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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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CoffeeShop Vintage Frames 14 Tutorial!

>> Sunday, July 31, 2011


I have really enjoyed making these vintage frames into digital layered files such as Vintage Frames 14. Usually I would scan the frame and then cut out the photo area so I could slide an image under it. However, I wanted to create a method where my frames would instantly "age" my images without having to add any additional textures or editing steps/actions.  So I came up with this nifty method that I want to share with you.  Just scan in any vintage frame and then follow my tutorial


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Time to get some of those family snapshots printed!

>> Thursday, July 28, 2011


As a parent I have tons of poorly composed/exposed and blurry pics of my kids. These are not photos I am artistically proud of, but rather photos that show the details of our daily life. These snapshots mean more to me than my "perfect" and artistic photos. Case in point:


This photo was taken last week when we were all so ill.  You can see Duke has circles under his eyes.  But he had drawn this picture on his little wipe board and gave it to me to cheer me up.  I always try to photograph some of my children's art because it is easier to store a digital file or small 4x6 photo than a wipe board or large painting.

I am famous in my family for having thousands of photos on my computer, but not taking time to actually print them out.  I personally prefer flipping through an album and looking at actual photos rather than looking at them on my computer screen.  Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but having a hard copy of my most valuable images (usually snapshots) is important to me.  My children also enjoy holding an album and flipping through the photos.

So I am on a goal to start printing out my photos.  Not all of them, just my favorites.  I want to print the photos that I will look at in the far future and remember how much fun it was raising these two little boys.  I need to also print Duke's photos and put them in his own album.  And what about making my own custom wall art?  I still have blank walls in this house because I won't settle for pre-made "art".

So where am I getting my photos printed?  At Color Inc Pro of course!  Color Inc was the first sponsor on my blog, back when it was really new.  But I was so proud to have them because not only are their prints top-notch, their customer service is outstanding.  Great customer service is very important to me, and I won't deal with a company who doesn't care about my images.

Because I honestly love using Color Inc, I want to encourage you to visit their website and Facebook page and try them out.  In this economy we need to support businesses that care about us.   I don't just have a Color Inc ad on my site, they are also the only printing company I use.  And I use them because they do great work.

Right now Color Inc has a special where you get 15% off all of your orders for 30 days if you use the coupon code Rita30days. They also offer free shipping on everything but oversized prints if your order is more than $15.  And you can make sure your monitor  matches their prints by having five 5x7 test prints printed for free!  I just moved to a new iMac and I need to match sure my screen matches their prints so I can finally get my family photos printed.  I need to start practicing what I preach.  ;-)

So please go sign-up and get your free 5x7 test prints and then use the coupon code Rita30days to save money and get beautiful hard copies of your favorite photos. And hopefully your snapshots look better than mine!!!


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CoffeeShop Vintage Frames 14!

>> Tuesday, July 26, 2011


I had been emailing back and forth with Lori Peterson about various editing things when she mentioned she had a box full of personal vintage family photos and wondered if I could help her make them into digital frames. As you know, I have a vintage frame addiction, so I jumped on the opportunity and asked her to send them to me ASAP. The frames


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CoffeeShop Before and After Storyboard Action!

>> Sunday, July 24, 2011


I am forever posting before and after storyboards up on the web to showcase my new actions, and I needed to write a simple storyboard action to do all of the work for me. However,


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CoffeeShop Vintage Frames 13!

>> Thursday, July 21, 2011



I am officially addicted to making vintage frames and here is my newest version, CoffeeShop Frames 13.  This frame is perfect for posting on the web or using on cards or small storyboards.  Like CoffeeShop Frames 12, this is a layered psd file


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House of Sick

>> Tuesday, July 19, 2011


Sorry for my blogging absence, but we have all been sick with a gastrointestinal virus. It ironically started


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CoffeeShop Frames 12 - Vintage Frame and Edit!

>> Friday, July 15, 2011


I love vintage photos, and I had so much fun creating these two new vintage web frames. These are unique as they have a vintage texture within the layered frame that you can use to instantly age your photo, so no messing with actions or additional adjustment layers!  I used a paper texture from PlayingwithBrushes from Flickr in this frame.  She has a huge selection of gorgeous vintage textures, so please check out her page.

Instructions (for additional instructions on making a vintage B&W image, please click here):


1.  Open your image.



2.  Open the vintage frame.


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CoffeeShop Storybook Vintage Action UnWrapped Tutorial!

>> Tuesday, July 12, 2011


I want to personally thank all of my readers who have purchased the CoffeeShop Action Pack (where I packaged my favorite actions in one convenient download).  I have had requests from readers to put together a similar download for some of my design elements such as storyboards, textures, frames, and cut-outs.  So I finally sat down and picked out my favorites and zipped them all up in a file (almost 130 MB!).  You can find all of the information on the CoffeeShop Digital Design download here

And I also wanted to thank all of my readers for their donations, comments, and regular visits.  Your support, generosity, and incredibly nice comments make this blog not only possible, but a joyful creative outlet for me.  I love staying home with my two little boys, and it has been such a blessing to be able to help support my family through this blog.  I love posting freebies and tutorials, so if there is anything in particular you would like to see on my blog, please comment!



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Now, on to the meat of this post!  I love writing actions, but I also love teaching editing, so here is another one of my Action UnWrapped tutorials.  If you want to download the CoffeeShop Storybook Vintage action that inspired this tutorial, you can find it here.


CoffeeShop Storybook Vintage Action UnWrapped!

1.  Lighten the highlights: 


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CoffeeShop Storybook Vintage PSE/Photoshop Action!

>> Sunday, July 10, 2011


Here is my newest free action, CoffeeShop Storybook Vintage Action.  I love vintage actions and this is the first one I wrote on my new iMac!  Of course, this action will run in both Macs and PCs.

When you run this action the only setting you will have to adjust is how much you want to feather the vignette layer.  It is preset to 100.

When you run this action you will have four layers.  On my "after" I moved the Vintage Color Tint up from 50% to 80% and the Vignette from 100% to 60%.



I hope you enjoy my newest free action! Want to know what is going behind the scene in this action?  Just click here to see the Storybook Vintage Action UnWrapped Tutorial (where I take apart the action so you know what it is doing in every step).

Download the free CoffeeShop Storyboard Vintage PSE/Photoshop action at Mediafire.

NOTE:  I have had a few people mention issues the last few days with 4shared (the other download site I use), so I am just putting up a MediaFire link today.  MediaFire is listed as a Norton-secured safe site.  I personally have never had problems with 4shared or Mediafire, but I have Norton on my PC.  If you haven't already, go to preferences in your browser and select "block pop-up windows".  I really appreciate when my readers mention these types of issues, so thank you!  


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.


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CoffeeShop Frames 11!

>> Tuesday, July 5, 2011

So this is my first real post posted from my new computer!  I am finally up and working once again. It feels great to be back on the computer, especially a brand new shiny one.  ;-)

OOPS- LINKED FIXED!!!

I have been playing around using brushes, quick masks, and different filters to get a vintage edged frame.  Here is a set of three blog frames I made using these techniques.  These are layered .psd files for Photoshop or PSE and they are customizable.  You can easily change the color of the texture frame (I used a beautiful texture from Chasing Dreams SongBird texture set) by adjusting the color fill adjustment layer. You can also group your own texture above the frame.

Use the clipping masks to add your images. These frames are 1000px wide, so simply resize for your own blog or website. I hope you enjoy playing with these new blog frames!

Download the totally free CoffeeShop Frames 11 Set at  MediaFire!


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.


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Happy Independence Day!!!

>> Monday, July 4, 2011

I have been busy with my family and getting my new iMac up and running (I am almost finished and can start working on it 100% by tomorrow!) so I haven't had time to take any photos or work on any posts.  But I wanted to wish all of my American readers a happy 4th of July!

We are in serious drought right now so no firework shows, but we spent the evening outside with the boys.   Relaxation is wonderful.  Now if we would only get some rain...

I will be back blogging this week!!!  I have tons of freebies coming your way.


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{Friday Photo Bliss}

>> Friday, July 1, 2011

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!


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