Software Used: Paint Shop Pro 6
This
signature logo was created for Tara Mahovetz, About.com's former Guide to West
Palm Beach, Florida.
If you came here from a search, you've landed on page two. Click here to start at the beginning.
17.) Next, we need
to group the Tree and the Name layer so that we can move them together. Switch
to the group tab in the layer palette, click None once for each
layer to set them both to 1.
18.)
Now use the move 
tool to move both layers to about the middle of the image.
19.)
Select the selection 
tool. Set the selection type to ellipse and check
antialias in the tool options. Make a selecton
about like mine.
20.) Change the tool to a rectangle and hold the CTRL key down, then click and drag to subtract the bottom half of the ellipse, approximately at the baseline of the text and tree.
21.) Add a layer and name it "Backdrop". Drag it below the Name and Tree layers.
22.) Select the bucket
tool. Set the options to linear gradient.
In the second tab, select
Black-White from the first menu. Set the angle to 180.
Click the edit button. In the gradient editor dialog box, click the arrow to the left and set the color to a medium blue. Click the arrow to the right and set the color to a very pale blue. Then OK the dialog.
23.) Make sure that Backdrop is the active layer, then click inside your selection to fill it. Deselect (Ctrl-D).
24.) Create another layer and name it "Sun". Drag it above the Backdrop layer.
25.)
Make a circular selection for your sun. Mine didn't show up
completely, but you get the general idea of where to place it.
26.) Select the bucket
tool again. Change the fill type to sunburst gradient, and edit
the colors in the second tab to a reddish orange on the left and an light orange
yellow on the right.
27.) Click in the circular selection to fill it. Deselect. Move your sun layer if you want to adjust the placement.
28.) Now make the
shadow layer visible and drag it to the top of the stack. Move it into place
over the name and tree. Lock the transparency of the layer.
29.) Select the bucket tool, go back to a linear gradient, change the fill colors to black on the left and white on the right, set the angle to 0. Click in each section of the text and tree to fill it with the gradient.
30.) Now we need
some extra space to work in. Make sure the background color is set to white.
Go to Image -> Canvas Size and increase the width to
400 with the image centered.
31.)
In the shadow layer, click the lock to unlock the transparency
protection, then select the deformation 
tool.
32.) Drag the top
handle of the shadow layer all the way down past the bottom edge about 1/2 inch
and let go.
33.) Then hold the shift key down, and drag the bottom middle handle to the right to the right to skew the layer.
34.) Move the layer so it touches the bottom of the text and the tree.
35.) Go to Image -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 1.00.
36.) Drag the Shadow layer below the Name and Tree layers.
37.) Select the Sun layer. Gaussian Blur with a radius of 3.00.
38.) Select the Backdrop layer. Gaussian Blur with a radius of 5.00.
39.)
Select the Name layer. Go to Image -> Effects
-> Inner Bevel. I used these settings:
40.)
Select the Tree layer. Go to Image -> Effects ->
Inner Bevel. I used the same settings as the previous
step, but lowered the intensity to 24.
41.) Now all that's left is to crop away the extra white space, resize if desired, and save as a GIF or JPEG.
Questions? Comments? Post to the Forum!
