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Step 1

Start by creating a new image 300 X 300 with the white background.

On the Materials palette, click on the Background color and select the Gradient tab. Select the "Metal Brass" gradient and use the following settings:

On the Tools toolbar, select the Text Tool (T)

On the Tool Options palette, select the Webdings font. I'm using the following settings:

We're ready to begin.

Step 2

This will be fairly large so I would recommend that you place your mouse cursor somewhere around the lower left hand side of the canvas. When your ready, click the mouse button once. This will bring up the Text Entry dialog box. Type in the lower case letter "y". It's okay if it ends up off center from where you want it. You'll be able to move it by grabbing the center node with your mouse and re-positioning it after you've entered your text. You should now have a heart (no pun intended..LOL):

Layers > Convert to Raster Layer

Selections > Select All [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + A]

Selections > Float [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + F]

Selections > Defloat [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + Shift + F]

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Selections > Modify > Contract > Number of pixels: 8 > Okay.

Now let's invert the gradient. Click on the Background color and place a checkmark in the Invert box:

This would be a good time to mention that you have access to both the Foreground and Background colors simultaneously using your mouse buttons. If you click with your LEFT mouse button you get the Foreground color, likewise the RIGHT mouse button uses the Background color. Simple enough right?

Select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection by using your RIGHT mouse button :

Layers > Convert to Raster Layer

Selections > Modify > Contract > Number of pixels: 2 > Okay.

On the Materials palette, set your Foreground color to black (#000000)

Select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection:

Selections > Select None

Step 3

Now the fun part, adding the small diamonds.

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

On the Tool Options palette, set Selection type: Circle

For now, we'll just work in the center of our image. Create a small circle. There is no rule of thumb here, it's just a matter of deciding how big or small you want each of the individual diamonds. You'll get the idea here in just a moment:

Lets modify our gradient to use the Radial style. Click on the Background color and use the following settings:

Select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection by using your RIGHT mouse button :

Don't deselect yet!

Step 4

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Selections > Modify > Contract > Number of pixels: 4 > Okay.

Not this parts really easy and fun. Remember that graphics are nothing more than an illusion, a trickery of light and dark shades of color. Here we go.

Lets change gradients. Were still going to use the Radial style, but we'll modify it just a bit.

Click on the Background color and select the "Metal steel" gradient. Use the following settings:

Select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection by using your RIGHT mouse button :

Layers > Merge > Merge Down

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Selections > Modify > Contract > Number of pixels: 4 > Okay.

Lets modify our gradient one last time to add the final effect for our diamond.

Click on the Background color and use the following settings (all we're changing is the Angle to 180 and the Repeats from 3 to 26):

Select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection by using your RIGHT mouse button.

Selections > Select None

Layers > Merge > Merge Down

You should now have something similar to this:

Step 5

Okay, I always end up making things bigger than they need to be, so my first step is going to be to resize my diamond piece. If your happy with yours, just ignore this next step.

For those of you that want to resize it, on the Tools toolbar, select the Raster Deform Tool (D)

On the Tool Options palette, I've change the Scale X(%) and Scale Y(%) to 70:

After I've resized it, I'm going to move it towards the very bottom of heart, like this:

Now to fill up the rest of the outline around the inner heart, I could just duplicate the layer for each diamond piece and move them into place, but here's another method that can really speed things up much faster.

Edit > Copy [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + C]

You only need to copy it once!

Edit > Paste > Paste as New Selection [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + E]

You'll notice that now your mouse cursor has a copy of the original diamond piece attached to it:

After you've moved it into place where you would like it, you can either click your mouse button to release it, or hit Edit > Paste > Paste as New Selection [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + E] for another copy of the original diamond piece. Also worth noting is that after you "clicked to set it" if you look at your Layers palette it now shows a Floating Selection:

Continue with the Edit > Paste > Paste as New Selection [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + E] until you've finished filling in around the heart:

IMPORTANT TIP: While this is a much faster method of duplicating images in Psp, it does have a small draw back. All of the images that get copied like this are all stuck on the same layer. If just one piece is out of shape and you want to change it, you can't . Now, it's not so bad in this case because it's a very simple piece to recreate. On very time consuming pieces to make, this would be a no-no. Just remember that before you finish setting your last piece, place it on a new layer!

Step 6

Now let's add the top piece where the necklace chain would go.

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

On the Tool Options palette, set Selection type: Rounded Rectangle

Draw a small rounded selection above the top of the heart like so:

On the Materials palette, click on the Background color and select the Gradient tab. Select the "Metal Brass" gradient and use the following settings:

Select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection by using your RIGHT mouse button:

Selections > Select None

On the Tools toolbar, select the Raster Deform Tool (D)

Grab either the left or right bottom edge nodes and bring it inwards:

At this point you can manipulate it into position however you see fit. This is how mine looks:

On the Layers palette, turn off the visibility for the Background layer:

Layers > Merge > Merge Visible

Turn the Background layer visibility back on:

To complete my image, I'm going to apply a drop shadow that will lightly surround the entire image.

Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow... and use the following settings:

And that completes our tutorial. Enjoy!