I have a collection of shapes which you might like to use HERE.

There is a wonderful selection of Dingbat fonts at http://www.katsfunfonts.com/   They are free for personal use but please check the terms of use that come with the fonts for yourself.

Create a new image 250 x 250 pixels, Black background

If you are using a dingbat font for your shapes, make sure you have the file open (and minmized).

Click on the Shape or Text tool (depending on whether you are using a shape or a dingbat).

On the materials pallet, set the foreground colour to white and the background colour to null .  If you are using a dingbat font, you might have to switch them over to foreground null and background white - it depends of the font.

If drawing a shape make sure the "Retain Style" box is unticked.

Set the Line Style to Solid Line and the Width to 4.

On the Layers Pallet, turn off the visibility on layer Vector1 (as shown)

On the materials pallet, set the foreground colour to white.

Use the following settings for your brush.....

When you've made all the settings, you can click the Presets button and then click the floppy disk symbol to save these settings so you can call them back again easily next time you make a sparkle shape.

Paint with the brush over the selected area to fill in the first stage.  You don't want to fill it in fully, so only go over the area once.  It is supposed to be speckled.

On this layer, start where the brush will overlap the upper end of the previous stage and paint a little further along the line, shape or ding.  In my example, I've gone half way around the loop.

Where the brush work on the stages overlap, the fill looks denser but as it is on different layers it will create a shimmering effect in the animation.

When you get to the end of the line leading to your main shape, don't overlap onto it when you are filling in the main shapes.

Add an additional layer at the end painting over the whole of the main shape (the big heart on my example with the shape filled in again.

Selections Menu, Select None

On the Layers pallet, click on layer Raster 1

Click on the tube tool and select my sparkle tube "sparkles_multi-jh".

Set the scale to 60

Add 2 or 3 sparkles on or near the area you filled with the brush on layer 1. 

Select each layer in turn and add a few sparkles on or near the area that is filled on that layer.  If when you click you don't get the size of sparkle you want or it's in the wrong place, use the Undo button on the tool bar at the top to go back a step (or as many as you need to) and try placing the sparkle again.

If you can't remember which section you have filled on what layers; turn off the visibility on all the layers except the one you are working on, and then turn them on again as you are ready to work on them.

Remember - making a layer visible doesn't make it the active layer to work on, you have to click on its name to select it as the active layer.

Sparkles added
to layers 1, 2, 3 and 4

Delete the layer "Vector 1"

Delete the bottom layer "Background"

Once it is saved, close the file in PSP.

File menu, Preferences, General Program Preferences

Click the Layered Files tab, and make sure you settings are like this:

Browse to the folder where you save your file.  If you can't see it, pull down the list "Files of Type" and change the setting to "All Files"

Select your file and open it.  (your file should have a .psp extension)

As it loads into Animation Shop, the layers should get converted into frames.

Animation menu, Animation Properties - select Opaque and then click the colour block to choose a colour.

Then click the animation preview to see how it looks.

If you are going straight onto the next part "Adding Sparkle Shapes to Tags" go back into the Animation Properties and set the background back to Transparent.