From "meh" to "cool!" with Textures in Photoshop

Before:After:

To get myself jump started with my 2012 blogging, I thought I'd post a step by step before and after of how I got from start to finish on the photo above. I really liked the photo untouched, but I also thought it would look cool with some texture and depth added. I really like the way the clouds look in the "after"...almost like an old postcard.

I'm using Photoshop CS5 right now, but these steps can all be done in Photoshop Elements as well. It's nothing complicated. I'm assuming you have a basic idea of how PS works, so I'm basically just showing my layers and the layer blending modes, and opacities for each. If you have questions, please feel free to post them in the comments, and I'll see if I can help!

Step 1: Open the photo you want to work on. You can click these photos to see my layers panel on the right up close:

Step 2: Here I added a layer of aqua "paint" to warm up my blues and cool off my grass a little. It barely shows up here, but I could really tell the difference once I added my other layers and tried turning this one off and on. I set this layer on Overlay for my blending mode, at 17%:
Step 3: Here I added a texture from Kim Klassen, which I received free from her because I subscribe to her weekly emails. You can sign up too, if you go to her blog HERE. The texture is a creamy background with grungy edges. I set it on Linear Burn at 90% opacity. You can see the instant character it gives the photo:
Step 4: I'm a big fan of fabric textures, so I added one from The Coffee Shop Blog. She has lots of free textures, and her blog has been an invaluable resource for me in everything from figuring out how to use PS, to how to make cool stuff for my blog. HERE is a link to her free textures page. I used her Coffee with Cream fabric texture, in Linear Burn mode, at 54% opacity. Although I loved what this did to my photo, I thought it was a little too dark. However, if I made the opacity less, the effect wasn't showing up enough.:
Step 5: So...my final step was to add Kim Klassen's Revolution texture one more time...this time in Linear Light mode, at 11% opacity. This punched it up a little lighter, and I'm happy:
Helpful Mac Hint of the Day: Aren't you all impressed with my screen shots? Ever since I figured out how to do them, I've been taking screen shots of everything. If you have a Mac, it's easy: CTRL+SHIFT+3. That's it! It plops the screen shot right on your desktop for you. (If you have a Windows machine, there is usually a "PRNT SCRN" button up on the top right area of your keyboard. I believe you click that, and it will prompt you to save the pic. Sorry I'm not much help there. I'm a total Mac junkie now, and I'm beginning to forget what life was like pre-Mac.) ;)

I hope you enjoyed!

Autumn in NY

Kathleen, and my dear niece, being good kids and raking for me.

*Note Madeline with the heavy garden rake...lol. They did trade off, so Kathleen's not ALL bad. ;)

This picture was taken from the road in front of my house, looking out to the main road.
Don't forget, you can click to enlarge!

I took this out my rear kitchen window the other morning. This picture doesn't begin to do justice to how pretty it really was in the early morning light:

I took these on a back road near Athens the other day
on my way home from an installation in Catskill. So pretty!
I just had to pull over and pull out my camera!

Good Night, Moon

As I was headed to the movies tonight (saw "Jumper"--it was good!), the moon was rising, and looked large and luminous. I had to stop at the end of my street and take a picture. THEN, as I was driving home, the eclipse was taking place, so I pulled over and shut off my lights. It was beautiful. Out of the 20 or so pictures I took, the one below is the best I got. I was wishing I had my tripod with me. This one was taken with the camera propped on the top of my car.

Seeing the moon like this reminds me of summers as a teen, when I'd lay out in the grass with my boyfriend, and we'd just stare up at the moon and talk for hours. He knew a lot more about the constellations than I did, too. When I think about it too hard, it makes me realize how small we all are. If I can make an imprint on one person's life, just half the size of the moon's imprint on me, I'll call it good.

Good night, Moon.

Happy 2008!

I'm baaaack! It was a hairy holiday, but I made it through the stress with a fresh new outlook, and some renewed energy (after taking about 5 days off) for a long list of new year activities that await. It's late, and I really need to get to bed tonight, but I didn't want to go one more day without posting.

I went for a drive a few days ago after a beautiful snowfall, and took some photos. Here they are for you to enjoy!

Sweet dreams, y'all. Stay tuned for some new jewelry and some more regular postings from me.

Another Gorgeous Weekend

I feel like such a slacker...no posts since Thursday! I had a very nice weekend, and it seemed to seep over into today--hence my delay in posting something new and interesting. Saturday morning was an early one for me...had to bring BF to the airport at 4am to catch a plane to TX, where he'll be for the week. So I came home and went back to bed and slept too late on Saturday morning. Kathleen and I had a lazy morning--me making sweet potato puff for my friend Kelly's dinner party, her playing with her new Webkins stuff online. Then she was off to Madeline's house to play, I delivered some window treatments, and then off I went to Kelly's party. It was a fun time...old friends, good food, reminiscences....I'm glad I went. Whenever I get together with these friends, it reminds me how great they are. I'm glad we still hang out after all of these years (it's been 23 since we graduated!) That table arrangement up top was on the buffet table. Simple, and pretty. Here are her front doors:

I just love those witchy boots!

Sunday was spent lounging around in the morning with Kathleen, until we decided it was too gorgeous a day to just lay about, so we took a drive to Massachusettes. We drove out to Pittsfield, then down to Lenox, and Lee. We discovered the CUTEST little shop, whose name completely escapes me right now, but I can remember her Etsy site! It's http://crispinastudio.etsy.com/ . That site is nothing compared to her store, though. Kathleen and I walked in and were both like "WOW, if we opened up a store, THIS is what it would look like!" It was fun, clever, whimsical, colorful, and crazy. We loved it. I bought a few little gifts, Kathleen got some great ideas for her bedroom decor, and I'm thinking we'll have to go back. We also found a great shop full of vintage metal signs, and another dusty little antique place with a wacky guy sitting outsidetaking in the sun, manning the shop.

The only thing more beautiful than the leaves yesterday, was my gorgeous Kathleen. She's growing into a lovely young lady, and I really enjoy spending time with her. Our car time is the best, because we talk about everything under the sun. She's a great kid. I don't know what I did to deserve her! We found a beautiful trail on our way home, and the sun was setting, so I got some great pictures of her. The leaves were beautiful...the whole day was a gift, really.

Isn't she cute?! :)



She's standing next to the lake that we saw from above, as shown in the pic on the right. It was breathtaking. There are more leaf pics, but I guess I'll wait til tomorrow to post them. I'm tired!

Autumn Joy

I took a drive yesterday...got lost for about two hours. I had no idea where I was. Thank goodness I can navigate my way home with the help of the sun. It was gorgeous here...a bit windy and nippy, but the sun was shining, and I couldn't believe some of the breathtaking views I found on the back roads of Albany County! Look at those horses! They just stood there perfectly still, and stared at me while I snapped their picture. That necklace there is my latest to be posted on Etsy. Check it out at http://fiddleheadstudios.etsy.com/
Christmas is coming! I'm sure you have gifts to buy for your mother, best friend, sister, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, not-so-best-friend, lol, etc. This one was particularly fall-like, so I had to post it this morning, to go with my fall mood!

Yesterday I had the living room window open for a while in the afternoon. My phlox are right outside that window. Well..I was just sitting there, looking out the window, breathing in the fresh air, and I kept hearing these little snapping noises...about every 8 seconds or so. It was my phlox, which have gone to seed...the seed pods were snapping open, and shooting their seeds into my garden. It was fascinating. I love to watch and hear nature at work. The other sound of autumn which keeps catching my by sweet surprise every day, is the sound of the Canadian geese flying overhead in large flocks. Their calls are very distinctive, and herald the coming of winter. I can't believe it's almost upon us. I heard about the snowstorm in Colorado yesterday! Yikes! I don't even want to THINK about snow yet. Fall is my favorite. But as Robert Frost said, "nothing gold can stay." *sigh*

Happy Monday to all!