Amazing Texture and Brush Freebies!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Thanksgiving (for those of you who celebrate it). We had a wonderful Thanksgiving over at our house. Family and good food, it doesn't get better than that.

Since everyone is tired from shopping during this long weekend, I think you deserve a few freebies. If you haven't checked out Shadowhouse Creations in a while you won't believe all of the free textures and BRUSHES you have missed! Check out these beautiful FREE texture packs (if you haven't used textures check out all of my texture tutorials):

[...]

♥ Read more!

CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom FREE PS/PSE Action!

I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Anyone can celebrate it. There is no gift buying involved. You get to eat tons of great food and visit with loved ones. Your family from out-of-town comes to visit. The wine and coffee flows freely (in our house at least). And you stop and think about everything you should be thankful for in your life. Including your blog readers!

Now, on to the main attraction!!!



Yes, it is finally here, CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom PS/PSE Action! And this action isn't only for babies. It works great on any portrait. :-). And its price is FREE! (Should I confess I watch TMZ???)

♥ Read more!

Christmas Shopping and Amazon Gift Certificate Giveaway!

I wanted to thank all of you who have purchased our CoffeeShop Watermarking Action Kit. I am thrilled with the positive feedback and want to have a little giveaway to show my appreciation. Anyone that buys our action by this Wed. Dec. 2nd, 11PM central time is entered to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate! If you have already bought the action you are already entered. :-) I will randomly select one winner and post their name Thanksgiving weekend. Here is the action information:

My little sis Heather and I have teamed up and produced a time-saving cropping/sharpening/custom watermarking/cool edge effects action kit for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. You use the same watermark and action for both vertical AND horizontal images! Make as many watermarks as you want.

You can find all of the information at our CoffeeShop Design site. It is not a freebie, but it is worth every penny if you post a lot of images. Buy this action by the Wed. Nov. 25th, 11PM central time and you are entered to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate!

--------------------------------------------------------------


Let's talk about Christmas shopping. I am one of those people who really does not like to shop. If I am lucky enough to get out of the house and spend any money, I would prefer to go out to eat or visit my favorite coffeeshop. So I am blessed to have family (both mine and my husband's) who are more into the celebration of eating and visiting (not necessarily in that order) for Christmas rather than the gift giving.

However, we all like to shop for the kids. And the best gift is always going to be a book. And my dear husband fills out optometric questionnaires for companies and gets "paid" in Amazon gift certificates, which he then sends my way. Did I mention I love my husband???

So a few days ago I received an email with $80 of $5-$15 gift certificates (it took him FOREVER to earn these), just in time to do my Christmas (and Duke's birthday) shopping! I jumped over to Amazon and bought these books for my boys:



My kids don't watch much TV (it makes them grumpy and hyper), but I have to have a few videos for those gloomy rainy days or those days I need a sanity break. :-) I danced with joy when I found the Charlie Brown holiday set. Duke already says "Good Grief" which makes me grin. However, the other day he was trying to play football with a little friend he met at the playground, and unfortunately he was inspired by Charlie a bit too much... And have I ever mentioned their passion for all things construction and farming?



I love shopping (when it involved free gift certificates and books!). Oh, I am also in heaven when I get to go shopping in a used bookstore. A used bookstore with a coffeeshop. A used bookstore with a coffeeshop, my husband, and the kids enjoying time with Granny. A girl must dream. :-)

Finally, the free CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom is coming out before Thanksgiving!!!! You are going to love this action. I showed my husband how it worked last night and even he was impressed. My fan club of one. ;-)

♥ Read more!

Not a Freebie, but a Goodie! CoffeeShop Watermarking Action Kit

My little sis Heather and I have teamed up and produced a time-saving cropping/sharpening/custom watermarking/cool edge effects action kit for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. You can find all of the information at our CoffeeShop Design site. It is not {...}

♥ Read more!

CoffeeShop 10 Pic Blog Header!

Here is another free storyboard blog header! Just add your images {...}

♥ Read more!

CoffeeShop Editing 101-Sponge Tool!

I just recently discovered the sponge tool in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Why I hadn't used it before[...]

♥ Read more!

More amazing free textures from SkeletalMess.

You have probably heard me mention the incredible free textures of SkeletalMess (formerly Ghostbones) from Flickr a few times. Ok, many times. I have been following his photostream for years (when I first became a member on Flickr) and I am in awe of his artistry and generosity. He is one of my Flickr "crushes". ;-)

Well today I was looking at the new images on his stream and found his Shadowhouse Creations site with this amazing free set of textures. Click on the image below to go to his post.



Oh, I love this texture. I need to find some time to play with all of these.

If you are new to using textures in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, check out my many texture tutorials.

♥ Read more!

My Nephew and Our New Car!

Here is my little sis Heather and my newest little nephew. Isn't he the cutest? And did I mention my sister is a tall natural blond who has run marathons? Thank goodness I met my husband when she was 13 and going through her gawky years... Heather is a stay-at-home mom to her little girl and little boy and an avid photographer. Recently she started working with me as a logo/button designer for CoffeeShop. It gives me a reason to talk to her more. I help her out with her Photoshop Elements' questions! :-)



Here is our "new" car! It is an old Corolla that has been completely rebuilt/redone by my brother-in-law. Isn't it cool looking? You should see the engine, you could eat off of it. And it has some thingie in there that makes that little engine roar. Look at those cool rims and roof scoop. And the hood is some special custom order job that has this 3D like paint effect. You can tell that I am a expert on cars, right? ;-)

You can see my husband on the left (well, maybe not his best side), my brother-in-law on the right (he is tough ex-Army), and my little sis holding a cute little doll. Wait, that is my nephew! :-)

I am putting the final touches on some new free actions and such so keep on visiting! Hope you are having a great week. We are about to head out to the neighborhood park, it is a lovely day.

♥ Read more!

CoffeeShop Tutorial: Polaroid in Picture!

You might have noticed that I updated my blog yesterday. At one point it was a complete mess and I was a bit freaked out! I didn't just add a new background and header, but I changed out my template (the new one is a Blogger template I tweaked), and now I have a drop-down menubar. I will be working on updating it during the week, but so far so good.

I also noticed that Blogger now offers "Read More" on your posts. Just click on the "Read More" link at the bottom of my posts and the entire post will load up. I will use this on my loooooong posts so that my blog will load up faster. I don't think I will do when I first post, but after the posts have been up for a few days. Now if Blogger would only add static pages...

On to my tutorial.



You have all probably seen this effect around Flickr[...]

♥ Read more!

Catching Dragonflies

Processed with Golden Vintage.

He convinces his little brother they are going to catch dragonflies with old torn fishing nets they found in the barn. They are going to catch them because they have never touched a live dragonfly. He tells me they will capture four and put them in glass jars. We will put them in our bedrooms so we can look at them and enjoy their beauty.

After some time he comes running up to me. Mom, he says with disappointment in his voice, I didn't know dragonflies were so fast.

Another bittersweet moment and I suddenly stop and really listen to my son.

I know all about fast, little one. Those dragonflies have nothing on the speed of the days and months and years that are slipping by. My little babies are suddenly little boys. Another day, another gray hair, another realization that these are the memories I will put away in my mind and dust off in the later years when the house is quiet, clean, and sometimes a bit lonely.

The computer is calling, laundry is piling up, the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, bills need to be paid, the news drones on in the background and it seems mostly bad.

But wait. Perhaps I will grab a chair, sit down, and enjoy watching two little boys chasing their dreams of beautiful dragonflies in glass jars softly beating their wings. Just breathe.

♥ Read more!

Prayers for Fort Hood

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you can't "post as normal". My Army brother-in-law (who did two tours in Iraq), little sis, niece and nephew just moved from Fort Hood to north Texas a few months ago. I am horrified about what happened in Fort Hood today, and I just wanted to send my prayers to the brave soldiers, civilians, and their families there. Rita

♥ Read more!

CoffeeShop Tutorial: Using Brushes!

Today I wanted to teach you how to use "arty" brushes in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Brushes are great to use to make cards, storyboard templates, textures, clipping masks, logos, etc. There are many free brushes out there, but some of my favorite can be found at Pixels & Ice Cream. You can also find all kind of free Photoshop brushes at Deviantart and Brusheezy.

For this tutorial I will load some free brushes from Pixels & Ice Cream. Jennifer has a great selection of completely free brushes and some amazing premium brushes. I am going to download the free Laurie Ornament Brushes.

Click on the download link and download the zipped file to your desktop. I have a folder on my desktop labeled "Downloads" so I can find them later. After you download the folder, find it and right click, Extract All, Extract.

Loading the brushes is really easy. I usually open Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, go to Edit, Preset Manager, select Brushes, and then load the brushes.

♥ Read more!

CoffeeShop Vintage Blush PS/PSE Action!

Thank you for all of the amazing names for this action. I loved so many and it was impossible picking one, so I finally just "grabbed" one and went with it. :-) CoffeeShop Vintage Blush, like most of my actions, is adjustable and runs in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Vintage Blush adds a pinkish tone and haze to your image while muting the original colors.

Download the CoffeeShoop Vintage Blush PS/PSE Action HERE or HERE!

CoffeeShop Vintage Blush UNWRAPPED!

Here are the action steps so you can duplicate the result on your own. Remember, you can adjust the blending modes and their opacity's to taste. The ones I have in the action are just starting points.

♥ Read more!