There are 2 problems with making this type of stationery.
Firstly: The stationery has to bigger than normal both in physical size and in kb's.
Secondly: The text scrolls over the top of the design.
These are the reasons I don't use this type of stationery. However, I've been asked for a tutorial for making them, so yer tiz.

1. Open a new image (strip) 1024 x ?px (?=big enough to accommodate your graphic)
2. Use the bucket tool to flood fill the new strip with the colour of your choice.
3. With the selection tool draw a rectangle starting at 50px from the top and 50px from the side of the new graphic.
4. Click on Selections/Invert so that just the top and left edge are surrounded by marching ants.
5. Choose a darker compatible colour and flood fill the area with the bucket tool.
6. Use a filter to add a bit of interest and texture to the area.
7. Click on Image/Effects/Inner bevel and choose a setting which gives the edges of the area definition... I've set mine up like this:

If using the inner bevel has darkened the border too much, click on Colors/Adjust/Gamma correction make sure the link box is checked then slide the slider to the right till you get the colour you want. Then click ok.
8. Click Selections/Invert and add a little texture to the background. Two reasons for doing this, not only does it look better, but it will allow compression without messing up the background clarity.
9. When you've finished decorating the corner, using the selection tool, draw a rectangle from the very top left hand corner to within 10 px of the right side and bottom of the strip. click on Image/Crop to selection. This will give the stationery a better finish.(view here 1/2 size)



That's the basic corner stationery made. You can put all sorts of decoration on the border and/or on the background.

There are inherent problems with using corner stationery. The corner design will take up a bit of room which, if you're going to set a margin, will stop the text from going under the graphic when the stationery is written on. You'll end up with text quite a bit away from the edge of the 'paper'. The only way round it that I've found, is to 'insert' the graphic when you write the email. That way the text will go round the graphic. (see method 2). As with the corner type above, the stationery has to be large in size and in kb, otherwise the pattern will repeat, or, if you put no-repeat in the html, the area of the email not covered by the one background strip will show up as blank colour.

For this type of corner stationery you could use a graphic, a brush or a tube...whatever, and merge it into the strip. In this example I've used a brush.

1. Open a new image (strip) 1024px x ?px (?=deep enough to take the graphic you want to use).
2. Using the bucket tool, flood fill the strip with a colour of your choice, use filters to add interest to the background.
3. Choose a complimentary darker colour in the foreground colour box. This will ensure that the brush you use shows up nicely on the background.
4. Click on the paintbrush tool, then in the control box click on Custom.
5. Find the brush you want to use, then click on the 3rd tab in the control box and check the 'show brush outline' box.
6. Position the brush in the top left corner. Leave a small space between the graphic and the edges of the strip.
7. Deselect the brush and save the strip in the usual way.
(view here 1/2 size)

The one good thing about this type of corner stationery is that you can use a relatively small graphic, save it as a transparent gif and position it on the background using 'Insert' in Outlook Express. I'll use the same brush for this method.

1. Open a new image 200px x 200px
2. Using the bucket tool, flood the image with colour. When repeated in Outlook Express this will become the background.
3. Save the image in the usual way, but don't close the image in PSP.
4. Open a new image ?px x ?px (?= wide/deep enough to take the graphic you want to use).
5. Using the bucket tool, flood fill the new image with the SAME colour as you used for the background strip. Don't add any texture or use filters on this graphic's background! (it would stop the graphic from becoming transparent).
6. Apply the brush as for method 1. Then crop closely round the edges of the graphic.
7. Click on Colours/Set palette transparency. A box will come up, click yes. Another box will come up, set it like this one.

another box will come up click on the background of the graphic you've been working on, and the colour will show up in the box:

It won't look as though anything's happened to your graphic, but just click on Colours/view palette transparency and you'll see that something has happened:
(view here full size)

Save this graphic as a .gif file in your stationery folder.
When you want to use the stationery, find the correct background image (make sure that the tile will be repeated in Outlook Express), then 'insert' the graphic.gif. Because the background of the gif graphic is transparent, just the picture will show up in the top left corner.


And now you see the snag of using this method for stationery: The cursor in the shot above is where the text will start - looks a bit daft - and that's another reason why I don't use this kind of stationery in emails : )

I'm sorry it's not as usable as the 'normal' type of stationery, but these are the methods I've found for corner stationery.

The one good thing about corner stationery; if you're going to print out the stationery, then write on it, it's excellent.

I hope this tutorial has been of help. There are more available on my Homepage

Sue C - SJC Designs