My pixel outline. You can download it here.

My color chart. Right click on it and save to your computer.

First, a few notes.....

My image is just a guide. Feel free to change the colors, or add other effects to your liking. I put everything on its own layer (and name each one). That makes it easier to go back and change colors later and correct any mistakes. It makes a lot of layers, but it also keeps things organized and will save you a lot of heartache.

It makes it easier if you enlarge your graphic (use your magnifier tool) so you can see the pixels clearly. Feel free to save my images in this tut too, and enlarge them as necessary to see.

The basic procedure for each piece will be the same. You'll add a new layer. Choose your paintbrush tool, size 1, and paint the outline of the piece in a darker color, then paint the inside in a lighter color (Hint: to do the inside coloring, make the outline layer active, choose your magic wand and click inside the section you want to color - then apply the color on your new layer).

Step 1. Open up the pixel outline you downloaded. There are two layers - a background and the outline layer. You'll notice that the outline is in different colors. I've done this so it's easier for you to tell which pixels go with which part of the image.

Open up the color chart you saved. Copy and paste it as a new layer onto your image. Move it to the top, out of the way. When you need a color, just click on it with your dropper tool.

In the following steps, I'll show you the colors I used for each section of the graphic - feel free to change these as you wish.

Step 2. Shelf

Outline - 1, 3 Inside - 2, 4.

Step 3. Birdhouse

Bottom: outline-5; inside-6, 7, 8 Top: outline-8; inside-9, 10 Heart: outline-11, inside-12 Door Opening: Outline-13, inside-14, straw-15

Step 4. Trowel

Trowel: outline-16; inside-17, 18, 19 Handle: outline-20; inside-21

Step 5. Pots

Outline-22 Inside- 23, 24

Step 6. Watering Can

Outline - 25 Handle, Spout inside - 26 Pot inside - 27, 28, 29, 30

Step 7. Flowers

Outline - 31 Inside - 32, 30 Vine - 33

Step 8. Hearts

Heart 1 Heart outline-34, inside-35 Stripes outline -11, inside-12 String-30 Heart 2 Heart outline-36, inside-37, 38, 39 String-30 Heart 3 Heart outline-11, inside-12 Stripes outline-34, inside-35 String-30 Heart 4 Heart outline-37, inside-38,40 String-30

Step 9. Now take a look at your image and tweak anything you'd like to at this point. I always save a version of all my images, with all layers intact - just makes it easy if you want to go back later and change things. Just save as a psp file (I named mine "springmaster").

Then, When you're satisfied with it, delete the color chart, outline, and background layers. Merge visible layers. Save in whatever format you prefer (I usually save as a transparent psp file).

And that's it. I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, and as always, please let me know if you experience any problems.