In this lesson I'm using PSP 7,
Trains Font. Jokerman Font for the numbers.
You can download the fonts in zipped format 
54.6KB 

In PSP Click on File, New. 460 wide x 112 Pixels high. White Background, 16.7 Million Colors. 

Set blue as your foreground color. Click on the Draw Icon and make a straight single line, 2 Pixels wide line at the bottom of the graphic all the way across. Antialias is checked. Hold down the shift key while making the line to be sure that it is straight across. 

Make a new Raster Layer by clicking on Layers, New.
Click on the Text Icon (A). Now click inside the image working area. This will open a Text Entry box. Choose Trains for the font, Size 36, Blue for the fill color. Click on Standard Text. Have a check mark by Floating and Antialias. In the Text Box type c m m k e all in lower case, and without the space. Click OK. This will put the train in your working space. You can click on the train and drag it to just over the line at the bottom. 

Add another new layer. Use the Jokerman font, size 36 in the color blue. Type 2002, OK. Drag the numbers over the flat bed railroad cars. Click on Effects, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow. Settings at -3 (Minus 3) for both Horizontal and Vertical settings. Opacity 100, Blur 7. OK.

Click on Layers, Merge, Merge All.
Have White as your background color. 
Click on Colors. Click on Set Palette Transparency.
Click Yes when the warning box pops up. Another box will open. Have Optimized Median Cut, Nearest color checked, click OK. In the Set Palette Transparency box that pops up have a check mark by Set the transparency value to the current background color. Click OK. 

Saving it. Click on File, Export, Gif Optimizer. 
Check mark by Existing image or layer transparency. OK
Name the image such as 2002Train.gif, choose the folder you want to save it in and click OK. 

Now we will make the textured background.

Have a light blue as you background color. Here I'm using #EDF2FF 

Click on  File, New. 200x200 in size, and choose Background color in the image box.

Click on Effects, Plug in Filters, Texture, Texturizer. Sandstone 


Setting I use for Sandstone. Click OK.


If you don't have that Filter you can try any other that you have. Click on Effects, Textured Effects. Not all the effects will work with a solid color. Some that do work are Fine Leather, Sculpture, Straw-wall, Texture, Weave. I usually choose a very light textured look. Click OK and save your new work in the jpg format. I named mine 2002Train_bg.jpg (bg is for background)

  
Learn how to make Scrolling Stationery page 2.  

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Copyright Dan Harlan Jan 2001 - 2006.
Updated 01 Jan 2006

A special Thanks to KathyO for all her help.