Grit: A Freebie

I've had this alpha just kinda hanging around for several months now, and just happened to use it on a layout today:



Credits: Background paper by Vinnie Pearce (Pixel Canvas, Single FLORA white [recolored]). Photo is masked with some of Anna Aspnes's brushes from her Fruehling kit (Designer Digitals), and the splotches up top are by Katie Pertiet (DD, 2PM Chat Freebie) covered with Vinnie Pearce's Woodland Boys paper. The alpha is mine (Grit). Branch by Katie Pertiet (From My Porch Brushes), and the darling little owl is by Rhonna Farrer (2Peas, Back To School kit).

I blended 4 photos into one--the beach, and bay in the background, are only about 1/2 as wide! Did it for a challenge at 2Peas--lots of fun! Not so complicated, really--just used layer masks with a small gradient along the right edge of each of the photos, moved the photos up or down to make him about the same size/perspective, blended the horizon line and the sky (that was really the trickiest), took off the real shadows--they extended out of the photos--and put in much smaller ones using a burn tool, then cropped the whole thing so it would fit.

Anyway, I thought you guys might like having the alpha, too! In my layout I used it with a Soft Light layer blending mode and a drop shadow. [no longer available, sorry]

Latest Layouts

The first one, Us, uses everything from Vinnie Pearce's new freebie kit, Us.



And this was a fun exercise in blending. There are two photos, and I've used gradient layer masks on both. The leaf has a radial mask, since it has a clear focal point; the second has a linear gradient mask going from left to right. I also used a low opacity paintbrush to soften up the blend lines, as well as the darkness of the sand ridges in the leaf photo. I love how serendipity points the sand direction right to Allen's silhouette!



Credits: All Designer Digitals. Background paper by Lynn Grieveson for the Chat Freebie (9/14/08); corner & edge decorations by Anna Aspnes (both her Hipster Plumes & Korners No. 2 and the Fruehling Elements Kit). Fonts: 3rd Man and Reprobate. Journaling reads: "colored leaves / the gathering of the gulls / sand migration / a nip at the ears / and you, always you / and me, following behind // Fall at the beach // the best time of the year"

Catching Up...

So, after a busy weekend in Portland, we're back in our gorgeous little town. Portland was fun, but man--do NOT miss the traffic! Or the pollution!

It was Allen's 5th birthday, so of course had to make a layout with that:



I loved using Julia Makotinsky's kit at Little Dreamer Designs -- it was the only kit I bought. Only a couple more days left till they make the choice, I guess... I had fun lining the little stars up with the tram picture, as I had to blow out the sky (overexpose) in order to make the tram look good. The star was a perfect way to fill that space, which was bleeding into the layout!

I took a Naturescaping class while in Portland, too: all about gardening in such a way as to minimize your impact on the local ecology and watershed. The golden rule: the right plant in the right place. Using primarily native plants, or at least plants that fit perfectly with the soil and weather conditions, minimizes the need for pest management, attracts animals (and pest managers ;), and makes for a lovely, healthy garden with no need for extra watering or special care. After the class we dropped by a nursery, and I shot this incredible picture of a daffodil, outside, with my old trusty point and shoot!



Then finally, I wanted to use this strange picture that I shot (by mistake?) of Allen while we were riding on the streetcar. It was raining outside, and the light reflected off the drops, and also gave the reflection a pretty fuzzy quality. Changing the color made it blend really well, and this kit by Anna Aspnes (Designer Digitals) was SO fun to play with! She included *all kinds* of textures, overlays, grunged up stuff--really very cool and wonderful.



So, that's it for now... I'm working on some stuff--froggies are in the works. =)

More, Ever More on Blending: The Wind

Sometimes layouts take shape based on a photograph; sometimes on an item or goodie you want to display; this one was all about the words. When that wind started howling last night, I just had to drag out Notepad and start typing away my nerves...

I had no idea what the layout would look like. The colored pictures were just totally detracting from the text. Furthermore, I couldn't figure out what relationship the photos could have between each other -besides- the text--and the viewer/reader would have to read the whole thing before being able to figure out what those photos were doing there. But if you don't hook the viewer visually, their eyes will just slide on over to the next layout...

I hunted through my photos until I finally found this poor barren tree from up on Cape Perpetua. The winds up there, at 800 feet, are easily one and a half times what they are down near the shore, and the winds really rip these guys to shreds. But that photo didn't work in color either. So then began the game of finding the right saturation, hue, etc. Once I found that, I could apply it to the two smaller photos. I finally clued in to using blending after trying to find some way to tie the smaller pictures together--and then it all fell into place. I really like the slight transparency of those smaller pictures--without any drop shadows anywhere, the page still has some feeling of depth because of it. Remember, the blending is achieved by giving the images a mask in the layers palette, then filling with a gradient. Black will let the photo show through, white will hide it. Gray will give you varying degrees of transparency.

Doesn't look like the wind left us any gifts last night, thank goodness... (click on the photo to get the full journaling, if you can't read it here).