Tried Something New

Well two things actually. While I was at JoAnn's the other day, I noticed that they had moved a bunch of stuff around. While I was looking for some textured cardstock, I found my new favorite cardstock, coredinations. I {heart} this stuff!

So anyway the second product that I decided to try is thanks to my fellow DT Lisa, who used this on one of her projects last week! Thanks Lisa! What am I taling about??? Liquid Applique. I always thought this was only for fabrics. Boy was I wrong! I love the fact that you can use this in two different applications. You can apply it and lave it alone, like the project on Lisa's blog, or you can let it dry overnight then heat set it for a nice puffy image.

For this layout, the look I was going for was seafoam, or whitecaps. So I decided to let the LA dry overnight, then I heat set it in the morning. I just love how this turned out!

*** 'seashore' was cut from the Cuttin' Up Cricut Cartridge.

_____________________________

Altering Your Photos

CJ's Race Cars - LO using an altered photo

An easy way to draw attention to a certain subject in a photo is to alter it some way. Blur the back ground. Select a certain object and leave that color while making the rest of the pic B&W. Get rid of a busy background, by blending or cloning another portion of the picture. The possibilities are endless. Here are just a few examples.

For the carousel, I wanted a dreamy effect, so I used the negative of this image.

The color of the towel was very distracting so I changed the photo to B&W and then color selected the items I wanted to stay color. And changed the color of the flowers in the chair.

For this next photo, I wanted to focus on the cars. So I cropped for a closer take, and then color selected the cars.

A quick crop can tell a story, and not miss the tiniest detail. These are the same photo, one is just cropped in very tight so you can see what he is pointing at.

Altered Photos

So many of us have one of those photo editing programs. But the only use they see is to fix that dreaded red eye, crop, or resize. Many people don't see the potential that these programs have to bring a different look to our pages.

Even the most simple programs have the ability to play with color. Make your pics stand out by changing them to Black and White, or even Sepia. Some programs can even add textures such as embossing. You can highlight certain areas of your photos, by just keeping one element in color. Such as brilliant blue eyes. The red Santa hats in a Christmas picture. The possibilities are endless.

In the layout below, I took a color photo and changed it to black and white. Then, I added a special effect called "sketch." This created a pencil like drawing of my image. The effect makes the part of the pic I wanted to focus on the highlight of this photo. His glasses.

Take the time and try some different techniques on your photos. I think you will like the results.

{pout}

That face. I love that face. My little boy has mastered the pout. God help me as he gets older. I can't resist it. And I was finally able to catch it on film.

We went to the pool on this particular day, and well it was time to go. He was getting the chills. But as soon as we pulled him out and wrapped his towel around him, the pouty face appeared. He wanted to play in the water some more. Instead my wonderful husband pulled out the camera and snapped this AWESOME photo.

I altered the pic, so that it was B&W, and then color selected his face and the flowers. It just brings out his perfect baby blues.