Easy way to make steps

You will need this small piece of wood  so right click on it, save it to your computer.  After saving it bring it up in PSP and leave it there for just a second while you finish listening to me ramble:) of heck, just skip right to step one becaseu after announcing that I have a big mouth I am at a loss for words:)  LOL

---

Have your piece of wood in PSP and make sure it is the active window.  Use SHIFT D on the keyboard to make another copy of the wood.  Now shrink the original and use the copy that you just made.

Open your LAYERS paletter, you will more likely than not see that the one layer (background) that is there is grayed out on the right hand side.  SO, right click where it says background, choose DUPLICATE, now you see you have two layers, one is grayed out the other is not.  Click on the one that is grayed out (should still say background) and choose delete.  Now you have "copy of background" left in your palette .. don't worry about naming it as is won't be there that long:)

Go to Image, CANVAS size, and enter these setttings.
    Width 350, Height 300 .. check marks in both image placement boxes.  Click OK

Use your Mover Tool to move the piece of wood to near the bottom of the page, not all the way, just near the bottom.  Now use the middle node on each side of the deform box and pull the wood out a little, here is mine .. your image window is larger but I just used the part that it used in my window.  You can double click outside of the deform box to set the deformation.

Right click on the top of the window you are working in and choose copy.

Now right click again in the same spot and choose Paste as new LAYER.

Use your Deform tool again, this time take the piece you just pasted and move it down to the first one.  use the middle side nodes to pull it out just a LITTLE larger than the first one.

With the deform tool still active, use the top middle node to pull make the piece smaller (pull it down toward the first piece)

OK, now hold down the CRTL key on the key board and use the TOP outer node (either side) and push it toward the middle .. you want to take it in just a little further than the top of the bottom piece is.

Double click outside the deformation to set it:)

Go to Effect, 3D, (psp6 image, effects) Drop Shadow, and use these settings.
    Verticle 3, Horizontal 0, Opacity 77, blur 11, click OK.

Go to Layers, Merge, merge visable

Right click on the top of the window (just like you did earlier) choose COPY, then right click again and paste as new layer.

Move the this step down and place it barely over the top the first step.

Use the Deform tool and the middle side nodes to make this piece a little smaller, move the nodes towards the middle.  You want the BOTTOM of the step to be right AT the side of the top of the bottom step .. I know, that part is realy hard to make sense of .. look at the graphic:)

Add the same drop shadow that you did earlier but change the Vertical to 1 and the Blur to 2.

Right click on the top of the window and choose COPY, then go to layers, merge, merge visable.

Right click again on the top of the image window and choose paste as new layer.

Use the deform tool again to step the step on top of the last one .. push the middle nodes toward the middle until you line up the sides again .. you do not need to add a drop shadow this time ..

Continue to add steps as new layers and deforming them until you get height that you want or need.

When finished go to Layer, merge, merge visible.

I hope you had fun making the stairs, the main thing was just taking a piece of "something" and turning it into something else using the deform and shadows.

---