ColourMe weekly #6

Leavesnbloom ColourMe weekly #6.

I am fortunate enough to live by the coast and while this location may be in the very Highlands of Scotland (hardly tropical weather conditions) the scenery and especially the Flora & Fauna can be stunning.
Birds of prey can be seen everywhere and we have Buzzards, Goshawks & Tawny owls all in the woodland to the boundary of our land.
But one of the most amazing sights is the seal pups that inhabit the coves twice a year while they prepare for their life in the ocean.
A few years ago we were lucky enough to come across a seal colony only a few miles away and the opportunity for fabulous shots just couldn't be ignored - despite the freezing weather conditions as it was November.
As long as you respect the fact that these are wild animals and keep a suitable distance they can be pretty accommodating and it's one of these images that I chose to link up with Rosies Colour Splash wk.

 

This guy was pretty happy to photographed from a distance but I made sure that mum was nowhere closeby beforehand as these cute looking mammals can be amazingly vicious if the need arises.
This little guy was made for posing though. I guess he knew we were no threat and he just stayed put, gave me some fab shots and then fell asleep.

Thank you for looking, hope you enjoy the image. Feel free to leave a comment, I love getting them and always respond if a return email address is available.

Thank you also to Rosie, I'm really enjoying these Coloursplash weeks.

More colour and splashes.

So there I am editing photographs so that I can upload some of the projects I've been tinkering with and share them with all you guys and what happens?
I open an image to test out how some Photoshop brushes I uploaded might go with a colour splash and I end up getting so engrossed in it that nothing else gets done - typical! Although I did play around on Pinterest for a while, it's kinda addictive!

So what's a colour splash you may ask.
Well until last week I had no idea either, figured it must be splashes of tester colours stuck all over a wall or something but no it's way more groovy than that.
'Leavesnbloom studio' introduced me to this satisfying photo playabout and basically you open a photo in your image editing software, colour pick a colour and then stamp it using a groovy brush onto a sideboard or any other area you choose. It makes for a very pretty image.
Now I'm new to this so you'll have to forgive the lack of imagination (I'm a straight line kinda gal) but if you check out Rosies blog you'll see loads of imaginative ways of going with this.
You can see my attempt last week 'here'.
Anyway here's my colour splash:

 

Nifty huh? And there are soooooo many ways you can go with this.
All this was done in CS5 but I think you can do it in pretty  much any editing software.
The brushes I downloaded FREE from 'here'.

Enjoy!

 
Linked to:

'Ask Anna Mosely'
'You are talking too much'

Noel

So for the first time in god only knows how many years we have decided to get the tree and decs up now rather that 3 days before xmas day. The reason? Well we're kind of settled in our new home now and have so much more room than we've been used to these past 8 years so we figured it will be nice to make a bit more of the holiday season and spirit. Heck even hubby has done all his shopping! Not only that but he's wrapped everything too! Not bad considering he normally leaves it till xmas eve eh! His wrapping would be rushed and a disaster and if he bothered to put a tag on it it would simply say 'Linda'. Not very inspiring is it! Hence why I am very impressed with him this year, though I do draw the line at putting the pressies under the tree - I'm left alone here far too much to resist that temptation!

Look at that, I've managed to digress from a xmas tree to my pressies!

Anyway like I said I've been putting up the tree and decs today and what would normally have taken me a few hours has so far taken me the best part of a day and they're still not finished.

What I have managed to get finished though are some xmas blocks I recently made. They're not brilliant I'll admit because although I have the lettering down (finally) I'm not too hot on adding embellishments.
Here's the Noel blocks:

These were so easy to make. I simply cut out square blocks from any scrap wood, sanded the edges and corners and then lightly sanded the fronts and backs.
2 of the blocks were painted using Laura Ashleys 'Summer Pudding' and the other 2 were painted with Crowns Metallic 'Striking'. All 4 were given a good 2 coats.
Next is the bit I always look forward to and enjoy - the lettering.
I always seem to prefer opening up CS5 (though you could use any word document) and then typing the letters and playing with the fonts.
Once I have the font I want and have stretched it to the size I want I trace them onto paper from the laptop using the backlight as a sort of lightbox. I only do this because I'm having printer problems but I find it pretty easy and quick.
Once I had them on paper I turned the paper over and traced the image on the back from the front and then it's just a case of lining each letter up correctly on the block and scribbling over the letter to produce a vague outline to follow later.
With that done I nicked my daughters Calligraphy ink again (Eek) in Black and using one of her artists brushes I traced over the N & E outlines and filled in where needed.
The O & L were traced and filled in with a gold Pilot pen.
Finally I added a bow (albeit tacky one) and some strands to the N & E, glueing them on using a hot glue gun.
For the O & L I attempted to replicate snow but it kinda went wrong!

Next I finished these blocks:

These were mega easy to make also, using the exact same method as above.
The only difference is that I traced the letters from a book I have and the Black & Gold are both calligraphy inks and were used with a glass calligraphy pen (it's more of a glass stick TBH).
The top of these ones are simply some fake Holly leaves I found with some fake berries attached, hot glued on with some squirly ribbon.
Like I said, neither are perfect but still look pretty cool!

So thanks for taking a look. I'll be posting wreaths etc I've made soon and I've been enjoying checking out all your own Xmas crafts.
Happy Xmas crafting y'all.



Linked to:

'Finding Fabulous Frugalicious Friday
'Shabby Nest'
'Sassy sites' 
'youngancrafty' 
'I heart Nap Time' 
'Fingerprints on the fridge' 
'Not just a housewife' 
'Cherished Bliss' 
'Sugar Bee Crafts' 
'The Southern Institute' 
'Marvelously Messy' 
'Craft junkie too'

Family motto

This project was one I'd had on my mind for ages. It's actually 1 part of what will be 3 sections - the first section, 'a shabby shelf', is finished already, the second part is this frame and the third part is a table that is currently in the workshop.

This started off its life as a picture that had been on our walls for years - in the bathroom!!???!!, however originally it was my sister in laws so it's been around a while:

Seriously faded. The colours are all Blue.

We used to love the picture, in fact hubby still does but once I'd actually taken the picture out of the frame is was sooooo obvious how much it had faded.
Once I'd taken it all apart I gave it a good sand down making sure the awful gold flake area was done extra well.
Then I gave it a coat of Patio Paints in 'Patio Brick'. Originally I had intended to then go over it with a cream paint and sand it back but I changed my mind - I kept it in the Brick colour.
It was also intended to be a pin/memo board with areas for letters ready for posting and also an area for a calender but I changed my mind about that as well...
Then it was just going to be a pin/memo board but guess what? Changed my mind about that too.... see, this is why I don't plan my projects - I always change them.

Finally I decided I would make it into a board with a quote. As it would be hanging in the hallway I figured it would be a cute thing to have.
I spent an age trying to find something to use that I could paint onto that would fit the frame and then I had a brain wave ..... yep me....
I used the backboard that originally held the picture in place - cool idea eh!
It took a bit of sanding back because I had to use the back of to write on  because the front was too rough and had a weird texture. The back however had had years of tape stuck to it so the sanding took a wee while.
Once it was sanded down I painted it with Patio Paints 'Cloud White' and then a couple of coats of 'Contemporary' emulsion paint.
Once dry I sanded it back to reveal the White and also the dark board beneath:

It is actually more sanded than this piccie shows plus this piccie needs turning CCW - Oops!

Next was the frustrating bit.
I knew what phrase I wanted to use - "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain" - BUT I'd ran out of computer ink and was waiting for new ink to arrive.
Could I wait a few days for the ink? Could I eckers like! I had to come up with something else.
So I opened CS5 on my laptop and opened a load of new pages in A4 size. On each one I wrote part of the quote and just hoped and prayed I'd managed to do each one in the same size as I had to enlarge them past the maximum font size.
The best thing about laptops is that the screen is backlit - makes a perfect lightbox.
To copy the letters from the laptop onto paper I turned the laptop round so that the screen was sitting on my knee and simply traced them onto paper:

Look at that for backlighting!

Once I had the image on paper I simply turned it over and traced that image on the back so that I could then put it to the board, scribble over it and have the letters imprinted where I needed them. *HINT: Use a pencil that is dark - these are usually the softer ones. It makes a big difference when tracing the letter to the board. A finer, lighter pencil just won't show enough on the piece you've traced to.
Once the letters were on in pencil I grabbed my permanent pen (a Stabilo & a Sharpie), lay on the floor and went over all those letters.
I always find 'Sharpie' bleeds when you varnish so I try not to use it too much but I've always found that any permanent pen struggles to work on paint and I am constantly (every few strokes) having to get the pen to run again on waste paper - very annoying!!! So if anyone knows of a permanent pen that actually works well on paint pleeeeease let me know.

Once the pen had dried I then gave it another sand down to age it a little.

I'm quite chuffed with how it's turned out. I maybe would change the font next time - This one is 'Before the Rain' and I would prefer the words to cover more of the area.
Overall though it's gonna look great with the 'shabby shelf' and the table.

Thanks for taking a peek, hope you enjoyed it.



This post is linked to
'Ginger Snap Crafts'
'Someday Crafts'
'Night Owl crafting'
'The Girl Creative'
'Delightful order'
'Bear rabbit bear'
'The DIY showoff'
'Flamingo Toes'
'The Shabby Nest'
'Miss mustard Seed'
'Finding Fabulous for Less'

Old aged letters

I never really got the 'shabby chic' look, it all seemed such a waste of time to me. After all why would anyone want to go to all that trouble of lovingly painting furniture to then just rough it up, sand it down and make it look old again?
It just seemed so ... well....pointless!

But then during one of my 'visit as many random blogs as possible' moments I happened across the most amazing gorgeous 'shabby' 'aged' 'distressed' (whatever you wanna call it) project on an amazingly inspirational blog and I was hooked.
The project in question was a wall sign and the blog I was loving was 'eleven-o-one creations' Not just fabulous signs either, just check out the 'Furniture Portfolio' of 'eleven-o-one creations', it's Amazing.
Once I'd seen the signs that Fran had created I was determined to create my own however no matter how much I searched the net I just couldn't find a tutorial that seemed to result in the same look as Frans' creations and as I've never done these paint effects before I wasn't confident that I could pull it off without some form of guidance (I'm not patient enough to spend days practising till I figure it all out).
So I contacted Fran to ask if she knew of a decent tutorial and I was so chuffed when Fran took the time to get right back to me with a tutorial all of her own. Thank you Fran.

Although ultimately I want a couple of signs for my upstairs bathroom I decided I would learn the technique on some wooden blocks that I wanted to letter for the same bathroom. I wanted to create the word 'Relax' in wooden blocks.
One of the reasons I wanted to start there was because I have recently updated my craft stamps and have unmounted them from their wooden blocks, mounted them on UMount and filed them away in files to save on storage.
But I was left with numerous blocks like these

I knew they'd come in handy for something though and figured they'd be great for the bathroom letters.
That is some super tacky glue they use to mount the stamps to the blocks though and it took me a fair while to scrape it all off. The sanding down was a breeze however and I kinda didn't want to stop!

That's them all sanded and ready to go.
Usually I like symmetry and wouldn't go for the different sizes but I decided to be adventurous here.

Fran had told me in her tutorial the paints she would normally use but me being the most impatient person alive I couldn't wait for a paint supply to arrive and so I figured I'd try using 'Patio Paints' and see how they worked.
While I'd been researching the 'Milk Paint' that Fran mentioned I noticed on their website a series of colour layers that resulted is a finish similar to Frans so I used the 'Patio Paints' as close to those colours as I could.
The first 2 layers were 'Wrought Iron Black' followed by 1 layer of 'Cloud White' and finally 1 coat of 'Daisy cream'.
The hardest part of the project was the drying time for each layer, like I said I'm not terribly patient!
While they were drying though I opened up 'Photoshop' on the puter, created the letters I needed in a calligraphy font and printed them out onto regular paper.
Next I went back to the now dried out blocks and went at them with P80 electro coated sandpaper. This was a real fun part but be warned, you have to know when to stop! It's sooooooo easy to get carried away and then you end with something that just looks wrong!
At this stage I stopped the 'roughing up' just short of finished as I figured there'd be more to do once the letters were on, after all solid, new looking letters would look a bit naff on a weathered piece of wood.
The look I wanted was Black edges with the corners and a few other areas sanded down to the bare wood. I also like the White showing through before the Black, it gives it a more weathered look.
Next I transferred those letters to each block by tracing the letter on the reverse of the paper before laying it on the block (original side up obviously) and tracing - ok scribbling - over the top.

You're then left with a fine outline on the actual block which you need to go over with your choice of pen or paint.
On my first attempt I used a 'sharpie' pen. The 'Sharpie' is much easier to use than a paintbrush and the edges are much more defined

However 'Sharpie' has a tendency to smudge or bleed with some varnishes so if you intend to varnish the project use a paint - I learned that one the hard way and I ended up having to sand the whole lot down, front and back and start again.
Next time round I used the 'Wrought Iron Black' 'Patio Paints' and cut down an artist brush so it was small enough to use - this is not ideal though and TBH I'm not 100% pleased with the result.
Once the lettering was dry I gave it another sand down and then gave it just the 1 coat of floor varnish.

The finished result

They are a bit mored weathered and aged than is showing on the photo.
I'm actually quite chuffed with them and am loving this look now. I can see many many future projects being lovingly painted just to be roughed up and sanded down to look old again. lol.

I'm dedicating this post to fran of 'eleven-o-one creations'. Thank you Fran for taking the time to help me out and for your inspirational blog.



Linked to:

'Today's Creative Blog'
'Reasons to skip the Housework'
'Ginger snap crafts'
'Nightowl Crafting'
'Lil Luna'
'Delightful Order'
'Bear rabbit bear'
'Not just a housewife'
'Happy Hour Projects'
'Miss Mustard seed - Furniture Feature Friday'
'The Shabby Nest'
'You had me at craft'
'Restore Interiors'
'sew can do'
'Delightful Order'
'My1929charmer'

Edit me: Week 20

Ouch! This one hurt. The picture is so darn cute to start with and as with all baby / children photographs I am acutely aware that this is someones adored child and that my idea of a good edit may be their idea of an insult. Eek!

Luckily I have been stuck in doors all day waiting for a delivery - you know the kind, anytime between 12pm & 6pm and we'll phone when on the way! - so I'd been grumpily patiently waiting for said delivery to arrive when I happened across this weeks edit.

Once again I just couldn't decide what to do with it so I googled ideas - as you do - and if I wanted to turn this adorable baby into Shrek, or give her google eyes or even wanted to plant her in a barrel I had a plethora of tutorials before my eyes.
Not gonna happen though.

So I guess you wanna see this adorable cutie courtesy of Kala at 'The Wishful Lamb' - here you go then.

This is the SOOC

Told ya, little cutie pie ain't she!

And here is my edit

Now I know I should have catalogued the steps I took for this but believe me I have done so many different things and started over that I have completely lost track of what I did.
I opened it in CS5 though - I know that much! As for the rest of the edit well it's vague but I cropped the image a tad, boosted the colours before then desaturating it (actually don't know why I did that but it seemed to help).
I then played around with the tones somewhere (sorry don't remember where) until I got a Sepia type look and then messed with the highlights, shadows etc until I got what I wanted.
Next I added a 5 pixel border in Black ( I tried a multitude of different colours for that before deciding on Black - how original)
Then I added the text 'twinkle, twinkle little star' and then finally I used the colour fill tool to add colour back to the flower.

Like I said there were many many steps to this edit, many of them deleted and I could have used shorter and easier paths along the way but this edit was basically playing and deleting until I got what I wanted.

I also need to thank Branson from 'My Reflection of Something' for not only hosting these edits but for hosting a gorgeous blog too.



Linked to

Edit Me - week 19

Yet another cool image to get to grips with.
This weeks image was submitted by our guest judge this week, Deb from 'Deb Duty Photography', please take a couple of minutes to check out her blog and awesome images.

So without further ado here's the original image

and this is my Edit

I must be remembering how to use Creative Suite (finally) as this was a fairly quick one.
I opened the image in CS2 and created a new 'channel mixer' adjustment layer.
I then messed with the setting until I got the vibrant punchy tones I wanted. The first 2 setting were about +200 and +100 and the final two settings were approx -75 and -79.
Next I created a new text layer and added the text 'Autumn, the year's last, lovliest smile' and added a drop shadow via 'Blending options'. I also played with the drop shadow settings and distance until I got the effect I was after.
Finally I cropped the image to make the leaf less central and voila! Edited!

I have to thank the guest judge for this image. I usually like more active images as my imagination can be limited but I loved working with this one.
I did attempt a frosty ground and crispy leaf number but kinda didn't work out and so I had to rein myself back in - I get a tad too enthusiastic sometimes and go overboard.
So thank you to Deb and to Branson from 'My Reflection of Something' for co hosting these challenges.

Oooooh something completely new today

I've not been able to get on with my craft projects over the last couple of days, mainly because I've become addicted to reading blogs belonging to my friends on Blogfrog etc.
However, I came across an 'edit me' submission on 'My Reflection of Something' Blog and just had to give it a go because I loved the photograph so much.
The guest judge for this 'edit me' is Stephanie from 'Behind the camera and dreaming', so why not pop on over and take a look at some adorable, classy and downright fabulous work.
This is my first ever submission and from what I can gather the idea is to take the original photo and adapt it using Photo editing software in whatever way you feel.
So here's the original:

See what I mean about it being a gorgeous picture!

This is what I did to it

I struggled with this one, not just because it's my first, nor because it's a photo of someones else's child and I'm very aware that my interpretation may not be her parents' but mainly because I liked the original so much it seemed such a shame to alter it.

First I opened it in Photoshop CS2 and diddled with the exposure to make a base for the warmth I wanted to create.
Then I added a Warm filter to the image and adjusted the settings until I got the 'feeling' I was after - I wanted to create a warm, early evening feel.
I then added a Glass filter and adjusted the settings until I got the effect I have here, this took a suprisingly long time and found me also experimenting with a load of other filters.
Originally I wanted a pencil effect but I loved the Glass effect and seeing as the child is on sand - ironic!
In a separate layer I added the words 'Discovery in a grain of sand' as that is what the image says to me.

Voila! My 'edit me' submission.

UPDATE:

The winner of week 16 'Edit me' is - drum roll - Deb from 'Debduty Photgraphy'. Well done!