I have had many requests for instructions on how I created the large Nautical buttons on my site. The technique is simple....the only tools needed are Paint Shop Pro 5,  Blade Pro,   a Blade Pro preset of your choice and a Dingbat Font. I used an Ice Blue preset and a font named GE Nautica.

1.    Open a new document in Paint Shop Pro 220 x 220, background white. Using the paintbucket, fill with the background color or pattern of your choice.     I have filled mine with sand.

2.     Create a new layer. Utilizing the Draw Shape tool (last one on the toolbar) select Shape: Circle, Style: Outlined and set the Outline Width to 15. Make sure your foreground color is set to white. Find the center of your graphic... (it should be at horizontal 110, vertical 110). Now hold down your left mouse button and drag a circle that is 197x197 in size.

3.     Select the Magic Wand tool (8th tool down) and click it on the white circle you drew. You will see the marching ants appear. Select your Blade Pro preset and play with the sliders until you find an effect you like. If you would like a Drop Shadow...do not deselect. Go to Image, Effect and choose Drop Shadow. The settings I used are: Color: Black; Opacity 77, Blur 4, horizontal 2, vertical 2. You may set the horizonal and vertical sliders to 4 for a larger Drop Shadow.

4.     Again make sure your foreground color is set to white. Select the font and character (for this example I used "f" in the GE Nautica Font). You may want to play with the font size...for this example I used 110. Apply your Blade Pro Preset and the drop shadow. Voila! You are done!