Heyho, I wish to create a background image to go on my girlfriends desktop. Problem is that I have little graphics editing experience. I dont know what graphics editing software to use but I have given GIMP a shot and seem to be failing miserably. I want to create a heart with swish lighting effects and such but trouble is I dont know how to create this in gimp. I have been looking over tutorials for gimp on their website and searched google but nothing seems to be helpful.
To sum up: I want to create a red love heart on a pink BG and white text with a black outline on top. Plus I dont want it to look like I made a sloppy attempt in MS paint.
Any help on this would be REALLY greatly appreciated.

If you don't have the skills to do that, you can always search for an already finished card in sites like http://www.virtual-cards.com/ecards/home

It's either learning The Gimp (or a 3D modeler as Blender) or getting an already finished card. There's nothing in between....

why would you suggest an e-card? he's looking for a desktop wallpaper...

I would recommend looking at sites like the following:

www.deviantart.com

www.pixelgirlpresents.com

www.cognitiviedistortion.com

www.vladstudio.com

those 4 sites together have probably, close to a billion wallpaper images. If you can't find something fitting... i suggest learning GIMP/Photoshop/Fireworks/etc..

If you don't have a ton of raw artistic skill (most of us don't), but you still want to create something yourself, then you should play around with compositing images and filter effects (especially blur).

Basically, you want to take photos and experiment with very small patches of interesting looking textures. Rescale a patch down to 160x120 or less (choose dimensions with a 4:3 aspect ratio). Then play with filters until you get a pleasant background texture. Make several interesting ones--some with "smooth backgrounds", some with sparse details, some with sharp shapes. Then blow them up to full size (e.g. 1024x768), making sure to rescale with best quality (cubic).

Now you'll want to place these patches in separate layers, and play with transparency to mix them together until you find a combination which is pleasant.

Oh, you want a heart shape, right? You'll want to draw a big heart shape with a large brush at a resolution of 320x240. Use a couple different colors to provide some crude shading. Don't worry about the exact shape. Then scale it down to 80x60 and apply a blur filter. This will blur away all of the imperfections in your artwork. Then scale it up to maximum size, and composite it with your background.