Circles & Stripes - Forum Set Tutorial

This tutorial was written February 8, 2012 and I used Corel X3, but it should work in other versions as well.

The supplies you need:
A tube of choice.
I used an awesome tube from Ed Mironiuk. He was with CDO at the time this tutorial was written.

Plugins:
Mura Meister - Copies
Andrew Filter 18 - Before The Dawn
Neology Filter Pack - TV Mania
Eye Candy 5 Impact - Perspective Shadow (Optional)
Eye Candy 5 -  Extrude (Optional)

Font of choice. I used "Kabel Book BT".Lets get started!Open a new image 600x250.
Floodfill with a colour from your tube.

Set the background colour to a contrasting colour. 
Choose your eclipse tool (where you find preset shapes) and set it to circle. Draw a small circle on your tag. See my example for size. Center on canvas and convert to raster.
Add Mura Meister Copies with these settings:

Duplicate the circle layer. On the bottom layer, go to Adjust - Blur - Gaussian Blur. Set it to 3.
On the top layer add this drop shadow: 

Go to your bottom layer and duplicate it twice. On the middle layer, add "Before The Dawn" with default settings. Change the layer properties to Luminance(L)

On the next layer, add "TV Mania" with these settings: 

Set the opacity of this layer to 60%.

Back on the top layer,add your tube and place where you like. Add a blurry drop shadow. I used Eye Candy 5, Perspective Shadow with the blurry setting.

Crop your tag.

With your Rectangle Tool active, with line width 2 to 4, draw a rectangle from top to bottom. See my tag for reference. Convert to Raster.
With your magic wand, click inside the rectangle and expand the selection by 1.
Add a new layer under the rectangle and floodfill with the same colour that you used for your background.
Add TV Mania with the same settings like before, but untick H/V Toggle.

Add a drop shadow to the rectangle frame layer: 

Add  a new layer and floodfill with a contrasting colour. Go to Selections - Select All - Modify - Contract with 2 pixels. Press Delete. Deselect.
Add the same drop shadow you did on the rectangle frame.

Add your name.
I used Eye Candy 5 Impact - Extrude with these settings: 

I used a contrasting colour for the effect on the name. Add a drop shadow.
Add your copyright and save it.

AVATAR:

Click Shift D on your tag to duplicate it. Remove the tube layer. and crop to 150x150.
Add the same 2 pixel selection border and drop shadow, like you did on your siggie/banner.
Add your initials and save.
Here is an example with the avatar showing:

This one is for any of my friends out there that is called Fiona ;))


Thanks for looking!