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 Fiodorova Maria's beautiful tube "Candice".  Please do not use this tube without a proper license. You can purchase this tube at VM Artists here.

PTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "Meant to Be" created by Doodle by Designs.  You can purchase this beautiful kit here.

PTU Animation:  I am using Rebel Dezigns awesome animation 1130 from pack 376.  You can purchase her awesome animations at CDO here.

Mask:  52 by Vivienne's Paintbox. Thank you for your awesome masks.  You can download it from her blog here. I am using the jpg versions for this tutorial.  

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

Font of choice for your name. I am using Novello Pro 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).

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.

Add a new Raster layer and flood fill it with black.  Drag Vivienne's mask in to PS.

Now drag it onto the canvas and move it to about the middle of the canvas. 

Standing on the mask layer, hold down the ctrl key and select the black filled layer.  Right click and merge layers.

Close the original mask as we no longer need it.

Now drag paper of choice into the tag.  I used paper 18.  Drag this layer under the mask layer.

Select the mask layer.  On the layers pallet, select channels tab.  You will see four layers.  We will only be working with the RGB layer.

Select the RGB layer.  Holding down the Ctrl key, click on the thumbnail of the RGB layer.  You should see marching ants.

Now select the layers tab and select the paper layer.

Standing on the paper layer, go to Layers>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

You can now delete the original mask layer in the layers pallet.

Drag the close up into the tag.  Mirror and resize 50%.  Move into a spot you like best at the top of the mask.  Once happy with placement, hold down the Alt key and select the 

mask layer on the paper layer.  Still holding down the Alt key, drag the mask onto the closeup layer.  You should have two mask layers.  One on the close up tube and one on the paper layer.

Still on the Close up layer, change the blend mode to Luminosity and lower the opacity to 50%.

Drag Wordart into the tag.  Resize 56% and move to the top of the mask.

Drag element 99 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the bottom right of the mask.

Drag element 91 into the tag.  Resize 70% and move to the bottom right of the close up's face.

Drag element 111 into the tag.  Resize 79% and move to the bottom right of the mask just below the close up's face.

Drag element 93 into the tag.  Resize 35% and move to the top right of the flower cluster.

Drag element 19 into the tag.  Resize 45% and move to the top right of the flower cluster.

Drag element 108 into the tag.  Resize 15% and move to the bottom of the tulips.

Drag element 36 into the tag.  Resize 44% and move to the bottom left of the close up's chin.

Drag element 37 into the tag.  Resize 40% and move to the bottom right of the heart.

Drag element 140 into the tag.  Resize 47% and move to the bottom of the watch.

Drag element 138 into the tag.  Resize 60% and move to the bottom left of the mask.

Drag element 129 into the tag.  Resize 40% and move to the bottom left of the heart.

Drag element 43 into the tag.  Resize 13% and move to the bottom left of the watch.

Drag element 98 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the bottom of the heart.

Drag element 143 into the tag.  Resize 29% and move to the right of the clock.

Drag element 107 into the tag.  Resize 20% and move to the bottom of the white leaf.

Drag element 16 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the bottom right by the white flowers.

Drag element 18 into the tag.  Resize 40% and move to the bottom of the heart.

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

Drag element 80 into the tag.  Resize 45% and move to the bottom of the bunnies.

Drag element 25 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the bottom left of the mask by the leaves.

Drag element 92 into the tag.  Resize 40% and move to the bottom left of the mask so it covers the hair.

Drag element 131 into the tag.  Resize 20% and move to the bottom left of the basket.

Drag element 65 into the tag.  Resize 5% and move by the Y in the wordart.

Drag element 22 into the tag.  Resize 75% and move to the bottom left of the mask.

Open the tube in PS.  Select each layer by holding down the Ctrl key and then hit Ctrl + G on the keyboard.

Then drag the group layer into your tag.  Right click on the group and convert to smart object.

Resize 25% and move to the bottom left so it looks like she is kneeling on the pillow.

Drag element 38 into the tag.  Resize 35% and move to the bottom of the tube's skirt.

Drag element 3 into the tag.  Resize 17% and move to the left of the top white heart.

Drag element 20 into the tag.  Resize 19% and move to the bottom of the tube by her legs.

Drag element 133 into the tag.  Resize 10% and move to the bottom right of the top white heart.

Drag element 35 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the bottom of right of the hearts.

Drag element 58 into the tag.  Resize 00% and move to the bottom of the lantern.

Drag element 56 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the bottom of the tube the shoe.

Drag element 54 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move onto the cushion.

Drag element 66 into the tag.  Resize 20% and move to the bottom right of the cushion.

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 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. Lower the opacity to 70%.

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 close up layer.

Back to the animation.  Click on Group 1 and drag it into your tag.  Ctrl+T and resize 40%.  Move to the top of the mask.  Now standing on the group layer, holding down the Ctrl key, left click on the mask icon on the close up tube layer.  You should see marching ants.  Still standing on group 1 layer, go to Layers, Layer mask, reveal selection.

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 Animation (Frames) on the bottom, go to Windows, Timeline.

Next is animating.

Click on the little icon at the top right end of the timeline 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 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.