Here's a quick tut for an easy way to make a snowglobe. (Using a premade globe tube) The tube's I've enclosed here were sent via a tube ring I'm with. There are two here, so choose which one you prefer and let's go!

Download one (or both) of the following tubes.

Both tubes are shown at 65% of actual size.

Download this zip file, Art Zip and extract the files to you My Pictures folder. These are just a couple of art prints we are using for demo purposes. Please be aware that unless you ask artist permission - or the artwork is done by an artist deceased more than 75 years - paintings on the net are classed by copyright. Some artists will give their permission - but many won't or can't, as they have signed over copyright to publishing companies. I have been fortunate to gain Paula Vaughans permission to use her works.

Open your chosen tube in your PSP program, and then open your layer palette and have a look at the two separate layers. (Hovering your mouse of each layer will give you a quick snapshot of which each layer contains.) Both actual 'glass' parts of the globes are the bottom layer, so activate that layer by clicking on it.

Select your magic wand from the Tool Palette, then open your Tool Options box, and give your wand these settings:

Click the image (outside the actual globe), and you will see marching 'ants' around the perimeter of the image as well as around the globe 'glass' itself.

Go to Selections | Invert Selection, this will bring the ants around only the 'glass'. (I have hidden the top layer in this graphic to show you more clearly what you should have.)

Go to Selections | Modify | Contract and insert 1, click "OK". Now the selection is just inside the rim of the glass.

Now go back to Selections | Invert Selection so once again the outer rim as well as the perimeter of the image box is selected.

Go to the top of the image you chose to insert into the globe (remember it always has to be larger than the globe itself), right click and choose copy.

Go to your globe image, and right click on the top bar, choosing 'Paste as New Layer'.

Open the Layer Palette and left click and drag the new layer below the glass layer. Go to your tool palette and choose your 'Mover' tool and adjust your graphic until it is central inside the selected 'ants'.

Then hit your delete key. **Voila!** Your image is now neatly encased inside your globe!

OK - now go to Layers | Merge | Merge Visible.

Go to Effects | Noise | Add Noise - and fill in the box as follows.

This will stop the strobe-like effect appearing once you save your globe as a gif file.

You can save any file as a gif file, but to achieve the Transparent effect you will need to export you file as a gif, you can either use the Gif Wizard or add the 'Export as a Gif' icon to your top tool bar.