Creating a Picture Frame Using Auto Shapes

The picture I am using for the tutorial is Cracker my dog when he was a puppy. To use the picture simply copy it and open it in Fireworks.

Open a new document 375 X 350 on a transparent background.

Click the Paint Bucket tool and set it to no fill . Select the Stroke tool and select a color by clicking on the small arrow on the color swatch.

Click the Auto Shapes panel and choose star from the drop down list:

Set the Star properties to create a unique look. This is the settings I used:

At the stroke options menu on the Properties panel I choose blue, size 20, and Calligraphy/Ribbon. Play around with all the different stroke options to create your own unique frame.

This is what you should have at this point depending on the color you chose:

I want to add a filter to the frame to give it more depth. With the star selected click the filters option and choose Inner Bevel and use the following settings.

Now we need to open the picture we will be using and we need to size the star in proportion to the photo. Click on the photo and open the Info panel and see what the width and height setting is:

The size of the photo is 350 X 317. Click back on the frame document and click on the frame to select it and set the frame width and height to 325 X 300. Just a little smaller than the photo itself insuring that the photo will fit inside the frame.

Click back on your photo and click on it with the Selection tool then copy (Edit > Copy) click back on the frame document and select the frame by clicking on it then click Edit > Paste Inside:

The last thing we need is to get rid of the extra space around the photo. Click the Fit to Canvas button on the Properties panel and your photo and frame should now be trimmed to the canvas. Here is the finished product:

How cool was that!!!