Texture fun

(mouse over for original)

 

 

 

As I find myself at the end of January already, I wonder where the time goes!

 

A brief recap of the past 6 weeks I have been MIA-holiday madness followed by not-flu-but-still-no-fun followed by 5 days with the grands while their parents enjoyed San Francisco. 

 

The girls were so super good for us too! Something their parents were hoping they would continue once they got back home. They both slept all night every night (something I appreciate even more now!) and Riley was super helpful, taking care of her dishes and picking up her toys with no coaching and no "discussion" about brushing teeth or going to bed.  Of course, being sisters, there was a fair share of wrestling and power struggles between them but that is to be expected.  Papa took them to the park on Saturday then McDonalds so I could have a couple of hours to myself.  It does seem like it should be the weekend already though! I am ready for it!

 

Meanwhile, because of the not-flu fun and not-fun temperatures, exercise has been scaled back to maybe a day or 2 a week. maybe. I'm ready for warmer temperatures so I can resume my daily walks and I'm ready for the sun to rise earlier so I can see it. It's no fun to go out in the dark and come home in the dark. But I made it through all this without gaining any weight. No losing any weight either. Back in the saddle now. 

 

Since I've been playing inside, I've been going through the pictures on my computer and editing them and some have been treated to an action or texture or 2. A little creativity on my part. I am also obsessed with the tintype snap pak from Hipstamatic. I especially like the D-type plate (black and white) and have been taking some portraits of others and selfies with it. I love the center focus and the way it makes eyes look especially if the eyes are light colored.

 

 

 

Hello! (forgot to mention I cut my hair, about 8 inches or so) this is SOOC. A rarity when it comes to a selfie from me. There is always usually some Photoshop magic going on. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

I am taking a year long selfie class online so there is lots of selfies in my photostreams that I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing. (oh please! not another picture of HER!)

I plan to give this tintype snap pak a try with landscapes and architecture.

 

My creative side has been enjoying a little texture work with some of the photos in my archives. The pear photo above is one that I enjoyed experimenting with. You can mouse over the image and see what the picture looked like that I started with. I put the image in PSE and erased out a black mark on one of the pears then started playing with actions and textures.

 

The first thing I did was run an action on it called DPM LAB Color Boost.  Just to give it a little pop.

 This action comes from the full of good Photoshop/Lightroom info blog-Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics. 

 

I added a layer of Cream Swirl from The Coffeeshop Blog's Baking with Mom collection. This collection has become one of my favorites.

 

 

 

This texture gave the picture a nice creamy background. I used it on multiply 100% opacity.

 

Then I used PDPA Brown Rice Paper Texture. I used it on color burn at 80% opacity. I am new to these textures. They come from Pixel Dust Photo Art. This is a very inspiring and creative place. Bonnie is so generous with her textures and hosts fun things like Photo Art Fridays. Check it out here.    I really like the way this texture looks and when I put it on this picture and changed the blending mode to color burn I gasped out loud! The richness of color that came through really made me happy.

 

All that was left was to add the watermark, resize it, save and download it.

 

done.

 

and fun.

 

I'm checking on how your New Years resolutions are going at my collaborative blog Focusing on Life.  Stop by and see me!

How's your winter?

 

xo,