Misses BeeHaven Scrapbooking

Shimmering can be used pretty much any scrap booking element.

And the best part is you really do not need any additional plug-in to achieve this effect with Paint Shop Pro.

For this tutorial I have included a heart element that you can use to follow with me, Click here to download the element. Once you have learnt the technique to apply the shimmer effect you can then go and try it on your own if you wish.

1. Firstly you need to make your scrapbook element or open an existing element you have that you would like to shimmer.NOTE: It is important to mention that when using this effect if can only be applied to a plain item that has no textured areas. If you are designing your element, make it from scratch as a flat colour image with no texture or open an element that has no textures such as the middle of a metal heart or maybe a sticker or even a flower.
2. Using the magic wand click inside the heart (select a blank area of the element) You should see the marching ants to indicated the area selected.
   
3. Create a new raster layer.
4. Click on Selections, Modify and Feather with the setting of 2.
5. Using the Material Pallet set the background to a solid colour of your choice; this will be the background colour of your shimmer. I have used #92278f
6. Select a light gradient not a multi colour gradient as a light single colour works do better. I have used #eab3f5
   I found the gradient foreground setting gives a pretty effect also. If you would like to use this effect set your background and foreground colours. Next adjust your foreground pallet to use Gradient by clicking on the Gradient tab. From the list select the foreground background gradient. Feel free to use the angle setting as you like, I chose to use the angle set to 90 degree and repeats 0.
7. Using the fill tool fill your selection with the gradient or solid background colour of choice.
   
8. Next for the shimmer effect, we need to use the noise settings of Paint shop pro. With your area still selected Click on Effects, Adjust and Add Remove Noise with the noise set between 20 to 50 depending on the look you are after, and select the uniform option and finally a tick in Monochrome. Alternatively you can also use a filter, i use filters unlimited 2 -noise and fool with settings until I find something I like.
   This is how you give your shimmer effect to elements.
   
9. To add a little more wow factor I added a clear effect or glass effect as you may call it. Making sure the shimmer layer is the active layer, lower opacity of the layer to around 50 percent.
   You can also use the Eye Candy Glass plugin for a nice glass effect if you have the plugin.
   
10. Lastly merge your layers visible and save your element as a PNG transparent file.

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