Fun Letters Journaling Pad

You can make journaling pads using Inkscape and Gimp. They are a lot of fun and no two will turn out alike!
This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape installed on your computer.
It also assumes that you have a basic knowledge of how to use the software.

Fire up Inkscape.
Choose a font you like. The best ones are the ones that are in cursive style.
Write as many letters as you want your journaling pad to have (the desired width)
Change the color if you like. Then select the row of letters and copy.
Now click on the 4th tool at the top of the page, right under the Layers menu, to rotate the copied letters.
With your mouse, drag them to meet the first set of letters, paste your copy again and do the same, inverting the direction, continue this until you have formed a square with letters.Join the corners closely to form a box.
Now, drag your mouse over them all, choose object, group.
If you want to, use the pencil tool and draw freehand lines for your journaling.
Export as a Bitmap.

Now open Gimp.
Because Inkscape makes all the Bitmap background transparent, we're going to have to "fill" out the center with color in Gimp. Open your file. Choose the rectangle tool and draw a square selection that reaches only just below, above and inside the sides of your pad, but does not reach all the way to the letters.
Fill with the color of your choice. you can also fill it with a paper texture if you like.
Save again as a PNG.
Experiment with different letters which you think would make fun journaling blocks.
Here is another idea.
Choose the font AR Julian and type 1 capital O, 1 lower case o, and repeat this for as long as you want for the width of your journaling pad. Then follow the steps as for the previous journaling pad.
You can also do this to make fun frames for your scrapbooking photos.
In Gimp, you can fill the os with textures using the Bucket fill tool, or if you have SVG photos, you can do that in Inskcape as well.
Here is how a journaling block made with this technique would look like.

And this is an embellished version of it.

That's all there is to it! Have fun making your own.



Bible Universe

Making Elements with Inkscape and Gimp Using Letters

Fun Oval Element Based on Letters

A digital scrapbooker never has too much elements to use (at least, that is my experience,) and learning to make new ones is always fun and comes in handy!

What you will need before you start:
Inkscape and Gimp installed on your computer
Two textures of your choice for Gimp (there are hundreds of free textures available)
Script-Fu installed and part of your Gimp (you can easily find it online)

• Fire up Inkscape
• Choose the text tool.
• Pick the font Aharoni, size 144. Write the letter U (in caps)
• Then go to Edit, Duplicate. Move the duplicated U to the top of the first one. Then, select the second U with the select tool or arrow, and, while the U is selected, from the top of the page, Click on the 7th tool from the left, to flip the U around. Now, drag it down to sit on top of the previous V. Click on the Select tool again, and drag your mouse over the two Us, now go to Object, Group. Now they are joined together. Click on one of the arrows and drag the Vs to make them larger.
• When you have the size you want, go to File, Export Bitmap. Save it in the folder you want and close Inkscape.

• Fire up Gimp.
• Open your File from Inkscape. 
• Change the Foreground color to a color that matches the patterns you will be using. Pick the bucket took. Click on the center of the joined letter Us, which are now an oval and fill the center hole with the chosen color. Select the Ellipse tool and draw an oval in the center of the colored spot.
• If it does not come out of the size you want, click on it, arrows will appear and you can pull it into the shape and size you want. 
• Go to Layer, New Layer and then choose the blend or gradient tool. Get the Golden gradient and choose a linear gradient, stroking with your mouse downward, fill the oval with the golden color. Go to Select, shrink and shrink the selection by 25 pixels, then go to Layer, New Layer.  Click on the bucket tool, change it to Pattern Fill and fill the oval is still selected, fill it with the first pattern of your choice. Then go to Select None.
• Finally, choose the bucket fill again, and fill the rest of your element (the outside of the joined letter Us) with the second pattern.
• Go to Filters, Blur.
• You could stop right there and you would have a lovely element to use. But let us go a bit further.
• Go to Script-fu, Bevel and Emboss. Choose for Style: Outer Bevel
• For Depth: 5, Direction: Up, Shadow Color: Black. Leave the rest as is. Click OK.
• It will raise the center oval, giving it an almost 3D look. If you want to add a little bit of gloss to it, click on brush. Change the brush to Cirlce Fuzzy (19),
• change the color of the Foreground color to the color you want for the glow, move the scale size to 10.00 and click on the image where you want the glow to go.
• I did my gloss in yellow because I have too much white in my patterns and because it looks like a sparkle in the gold, but you can try any color you want.
• Save your image as a PNG and that's it!

Bible Universe