I am new to Gimp and have never used Photoshop or Adobe. All I want to do is download an image and multiply that image and manipulate each one. As a simple example I want to take the shape of a heart. Place five of them on a page and each one I’d like to stretch the point at the bottom, or round the top, or rotate and make one thin, the other fat etc…So I copied a generic image off the internet and brought it into Gimp. When I start up Gimp, I get a large screen with a small white rectangle in the center. In the Layer tool box to the right, it says this is my Background. I assume this is my canvas. So here is when I’m challenged and I am working to figure out;
1. In order to work on this white canvas, I need to make it larger in order to have the 5 hearts be manipulated.
2. When I copy multiple images onto the canvas, I have found that the images have their own square white border. I found this out by trying to put two hearts closer together. I believe I can use the Color Picker Tool to cut the heart from it white square but I do not know how to copy and paste the heart only image to the white rectangular canvas. On the Layers Tool, I have the white rectangular “Background” and “Images” of the heart.
3. I do not know what a Floating Select Transformation is.
4. I suppose I can manipulate these hearts by using such tools as the Handle and/or Cage Transform tool.

The white border is the background of the jpg heart.
Since you are beginning, I don't want to explode your brain into deep space immediately by trying to post something too complex.
So, try this quick way first. If the image has 2 colors, white bg and red heart, this should work okay.
Menu: Select...by color. Click on the white background. Menu: Select...grow. Grow selection by 1px, click OK. Hit delete.

OR

1. Download transparent heart to your images folder. Google "heart png" and pick your favorite.
2. In Gimp. File: New, image width 1920, height 1080. (for a FullHD canvas)
3. Open the heart, select all and copy to clipboard. (ctrl + a, ctrl + c)
4, Switch to empty canvas. Menu: Edit/paste../as new layer.
5. Duplicate the heart (ctrl + shift + d or from menu: Layer/duplicate layer). Begin to manipulate the copy.

PS. If you don't know anything about image editing, I would advise to go through some basics first.
Like the wikipedia page for example, there's lot of 101 sites too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_editing
Will make things much easier in future.

Welcome to Gimp Chat, clawson.
I'm sure you will learn everything that you have mentioned soon.

There are beginner tutorials here, do a few and you will learn the basics.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3315

I do not know how to write and thank you individually so Gracias to all who responded.

Clawson, Escribiste "gracias" en español. Es tu lengua nativa? Espero que aprendas mucho en este foro, no dudes en preguntar tus dudas.
Saludos,
Issa

There is also an easier way using path shapes, as paths can be manipulated just as anything else within GIMP. I'll make a short video and post it here, when it's done.

Guess we can't add zip or xcf files here. Hmmmm...

The tutorials are great and I am playing around with them BUT one of a few things I have yet to grasp is the background. When I open a new create, there is the white postage stamp rectangle. If I use the move tool I can move the stamp to reveal a checkerboard rectangle. So which is the canvas I am drawing on and which is the desk?

My video tutorial is up on YouTube so you can view it:

Heart Shaped Paths

The checkerboard you see indicates the image has an alpha channel = transparent background. When using layers on any of your images, make sure you always select transparent layers, so that any image with transparencies (PNG files) will show correctly.

Addendum: I need a new microphone, my voice seems "MUFFLED". In reality it is not.

Thank you mahvin, it's very well explained and I learned again:
1.I would not have thought of doing this result using paths.
2.I did not know that you could open an image in Gimp directly from a site.

Excellent tutorial, I learned a lot just by watching.

Thank you Mahvin

Cool tut

by the way welcome to Gimp Chat clawson

Thank you all, it worked and I am now playing with it, FINALLY. It printed out very small and I tried to scale it up. I received a warning window stating I may have scaled it up too much but it still prints out too small. One other issue, is there a way to get these different simple projects on one sheet of paper? Copy and paste doesn't seem to work in GIMP.
Thanks again!!!