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Hi! My name is Rita and I am the blogger behind CoffeeShop and a stay-at-home, home-schooling Mom to two naughty but adorable little boys (Duke is 7 and Imp is 4), wife to my high school sweetheart, and passionate about all things photography.

If you are visiting for the first time, welcome! Please read all about my CoffeeShop blog here. Everything on my blog is 100% free!

If you love using my free CoffeeShop creations and would like to make a donation to Rita the self-professed photo-editing photography geek of CoffeeShop, please follow this link! This blog is possible because of your generous support.

Search the CoffeeShop for all of my free goodies!!!

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My oh my Adobe, which editing program is best for me?

>> Sunday, February 28, 2010

I get emails all of the time asking "what editing program should I buy?". The three main editing programs out there that I discuss here on my blog are Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 , Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 . PSE8 is the cheapest, then comes LightRoom2, and finally Photoshop CS4.

So here is what I would suggest as someone who owns all three and used them for years. :-)


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A Cautionary Tale!

>> Thursday, February 25, 2010

I think it is really important to calibrate your monitor and I use the inexpensive Pantone Huey and it has worked great. It even reminds you to recalibrate your monitor every few weeks. I am one of those people who need reminders... However, this is a cautionary tale of what happens when you ignore your calibrator.

The last couple of weeks my Pantone has been nagging me to calibrate (you can turn this feature off) but like my kids asking for chocolate before breakfast, I just ignored it...


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CoffeeShop Editing 101: Dodge and Burn Tutorial and PS/PSE Action!

>> Tuesday, February 23, 2010



You might have noticed that I am trying to organize this blog more...


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CoffeeShop Editing 101 - Creating Storyboards with Text Cut-Outs

>> Saturday, February 20, 2010



I have had a few readers ask me to write a tutorial on making storyboards with text cut-outs in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements...


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CoffeeShop Web Color Block It PS/PSE Action!

>> Friday, February 19, 2010



If you loved the CoffeeShop Web Rounded Corners and Web Drop-Shadow actions, then you will love CoffeeShop Web Color Block It...


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Cabin Fever!

>> Wednesday, February 17, 2010



What do you do when it is cold outside and you are stuck inside with two little boys that have head colds? Simple...


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Blogger UnWrapped: Adding "Add This" Button!

>> Tuesday, February 16, 2010

This Blogger UnWrapped Tutorial applies to anyone who has a website or blog and wants to make it easy for readers to share your information.

You might have noticed I have a little Share button on the bottom of my posts...


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CoffeeShop Sun Kissed PS/PSE Action and UnWrapped Tutorial!

>> Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!




Summer on my mind

Today I want to talk about lens flare. Sometimes you are lucky and you can get amazing lens flare like I did in this image of my boys playing in the back field. However, there are other times you have great light in your image but you want to enhance the lens flare look and even add a bit of tint...


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Amazing Valentine Mozy and Colorincprolab Sale!!!

>> Friday, February 12, 2010

You have to check out these "sweetheart" Valentine deals! ...


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Blogger UnWrapped: Adding Pages To Your Menubar and Blog!

>> Thursday, February 11, 2010

I love Blogger. There I said it. I know many people love WordPress, but I have been a fan of Blogger for years. Not only is it free, but it is easy to customize. However, I was annoyed that Blogger did not allow you to post "pages" like you can in WordPress. A page is like a post but does not have a date on top.

Pages are great for when you want to link information like "About Me", "Tutorials", "Prices", "Favorite Links", etc. on your menubar.


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CoffeeShop Editing 101 - Fun with Photoshop Photo Filters!

>> Tuesday, February 9, 2010



You have probably played with a Photo Filter adjustment layer in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements...


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CoffeeShop "Contact Me" Mini-Envelope Icon!

>> Sunday, February 7, 2010

I am sure you have seen those cute little Contact Me Envelopes all over blogs and websites. You click on these little guys and your email program automatically opens up with their email address. Nifty right! Well, today I am going to share the "secret" to putting one on your blog. :-)


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I love these little envelopes.


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My Early Valentine's Present, or Life is Too Short For Bad Coffee!

>> Friday, February 5, 2010



I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I am a tiny bit addicted to coffee...


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CoffeeShop Retouching Tutorial: Skin Retouching in LightRoom2

>> Wednesday, February 3, 2010



I love Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 as I have mentioned a few times before. Did you know you can do minor retouching in LR? Today I am going to show how to remove small blemishes and smooth skin...


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CoffeeShop Blogger UnWrapped: Sharing Your Stuff!

>> Monday, February 1, 2010

I know there are so many of you that would love to offer your own actions, storyboards, images, etc. for download. I get asked quite often how one goes about sharing things on their blog, so I wanted to put together a small tutorial on how I do it.

I use MediaFire and 4shared as they both have free versions.


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