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*Element
ELEMENT: Create Christmas Tinsel
By Shelleyrae Cusbert 2007
Aug 30, 2007, 02:30

The first step is to create your own tinsel brush.
Create a transparent canvas at 300ppi and 400 pixels by 400 pixels. View> Fit on screen
Select the Freeform Pen Tool. Make sure black is your foreground color.


On the Options bar choose Paths


You need to draw something similar to that below. Don’t worry about uneven heights or widths but do try to keep the center section fairly small.


Now on the same layer draw another similar shape that fills in the spaces of the first.


Switch to the Paths Palette, right click on the Work Path layer and choose Make a Selection


Choose a feather radius between .5 and 1.5 and make sure Anti Aliased is checked with New Selection as the operation. Select OK


Now press ALT and Backspace keys to fill the selection with black.
Switch back to the layer palette and deselect the selection.
Use this shape to create your tinsel brush. Draw a selection marquee around the brush and choose Edit> Define Brush Preset and name your brush. Don’t forget to save it using the preset manage so you don’t have to do it all over again!


Now create a new canvas at your preferred size
With the Freeform Pen Tool draw a path for the tinsel to follow.



Select the Brush Tool


Select the tinsel brush you made previously. You can play with the settings to achieve a look you prefer. Here I have selected a Diameter of 255px and Spacing of 25%


Select Shape Dynamics and experiment with the size and angle jitter controls


Select Scattering and choose a low percentage and check Both Axes


Select Texture and choose Gravel from the Photoshop default Rocks Pattern Palette. Change the Blending mode to Color Burn.


Select Color Dynamics.
In your color palette choose two colors for foreground and background. Darker more saturated colors work more effectively.


Then increase the Foreground/Background jitter, Hue Jitter and Saturation Jitter


Lastly select Noise and Smoothing.


Choose the Paths Palette and select Stroke Path with brush icon


Deselect the Work Path by clicking anywhere in the palette and switch back to the layer palette
Open the blending options palette and choose Pattern Overlay
Load Rock Patterns from the standard Photoshop pattern and choose Black Marble. Adjust the Mode to Color Burn and reduce the opacity to about 80%. Click OK



Select Filter>Pixelate>Pointillize and select 3.


Choose Edit> Fade Pointillize and change the blending mode to Color Burn and choose a opacity amount of about 25%. Choose OK


Choose Filter> Noise> Add Noise – use an Uniform amount under 15% - watch the change on the workspace rather than the preview.


Choose Edit> Fade Add Noise and choose Mode: Color burn and an opacity amount of about 40%. Then select Ok


Finally, Add a Drop Shadow with the Layer Styles pallete


Using the Hue and Saturation command will allow you to change the colors of your tinsel


View at 100%


Create tinsel to drape on your pages or a Christmas wreath to decorate.




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