Open up any image you like.

Note: If you are using a gif go to Colors, Increase Color Depth, 16 million

Click on your lasso tool

Selection Type: Freehand, Feather 0, Anti-alias not checked

The joy of this is you don't have to be perfect in making the selection!

Go around the object you want with your selection tool.. be sure to connect the ending points.

Next go to Selections, Modify, Contract

I usually put in 5 for the number of pixels. Once you copy and paste (in a minute lol) and you would like less background around the image, increase the number, if you want more, then decrease the number. When you click ok you'll see the selection lines go in closer to your image.

Now go to Selections, Modify, Feather

I set mine at 10.. same applies as above for changing it. When you click ok you'll see the selection lines expand.

Now hit ctrl c then ctrl v on your keyboard to copy and paste the image.

You'll see just the image you selected on a transparent background. If you're happy with the way it looks, continue. If not.. do the above steps over until you are.

Now we're going to put this image on a background. The background is entirely up to you. If we just left this as transparent, it wouldn't keep the feathered look around the edges because of optimizing it.

Create or open your background.. you can now either copy and paste the image onto the background or on your image, create a new raster layer, go to arrange, send to bottom, then paste or create your background there.

That's it, you can create alot of different images using these tools.

:-) Rebecca