I'm trying to learn Photoshop Elements. There's tons of great tutorials out there, some I particularly like are found at I Heart Faces, DIY Photography, and of course Pioneer Woman.
One of the elements I'm trying hard to get a grasp on is those beautiful sparkly eyes you see in so many shots. So here's some fooling around I did yesterday....If anyone more experienced has any tips or suggestions, or links to good tutorials I'd love to have them!!!
***Disclaimer: I know my kids look like cyborgs in some of these--I'm still learnin' folks! Just sharing my baby steps!!!***
(All the shots are the original followed by my edited version)
Girlfriend Girl:
Do you know what I see in this picture? TEENAGER...it's coming for me!!!
BoyBoy
Do you know what I see in this one? RABBIT!! Just kidding, but I do see braces in my future!!!
(I rushed through this one because I was running out of time.)Tiny Tim
I love all my children equally, but when it comes to "eyes" this kid has it cornered. She inherited my dad's icey blue ones, and this picture doesn't even come close to doing them justice.
LittleBear
LittleBear also has the blue eyes, not as light as TinyTim's, but still a lovely deep blue, which I COULD NOT get to look right in this photo.
So that's it! Again, please let me know any and all suggestions you may have!!! Thanks!
Linking to:
Wordless Wednesday, Momma Findings, Jolly Mom, Extraordinary Mothers, A Daily Dose of Toni,and 5 Minutes for Mom.
Check them out for some more great Wordless Wednesday entries!
Oh boy does googiemomma have a TREAT for you today!!!
That's right, at the end of this post, for the first time ev-ah--a PHOTO, of the ONE, the ONLY, me. (well, not really the first time...but the first shots of me since I stopped wearing diapers)
Sorry if that's a let down.
Anyway, let's begin at the beginning, shall we? (in other words, please try and contain yourself and don't go madly scrolling to the bottom just to see little 'ole me. ha. hahaha.)
A few years ago a good friend and her hubby were downsizing after the last child flew the coop. She is an avid crafter/sewer/jewelry maker, and in her purging passed on to me TONS of stuff.
Included in this windfall was an entire storage container of lace and trim. Seriously, there's a ton.
(This is only a sample)
Unfortunately, I don't really consider myself a "lace" kinda gal. I pull it out and look at it once in a while. I can't bring myself to part with it, thinking that one of these days I'll find some inspiration.
I decided to start playing around, and figured maybe adding...I dunno...lace to the lace would make me like it better.
I took two of the laces, and stitched them together using the ruffler foot on my machine:
Now what? Well, as they say in Blogcrafterland, when in doubt, make a headband. (what? they don't say that? well they should)
So I pulled some headbands out of the stash, and wrapped one in the thinner lace. Just a dab of hot glue at the bottom and start wrapping, with another dab of hot glue every 1/2 inch or so.
When that was done I took a section of the ruffled lace I made and did a simple fan-pleated flower (you know, like one of those fans you made as a kid out of paper, just like that). A healthy blob of hot glue stuck that just fine.
But it still needed something. So back into my gifted stash again, and I found this:
I can't tell you how handy this has come in for princess costumes :0)
Now that I'm on the lace train to Blogcrafterland, what's the next stop?
Well, I've been seeing those "Anthro"-inspired shirts all over, so I decided to give that a go. Took the thinner lace and sewed it down randomly over the left shoulder area of a basic brown top I had. Then I created more fan-pleated flowers from the pieces I sewed together, and stitched them on top, and attached the requisite bling.
And here, as promised, is me (and my shirt):
Here's my thoughts, in no particular order:
1. Its a very weird feeling pointing a camera at your...umm...chest and taking pictures to put on the internet. Even if it's COMPLETELY innocent.
2. I rejected about 25 other shots for making me look too fat, focusing too much on the "girls", making me look like I have 7 chins, etc.
3. The first pic made me laugh so hard when I saw it. Just as I snapped the shot one of the kids yelled, so I looked that way. Now I'm immortalized in a slightly pensive, vaguely constipated, remotely snotty sort of way...and yes, that's why I kept it.
4. I'm not really crazy about how the shirt turned out. It's not really "me" and I don't care for the thinner lace. The pattern is...aesthetically NOT PLEASING (who watches PR??? WHO? Can I get a Nina shout-out?)
5. I do think the flowers are cute.
6. NO, I didn't wear the headband with the shirt. I gave it to Girlfriend Girl. DO I LOOK LIKE A NERD? (see #3)
7. I did brush my hair today, but that's yesterday's makeup remains.
8. I don't think I brushed my teeth today though.
So that's it. And in the spirit of revealing myself, I'll sign off...
~Shannon (aka "the googiemomma")
I'm linking up to these fine pah-tays:
Well, I couldn't be happier. I finally, finally found a cool, cheap thrift shop with some neat old furniture! It's only about 5 minutes from my house, believe it or not, but in a section of town that I don't really frequent. And it's packed full of cool old stuff--for reasonable prices!
This was my first purchase:
It was $15. A little more than I wanted to spend, but it was EXACTLY what I had in mind as a night stand for our room. When we bought our bed and dresser, I refused to buy the matching nightstands. I didn't want a whole "bedroom suite"--waaay to "matchy-matchy" for me. And seriously, $15 is NOT that much.
So I took it home and pulled out the drawers, where I found someone's forgotten bra shoved in the back. Yup, a bra. The kids were all screaming like I had just discovered someone's severed hand in the drawer. Threw that away, moving on... (don't tell googiedaddy...it's his nightstand)
I gave the whole thing about 3 coats of black spray paint, letting it dry between. And then I let it...ahem, cure for a few days. (or I got sick of painting and left it sit on the porch for 2 days)
Either way, I should mention it was at this point that googiedaddy pleaded with asked me if I would like him to take it to work and spray it.
In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that googiedaddy makes furniture. For a living. Like, professionally. Custom, high end furniture. And he has a big honkin' shop with a big honkin' spray booth, with spray thingys and lacquers and glossy stuff and tints and glazes and staple guns and dacron and upholstery type things. The point being, when I pull out the cans of spray paint and head towards a piece of furniture, it is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to googiedaddy.
However, I am not only the world's cheapest crafter, I am also the most impatient (is there a blog award for that?) And so, I spray paint.
Moving on...
After three coats of spray paint and sufficient "curing" time, I took sandpaper to it and distressed the edges, fronts and top. Then I watered down a rich brown acrylic and rubbed that over the distressed areas so they weren't so bright. A quick coat of clear to protect everything, and this is what we have:
(I should point out that I didn't do anything to the handles and knobs. I took them off at the beginning, and just screwed them right back on at the end, minus the one screw I lost in the process. I liked the way they looked.)
I think I may have gone a little overboard on the distressing, but once I got it in place in the room I really like how it looks. Actually, it may have to go on my side of the bed :0)
Now I have to get back to work on some more pillows for the bed!
Linking up here:
