.  Move to the lower left side of the mask.

Duplicate the mirrored copy.  Resize only the H: to 31.56% and move to the bottom right of the tag.  Select the original element 26 layer and duplicate.  Resize only the H: to 31.56% and move to the bottom center of the tag.  Duplicate this layer and move to the bottom left of the tag.

Drag EL28 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 24.24% and move to the far left of the mask.  Duplicate and move to the far lower right of the mask.

Drag EL33 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 79.13% and move to the top center of the mask. 

Drag EL23 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Move to the upper left of the frame. Duplicate, mirror and move to the lower right of the frame.

Drag EL12 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 26.95%, mirror and move to the left over the upper part of the net. 

Drag EL15 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 87.80% and move to the top right of the mask. 

Drag EL35 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 23.82% and move to top right of the frame.  Duplicate and move to the bottom right of the tag.  Duplicate again and mirror.  Move over the net on the right.  Duplicate the mirrored copy and move to the lower left of the tag. 

Drag EL15 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 31.52% and move to the center of the tag. 

Drag pp2 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 14.67% and drag this layer under the frame layer.  Once happy with placement, select the frame layer.  Using the magic wand, click in the center of the frame.  Select, modify, expand by 3.  Select the paper layer.  Go to Layer, Layer mask, Reveal selection.

Select the top layer.

Drag EL13 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 22.41% and move to the far left side of the frame. 

Drag EL4 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 17.78%, flip and rotate 90 degrees.  Move to the far left of the frame over the feathers.  Duplicate and move to the bottom right of the frame over the feathers.

Drag EL30 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Move to the far lower left of the tag. 

Drag EL9 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 51.85%, mirror and move to the far left below element 4. See mine for placement.

Drag your tube Mardi into the tag.  Resize 52.25% and move to the center of the frame.

Drag EL27 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 15.45% and move to the lower left of the tube. 

Drag EL13 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 38.21% and move to the lower center of the tube. 

Drag EL30 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Mirror and move to the far lower right of the tag. 

Drag EL12b (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 17.95% and rotate -89.90 degrees.  Move to the lower left of the tag.

Drag EL1b (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 15.12% and move to the lower center of the tube. 

Drag EL31 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 19.25% and move to the lower right of the tube.

Drag EL39 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 43.46% and move to the lower left of the tube.

Drag EL1 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 11.98% and move to the lower right of the rope.

Drag EL7 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 32.84% and move to the upper left of the rope.

Drag EL6 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 10.45%, rotate 49.75 and move to the bottom of EL1.

Drag EL18 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 23.89%, mirror and move to the lower left of the tag.

Drag EL2 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 38.21% and move to the lower center of the tag slightly to the left.

Drag EL6b (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 8.58%, rotate -114.26 degrees and move to the bottom of the cake on the left.

Drag EL40 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 41.08% and move to the lower center of the tag.

Drag EL10 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 41.31% and move to the left side over the cake.

Drag EL1 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 30.78% and move to the lower left of the mask.

Drag EL3 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 42.98% and move to the bottom of element 40.

Drag EL20 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 8.26% and move to the bottom right of element 3.

Drag EL31 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 59.07% and move to the lower center of the bottom elements.

Drag EL20 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 21.74% and move to the lower left of the other mask on the right.

Drag EL29 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 13.12% and move to the right side of the Q.

Drag EL22 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 59.23% and move to the right side of the bottle.

Drag EL4 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 18.18% and move to the bottom of the bottle.

Drag EL38 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 20.24% and move to the right of element 4.

Drag EL25 (from MGK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 9.45% and move to the bottom left of element 38.

Drag EL18 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 6.96% and move to the bottom right of element 38.

Drag EL8 (from MGQK Kit) into the tag.  Resize 12.32% and move to the bottom left of element 18.

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

Crop away any extra space.  Resize the tag if needed.  I usually resize my tag to a width of 650 if the tag is to large.

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

Select the element on the bottom of your tag in the layer pallet.  I selected EL28 and click the FX button on the bottom of the layers pallet.

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

Click on the image to view better.

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.  Right 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 :)

Add your copyright and name.

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

Might want to grab a coffee :)

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.  Holding down the Ctrl key, click on the original tube layer in the layer's pallet.  You will see marching ants.  Standing on the duplicate layer, go to Layers, Layer mask, reveal selection.  Duplicate the layer.  Change to top blurred tube to Screen and lower the opacity to 30%.  Select the bottom duplicate blur tube and change the blend mode to soft light and lower the opacity to 50%.

Open Kiya's psd file in PS.  You will notice that there is 25 layers in this animation, and it does not have the group layer. 

We need to group all the layers.  Starting from layer 25, hold down your ctrl key and select each odd layer.  So the next one would be 23, 21, 19 all the way down to layer 1.

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 in your tag.  I selected the top frame layer.

Make sure Auto-Select on the move tool is not checked when you are working with the animation.

Back to the animation.  Click on Group 1 and drag it into your tag.  CTRL + T and resize 70%.  Move to the middle of the frame so it is behind the tube.

Close the original animation and do not 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.

In the center of the Timeline viewer, you will see a drop-down box.  On the drop down select Create Frame Animations.  You should now see frame one in the timeline.

Next is animating.

Click on the little icon (four white lines) at the right end of the animation screen 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, hold down the shift key and select the frame layer (animation frame 21) and click on the trash can in the timeline window.  

Now you should be at the first frame of the animation.  Click on frame 14 and hold down the shift key and select the last frame layer.  Click on the trash can in the timeline window.  This will leave you with 13 frames.

This next step is particularly important.  Any changes you do from here you must be on frame 1 in the Timeline viewer. It will be highlighted in white.

Go to the bottom of your tag in the layer’s 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 is 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 0.1 Sec.  Now click on the play button to view the animation.  Click on it again to stop it.

Click frame 1 again so we do not 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.  My screen shot will look different, but the settings are the same.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

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