Supplies:
Paintshop Pro (I use V9)
Colourful tube or image of choice, mine is by Armando Huerta and used with a MPT license, this tube is actually a freebie.
Filters: Muras Meister Copies (if you're using a tube), Visman Extravaganza and Visman Experimental, Alien Skin Xenofex2, Color Rave Atmospherizer 1.1 and AAA Frames. Please google for these, if you don't have them yet.
Font(s) of choice, mine are Noir-et-blanc and NipAndTuck.

Open your tube/image and a new canvas 600x250 or 500x500. Paste the image/tube into canvas, possibly rotate it, so it fills out most of it already. The image you can stretch to fit using the raster deform tool, for the tube apply Mura's Meister Copies, preset wallpaper.
Now apply VM Extravaganza Color Fusion, then VM Experimental Deep Crunch, I changed the depth to 79.
Next apply Effects/Texture Effects/Tiles with these settings.

Now apply Effects/edge Effects/Dilate. And Effects/Illumination/Sunburst with these settings.

On this apply Alien Skin Xenofex2 Constellation with these settings.

Paste your tube where you like it best, maybe resize, definitely give it a dropshadow and crop the tag merged opaque. If you use an image, place at an edge of your tag, the straight edge that is still visible needs to be blended into the background. For this you select the edge with your freehand selection tool. Just draw a rough rectangle, not taking away too much of the art. Then go to Selections/Modify/Feather and set to about 23. Now hit the delete key on your keyboard until you like what you see. Change the blend mode also, I used Screen. For a more detailed description of feathering an image see my Industrial Blend tutorial. Also crop mergerd opaque.

When your're happy with your layout, merge visible and apply AAA Frames/Foto Frame, I used the preset Dark with Gray Shadow at a width of 10. Now go and find a quote which goes with the art you chose, google quote + a word to best describe what you see. Make sure you find one which you can attribute to a person. Or simply make up your own. Choose a font which looks nice on your tag and write out the quote, place it where you like it best. Add a dropshadow in black or white. I then also applied Color Rave Atmospherizer 1.1 to my quote, change the sliders to taste. Add all the relevant credits. Save as a psp file for further use. Add a name to the tag, dropshadow and Color Rave it also. I resized the tag 85%.
If you want an avatar to go with your forum tag, make a copy of the tag with shift+D, and activate the crop tool. Write 150 in Width and Height and the move that square about until you see something you like. Apply the crop by clicking on the check mark. Apply the frame filter here also. And add credits. And the name of course.;o)

Here are a couple more examples, so you can see how many different looks this tutorial can give you.

This tutorial was created 29th June 2010, and is the sole property of ooh...babelicious. Similarity to other tutorials is purely coincidental. Do not copy this or any of my tutorials, or any part of my tutorials, to another site unless you have express permission from me to do so. If you want to share, send the URL, do not direct link or offer on your site. Give credit where credit is due. Do not script this tutorial and offer to others.

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