Battle of the Creative Teams, Week 3

I am participating in the Battle of the Creative Teams, representing By Becca. For this week's challenge, we were supposed to have a monochromatic palette and use photos of ourselves. Becca was sweet enough to recolor elements in the brown family and the kit turned out so well that she's releasing it in her store! The new kit is called Champagne & Chocolate and it's now available for sale. We didn't place in the top three last week and our team really made some stunning layouts this week... please help us by voting!!! Here are our BOTCT challenge layouts:

By Becca... Becca's Creative Goddesses

Please take a moment to vote for us! By Becca is listed about mid-way down this week.
VOTE

Here is my layout and the new kit!

Champagne & Chocolate

Thanks for your support!

Fix-it Friday #76 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Susan Keller, an IHF contributor. Here is the original photo:




And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):




I love shots of kids at the beach. This little boy is a cutie-pie! Evaluating this image, I wanted to focus more on the boy's face. I was distracted by the dark patch of sand near his nose and chin. I also wanted to give the photo a beachy tone with a bit of haze. First I opened the photo in ACR to lower the contrast and cool the white balance. Then I opened the image in CS5.

Workflow in PS CS5:
~Cropped
~Patched sand area near face
~Desaturated orange cast from shirt on chin
~Ran Pandora action (from the Florabella Luxe collection), reduced opacity 90%
~Ran My4Hens Dusy Haze action, turned on Cyan at 40% opacity
~Reduced contrast
~Added texture, 50% opacity set to soft light, masked 50% on face
~Tweaked color balance, added a bit of yellow and cyan
~Added vignette at 20% opacity
~Sharpened

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

i heart faces ~ pink

This week's photo challenge at i heart faces is pink. From their website: "This week’s theme is in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Your photo entry should include a human face and the color pink! We know many of us have been touched by this disease, so sharing your stories with your photo would be wonderful. Let’s remind everyone what month it is and encourage women to get a mammogram."

I've got the cutest shot of Anna, my sweet little girl, who was wearing a pink shirt on the day this photo was taken. We were at the endocrinologist's office in the midst of a series of specialist appointments during a very stressful time. She was being so good and sweet and I'm happy I got this shot of her before some big changes happened in her life.

Image is clickable to see it larger.





Thanks for looking! And go check out all of the other fabulous entries at i heart faces this week!

Battle of the Creative Teams, Week 2... and free quickpage!!!

I am participating in the Battle of the Creative Teams, representing By Becca. For this week's challenge, we were supposed to scraplift two of our team members' layouts and use either "Yesterday," "Today," or "Tomorrow" in our title. We didn't place in the top three last week and I would love to change that this week. Here are our BOTCT challenge layouts:

By Becca... Becca's Creative Goddesses

Please take a moment to vote for us! By Becca is listed second from the top this week.

VOTE

Here is my layout which I've turned into a full-size quickpage for you!

The quickpage is sized 12x12 at 300ppi and is pre-shadowed. There is space for two photos; all you have to do drop your photos in and print!

DOWNLOAD

Thanks for your support and enjoy the freebie!

Fix-it Friday #75 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Angie Arthur, an IHF contributor. Here is the original photo:



And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger and the original size edit is available in my Flickr photostream):



What a gorgeous, amazing photo. The bokeh is divine and I love the movement of the little boy. We were lucky enough to get the RAW file for this photo. First I opened the photo in ACR to correct the exposure and white balance. Then I opened the image in Photoshop CS5.

Workflow in PS CS5:
~I first cropped to the rule-of-thirds to focus in a little closer on the little boy.
~Levels layer to make a few adjustments to the midtones.
~Ran Noiseware at low opacity.
~I ran Flora Bella's Luxe action called "Gypsy" and loved the effect and made a few tweaks on the individual layers but kept the opacity at 100%.
~Saved for web and sharpened.

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

"Crisp Days of Fall" new today by AnnaBV Designs

AnnaBV Designs has an adorable new kit out today at ScrapOrchard called Crisp Days of Fall. With fun colors and elements, it is very versatile for all kinds of layouts. There is a coordinating alpha, wordart, as well as a bundle to save even more. Anna has also created a template pack to make designing your layouts even easier.

Apples Templates

Crisp Days of Fall

Crisp Days of Fall Alpha

Chilly Fall Wordart

Crisp Days of Fall Bundle

My Layout made with Apple Template #4.

Thanks for looking!

i heart faces ~ orchard

This week's photo challenge at i heart faces is In the Orchard. From their website: "Orchards are a wonderful location to have portrait sessions. This week’s photo should include a human face and should be taken in an orchard of some kind. (If you absolutely can’t make it to an orchard though, please feel free to use a photo that includes a human face and some type of orchard fruit – anything from a tree or bush would be fine.) We can’t wait to see what you come up with!"

We don't have any orchards around here, so I had Dominic grab his favorite type of apple (Gala!) and pose for a photo. He held it out to me and I love the shallow DOF that I achieved. I took it a step further and added a texture to the photo to really focus on the apple. I hope that they will take this submission but since his face is blurred, I'm not sure.

Image is clickable to see it larger.



Thanks for looking! And go check out all of the other fabulous entries at i heart faces this week!

Battle of the Creative Teams, Week 1

Hello friends and family! I am participating in a contest supporting a designer for whom I create... By Becca at 9th & Bloom. This contest is called Battle of the Creative Teams and it lasts four weeks. There are five of us participating for Becca in the contest and we each made a layout following a specific recipe and equation laid out by the contest coordinators. I need your help! The voting is done by the public, one vote per week (so I'll be asking for your help three more times *wink*).

Would you take a moment to check out our layouts here?

By Becca... Becca's Creative Goddesses

And vote for us here?

BOTCT Vote

Be sure to vote for By Becca... our team is 10th from the bottom on the poll! Thanks so so so much!!!

May I toot my horn a little? *blush*

I joined a fantastic paid membership photography forum this spring called Clickin' Moms. Before CM, I was using the P mode on my Nikon D40. I took their Rock Your Camera 101 class in August and ever since, I've been shooting in manual mode. In September they introduced Creativity Challenges. The first challenge was called "Photographer in the Frame" and the second challenge was "Shooting Indirectly." I just found out that two of my photos were chosen today (along with some other fantastic photos from other members) for their blog entry about the reflections challenge! Last month, one of mine was chosen to be featured on the blog for the first challenge. Also, CM recently had a candid photography contest in which I won second place! (I should be getting a Starbucks gift card and some other goodies in the mail soon.) I wanted to share my photos and excitement... and encourage anyone with a love of photography to join this incredible forum.

Images are clickable to see them larger.

Photographer in the Frame challenge:


Shooting Indirectly challenge:




Candid photo of Anna that won 2nd place:


I'm not really comfortable with tooting my own horn, but I'm so happy with how much I've learned. I can't wait to continue to grow my skills and I'm excited that there is still so much to learn! You can check out the Clickin' Moms blog to whet your appetite. And when you're ready to join, you can click this link to have me refer you to the forum (SO worth the money!):


Thanks for indulging me, I'm just so tickled!

Fix-it Friday #74 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Dana Suggs, an IHF contributor. I love pumpkin field photos and this one just need a little brightening up... it's gorgeous! Here is the original photo:



And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):



The image is strong, it just need a bit of brightening. First I opened the photo in ACR to correct the exposure and white balance. Then I opened the image in CS4.

Workflow in PS CS4:
~cloned out the pumpkins in the upper left corner to make the edge clean
~added a curves layer set to screen at 30% opacity, masked just on the little girl to brighten her (similar to center fill light)
~ran Noiseware at low opacity
~ran Florabella Luxe's Sweet Sunshine action, lowered to 20% opacity to add warmth
~ran My4Hens Highlight Glow from Toolbox #2, lowered opacity (I love the glowy feel to the highlights!)
~ran Florabella Luxe's Sapphire action with lots of layer tweaking, lowered opacity of group to 65%
~added a subtle (10% opacity) vignette
~high pass sharpening layer set to soft light

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

Pumpkin Festival photos

So last weekend Jenny came home for a visit from college. It was so good to see her! Curtis, Jenny, Chris, Dominic, and I went to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm for the Pumpkin Festival and we had such a good time. I thought I'd share a few photos. Dominic got to paint a pumpkin, we went on a hay ride, made our way through a corn maze, saw some old tractors, Dominic rode a horse, and I bonded with another horse. What a great family day! Anna was sick, so she stayed home with my mom.























Thanks for looking!