Better Days Ahead

Hallelujah the sun is shining today, albeit the temps are just barely 30 degrees.  Since all of the rain, the grass is green and there are obvious buds on the trees, not bursting buds, but buds nevertheless.  I knew it was going to be a better day as I watched the television last night as the remaining "terrorist" was apprehended and the streets became lined with the citizens of Boston applauding the works of the local, city, and state Police and the FBI.  As I watched and saw the images of the youngest "terrorist" and heard what a fine young man he was while in highschool it makes me wonder, how does someone like him, get so far off-track in his life in such a relatively short time that would bring him to destroy human lives on purpose?  An answer we may never know.

I am going to focus on the good this next week...beginning right now....this past week focused too much on the bad.  Today my good friend, Marti is hosting a brunch to raise money for the Purdue University Cancer Research that she is very involved in.  Instead of running a 5K and asking everyone to donate, she opts to host a brunch where we enjoy eating while we donate.  Yesterday I  helped her in the preparing by creating spring on her tables.  Again, Trader Joe's to the rescue with their abundance of beautiful tulips.

Marti cut out the butterflies and hung them from fishing wire from her chandelier....aren't they sweet?!

Decided to play again with Jill's "Creative License Friday".  This week the original photo was taken by Gail Dixon, my blogging friend, from her blog "Louisiana Belle".  Visit Gail, she takes the most amazing bird images...breath-taking.

Here is her original photo....

And here are two of my renditions....the first one I added a texture from Lenabema Anna from flickr

The second one has a texture from Nancy Claeys from her blog A Rural Journal.

Ok, I am off to wash my hair and get dressed to go fill my tummy with Marti's wonderful brunch.  Hope you all have a glorious weekend.

"Life isn't tied with a bow, but it is still a gift."  ~  Regina Brett

Until next time.....

Another Challenge

The sun is shining today, making us think it's spring, but.....tomorrow we are predicted to endure another (I am not going to say last) snow storm.  Oh Spring, you are so very fickle, at least you are here in the midwest.  Growing up in Dallas, Spring was here in March to stay, none of this wishy washy back & forth stuff.

My favorite nursery/garden center opened today.  I might just wander down to see what in the world could they possibly be selling that can withstand these early morning temps in the teens.  Last year they were fighting the warmth and too early blooms, this year it's the cold & snow.  I must admit I would love to place some spring pansies on my front porch, but not yet.

So instead of planting pansies I am once again playing on the computer with the latest photography challenge from She Who Carries a Camera for her weekly challenge "Creative License Friday".  This week the oh so lovely, Nancy from The Gift of a Moment has presented us our challenge this week.

Here is the original....

Here is my version...

Once again, I am using Ana's Textures from flickr.  With her textures you can literally transform an image to create a completely different look & feel.  Since the distant land was so hazy in the original photo I decided to completely eliminate it and add a different element to the photo, but keeping the forefront intact.  After adding the texture I erased part of it around the bushes, lightening other parts, and blending the two.  Hope you like it, Nancy.

And I hope you have a delightful weekend.  Thought this was a delightful quote from Emerson since I will be starting my morning walks soon.

"Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance,

plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity,

good speech, good silence and nothing too much." 

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson 


Until next time....

Playing Around on a Saturday Morn - A Tutorial

Ran across a blog that challenged us to play around with one of her photos...using textures, whatever.  And you know me, I love to use textures and play around in photoshop.  So thought I would join "She Who Carries a Camera" and her new meme...."Creative License Friday".

Here is her original photo....

Here is mine, after a wee (ha) bit of editing....

OK, so here goes, I am going to try desperately to remember my steps, but don't hold me to it since I didn't write everything down until I finished.

1. Copied the image and then brought it into Photoshop Elements.
2. Lightened the entire image and then blended the darker lines on the right side of the original to match the lighter color, using the brush tool at a 55% opacity. If you have questions about this part, email me and I will get more technical.  
3. Added 2 layers of this texture by Lenabem-Anna.  She can be found on flickr and has a huge set of textures for our use (free ofcourse).  Many of her textures add that feeling of a canvas painting that I love.  The first layer was added at 100% soft light, the 2nd layer at Multiply at about 50% (this is the part I can't remember exactly).  Just adjust that layer until you like what you see.  
4. Then after adding the layers and prior to merging them, I used the eraser tool and erased all of the texture from layer 1 (soft light) and then the 2nd layer (multiply) I erased at 50% opacity which leaves just a slight texture on only the bird.     
5. OK this is where I begin to use actions & layers that I have purchased.  I know many like to be brilliant and use photoshop to do all of their editing and I commend you for that, but honestly I am too lazy to do all that, so I depend on others that have done it far better than I could even hope to achieve.  The 2 that I have the most success with is Paint the Moon's Miracle Makeover and Florabella's Color Play. I use Florabella's Color Play action set every time I edit because it has individual brushes to edit pieces and parts of your image (ie: her lighten & darken brush lets you lighten or darken just individaul parts of your image....the bird's feathers (lighten) and the iron piece (darken).  Paint the Moon's Miracle Makeover is not only is a great one for editing faces, but I also use it on most of my images for sharpening individual pieces & parts.  I have several of Florabella's Action Sets that I use, but the Color Play is utilized the most.  I know these actions are not cheap, but they have been worth the money for me.  
6. Now that I have gone into probably way too much information about the actions I use, this is where I use the lighten/darken brush from the Florabella Color Play set to add light to certain areas of the bird.  And I also darken up the iron arch that the bird is perched on.  But these actions work so well on just about any image you have.  
7. Another neat layer set I recently purchased was Patti Brown's Kaleidoscopes...these are layers of light, added sunshine, flares etc. that just add a little more interest to your image.  This one I added a flare of sunlight to the right side of the image.  Again adding it at 100% screen opacity then lowering the opacity.  It is just like adding textures only these are layers of light.  
8. The last piece that I added was the text.  You can add your own text using the text tool and various fonts (many are free for downloading) but this particular one is from Cottage Arts a digital web site.  This is one from their inspiration collections (they have several).  

If you are at all interested in learning about how to add textures to your images, Kim Klassen is the gal to see.  Kim has been creating textures (most are free) and teaching the masses for some time now, so if interested here is a link to her website, http://www.kimklassencafe.com/

Again, if you have any questions concerning this post or actions that I use please email me.  You can find my email under the tab - Contact Me

Until next time....