The Color of Memories

I'm just wondering.
How does our mind remember color?
Can you remember right now the color of fall?
What about a special memory. Do you have a color associated with that?

My fiancé and I love going to the park together. I was looking through some pictures, remembering the awesome times we've had together when I discovered a picture I had taken of some blossoms. On a whim, I decided to give it a second chance (it wasn't a terrible picture, but it wasn't beautiful).

before

after!

I love color! Nature's natural color is the best!

Blessings,

Alyssa

Happy Photoshop Bride-to-be

So. This is what is feels like to abandon a blog.
I have good reason though, I'm using my spare time on the computer to do wedding planning.
The day is less than 5 months away,
And I am getting excited.

I want to share some not-so-weddingy wedding stuff.
I've been designing my invitation,
And in the mean time have created some effects I'm pretty happy with.
I wanted painted-looking roses for my invitation, didn't want to paint all of them by hand, so I came up with a way to do it on Ps.
Then, I wanted a sketch or stamped look,
So I opened Ps again, and soon came up with what I wanted.

I started with some rose pictures I had taken at the Portland Rose Garden. 

Painted look...

Sketched look :)

Well, better go!

Blessings,

Alyssa

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

Okay, so I had a little fun with some sparkle brushes,

but isn't there something magical about

spring and love?

Blessings,

Alyssa

Through Seasons' Change

I love the seasons and the beauty that each one brings.
The changing seasons bring new hues,
but our Heavenly Father, always the same,
brings hope.

This is one of my first attempts using the mixer brush in Photoshop.  Kind of cool, I guess. :)

Blessings,

Alyssa

Moon Love

I was inspired again by the night sky.  (remember my illustration of the Milky Way?)  These are both Photoshop illustrations of the moon.

The amber ring:

The white rainbow:

 

Have you noticed these in the sky before?  Did I illustrate them acurately?  By the way, these are not technical terms.  I don't know what they are actually called.  I would love to know more about why or how these appear in the sky.

 

Blessings,

Alyssa

It took Him just a day

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 

(Gen 1:14-19)

Don't you love a clear night sky?  Last night, it was beautiful!  I think I'm in love with the Milky Way.  I love it when I can see it's bright band across the sky.  Today, with the help of Illustrator and Photoshop, I tried to create an image similar to the scene I love so much.

Don't forget to look at the sky every once in a while.  You never know what God has created for you.

Blessings,

Alyssa

Vacation

Here I am again real quick to share some collage templates I made last week.  I intended to put them on my last post, but I forgot.  I created a collage template in Ps so that I can put differnt pictures in the same layout.  A lot of photography bloggers use these (normally they are a little more simple) to add interest and design, but save time.  I just had fun making these, but I think I should make some simple ones up to use in my blogging.  I used a texture from Shadowhouse Creations, a map image that I had pinned earlier, some digital tape that I created about a month or two ago.  Then I made the frames, tag, and text background.

I'm not sure how many Ps users read my blog, so I won't get all technical with how I created it, but it was a great learning experience for me. :)

 I feel like when I am aware of the tiny details (or the big ones such as sunsets) then life is a little more adventurous.  My sister agrees. :)

I'm so glad, God worked it out so perfectly for me to go to WV over the summer.

Blessings,

Alyssa

This is me again, back on Jan. 31, 2013. I said earlier that I would not get technical on this post, but I have decided to document my method anyway:

1. I layered images and textures to make my background.

2. I created a tag in Illustrator. (adding color and texture in Ps with clipping masks*)

3. Then I made rounded rectangles for my photo frames. (again, adding color and texture in Ps with clipping masks)

4. Finally, to add the pictures, I drew more rectangles on top of the original rectangles and left them black. These are where my pictures will go.

5. I saved the Photoshop file, and I now have my own collage template to use later.

5. I imported the pictures on new layers, and "clipped" them to the black squares with the clipping mask feature.

And that's it!

*clipping masks: the layer above is "clipped" to the layer below. This is as simple as holding down the Alt key and clicking in between the two layers you want to clip (you should see a box with an arrow when you hover between the two layers.) For example, my picture was right above the shape layer with the black box. Then all I had to do is Alt+click in between the two layers. I still have the freedom to scale and move the picture around until I like how it looks. So fun!

Blessings,

Alyssa

Of Great Price

...more than your dreams.

more than your appearances.

more than your opinions.

more than your time.

more than your money.

more than your life.

Isn't it somewhat liberating to realize nothing is worth as much as salvation and the knowledge of Jesus Chist?  Every time you give something up, you are breaking a band that is tethering you to this earth.  I have been thinking recently of what I can give up in order to have a closer relationship with my Savior.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.  (Php 3:8)

Blessings,

Alyssa

Photoshop Favorites

I have recently become a member of the Photoshop addicts.  I've only owned it a few months, but there are already certain techniques that I keep going back to.  One of my favorites is...

Gradient overlays:

The original--pretty cool, but when I added the blue and orange gradient overlay, I fell in love.

For an old-camera-light-leak look, use a linear gradient with at least five colors at various widths.  Set the layer mode to overlay.  Finally, add a black and white gradient mask to make the streaks fade at the bottom.

I rarely set a gradient layer to screen mode because it washes the picture out, but when you are looking for a sunny effect go with screen mode and lower the opacity to your liking.

Creamy light

{original}

I found this tutorial online, and I'm looking forward to using it more.

I decided to use this technique because the original look way too dark as a thumbnail for my profile pictures on Blogger and Pintrest.  I think it helped lighten it up without compromising the quality of the picture.

Tilt-shift/Iris blur

Photoshop has pretty advanced blur options (although you'll never get the bokeh you might get naturally).  I use a tilt-shift blur when I want to subtly create a point of interest.  Rarely do I use the iris blur unless it is very subtle (such as here).

Grunge brush and texture overlays from Shadowhouse Creations

Shadowhouse Creations has lots of awesome textures.  In fact, I think he is the king of grunge.  This picture has one of his old canvas textures set to overlay mode with the opacity adjusted.

He also has this amazing grunge brush set that I use all the time.  In this picture, I used it as a border.

Do you know of any great Photoshop tips?  I would love to learn more!  Just leave a comment or a link.  :)

Blessings,

Alyssa

Happy 4th!

Blessings,

Alyssa

Of Rain

Ahhh

The smell

The sound

The touch

Of rain!

(click to enlarge)

Huge reward for messing around on Photoshop to create this collage:  I discovered my mistake I made while making my blog header, and it only took 5 seconds to fix!  Supper excited girl right here!

Blessings,

Alyssa