Romantic Valentine
PhotoImpact 7.0
Tools Used:
  • Path tool
  • Frame and shadow
  • Stamp tool (Paint on Edges)
  • Retouch blur tool
    		• Needed Items:
    Gel presets
    Flower Decoration
    Pink Pearl Stamp
    Small flowers of your choice     		Level: Beginner
    Description: Create a Valentine card to send to friends and family.
    Preparation. Download and install the gel presets. Install the pearl stamp to a permanent folder that won't be moved around. Download the Flower decoration (bow). You will also need some small flowers to decorate your heart. You can use stamps from the stamp gallery if you don't have any flowers.

    1. Stage one. Prepare your canvas.
    Open a new true color canvas, 350 X 350.
    Click on the arrow beside the bucket fill tool, and choose linear gradient fill tool. Set up the colors to dark maroon and white.
    Using the linear gradient fill tool, fill your canvas by dragging diagonally on the canvas from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.

    		2. Stage two. Create the heart. 
    Click on the path tool. In the attribute bar, click shape, and then custom shape.
    Make sure tab group is set to all. Browse through the shapes until you find the heart. 
    Click and draw a heart about 225 pixels wide. You don't have to be precise. 
    After you have drawn your heart, hold down control, click on the heart, and move your cursor a few pixels. This will duplicate your heart. 
    Click on the duplicate and drag it off to an empty area of your workspace so that it opens in its own window. (In order for this to work, you must not have your canvas maximized. )

    3. Stage three. Apply the lace. On your first canvas, click on the heart, and go to Object/ convert object type/ From Path to image. Now go to format/ frame and shadow. 
    Beside the word none, click the drop down box. Click Magic frame. 
    Now your screen has a lot more options for you to set. Beside Effect, click the drop down arrow, and click Mesh.
    Alter the settings to match these:
    Outer edge 20
    Inner edge 0
    Color white. (click the color box now filled with black to alter the color)
    Noise 400, smudge unchecked. 
    Before you click ok, click the add button to add the lace preset to your easy palette. 
    Click ok.
    Go to format frame and shadow again. Leave all the settings the same except alter the noise setting to 630.
    Again, add this setting to your gallery, this time naming the preset lace step two. (We won't be using these presets for this tutorial. You are adding them to your easy palette so you can easily create lace any time you like. :) )


     
     
     

    		4. Stage four, Apply the preset to your duplicate heart.
    You should have a copy of the heart without the lace on an extra canvas. Go to that canvas and drag it back to your working canvas.
    Go to the gel preset gallery you imported for this tutorial, and choose the color for your heart. 
    Double click the one you wish to use.
    I have chosen this one.
    Now your heart has a streak near the center. Go to object/ convert object type/ from path to image. Click on the arrow beside the retouch tool so that you can see the other tools. Click on blur. Using the default settings, click on the streak and blur it away. 


     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    		5. Stage five. Use the pearl stamp to Paint on Edges (POE)
    Making sure your heart is still selected, click on the stamp tool. Click the down arrow beside the deer, and click add stamp. Browse to the folder to which you unzipped the pearl stamp, and select pearlpink.ufo. 
    If you are using version 7, and cannot see any ufo files in this folder, click the down arrow beside files of type and select ufo so that you can see them.
    Here are the settings for you to use on the attribute bar.
    Scale 175
    Spacing 50
    Order: Random
    Placement: Trail
    Object: Single object
    Now go to effect/ Paint on edges. You will have a nice border for your heart. 
    This POE'd border is to go between the heart and the lace border, so press the space bar and then use your layer manager to move it between those two objects. 
    To move an object up or down, just click on its thumbnail in the layer manager, and then drag it where you want it. To the left is a screen shot showing where you will find the layer manager in version 7. 
    At this point, my pearls clashed with with the colors of my heart, so I used the quick color controls to adjust it to my liking. As you can see, I've adjusted the colors to blend together on all parts of my composition. 
     
     


     
     













    6. Stage six. Add decorations and text.
    Open and resize the sweet pea flower you downloaded from Dawn's site, and arrange on the heart at the left side. Click file/ open, and browse to the folder to which you unzipped the flowerdecoration.zip file, and select flower decoration.ufo and click open.
    Click on the decoration and drag it to your heart canvas, and arrange it on the left side.
    Click the text tool, and type the message you want on your valentine, using the font of your choice.
    Click the Lace backing, and right click to add a shadow. Just use the default settings.
    Frame your image, and you're done!


    ©Deb DeHaven