Texture Love

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful comments and emails about my blog anniversary, it's been a fun 2 years!

I thought I would stay inside today and play with textures.  It's a blustery day outside, and I've messed up my ankle somehow and have to stay off of it, so processing pictures is a perfect way to pass the time.  And, messing around with photos is way more fun than vacuuming!

In the photo above I used one of Kim Klassen's textures, and I have no clue which one.  I should write this stuff down, but that's probably not going to happen...sorry!

This one has another one of Kim's textures and I used a brush texture on it too to give it a more painterly look.

Kim creates such beautiful textures, I find that I go to them time and time again.  And she is also so very generous with her free textures.  If you've been wanting to try using textures, I highly recommend you sign up for one of her e-courses, she has some starting soon.  Click here to find out more.

My sweet neighbor gave me these beautiful pink tulips yesterday.  I had given her a needlepoint pillow that no longer looked good in my house, so as a thank you, she gave me these pretty flowers.  I think I made out in the trade!  Although the pillow does look mighty nice in her green velvet wingback chair, so it was a win, win for both of us!

I put the flowers in this pretty pink vase I have had for years.  It came with the sheer pale pink ribbon which I love, so I thought it was the perfect choice for my pretty in pink flowers.  The texture I used on this one is another free one but from Boccacino.  I don't use these textures often, but when I do I fall in love with them all over again!

And here is the same image, but with script added from a free brush set by French Kiss...I love cool new brushes to play with!

Well that's it for now.  I hope you are finding something to hang out and do that makes you happy today too!

Dazed and Confused

This week has been a bit of a blur.  We have cleaned up most of the trees and big leaf debris that came down on our property from Hurricane Irene, now there are just piles of things everywhere.  And my sister, brother, and brother in law have cleaned up the trees down at my parents.  It's been a daunting job and there is still more to do, like removing the other half of our big dead tree.  But after driving around our county and seeing the utter devastation to people's homes and property, our tree can wait so that the tree folks can get to the people who really need their help.  Besides, the dogs are liking the obstacle course of huge branches which still litter our backyard.

Besides work stuff, I have also been going a little nutty trying to decide what to do on our upcoming trip to Germany.  I'm not a big planner when it comea to travel, often not even knowing where we will stay or go until we get somewhere, but I would at least like to have some idea so that we can make the most of our trip.

We will spend 4 days in Heidelberg, Germany where Mr. Tide has some training, but the last 4 days will be ours to do with however we like.  I would love to venture south into northern France in the Alsace region, but trying to decide where exactly to go has become a bit overwhelming.  The wonderful thing about Europe is that there is so much, so close by, that you can literally lose your mind trying to figure out where to go!  We could go to Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, or stay right in Germany!  I've been looking at the TGV train routes and the world is our oyster, which is both good and bad!  I finally sent Mr. Tide an email this morning telling him my head is spinning and I just might wait until we get there and can talk to the locals to decide where to go.

That's exactly what my daughter and I did a few years ago on a trip to England, and we got to see some of the most beautiful and out of the way places that way.  France appeals to me because we loved our time in the south of France and Paris a few years ago, and I would love a taste of that magical french bread again!  Mr. Tide suggested taking the train back to Paris, which is less than a 4 hour trip.  But I am torn, I know you can never visit Paris too many times, but we've been there, and the thought of going someplace else is weighing on me and sparking my sense of adventure and discovery.

I also looked in to going to Strasbourg, France, which looks amazing, like it fell out of a medieval fairytale book!  But it also looks a bit touristy, which isn't really our style...sigh, so many choices!  A few friends have also made suggestions...thank you Traci, but I am still dazed and confused about where to go.  I know, poor pitiful me right?!

And to top it all off, the budget this month is shot because of college tuition for our son, books, meal plans, and now tree removal!  But I still plan to enjoy myself while I'm over there.

So I will leave the comments open for this post in hopes that one of you, any of you, can tell me where to go...including hell if you like!

I am slowly working through my emails, I have hundreds to return, but made it through about 30 yesterday, so by the end of the year I should be caught up! ;-) 

Texturize Me

(Kim Klassen Create Edges Texture)

This past weekend, when I should have been vacuuming and dusting, I was busy doing fun things instead.  We took little Misty Belle out to a local boardwalk and her favorite pet store to get some treats.  We wanted to make sure she is getting continued socialization, which isn't easy to do during the cold winter months!  There were a few other brave souls roaming the boardwalk who ooh'd and ahh'd over her and we even saw another darling puppy, a boxer and I thought of Di, The Blue Ridge Gal and her sweet boy Rowdy.

(Kim Klassen Coffee Tea or Me Texture)

On Saturday I opened an email from Kim Klassen that had links to 2 free textures.  Mr. Tide had taken the dogs out very early on Saturday morning, so when I showed him the new textures he said he had taken some pictures at sunrise if I wanted to try and add a texture to them.  Of course, when given the choice between cleaning or playing around in Photoshop, y'all know which one will win every time!!!

(Florabella Worn Linen Texture Warm)

Here's another one of Mr. Tide's sunrise photos overlooking our icy creek.  I applied a Florabella action called Worn Linen, which gives the photo a nice canvas texture. 

It seems that everyone has been in a bit of a texture mode these days in blogland.  If you pop over to the beautiful blog Dear Lillie, you'll see some gorgeous shots using textures, not to mention a slipcovered ottoman that I covet!!!

 (Old Paper Lizzie_Anne)

Kate was also feeling the texture love this weekend and created some beautiful photos of her own, using free textures she found on Flickr.  I did a bit of hunting around on Flickr too, and found this gorgeous Old Paper Texture for free and applied it to my pear photo.

 (Postcard 3 Sophie G*)

I love the beautiful french script from Sophie G*'s Postcard 3 texture which I found thanks to Kate.  And the best part is most of these lovely textures are available for free and with limited restrictions on personal or commercial use.  You should always check the terms of use when creating things using someone else's textures though, as there can be restrictions on how you can use them or if you can use them on things you intend to sell, such as prints or note cards.

(Kat W. Vintage Lace)

Some of you have asked what a texture is, and in actuality the answer is really quite simple, they are jpeg photos.  These jpeg photos can then be applied as a layer to your existing photo giving it a whole new look and feel.  They can be created through the use of photo editing programs from scratch or you can simply create one by taking a photograph or scanning something like a piece of fabric or an old postcard and turning it into a jpeg.  The possibilities are really limitless when it comes to creating textures, the sky's the limit!

I decided to play around with creating some of my own, because once you create the jpeg you can then apply it to your photos and play around with the lighting, color burn, etc. to make it just the way you want it.  In the photo above I scanned an old lace handkerchief that belonged to my grandmother and created two different textures using the same photo, one with a very cool color cast, and one with warmer tones.  You can download them both for free and use them however you want by clicking HERE.

 (Kat W. Vintage Lace Cool and Kim Klassen Random Inspiration)

You can also apply more than one texture to a photo in order to create something really special if you want.  Above I used my Vintage Lace Cool Texture with Kim Klassen's Random Inspiration's Texture, in order to create an almost watercolor like effect.  I love this one!

(Kat W. Vintage Lace and Sophie G* Postcard 2)

On this last photo I again used the Vintage Lace Texture I created along with the same beautiful Postcard 2 texture that Kate had used on her photo, which you can see by clicking here.

I love that people create and share their textures, whether they are free or for a small fee, because they really do change the whole look and feel of any photograph.  I also hope that some of you will try downloading  these various textures and play around with this yourself to create whatever your heart desires!

One last thing.  Over the weekend I received  Stylish Blogger Award from the very talented Cathy at Stitchfork Designs.  If you've never popped by her blog, be sure to stop by because Cathy does beautiful monogram and embroidery work!!!

With this award I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about myself and then pass it along to 10 other bloggers I admire, but you all know there are WAY more than 10 bloggers I admire.  So if you want to play along, please consider this an open invitation to do so...I'm sending this award out to all of you talented bloggers out there in blogland!  All you have to do is create a post telling us 7 things about yourself.  Of course if you're one of those organized people who can narrow it down to 10 other bloggers, be sure to create links to their blogs and then let them know you've sent them the award.

So here are 7 Things you may, or may not know about me.

1.  I often blog or write stories while in my PJs or sweats...it helps get the creative juices flowing!

2.  I was voted class clown by my high school's graduating class.

3.  I was a political science major in college and planned to go to law school after graduation.  During my summers I worked for lawyers and realized that the really successful attorneys had nice homes, boats, and cars, but were rarely ever home to enjoy those things or their families.

4.  Even though I studied politics in college, I hate discussing politics with anyone other than my immediate family.

5.  Throughout my life I've had more male friends than female.  I could talk cars, I played sports, and I hung out mostly with guys...and still do.

6.  If I could have a superhero talent it would be the ability to fly...wouldn't that be so cool?

7.  If I won the lottery I would give to various charities, I would pay off my house, put some in a trust for my children, and use the rest to travel all over the world.   I would not use it to build a big huge house or buy an expensive car.

Happy Monday my friends!

My New Addiction

Remember a few posts back when I said something about not knowing if I would like using actions and textures...umm well I had a nice breakfast this morning as I ate those words!  It's only been a week since I've been using actions and textures and I'm completely addicted!

It's not that I don't like the photos I take straight out of the camera (or in photography lingo SOOC), it's just that actions and textures can enhance a photo and take it to a whole new level.

Take the photo above for example.  SOOC it was great, good color, nice contrast and I focused the image on the tiny patch of fog through the trees in the field beyond the woods.  Then I applied Pioneer Woman's free action called Boost (lowering the opacity by quite a bit) and then used another one of her actions called Soft Faded just to make it a little more ethereal.  Finally I used Edge Burn and again, lowered it considerably to help darken the edges and draw the eye toward the center of the photo even more.

If I had tried to do this by myself, and with my limited PS knowledge it would have taken awhile.  I would have figured it out eventually, but let's just say that this is WAY faster and much easier!

Actions can make life for people like me who haven't studied photography, or taken a class in how to use Photo Shop, so much nicer.  So to the people or peoples who thought these things up...Thank You!...you're a genius and if you're ever in my neck of the woods I'll make you dinner, take your picture, and make you look fabulous! ;-)

This photo looks almost exactly like the SOOC version, except the lowered Boost action gave it just a hint more light, and the Soft Faded action made it a tiny bit softer.  It was foggy here this morning, so even the SOOC shots had a soft feel to them, but I liked how Soft Faded accentuated that quality in the photo above.

Now, I'm no expert on any of this, I've been feeling my way around in the dark and just trying whatever strikes my fancy at the moment.

The photo of my vinca above benefited from Flora Bella's Vintage Summer action and a Flora Bella Texture...I forgot to write down what it was called...but it began with an "A"!

The picture above is such a great example of how actions and textures can take a photo and give it almost any look you want.  This is SOOC.  The sun was hitting my front yard so that hardly any color showed up in this photo, something I didn't really notice while I was taking the shot, because the camera sometimes sees things I don't...smart camera, since I love this picture!  I love the way the lack of color really gives you a sense of what it was like here this morning...misty and foggy.

But look at it here after applying the Vintage Summer action and a texture with color burn...be still my heart!  

So, see what a decent night's sleep, some wonderful actions and textures, plus getting a new puppy can do for you?!  

For those of you who already have textures or plan to get them, here is a nifty free little tool Mr. Tide found that makes applying a texture SO much easier.  It's a texture applicator action...I'm telling you, these people are geniuses, well that and Mr. Tide was tired of me buying things I didn't know how to use...hehe!

Until next time my friends.