CoffeeShop Mocha Velvet B&W Action UnWrapped Tutorial!

I wanted to post my newest Action UnWrapped tutorial  for Photoshop and PSE: CoffeeShop Mocha Velvet B&W. If you want to save time,

{Friday Photo Bliss}

Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!

Poor Army Guy has only one arm and leg, but he is still a patriot!

Blogger UnWrapped: How to post a floating button on the side of your blog!

Today I want to show you how to make a floating button on the side of your blog as seen in the screenshot above (and on my actual blog).  This button will stay in place even as you scroll down your blog, and you can link your contact information, website, Facebook or other social networks, a page, etc.  You can also make more than one. 

Return of the Army Guys!

Since we got Maple there has been a constant war in our backyard:  Puppy vs. Army Guys.  We started with over one hundred Army Guys, but over the last year we have found their remains all over the back porch and yard. Headless Army Guys, armless Army Guys, legless Army Guys, and even a few Army Guy supports with only a foot or two attached.  Army Guys: 0, Maple 100...

So lately I have been finding a few Army Guy survivors  in my house.  They sneak in when I am not looking and show up in all types of odd places.  It is bad enough that I have to clean up after two dirty little boys, but look at the mess these two Army Guys left  in the tub.  To quote Duke, "DeeeSkusting!".

CoffeeShop Polaroid Effect Action!

Here is my newest free action, CoffeeShop Polaroid Effect.  This action turns your image into a faux Polaroid that you can post on the web.  It also sharpens and resizes your final image.

Instructions for the CoffeeShop Polaroid Effects Action:

1.  Start with a flattened edited image.

2.  Start the action.  It prompts you to transform the size to fit the polaroid frame, so drag the transform bars to taste.  If you can't see them, zoom in and out by clicking Ctrl-0 (zero).  Make sure constrain proportions is clicked on top in PSE and that the width and height ratios stay the same in Photoshop.  Click the check to accept.

3.  Sharpen the image by adjusting the radius of unsharp mask. If you would rather sharpen at the end (after resizing your image), slide the amount to 1.

4.  Your image will now be transformed magically into a faux Polaroid and the action will prompt you to adjust the final size.  Put in your final horizontal size (don't go higher than 1215 pixels wide or the image will lose resolution).

5. You will have three layers as seen below.  Turn off the top layer if you don't want an inner drop shadow.  Then save as a .png if you want a transparent background or save as a .jgp if you are posting or printing on a white background.  If you merge visible you can Ctrl-T and tilt the Polaroid to the left or right before saving.

I hope you have fun creating your own fake Polaroid photos! 

Download the free CoffeeShop Polaroid Effects action. 

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.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!

CoffeeShop CutOuts 11!

I love to create digital design elements, and here is my newest creation; CoffeeShop CutOuts 10!  This set contains a high resolution fully adjustable .psd file for Photoshop or PSE and also a .png with a transparent background.  These cutouts are great for web or print frames, labels, cards, digital papers, or any type of scrapbooking.  You should also check out all of my other CoffeeShop digital design elements.

You can change the colors by clicking on the color fill adjustment layer for both the cutout and the inner border.   You can also group some textured paper to the cutout as seen in my "ad". Group an image to the clipping mask and you have a beautiful frame, with or without a border.  You can also turn off or adjust the drop-shadow border to taste in the layered image.  Do you know I made this cutout using the "{" on the keyboard?  Cool huh!

Like all of my freebies on my blog, you can use these commercially without crediting me or The CoffeeShop Blog.  Just don't post them for download or sell them "as is".  Keep them free.  ♥

Download the free CoffeeShop CutOuts 11 at  Mediafire.

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.

ColorInc Studio Mount Giveaway!!! - CLOSED!

Closed!  But I will be announcing the winners on Thursday.  :-)

ColorInc, my favorite digital lab, is offering CoffeeShop readers another amazing giveaway; a 12x12 or smaller Studio Mount for three lucky readers! Please read all about it below.  Giveaway will close May 18th, 9PM central time.





Our solid wood 3/4'' ready to hang Studio Mounts

CoffeeShop Portrait Give It Texture: Action and UnWrapped Tutorial

I love using textures in portraits, and I get so many questions about how I remove the texture from skin yet leave some of the texture color. There are so many ways to do this, but I want to share one of my favorite methods.  Many people simply erase or mask out the texture on skin, but if you are adding a colored texture to a portrait you often want to retain some of the texture's color so the skin doesn't look too washed out or discolored.

This is actually pretty easy and I am going to show you how to do it on your own in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and I even wrote a nifty action that does some of the work for you.  I will tell you when you start using the action in the tutorial.


CoffeeShop Portrait Give It Texture Tutorial:

1.  Open your image. Then open your texture.  For this tutorial I used a beautiful texture called Renoir from the Chasing Dreams France set.  Colleen has gorgeous textures and I love her new Summertime collection.

2.  Select your move tool (V) and left click on your texture and hold down the button and drag the texture on top of your image.  Ctrl-T (free transform) it to fit over your entire image . Unclick "Constrain Proportions" in PSE or unselect maintain aspect ratio (top menubar, looks like a little link) in Photoshop if it is not the same shape as your image. 

3.  Put the texture layer in multipy blending mode and adjust opacity to taste.  You can always tweak it later.  I love using textures in multiply mode in portraits, especially when the image has areas that are very light, so the texture is more obvious.  If you add textures only in soft light or overlay blending mode, light areas usually don't show any texture and the image can have too much contrast. I love the combination of multiply and soft light/overlay with textures.

4.  Add a layer mask to the texture layer.  If you have PSE8 or older, download my free Layer Mask Action.  Do not forget this step or the action will not work!!!

5.  Select your lasso tool (L) and adjust the feather to taste (I used 10 on this high resolution image).  Make sure you added the layer mask BEFORE doing this step!   If you aren't familiar with this selection tool, you will see a few boxes on the top menubar that look like this:

First click on new selection and zoom in some and start selecting the area you want to remove the texture (skin and shirt in this case).  Once you have the selection, you can click on add to selection to add areas you missed, and click on subtract from selection to remove areas. Try to take your time and do an accurate job, especially if you are printing a large image.

 6.  Once you have finished selecting areas where you need to remove the texture, start the CoffeeShop Portrait Give It Texture action and it will finish the edit for you (see image below).  Adjust the two texture layers blending modes/opacities to taste.  If you don't want to use the action or are curious what is happening, read on!

7.  To get the results in the image above without using the action, click to select the texture (not the texture layer mask) and Filter, Gaussian blur the selection.  Adjust the Gaussian blur slider until you don't see any texture on the skin.  Then click on the layer mask and edit, fill with 50% gray.  This removes 50% of the texture color from your selection.  This way your skin will have some of the texture color but still retain some original skin color.

Ctrl-J (copy) this layer and put this layer in overlay or soft light blending mode.  Then adjust both texture layer's opacities to taste.  Now your skin will be texture-free yet still retain some of the color from the texture.

Here are some examples using the action/tutorial.  I used textures from Chasing Dreams, FlyPaper, and Florabella.   I don't think it is possible to have too many textures. My favorite place to go for free textures is ShadowHouse.

I love the Fly Edges from FlyPaper, but I don't always want the spotty texture on my portrait, so I used the action/tutorial on this after.

I hope you enjoy playing with textures. I have many other CoffeeShop texture tutorials, so please check them out. 

Download the free  CoffeeShop Portrait Give It Texture action.

Want all of my favorite CoffeeShop Actions in one simple download AND help support this blog? Just click here for more information! For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!

Dog Days of Summer

I am sure you know by now that my favorite images are snapshots capturing a moment of our life. I had my camera out yesterday and happened to snap this photo. The boys are having a fight over creative differences in tearing up my yard and turning it into a construction site. Maple tried to intervene and add some digging power, but the boys yelled and threw mud at her. You can see her staring at them, unloved and dejected. Poor dog...

I used my ButterScotch Vintage action and vintage frame on this photo.  The dirt came free with the photoshoot.  And yes, they are in their underwear. 

I have a few exciting things coming out in the next week or two.  I am working on a new texture tutorial for portraits which includes a nifty little action to help you remove texture on the skin yet still retain some of the color from the texture.  I used it on the image below (as well as a texture from Florabella).  I also have a few more actions, frames, and tutorials; I just need to get them all finished and up here. 

And I also want to thank my loyal readers.  You are what makes the blog possible.  ♥

CoffeeShop Storyboards 3!

I love making storyboards for blogging and printing, and here is my newest, the CoffeeShop Storyboards 3! I have quite a few free storyboards and I plan on designing many more.  If you are looking for a specific type of storyboard, please leave details in the comments.  If it is something I think my readers might use, I might design it and put it up here for free download!  I am always looking for new ideas for actions and storyboards.

And yes, I took a photo of a brown bag and had a great time turning it into a display "ad".  I wish I could design something and stick with it, but I can't help myself.  Thank goodness I am not so fickle with husbands!  ;-)

Simply add your own images using the clipping mask (download my free Group-It action if you want to save time or are new to clipping masks). You can use textured paper for the background (just drag and drop under the clipping masks layers and Ctrl-T to fit). I resized, sharpened and added a drop-shadow to the storyboard example below using my CoffeeShop Web Drop Shadow action.

NOTE:  This storyboard is ~8 x 8 in, 300 pixels/inch.  If you want to print it larger, please resize BEFORE adding your images.  You can do this with  most of my storyboards on this site.  Resize to the proper print size, and then add your background and images.  

Download the free CoffeeShop Storyboard 3 at  MediaFire!  Note: This is not an action!  Open this storyboard like any other image.

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.

Family Vacation

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. ~Earl Wilson

My husband started his own clinic several years ago, so we haven't had the time nor money to take many family vacations.  However, we try to get out of town at least once a year, even though we usually stay in Texas.   The last months have been rather stressful on the adults in our family, so we decided to go to Fredricksburg, TX (one of my favorite vacation destinations) for a long weekend.

We had a lovely time,

CoffeeShop Velvet Ash B&W Action!

I want to say Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there. I am posting today because I am going to spend Sunday with my family.  ♥   I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Here is  my  newest free B&W tinted action, CoffeeShop Velvet Ash B&W!  You can read the complete step-by-step CoffeeShop Velvet Ash B&W Action UnWrapped  tutorial to see how I wrote this action.  I personally love to see what actions are doing and I hope those of you that are interested enjoy my tutorials.This action, like almost all of my actions, runs in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (at least PSE6 and above). 

Download the free CoffeeShop Velvet  Ash B&W Action!

Want all of my favorite CoffeeShop Actions in one simple download AND help support this blog? Just click here for more information! For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

{Friday Photo Bliss}

Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!

CoffeeShop Frames 8!

I love making layered adjustable .psd frames with clipping masks for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.  I have already posted quite a few CoffeeShop Frame Sets, but I can't stop making them!!!  These frames are perfect for your blogs, cards, website/blog headers, scrapbooking projects, etc. and I hope you enjoy playing with them.  I used the { symbol on the keyboard to make these frames.

This download includes two textured frames (I used textures from Chasing Dreams and FlyPaper.  Both of these sites have gorgeous textures, please check them out!).  These frames are high resolution and completely adjustable.

Simply add your own image using the clipping mask (download my free Group-It action if you want to save time or are new to clipping masks).  Adjust the color (Frame Color) and contrast (Levels 1) of the textured frame or group your own texture to the frame.  You can also turn off the levels layer and put the Frame Color adjustment layer in normal blending mode (it is set on color blending mode) and use the eye dropper to select a color from your image.  This will make the frame a solid color, without any texture as seen below.  You can also adjust the drop shadow or even turn it off.

Merge Visible and drag to your design or save as a .png to keep the background transparent.  If you save as a jpg the background will be white.

Download the CoffeeShop Frames 8 set at MediaFire!  Note:  These are image files, not actions. So open the frames like any other image.  


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.