The CoffeeShop Blog

Huge Giveaway Opportunity and Coupon Code for Rock the Shot Forum!

2012-05-22T07:20:00.004-05:00

Laura of Pretty Presets sent me this giveaway post and I think you might be interested!

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We're doing a special promotion this week with Pretty Presets for Lightroom and Rock The Shot Forum! Use the code "friendofpp" to enjoy 20% off and have instant access to 12 Freebies and so much more! Plus, when you join this week you'll also be entered in to win a $300 Gift Card to Pretty Presets. Read more below for all the details!

Have you heard of Rock the Shot Forum? Rock the Shot Forum is a fun and friendly community of photography enthusiasts, ranging from moms wanting to take better pictures of their kids, to seasoned professionals willing to teach you all the tips and tricks of the trade. Have you ever wanted feedback on your images? Rock the Shot members and Mentors are there to offer critique. Need an opinion on a product or vendors? The forum is the perfect place to ask for recommendations and testimonials to make sure your money is well spent. Looking for more intensive or specialized education? Rock the Shot offers amazing workshops to help you achieve your photography goals. Plus, the forum offers exclusive discounts and incredible freebie packets with products from all your favorite vendors.

This week only:

1. Each and every new or upgraded member from 05/21 - 05/25 will be entered to win a $300 Gift Card to Pretty Presets!

2. Any new or upgraded Lifetime Member will be automatically entered to win the prize mentioned above and a $100 Gift Card to Amazon!

3. Once we reach 50 new members they will give away the prize pack listed below! Plus, they will also release a Limited Edition "Favorites" Freebie Packet inside the Forum. This special Freebie Packet will include five of their favorite goodies from previous volumes.

====> Sign-up here for your Membership + SAVE 20% with the code "friendofpp"

So you're wondering what's included in this BIG PRIZE PACK? I'd love to share! We will draw 1 winner from our 200 members to win this on Friday. OVER $1,000.00 VALUE!

1. Enjoy a One-Year-Subscription to The Shoppe - $480 Value

2. Lightsphere Set from Gary Fong - $169 Value

3. Gift Card to Sassy Designs Inc - $150 Value

4. Gift Card to Bad Sass Backdrops - $150 Value

5. Shooting Kids with Elizabeth Halford - $89 Value

6. Gift Card to Everyday Elements - $50 Value

7. 16x20 Gallery Wrapped Canvas From Canvas On Demand - $127 Value

====> Sign-up here for your Membership + SAVE 20% with the code "friendofpp"

This is OUR challenge to you… we’re looking for 50 new members to sign-up this week from The CoffeeShop Blog. If you are up to the challenge, sign up TODAY by clicking on the Rock the Shot banner and gain instant access to the forum where you can download lots of valuable freebies.

Remember, you can also sign-up as an affiliate and earn 20% off of each friend you refer to the forum for the lifetime of their membership. This membership pays for itself and then starts to pay you. How can you go wrong!! Don’t wait any longer to start enjoying all the benefits of membership at Rock the Shot Forum!!!

Here is what people are saying about Rock The Shot:

“I love Rock the Shot because it’s a great mix of photographers at all different levels. It’s a ”safe place” for newbies to learn from others. And there are always discounts and FREE goodies which is always a plus.” - Tara Hayes Ghering

"…the Forum has got be my favorite! I have never seen such a great group of photographers willing to help one another out. I have learned so much from being part of this great place and my business has blossomed from the assistance and answered questions from some fabulous people.” - Christen Wrighter

“Since joining RTS the knowledge I have gained is immeasurable. The members are friendly, helpful and such great resources. The ideas shared helped me further my creativity and in turn help my business. I am more confident and excited as I continue my journey!” - Bethany Bearmore

Coffee With Heather: Making Low Resolution Brushes High Resolution Using Free InkScape!

2012-05-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

You probably noticed I haven't been posting much and that is because we have all been sick for the last weeks. It is a nasty little bug and we are coughing our heads off and not sleeping very well. Luckily I was able to convince my healthy sister Heather to help me out this week by writing a tutorial for me to post. This tutorial is invaluable if you have ever downloaded or made a brush/frame/design element and found out its resolution was too low and you couldn't use it in your design because it would look pixellated. There is an easy fix and Heather is going to show you how to do it. :-)

So let me introduce you to my little sister Heather. And thanks so much Heather, I owe you big time!

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Hi! I am Rita's "lil" sister Heather and the logo designer for our little part-time venture, CoffeeShop Designs. I have two little ones that I stay at home with and home school. We use a mixture of Classical and Charlotte Mason curriculum. I believe in the utmost importance of kids being in nature and enjoying God's world-sun, rain and all! In Texas we don't have excuses not to go outside. We typically walk every morning to a field of wild flowers near a clear creek where they run freely alongside Charlie, our chocolate lab, and watch the butterflies alight on the flowers..

My sister Rita is the one who got me interested in logo design. Since she knew how much I loved playing around in Photoshop, she suggested I start creating logos and join her in her design business. I created my first logo and was hooked! So now as a creative outlet, I design custom logos and pre-made logos in the evenings after a long day with my kiddos who rest snuggly in bed. I also design blog/website headers and custom buttons and business cards. Just email me for a quote.

May Special! At this time I am having a "summer sale" for the rest of this month for CoffeeShop readers! Just use the coupon code "summer sale" for $50 off a custom logo and $10 off a pre-made logo.

I know Rita has a lot going on right now, so I offered to write a tutorial to help her out. :-)

Since I typically use a ton of commercial-free photo shop brushes in my designs, I come across many brushes that are very low resolution and too small to work with. If you increase the brush size in Photoshop, you will end up decreasing the resolution, thereby ending up with a low resolution image. If I trace this image in a vector program, such as Inkscape (a free downloadable vector program similar to Adobe Illustrator), I can then increase the size of the brush and use it in on a billboard if I want.

1. Begin by saving your brush or image as a tranlucent png. Do this by opening up Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and creating a new document (File, New). Your width and height can be about 2000 pixels high and wide with a 300 resolution and transparent document.

Now you are ready to use your brush and save as a png. Make the brush the maximum size and click on the middle of your new document. Save as a png file.

2. Open up Inkscape and open up your png. Click on Edit-Select All.

3. Click on Path-Trace Bitmap

4. A box will pop up- see below. Make sure Grays is selected, Smooth is NOT selected, and Remove background is selected. Then press OK.

5. Now close that box and drag your top layer off to the side. Now, delete the layer that I have the arrow pointing to (the bottom layer). I do this so I can be assured that I am deleting the correct layer.

6. Now, move your layer back into the box.

Now you have two options. You can save the file as a eps or svg vector file. This type of image file is wonderful because you can make the image as large as you want with no loss of resolution. If you save the file as an eps or svg vector file and want to use it in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, just open the image you wish to use the vector file or create a new file and File, Place the vector. Then you can adjust the size to taste. It can be sized to fit on a billboard if you want!

If you would rather work with pngs, you can resize the brush/image file in Inkscape. Hold down the Control Key and drag the corner of your brush and you can resize how large you want your brush to be.

After you have enlarged your element you can now save it as a png. Press Shift+Control+E

and a box pops up (or click on File-Export Bitmap).

This file needs to be at least 300 dpi (see above), create a filename, and then press Export. Now you are ready to use your element in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

2012-05-18T09:13:00.001-05:00

Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!

CoffeeShop Action Flashback: Sun Kissed Effect!

2012-05-14T10:08:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I like to take a few minutes and revisit old actions that my new readers might have missed.

One of the most popular actions/tutorials on my blog was one I wrote two years ago and is called Sun Kissed. This action adds a nice orange tint and lens flare to images and I wanted to revisit it today. To be directed to the original post click the image above or on the link at the bottom of this post.

Here is my original image.

I ran Sun Kissed and did not make any changes to the layers.

In this final image I turned off the lens flare layer. I love the color tint and soft contrast of this edit. This effect would also be lovely on landscape/florals.

Check out the CoffeeShop Sun Kissed action and step-by-step tutorial!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

2012-05-11T19:31:00.000-05:00

Today's photos are from last weekend. The boys had a wonderful time at the festival and played for an hour on the splash pad.

And of course they both got sick on Monday with a nasty bug and I ended up catching it. So it has been a pretty awful week here in the house. But you know, the fun they had in that germ-filled splash pad was still worth it!!! At least that is what they tell me. ;-)

Amazing Pretty Preset Specials!!!

2012-05-08T09:57:00.001-05:00

Laura of Pretty Presets sent me an email full of specials she wanted to share with you. Enjoy!!! Rita

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We're starting Mother's Day a little early this week! We've got 3 FUN things to share with you. In efforts to make it short and simple we'll list them below. Don't forget , for the next 48 hours, you can enjoy a discount off our brushes and receive a FREE CANVAS with any purchase of $150 or more!

1. Any order over $150 for the next 48 hours will receive a FREE 16x20 Canvas from Canvas On Demand/Groupon ($125 VALUE). Plus, be one of the first 5 people to purchase $150 or more that you'll be upgraded to a 20x24 Canvs ($150 Value)? Happy Mother's Day!

2. We're releasing our first 2 sets of Lightroom 4 Brushes today! These are one of the most popular items in our store and we're working on making more specific sets for your needs. For the next 48 hours enjoy a special discount of off both. No code required! You can view our Portrait Brushes here and our Graduated Filters Toolbox here. You can view our Lightroom 3 and Lightroom 4 brushes here.

3. We've teamed up with Matt from Lightroom Killer Tips to offer you 2 free Pretty Presets from the Spring Color, Flare & Haze Collection. Come download them here!

Introducing our first 2 sets of Lightroom 4 Brushes and Graduated Filters:

The Portrait Brushes + Graduated Filter Toolbox for LR4!

Includes: Blush and Eye Shadow, Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes, Green Eyes, Lashes n Liner, Eyes and Teeth Whiten, Under-eye Circles, Lip Gloss, Red Cast Remedy, Cool Skin, Warm Skin, Smooth Skin, Blue Skies, Colorful Background, Cool Haze, Depth and Drama, Darken Flash, De-Haze, Green Grass, Rose Haze, Soften Background and Sunlight! Plus enjoy 5 bonus brushes: Brighten, Darken, Light up Shadows, Simple Sharpen and Super Sharp

Check out these pictures edited with our Brushes and Graduated Filters. Special thanks to Spanki of Spanki Mills Photography for the use of these beautiful pictures.

The Portrait Brushes + Graduated Filter Toolbox for LR4! Includes: Blush and Eye Shadow, Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes, Green Eyes, Lashes n Liner, Eyes and Teeth Whiten, Under-eye Circles, Lip Gloss, Red Cast Remedy, Cool Skin, Warm Skin, Smooth Skin, Blue Skies, Colorful Background, Cool Haze, Depth and Drama, Darken Flash, De-Haze, Green Grass, Rose Haze, Soften Background and Sunlight! Plus enjoy 5 bonus brushes: Brighten, Darken, Light up Shadows, Simple Sharpen and Super Sharp

Normally $30
on SALE for $25 for the next 48 hours!

Come visit us today at www.lightroompresets.com!

CoffeeShop Dotted Swiss Digital Paper Pack!

2012-05-06T15:59:00.001-05:00

I wanted to put together a new digital paper pack, so today you can download the CoffeeShop Dotted Swiss Paper Pack! It has seven different papers/textures that are 10in by 10in (300 dpi), so you can use them on your websites/blogs or in print (cards, calendars, etc.). These papers would make great blog backgrounds or photo frames.

Download the free CoffeeShop Dotted Swiss Paper Pack. You can also download it here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

2012-05-05T09:32:00.001-05:00

I used my Golden Afternoon and 2020 action on this photo and then ran my ColorBar action on the bottom image.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom 2 Action and Tutorial: Part 2!

2012-05-02T12:25:00.005-05:00

This is the second part of a two-part tutorial on editing baby portraits. Part 1 of the Baby PowderRoom Tutorial demonstrated how to adjust exposure and fix blotchy red skin. Today I am going to show you how to run CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom 2 on your image and add an optional texture. You can still find the original Baby PowderRoom action here, and the download for my updated version is at the bottom of this post.

And Baby PowderRoom is not only for babies, you can use it on any portrait!

Tutorial Part 2: Running CoffeeShop PowderRoom 2 action on an image and adding an optional texture

1. Here is the image from Part 1 generously donated by Julie Harding Photography. As you can see, I removed the red, blotchy skin.

2. Run the CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom 2 action (download at the bottom of this post). The first pop-up will be Replace Color which allows you to automatically select skin for the skin-smoothing step.

Click on an area of skin to select it, and then adjust the Fuzziness slider. Your selection will be white, so make sure you are selecting the skin but not everything in the image.

If you want to add to your selection click on the eyedropper with the (+), if you want to remove selection click on the eyedropper with the (-).

Press OK.

3. Skin Smoothing: The Surface Blur adjustment will pop-up and you can adjust the setting if you wish. I just press OK and then lower the opacity of this layer when the action is finished so the skin won't be too smooth.

4. After the action runs you will have 6 new layers over your background. Your baby will probably look like a plastic doll, so time to use some layer masks and adjust opacities of layers.

If you are new to using layer masks, please go read my layer mask tutorial before using this action. This action does not magically edit your image, you will have to use layer masks!

5. Smooth the skin: This action automatically selects the skin, but sometimes you have to paint out the hair, eyes, lips and end of the nose on the Smooth the skin layer. Click on the layer mask of Smooth the skin, click "B" for brush, and use a soft black brush in normal mode at the opacity of taste to paint over anything you don't want smooth. I also lower the opacity of the Smooth the skin layer so my baby does not look like a plastic doll. Please don't go crazy on the skin smoothing.

If you want to easily see what you are painting over, Alt-click on the layer mask. The image will turn black and white as seen in the screenshot above. The white areas will be smooth, the gray areas not so smooth, and the black areas will completely block the Smooth the skin layer.

Alternatively, you can Shift-Alt click on the layer mask (this time I did it on the Lighten Skin layer) and the image will turn red. Areas that are darker red are masked (the effect on that layer will not be seen), and areas that are not so red are allowing the layer's effect to shine through. If parts of your image are not red at all, than 100% of that layer's effect is coming through.

6. Lighten Skin: If you want to slightly lighten the skin (as if lightly powdered), click "B" for brush and set your brush to Normal Mode, white, and low opacity (10-20%). Click on the black layer mask and paint over the skin. Adjust the Lighten Skin layer's opacity to taste.

7. Skin Glow: This layer adds a soft subtle dewy glow to the skin. Cick "B" for brush and set your brush to Normal Mode, white, and low opacity (20-30%). Click on the black layer mask and then paint over the skin. Adjust the Skin Glow layer's opacity to taste.

8. Eye Define: This layer enhances eyes and eyelashes. Click "B" for brush and set the brush to Normal Mode, white and 50-100% opacity. Click on the black layer mask. Paint over the eyes and eyelashes. Then adjust the Eye Define layer's opacity to taste.

9. Bright Eyes: This layer brightens the iris and whites of the eyes. Click "B" for brush and set the brush to Normal mode, white, and 10-20%. Carefully paint over the iris, avoiding the pupil, and the whites of the eyes. Then adjust the Bright Eyes layer's opacity to taste.

10. Levels layer: You can use the Levels 1 adjustment layer to make final adjustments to exposure and color. Set to RGB to adjust the highlights/midtones/shadows. And use the slider to select Red or Blue to remove/add yellow/red. The Blue setting allows you to add/remove yellow.

In this case I wanted a bit more red in this image, so I set the drop-down to Red and slightly moved up the middle (gamma) slider.

11. Add an optional texture: I wanted to add a texture to this image, and I picked a beautiful texture called Old Bench from the Chasing Dreams Summertime 2 Texture pack. Right now, use the code summer20 for 20% off the Summertime II Collection. It's good through the 6th. And check out Colleen's bundled texture specials! I love Colleen's textures.

Drop the texture on top of your image and free transform it to fit (Ctrl-T). I put the texture layer in soft light mode in this case, but you can try overlay, multiply, or even vivid light and adjust the opacity to taste.

12. Removing the texture from the baby: In this case I didn't want the texture's colors affecting my image, so I clicked on the texture layer and desaturated it (made it black and white). Then I added a layer mask, clicked to select it, and used a soft black brush at 100% opacity to paint out the baby.

I hope you enjoyed my newest retouching tutorial! I would love to see before/afters posted on my Facebook page.

Download the free CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom 2 action for Photoshop and PSE (versions 7 and up only, does not work in PSE6 and below). You can also download it here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack (includes this action!) or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom 2 Action and Tutorial: Part 1!

2012-04-30T09:28:00.004-05:00

This is Part One of a two-part tutorial on editing baby portraits. I have been wanting to update my Baby PowderRoom action for some time and I finally decided to put it on top of my list of things to do. This updated version has a automatic skin-softening feature with a twist, similar to Perfect Portrait 3. And I removed the redness remove layer and added a Levels adjustment layer. The original Baby PowderRoom will still be available for download because it is a great action, but I would love for you to try my updated version.

When I decided to update Baby PowderRoom I also wanted to write a step-by-step tutorial on editing a baby image. I don't have any babies to photograph right now (I am making a sad face right now), so I asked my Facebook fans if they had any SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) photos of adorable babies that had some redness/blotchy skin and needed some editing.

Today I will show you how I quickly remove red splotches from baby skin, and in the next post I will present the new CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom 2 action and show you how I used it on this image. Finally I will add a texture to enhance the background.

Tutorial Part 1: Removing Red Blotchy Skin on Babies

I had a great response to my Facebook baby photo search and it was difficult deciding on just one photo, but I finally decided on this one from Julie of Julie Harding Photography. It was the perfect image because it had a beautiful baby, perfectly focused and composed, but needed a bit of skin work. Thank you so much for sharing this image with me Julie!

1. I added a levels adjustment layer to brighten the image. I brought up the highlights and also the mid-tones. Then I flattened the image.

Thanks to Julie this image didn't have any really strange color casts, but if you have too much red, blue, or yellow in the skin-tones you can use the levels adjustment layer to fix them. Just click on the little drop-down menubar by the RGB in Levels and select Red to remove/add some red (I usually adjust the midtone slider) and Blue to add/remove yellow.

I usually do a final skin color adjustment after running Baby PowderRoom if it needs a tweak.

2. There are so many ways to remove red blotches, but I find the fastest way is to use the simple paintbrush. Remember, we are going to smooth the skin after removing the redness, so you don't have to be a perfectionist at this step.

Make sure your image is flattened or you are working on the background layer (or a duplicate layer). Zoom in on a red spot and then click "I" to select your eyedropper tool (make sure it is set to 3 by 3 Average) and click on a clean area of skin next to the red area.

3. Click "B" to select your brush tool. Make sure your brush is soft, the mode is Normal, and put the opacity around 25-50%.

4. Gently paint over the red area. You can click on "[" or "]" to make your brush bigger/smaller as you paint. If the skin is really red you might have to go over it a second time to completely cover it up. I had to go over this spot twice. You might notice that the cover-up is very obvious at this step, but don't worry! The skin-smoothing will fix that. But try not to paint over cute little baby wrinkles and dimples.

5. You can see my before and after in the screenshot above. It probably seems like it would take a lot of time, but if you get used to using keyboard shortcuts, it takes only a minute or two. Click on "I" and click on the clean skin to pick the color, then click on "B" and adjust the size of your brush with the "[" or "]" keys and paint.

On my next post I will show you how to use my new CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom action to finish editing this adorable little baby.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

Blog House Cleaning! And I could really use your help. :-)

2012-04-28T09:30:00.000-05:00

We moved a few months ago and our "game room" and garage are still filled with boxes of junk. And the boys don't help when they pull out every toy they own and create these monster "cities" in the middle of the room. I can't wait to get everything organized, I just need more time... Or a vacation to escape from the mess. ;-)

As you know, blogs - like houses - need constant attention. I have a zillion posts and free downloads, so needless to say it is almost impossible for me to keep up with broken links on all of my old posts. So I would love to have your help if possible!

If you find any broken links to images, tutorials, downloads, etc. on any of my posts, could you please let me know in the comment section of that post? That way I can fix them. I know some of my download links don't work, but most posts should have two choices, so if one does not work please let me know which one and I will remove it and add a new second one.

This is going to take some time, so thank you so much for your patience. I am a one-woman show here on CoffeeShop and I really appreciate your help so much. And I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!!!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

Preview of Coming Attractions! Baby PowderRoom Action Update and Tutorial!

2012-04-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to update Baby PowderRoom (the original will still be available for download) and also write a step-by-step tutorial on editing a blotchy baby for some time. I asked my Facebook fans if they could send me an unedited baby image that needed a lot of photoshop help. I received quite a few great images but I could only pick one and I decided on an image from Julie of Julie Harding Photography. Julie was generous enough to send me an SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) unedited underexposed and blotchy image for me to use in my tutorial. Thank you so much Julie!

This tutorial will show you how to fix exposure/color issues, quickly remove red blotches, use my updated Baby PowderRoom, and add an optional textured background. I am really excited about this tutorial and hope to get it up in the next day or two. This action and tutorial will work in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

I know as photographers we should strive to take perfect images, but sometimes the best images from a shoot are ones that aren't perfect SOOC and need some editing help. :-)

Sorry I haven't been around as much!

2012-04-24T10:32:00.002-05:00

So you might have noticed I haven't been posting as much. Honestly, moving really messed up our routine and I got a bit (ok, completely) overwhelmed with everything and haven't had the energy to spend much time on the computer. So right now I am concentrating on making this new house a home and spending as much time with my family. Luckily it is a great time of year to get out and about with all of the local festivals and great weather.

This weekend we went to a vintage car festival and had a wonderful time. I could care less about any of the new cars out there, but if I had the time and money I would love to have a vintage car. Perhaps a Mustang or a Camaro. I love the muscle cars, but I also can't pass by anything with giant fins without slobbering a bit. I even saw an El Camino that I was ready to hop in and drive home. I have always had a secret crush on those old El Caminos.

If you look carefully you can see all of us in the bottom right bumper.

We have also had some not-so-exciting changes. Poor Imp has a few run-ins with decks and trees and finally damaged his front tooth enough that it had to be extracted. I felt bad about it, but I have to confess he is pretty darn cute without that tooth. It gives him a bit of a tough guy image. Like "You should see the other guy". You know, Imp would look great driving in that black El Camino we saw this weekend.

And Imp is the only one in our family that has green eyes! We all have blue eyes, so I am thrilled to have a little green-eyed boy. It really fits his little impish image so well. :-)

I am working on a few projects for CoffeeShop. I am updating my classic Baby PowderRoom and I have had some readers send me some SOOC images that I am going to use to write a complete step-by-step tutorial to remove red splotches and get a dreamy baby edit. I love editing babies but we don't have any in our family right now for me to photograph... I miss babies! I guess I have to wait for my grandkids. ;-)

I hope everyone is having a great week. And I wanted to personally thank everyone who visits and reads my blog and tell their friends about it, have purchased my download packs, made donations, and had me do their blog designs. Thanks to all of my amazing readers I am able to help support my family while keeping everything on my blog free!!!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

Lightroom Users: Pretty Presets "Lightroom Workshop To Go" Sale!!!

2012-04-18T10:17:00.001-05:00

I have been fortunate to work with Laura of Pretty Presets for a few years now. She is a Lightroom genius, a wonderful and generous person, and also a sponsor on my blog. Laura, thank you for teaching me so much and helping me keep everything on my blog free!

This Lightroom class sounds wonderful, especially since it is being taught by my good friend Amanda of Everyday Elements.

Now on to Laura!

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We've decided to do a BIG SALE for our Lightroom Workshop To Go!! You've been a loyal customer so we wanted to give you the opportunity to save on this. Enjoy $15 off through Friday at midnight EST. Enjoy the $15 off and starting learning how to save time in Lightroom today! Less time editing means more time doing what you love! We're here to help you work smarter, not harder.

Lightroom Workshop To Go for Beginners -
Normally $55
on sale for only $40

What's Included in the Lightroom Workshop To Go?

1. Live 2 hour workshop (recorded) going over Lightroom 4

2. 15 Video Tutorials digging deeper into concepts covered during Live Workshop

3. $10 Gift Card to Pretty Presets and $10 Gift Card to Everyday Elements ($40 - $10 Gift Card to Pretty Presets - $10 Gift Card to Everyday Elements = $20 for a $55 Workshop!)

4. 6 Sample Photos that you can download and edit from the concepts you learned!

5. 21 Pages of Notes that follow the workshop! Notes include images too for a better reference!

Where to view the videos: Your purchase will include everything you need to view the workshop, access the 21 pages of notes, find your discount codes and more! Be sure to open up the "Workshop Letter" first for all the details.

Read here for the BONUS: For a limited time we will be including some coupon codes to make this deal even sweeter for you. Enjoy a $10 coupon code to Pretty Presets and a $10 coupon code to Everyday Elements.

This recorded workshop will be taught by the talented Amanda Padgett. Amanda and I have been working together to create a valuable workshop experience for you. Enjoy these resources and be sure to let us know how we can be of assistance. This will be taught from a Lightroom 4 platform.

Remember, all codes can be used once so that everyone receives an opportunity to save! Enjoy and have fun learning more about Lightroom.

The topics covered: Workspace Overview, Importing, Tagging and Collections Basic Panel Tone/Curve Panel Hue/Saturation Panel Split Toning Panel Detail Panel Lens Correction Panel Local Adjustments Syncing Settings Taking Images Into PS or PSE How to Apply Presets and Sync presets How to use Custom Brush Presets Watermarking and Exporting, Text and Graphic Watermarks Exporting for Web and Print Import Presets and Export Presets.

Lightroom Workshop To Go for Beginners -
Normally $55
on sale for only $40

Reviews from just today!

I bought the Lightroom Workshop to go for Lightroom 3 & it is AWESOME~ It is so helpful to be able to watch the video's & pause at the same time. Thanks so much Pretty Presets for making learning easy & fun. - Jessica

Thank you!! I've been going back and forth about getting the workshop, thinking I could just figure it out on my own. This did it for me! Already watched the first video! Feeling a little 'not so overwhelmed' already! - Shannon

I can't tell you how much I've learned already- just in the first 45 minutes! - Lynn

Wow! I'm a busy Mom and it's wonderful to be able to have a workshop I can view over and over. I really love the manual that goes with it and the extra videos too. This is just what I needed. Thank you! - Mary

I'm so excited to share that you can now Like, Pin and Purchase right from our facebook page. Click here to check out the new option we're giving you right from facebook. We hope this makes it easier for you to share about Pretty Presets! Thanks for your continued support. Click here to view all we currently offer at Pretty Presets right from our Facebook page!

CoffeeShop Facebook Cover 5!

2012-04-16T21:15:00.001-05:00

I just learned how to make curves using the pen tool in Photoshop (I might post a tutorial on this if anyone is interested) and I decided to make a new Facebook cover with the results of my experiments.

This is the standard-sized Facebook cover and the file is a fully adjustable layered psd file you open in Photoshop or PSE. This would also make a great blog/website header.

When you open the template you will see the layers in the screenshot above. Change the top background color on the layer pane by clicking on the little blue square. Use the photo clipping mask to add your image to the round frame. Change the border color by clicking on the little yellow square by Border Color. Change the fabric color by clicking on the little blue square by Fabric Color. You can even add your own texture by clipping it to the Fabric Clipping Mask layer (where I have Fabric Patten).

Add text and you are good to go! I hope you enjoy my newest cover design. :-)

Download the free CoffeeShop Facebook Cover 5! You can also download it here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

2012-04-13T11:30:00.000-05:00

Keeping It Real...

2012-04-11T20:36:00.001-05:00

Ok kids, stop hunting for eggs just for a second so I can get a picture of all of you together. Stand in front of that pink flower thingie. Wait, not there, there is poison ivy, move over to the right! Your other right... Grab the little kid quickly before he runs, and for goodness sake Duke, can you smile for a change? This is an Easter egg hunt, not a trip to the dentist.

Ok, everyone smile - wait, the little one got away, grab him again and hold on tight!

Oh no, I think someone stepped in dog poop. We will scrape it off after I get the picture. Oh, you think it is chicken poop? No problem, that is less disgusting than dog poop.

Now, smile right now or I am going to take away all of your candy and eat it myself. Seriously, if you don't smile I won't hesitate to spank all of you on Easter. I just want one picture with all of you facing my camera, it is that hard?

Duke, you better smile or I will give you something to frown about. Look at Imp, he is only 4 and has a perfect smile. And sweetie, please hold on to your brother, I really want a photo of him.

Don't move! Snap, snap, snap. Ok, I think I have it, no thanks to you guys. You can go back to hunting for eggs. Sweetie, let your brother go, you are hurting his arm.

And the professionals make it look so darn easy... Please tell me that I am not alone in acting like a harpy for just one decent Easter snapshot. ;-) And is it only me, or does it crack you guys up that my boys don't even notice the little guy falling? At least his sister looks concerned. I hope he didn't fall in that dog/chicken poop...

I used my Golden Afternoon action on this image (turned down to 50% or so). And no toddlers where harmed in the making of these photos. And I did steal some of their candy, so there.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

These Boys of Mine...

2012-04-03T20:03:00.000-05:00

I didn't take any bluebonnet pictures last year because of the drought and lack of pretty flowers, but this year we ran out to our old house to snap a few pictures. It was a bittersweet moment for me because it is unlikely the new owners will deal with the months of weeds after the bluebonnets bloom, waiting for them to seed. So I imagine they will probably get mowed down this year...

I had to beg my husband not to do that yearly, so I might miss the bluebonnet field but I won't miss the months of my husband cursing under his breath at me every weekend when he had his mower out, ready to go. ;-)

So I was excited to get a nice photo, and unfortunately the image above was pretty much the best of the bunch. They did not want to be photographed because they wanted to go run and play. But you know, I think I like this better than fake smiles.

Sorry I haven't been around so much the last weeks. We are still moving the last bits of stuff (junk) from the old house every weekend and then I have to find room for it in the new house (which has less storage space) and I get frustrated and stressed with the whole process and end up going to the park or local festivals with the family or watching TV to avoid doing any real work.

Who doesn't like a wine festival?

I have a few things I will be posting, so keep me bookmarked!!!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

CoffeeShop PowderRoom 3 Retouching Action!

2012-03-28T19:57:00.000-05:00

I have many retouching actions (some of my favorites are Perfect Portrait 3 and 2 Minute Miracle), but I still turn to my original retouching action, CoffeeShop PowderRoom 2. PowderRoom 2 is a great little action and is still something you should have in your action pane.

I know many of my readers love this action, but I have had many email requests to update it. I had this action open a duplicate of your image so you could edit on the copy rather than on the original. This sounded good at the time, but I realize it is not necessary and very annoying, and also makes it impossible to use the action to batch process images.

So I finally got my act together and updated PowderRoom 2. Now the action runs on your original image and I also have it select your white brush at the end of the action so you can start painting on the layer masks.

The action download links are at the bottom of this post.

Using the CoffeeShop PowderRoom 3 Action:

It is important to read these instructions before using CoffeeShop PowderRoom 3. When you run the action on your image, your image will look completely untouched. You have to understand how to use layer masks to make the enhancements (see the CoffeeShop Tuturial on Layer Masks. This action works with both color and B&W images and will run in PSE5-10 and and all versions of Photoshop CS.

1. Please run this action on a flattened image which has already had color/contrast correction and basic skin retouching. The skin smoothing layer will remove most minor skin issues, but deep wrinkles, hot spots, and severe blemishes need to be edited first by using the healing or clone tools. Note: To remove hot spots (light areas) caused by flash and shiny skin, use your clone tool set to darken blending mode and 50% opacity. Alt-click a clean area of skin by the hot spot and then gently brush over the lightened area to darken. Keep on brushing until the area matches the rest of the skin. To lighten areas of the skin which are too dark such as under eye circles, use your clone tool set to lighten blending mode and 50% opacity. Alt-click an area of clean skin by the dark area and then gentle brush over the dark area to lighten. This method works great to reduce the look of deep wrinkles.

2. When the action is finished your image will look untouched. You must use a soft white paintbrush in NORMAL mode (b to select the paintbrush), d (to make the default swatch colors black foreground/white background), x (to make the foreground white) to paint over the black layer masks (or directly on the layer in the case of Bright Eyes). Make sure you click to select the black layer masks BEFORE using your paintbrush on the image. If the effects are too harsh, then you can adjust the opacity of that layer OR if you want to start over, select your layer mask and edit, fill with black (or 50% gray in the Bright Eyes layer).

3. White Teeth layer: Zoom (z) in to magnify the teeth. Paint on the teeth using a soft low opacity (start with 10%) brush, staying away from the gums and lips. If the effect is too subtle, paint over the teeth again. It they become too white, then lower the opacity of that layer.

4. White Whites layer: This layer is useful to remove red from tired/allergy eyes and whiten the whites. Use a low opacity (10%) soft white brush and gently brush over the eye whites until the redness is gone and the whites are whitened. Adjust the opacity of that layer to taste.

5. Eye Define layer: This layer will sharpen the eyes and lashes. Use a soft white brush set to 100% opacity and brush over the eyes and the eye lashes. Then adjust the opacity of that layer to taste. The eyes will look darker, but the next step will brighten them.

6. Bright Eyes layer: This is the layer where you lighten the iris. Select a soft low opacity (10%) white brush and gently paint over the iris in each eye, trying to avoid the pupil, rim around the iris, and eyelashes. If the effect is too subtle, repeat. If the effect causes scary alien eyes, then just lower the opacity of that layer.

7. Soft Skin layer: This layer will add a soft blur to the skin to soften it. Use a low opacity soft white brush (10-20% to start) and gently brush over the skin, avoiding the eyes, mouth, hair, etc. If the effect is too subtle then repeat. If the skin looks like a plastic doll then either lower the opacity of that layer or start again by filling in your layer mask with black. It is so important to apply a light hand to this layer as the results should be subtle. Sometimes I set my brush to 100% and then just lower the opacity of that layer to taste.

8. Vignette layer: Use a soft low opacity black brush to add a vignette around the edges of your image or darken (burn) areas. Use a soft low opacity white brush to lighten (dodge) areas.

9. When you are finished, just flatten the layers and save the file.

Download the free CoffeeShop PowderRoom 3 action! You can also download it here.

Pretty Presets: Spring Color, Flare & Haze for Lightroom 4 AND 25% SALE!

2012-03-27T19:14:00.000-05:00

The Spring Color, Flare & Haze Collection is uniquely designed to add a sun-kissed touch to your natural light images. The “Color Presets” can be used alone or in conjunction with the “Post Sunflares and Hazes” to create dreamy color and beautiful warm tones. You can also use the “Post Sunflares and Hazes” as a stand alone preset, or combine with any of your favorite presets from Pretty Presets for Lightroom. Plus, enjoy 25% off this collection for a limited time. View more by clicking here! This is for Lightroom 4, we will release a set for Lightroom 3 in a month.

The set contains 25 Original Presets including 6 Color Presets and 19 Post Sunflares/Hazes. The Color Presets & Sunflare/Haze Posts are perfect for all your natural light photos, and work best on RAW images.

Special thanks to Brooke from Brooke Logue Photography for generously allowing us to use her images for our preset examples.

Special thanks to Jen Carver Photography and Spanki Mills Photography for generously allowing us to use their images for our preset examples.

Enjoy 25% off THE ENTIRE STORE for a Limited Time with the code "readytoedit".

View the collection HERE!

Buy Now $39
SALE PRICE $29.25

Act today to get the best discount!

Enjoy 25% off your total purchase through Thursday, March 29th at midnight MST

Enjoy 20% off your total purchase Friday, March 30th through 12pm MST

Enjoy 15% off Saturday and Sunday!

CoffeeShop Facebook Cover Blank Template!

2012-03-25T12:23:00.001-05:00

We are still trying to get the last bits of our stuff moved from the old house to the new (why in the world did I not just pack everything up for the movers to move?), but the new house is finally starting to feel like home. Every time I move I plan on going through stuff before I box it up, but I get impatient and decide that I will just move it all and go through it later. And of course once it is boxed up and in the closet in the new place I forget about it and it just gets moved once again. And now that I have kids the amount of stuff is getting bigger and bigger.

I just tell myself that one day I will have more free time because the boys will be bigger or I will have empty nest syndrome and have plenty of time to go through all of my old junk. I hear stories from so many of my friends and family members about their moves and how it would take years for them to get everything where they wanted it. These stories comfort me and make me feel less guilty about not having pictures on the walls yet and still having problems finding the extra toilet paper.

My sister in Austin (the one who said she likes to move so she can clean out junk) moved recently and within a week her house looked like a home with pictures on the wall, rugs in their appropriate places, and books sorted and placed on bookshelves. And she had plenty of toilet paper stocked in each bathroom (she must be a witch!). She also has two kids and is a wonder woman. She has a unique talent of making any place look like a cozy home almost immediately, while I can live in the same place for seven years and still have blank walls. I need her to come visit and help me design this place!

Even though I am having to get adjusted in being in a neighborhood in town after living on acreage for almost seven years, we are just a few minutes from an actual Main Street of the small town I grew up in with all of its beautiful parks, amazing small family-owned restaurants, and free festivals. We are also still close to friends and family, so that made the move easier. And our new house is really nice (with no green shag carpeting or avocado green ovens) with plenty of trees and and a big yard for the boys to run around and play.

And fortunately my parents live 20 minutes away on 30 acres of woods with creeks and plenty of climbing trees, trails, and assorted snakes and bugs. So my boys will still be country kids which is really important to me. Did I tell you that my parents took a dozen of my favorite chickens? They had an old bird aviary my husband converted to a hen house. My chickens love living out there and have become so tame. And I still get fresh eggs!

I hope to get completely moved in the next week or two or three and then I will have more time to create and blog. Not to mention feel less stressed because the work will finally be done and we can have our weekends back. I miss our normal life! But I did have some free time today to make a little freebie for you.

I made a simple blank Facebook Cover Template that is the maximum size (851px by 315px) so you can create your own custom covers. I included a simple jpg where you can add your image/text above the background and also a layered psd which has an layer for the little photo profile on the left side so you can make sure important parts of your cover are not covered by your profile picture. The profile picture layer is turned off, but you can turn it on to see what part of the cover is getting covered up by it.

Download the free Facebook Cover Blank Template! You can also download it here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

CoffeeShop Tutorial: Making Transparent pngs for Designing

2012-03-21T20:56:00.001-05:00

I just discovered The Graphics Fairy website where you can download beautiful vintage clip art for free! I used this cute vintage rabbit for my Facebook Easter cover I posted yesterday and I was inspired to write a little tutorial on removing a white background from clip art. This is just one way to do it in PSE or Photoshop Elements, but it is an easy technique and can work really well.

1. I right-clicked on the rabbit on the Graphics Fairy Website (seen in the image above) and downloaded it on my desktop. This image was a jpg so the background was white. I wanted to remove all of the white so I could put the rabbit on some vintage digital paper.

2. I selected W for my magic wand and made sure that it was set for new selection (first box on menubar), set the tolerance to 10 (this can be adjusted) and made sure Contiguous was not checked (because there is white in the middle of the rabbit I want to remove). Then I clicked on the white space around the rabbit to select all of the white in the image.

3. I then double-clicked on the Background layer (rabbit) in the layer pane and when the New Layer menu popped up, I clicked on OK. You can't remove the white from a layer called Background. Then I clicked on Delete on my keyboard and all of the white was removed. Then click on Command-D to remove the marking ants.

4. The rabbit is now on a transparent background and you can save it as a png to keep it that way. Don't save it as a jpg or the white background will come back!!!

5. I dragged the rabbit (V for move tool) and dropped him on some vintage paper and free transformed him to fit (Ctrl-T). Make sure you hold shift in PS/check Constrain Proportions in PSE or your rabbit will get distorted.

6. Now you can play. If you put the rabbit layer in soft light or blending mode it will fade into the paper.

7. If you want to add color, add a color fill adjustment layer above the rabbit (keep the rabbit in normal mode), group it, and then adjust the color to taste.

I hope you have fun downloading free clipart from The Graphics Fairy!!! And thank you so much Karen for sharing your designs.

CoffeeShop Facebook Easter Cover / Website Header Set!

2012-03-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

I just discovered an amazing website, The Graphics Fairy! Karen has thousands of beautiful vintage design elements and inspiring tutorials on crafting and design. And you can use her downloads personally or commercially (please go read her TOU).

I was so inspired visiting her website I decided to put together a set of Facebook Covers/Website-Blog Headers for Easter/Spring! The frames, rabbit and flower texture are all from The Graphics Fairy. I included both a layered psd version that is fully adjustable and can be used in both Photoshop and PSE and also a simple png with image cutouts that can be used in any editing program.

These are image files and can be used on Facebook or as a header for your blog or website. I used a free font from Font Squirrel called Aquiline for the "Happy Easter". If you don't have this font you can download and install it. You can also change the text to "Happy Spring" or whatever you want in the layered psd version of the headers.

Download the free CoffeeShop Facebook Easter Cover/Website Header 1! You can also download it from here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

CoffeeShop Ethereal Sky Texture Set!

2012-03-18T12:28:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I need to go out of my creative comfort zone and try something new. I am always fascinated with composite photos and decided to play and do a quick and dirty one on my own using a few images I shot the other day. The results were quite funny and very amateurish (my husband cracked up when he saw the image), but I realized this was something I might want to explore in more detail.

I did a great job on little Imp sitting on the steps (this is a composite so he was originally not there), but poor little Duke sticks out like a sore thumb. I am really excited to try learn more about this type of technique because it is so fun and you can be so creative.

After I finished this quick edit I ended up loving my sky texture so I decided to put together a little set of high resolution jpgs to share with you. I used the Oil Painting-5 texture from ShadowHouse Creations in this download set and my own sky photo. These textures are really pretty and look like oil paintings. You can use them for cards, web design, storyboards, composites; the sky is the limit. ;-)

I love textures and have a bit of an addiction. Some of my favorites are Chasing Dreams (Colleen has gorgeous textures and a 25% discount available today, March 18th, use code Irish25), FlyPaper Textures (some of the best painterly and vintage edge textures out there), and Shadowhouse Creations (beautiful free textures, please consider leaving Jerry a donation). I don't think it is possible to have too many textures.

Download the free CoffeeShop Ethereal Sky Texture Set! You can also download it from here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

2012-03-16T18:14:00.001-05:00