Golden Star Embellishment

I have another free download for you all! This is a pretty star to embellish the scrapbooking you will be making during this special Holiday season!

Download it here for free!


Golden Star Embellishment

Don't Remain Down

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm grateful to God for all His blessings, I'm grateful for my family. I am grateful for all of you and I am sending you all a humongous hug and my best wishes for you and for your family!

Lovely Spiral Embellishment FREE Download!

A scrapbooker or someone who likes to decorate their blog never has enough embellishments! Here is a beautiful, textured spiral which you can use in many ways to pretty-up a digi scrapping page or to draw attention to a little spot on your blog. You can download it FREE from the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4YQuDjnqxugREl2cXVjNEVVbzA/edit?usp=sharing

This is an example of how you could use this pretty embellishment:

Happy scrapping!


The Power to Win

Red and Gold Decorative Photo Corner for Your Scrapbooking

Let's make a pretty photo corner to embellish a photo on a digi scrapping project! One of the things that gives a finished touch to your scrapbooking are the details that you use to give them a finished touch. Something as simple as photo corners can make a world of difference when it comes to giving a page a lovely, polished look. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to easily make some of those corners using Gimp.

This tutorial assumes that you have Gimp (a free software) installed on your computer.
►Fire up Gimp.
►Go to File, New and create a new image of whatever size you like. I made mine 600 x 400 pxl.
►Click on Advanced options, and choose transparency. Click OK.
►Click on the Rectangle Select Tool and make a rectangle with the following settings (type them on your Toolbox):
Position: 90 x 58 pxl
Size: 309 x 65 pxl
►Go to Layer, New Layer, and then, change the Foreground color to White and using the Bucket Tool, fill your selection with the color.
►Then, go to Edit, Copy, Paste. Then, click on the Move tool (tool #12 on the first row of tools on your Toolbox) and move the new copy down to separate the two pieces of your photo corner.
select the Rotate tool from the Toolbox (the first tool of the second row) and when the menu opens, just click on your new selection and rotate it into a vertical position, then click Rotate in the little menu. It will become a vertical bar. Now, on the Toolbox, pick the Move Selection and position it so that they meet and form the picture corner that you want. Make sure that the new bar's edges fall inside the top bar, in other words, that the edges are even. Click anywhere inside the horizontal bar to anchor the new joint.
►Now go to the Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo -Brushes, Patterns, Gradients Menu and click on the layer that has your corner on it to select it (it should be the top one) to select it, now right click,
and when the drop down menu opens, click on Alpha to Selection. Marching ants will appear that will indicate your selection is active.
►Make sure to reset your Foreground and Background colors to Black and White, Black the Foreground and White the Background.
►Go to Filters, Render, Clouds, Difference Clouds, and click OK. Now Go to Filters, Noise, RGB Noise, click OK. Now go to Colors, Desaturate. (Make sure Lightness is selected) and click OK.
►Go to Colors, Colorize, and move the levers to the following settings: Hue: 47, Saturation: 50 Lightness: 23 and click OK.
Go to Select, Shrink, and shrink by 10 pxls. Go to Layer, New Layer.
Select the Bucket tool and click on Patterns, scroll down and pick Frosty Crystal. Fill the new selection with it.
►Go to Colors, Colorize and choose the following settings: Hue: 360, Saturation: 55, Lightness: 0 and click Ok

You can leave it as is or you can put a little gem on it.

►Choose the Ellipse Select tool and make a circle that fits inside your corner frame. If it is not perfectly placed. don't worry, just click on the Move tool and Move the layer to position your circle where you need it.
►Click on the Blend or Gradient Tool and select Golden. But before filling your new circle, go to Layer, New Layer. Make sure your gradient is Linear and just make a long stroke with your mouse across your circle to fill it with gold.
►Now Go to Select, Shrink and Shrink it by 8 pxls. Go to Layer, new Layer. Change your Foreground color to this shade of Red: #f32c2c, and using the Bucket tool, fill your new selection with red.
►Change your Foreground color to Yellow. I used #fceb5c, but you can use any yellow you like.  Click on the Bursh tool and scroll down the menu, pick the brush tool and choose the brush Circle Fuzzy 19, move the lever of the Scale to 2.28.
►Click twice on the top side of your "gem" to give it a little light.
►Go to Select, None.
►Save as PNG.

You've got a new decorative corner for your photos!

Abounding in Hope

Nice and Very Easy Digital Scrapbooking Tag on Gimp

This is a very easy but good-looking tag that you can make in a few minutes to embellish any page you want to write something on.
This tutorial assumes that you have Gimp installed on your computer (it is a free software)
Let's get started.
►Fire up Gimp.
►Create a new image by choosing File, New. (Any size will do.)
►Choose any color you like, I happened to choose blue, because that color matched the photo I was going to use with the tag.
For your Foreground color you can choose any color that will look well with your photo or photos. Only choose a shade of that color that you can write against and that will not make your text hard to read.
Make sure you have a contrasting color for your Background color (I chose White, it could also be a much lighter shade of the Foreground color.)
Choose the Bucket tool and fill your New Image with the Foreground color. Now go to Select, All.
Once you have the marching ants going around your image, which means it is selected, go to Select, Border and create a Border around your Image of 10 pxls.
Change your Foreground color to a darker shade of the color you filled with the Image with and using the Bucket tool, fill the Border with the new color.
Go to Filters, Artistic, Cubism. When the little menu opens, choose the following settings:
Tile Size: 9.0
Tile Saturation: 2.0
and click OK. Go to Select, None.

This is what your tag will now look like:

Save as a PNG to use on your next project.

Your new tag is done! Now you can add it to any of your scrapbooking pages.

In Too Great a Hurry?

Easy Quick Scrapbooking Tag in Gimp

This is a simple tag to make, but one that can become a favorite of yours. I like that it has rounded corners, which gives it a lovelier look. It is also very versatile, as you will soon see!

This tutorial assumes you have Gimp installed on your computer. Let's get started.

☺Fire up Gimp.
To have a working space, go to File, New, choose to make the background Transparent.
Create a selection that is 400 x 600 pxls.
☺Choose the Rectangle tool and draw a selection that almost fills your entire work area (We want a nice-sized tag).
The position should be 13 x 10 pxls. The size 613 x 381 pxls.
☺Now go to the Toolbox and while your selection is active, click on Rounded corners (in the Rectangle Select Menu, and move the Radius lever until the rounded corners' size is 24.0)
Select the Blend Tool, and go through the Menu of the Blend Tool until you find Golden, choose it.
Make sure the Gradient is set to a linear shape. Make a straight gradient by drawing it with your mouse from the top of your rounded box to the bottom of it.
☺Go to Select, None.
Now choose the Rectangle tool again and make a new rounded corners rectangle inside of the one you just made.
The position should be 26 x 28 and the size should be 589 x 334 pxls.
☺Go to Layer, New Layer, and picking the Bucket tool, fill the selection with White.
☺Go to Select, Shrink and shrink the selection by 10 pxls.
☺Go to the Bucket Tool again and choose Pattern fill. You can now fill the new selection with any pattern you like (Gimp brings some but you can download a lot of free patterns from the net.)
I choose a pattern of white polka dots on a gold background. Go to Select, None.
You can use your tag as is.

☺But if you want to write on a solid colored background, simply draw another rectangle with rounded corners inside the pattern fill.
☺Its position should be 58 x 56. Size 526 x 275 pxls.
☺Fill your new selection with White and then go to Filters, Blur, to soften everything up.
☺Save it as a Png and you can start using your tag!

☺You now have an easy but fancy looking tag for your new scrapping project.
This tag will have as many different looks at the patterns you use to fill the background! Experiment, have fun. Donwload some free patterns from the web and adapt them to your next project!

Enjoy!

Don't Remain Down

How to Make a Tag with Distressed Edges in Gimp

There are many fun ways in which you can learn to make your own tags, stretch your scrapbooking budget and also enjoy your creativity. This tag is very easy to make and you can change it in many ways, as you go on to learn the software a lot more.

This tutorial assumes that you have Gimp installed on your computer (a free software that can be downloaded online) and that you can at least understand the basics of how to use it. The tutorial is very simple, but it would be a good idea if you would go back and tied some of our previous tuts on Gimp and Inkscape as well.

►Fire up Gimp.
►Go to File, New and choose the size you want for your tag. For demonstration purposes, I will choose 640 x 400 px.
►Choose the rectangle tool and make a selection that fills your whole working area.
From the toolbox, choose the Bucket Tool, make sure the Foreground color is White and fill your selection with the color.
►Go to Select, Border.
When the little menu opens, make a border selection of 20 pixels and select the Lock selection to image edges, and click OK.
►Now go to Filters, Artistic, Cubism. When the menu opens, choose the following settings: Tile size: 2.0, Tile saturation: 2.5, and click OK.
Go to Filters, Artistic, Clothify and fill the edge with it. Then go to Filters, Decor, Fuzzy Border and choose a border size of 18, leave the rest of the selections as is.
►Now go to Colors, Colorize and give it any hue you like, by playing with the levers until you are happy with the results.
►If you want a transparent background for the edges of your tag so that you can add it to your scrapping projects, simply go to Layer, Transparency, and add an Alpha channel, then click the background with the little wand that is found on the top row of the Toolbox.
Then, when you have a fuzzy selection around your tag's background, hit Ctrl + X on your keyboard to "cut" the background. Then go to Filters, blur, to soften the edges.
Save as a PNG image.

You will now have a tag like this:

That's it!

Now, go ahead and use it for a scrap page like I did here. Enjoy!

Bible Universe: Explore!

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!

Scalloped Scrapbooking Tag

Tags are very useful to write your sentiment onto your scrapped pages, for journaling, even for writing special dates such as anniversaries, birthdays, etc, with a remark about what makes them special. This is a lovely tag which you can also modify in many ways, by using textures, patterns, and in many other ways.
Note- If you're not a digital scrapbooker, but do regular scrapping, you can still use this pretty tag. Follow the tutorial, and then use your cutter to get your tag and add it to your next project!

This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape installed on your computer.
Even though, this tutorial is very simple, if you have never used the software before, maybe you could make some of our previous tutorials, just to get your feet wet and understand the software a little bit before tackling this one. Or you could watch some free videos on Inkscape, there are many online.

Let's make our tag:
►Fire up Inkscape.
►Click o n the Ellipse tool and while you hold the Ctrl key down, make a circle, pick any color you like.
At the bottom of the page, right-click on Stroke, and when the little menu pops up, choose Edit Stroke, then click on the X to take out the stroke line around the circle that you just made.
►Now select the Text tool. Make a Capital "O" using the font Rockwell Extra Bold, and enlarge it a little bit. Make it the same color as the circle you made before. Click on it, and draf it to the circle, and position it in such a way that that about half of the "O" is lost in the circle and the other half protudes like a scallop out of the circle. While it is selected, go to Object and then click on Select to Top.
►While the "O" is still selected, press down on the Shift key and while holding it down, click on the circle to select it as well. Now go to Path, Object to Path. Then go to Extensions, Generate From Path, Pattern Along a Path.
►When the menu opens, choose as follows:
Copies of the Pattern: Repeated, Stretched
Deformation type: Snake
And all the other settings must be 0.0, except for the first one, Space between Copies, which you set to 0.5.
Hit Apply.
►Now you have a scalloped circle. Close the little menu.
►With your mouse, select the circle and all the "Os" around it, and go to Object, Group. Now you can move the circle without it falling apart on you.
►While it is selected, duplicate it 3 times so that you have 4 of them.
►Choose the Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle.
►Choose to make it White and make the stroke color the exact same color of your scalloped circles.
►Give it a stroke of about 40.00 (in other words, make it a bit thick)
►Position the scalloped circles the way you see them in the photos.
►Then select everything and go to Object group. Save as a PNG.
Note- Remember, for the effect to work right, you must have both the circles, the scalloped edges and the border or stroke of the box that forms the tag, all of the same color.
I chose a peach, the color is f9ac62, just in case you want to make it the same color.
If you would like to give it a drop shadow effect, just copy your tag with the scallops before you save it, turn everything black, give it a little blur and position it on top of your tag and send it to the back.
Or you can just drag the other on top of it, whichever you prefer. Save as a PNG.

Encouraging Promises!

Playing with Ovals Part 4- Let's Make a Bow!

We're discovering how many embellishments can be designed just by learning to work with ovals! This time we will be baking a simple bow for the corners of photos.
►To start, fire up Inkscape.
►Select the Circle or Ellipse tool and while holding down the Ctrl key, create a circle by stroking with your mouse, give it an oval shape. Fill it with any color you prefer.
►Go to the bottom of the page and right-click on the Stroke and when the little menu opens, choose Edit Stroke and click on the X to take the stroke out. Select it by clicking the arrow a the top of sidebar, then copy it. Paste. Click on the copy and reduce its size.
►Drag it inside the previously made circle. Make sure that the smaller oval reaches almost to the edge of the original one. Then go to Object, Align and Distribute and Align the smaller Oval vertically and horizontally, so that it will really be in the middle of the previous oval.
►Now click on the original oval and while holding the shift key down, click on the smaller oval to select both of them, go to Path, and select Difference. You used the smaller oval to cut out the center of the larger oval and make it transparent. Copy the oval and paste the copy.
►Click on the first oval to select it and then right-click on it, so that the rotation arrows will appear. Rotate it a little bit sot hat it will have the position of the fold of a bow. Repeat with the second oval.
►With your mouse, drag the ovals and place them one next to another, to begin for form the shape of a bow.
►While the first oval is selected, click on the Edit Paths and Nodes tool (the one directly below the Arrow or Select tool) and some nodes will appear on the oval. Pull on the nodes that are on the sides of the oval to give the oval more of the shape of a bow loop. Repeat with the opposite oval.
►Select the Create Rectangles and Squares tool, and make a small narrow rectangle for the center of the bow. Give it the same color that you chose for the loops of the bow.
►Drag it to the center between the two loops of your bow.
Now, make two small, narrow rectangles, color them yellow or white, depending on the color you chose for your bow. Go to the Fill and Stroke menu and give them a blur of 34.9 and an opacity of 83.7 (all you have to do is to select the little square and while it is selected, move the levers in the Fill and Stroke menu.) Drag the "shine" rectangles to the top and the bottom of the center of your bow.
►With the Ellipse tool make a small circle. Take out the stroke, and make it a little lighter than the color you chose for your bow. Click on it to select it and with the mouse, draw it down to flatten it into almost a line.
►Click on it and then go to the Edit Paths and Nodes tool and once the nodes appear, manipulate the object until it is almost like a crescent shape.
►Give it a Blur of 24.1 and an Opacity of 91.3 and copy it. Now drag it into the lower portion of the first loop of your bow and position it where you like it best. Do the same with the copy, positioning it on the opposite loop of the bow.
►Select all of the bow with your mouse and go to Object, Group.
►Finally, copy your bow, paste. Drag to one side, change the color to a darker shade. In my case, I gave it a maroon color. Now go to the Fill and Stroke menu and give it a blur of 7.1, which will make it look like a drop shadow. Now drag it and position it on top of your bow.
► On the top of the page, click on the 8th button, to lower selection to bottom. Now the darker, blurred bow is at the bottom of your bow and appears like a drop shadow.
You're done! You can play with this until you have a bow that you can add to your nest digi scrapping project. You can add a texture or a gradient, you can work with it until you really like it.

Encouraging Promises!

Playing With Ovals Part 3---Making a Flower Element

This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape and Gimp installed on your computer and that you have at least the basic understanding of how theset programs work. (Take a look at some of our previous tutorials and play around a bit until you understand the software enough to feel comfortable in doing this.)
I will not be making this very difficult, but when you are done with this tutorial, I suggest that you play around with the Spiro and make many other flourishes to get them down pat, so that the next time you want to use one, you can make your own without any difficulty.

►Fire up Inkscape.
►Select the Circle or Ellipse tool and while holding down the Ctrl key, create a circle by stroking with your mouse, give it an oval shape. Fill it with any color you prefer.
►Go to the bottom of the page and right-click on the Stroke and when the little menu opens, choose Edit Stroke and click on the X to take the stroke out. Select it by clicking the arrow a the top of sidebar, then copy it. Paste. Click on the copy and reduce its size.
►Drag it inside the previously made circle. Make sure that the smaller oval reaches almost to the edge of the original one. Then go to Object, Align and Distribute and Align the smaller Oval vertically and horizontally, so that it will really be in the middle of the previous oval.
►Now click on the original oval and while holding the shift key down, click on the smaller oval to select both of them, go to Path, and select Difference. You used the smaller oval to cut out the center of the larger oval and make it transparent. Copy and paste it or duplicate it until you have a total of 4 petals. Set aside.
►Holding down the Ctrl key, make another oval. Take out the Stroke as before. This one we will leave as is. Copy and paste or duplicate until you have completed 6 petals. Now, place the first one where you will begin your flower, by dragging it into position with your mouse, making sure you do not enlarge or deform it. ►Drag the second one and place it next to the first, right-click on it so that the rotation arrows will appear, rotate it a bit so that it fill the natural place of the second petal of a flower.
►Continue working that way until you have positioned the six petals around an empty imaginary center.
Let's change the color of the flower petals. Click on the first petal and with it selected, go to the bottom of the page and right-click in the Fill, when the little menu opens, choose Edit Fill. In the RGBA column below the color wheel, enter the following number: ff5555f8
►Now click on each flower petal and change it to that color. Now go to Gradient and choose a Linear Gradient. Stroke with your mouse across the first petal, from the outside of the petal towards its center. You will notice that the gradient starts pink and finishes white (or transparent) you will also notice that where the transparent portion ends, there is a blue little node. While that is selected, from the palette at the bottom of the page, choose a warm brown and click on it. The white part will become brown fading into the pink.
►Click on each petal, one at a time to select it, and repeat this gradient with every petal. I like to do some in one direction, others in another, it seems to me, they look more natural, but you follow your own taste. Once you're done, stroke over the whole group of petals and go to Object, Group. Move them to the side for now.
►Change the hollow petals to the color #f9ac62, the same way as you did for the full petals. Drag first two hollow petals with your mouse and place them end to end to one another. Drag the other two and place them on the sides. Stroke with your mouse to select them all and go to Object, Group. Drag the hollow petals and place them on top of the first set of petals.
►Now, holding down the Ctrl key, make a circle. Take out the Stroke as before. Choose the pallet MatLab Jet (72) by clicking on the arrow at the end of the pallet at the bottom of the page. Pick a warm orange and fill your circle with it. Drag the circle to the center of your flower. Make another circle. While you have it selected, go to Path, Object to Path.
►Now click on the Nodes tool, right underneath the Arrow tool and manipulate the nodes to make a curve. From the palette, choose a yellow, then go to the Fill and Stroke dialog box and give it a blur that you like. Position it at the top inside your circle.
►Copy the blur and flip it by clicking it at the bottom at the top of the page that flips objects. Then give it a larger blur and tuck it a bit inward so that it will be slightly smaller than the upper shine. Stroke with your mouse to select it all and Group it. Now copy it and turn your copy a warm yellow. Holding down the Ctrl key, enlarge it a little bit so that it will be slightly bigger than the orange center. You will have to eyeball it to your personal taste. Place your yellow copy at the center of the flower and then place the orange one on top. Select your whole flower with the mouse and go to Object, Group.
Save it as a PNG file.

►Optional-
If you want to, make a copy of your flower element, turn it black, blur it, drab it to place it on top of your flower, now, to put it behind the original flower, by click on the button at the top of the page that sends an object to the back. That way, it will look like it has a drop shadow.

►Now, if you would like a fancier flower, you can take it to Gimp. Once opened in Gimp, choose Filters, Light and Shadow, Supernova. Change the color of the Supernova to a light, almost white pink, and place the Supernova a little bit off the center of the flower, and do the effect. Save as a PNG file.

Encouraging Promises!

Lets Play With Ovals, Part 2

The possibilities of the simple shapes that we learned how to make on our last tutorial are so wide, that we will be exploring them a bit further, to give more ideas of what you can make to embellish your pages.

This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape installed on your computer and that you have at least the basic
understanding of how it works. (Take a look at some of our previous tutorials and play around a bit until you understand the software enough to feel comfortable in doing this.)
I will not be making this very difficult, but when you are done with this tutorial, I suggest that you play around with the Spiro and make many other flourishes to get them down pat, so that the next time you want to use one, you can make your own without any difficulty.

►Fire up Inkscape.
►Select the Circle or Ellipse tool and while holding down the Ctrl key, create a circle by stroking with your mouse, give it an oval shape. Fill it with any color you prefer.
►Go to the bottom of the page and right-click on the Stroke and when the little menu opens, choose Edit Stroke and click on the X to take the stroke out. Select it by clicking the arrow a the top of sidebar, then copy it. Paste. Click on the copy and reduce its size.
►Drag it inside the previously made circle. Make sure that the smaller oval reaches almost to the edge of the original one. Then go to Object, Align and Distribute and Align the smaller Oval vertically and horizontally, so that it will really be in the middle of the previous oval.
►Now click on the original oval and while holding the shift key down, click on the smaller oval to select both of them, go to Path, and select Difference. You used the smaller oval to cut out the center of the larger oval and make it transparent.
►Choose the Ellipse or circle tool and make a circle, also holding down the Ctrl key to make it even. Right-click to take out the Stroke. Copy and paste or duplicate, make it smaller, drag into the center of the original circle. Align again as you did with the oval. Now, select both circles and go to Path, and select Difference. Now your circle has a transparent hole in the middle.
►Go to the Create Rectangles tool and select it. Make a square of any color and drag it to place it over the middle lower part of your circle. Select both the circle and the square. Now go to Path, Intersection, to use the square to cut off half of your circle and be left with an arch.
Now let's play with what we have!

There are endless combinations of lacy motifs, picture corners, frames, and all kinds of embellishments you can make now.  Let's make this one.

►Select your oval, duplicate it 4 more times. Select your arch, duplicate it twice. One of the duplicate arches, make a little larger. Once you have it larger, duplicate it again of the same size, leaving the other one smaller, and just reserving the other one on the side for now.

►Drag the oval to where you're going to work. Drag another oval and place it on the bottom, to one side of the original oval. Click on it twice so that the rotation handles appear and turn it sideways a little bit. Drag another oval and place it on the opposite side and rotate it to the side a little bit. Now you have a 3-oval cluster. Bring the two larger arches and position them on either side of these 3 ovals, matching the edges as best you can. Bring the smaller arch and place it at the bottom of the design you have already made. Make any adjustments you like. When you're happy with it, stroke with your mouse to select all of the parts and go to Object, Group. Set that aside.
►Now, take the two other ovals and position them one on top of the other, overlapping them, like a chain.
Go to Object, Group. Bring the little two-link chain and position it beside one of the arcs, and copy the original design and place it on the opposite side of the chain. You can continue this until you have a row which you can use as a decorative border or even as a lace, depending on the color you choose to make it in.

This is my element without a texture or pattern:

►You can add a texture or a pattern to it and also a drop shadow.To add a pattern to your design, proceed as follows: Prepare a Jpeg image you'd like to use as a pattern or download one from the dozens of free images available online. Go to File, Import. Import your image a s Jpeg, select it, then use Edit, Objects to Pattern. Now your texture or pattern will be available in the Fill and Stroke dialog, and you can fill your design with it.
►To add a drop shadow, make a copy of your design, paste it on the side, change the color to black or dark gray, and then go to the Fill menu at the bottom of the page, under the palette bar and choose a blur you like. Drag it to the top of your design, then, click on the 8th button at the top of the page, to Lower selection to the Bottom, thus placing the blurred copy as a shadow underneath your design.
This the one I textured:

Experiment with new ways to position your pieces and come up with your own designs. Have fun!

Encouraging Promises!

Let's Play with Hollow Ovals!

A scrapbooker can never have enough embellishments! Especially those made by yourself, following your own taste and suited to your own personal projects. These tutorials aim at giving you the basic tools to produce such embellishments. Teaching you how to make and use the building blocks and encouraging you to make your own, following your imagination and taste, adapting them to your own scrapping themes.
Let's start!
Note-
This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape installed on your computer and that you understand the basics of the software.

►Fire up Inkscape.

►Click on the Ellipse or circle tool and while holding the Ctrl key down stroke with your mouse to make an even Oval shape of any color you choose.
►At the bottom, left-hand of the screen, right below the palette, right-click stroke. When the little menu opens, select Edit stroke,and when the other menu opens, click on the X to get rid of the stroke. We will select a color later, but first, copy the oval you have made, and paste it somewhere on the side of the working area. Give your second oval another color, only so that you can see it and work with it better.
►Reduce the second oval a little bit and place it inside the first oval. Adjust the space it covers to your liking. Click on the center oval and while it is selected, go to Object, and down the menu to Align and Distribute. There you will select the third button on the top (Center on vertical axis) and the third button on the row below, (center on horizontal axis), so that the second oval will be perfectly centered within the larger one.
►Now click to re-select the smaller oval and then, holding the shift key, click on the larger oval to select it as well. Now, go to Path and click on Difference. You just used the little oval to cut an oval-shaped hole into the larger oval.
►Click on the hollow oval to select it and copy and paste (or duplicate it.) Select the square tool, and draw a square. Drag it to position it over the middle of the second hollow oval, and while it is selected, press shift and select the second hollow oval, now, while the two objects are selected, go to Path, Intersection. You just used the square to cut your second hollow oval in half.
►Now we can use these two objects to come up with an immense amount of decorative embellishments. Let's make one now!

►You have designed the building blocks to make all kinds of decorative bars, photo corners, flowers and other embellishments.

♪ To make a simple embellishment, copy the hollow oval 6 times, till you have 7 of them in total.
♪ Position them on the page so that they intersect each other like a chain. Cop your half oval and position them as you see them on the illustration.
♪ Make a small circle while holding down the Ctrl key sot hat the circle will be perfectly round. Take out the stroke as before. Position your small circle in between the two half ovals.
♪ Now, select all your work and got o Object, Group. Now that it will not fall apart, make a copy of it and color it black, on the little menu that you used to take out the stroke, select a blur of 4.0 for your black copy. ♪ Now place your original over it but a little bit to the side so that the blurred black copy will act as a shadow. Now, click on your original and change the color to anything, but to give it a delicate pastel pink, click on the RGBA square on the Fill menu, while the object you want to color is still selected and write the HEX #ee887a.
♪ Now your element has a drop shadow effect.
You can add a pattern or texture, you can experiment with special effects, just play with it and have fun!

Encouraging Promises!

Decorative Triangles Bar for Scrapbooking

This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape installed on your computer and that you have at least a basic understanding
of how it works. Please refer to previous tutorials on this blog to learn the software a little bit.

♪ Fire up Inkscape.
♪ Click on the Create Stars and Polygons button and choose 3 corners to make a triangle, and a spoke ratio of 0.480, leave randomized alone.
♪ Now make a triangle by moving your mouse downward across the working area. Once you have your triangle, click on a green shade on the palette
at the bottom of the screen, just to fill your triangle. Now go to the Stroke (below the palette) and right click, when the little menu opens, choose Edit Stroke and click on the X on the menu that will open to take out the border.
♪ Now, in the same menu, click on the Stroke paint and where it says RGBA insert the following number: #9ACD32. This will turn your triangle to a pretty green.
Select your triangle and go to Edit, Copy, Paste. Click on the new item to select it and change its color to #3e8213f5, now, reduce it in size until it is about half of the size of the other one.
♪ Place it in the very center of the original triangle. While the smaller triangle is still selected, click on shift, and while holding it down, select the larger triangle as well. Now go Path, Difference. As you can see,
you just cut out the little triangle from the larger one. Click on your original triangle to select it and reduce it in size. Copy the triangle and paste it. Place the two triangles side by side so that they touch each other. Select them both and go to Object, Group. Now copy and paste as many times as you want to for your bar, placing the new triangles on a level with the others. Select them all and go to Object, Group.
♪ Click on the Circle tool. Make a small circle. Right-click on the Stroke to remove it. Change the color of your circle to match the color of your triangles. Copy your circle, Paste and drag into the middle of the first hollow triangle.
♪ Repeat with all the other triangles. Now Click on the Text Tool. Choose the Circle tool again and make a small circle, fill it with a contrasting green of your choice. Copy and Paste. Drag the new little circle to the center of the first circle inside the first triangle.
♪ Go to Object, then Align and Distribute, once the Menu opens, choose Center, to make sure your little circle is not off. Continue to drag copies of the little circle and place them in the center of the larger circle inside the triangle. Click on Center on Align and Distribute
to make sure they are all centered.
♪ Now select everything with your mouse and Go to Object, Group.
Export as a PNG bitmap.

Now you've got a simple but decorative bar to use for scrapbooking! It will look like this:

Play with different variations of this tutorial, use your imagination and creativity. Have fun with it, and then, apply your new bar to your next scrap project!

Done!

Pathlights. . .Worthwhile exploring!

Easy Heart in Inkscape

This is a simple but fun tutorial on how to make an easy and quick heart embellishment for your digital scrapbooking.

This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape installed on your computer and that you understand the basics of the software to be able to follow the steps. If you would like to learn a little bit about how to use Inkscape before you tackle this tutorial, please refer to previous tuts.


☼ Fire up Inkscape.

Choose the Polygon and Star tool and make a star, but select only 3 corners to shape it into a triangle.
Pick a color and draw your triangle. Right click on stroke(at the bottom of the page) and select Edit stroke, then click on the X to remove the stroke. Now select the triangle, and go to Path, Object to Path.
☼ Now your triangle is an Object. Choose the Nodes tool that is right below the Arrow on the sidebar. Click on the triangle and you will see that nodes appear. Push down gently on the center node at the top, to dip the center into the beginning of the shape of a heart.

☼ Now make sure the two remaining sides are even. Now click on the first node of the pointed edge on the right side to select it, go to the top of the page and counting from left to right, click on the 10th button (make selected node auto-smooth) and you will see how the pointed end of the heart turns into a smooth curve. Repeat with the opposite side. Now we have the basic shape of a heart.
☼ At this point, you can do a variety of things to embellish your heart. One of them is to add a gradient.
To add a gradient, simply choose gradient, pick Linear and stroke with the mouse to add it. You will notice that your shape disappears at the bottom, since the gradient turns the color transparent at the bottom. To correct that, click on the object and you will notice that a blue node appears at the bottom, while that node is selected and blue, click on either the darkest or the lightest color you want to add to your gradient, and the new color will substitute the portion that used to be transparent, and the heart will show as a complete shape.
☼ You can add highlights if you want to. You can also embellish your heart in many different ways. Let me show you one that is pretty easy.

☼ Go to the text tool and choose the Font Rockwell bold. Make a letter O (lower case) and fill it with a darker shade than your original heart but in the same color.
☼ Duplicate the O and drag it to the edge of the heart, continue to duplicate the O and to position it around the edge of the heart, mimicking the shape of the heart, overlap the Os every now and then in the shape of a chain. To turn the Os around so that they can fit the contour of the heart, click to the select the letter and then click again to choose the rotate handles and grabbing one of the side handles, rotate the letter to where it ought to go in the most natural direction to fit the contour of the heart. Continue doing that until you have completed the shape of the heart all around.

☼ Now you can do one of two things, you can stroke with the mouse to select the whole shape and go to Object, Group, and put join everything together so that it will not fall apart as you move it. But you can also, click on the original heart to select it, and move it aside, leaving the chained heart hollow.

You can color it anyway you want to, you can fill it with a texture or pattern, add a drop shadow, just play with it!

Pathlights. . .Worthwhile exploring!