Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Create and Share | Features too!

Don't forget to grab my Button HERE
Come by every Wednesday to share your "Creative Side" You can link up anything crafty, recipes, room decor, party ideas, gift ideas, kid crafts, science projects, game ideas, ect. You get the idea.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
... You can also find me in these places ...
Instagram (username @tarajo4)
I'd love it if you stopped by to say hi or follow!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Every week I feature 6 Great Link Ups that I find amazing. 
If you see yours below, go grab a featured button HERE.
| Here are 6 of my favorite links from last week |
Click on photo to read more about these projects
        
Please link up your fabulous projects below. 
Remember to link to the post and not your home page. Thank you!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

August Photo A Day Challenge

It's time to share my Instagram August Photo A Day Challenge. 

If you would like to join in the fun, check out my list below. 
Copy it, Save it, Share it, Have FUN!

Hashtag for this challenge #trendytreehouse
Please share your photos there. Thanks.
If you want to follow along what photos I am sharing on Instagram, my name on there is@tarajo4

Have fun! I can't wait to see what you share! 
I will be sharing my July photos on here soon! But you can see them now on Instagram. ;)


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Create and Share | Features Too

Don't forget to grab my Button HERE

Come by every Wednesday to share your "Creative Side" You can link up anything crafty, recipes, room decor, party ideas, gift ideas, kid crafts, science projects, game ideas, ect. You get the idea.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
... You can also find me in these places ...
Instagram (username @tarajo4)
I'd love it if you stopped by to say hi or follow!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Every week I feature 6 Great Link Ups that I find amazing. 
If you see yours below, go grab a featured button HERE.
| Here are 6 of my favorite links from last week |
Click on photo to read more about these projects
    
    

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Creating a Clipping Mask in Photoshop

Hey there! Been playing some more in Photoshop and today I wanted to share how to make a cool "clipping mask" photo. If you follow my pics on Instagram, you probably already saw this picture. But today I created a tutorial for it. I may have used a different font in the one you saw. 

Anyway...I am excited to share it with you and hope that I can explain it well enough that you understand. And I have to mention, there are probably other ways to do this, this is just what makes sense to me.  Hope it works for you too! I tried to make it as simple as possible. Here goes....

My before picture is already edited in Photoshop. I adjusted the brightness and contrast, added 4 different textures and used the brush tool to remove the texture from their faces. You can visit HERE to see my texture tutorial.


Because I added layers with the textures, the first step is to merge all the layers into one. Highlight all 5 layers, right click and select merge layers. You will now have one photo layer.


Next you want to add your text. In the tools, right click on your text tool and select Horizontal Type tool.


Type in what ever you like. I chose the word LOVE! Make sure you pick a bolder font and adjust the size. The bigger and bolder, the more parts of the photo will show through. 
Use your move tool to place it where you want it on your photo. I liked the bottom left.


Now open up a new layer. It will be transparent to use your paint bucket tool to color it in white.


Time to rearrange the layers. You want the photo layer on top, then below that the text layer and lastly the new all white layer on the bottom. Below is how it should look.


Before we create the clipping mask, you will want to duplicate your photo layer and drag it to the bottom of all the layers.


Your layers will now look like this below.


Go back up to the top photo. Click on it so it is highlighted. Right click and scroll down to Create a Clipping mask. This is the fun part. ;) The magic happens when you click it. LOL


SURPRISE! Your first Clipping mask. Ta Da!!!
Doesn't that look so cool. You can see your picture through the words.
You can crop and save many words with this process and use them as layers on other photos. Very cool!
You ready to make it even more exciting? Scroll below and read on.


Leaving the clipping mask like this on a scenery pic is fun, but with a pic like this, its fun to add the photo back in behind the mask.
Do this by highlighting on the white layer, right click and select blending options. In general blending, change the blend mode to lighten and the opacity to 50% or to whatever % you think looks best for your photo. Click on Ok and you are done!


Here is my completed pic from this tutorial. What do you think?

I love that the photo is faded in the back and the letters have the original color. Plus it is made from the same photo, so nothing is covered up in the photo. You get a nice clean look!


Here are a few more pics I made with this same process.
Ok, I'm off to edit more photos. Hope you like this post! If so, please let me know in the comments below!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Create and Share | Features too!

Don't forget to grab my Button HERE
Come by every Wednesday to share your "Creative Side" You can link up anything crafty, recipes, room decor, party ideas, gift ideas, kid crafts, science projects, game ideas, ect. You get the idea.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
... You can also find me in these places ...
Instagram (username @tarajo4)
I'd love it if you stopped by to say hi or follow!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Every week I feature 6 Great Link Ups that I find amazing. 
If you see yours below, go grab a featured button HERE.
| Here are 6 of my favorite links from last week |
Click on photo to read more about these projects
        
Please link up your fabulous projects below. 
Remember to link to the post and not your home page. Thank you!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Come check us out on Instagram


Thursday, July 12, 2012

Creating an Overlay in Photoshop

So today I want to share with you some Photoshop Fun! OVERLAYS!
Last night I was playing with some of my family photos from last november. You can see more of them HERE. And I have to admit that although I do have the most amazing Photoshop program ever, I do not know how to use all of its powers. LOL So I started playing with some textures and finally figured out how to make an overlay. I am pretty proud of myself. (pat on the back, heehee)

I first searched google for how to turn an image into an overlay and got frustrated because either the tutorials I found were either confusing or vague. Uuuugghhh. And I am sure they are great for others, just not for me. So I just went into Photoshop and started exploring. It didn't take long. I was determined.

Here is what I did! First I opened my family image in one window.
This is my before image.
Next I opened up my texture in another window.
This is my texture image.
You now should have two windows open. One is your photo and the other is your texture. While in the texture window, Click on the background image in your layers window and drag it to your Photo.

You will now have created a new layer in your photo window. 
You will see your photo with the new texture layer on top of the photo.
Now right click your new texture layer. Click on Blending Options.
A new window will open called Layer Style. In the general blending box you want to click on the area that shows "normal". A drop down menu will appear and you want to go down the list and find "overlay". Click on that.
After doing this you will see the texture image change to an overlay image. Then all you have to do is play with the Opacity percentages to the right look for you.
Here is what I did with my Opacity percentages.
I set my Opacity to 65% in the advanced bleeding settings. You can also use the general bleeding Opacity settings if you like.
Click ok to close the layer style box. Resize your texture overlay to fit the whole photo, save and print your new photo for your wall gallery.
Look at the differences
Again here is the photo "before" I added the overlay.
And here is the photo "after" I added the overlay.
Can you see the differences? It's brighter, has torn edges on the sides and some subtle crinkles in the photo. I love it!

Hope you like my lil tutorial today. Was it easy enough or did I confuse you? Any questions, you can leave them in comments below or email me at trendytreehouse@me.com.


More fun Textures can be found at Life N Reflection. I bought some and played with them this morning using her tutorial from last weeks Create and Share link up.


Here is the same family photo using her textures and tutorial.
Her tutorial is great and explains what textures and Opacity she used for each texture. 


I can share more blending options in future tutorials if you like too but today I just shared a quick Overlay option with 1 texture. The below pic has 3 textures and 3 blending options. See below for more.
I used the Life N Reflection Tutorial as an example and the Blending Options Opacity was ~ (legacy b texture) Overlay at 50%, (legacy d texture) Linear Burn at 100% and (legacy a texture) Dark Color at 55%. 
Get the Legacy Textures HERE and search her goodies HERE.


BTW...have you wondered how to make a screenshot on your mac? It is so easy. Just hit "Command, Shift, 3" Your image will automatically save as a PNG file. Go to you Finder and search for screenshots. That's it. It's that easy. ;)