Kitty Cat Journaling Block

I love cats and thought a cat head would make a cute journaling block and I had to try to make one! I did not have anything to go on, so I winged it.
Here is the way I was able to make it.
Start up Inkscape.
Choose the Ellipse tool. Make a circle, any size you like.
Now, choose the star tool, reduce the number of corners to 3 to really make a triangle.
Make a triangle.
Now choose any color you like and fill both the circle and the triangle with that color by clicking on them.
Duplicate your triangle or copy and paste it on the side of the circle.
Now, click on the triangle twice, when you see little arrows all around it, that is the rotate tool, turn the triangle sideways
until it is in a position that would make it look like a cat's ear on the side of your circle. Move the triangle so that it is
right next to your circle, no white line in between. Now click on the other triangle, click again so that the rotate arrows will
appear, rotate it in the opposite direction so that it will form the other cat ear. Place it on the other side of the circle, which
is your Journaling Block and the cat's head. Now Select the arrow tool at the top of your sidebar tools and stroke with your mouse
to select all the objects. Go Object to Path, now go Object Group.
All the pieces will be united into one.
Click to select and copy.









Now open Gimp.
Once Gimp is open, paste your cat head there. Go to Blur, Gaussian Blur and blur by 1 or 2 px.
Now go to Script-Fu and select Drop Shadow. Apply it.
Now change your Foreground color to #7b173f, which is a rich mauve and will show clearly with any pink. (By the way, the color that I chose for
my cat head is #ff2ad4. You can use that or change it to any color you like, before you add your journaling lines.
Select the pencil tool and choose the size Circle 11. Now, while holding down the shift key, click on the cat head where you want your first line
to be, draw the line and click on the end to finish it. Repeat as you wish.



You can leave it as is, or you can make it fancier.

Download from the internet any free texture you like for the theme you're using your cat journaling block for. I chose a pretty white and pink check
I have in Gimp. Once you download it, you must save your work up to this point as a PNG. Close Gimp. Go to your Computer, Program Files, then find
Gimp, and look in its files, depending upon your version of the software, until your find Patterns. Copy and paste the file into that folder or drag it into it.
Open up Gimp again and open up your work. Now, choose the Paint Bucket, then on the tools menu, pick Pattern Fill and choose the one you want.
Apply the Bucket tool to it.


Now you can make the Mauve lines again if you want to and it will be pretty enough.
But I want it cuter. So I went back to Inkscape, because this type of thing I find it easier to make over there.
I opened up the program, chose File, then found my kitty cat head and chose Embed.
It came right up. Then I made a circle in a hot pink. Right clicked on Stroke, once the stroke menu opened, I chose Edit Stroke, changed the stroke color to white, then I picked some dashes that I thought would look nice, and raised the width to 6.000
and my circle had pretty white dashes all around and it looked as if it had been stitched. I dragged into the kitty cat head and centered it. Exported it as a PNG.
You can write on it as it is, but I wanted some lines, so I opened up Gimp again and wrote my journaling lines there as we did with the first example.

Hope you liked this tut!


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Everlasting Happiness

Caterpillar Decorative Journaling Tag

I just came up with this tag today. Never have seen a caterpillar tag, but this looks like a caterpillar to me, so the name stuck. Scrapbooking is a creative activity so something as fun as a caterpillar journaling tag or label is a natural!
Open Inkscape.
Choose the Ellipse or Circle tool, make a circle any size you want.
Select a color you like and fill it with it. Right click on stroke (below the palette at the bottom of your screen), when the menu opens,
choose Edit Stroke. Then when the new menu opens, click on the little "X", so that your circle will have no stroke. Close the menu.
Now duplicate your circle twice. Move the second circle to be just below the first circle, and a little bit into it, then repeat with the thrid circle.
Click on the first circle to select it, go to Path, Object to Path. Select the second circle, and go to Path, Object to Path, repeat with the Third Circle.
Now click on the select tool (the black arrow at the top of your vertical toolbox) and select all three objects. Now, with the tree circles selected, go to Object, Group.
Now, we have our caterpillar.
Go to File, Export Bitmap and give it the name Caterpillar Journaling Tag. It will export as a PNG file.

We can do a lot more things on Inkscape, but I want to do some things in Gimp.

Now open up Gimp.
Open the caterpillar image.
For your Foreground color, choose #e7b0b0
Choose the pencil tool and the size Circle 07
Now, holding the shift key down, click where you want the first line for the journaling to appear, stretch your line across the ball
that forms the head of the caterpillar and click to finish the line. Repeat as many times as you like.
Click on the Pencil tool again and choose a pencil size, then click on the eraser tool and make a hole at the top of the caterpillar
head. Now to to Script-Fu and choose Drop Shadow, apply it leaving the settings as is.

If you want to, go to Bevel and Emboss, and choose Inner Bevel, give it a Depth of 10, Direction Up, Size 10, then leave the rest as is. Click okay.
Export as a PNG again.
That is it!

Variation: You can use the bucket tool and fill your caterpillar with any texture that you like. There are thousands of free textures for Gimp online!

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Everlasting Happiness

How to make a scrapbooking tag in Inkscape

This tutorial assumes that you have at least a little bit of knowledge of this software and that you already have it installed in your computer. Inkscape is a free, readily available software that you can download from the internet.
Please, check out our previous tutorials to get some understanding of how the software works.

Fire up Inkscape.
Choose a color, I picked a peachy beige from the palette at the bottom of the page. Turn off stroke.
Click on the rectangle tool. And while holding down the shift key, draw a rectangle with rounded corners.
Make it with the following dimensions:
W: 1291.42
H: 708.571

Now click on the Ellipse or Circle tool. While holding the shift key down so that your circle will be even, draw a small circle.
Fill it with the same color as you picked for the rectangle and turn the stroke color off. Click on the arrow select tool and then on the circle
and move it so that it will be in the middle of the top of the label. Center it well.

Now click on the circle to select it, now holding the shift key down, click also on the label to select both objects, go to Object, Group, to turn them
into a single object. You can stop right there if you want and you will have a simple label that you can use.
You can leave it like that, or you can a apply any SVG texture you like. There are many free SVG textures online which you can download. Or you can open Gimp,
copy the tag that you have made in Inkscape, and paste it in Gimp and fill the tag with any pattern of your liking using the Bucket Tool in Gimp.
You can also apply some of the powerful Inkscape filters to your image. I will show you only two. Oilslick and Tartan. Only to give you an idea of what you can do. This will give you a glimpse of the possibilities.
Experiment until you get a label that you like!








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Bible Universe

New Sculpted Badge for Your Blog, Store or Website

This tutorial assumes that you have already gone through our last tutorial and learned the basics of Fill and Stoke in Inkscape. Please, take a look at previous tutorials here to be able to prepare for this one. You must have Inkscape and Gimp installed in your computer to be able to make this badge. You can get them for free!

This one has a 3D kind of quality to it and it just as easy as the previous one.
Open Inkscape. Choose a color (I picked a medium pink, but follow your own taste), click on the ellipse or circle tool and while
holding the Ctrl button down, make a circle of a size you like. Click on the stroke at the left side of the bottom of the page.
Choose Edit Stoke and change the color of the stoke to red (or a darker color for you) choose a decorative stoke you want and apply it.
Make a smaller circle also holding the ctrl key so that it will come out perfectly round. Fill it with a darker shade of the previous color,
and change the stroke to white and to a different stroke paint. Apply.
Now Export your file as a bitmap (a PNG) take it to Gimp.
Open up Gimp. Open your file. Now Go to Script-Fu, Bevel and Emboss.
For your style choose Inner Bevel.
Depth: 20
Direction: Up
Size: 15
Highlight color: White
Shadow color:black
and leave the rest as is.
Click Ok and wait for it to apply the bevel.
This will give your badge that almost geometric edge that it has.
Go to Layers, Merge down.
Then save as, select file type by extension and pick PNG.
Now go back to Inkscape.
Open the badge.
Choose star, select a darker pink for the Fill and a light pink for the Stroke, and do not choose a dotted stroke, but a straight line stroke.
For your star's corners, choose 30, spoke ratio: 0.752, leave rest as is.
Center your star in the middle.
Now click on the text tool and write anything you want.
Go to Edit, Copy and Paste, to reproduce the text. Change the second bit of text to white.
Click on the black arrow and move the white text on top of the black one. Now click on the canvas to deselect and click on the arrow again.
Select all the text and to to Object, Group. Now click on the text and move it to the center of your badge.
Export as Bitmap again.

Done!

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The Hand of Trust

How to Make a Badge For Your Blog or Store

This is a very simple project that will add a little bit of interest to your blog or website. You can use it in your store to call attention to certain things you want your visitors or customers to notice. We will start with the simplest of badges. It is a combo badge created in Inkscape and Gimp.

Go to Inkscape
Click on the color of your choice. Then choose the Star shape. At the top of your page you will see a list of options.
Write the following:

Corners: 52

Spoke ratio: 0.884

Rounded: 0.050

Leave randomized alone.

Select and copy, then close Inkscape.
Open Gimp.
Paste your Inkscape image.

Make sure your Foreground Color is Black. Choose the Text tool and find the font you like most. I chose Rockwell, a font that
comes with Gimp, and I gave it a size 30. Now, click in the center of the badge and write whatever you want to say.
Once you are done, go to Script-Fu and choose Drop shadow and add a drop shadow to your text. Save as a PNG image.
That is all that is to it!


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A Courageous Attitude. . .