Got to FILE - OPEN

Then you will get a box that looks like this:
 

Look for the paper that you want to tear.  You can double click on the one you want and it will open up in Paint Shop Pro.  Or you can single click and hit open.

Once you're back to your start place, let go of your mouse and you'll get "marching ants" around your paper that will be cut and torn.

We need to promote your background to a layer.  Go to your LAYERS Palette, right click on the blue part and hit PROMOTE BACKGROUND LAYER

Right click again on the blue area and go to RENAME.  Then rename this layer to TEAR LAYER.

Next hit your DELETE key on you keyboard.  You should now have this:

Right click anywhere on your image and your marching ants will go away.

Now rename this new layer PAPER LAYER, the same way you renamed your paper layer.  You should now have 2 layers.  The top should be Paper Layer and the bottom one Tear Layer.

You will then get this:  Change SATURATION to 0 and LIGHTNESS to 100.  Since it's white, it doesn't matter what HUE is.  If you want your tear to be a different color, then just play with the sliders until you get the color you want.  You'll be able to see your before and after as shown below.  Then click OK.

Now go to the very top tool bar and choose EFFECTS - TEXTURE EFFECTS - TEXTURE.

You will now get this screen:  You'll see your before and after previews.  If you can't, then right below your after picture you'll see PAN - click on the cross and move it around until you see your paper tear.  Next we need to pick our texture.  See the smaller image under TEXTURE, it's below your before picture?  Click on the image and it will give you some textures - I chose SMALL STONES.  If you don't have SMALL STONES, then choose something kind of bumpy.  You can use the settings I have in the example below.  Once you have everything done, click OK.

      Now move your PAPER LAYER a little bit to the left or down depending on your your tear, until you see your torn area as much as you want to have it.

Now from your tool bar choose your SMUDGE TOOL.

If you don't see the SMUDGE TOOL, right click on the one that's showing and choose the Smudge Tool (see the little arrow?).  On the very top Tool bar you will see you have some options:

  See where my curser is?  Click on that arrow, and you'll get a drop down of brushes.  I chose one called MARBLE 3, if you don't have that one, then choose one that's kind of spattered looking.  Then change the SIZE to 100.  You do this by highlighting the size and typing in the number you want, or click on the arrow next to the size and move it left for smaller or right for larger.  You can see above my other settings.  When your done choosing yours and changing the size click somewhere on your page to get rid of the dialog box.

Highlight your TEAR LAYER and start at the top or left of your image.  Move your mouse in a left to right or up and down zigzag motion and go all the way down to the end of your image.  Every once in a while stop and start again, this way if you don't like the way it's looking you can go to EDIT - UNDO,  or CTRL+Z.

Don't worry about going over your PAPER because your SMUDGE tool will only work on the layer that is highlighted.  Now because we have our layer at 75 to 100% you're going to have to work in increments, because you're going to have to move your left/right and up/down arrows to get to the whole image.  Here is what mine now looks like:

Now do the same on your PAPER LAYER as you did on your Tear Layer, but this time, just slide your brush across the edge, the brush will do the work for you.  Here's mine:

When you have it the way you want it, go to your LAYERS and right click on one and choose MERGE VISIBLE.  You will now only have one layer. 

Go to FILE - SAVE AS and save it as a PNG to retain the transparency.

Renee' Strucel