Places In Our Hearts Tutorial {FREEBIE}

I saw this stinking adorable heart shape map in a frame the other day on StumbleUpon and I thought I just had to make a whole collage for myself! Well, I actually made this one for my lovebug on his birthday of all the places we have been together. it for I decided to do the whole thing in Photoshop. Sure, I could have found or printed different maps and cut them out into little hearts easily but I hope in the future to keep adding to the document and printing out bigger and bigger heart collages of all the places we visit together. 

Found on Modern Parents, Messy Kids from Not On The High Street.com

I have included a link to the PNG (Portable Network Graphic) file of this Hearts Overlay below. Feel free to use it for personal usage only. Once you download follow the steps listed here to make your own little places and pieces of your heart. This is a very step by step tutorial so don't let the length of it scare you. It is not very difficult, especially if you have experience using Photoshop. 

You will need access to Adobe Photoshop CS4 or a program like it and an account to submit the finished piece for printing to an online print order service. I used Costco (Just $4 people!) but you can use Kinkos, Walgreens or wherever you would like. Where ever you can find someone that will make a 12x12inch printout for you (or larger, you can always trim it down).Afterwards, you can frame it or mount it onto something with a little bit of Mod Podge (Sidenote: I always call it Modge Podge? Does everyone else do that?)

I know this looks like a blank sheet of paper when you first download it but just TRUST me! Go ahead and go to the site to download the page FOR FREE by clicking here!

Look for maps online of the places you would like to use in your hearts. One thing you have to know about images on the internet is that they are formatted as 72 PPI (pixels per inch) for viewing on a computer.

I am going to show you how to take your images and make them 300 PPI so they will not be blurry when you print them. Your images will get larger like the example I have here so do not fret!

What's That Font?

Have you ever seen a font online, in a logo or in an ad and fallen in love with the font only to walk away thinking, "There has to be a way to figure out that font!" (Ok, so maybe I'm the only one who has actually done that) And now there is!! Delightfully titled, WhatTheFont.Com allows you to upload and identify close matches to a font you are on the look out for. Take for instance this sample logo I uploaded from Etsy.

You identify the letters the generator sorts out for you and BAM! It gives you the name of the font used and even a link to the place to download (sometimes they are pay sites, but many of them are free)

What a nifty little tool! I guarantee the next time I see a cute font I'll go straight back to WHAT THE FONT?!?