Showing posts with label Photoshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photoshop. Show all posts
Monday, March 10, 2014
Your Favorite Pins
Monday, February 24, 2014
Free Photo Collages to Spruce up Your Blog Posts
Images/Template © EW Couture
For those of you who didn't catch my guest post on Be Creative Mommy, we talked a little about our Exceptional Blogging series. In our last post about building an Exceptional Blog, we talked about the importance of eye-catching photos. One way to do this is by creating collages or story boards. It's your blog, so tell us your story! Collages are not only appealing to the eye, but they help break down some of the "clutter" an over abundance of photos can create in a single post. Sometimes you get lucky, and of those 76 photos you took, a good 20 came out stunning. Of course you want to show off as much of your hard work as possible. Why wouldn't you? You invested your time and effort into capturing great photos. Show off as many of them as possible with photo templates.
I did some of the hard work for you and rounded up 85 FREE blog boards for you to begin telling your stories in various eclectic ways. Each of the attached links are PSD (Photoshop) files. If you read through our original post on Exceptional Blogging, you'll see we talked about investing in your blog and investing in Photoshop. It's not daunting, I promise! You can even follow along with me on the blog and read up on our Photoshop tutorials. I would be happy to share a tutorial, showing you how to do use these. All it takes is the knowledge of layers and clipping masks.
Paint the Moon Vintage Frames || Paint the Moon Storyboard || Kimla Designs & Photography Blog Board Template ||
Pugly Pixel Photo Layouts || Simple As That Collage Templates || Paislee Press Project Life Photo Templates
Simple Scrapper Photo Templates || Persnickety Prints Project Life Photo Templates || Maybemej Photography Tags and Photo Templates
Monday, January 6, 2014
Create Gold Foil Text in Photoshop
I have been in love with the new trend of metallic gold lettering in graphic design. Who doesn't love shiny text! I bet if you do, you've been wondering how to get it. I mean, your text doesn't just come in those fancy letters. There is no Hex code for that metallic sheen. So I knew this would make for a great tutorial to share with you all.
Open the canvas you will be working on, as well as the gold foil texture you want to use. You can see with the arrows I have the Create Foil Text document open and the Foil Background open. THIS is the free gold foil background I used for this tutorial. Another great gold foil digital texture pack is THIS one from Mommyish.
Working on your Foil Text canvas, create a new layer. In Photoshop, the small piece of paper with the corner marked is the new-layer icon. You can see in the layers pallet, Layer 1 has been created. You can rename this by double-clicking it if you wish. I did not for this tutorial since it is the only additional layer I'm working with.
Toggle over to your window with the gold foil background. Select the whole thing and copy it.
Toggle back over to your canvas and paste the gold foil background to the layer you just created. If you look at Layer 1 in your layers pallet, you now see it has a gold rectangle in it, displaying to you what is in that layer. Be sure you have Layer 1 highlighted before you paste the background to it.
First, move the layer up or down until it is directly over the text you want to add texture to. You can easily do this by clicking and dragging. Now right-click on Layer 1 and select Create Clipping Mask.
You just clipped two layers together! And only with the click of a button! If you look at Layer 1 in your layers pallet, you will see a small downward pointing arrow on the left side. That arrow indicates that that layer is clipped to the one below it, and whatever is in that layer (Layer 1) will reflect only within the layer it is clipped to.
Adjust the size and/or position of the gold foil texture until it is how you like it. This is easily done by highlighting Layer 1 in the pallet (it should be selected on your canvas as you see in the previous photo), press V on your keyboard to select your Move Tool (or toggle it on the left [see photo]) and adjust the size and position. Another quick note: holding Shift while adjusting one of the corners will maintain the proportions of the background layer.
There, you're done! Your text is gold and shiny and beautiful! Give yourself a little pat on the back.
What other things would you like to learn to do in Photoshop? Let me know in the comments or send me an email: newlymynted@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on new tutorials.
XO,
Steph
Steph
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
2013 In Review
I sort of vanished for the latter part of 2013. My last post was on November 16, when I shared the Gatsby printable I created. I'm glad for those of you who enjoyed and for all the shares it has received on Pinterest.
The year 2013 was a hard year. It began with me abandoning all control, putting all of my faith in God, and moving to Boone. I had never set foot on Boone soil. I hadn't been to NC since I last lived here when I was six years old. But God brought me here, and boy do I love it! God is great that way. The day I left I cried on my mothers shoulder, terrified to leave. Who would of thought I would find such an amazing, gracious and loving home here.
But that was hardly difficult. Between October and November I lost three members of my family. Two were somewhat expected, so while disheartening, easy to cope with. It was the last one, my Aunt Shari. She died Thanksgiving morning. She died in her sleep. She was but 50 years old.
But that was hardly difficult. Between October and November I lost three members of my family. Two were somewhat expected, so while disheartening, easy to cope with. It was the last one, my Aunt Shari. She died Thanksgiving morning. She died in her sleep. She was but 50 years old.
I was walking out the door the morning of Thanksgiving. My purse was in hand, the kids were headed downstairs to the car, when my phone rang. I realized it was coming from my bedroom and that I did not have it on hand. I went to get it real fast, saw that it was my dad calling. For a fraction of a second I thought, Oh, I'll call him back later. We were just walking out, headed to spend the holiday with family and friends. We had hours of driving to do. But then I decided to answer since it was Thanksgiving. My parents had relocated back to Phoenix, so the least I could was wish my family a Happy Thanksgiving.
In that same moment it occurred to me that it was 9 AM my time, 6 AM theirs. How odd they would be calling me so early.
"Hello," I answered.
"Hey, Sis," came my dad's voice. "I've got bad news."
"What? Is everything okay?"
"Hello," I answered.
"Hey, Sis," came my dad's voice. "I've got bad news."
"What? Is everything okay?"
"Shari died."
My reply was bleak. I plopped down onto my bed and stuttered over my words. What words I could get out, that is. I hung up the phone and wept. I wept all the way to Morganton, then on the drive to Rockingham, then while I was there at my best friends house.
I haven't quite gotten passed it yet. Each time I think of it, my mind doesn't seem to want to comprehend it. She was only fifty! Far too young to die! But just like that, my mothers baby sister was gone.
My aunt didn't have children of her own, but spoiled us tremendously. I always had a very close relationship to her. She bought me my first pair of dangly earrings and took me to my first R-rated movie. She once took me to see the Beauty and the Beast ballet at the theater, and even brought a pair of theater binoculars. Between that and the dress my mother bought me, I remember feeling so fancy that day.
Each time I think of these things, I just feel ... sad. Is there another word for it? Something not quite so morose, but equal in feeling?
That is why I have not been around much. I haven't quite gotten over the sadness. And beginning a new year doesn't make it easier to do so. I feel this need to begin a new year, leave the old in the past, and embrace the present. There's a whole future in front of me. But how do you just let someone go so cavalier-like? I don't think you do.
So, no, I don't believe I will be embracing 2014, but rather plugging on through another day. I know that time heals and just because it is a new year, that doesn't mean it's time yet.
On a more delightful note: I did get to spend a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with my best friend of nearly 20 years. We had a marvelous time together! We even stole a moment to take some family portraits. So enjoy these final mementos for this post. Till next time ...
Hinson Lake, Rockingham, NC
If you're interested in how I edited any of these, please let me know in the comments. All the actions I used are freebies, and I would love to share the techniques I'm learning in Photoshop.
Happy New Year to all,
Steph
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Gatsby Inspired Gold Foil Printable
I have been experimenting with gold foil text and clipping masks in Photoshop. Combine shiny gold textures with my obsession for new fonts, and here is what you get:
Free pretty things!
Hooray!
: : DOWNLOAD : :
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I hope all you lovelies have a dazzling weekend! I'm off to party hardy with my seven-year-old boy. We're having cake from a galaxy far, far away ...
Mucho love!
Steph
Friday, October 4, 2013
Photoshop editing and tutorials
I got a post in! It's terrible this is my only post for this week, but I'm happy I managed to squeeze at least one in. There have been bouts of strep, trips to the emergency room, and sleepless nights. I managed to squeeze in buying a new (used) vehicle, and, oh sweet joy, today is girls day. This momma needs girls day!
In what down time I have had, I've been learning Photoshop. I don't know if many of you follow Alex Beadon, but I adore her. Her site is so informative, her Chatty Tuesday videos exciting. And her dog ...! Oh dear, what a cutie!
If you're not familar with her, you should be. I've following for a number of months now. She recently began a FREE Photoshop workshop, the Express Yourself Collection. She goes through her video tutorials, and provides you with free actions, workbooks and textures to enhance your photography. I have been loving the videos so far. I have begun to learn just how creative I can be in my photo taking.
I am not a professional photog and won't claim to be one. But I love gorgeous photos and I want to bring you readers the best I can. Not to mention, I'll take any excuse to get to play with my new present.
I took this photo as I was coming back from the bus stop Tuesday morning. What an amazing October sunrise, am I right? The sun rising beyond the trees, beams of lights bursting through. God was certainly making a beautiful sun that day. I thought this would be a great picture to practice on with Alex's latest (3rd) video, incorporating the serenity action and texture layers. I just adore how it came out. It's so cheerful, and that's how I felt when I saw this burst of sunshine behind my apartment building. I was overflowing with joy and awe.
The editing on this was done with one action and two texture layers. The tree to the right is set at a different opacity than the rest with a slightly higher contrast. I was attempting to create a little depth in doing so. I'm still learning. Thankfully Alex's fourth video will be out soon and I can learn more. I can't wait. I highly recommend signing up. I mean, she was kind enough to offer this for free. And I promise, once you're there, you'll want to stay. She's just sort of one of those bloggers you love to love!
XO,
Steph
Friday, August 30, 2013
20 favorite free photoshop actions
I have been loving my birthday present, you guys! I have been scrounging the internet for actions and scripts to use in Photoshop. I have several paid-for actions, graphics and other things on my list, but I found some amazing actions that are all free. I assembled 20 of my favorites in a blog post for you. ENJOY!
How to download actions in Photoshop:
Download ATN file(s) to Program Files > Adobe > Presets > Actions
I usually keep my actions folder open on the desktop so I can easily drag and drop the downloaded file.
To use:
Open Adobe Photoshop: Window > Actions (Alt + F9)
Your actions dialogue box will appear; select the drop-down arrow in the top right-hand corner of the box. All of your downloaded actions will appear. Feel free to select between them.
I hope this little bit of what I've learned is helpful to you all.
Much love!
Steph
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