After downloading one of the ribbons on the website, I found out the actual colored ribbon is 138x38 pixels and it is centered on a 150x52pixel canvas. The size is important as they all line up in the member's sig. Even a 1-pixel discrepancy would stick out like a sore thumb. You can click the link Moon Puppy put in to show the ribbons in his sig.

http://www.modelersalliance.com/forum/w ... f-86-sabre

Beveled and drop-shadows:

perfect O. love the bevel, love the shadow and also the shiny threads A+

Very cool.

You rock O! Thanks so much, getting to work on them right now.

Molly, Rod and Moon.

somewhere in my psp stuff which I dont use...I had a script to create that ribbed ribbon.

That's a good idea, Akky. I went on a search for, make ribbed ribbon PSP, and came up with a gem that gave me ideas about making the ribbed lines.

I found where you could get the script but a tutorial caught my eye first. Can't use the script in GIMP anyway.

In the tutorial near the bottom called, Ribbon Edgings, there was a pink layer with darker pink strips on it.
http://www.normascreations.com/Ribbons.htm

I made a 1x3pixel image with a transparent background, used the pencil brush set to (01) and put a black, 1pixel square at the top. Copied it to the clipboard, then filled a new image 300 x 300 with it from the clipboard (a 1x3 pixel pattern is hard to see). It will fill any size image seamlessly, so the size is not that important. Anyway, I can fill a layer on top of a ribbon with that pattern, lower the opacity, change the color if I want by locking the transparency.

Voila! Quick, ribbed ribbon. Thanks for the idea, Akky.

Wow, that's nice! I'll have to play with this a couple of times. in the mean time, adding a drop shadow is much easier than a new layer of text behind the top one.
Here's what I did (that didn't require toxic fumes) this evening.

Hmm...seemed to lost my drop shadow from the ribbon...MULLIGAN!

Now..this better?

Cut off the shadow a bit but i'm doing good to get this much out! Thanks for everyone's help!

Hey, Moon, you're getting there! Looking better and better. Something that might help it look a little better is a bevel to give it some depth.

In Filters > Decor > Click Add Bevel. Make the setting 9. This ribbon I used 9 in the Add Bevel script. You can see that it looks a little more 3D.

O I actually have that script for 2 different versions of PSP if you want to see what makes it tick.

Shoot! Just finished one and I see this.

I'll update it real quick with the bevel and see how it does.

One thing I notice is the images we're doing are not as soft...if that's the word to use, as what John has done in the past.

He checked in with us today, he's doing good and responding well to the Chemo with none of the usual side effects so far..

couple of John's
looks like he has a drop shadow on the device on the ribbon. His just looks like scans of real ribbons. Makes me appreciate him more.

Oh and O, you asked if my moderators have Gimp experience. I suspect the answer is no, but they are at a big modeling show in Omaha this week and only a few of us are minding the store. Their experience is telling the differences of a M2 and a M2A1 halftrack (which is easy actually )

Akky, I wouldn't know what I was looking at. Thank you for the offer though.

Easy for them, anyway.

Your finished size is 156 x 56. It MUST be 150x52 to line up with the rest of them evenly.

I think the drop shadow resized your image to that size.

I used your ribbon for this one and removed your drop shadow.

As I said before, you need to start with an image that is 138 x 38. Make the ribbon first with the ridges, stripes, etc. Text and decorations will be added after the beveling and drop shadow.

Then you need to add canvas to it:

1. Image > Add Canvas
   
2. Break the chain between the width and height so you can size them independently.
   Make the width 150px and the height 52px.
   
3. Click the Center button.
   
4. Layers - In the dropown by Resize layers: choose All layers. That will eliminate any layer boundaries.
   
5. That size is now set in stone, it must not change.

Now you are ready to add a drop shadow and bevel it.

Filters > Decor > Add Bevel. Make the setting 9.

Filters > Light & Shadow > Drop Shadow. I found that making X, Y = 3, and Blur = 6 works well for this size. You may want to change the opacity. I left it at the default 80. Uncheck the box by Allow resizing.


Merge your top layer down to the Drop Shadow layer.

Now add text and/or decorations. You may want to add a small drop shadow to those. Try using the same settings used for the other drop shadow on the decoration. If the ribbon color is dark, the drop shadow may not show well. Try raising the opacity to 100%.

Merge the layers, then Right click the image layer and choose, Layer to Image Size to be sure all layer boundaries are image-sized.

Thanks O, I'll give it a shot today if work doesn't get in the way to much.

Here's what I'm going with, Thanks bunches O! Really appreciate you and everyone else's help.

Now if you want to have some fun, John use to make full out Medals also.

Such as..


No one uses them, they are nice to have but I'm not going to make that effort...least not now.

John does nice work. Very nice. Looks like a lot of time and work.

This one is nice but did you forget to bevel it? Perhaps because it's light, the bevel doesn't show well. Drop shadows look good and the size is right. 2 out of 3 - not bad!

I did do the bevel...maybe not well enough? wonder if I do it again now what will happen, would it affect the text? no..not if I do it only on the ribbon layer right?

And he's on a MAC so...you know. (opps there they are again...)
and this is renamed to match our naming scheme. I can tell the bevel is there now. It seems like the filter applied twice. I made the settings as you suggested, hit Apply and the tool came up again, apply again and then I could see it.