Friday, May 20, 2011

Freebie Friday! Textures for Photographers and Digital Scrapbookers

The sun is shining again, and the promise of summer is right around the corner. That puts me in a good mood, how about you? I have continued working on some more textures, and I decided to share a small sample of these newest creations with all of  you.

 

These are 12 x 12, 300 dpi jpg's. They can be used as digital paper, or overlays in scrabooking layouts, or photographers can use them to texture their photos. See the previous blog entry for more info about texturing photos.

If you download, please be kind, leave a comment. Designers work hard to bring you freebies, we really appreciate getting some feedback.

Please feel free to link to your layouts, or photos!! I'd love to see your creations!!

Happy Scrapping and editing!
Marlene

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Learning about Texturing Photos and Digital Scrapbooking Layouts

I came across a fantastic article recently, which explained a lot about textures in photography, how, when and why to use them.

I've always love texture, in whatever medium I've been using, from my metal and jewellery days, to now when designing digital scrapbooking papers.

What I've learned so far, (and I've got much more to learn) is that textures aren't there to fix bad photos. Garbage in, garbage out!

It does add interest, changes the mood and lighting, can enhance or change the style of the photograph or digital scrapbooking layout.


So... I've been having some fun designing some textures, and experimenting with some of my own photos and layouts. (I will be putting together a package of them and they will be available at my Esty shop)

here are some Before and After photos:

This first set, I broke my first rule, I don't think this is a great photo to begin with, but I was anxious to try out some of my new textures! Once I got started, I just kept going! I like the results, though, and that's what matters!

Before:
After:

 I cropped the photo, then used 2 layers of "bokeh" texture, and 2 layers of "paint" texture plates.

I used a gausian blur on the 2 bokeh texture layers, one had the blending mode set to "multiply" and the other to "soft light" On the bokeh layers, and on one of the paint layers, I brushed out the cactus flower, and also used different blending modes.

I also used an action from Pure Photoshop Actions: Pure pink, which boosted the colour a bit more. They have some great actions! They are subtle, but still pack a punch!

These are the textures I designed and used in the above example:







The key is working with layers, blending modes, opacity, and even filters, to achieve the look you want, (or sometimes you get happy accidents)!

Here are more Before and Afters:
Before:


After:



 

After again, adding a border:



This photo was taken at the Port Dalhousie pier. I like the way the texture has changed the colouring on this photo. Although the original photo does have a nice quality to it, I believe that the texture has made a difference in the mood of this photo. It's gone from slightly ethereal to rugged to painterly.

The last one was processed with a "paint" texture plate, and 2 versions of the texture below, one layers blending mode set to overlay, and the purple one set to multiply.
I brushed out the rocks on this one as well.



Here is another example,
Before:


After:


I did a series of Valentines day cards for my Hubby and the kids. I'm not partial to pink, so this was my answer to making cards for them, with out all the girly pink!
The texture layer is green, with a bit of brown. I set the blending mode to overlay, and brushed out the area over the photo. I like both looks, but the texture definitely adds some interest to the layout.

Before:

 After:


This is a layout from my dad's memoirs that I've been working on for a long time. Have a look here to see more of these layouts.
This one looks great after the texture has been added. It adds a sepia colour to it, and the crackled texture also ages the layout, and tones down the contrast, which is quite suitable for a heritage layout.

This is a learning process, to be sure, and I know I'm not there yet, but this sure is a lot of fun!

Here's the link to that fantastic article:


Thanks for stopping by!
Please feel free to share a link to your photos or layouts that you've incorporated some textures in!
Or, just share your thoughts.
Happy Scrapping, and Happy editing!
Marlene

Friday, May 6, 2011

Using Digital Scrapbooking templates to show off my new grandson!



A little catching up, since it's been a crazy couple of weeks! What an exciting and tiring time we've had. Since Eli has arrived into our world, my DH has been working with my brother in London (Ontario) during the week. My DD struggled with mastitis again, our church's family night program has wrapped up for the season, I've helped with a fundraiser, I've been sick, and we had a crazy wind storm! Whew!!

Hubby's work in London has been going well, however, he's strained his back, and he's resting it right now.

Thankfully, the doctor that saw my daughter believed her this time about the mastitis. With her first child, they told her she didn't have it, and did not offer any other help. Normally, a nurse will come to the house to see how new moms are doing, and especially if she's having difficulties, but the H1N1 flu was going around at the time, and there was no help for her. She ended up giving up breast feeding. In the long run, it was better for her and the baby, the pain stopped, and the baby was happier too.

But this time, the doctor prescribed antibiotics, and she was back to normal in a few days. And of course, the timing was impeccable, as that was also the day of the wind storm. Many homes were without power, and their house was one of the unlucky ones to be without for more than 24 hours. The house was too cold for a new Mom and a new-born baby. Even better timing, it was her hubby's first day back to work! She came to our house to get warmed up, as our power was back on after about 10 hours.

With them living in a more rural area, they are on a septic system, and without electricity, their basement flooded too!

There was so much damage to hydro-electric poles, trees, houses, and roofs. I've never seen it that bad! You could hardly drive around anywhere with there being a tree or pole crossing your path.

We are very thankful that we had no damage to our own house!

Now that we are healthy again, and the Internet is back up, and life is getting back to normal, I can get back to scrapbooking!

Using templates for digital scrapbooking is a great time saver! You can still use a lot of your own creativity, and have a lot of freedom to choose papers and elements in your layout, but the big choices, the layout itself, is done by a "highly skilled professional" lol.

One of my very favourite digital scrapbooking designers had a recent freebie posted on her blog. She gave away this delightful template! I was just looking for a template to show off my new grandson, and there it was in my inbox! aren't newsletters great? Whether it was the timing of the newsletter, or the great photos in the example, I don't know, but I loved this one right away, and got to work right away too!


This is the layout I've done with it, using some pictures of our new grandson. These were taken the day he was born.
 


This layout uses products that I've designed, for the most part. 
The ribbon is a freebie I grabbed from a blog train a while ago, called "grandma's quilt" It is by Valerie Steinkoenig @http://www.geniabeana.blogspot.com

I put together a kit specifically for photographers to use to design cards and birth announcements. Its called "baby soft"

And this one I did, using Sahlin Studio products, that I intend to submit as part of the May template challenge:


Don't I have an adorable grandbaby!? I love him so much already!

Templates are a great way to get some of those layouts done that you've been meaning to get to, but haven't got around to it yet!



Thanks for stopping by,
Happy Scrapping!
Marlene