Bluebells

A bank of bluebells at Allen Banks! Well worth a visit with some lovely walks in the area.

Playing with shadows

I took this using my Canon camera and used psp to alter it slightly. I have been using both Paint Shop Pro and Elements 9 and find it useful to have both as each has advantages when it comes to digitally altering an image. I find Photoshop good for layers and layer masks as well as effects, but Paint Shop Pro is much better (in my opinion) for printing out images, accessing folders, photo layouts, frames and borders and using the displacement map effect with two images. It's handy having them (not on the same computer) so I'll continue using them both.
Hope you're all enjoying the great weather we're having here!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Beautiful weather here and enjoying family visiting us!

Something borrowed, something blue

Ok, so it's stretching it a bit! A borrowed hat and sunglasses and lots of fun! A photo of some seedheads altered in the Corel Painter programme. This programme has lots of possibilities but I'm just dipping my toe in at the moment, so to speak. Anyone else used it?

Something old, something new ...

Something old - yew tree, at least 900 years old, planted in Beltingham graveyard, believed to ward off evil spirits. New growth seen on a walk at Allen Banks, which is said to be a good spot for seeing lots of bluebells. I'll put it in the diary!

Variations on a theme

Two altered images from the rose petal photo - one of these two will be printed onto fabric and stitched (at least that's the intention!). Don't know which I prefer. Hmm ...

New rose

Rose

Seems to be a bit of a flower theme at the moment - here's one I took using my new tripod. I took the coward's way out and used it indoors first!

Lilies

'Consider how the lilies grow ...'
Sometimes I miss the details - you don't have to go far to see things to enjoy! The first image is the original (sooc) the second has some textures added.
I bought a new tripod today, now I have to learn how to put it up!

Textures

A couple of photos using my textures. A reminder of sunny days!

For Margaret R!

Snap! Taken at Tynemouth pier. Coast to coast!

Textured image 1

I always like to see the before and after images which folks put on their blogs and as I haven't mastered the mouseover , here is an image of tulips in the snow with two of my textures from the previous post. I should have given them names to make them easy to identify but they are easy to pick out I think.

The 'recipe' is -
Background image - tulips and snow
Copy of Background-Screen 90
Texture 1 - difference 69
Texture 2 - soft light 42
Soft light was applied then to the merged image.

Hope to show some more soon! Have a good weekend!

New textures

Some of the textures I've made to use with photos. By changing blend modes, hue and sat etc there is an unlimited source of variations. Now to do something with them!

Paint box

We've watched in horror as the disaster unfolded in Japan and are holding the nation in our prayers. It puts problems into perspective and makes us realise we have a lot to be thankful for.

I've had the paints out this week to make some textures to use with photos - the last image is one of a Christmas decoration with one of my textures added. I'm playing about with some more. Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Textures and shadows

A bright sunny day here - I took this photo of our landing on another day, added a texture which I made and scanned, plus text using a drop shadow (outline). The original photo is below.


Hope it's sunny where you are!

Brushes

Been doing some work with digital brushes this week and getting some of these brushes out to get hold of some real paint. Going to make some more of my own textures to use with photos, so hope to show some results in the near future!

Agapanthus

I used one of my own photos and two of Kim Klassen's textures to create this agapanthus image and was interested to find out that the name comes from the Greek agape (love) and panthos (flower).
Enjoying the half term holiday here - we took two of the grandsons to the Discovery Museum yesterday and also got involved with lots of Ludo and Snakes and Ladders - only thing lacking is endless energy and stamina!

Still brown

The gardener said that this maple keeps the same colour all year long, so we'll be back to have another look sometime. We managed to find some bark which had come off the tree, so by taping some pieces to a window I was able to get these pictures with the light shining through. Think there's a textile in here somewhere!

Shades of brown

Three small Spanish bowls in the porch near the rusty objects - a reminder of hot summer days and eating outside.


... and a photo (sooc) of a wonderful tree seen in Wallington Hall's walled garden which a gardener told me was an acer ..... (I couldn't catch the Latin name) but which is a member of the maple family. The colours were amazing - oranges and browns. It cheered up a dull afternoon

Thinking of Australian friends having to deal with another disaster. Praying that there will be no loss of life.

In the porch

Today the sun was nice and bright in the porch (English porch - not the nice big sort you can sit out in!) so I took this pic of a few rusty bits and pieces which I've picked up along the way, as lots of bloggy friends seem to do. It's the textures and colours that appeal. Not quite the usual porch decoration!