Creaing a shape or heart mask in Photoshop

This image is by Jay Valle from his BP gallery.

Here are some instructions on how to create masks based on my trial and error. I don't know if there is an easier way, this works for me and I hope it does for you...

1) Open PS and click on new...any size will do for now.
2) Go to your paint bucket and make the white canvas any color, with the apple I left it white.
3) Now in the tool pallet go to the shapes feature located just below the "T", there at the very bottom you'll find the custom shapes tool.
4) As soon as you click on that you'll see a choice menu above.
5) Drop down that shapes menu and you'll see a bunch of little cool shapes to play with.
6) Click on the heart and the color black in the color box to the right.
7) Bring your curser back to your canvas, click the left mouse bottom as you drag it to create your heart shape. You can adjust its size and position by then clicking the Free Transform Path under the edit menu.
8) Now when that's all done go to the layers menu and click on flatten Image.
9) Now that the image is all one piece, click the eraser tool and get the Magic Eraser Tool.
10) Bring that tool to the canvas and put it into the heart then left click the mouse. BINGO! If all went well then you'll see a transparent heart (shown by checkerboard in heart), and your mask is created.
11) Almost done Mary, stay with me now...Go to the top of the tool pallet and click on the rectangular Marquee Tool.
12) Left click keeping finger on mouse button and glide it over the entire canvas from left upper corner to lower right corner, then release, you'll see the dotted wiggle lines around the entire canvas.
13) Now under the Edit menu click Cut. And close the screen. You'll get asked if you want to save? You can or just say no.
14) Now for the final touch....open any picture in Photoshop.
15) Now in the Edit menu click paste.

Okay, there is your mask over your photo. Note: You can adjust the size of the mask by clicking transform under the Edit menu. When all is positioned and colored the way you want it, don't forget to flatten your images to make it one.
I hope this helps, let me know how you made out.

This tutorial was sent to me by BP member Jay Valle. Here is the link to his BP gallery.