Start by downloading everything you need to do this tutorial  I have created a zipped file containing the image above. (Just click on the image)

Open the zipped file by clicking above and save it to your images folder or where you keep your stationery images. Save the sidefade.msk mask file to your PSP7/Masks folder.

Open Paint Shop Pro and load up this image from where you keep your stationery images.  Now make two copies of this image (<CTRL + C> and then Edit>Paste>As new image or Edit>Copy and then Edit>Paste>As new image twice)

Now you can close the original/first image and then click on one of the copies as were going to work on that first. (It might pay you to work with Image1 first and later work on Image2)

Select Image1 and click on Edit>Copy.

Open Harmwave or HarmTile'99 (you can get that from my Freebies Page) and Edit>Paste>Replace Image. Now click on Image>Seamless>Edge Merge>1/4.

This will tesselate the edges of the image 25% in from each edge.

Click on Edit>Copy and paste this changed image into Image1 in PSP via Edit>Paste as New layer.

Now select Layers>Merge>Merge All (Flatten)

And we are finished with Image1 for the moment.

Select Image2 and follow the same steps to now but select 1/16th as the percentage edge merge in Harmwave or HarmTile '99.

you'll end up with two images that seem very different but they will eventually allow for seamless tiling in stationery - that's pretty important huh!!

Now we want to open a new background strip and we go for 1024/1025 wide and we want to select the height of images 1 and 2 - this we find at the bottom right of the PSP Window in the Status Bar. In this case it is 335 pixels height.

Click on New>Image and type in your settings as shown below.

This will provide you a transparent background strip ready for all the bits and bobs we are going to create and add.

Now, in PSP7, click on the foreground colour swatch where you see a little black triangle and you'll see the choice to select colour, gradient, pattern or texture.

Select the dotted square as below.

This will open the Patterns folder which will load into PSP7 . . . . . this will display the last pattern selected. Click on the browser arrow to the side of the pattern shown and scroll up - there you will see all your open images as choices to select as patterns. Choose Image2.

Select the floodfill tool and floodfill the background strip with your source pattern with a LEFT click.

Now reselect Image2 and save the image as a BMP file in the PSP7/Textures folder.

** Please note: You can of course save this file as a *.PSD file format if you wish to use the Texturiser plugin instead!! **

This will allow us to use the Texture Effect built into PSP7.

Reselect the background strip and clcik on Effects>Texture Effects>Texture. Use the scroll bar beside the examle texture and scroll down to where you see your saved texture (PSP7 neatly allows you to run your mouse over each displayed texture to enable you to see the filename - look for your saved texture and if you cannot see it clearly have a look see if you can find it by name).

I then set the relief of the texture as 5 for smoothness and 2 for depth - this is a personal choice thing!

Click on OK and you'll now have the basis for the finished result.

We're now moving back to Image1

Provided you've installed the sidefade.msk Mask to your Masks folder - Select the Image1 as your 'open image' and select the sidefade.msk from "Masks>Load from Disk" . . . . . .

You will see this resulting effect to Image1 . . . . . . the left side of the image is faded with a gradual blend.

Click on Masks>Invert and you'll see the fade move over to the right . . . . .

Select colourise from the Colour Menu . . . . . . . choose a match of hue and saturation which results in a colour you like and which you feel enhances the image (I liked this peach colour so I kept the settings as in the example below)

Copy the image and Paste as New layer onto the prepared background. You will need to move the layer about left to right and right to left to get it sitting nicely above the immediate copy below - in this case the near wing of the nearest seagull was my point of reference and you may need to go View>Zoom in to get a close look of the physical match line-for-line.

When done . . . . . . merge layers

Stay selected on the background strip and create a new Raster layer via the Layers Menu.

Change the foreground swatch to solid colour and pick a colour that is similar but a darker hue to the colour you selected for the faded border. I went for a tangerine colour. Floodfill the new layer using the Paint-fill tool and you'll find you lose site of the bottom layer . . . . . . . . . like this . . . . .

Click on the floating Layers Palette and drag back the opacity of the top layer . . . . .

I chose 45 because it gave me the appearance I was looking for!

Hey presto. Merge all layers (Flatten) and save as JPEG format and you have the basis for a stunning blended image.

I hope you enjoy trying this out . . . . . have fun anyway!