A photoshoot

I wanted to capture the kids with Carson while he is still new and so little so this is what we came up with today.

Make your own christmas cards quick and easy

Every year I have grand plans of getting a professional photo taken of our family in the fall and then using those lovely photos for our Christmas cards but it seems like every year things get crazy (or I'm pregnant and we don't need any pictures of THAT) and it just doesn't happen. Well, this year it "didn't happen" again and last week I had to come up with something quick.

I thought I'd share with you what I did just in case you are in a similar situation... it's not too late to get a great Christmas card out.

First I bought a Santa hat from The Dollar store then I found the spot in my house with the most natural light. We are lucky to have a lot of big windows in our home so natural light is easy to come by. I created a back drop with a white sheet and took pictures (turn OFF the flash on your camera... you will get much better pictures with natural light and no flash) of each of my kids wearing the Santa hat.

The pictures looked something like this:

Then I used this tutorial for selective colorization.

Now you can just take this photo to Costco (or snapfish or whatever) and use one of their cards OR you can easily create your own card using photoshop/ elements like I did.

I LOVE this site for FREE digital scrapbooking kits and she just posted a beautiful Christmas kit you could use for your card. When your all done just print them out at your photo store (I paid 13 cents for each card, WAHOO!).

BTW- If you are wanting to learn more about how to use your digital camera or how to take better pictures (who doesn't want to take better pictures?!) my dad has a great photography blog in fact it's The World's Best Photography Blog . ;)

He used to own a photography studio now he just shares his expertise and photos on this blog.

Check out 10 Cool Features of your Digital Camera you Should Learn and Use. He goes into detail about each feature and has a lot of photos to illustrate!

Sneeze!

I heart my

Melissa and I

Sorry..... we are busy around here.

Melissa flew out to Kentucky to visit me (and probably the rest of my family too) so we are too busy shopping, playing games, eating, and taking pictures of babies who are growing way too fast.

(These photos are of Melissa's little angel, Avery)

PS She is wearing the tutu we made here.

Photoshop Actions (PS and PS elements)

Found the coffeeshop blog from my friend Traci at Amazing Mae where you

can get free actions for your photoshop. WAHOO!

For those of you who don't know what an "action" is, basically someone else does all the work (messes with colors, levels, layers, etc.) so that all you have to do is click the mouse and it takes your pictures

from this:
To this: Do you like the vintage look? Then try this one...

From this:

To this:

Or if you just need a "little perk"

From this:

To this:

gotta LOVE it!

Find all of the great coffeeshop actions HERE and have fun playing with your pictures!

Ice, Ice, Baby

Life has been crazy and a record-breaking ice storm (that took out our power for 3 days) didn't help matters... but, it sure was beautiful.

It's nice to be back online.

Selective Colorization with Photoshop Elements

I found another tutorial for photoshop elements that I love and wanted to share.

This allows you to turn your picture black and white and then re-color the parts of the picture you want.

Check it out here.

Oh, and let me know if you like me to share these photoshop tricks. I love learning more but maybe everyone else already knows all this stuff?!?

So please leave a comment if you want me to keep sharing what I find. :)

Playing with photoshop today

I learned the coolest photoshop trick today on Blissfully Domestic and it is soooo simple!

I took this original picture (above) of my daughter and added a few different textures so you can see the effects.

I love how the different textures change the feeling of each picture.

Love this!!

Check it out, she even gives you links to free textures to use.

Megan turns Five!