Popping Out - forum set with Ella Jeans

This tutorial was written on September 10, 2013. I used Corel X5, but it should work in other versions as well.
Any similarity to any other tutorial is purely coincidental.
Please look at my TOU for more info.

The supplies you need:
An image of choice. I used an image by Ella Jeans. I purchased this when she was selling at MTA. You can purchase her art at her website.
A font of choice. I used “A Gentle Touch".

Materials used:
Toadies – What Are You?
VM Toolbox – Motion Trail
Eye Candy 4000 – Gradient Glow

Drop shadow used in this tutorial: 2, 2, 50, 5, Black.

Create a new image 600 x 300 and paste the image you are going to use. You might have to resize it if it’s too big, or move it around so that you get the part of the image you want to use. I rotated mine and resized it with the pick tool so it’s a little bit bigger than the canvas size.

I tubed some of the flowers from the image to make them pop out more. This is optional.

Activate the Rectangle Tool, set it to Square, line with 5. Draw out a square. See my siggie for placement and size.

Duplicate it 3 times and move in to position. Merge the frames and move underneath the tubed flowers (if you did this).

Duplicate the image layer so you have a total of 4 (1 original and 3 duplicates).

With your Magic Wand active, click inside all the 4 frames, Expand by 5, Invert

Go to the top duplicate of the image hit Delete. Deselect.

On the duplicate below, put Toadies – What Are you at default setting, lower the opacity to about 50 (depending on your image).

On the layer below that, put VM Toolbox – Motion Trail at default settings. Change the layer properties to Luminance (L) or another suitable effect. Edge Effect – Enhance.

If you haven’t tubed bits from your image, you can add any embellishments you want now. Place these above the frames and add a drop shadow. My settings are mentioned at the beginning of the tutorial. Add the same drop shadow to the frame layer.

Activate the top layer and add a new raster layer. Floodfill with a dark colour from the image. I chose black.
Select all and contract by 7. Hit delete. Do NOT deselect. Invert the selection, contract by 1 and floodfill with the same colour you used for the frames earlier. Deselect and add a drop shadow : 0, 0, 100, 10, Black.

Add your name and copyright info. I used Gradient Glow at the default setting with these numbers; 3, 25, 100 and a contrasting colour from the image.

Save as jpg.

Avatar:

Click Shift D on the siggie you just finished. Activate the crop function and change the size to 150x150 px. Move it around to find a suitable piece you want to keep and crop it. Delete the blank layers and add the same outer frame and drop shadow  as you did on the siggie. Add your initials or name, copyright info and save.

Thanks for trying my tutorial.

Hugs Lithy