Making A Translucent Triple Frame

A Tutorial Using Paint Shop Pro Version 6 or 7

Download My Frame gradient here and drop it into your gradient folder in PSP.

Open a new image 350 x 275 pixels, 16.7 million colors, background transparent.
Of course you can make this frame any size that you need and each layer can be tailored to achieve the width you want.

Using your flood fill tool set on rectangular gradient with opacity set at 45, select "My Frame" gradient and flood fill your entire graphic.
(If you are using PSP Version 7 you will need to go to the layer palette and pull the slider back to 45.)

Add a new layer.
Double click on the selection tool. Use the following settings:
Left 15
Top 15
Right 335
Bottom 260
Flood fill the selection with the same gradient.

Add a new layer.
Double click on the selection tool. Use the following settings:
Left 30
Top 30
Right 320
Bottom 245
Flood fill the selection with the same gradient.

Add a new layer.
Double click on the selection tool. Use the following settings:
Left 45
Top 45
Right 305
Bottom 230
DO NOT FLOOD FILL.

Highlight layer 1 on the layer palette and hit the delete key.
Highlight layer 2 on the layer palette and hit the delete key.
Highlight layer 3 on the layer palette and hit the delete key.

Highlight layer 4
Go to selections/invert and invert your selection.
Go to images/effects/drop shadow
Add a drop shadow with the following settings:
color black, opacity 80, blur 10, vertical 2, horizontal 2.

On the layer palette right click on layer 4 and duplicate this layer.
Be sure Copy of Layer 4 is highlighted. Invert your selection.
Go to images/rotate and rotate your selection right 180 degrees.

Your layer palette will now look like this.

Turn off the visibility on the bottom two layers.

Right click on any of the top 4 layers and merge/merge visible.
Highlight the merged layer. Right click on it, go to properties and rename it Layer3.
Turn on visibility of all layers. Go to selections/select none.
This is your final frame and your layer palette when finished.

Save your graphic as a PSP image.
That way all the layers will be available for you to play with.

You can create many effects with this basic frame
Add an image and pull the image layer (Layer4) to the bottom of your layer palette.
Now play to your heart's content by duplicating layer 4, selecting just parts of it, cutting out parts of it, adding drop shadows, fills, etc.
Here are a few examples of things you can do.

Using this version of PSP you can make your own gradients.
Below are the setting I used to make the one for this tutorial.