This tutorial was written by me on January 1, 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 Kiya Design's beautiful tube "Snow Queen".  Please do not use this tube without a proper license. 

You can purchase this beautiful tube at Kiya's store here.   I am using the Ice layers for this tutorial.

FTU Kit:  I am using a gorgeous kit called "Barbie - Winter Queen" created by Graphics of Fantasy.  This gorgeous free kit can be found here.  You will need to register to download the kits.

PTU animation.  I am using Kiya Design's awesome animation from pack 37.  You can purchase it at her store here.

Mask:  344 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.  

Font of choice for your name. I used a PTU font called Winter Anything 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 :).  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.

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.

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 the canvas.  Click the check mark and move to the upper left corner.

Drag paper 5 into the tag.  Move it so it fits over the mask.  Click the check mark.  

Standing on the paper layer, go to Layers>Layer mask>Reveal selection.  

Drag element 92 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the top left of the mask.

Drag element 76 into the tag. Resize 40% and move to the top left of the mask over the tree.

Drag element 63 into the tag. Resize 60% and move to the top left of the mask.

Drag element 210 into the tag. Resize 60% and move to the top left of the mask.

Drag element 69 into the tag. Resize 20% and move to the bottom of the castle.

Drag element 67 into the tag. Resize 10% and move to the bottom of the snow.

Drag element 186 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom of the moon.  Duplicate the layer.  Holding down the Ctrl key select the original layer.  With both layers selected, right click and merge layers.

Drag element 65 into the tag. Resize 10%, mirror and move to the right over the moon.

Drag element 199 into the tag. Resize 70% and move to the bottom of the ice pond.

Drag element 202 into the tag. Resize 15% and move to the bottom left of the moon.

Drag element 203 into the tag. Resize 40% and move to the bottom of the moon.

Drag element 209 into the tag. Resize 70% and move to the bottom of the pillar.

Drag element 192 into the tag. Resize 10% and move to the bottom of the pillar.

Drag element 206 into the tag. Click the check mark and move onto the snow.

Drag element 201 into the tag. Resize 20% and move to the top right of the castle.

Drag element 158 into the tag. Click the check mark and move to the bottom of the mask.

Drag your tube into the tag and resize by 30%.  Move over the white tree.

Drag element 113 into the tag.  Resize 40% and move to the bottom of the tube.

Drag element 16 into the tag.  Click the check mark and move to the bottom of the tube.

Drag element 42 into the tag.  Resize 20% and move to the bottom left of the tube.

Drag element 97 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the bottom center of the tube.

Drag element 10 into the tag.  Resize 35% and move to the bottom left of the tube.

Drag element 183 into the tag.  Resize 35% and move to the bottom right of the snowballs.

Drag element 150 into the tag.  Resize 10% and move to the right of the pine cone.

Drag element 148 into the tag.  Resize 25% and move to the left of the crystal ball.

Drag element 146 into the tag.  Resize 20% and move in front of the snowballs.

Drag element 77 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the right of the mushrooms.

Drag element 163 into the tag.  Resize 35% and move in front of the mushrooms.

Drag element 160 into the tag.  Resize 5% and move to the left of the crystal ball.

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 and select 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.

Remember if you have not animated in photoshop you might want to check our Rene's tutorial on animating.  Link is at the top of the tutorial.

Might want to grab a coffee :)

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.  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 layer under the tube layer.

Back to the animation.  Click on Group 1 and drag it into your tag.  Ctrl+T and resize 50%.  Move to the center of your tag.  Don't worry if it is over the outside of the tag as we will fix this.  

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.

Now we need to add a mask layer to the animation group.  This part is a bit tedious but worth the results.

Holding down the Ctrl key, click on the mask thumbnail.  Now we need to do the following for each layer.

Skip the paper layer.

Now right click on the thumbnail of the layer above the paper layer.  On the pop out menu select Add Transparency Mask.  

Repeat the above steps for each layer including the bottom tube layer.  Do not select the animation group layer.

Now we should have marching ants all around the tag.  Select group 1 layer.  Go to Layers>Layer Mask>Reveal selection.  

Now the animation will be contained within the tag.

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.

In the timeline window on the bottom click Create Frame Animation.

Next is animating.

Click on the little three lined 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 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, save for web device.

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.