ELEMENT: Curved Borders

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ELEMENT: Curved Borders
By Jeri Ingalls 2006
Oct 30, 2006, 11:06

Have you ever wondered how the designers are making those cool curvy borders that they add to their kits? Would you like to be able to make these kind of layouts from the papers of any kit you may own? You can, and it’s easy to do with PhotoImpact.
I’m going to first explain how they are done, and then also how to save them as a custom shape so that if you get a border that you really like, you can save it to use over and over again.
You can either start with a new image, or work directly on your layout, I’m going to open a new image just to keep it simple. It doesn’t really matter what size of image you open if you are going to make the border into a custom shape, but I like to make the image the same size as my layouts which is 12x12.
Choose the Path Tool, and in the options pick the rectangle. Since I’m working on a white background, I’ll make the color black. Make sure the Mode is in 2D.

Draw out a long skinny rectangle that will be the base of the border you want to make. This doesn’t have to be as long as the actual paper, but remember that this will be the entire border, so keep that in mind when choosing the size of your rectangle. This first border I’m just going to make curvy, so I’m making a nice, thick rectangle. Next, chose the Path Tool and in the drop down box chose Edit Path.

Click on Toggle and you should have something like this:

Now add some points by clicking on the little plus sign and choosing a few spots along your rectangle. I’m going to make this a top border, so I’ll add the points along the bottom of the rectangle because this is where the curve will be

Now choose the Pick Point option:

Since the lines are created from a rectangle, they will automatically be straight, so we want to convert them to curves in order to manipulate them. To do this, click on each part of the line, then choose the curvy line option in the menu above.

Now your rectangle should look like this:

When you click your cursor on each little point, you will notice “handles” appear on each side of it. Using these handles, pull the curve around to where you would like them to be.

Play with the handles of each point until you get the look you are wanting. If you need to add or delete any points, just use the Edit Point option. Clicking the toggle tool will help you see your progress as a solid object.

I’ve gotten the curve to the shape that I want, so now I’ll explain how to save this so that it can be used again and again. First, go back to the Path Drawing tool (where you chose the rectangle) and in the main menu chose Object/Copy to Object Library and the following box will pop up. Give the object a name, chose to add it to the Shape Library, and press OK.

Now, whenever you want to access this shape, just choose your Path Tool and Custom Shape. When you scroll down to the bottom of your Shapes Gallery, your shape will be there for you to choose.

Use this like you would use any other object, stretching it across your layout to fit. To fill the border with a pattern or paper, choose Edit/Fill in the main window, and when the fill box pops up choose the image tab, click the file option and browse your hard drive or CD drive to find the paper you want to use.

The OK button will apply the paper to your shape: