Pretty Flower Embellishment in Gimp With Checkerboard and Gemstone Center

This is a tutorial for a pretty flower digi dcrapping embellishment you can make in Gimp with a nicely contrasting checkerboard and gemstone Center.
This tutorial assumes that you have Gimp installed on your computer and that you understand at least the basics of them both. Please refer to previous tutorials on this blog to learn more about these free programs and how to use them for scrapbooking.

►Fire up Gimp

►Go to the Toolbox and change the Foreground color to #e9967a (a pretty salmon)

►Now Choose the Ellipse or circle tool create an ellipse, which will form our basic petal in the center top of your image (the size I made it was 102 x 164 px). Select bucket tool and fill the petal with the pretty Salmon color. Copy the petal and paste it, now click on the Move tool, which tool No. 12 at the top of the Toolbox, and move it to the spot directly beneath the first petal vertically. Now Copy, Paste, and select the Rotate tool, which is 3 tools away from the Move tool and by clicking again on your petal, rotate it to be horizontal to the other two petals. Choose the move tool and drag it to be between the two previous petals on a horizontal position. Copy, paste, and drag the copy to the opposite side.
Now we have our basic flower shape. We will now work on the decorative center. Click on the Ellipse tool and make a circle that will cover the center of our flower.
►Go to Layer, New Layer. Change the Foreground color to Black and fill the circle with the color. Go to Blur, Gaussian Blur and blur the Black circle by 10 px.
►Now go to Select, Shrink, and shrink the selection by 4 px. Now go to the Filters menu, choose Render, Pattern, Checkerboard. When the menu opens, set the checkerboard size to 14.
Go to Select, None.
►Then go to File, New. In the new Image, choose a transparent background. Create a circle with the Ellipse Tool. Go to the Blend Tool and from the drop down menu, choose Golden and fill your selection with Gold.
►Go to Select, Shrink and Shrink by 15 px.Add a new Layer. Choose the Bucket Tool and from pick Pattern Fill, from the drop down menu pick Burlwood. Fill your selection with it. Go to Select, Shrink and shrink your selection by 10 px. Add a new Layer.
►Change the Foreground color to #f32c2c and the Background color to #e37e25. In the Blend menu, choose FG to BG (HSV counter-clockwise) Now with the Blend tool, create a Linear gradient from top to bottom across the new selection.
►Change the Foreground color to #fbed05 and choose the brush Circle Fuzzy 19, move the opacity to 51.5 and the Scale 1o 10.00, and make a bright spot of color on the upper left side of your gemstone. Now go to Filters, Light and shadow, Lighting Effects, position the blue dot (the light source) at the left bottom side of the your gemstone, corresponding with the upper shine we just made.
Choose Layer, Merge Down. Then select the current layer where your finish gemstone is and then select merge visible layers.
►Now Choose Scale. When the menu opens scale your gemstone down to a width of 114 and a height of 114 px and click ok. Copy the selection and return to your previous work and click on paste. Select the Move tool to center your gemstone on your flower in the middle of your checkerboard button. Click outside of the selection to anchor your pasted gemstone.

►Go to File and Save as a PNG,

►For some strange reason, I could not make the background transparent without saving the flower first. So Save it. Close it. Then Go to File, Open Recent and open it up again. Go to Layer, Transparency, and then, from the Toolbox, choose the little want tool and click ont he background of the image to select it, then hit Ctrl + X, to delete the background. Go to Filters, Blur, then go to Filters Light and Shadow, Drop Shadow.
Save your flower again.

Done!

Transcendent Love...

Button with Bling for Your Scrapbooking Photos

Skip the usual way of embellishing the corners of a photo and use this button with a little bit of bling to it!

This tutorial assumes that you have Gimp installed on your computer and that you understand at least the basics so that you can follow the directions of the tutorial.
►Fire up Gimp.
Make a New Image going to File, New. Choose the size you want, click on Advanced Options and choose a Transparent Background.
Pick the Ellipse or Circle tool and draw a circle inside your selection. Give it a size of 250 pixels x 256 pixels (you can type those numbers in the toolbox of the Ellipse Select you have currently active.)
Click on the Foreground color and when the menu opens, change it to Black. Using the Bucket Tool, fill your Circle with Black. Go to Select, Shrink, and shrink your selection by 10 pixels (you will have now a circle with a Black Border.)
►Go to Layer, New Layer. Change your Foreground color to White. Fill your new selection with White using the Bucket tool.

While the new White circle is still selected, go to Filters, Artistic, Cubism, and select the following settings:
Tile size: 1.3, and Tile saturation: 2.4, leave rest as is and click OK. Now you have some Bling around your Black edge. Go to Select, Shrink, and shrink the selection by 30 pixels.
►Go to Layer, New Layer. On the Toolbox, Choose the Gradient or Blend tool and make sure it is set to Linear Shape, then, clicking on the Gradient color, scroll down to Golden. Fill your little center with it by making a straight down stroke with your mouse. Now go to Select, Shrink, and shrink the selection by 20 pixels, that is to give a golden border to our gem. Again, go to Layer, New Layer. Then, click on the Foreground color and change it to #f30a0a, a rich red. Then click on the Background and change it to #750001, a deep maroon. Now pick the Gradient or Blend Tool and tick on Adaptive Supersampling and for the Shape, choose Radial.
►In the Gradient color, choose FG to BG (RGB) now, draw the gradient from top to bottom of your circle.
Now Change the Foreground color to #ffffd9, and select the paintbrush tool, from the different brushes, select the brush Fuzzy Select 17, drag the lever of Opacity to 55.0 and the lever of Scale to 5.00 and click twice on the upper left of our gem. Choose Select None. Go to Layer, Merge Down.
Then, File, Save As, and choose Select File Type (By Extension) and save as a PNG.

Abounding in Hope

Pearls Embellishment Bar

You can do lots of things with this, after you have completed this tutorial, experiment on your own . You can do picture corners, photo frames, even put this pattern inside of text. For now, let us make a simple bar that will give you the basic tools on how to make a pearl-like texture.

Fire up Gimp.
Create a new image 400 x 600 pxls
Select the Ellipse or Circle Tool and draw a circle. Choose the Gradient Tool and from the Gradient Menu, pick Cool Steel, make the shape Conical (Sym), and click on Dithering and on Adaptive Supersampling.
Make you gradient by stroking with your mouse from the top of your circle down.
Go to Select, Grow and grow your circle by 4 pxls.
Change the Foreground color to #10adef and the Background color to #105ff1
Got o the Toolbox and select the Blend or Gradient Tool again, this time, change the Gradient to FG to BG (RGB), change the direction to Linear, and give it an opacity of 18.0.
Make your gradient over the previous circle you had made. Turn the Background transparent by doing the following, go to Layer, Transparency, Add Alpha Channel. Then, choose the little wand that is the 4th tool at the top of the toolbox, click the background with it and then hit, Ctrl + X.
Then go to Select, None.
Pick the Rectangle Select Tool and make a square around your circle that barely encases the circle, leaving as much of the transparent background out as you can. Go to Image, Crop to Selection.
Now go to image, Scale Image and scale it down to 40 x 40.
Now, go to File, New and make an image that is 100 x 100 pxls.
Again to Layer, Transparency, Add Alpha Channel and with the Fuzzy select that you used before, click on the new 100x 100 pxls image. Click on Xtrl +x to make it transparent.
Go back to your circle and while it is selected, choose Pattern Fill, Clipboard (the white square at the top, when you pull down the little pattern fill menu).
Go to Select, ALL, then Edit, Copy.
Create a new image of the size you want your pearl embellishment bar to be. If you have done the steps right, it will come up of a dark blue color (one of the shades in the Cool Steel gradient) now, select the Bucket Tool and click your new image again.
It will fill up with the pearls.
Save as a PNG and use.

Bible Universe: Explore!

Cute and Easy Journaling Block

This tutorial assumes you have Inkscape installed on your computer and that you understand at least the basics on how to use that free software. (Check out some of our previous tutorials to learn more on how to use it.) This is, nevertheless, a super easy tut, so might want to try it just to get a feel for the software and how to use it for your digital scrapbooking.

Let's get started.

►Fire up Inkscape.

►Click on the Create Circles tool. While holding the Ctrl key down, make a circle by moving your mouse over an empty space on the canvas. While your circle is still selected, choose a color you like from the color palette at the bottom of the page by clicking on the color. At the bottom of the page, below the Palette, right-click on Stroke.

►When the little menu appears, choose Edit Stroke, and when the Fill and Stroke dialog appears, click on the X to turn off the Stroke.

►Now, click on the tool Create Stars and Polygons. From the top of the page, choose Polygons and give it 5 corners. Draw one with your mouse. Make it the same color as your circle. While it is still selected, go to File, Duplicate. Drag the duplicate to one side, now drag the first pentagon to the top center of the circle. ►Now your circle looks like a drop of water. Click on the duplicate to select it, now on the top of the page, counting from left to right, choose the seventh button (flip selected objects vertically) and your second polygon will flip. Drag it to the bottom center of your circle, making sure it is flush with the edge and that the curve is smooth.

►Make another circle, as you did at the beginning. Give it the same color as the rest of your journaling block, take out the Stroke as before.

Now, make a rectangle and give it the same color and take out the stroke. Drag the rectangle so that it covers the bottom half of your new circle. While the rectangle is still selected, click on the Shift key and click on the new circle. Now both objects are selected. Go to Path, Intersection, so that the rectangle will cut the circle in half.

►Duplicated it. Now drag one of the half circles to the side of your block and center it.

Select the second half circle and from the top, click on the button Rotate selection 90º clockwise, repeat it, if necessary, till you flip the half circle all the way to perfectly fit on the opposite side of your block. Select all the block with your mouse and go to Object, Group. Select it again and make a duplicate. Change the color to any color and drag to the center of the previous object. Select and drag in the corners to make it smaller. When you are happy with the size you have, change the object to White.

►Select everything again, and go to Object, Group.

You can leave it there, but let’s give it a nice drop shadow effect.

►Select your block again, copy and then paste. Make the copy Black by clicking on the Black color down at the bottom of the page while the copy is selected. Now, on the Fill and stroke dialog menu you will see a lever that is called Blur, move the lever a tiny bit, just to soften the edges of the Black copy into a nice blur. Click on the eight button at the top of the page, Lower selection to bottom. Select everything with your mouse again and go to Object, Group.

►Go to File, Export as a Bitmap (PNG) and you’re done!

Bible Universe: Explore!

Make a Cute Scrapbooking Tag in inkscape

A scrapbooker never has enough cute tags to add to their different embellished pages. Here's one you can make rather quickly and you can vary it in many ways as your imagination and your project might suggest.
Let's start!
►Fire up Inkscape.
►Select the Ellipse tool and create an oval approximately of the size you need the tag to be. From the bottom of the page, choose a color you want and click on it to give your circle that color.
►Right-click on Stroke, to up bring the little options list and choose Edit Stroke. When the Fill and Stroke Menu opens, click on the X on Stroke, to take out the stroke.
►Select the Rectangles and Squares tool and make a rectangle as wide as your oval is.
While the rectangle is selected, press on the Shift key and click on the oval to select both the oval and the rectangle, then go to Path, Difference, to use the rectangle to cut your oval in half and give you a nice tag.
Let's embellish our tag a bit.
►First let's make a drop shadow. Copy your tag, drag the copy so that it is positioned on top of the original. Click on the Palette to turn the copy to black. In the Fill and Stroke menu, move the Blur lever to 3.0 to blur the copy, then, at the top of the page, click on the 8th button from the left, to send the copy to the bottom. This will create the appearance of a drop shadow.
►Click on the star tool and make a medium size star of any color you like. Duplicate it until you have 8 of them and drag the duplicates to the side, making sure you don't deform them.
►Take the first star and drag it to the spot where you want it at the bottom of your tag, click on it and make it black, now burr it like you did with the tag itself. Drag one of the other stars and put it on top of the black star that would be its shadow, if it winds up at the bottom, don't worry, go to the top of the page and click on the 11th button to Raise Selection to Top (Home)
►Continue doing this until you have all your stars in place.
►Select everything with your mouse and go to Object, Group.
►Now, let's make some text for our tag.

►I chose to write Cute or What? You write what you would like. I used the Font Sproket BT, but you choose whichever you like best.
►Write you text in Black, duplicate it,move your duplicate to one side. Blur your original and position it in the tag where you want it to be.
►Now, make the duplicate of a contrasting color, only so that you can see it, and drag it to be on top of the blurred text. Now, change the color to white.
►Select everything again and go to Object, Group.
Export as a bitmap.

Done!

Now you can use it in your next scrap. Enjoy!

Bible Universe: Explore!

Photo Corners on Inkscape and Gimp

Learning to make your own photo corners is a very practical yet creative thing that can enhance and embellish the look of your scraps. This is an easy tutorial to give you a start, after you have made it. Go ahead and make your own corners, your way and apply them to your projects! If you are not a digi scrapper, you can still use this project, if you can print it in card stock and use a cutter to shape it and add it to one of your projects, you will have a lot of fun making your own corners yourself instead of buying them in kits.

Fire up Inkscape.
►Choose the rectangles and Squares tool and make a narrow rectangle. Give it any color you like. I will make this one red.
►At the bottom of the page, and while the rectangle is selected, right-click on the Stroke and when the little menu appears, chose Edit Stroke and when the dialog box appears, click on the X, to take out the stroke.
►Now, go to Path, Object to Path. Click on the Nodes tool which is just below the Arrow or Select tool. When the nodes appear, click on one to select them, when you see that they turn blue, click on the center of the narrow rectangle and pull, while holding down the Shift key (that way the nodes will move symmetrically and your object will not be deformed.) Now you have a rounded corner.
►Duplicate what you have and drag the copy to one side. While it is selected, right-click on it so that the rotation arrows will appear and turn it around so that it will become the vertical portion of your photo corner.
Drag it to meet the other piece of the photo corner and join the so they match perfectly. Or, while it is selected, you can click on the 5th button from the left at the top of the page, to rotate selection 90 degrees. ►Then you need to join the two pieces, to avoid the appearance of a white line in between the two sections,
overlap the vertical portion of the photo corner over the horizontal just a bit. Adjust the size of your finished corner to your liking. I don't like my photo corners too long, but that is just a personal preference, you can make them anyway you like. When you like the way they look, elect everything with your mouse and go to Object, Group.
►To save, click on File, Export Bitmap to save as a PNG.
Because I want my corners for a wedding photo, I chose red (#ee0000) but you can choose any color you like or the one that goes best with your project.

Now let's decorate our corners using Gimp!

Fire up Gimp.
►Open your saved PNG in Gimp.
►Go to Filters, Noise, RGB Noise.
►Since my color is Red, I moved the Red lever to 0.70
While the Green and the Blue remained at 0.20
And the Alpha remained in 0.00
Then I clicked okay.
►Depending on your color, move the levers in the color you have chosen of the 3 Primary ones and allow a confetti or glitter effect to form. Click okay.
Let us make it a bit fancier. Choose the circle or ellipse tool. While holding down the Ctrl key, make a circle. Go to Layer, New Layer. Choose the Gradient tool
and from the Gradient tool menu choose the gradient Golden, leave it as a linear gradient. Make the gradient with your mouse vertically down the circle.
Go to Select, Shrink and shrink by 20 pixels. Go to Layer, Change the Foreground color to #fe0800 and the Background color to #a50000. Choose the Gradient tool and click on the color to change it to FG to BG (RGB) apply the Gradient.
►Go to Filters, Light and Shadow, Drop Shadow and apply a drop shadow of 15. Repeat the drop shadow as before, to give it more depth.
Chage the Foreground color to a yellow (I used #fefe00) choose the Brush tool and from the menu pick Circle Fuzzy (19), in the Toolbox menu, move the level of the Scale to 5.72 and the opacity to 30 percent. Click several times where you want the "shine" to be. After that, reapply a drop shadow with the same value as before to enhance the "shine."
►Go to Layer, Merge Down. Save as a PNG. If you want a drop shadow, (personally, I think it looks better with one) and you have downloaded the Free ScriptFu for your Gimp, go to ScriptFu and use their drop shadow, because for some reason, the Light and Shadow drop shadow from the Filters menu does not work after you have reached this point. If you don't have
the scriptfu downloaded get it and use it, if you prefer, take your corner back to Inkscape and duplicate it, make it black, give it a little blur and send it to the back of your corner. Select all and Group it and Export as a PNG. If you use scriptfu, give it a drop shadow or 12.
Then save as a PNG.
Now you can apply it to a photo like I did.

Done!

Bible Universe: Explore!

A Flower for Mom

This is a cute motif you can use for a digi card for mom or even for a birthday card.

►Fire up Inkscape.
►Select the Rectangle tool. Make a narrow rectangle, about the size you would like for the petal of a flower.
Click on it and while it is selected, give it the color you want from the palette below. Right click on the Stroke below the palette and when the
little menu appears, choose Edit Stroke and when the Fill and Stroke menu appears, click on the X to get rid of the Stroke.
►While the rectangle is still selected, go to Path. Object to Path. Now, click on the Nodes tool that is just below the Select tool's Arrow.
►Now, click on the image to bring out the nodes. Holding down the Shift key, pull gently on the center of the lower part of the rectangle to give it a rounded end.
While holding the CTRL key down, make a circle, give it any color you like and take out the Stroke as you did for the petals.
►Copy the circle and paste it to one side, and while holding down the CTRL key again, make it smaller than the first circle, duplicate it. Give the duplicate a dark gray color, like the color of a shadow.
Select the "shadow circle. Now go to Object, Align and Distribute and click on the 3rd button on the top and on the 3rd button on the row below to align the smaller circle perfectly int he center of the larger one. Now Select the other smaller circle. Give it a lighter color. And reduce it a little bir in size. Drag it to be at the center of the shadow. It will appear on the bottom, to bring it to the top, click at the top of the page on the button that says Raise to Top (the 11th button from counting from the left.) Click on the petal and while selected, duplicate it 5 times for a total of 6 petals.
►Click on the first petal to select it, and then click again so that the rotation arrows will appear, grab the petal by one of the arrows and rotate it in the way you want the petal to go.
►Click again and drag it to where the circle is that you made first. Now go to the top of the page and click on the button that says Lower Selection to Bottom (the 8th button at the top, counting from the left.)
Repeat this process, arranging the petals according to your personal taste. When you're done, make a small circle, give it the same color as the larger circle at the center of your flower.
But make it small enough that it could be a fun polka dot. Duplicate it, and drag the duplicates to the petals, distributing them as polka dots, in the way you find most pleasing to your personal taste, making sure
you do not distort nor enlarge the polka dots as you drag them.
►When you're happy with what you have, select everything with your mouse and go to Object, Group. Now it will not fall apart when you move it.
►Make another circle. Take out the Stroke as before. Drag it into the center of the flower. While selected, give it the color White. Go to Path, Object to Path. Click on the Nodes tool, and curve it in a way that pleases you, somewhat like a half moon.
►Duplicate it. Drag the duplicate a little below the first one. Flip it by clicking on the 7th button at the top of the page. While you have the first half moon selected, go to the Fill and Stroke little menu and move the lever of the Blur until you blur it to your liking, this will be the first "shine" spot. Drag the other half moon to where you would like to see it and do the same. (I blurred it to 36.3, but you can do whatever you like.)
Select everything again, and group it as before.
►Copy the whole thing, paste to the side, give it a dark gray color of your liking and blur it to 7.1. Drag it to be on top of your flower, and then click on the button to send it to the bottom, this will act as a drop shadow.
►Select all, and go to Object, Group.
►Go to File, Export Bitmap and save your flower.
Note- I used WebHex for my color palette, just inc ase you like the colors.

Done!

 Bible Universe, Come and See!