CoffeeShop 4 Corners Storyboard Template!

This new storyboard was named after the major intersection in the small Texas town I grew up in. At Four Corners there was this huge monster oak tree that had been around forever and was the pride of our town. Well, along comes bigger roads, more cars, more strip malls, more subdivisions, more junk food restaurants, more gas stations; and even though the town resisted fiercely, the developers cut that gorgeous tree down. I can't tell you how upset the people of our town were, but there was nothing they could do, after all, it was "only a tree". But I can tell you not many people admire or rest under the shade of that gas station that took the place of our old oak tree...

When you live out in the "country" like I do, progress usually isn't pretty. The country becomes the suburbs, the suburbs become urban sprawl. It is ironic because all of those thousands and thousands of people move out here to escape the city and live in the country. Well, now where just a few years ago we had cow pastures, farm houses, and wide open spaces and beautiful woods, we now have just down the road the sprawl of cookie cutter houses with no trees, strip malls, traffic, pollution, crime, and a sky that refuses to get dark enough most nights for my kids to see the stars at night.

CoffeeShop 4 Corners Storyboard is a .psd image file (not an action!) for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements and has clipping masks (see my tutorial here if you don't know how to use them).

Download the free CoffeeShop 4 Corners Storyboard template HERE!


Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets 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.

Fun little blog tip, Link Within Widget!

We went to Galveston last week and had a great time. It is just amazing how much the island has recovered after Hurricane Ike. I will post more images of our trip later, but I had to post this one of the track hoe with the impact hammer, seemingly out in the middle of the ocean. We woke up one morning and looked out the window and saw this amazing view. My boys love construction vehicles, so this was absolutely thrilling to them. Luckily they get up early (yeah right, I would love to sleep in one morning, at least until 7:30...) so I was able to photograph it. It is on the end of a cement/granite pier which they are rebuilding after the hurricane. Notice the people watching on the lower left of the image; we weren't the only ones impressed. Nature and machines; strange mix for beauty but it sometimes works.

You probably have noticed that I have these new five little thumbnails below each post that link similar posts within my blog. I have seen these around lately and wanted to do the same, but hadn't really investigated it. Then I was looking at a blog design I had done months ago and she had added those little photo links and I decided to click on the credit link and find out how to install my own.

It is so easy! Just go visit LinkWithin and set up your own linking thumbnails on your website or blog. It is free and takes only a minute or two. LinkWithin says it can take hours for it to crawl your site and show reasonable links, but mine were working great within 10 minutes or so.

This is such a nifty feature for blogs like mine. I have so much information and it can be really hard to find what you are looking for without cool little widgets like this. I have added the label cloud and I hope that helps, but this is a fun little way to find similar posts that you might not have realized you wanted to read!

I am posting a new storyboard template (.psd, not action) and my newest action, CoffeeShop Vintage Honey, in the next day or two. I am also putting together a tutorial on how to make your own templates with clipping masks and a few more fun Editing 101 posts. I am trying to post more often, so check back regularly!!!

Hope you are all having a great weekend. It is a bit cooler here, but so dry. The Smith Brothers came and cut our hay fields yesterday, but we aren't going to get many bales. But the fields do look really nice and they are going to bale tomorrow, so the boys are completely excited!

On a sad note, we lost one of our 18 chickens while I was in Galveston. Poor little Henny Penny 1 or 2 (we had two black and white hens, Henny Penny 1 and 2, and I could not tell them apart) got out of the chicken coop and unfortunately is now gone. I will spare you the details, but her demise had a lot to do with tiny chicken brains and nature. The boys were not as sad as I would imagine they would have been, and when I mentioned it to Ike that Henny Penny 1 or 2 was dead, he said "Daddy killed her". What in the world??? I wondered where he learned the word "kill", and then I realized it was from me. As in "step on that fire ant and kill it", or "stand still, I have to kill that mosquito on your arm". Oops, I need to watch my words in the future! And no, Daddy did not kill Henny Penny 1 or 2, but if he had we might have had BBQ chicken when we got back! ;-)

Talking about tiny chicken brains, the other day my grandmother told me this story about this chicken that had its head chopped off by a farmer and it lived for over a year and toured the country as a side-show. The owner feed it through its neck using an eyedropper. I scoffed at my grandmother (in my head of course, never disrespect your elders, especially when they are tiny but incredibly tough) and told my husband about it that night, making a bit of fun of my grandmother. I then told my mom who decided to do a bit of Internet searching and found THIS. Well, needless to say, my grandmother got the last laugh, because Mike the headless chicken was a real headless chicken and lived 18 months with just a brain stem. The interesting part of this story was he did everything a normal chicken did, except he did not have a head or most of his brain. So that puts a chicken's intelligence in perspective. ;-)

But anyway, with tragedy comes new life, and now we have a little black hen (Blackie) sitting on 10 eggs, so we might have a few new chicks in three weeks. They are not all her eggs. She is sitting in prime real estate (according to the other hens) and I keep on finding other hens on top of her, laying their eggs! We have plenty of boxes (11 ones filled with hay and only 15 hens), but the grass is always greener on the other side and everyone wants her box. I finally went out there this morning and used a sharpie to mark the eggs under her so I can remove fresh ones. Otherwise that poor hen might be sitting on a 100 eggs in a few weeks... Haven't you seen those Loony Tunes cartoons where the chicken is balanced on a mountain of eggs? You thought that was funny, right, never realizing that the person who thought of that apparently had a broody hen sitting in a prime location. The chicken snakes also love that location, so I will keep you posted if any of the eggs make it to little chickens.

CoffeeShop Editing 101 - Quick Lighten, Darken, Pop

This is the first in a series of CoffeeShop Photo Enhancements 101 Tutorials. I know many of you that visit my blog are new to this whole photo-editing business. You bought Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and/or LightRoom and you are scared to open it, let alone start messing with your images! I think it is is important to start at the beginning and give you some quick tips/tricks to help you get over your fears so you can enjoy editing. And some of this stuff might be new to those of you who have been editing for some time!

Most images are not perfect SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) and could use a few tweaks. I am going to give you a few quick tips to lighten, darken, and/or "pop" your images easily and quickly in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Lighten:


You took a lovely photo but it is too dark and you want a quick fix.



Ctrl-J your background (this makes a copy; you can also use Layer, Duplicate Layer). Then put this copied layer into Screen Blending mode and adjust the opacity to taste. This is a great method to brighten skin.

Darken:


Maybe you want to darken your image slightly.


Ctrl-J your background (or Layer, Duplicate Layer). Then put this copied layer into Multiply Blending mode and adjust the opacity to taste. This is a great way to burn in backgrounds.

Pop:


One really popular photo-enhancement is making your image "pop", which basically means you are adding more contrast. Here is a quick "pop" technique.


Ctrl-J your background (or Layer, Duplicate Layer). Then put this copied layer into Soft Light or Overlay blending mode and adjust the opacity to taste. Use Hard, Vivid, Linear, or Pin light if you are really adventurous. This is such a simple adjustment but the results can be quite stunning.

All of these adjustments can be used on color or B&W images. Easy isn't it! You can also combine the different effects (screen on one layer, soft light on a second), or use two of the same effects (if your image is really dark, make 2 copies, put each in screen, and adjust top layer's opacity to taste). Use layer masks to mask out the enhancements where needed (if you have PSE, download my PSE layer mask action). You can use a screen layer to brighten skin (mask out the rest of the image) and then a soft light layer on everything BUT the skin (mask out the skin). Play around with it! I used all three blending modes with layer masks on the after image below.



My next Editing 101 Tutorial will explain why you would want to use a S-curve adjustment layer, and include a free action for you PSE users who can't access Photoshop curves. Then I am going to have a tutorial covering Layer Masks and why you should love them! If there is a basic tutorial you would like to see me post here, please just comment below and I will try to add it to my list. :-)

I forgot to mention the Mozy sale this month! Click on the banner below, enter the text "AUGUST" when you check out and get 10% off your Mozy plan!!!

CoffeeShop Blogger UnWrapped: Removing Blogger Navbar

I have been posting my CoffeeShop Actions UnWrapped series for a while (I explain step-by-step what my actions are doing), I am adding CoffeeShop Editing 101 (basic photo-editing tutorials) and now I am starting a second new series, CoffeeShop Blogger UnWrapped. Blogger UnWrapped is going to share secrets to tweaking Blogger templates and making them your own. It has taken me months to figure out all of this stuff, and I am going to teach you all of the best Blogger tweaks!

A few of the things I have planned for the next months are making your 2-column blog wider, making a photoblog or 3 column blog, adding a horizontal menubar, making blog buttons, changing your background, adding post dividers, making slideshow headers, and removing those annoying wrenches by your columns. If there is anything in particular you are looking to do on Blogger, leave a comment and I will try to add it to my list.

On to my tutorial... Today we are going to remove that pesky blue Blogger Navbar on top of your blog.

CoffeeShop Web Triptych PS/PSE Action and Template!

Finally my family is free of sickness! It has a horrible long two and one-half weeks, but we made it through with no antibiotics and most of our sanity. We even spent a few days on the beach to celebrate our wellness. You don't really appreciate being well until you have been sick for weeks. :-)

Here is my second of a series of web storyboard templates, the CoffeeShop Triptych (3 photo) PS/PSE Action and template. You can also keep this large and have it printed, but otherwise the action crops it to fit your website or blog. I even included a .psd image file for those of you who don't have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and would rather use a storyboard template with clipping masks.

The download includes actions/thumbnails for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, a .psd template, and full instructions.


CoffeeShop Web Triptych PS/PSE Action Instructions

Note:  I have also included a .psd template with clipping masks for those of you who don't want to use an action.  Just open this like any other image, and follow my clipping mask tutorial.

1.  Load action (.atn file) and thumbnails (.psd for PSE5, .png for PSE6 and PSE7) if you have PSE.  If you have PSE, make sure you have a random image open before starting the action (it won't work otherwise).  The action will close the random image and start building the storyboard.  If you have Photoshop, start the action without any images open.

2.  The action will build the storyboard and prompt you to load the left-side image.  Then it will prompt you to free-transform the image to fit in the cutout.  If you can't see the free-transform bars, click on Ctrl-0 (that is zero) to expand the view so you can easily adjust the image to fit.  Hold down the shift key (in Photoshop) or make sure "Constrain Proportions" is checked (in PSE) so your image does not warp.

3.  The second image will load in the center, the final image loads on the right; follow the direction in step 2 to make them fit.

4.  Finally, the action will prompt you to enter the final desired image width in pixels.  Enter the width only, the height will automatically adjust.  For example, I crop my storyboards 600px wide so they fit the middle column of the CoffeeShop blog.  Keep the image size as is if you wish to print this storyboard.

5.  After the action is finished you can move around and transform the images to make final adjustments.  Then flatten and upload to your favorite website/blog.

6.  The Photoshop action will close all of the images you loaded into the storyboard.  The PSE action does not (it crashes the program).

Download the free CoffeeShop Web Triptych PS/PSE Action and Template HERE!

Do you want to download thousands of professional CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop actions (including exclusive ones not found anywhere for free), textures/overlays, scrapbooking papers, clip art/design elements, photo storyboards and frames, and Lightroom presets from this site in one convenient zipped file AND help support this one-woman blog?

Just click here for my CoffeeShop Mega Download Pack!

CoffeeShop Blog Diptych PS/PSE Action!

I promised I would start desiging blog storyboard/template actions and here is the first, the CoffeeShop Blog Diptych. This action builds a Diptych (2 photo) storyboard, prompts you to load your images, lets you free-transform them to taste on the fly, and then crops the final template to the width you need for your website or blog. It will take you only a few seconds to build this template.

This is a new storyboard action design for me. Rather then have the action crop your images, I have it build clipping masks and you can free transform your images to fit as the action runs. The best part of this method is you can further adjust the image after the image runs. I plan on using this method to design my future storyboard actions.

The zip file contains both a Photoshop and PSE version of the action and full instructions. Feel free to comment on blog template/storyboard versions you would like to see me create! I am coming out with a triptych (3 photo) version next.


CoffeeShop Web Diptych PS/PSE Action

1.  Load action.  If you have PSE, make sure you have a random image open before starting the action (it won't work otherwise).  In PSE, the action will close the random image and start building the storyboard.  If you have Photoshop, start the action without any images open.

2.  The action will build the storyboard and prompt you to load the left-side image.  Then it will prompt you to free-transform the image to fit in the cutout.  If you can't see the free-transform bars, click on Ctrl-0 (that is zero) to expand the view so you can easily adjust the image to fit.  Hold down the shift key (in Photoshop) or make sure "Constrain Proportions" is checked (in PSE) so your image does not warp.

3.  The second image will load on the right side; follow the direction in step 2 to make it fit.

4.  Finally, the action will prompt you to enter the final desired image width in pixels.  Enter the width only, the height will automatically adjust.  For example, I crop my storyboards 600px wide so they fit the middle column of the CoffeeShop blog.

5.  After the action is finished you can move the images around to make final adjustments.  Then flatten and upload to your favorite website/blog!


Download the free CoffeeShop Blog Diptych PS/PSE Action HERE!

Do you want to download thousands of professional CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop actions (including exclusive ones not found anywhere for free), textures/overlays, scrapbooking papers, clip art/design elements, photo storyboards and frames, and Lightroom presets from this site in one convenient zipped file AND help support this one-woman blog?

Just click here for my CoffeeShop Mega Download Pack!

CoffeeShop Blogger UnWrapped: Fooling Blogger and Loading Large Images!

Note: This tutorial works great, but check out my new easier tutorial here!

So you want to display large images on your Blogger blog. You make your image 1000px wide, load it up on your post selecting "Image Size, Large", and suddenly your large image looks small on your post. What happened? Why is Blogger shrinking your image? If you click on your image within you post it opens a new page with the full-sized version, but why is it not showing up full-sized in your post?

CoffeeShop Web Rounded Corners PS/PSE Action!

NOTE: August 24th Update! I have made a new version of this action that smooths the corners of your image BEFORE cropping, so the corners are nice and smooth, not jagged as they can be in the original action. It is a bit more work for you (you have to enter the smoothing amount because it will differ for each original image size), but I have suggested amounts in the new instructions. Your corners will be wonderfully smooth! The links below are to the new version of this action. Hope you enjoy the improved version. :-)

Wouldn't you love to be able to have an action that would automatically crop/sharpen/round corners of your image so you could post it on your blog? Well, you asked and I wrote and now you can download the CoffeeShop Web Rounded Corners PS/PSE Action.
This is the first in a series of new blog-based actions I will be posting here. I am working on a similar one that adds a drop-shadow and also one that adds a white frame around your image. I am also going to be designing more blog storyboard actions so you can quickly make up beautiful storyboards to post on your website or blog. Finally, I will also be starting a tutorial series on making your Blogger blog beautiful, including tweaking your blog template, adding backgrounds, and other goodies.

Note, this action does not automatically apply your watermark (as seen in the sample image). Unfortunately that has to be custom written for each individual watermark. This zipped download includes both a Photoshop and Photoshop Elements action, plus full instructions.

Download the free CoffeeShop Web Rounded Corners PS/PSE Action 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.

How about another CoffeeShop Giveaway!

I have been stuck at home since last Friday with a 2 year old who has a nasty virus (not the flu, we had it checked out) and I have not had any time to play on the computer or work on something for my blog. Not to mention we are all dealing with lack of sleep (when your son wakes up at 2 AM with 105 degrees F fever, you can't sleep, believe me) and general grumpiness. My 4 year old is healthy so far (fingers crossed), but he is stuck inside with us, poor kid. And my 2 year old has decided if he feels bad then his brother has to feel twice as bad, so that includes destroying any games/toys his older brother is playing with and hitting his older brother with his hand or any hard object he can grab and successful swing... Thank goodness for Little Bear on Noggin and my trusty DVR or I would probably not be typing this right now...

So what is a poor Mom to do when she is too tired to even think about something interesting to put on her blog? Well, she offers a giveaway of course!!! I have been having so much fun learning all about Blogger blog design lately that I decided to put together a little something for one of my readers.

Make a comment about something you would like to see me post on my CoffeeShop blog (make sure you leave your name) and I will randomly select one person to win the blog design seen below (click on the image to see the blog "in action"). It will only install on a Blogger blog, and it includes installation of a 1 column photoblog with a horizontal menubar (fully customizable) and search button, 3 gadgets lined up on the bottom, the background and post dividers seen on the blog, and a custom animated header with up to 4 "flashes" designed for you! If you like the look of this blog design, please inspire me with some great new ideas for actions, templates, storyboards, tutorials, or anything you want! But please, only one comment per person, I hate having to delete doubles. ;-) I will keep this open until Friday night at 9PM central time.

NOTE: I can change the background and post-divider color if orange does not agree with you. We have many Aggies in our family so the orange would NOT work for them!

I have another vintage action coming out this week, so please come and hang out at the CoffeeShop. :-)