After downloading and installing Toadie's filters we created a radial button according to the lesson, with some of our own 'touch'. Then we created some more buttons using different plugins. These are shown below with the plugins used identified.

I then played with the original button and applied other Toadie effects to it. After doing the first layer I reduced the tubed button and placed it in the center and applied another effect. Then I added a background, a little texture effect, and a frame. The part in between the gold also had the Toadie filter applied, then flipped and mirrored and applied again.

I really like some of the Toadie effects so tried one more. I applied another Toadie effect to the button I made in Dream Suite. Then I added a plain gray background. Pretty dull, so I added some Redfield Mesh. Then when I went to check and see what I'd used, it applied it again and I ended up with this neat effect. Amazing what a little playing can produce! :)

Next we started playing with the frames. I must admit that I have rarely used the PSP frames as I find most of them to be, well, um, not to my taste. But, for the first image we were to add a PSP frame to one of our images. I found one that actually looked more like a mat and then I changed the color of it to coordinate with my photo, and added a texture. Then I added the silver traditional frame.

Having seen many of the PSP frames, I was glad to spend a little time learning how to make and save frames. The first frame is made according to the lesson. I tried to use colors that would complement the photo.

In the next Toadie frame I added a bevel to the outer frame and some texture to the inner mat. These photos were taken 9/30/02 during my one-day trip to Cleveland. My friends wanted Choctaw, blue collar, to teach his sister how to swim. She at least got in over her head, but was still doing a good deal of splashing. :)

Then it was time to create our own frame. I decided to use my first digital painting for my frame. I made the frame a bit differently from the lesson. Mine has two mats as I wanted to add a drop shadow with the off-white mat and again with the outer frame. Therefore, I did each as a separate layer and then did a merge|visible at the end. I added some texture to the off-white mat and a soft bevel to the outer red frame.

If you would like my countryred frame, you may download it HERE. Place this frame in you PSP7 Frames folder.

The last part of the lesson was on web exporting. While I almost always export all JPGs, I don't work with GIFs that much. This was good practice. For the first image I used three tubes of pitchers that I've made. Two of them are transparent and I wanted to see how that would work. I also wanted to play with the dithering to see at what point it was acceptable. In this case, I think I used 70%. That seems like a lot.

For my final image, another GIF, I used two tubes of my first attempt at drawing faces after creating the vector shapes. I reduced the dithering to 20% and think they look ok. What I don't remember is if the size is larger or smaller than it would be if I'd saved as a JPG. Of course, with a JPG I would also have a background which would add to the size.

Thanks once again for providing more information on PSP! One more week to go - and the time has really flown by! Oh, and I did get over there to register for the Master class. Mon emailed me at work yesterday to remind me after she'd signed up. Thanks, Mon!