Here is a tutorial of one of the possible methods I use to recreate decorations for Mecabricks. This is probably the most time consuming one but it also gives the best result. This post comes in supplement to the general information I gave here.

I use Photoshop and Illustrator in this tutorial but you can use any software that you like. Another good free option is the pair Gimp and Inkscape.

Step 1

Take a picture or scan the piece you want to recreate. If you don't own it physically, look for high resolution images on the internet. in this example I used my DSLR to take a picture of it.

Step 2

To make it easier to vectorize, crop the photo before opening it in Illustrator.

Step 3

Draw the edges in Illustrator. This step can be very time consuming if you wish to obtain a good result.

Step 4

Colour the decoration and remove the edges. Use the colour chart that you can download here to complete this task.

Step 5

Look for the appropriate uv map in this folder and open it in photoshop.

Step 6

Add a layer with the background colour using the hex value from the colour chart.

Step 7

You can create another layer and add your original image under the uv map to help scale and locate the decoration.

Step 8

Import you vectorized decoration as a new layer. In Photoshop I select the option Paste as Smart Object. Scale and locate it correctly on the uv map.

Step 9

Hide all the unwanted layers before saving it as a png file.

Step 10

Send me your decoration via email using the Contact Us link in the footer of this page. Please include the references and names from LEGO - if available - and from bricklink to make it easier and quicker for me to add. They can be found on http://brickset.com and http://www.bricklink.com