How to Make a Cute Flower Frame in Inkscape and Gimp

This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape and Gimp installed in your computer, and that you have followed at least some of our previous tutorials to get an idea of how the free softwares work.

You will also need 1 or at least 3 patterns downloaded into your computer (there are many free ones online)
 Fire up Inkscape.
 Click to select the polygon tool and make sure to choose the star shape.
At the top of your page, select the following settings:  Star, Corners: 7 Spoke Ratio: 0.05 Rounded: 0.000 Randomized: 0.000
 Now choose the color you like for the fill and for the stroke (it will only be a base coat) I chose pink. Drag to make your star. Make it large enough so that a face can fit there.
Go to Path, Object to Path. Now click on the tool right underneath the Arrow or Select tool that is the Edit Paths by Nodes tool.
 Now, click on each node (tip of the star) to select it and then, at the top of the page, click on the 9th button from the left, which says make selected nodes symmetric, this will round up the point of the star to look more like a petal.
If you need to, manipulate the nodes manually to make them more to your liking. Now, while the flower is selected, hit Ctrl D to duplicate it twice. Click on the flower and move the duplication to one side of the previous flower, but make sure they are touching end to end, as if they were a string of paper cut flowers.

Position them any way you like, mine are not totally straight, but you can position yours any way you like. Click on the select tool and drag your mouse over the 3 flowers to select them all. Go to Object, Group.

 Now to to File, Export Bitmap, give it a name and export it as a PNG. Close Inskcape. Fire up Gimp. Open your PNG image. Choose the Ellipse tool and make a selection on the center of your first flower, then go to Edit, Cut. Then go to Select, None. Repeat this with every flower.
You can leave your string of flowers frame as is, but I want to embellish mine more.

 If you would like to do the same, before you make your flowers, download free texture patterns (fabric ones) from the internet (there are many for Gimp), in previous tutorials I have taught how to save those.

Once you have chosen the patterns you want to use, pick the bucket tool and choose Pattern Fill and click each flower, applying either one pattern or a different pattern for each flower. Go to Blur, Gaussian Blur and apply a blur of 5.0. Now go to Script-Fu, Drop Shadow and apply. Merge Layers. Go to Save As, choose Select File Type (By Extension). Save as a PNG.

 That's all! You can now use your cute string of flowers frame in your next scrapping project.
Enjoy!

Bible Universe

Let's Make a Fun Text Decal in Inkscape and Gimp

Fire up Inkscape.

Select the Text tool and pick out a font that is thick. I chose Once in a while, size 144.
Write the words you want for your message. I wrote Loving It. But write the words one letter at a time, clicking on the canvas to
deselect each letter, so that the word will not be all together, that way we will be able to work with it.

Now rotate the letters to your likeing. To rotate in one direction, slect the letter you want to rotate, then, press the Alt key plus the opening bracket [, to rotate in the opposite
direction, select the letter you want to rotate and then press the Alt key and the closing bracket ]. Once you have the letters in the direction you want, click on the select tool (arrow) and
draw a selection around the word or words you have writing, now click on Ctrl + G to group the selected letters.

Click on the canvas to deselect the grouping, and click on the letters again, then go to Edit, Duplicate, then Paste. Move the duplicated text below the original text and keep it selected.

Now, click on Ctrl + Shift + F, so that the Fill and Stroke menu will appear. Chose stroke paint.
Choose a medium gray, then go to stroke style, and choose a width of 18.00 and a miter limit of 18.00 and choose for Join choose the first box. Now drag your selection and place it on top of the previous text.
Then, to to the top of the page and select Lower Selection One Step, the 9th button up there from the left.
Now Click on the select arrow and draw a selection over the whole text and go to Path, Union, to join it all together. Export as a PNG, to to File Export Bitmap.

Now, go to Gimp. Open your ext decal there. Now select the bucket tool. Choose a pattern that you like (there are many free patterns online for Gimp that you can download) and click on Pattern Fill.
Apply to the inside of your text. Now select FG color Fill and change the Foreground color to White. Apply White to the gray all around the outside of your text.

Finally, go to Filters, Blur, Gaussian Blur, apply a 5.0 blur. Now go to Script-Fu and choose Drop Shadow. Now go to Filters, Blur. Save as a PNG as follows, go to Save As, then click on Select File Type (By Extension and pick PNG).

Click to merge the layers and then to save it. (Do this even if you see the png on your file name, because otherwise, what I have found is that Gimp tends to save files as its proprietorial file format and then you cannot open them in other scrapbooking software.)

Done!

Bible Universe