Photoshop Inspiration

Taking Sebastian Michaels' class has been so inspiring.....a very different style than Kim's.  They are both highly talented, and it's fun to learn new "tricks".   This image is one of my first after starting his class.  

I will say he has some of the most beautiful videos.  I don't know what program he uses, but there is no need to change to full screen.  The videos are pretty big 

to start with.  

Even though he says his classes work with PSE, and they do, there is still so much he can do in Photoshop 

that I'm envious of.  If Adobe were still selling their program and supporting it, I think I would buy it.  Now it seems the only choice I have is to buy CS6 and not get support from Adobe or 

purchase their Creative Cloud membership at $50.00 per month.  I'm just not up for that.  I realize I 

would have access to all the latest in their software, but I don't use all their software.  Dilemma.......I guess I will just stick with PSE and do as much as I can do with that program.  

It's the same thing as......oh, I could take much better photos with an upgraded camera.  I can still take good photos with my current camera.

But every time I see him do something cool in PS, I lust after it.  

Day of Fun

It was my turn to host our art group and in an earlier post I mentioned we would be making mail art.  The weather was beautiful.  I borrowed a fold-up long table and an Easyup  canopy......not enough room in my little house, but plenty of room on the patio.  

Some very creative ladies!!  I think everyone had a good time.

Photoshop Once Again....

I'm starting to work in PS once again.  Took a little vacation to do my face class.  Every time I do this, I promise myself I will do a little of both every day......but for whatever reason,  I seem to get involved with one and let the other dwindle.   I just purchased Topaz ReStyle, the latest of Topaz' products.  It literally has thousands of styles and is so much fun to play with.  It's hard to settle on a look when there is so much to choose from.  This is simply a landscape image imposed over the cherub image, tweaked with Topaz, with the addition of some brushes.   

You can play with it on a 30 day trial, and the price is reduced 50% through the end of August.

Topaz held a webinar Friday, and I "attended".  I have never before done a webinar.  It's a great way to learn.  I will be "attending" another Topaz event on the 22nd...tips and tricks.  There is so much these plug-ins can do.  I would probably never do half of these if not for learning through their webinars or tutorials.

Facelift?

.....kitchen that is.

Hello, my friends, I'm so excited I just had to share with you.

When we moved into this house in late '97, the kitchen was a horrible ugly-looking circa '70's kitchen. Note the lineolum on the backsplash and floor.  

Yeppers....this is what it looked like when we opened escrow.

So in '98 we completely redid it - opened the ceiling and demo'd it to the wall studs.   The cabinets were not even salvageable, so we went with custom cabinets.  Our contractor was so 

reasonable that it was cheaper to do his cabinets than 

the ones at the big box stores.

At the time, for various reasons, I opted to go with tile countertops.    So this is what it looked like (and still does) when we finished with it.

I've always regretted that we did not go with granite.  So 14 years later I'm finally getting my granite countertop.  Seems like that should be easy enough.  For those of you who've "redone" kitchens, you are sitting there chuckling to yourselves or probably rolling on the floor with laughter!!

It's never simple.  If we're redoing the countertop, we also have to have a new backsplash.  Too bad, I rather liked this one.

Then, we might as well get a new, updated faucet and a new stainless sink, right?  Oh, and since the sink is brushed stainless and the faucet is also brushed stainless, then do I really want the tacky chrome water dispenser and the white air gap for the dishwasher marring the look of beautiful granite and stainless?

Of course not.  Ka-ching, ka-ching!! A few more $$ 

Then.....all the cabinetry has to be repainted....I mean it's time.  So, my friends, the simple new countertop has become a major facelift for the kitchen.  

Seriously, I'm not complaining.  I'm thrilled.  I could go on for the next day or so about the ordeal of getting estimates from big box stores and independent fabricators and all the ups and downs of that....did you know there's a choice between 2cm and 3cm granite?? Well, I didn't,  but I do now.

It should be done by end of August, so stay tuned for the "after" pictures.

Something in the Mail?

It's my turn to host our Eastside Art group.  We've had so many fun get-togethers.  We've made gourd dolls with Norma and with Diane... an ocean drum from a gourd  (sounds like one of those rain sticks).  Jacki taught us how to make collages of faces with torn paper.   We painted beautiful flowers with Erin, hydrangeas and sunflowers.  We made gelatin prints with Libby using a commercial Jelli plate and also with homemade gelatin plates.

My oh my.....what in the world would I "teach".  I decided on a mixed media day....we'll make mail art.  I've been making some mail art just to get back in the swing of mixed media.

Top and bottom spaces are copies of a piece I sent to a friend for her birthday.  The middle two spaces are another piece....no particular theme.  I wanted to see if I could do an inkjet printer image transfer with gel medium.  I haven't done one in quite a long time.  I used a piece of Dover Publications clip art and applied in the top left corner of the middle-left space.  It came out quite well, so I think we'll do some of that too.  I did some crazy stitching on my sewing machine to finish these up.

I will take pics of the various pieces the girls do and post sometime after the event which is mid-August.