cut shapes out of digital paper

[kbrown2509]

Hi, I am very new to GIMP and I am wanting to use it for digital scrapbooking. I have downloaded some papers and elements and can add them to my photos to create a page.  What I want to do now is to create a shape (flower) or trace an existing one and then cut it out of my exisiting digital papers.  Can anyone advise how this can be done.  Cheers

[Blighty]

The easiest and quickest way to get started is to use a *flower silhouette* from google images. Find a shape you like, it should be either a black image on a white background or have a transparent background.

Open Gimp with your digital paper in one image and your flower shape in another image (ie another tab). Go to your flower shape and (Edit > Copy). Then go to your digital paper and (Edit > Paste As > New Layer). You now have 2 layers, your digital paper in the lower layer and the flower shape in upper layer.

Your digital paper must have an alpha channel. In the layers dialogue select the digital paper layer. Right click on it and select Add Alpha Channel. (If it is greyed out there already is an alpha channel)

In the layers dialogue, select the flower layer. Use the Scale Tool to scale the flower shape to the size you want. In the Tool Options, check Keep Aspect.

Still on the flower shape layer, use the Select By Colour tool and select the black flower. You get a marching ants selection.

In the layers dialogue, click on the eye next to the flower shape to make that layer invisible. Now select the digital paper layer. The selection will still be active.

There are now 2 options depending on what you want.

Option 1: With the digital paper selected, press the delete key. This punches a flower shaped hole in the paper. The transparency is shown by a chequer board pattern.

Option 2: Do (Select > Invert). Then press the delete key. This will leave the flower shape intact and make everything else transparent

There are other methods, but this is a relatively easy method to get you started.