I’ve checked out Amy’s video on intarsia, but I’m still a little unsure about how to do certain things. I can do intarsia blocks like this : 
really well. But anything that has a slanting slope, like the heart:
i have yet to master.
So my question is, how do I make slanting increases and decreases instead of simple vertical lines?
Thanks :)[/img]
You don’t do anything different. It’s the stitch layout that makes the slant, not the stitches. For the heart, as an example, you’d start with one red stitch, then 3, then 5, then 7, etc.
I’m a beginner knitter so can you please expand on how to change the stitch layout?
When you do a picture, you use a chart. Here is a heart chart, just to carry the theme. You would knit from right to left on the right side and purl left to right on the back, one stitch per square. When the color of the chart changes, the color of your yarn changes. There are no special techniques except to hold the yarns to prevent holes. You obviousy have that one down. 
so each line of the heart would have it’s own thread?
(i’m pretty sure this is something that’s so simple… why can’t i wrap my brain aorund it!!! lol)
Let’s say you wanted a heart on a field of white. You’d work with just white until you were read to start the heart.
Then you’d knit with white, knit a stitch with the red, and then, with ANOTHER strand of white you’d finish the row. On the next row, you’d knit with the white, then the red, then your other strand of white.
If you had 5 hearts in a row that were widely spaced, you’d have a strand of white for each space in between the hearts and a strand of red for each of the hearts. You can have quite the collection of strands hanging off the back of an intricate intarsia pattern.
The red strand from each heart would be long enough to work the entire heart.