Learning Affinity Photo, after 20 years of using Photoshop

 I've been using/learning Affinity Photo now for over a year. I previously used Photoshop for well over 20 years, but was using an extremely old version. I no longer am able to use it, and refuse to pay monthly when I'm not a professional. I'm a crafter, so mainly use it to prepare photos and graphics for personal use and cutting with an electronic cutting machine.

I recently decided to try a couple of new techniques. I was able to do this in my cutting machine software, but wanted the ability to use brushes and text w/ swashes (ligatures). So, I headed over to YouTube and watched a tutorial for the text/swashes. 

I had seen a card (on Pinterest?), and decided to recreate it.

The hearts were made from the heart tool in the program. I changed size and perspective, and added the little balloon ties on the bottom. I used a water color brush to color them in, and a splatter brush on the background.

The text tutorial used the font "Hello Honey", which you can find personal limited usage of on dafont.com. In order to utilize the swash you will type your wording (no capitols; it won't work on a capital letter). Select the first letter of the word, and while it is highlighted, go to the top and select fi (You can also find it under the Typography heading in the Character panel). It means standard ligature (don't ask, I'm not a linguist). Look under All Alternates and select the one that looks like a leading swash. It will attach to that first letter. Then select the last letter and do the same. It's pretty cool how it works. Depending upon what font you use, your choices may be different. Haven't figured out how to add more than one swash, however, But, that's for another day.

I copied one of the balloons for the inside sentiment.

For the balloon string I typed a letter and did the swash, then rasterized the type and erased the letter, duplicated it and put the two pieces together.

I know that's all a bit too much for lots of people to deal with, but I'm just sharing in case someone is interested in knowing the details. Ya think this was just whipped up, but these things take so much more time than any of us imagine.

Have a great day, all!

Happy Graphicing! (new word?)