We are only going to use 2 colours plus white for this tutorial.   A dark colour for the frame and text, a lighter shade of the same colour for the inside of the frame, and white for the stars.

If you need to save your work part way through, make sure you save as a PSP file.  Most other file types (.jpg or .gif for example) will cause the image to be flattened into a singe raster layer, and you will lose the individual vector objects.

• Create a new image - 400x400 white background

• Layers – New Vector Layer

Draw The Rectangle:

• Select the Shapes tool

• Choose a colour and on the materials pallet, set your Foreground colour (left box) to a dark shade of that colour, and set your Background colour (right box) to a light shade of that colour.   Make sure both foreground and background colours are set to be solid colours.

• On the Tool Options, make sure Create As Vector is ticked and that Retain Style is NOT ticked

• From the pull down list on the Tool Options pallet, choose the Rectangle tool.

• Point somewhere in the upper left area of your image and drag diagonally down to the right lower area to draw a rectangle.

• Click on the Object Selector tool (Picker tool in PSP Photo XI)

• Click on your rectangle (you will know it is selected when there is a fine line around it with handles on the corners and sides)

• Adjust the size/shape of your rectangle (by dragging the handles) so that there is some space all around it.   Even if it looks OK, practice changing its size/shape.

• You can move your rectangle by pointing to the centre spot and dragging it to a new position.

• Click on the Properties button on the right hand end of the Tool Options pallet.

Or, click the Objects menu and choose Properties there.

• Change the Stroke Width to 12

• You can change your line and fill colours in this window at any time.

• When you are happy with your settings, click OK

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Add some text:

• Click on the Text tool

• On the materials pallet, set the background colour to the darker shade of the colour you are using, or whatever colour you want you text to be. If they have not changed from when you drew the rectangle you can just swap them over by clicking the curved arrow pointing between the two colour swatches.

• Turn off the foreground colour by clicking on the symbol

• Click somewhere on your image above or below the rectangle.  This is important: If you click inside the rectangle PSP will try to fit your text around the inside edge of the rectangle.

• Type in the text you want e.g. “Congratulations”, “Great Work!”, or your name, in the text box.

• Highlight the text and then choose your text size and font.  I used size 26, Lucida Calligraphy, Bold, kerned at –65 to push the letters closer together.  To see the Kerning setting, click the arrow at the far right end of the option pallet.  The middle of the pallet is squeezed up to make room to show it.  To see

• Click OK

click arrow to show kerning options

click the center arrow to show B I U instead of kerning options

Position The Text:

• Click on the Object Selector tool (Picker tool in PSP Photo XI)

• Point at one of the letters in your text and drag it into the middle of the rectangle.

• Point at the Rotation handle for your text.  When you see your mouse pointer change shape to rounded arrows, press the mouse button down, and hold it down while you drag the rotation handle to make the text go diagonally from the bottom left corner to the top right corner of the rectangle. 

• Drag the handle on a corner of your text object to adjust the size of the text so it fits just inside the rectangle without touching the dark line around the edge.  You will probably need to adjust the angle of the text using the rotation handle again once you are happy with its size.

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• Click the Shapes tool.

• Set your foreground colour to the dark version of your colour (if its not already set to it) and set the background colour to white.  Make sure they are both set to be solid colours and not set to null.

• On the Tool Options, scroll down the preset shapes to find the four pointed star (Star 1) and click on it.

• Set the Width to 1 (on the Tool Options pallet)

• Point somewhere in the upper left part of your picture and drag diagonally down to the right to draw a star about ½ the height of the rectangle.

• Click the Object Selector tool

• Point at the centre of the star and adjust its position so that the left and top points go over the outer edge of the rectangle.

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Duplicate The Star:

• Click on the object selector tool (if its not already selected). In PSP Photo XI use the Picker tool.

• Click on the star

• Click the Copy button on the top tool bar

• Press Ctrl G on the keyboard or click Edit/Paste/As New Vector Selection on the menu

• Place the duplicate star in the bottom right corner.

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• Press Ctrl G again (or Edit/Paste/As New Vector Selection on the menu)

• Position this star in the centre of the rectangle.  Don’t worry about it covering up your text – we fix that later.

• Click on the Object Selector tool (if its not already selected). In PSP Photo XI use the Picker tool)

• Drag the handle on one of the corners to make this star bigger, so that its height is slightly bigger than the rectangle.  You will need to reposition it in the centre when you have made it bigger.  Point in its centre and drag it to the correct position.

Move the big star behind the text:

• Use the object selector tool to select the big star (it may still be selected from the previous step). Picker tool in PSP Photo XI.

• On the menu, click the Object menu and select Arrange/Move Down.  Do this several times until the text comes in front of the star.

This removes the excess white areas around what you have drawn.

• Click on the Crop tool and drag a box around the outside of the box and stars.  You can use the handles on the box to adjust its size.  Make sure the lines are just outside the points of the stars and not touching them anywhere.

• When you are happy with the area you have selected, double click anywhere inside the box to apply the "crop".

If you will want to change any of the objects then save the image as a PSP file before saving as a gif or jpg file for use on the web.

Vector objects remain flexible - this means:

• You can change the colours used for any of the objects by selected them with the Object Selector (Picker tool in PSP Photo XI), and then clicking Properties Button on the Tool Options pallet.

• You can change the size of any of the objects by selecting it with the Object Selector (Picker tool in PSP Photo XI), and then dragging the handles on its sides or corners.

• You can move any of the objects by selecting it with the Object Selector (Picker tool in PSP Photo XI), and then pointing to the objects centre and dragging it to a new position.

• You can push one object behind another, or bring an object in front of another by selecting it and using the Object/Arrange menu, or click the + on the layer pallet and drag the objects up/down the list.