Using a simple leaf that I photographed today, combined with the magic of GIMP, I made a holiday wreath. The tones in the slowly decaying leaf created for a design that only nature can provide in my opinion.

Here is the final result:



Also, a Christmas specific one:



Thank you for checking this out.

General Explanation How This Was Made (for those curious)

I photographed this leaf:



The original sized image is much larger. I included the original sized image as an XCF file if anyone else wants to use it in a project. By all means feel free if you feel inspired to do so.

At first I adjusted the size of the original photo and then placed the leaf inside a 600x600 px image with a transparent background. Then using Map Object in Plane mode, I rotated copies of the original successively by 10 degrees and ended up with this:



I used Map Object in Plane mode for the rotations because I find it gives good consistent results compared to using the Rotate Tool. I didn't try the Rotate Tool this time, but perhaps it would have been equally effective. I've just had issues with the Rotate Tool in the past. Those issues are due to how Gimp calculates the rotated layer.

I combined those layers and then again using Map Object, rotated copies of the original group of six leaves by 60 degrees, ending up with:



I had to apply a Layer Mask to the top layer, using the first layer alpha to selection and reducing the selection by 1 pixel to arrive at:



Then applying other steps, I arrived at the images shown above.

I've also included an XCF file showing the layers used to arrive at the wreath. Again, feel free to use it if you feel so inspired to do so. Thank you.

Thank you for the beautiful wreath and the tutorial. It's been a long time since I've seen you in here. Nice to see you.
Happy Holidays, ccbarr!

Nicely done CC.

Very good ccbarr

Nice design.

Nice work.

Thank you very much ccbarr. I now have another project to learn! Happily so. Happy Holidays!

nicely done ccbarr, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the tutorial, good to know for all sorts of projects!

*well, I could not figure out how to rotate it in the map object filter set up. And it didn't help that my gimp was being 'gimpy', sometimes the pointer is off just enough that you have to adjust to click on the right spot.

Hey it's great to hear from you again! Nice tutorial. Thank you.
Hope to see more of your ingenious animation tutorials soon. Happy Holidays friend.

Very nicely done ccbarr. Your tutorials are all so nicely explained.
Merry Christmas to you and your family and thank you.

Also, very nice to see you on the forum again.

I just had to do this tutorial. I must admit it drove me "nuts" at first. I had some trouble learning how to use map object. Then that last step with the layer mask stumped me for awhile. I still can't figure out how that 1 pixel made such a difference!

I am still glad that I did it as I learned a lot more of gimp's abilities! It is hard to believe it was all from a leaf!

Nice one, Pat625

Thank you very much,Odinbc. I really enjoyed doing it.

Thanks ccbarr again, I add your tut in PDF file for if needed.

I need help with using the map to object, plane script. I did this tutorial before but could not remember how to work the script. When I try to rotate my image, it jumps to the left upper corner no matter what x,y, or z coordinates I use.
How do you set the values to rotate your image?

Thank you very much Wallace for your help. I had forgotten to put the image back to the regular size before running the Map script. Must have had another "Senior Moment". (I'm sticking to that story anyway!)