Advice for template with photos behind

[ipbr21054]

Morning,
I would like to do the following for my partner who took her life in lock down but not sure where to start.

I have many photos of her & thought I would do this for Valentine’s Day.

I would create a square red board.
I would then like a heart cut out through this red board.
So now a red board & a white background heart is shown.
I would then place photos of her on this white background heart & be able to move them around.
The end goal is a red square with photos of her in a heart shape.

Many thanks.

[Lillias]

Hi ipbr21054 sorry for your loss but what a lovely thought you have had.
If the example I am providing below is the look you are after here is how I made it.

1. Create a document - I would suggest 12”x12” = 3600x3600 pixels coloured white
2. Duplicate that by Ctrl+J to create a new layer above the white layer and colour it red.
3. Now making sure your default colours are black for the foreground and white for the background choose the heart shape from the Custom Shape tool and drag out the shape to the size you want it on your page. It will appear on its own layer at the top of the layer stack.

4. Ctrl+click on the heart thumbnail to surround it with the marching ants
5. Click the eye icon at the side of the heart thumbnail to hide that layer
6. Click the red paper layer to make it active
7. Press the Delete key to ‘punch out’ the heart shape from the red paper.
8. With the red layer still selected you can go to Styles and apply a drop shadow which gives a sense of depth to the cut out heart.
9. Now it’s just a case of introducing whatever photos you want to use and place them below the red layer.
You can move them around to suit.
Hope this helps. If there is anything you don’t understand just shout out and myself or someone else will try to help.


Images used from pngtree.

[cats4jan]

Lillias - what settings did you use for the shadow style? I can never get such a good looking cut out.

[Lillias]

Feb 5, 2023 13:14:44 GMT cats4jan said:

Lillias - what settings did you use for the shadow style? I can never get such a good looking cut out.

Janice I used the settings as per the screen shot below. I am on Windows so don't know if it's the same on a Mac but while the dialogue box shown in the screen shot is still active onscreen you can left click on your page and drag and the shadow will move around according to where you drag. Sometimes I find that gives a better placing for your shadow.

[cats4jan]

Thanks. I’ll try it

[ipbr21054]

Hi,
When i click the star shape i dont see any other shapes to select.
At the bottom of the screen in the shapes options i only see say 6 & heart isnt one of them ?

[Lillias]

Hopefully this will be of some help ipbr21054...

Click on the Custom Shape tool as seen in the screen shot on the left. Click on the little downward facing arrow at the side of the little icon as indicated and this will bring up the dialogue box seen in the second screen shot on the right.
From the choices offered by clicking on the box at the top of the dialogue box choose Shapes. You will see a heart as one of the shapes. Just click on the heart and you can then drag it out over your page.

[ipbr21054]

Many thanks for the help & advice

[Lillias]

Feb 6, 2023 17:23:59 GMT ipbr21054 said:

Many thanks for the help & advice

You are very welcome ipbr21054.