What you will need for this tutorial:

Tube of choice, I'm using Nina by Lady Mishka found at  SATC.

This tube is an exclusive commission for SATC, but if you are a member of Facebook Fan Page

there is a way to get this little cutie.

Facebook HERE
Scrap Kit "Early Spring" by Disturbed Scraps at SATC
Paint Shop Pro, I'm using version 10 and Animation Shop
My two animations SimoneAni299-Fairy and SimoneAni343 

which can be downloaded HERE & HERE

The font I used is A&S Christmas Script

Please DO NOT share these supplies or use in other tutorials.
Thank you.

Open paper:  DS -Early Spring - Paper04. Duplicate and close original.
Promote background layer.
Open element: DS -Early Spring - 011
Activate your your paper and go to Layers/New Mask Layer/From Image.
Find element: DS -Early Spring - 011 in drop down box and select.
Click : Create mask from "Source luminance" and make sure there is NO check mark beside "Invert mask data"
Click OK.

In layers palette, right click and merge group.
Duplicate layer as many times as you like to get the look you want.
I duplicated it twice and merged layers.
Let's re-size this layer now.
Go to Image/Re-size
Make sure your Print Size Resolution is 72 dpi
Now enter dimensions as 84% or 672x672
Re-sample using: Smart Size.
NO check mark beside : Re-size all layers.
Click OK

NB: all elements in this kit are 300 dpi. Make sure to save as 72 dpi as you are doing your tag.
This is only for your tag. Don't alter the original elements in your kit.

Copy and paste the element: DS -Early Spring - 011 as a new layer on your mask.
Re-size by 82% (make sure your dpi is set to 72)
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black

Copy and paste your tube. Re-size is needed. I had to re-size mine by 75%.
Add same drop shadow.

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 032, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size to 45% and add same drop shadow.

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 053, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size to 85% and duplicate layer. Merge down. I placed this element to the right of my tag.
I added a small drop shadow.
V=3, H=0, Opacity=20, Blur=7, Color=Black

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 004, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Move this element to the lower left hand side slightly and duplicate layer.
Mirror duplicated element.
Merge down and position layer behind your tube.
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 021, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size by 65% (make sure your dpi is set to 72)
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 020, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size by 100% (make sure your dpi is set to 72)
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black

Open elements: DS -Early Spring - 025 and 026, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size element 026 by 30% (make sure your dpi is set to 72)
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 071, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size by 100% (make sure your dpi is set to 72)
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black
Position behind tube, to the right.

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 076, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size by 40% (make sure your dpi is set to 72)
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black
I duplicated twice and positioned them:

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 067, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Drop layer down to below the tube and above the foliage.
Duplicate layer twice. On the very bottom one, blur it.
Go to Adjust/ Blur/ Gaussian Blur; enter 2.

Open element: DS -Early Spring - 079, copy and paste as a new layer, close original.
Re-size by 25% (make sure your dpi is set to 72). Position to the left lower hand side of tag.
Duplicate layer and mirror.
Add drop shadow: V=2, H=0, Opacity=73, Blur=5, Color=Black to both flowers.

Merging layers.
Starting below the horse layer, one by one, merge your layers down till you've merged down to the mask layer.
Don't include the horse in this portion.

Copy and paste in Animation shop.
Holding down the Ctrl key, tap the letter "L" until you have a total of 20 frames.
You can count as you tap or you can look at the bottom right hand area of AS and you will see the frame number increasing.

Open SimoneAni343.
Go to Edit/Select All.
Go to Edit/Copy.
Go to Edit, make sure Propagate Paste is depressed (turned on).

Activate your tag.
Go to Edit/Select All.
Go to Edit/ Paste into Selected Frames.
Center as best as you can.

Back in PSP, merge down all other layers.
Don't include the other merged layer. We don't need that one anymore.
Go to Edit and Copy.

Back in AS, right click on work space and paste as new animation.
Go to Edit/Copy.

Activate your main tag.
Go to Edit/Select All.
Go to Edit/ Paste into Selected Frames.
Position as well as possible. You can look back at your main tag in PSP and gauge where it should go.
Click into place.

Open SimoneAni299-FairySprinkle.
Go to Edit/Select All.
Go to Edit/Copy.
Activate your main tag.
Go to Edit/Select All.
Go to Edit/ Paste into Selected Frames.
Using your cursor move the little mini-fairy so it appears just over her hand.
See my image below for accuracy.
Click into place.

Play your animation. If you like it, you need to add your copyright information and add your name.

Save your animation.
Go to File, Save as, enter the name of your file and select the folder to save to.
Now click on Customize:
Under COLORS TAB:
Number of colors: 255 Colors
Create palette by: OPTIMIZED OCTREE
Reduce colors by: Error Diffusion
Under OPTIMIZATIONS TAB:
set a check mark beside the second, third and forth choices. Uncheck the 1st and last.
Under PARTIAL TRANSPARENCY:
check Convert pixels less than 92
Yes, blend with this color: change to white #FFFFFF
Click OK. Click Next, next, next, next.
Play your animation.

At times your animation may or will come out terrible. Optimization in Animation Shop is not the greatest.
You can play around will your settings, especially under the Tab: Optimization. I change this setting at times from anywhere between 50 and 110.
Some people add a white background. I don't. I prefer not seeing a white background if I'm posting it in a forum that has a colored background.
For this tag I did indeed add a white background. It helped with the optimization.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial,
Hugs Simone

Please, always direct people to my blog to download my animations.
Do not load to any other download site and don't claim as your own.

This tutorial was written by SophisticatSimone aka Lorraine Halle

March 10, 2013