This tutorial was written by me on March 12, 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 Nocturne's beautiful tube "Shalott".  Please do not use this tube without a proper license. You can purchase her at PFD here.

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

PTU Animation:  I am using Rebel Dezigns awesome animation 1673 from pack 556.  You can purchase her awesome animations here.

Mask: 161 by Millie's PSP Madness.  You can download it from her blog here.  Thank you for your awesome masks.  I'm using the jpg version for this tutorial.

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

Font of choice for your name. 

Plug in: 

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.

I will tell you which kit to pull the element from.  Because we are working with a Collab, I am using elements from both kits.

The abbreviations are below for which kit to use.

DD = Deedles Dun It

DBD = Doodles by Designs

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 paper 17 from DD's kit into the tag.  Click the check mark.

Drag Millie's mask into your tag.  Click the check mark. 

Now we need to apply the mask to the paper layer.

Standing on the mask layer.  In the layers pallet, click on the Channels tab.

You will see 4 layers.  We are going to work with the RGB layer.

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

Select the Layers tab.  Select the paper layer then go to Layers, Layer Mask, Reveal selection.

You can now delete Millie's mask as we no longer need it.

Drag DD element 57 into the tag.  Resize 21% and move to the top center of the mask.

Drag DD Spray 16 into the tag.  Resize 40% and move to the top center of the mask.

Drag DBD element 155 into the tag.  Resize 21% and move to the top left of the mask.

Drag DD element 38 into the tag.  Resize 12% and move to the lower right of the moon.

Drag DBD element 153 into the tag.  Resize 17% and move just below the moon.

Drag DD element 75 into the tag.  Resize 14% and move to the right of the first tree.

Drag DD element 5B into the tag.  Resize 9% and move to the bottom of the dead tree.

Drag DBD element 28 into the tag.  Resize 68% and move to the far right of the mask.

Drag DD element 7a into the tag.  Resize 20% and move to the bottom of the rocks.  Duplicate and move slightly down and to the right of the mask.

Drag DBD element 83 into the tag.  Resize 60% and move to the top left of the mask just right of the rocks.

Drag DBD element 84 into the tag.  Resize 34% and move to the left side of the church.

Drag DD cluster 2 into the tag.  Resize 10%, mirror and move to the bottom left of the church.

Drag DBD element 152 into the tag.  Resize 9% and move to the right side of the right spray.  See mine for placement.

Drag DD element 18 into the tag.  Resize 9% and move to the bottom right of the hill.

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

Drag DD cluster 2 into the tag.  Resize 11% and move to the top right of the stone path.

Drag DD element 20 into the tag.  Resize 16% and move to the bottom of the headstone.

Drag DD element 10b into the tag.  Resize 11% and move to the bottom of the church steps.

Drag DBD element 118 into the tag.  Resize 4% and move to the lower right of the right spray.

Drag DD Spray 20 into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the bottom of the sprays.  See mine for placement

Drag DD element 8 into the tag.  Resize 17% and move to the bottom center of the log.

Drag the main tube into the tag.  Resize 30% and move to the center of the mask.

Drag DD element 71 into the tag.  Resize 13% and move to the bottom left of the tube.

Drag DD element 72 into the tag.  Resize 12% and move to the bottom right of the tube.

Drag DD Spray 14 into the tag.  Resize 27% and move to the bottom center of the tube.

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.

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.  

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? 

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 moon layer.

Back to the animation.  Click on Group 1 and drag it into your tag.  Ctrl+T and resize 60%.  Move to the upper portion of the mask.  

Close the original animation and don't save changes.

Now, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the Moon thumbnail.  Now right click on the mask thumbnail and select add mask to selection.

Standing on Group 1 layer, go to Layers>Layer Mask>Reveal selection.

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.

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 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 Timeline viewer. 

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.