CoffeeShop Tutorial: Creating Lightbeams

Today I wanted to post a tutorial showing how I add lightbeams to an image. I have exaggerated the lightbeams on this tutorial so you can see them easily. :-)

Open your image and add a new layer on top of the Background.  Using a hard white brush (B)

{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!  I used my favorite Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens for this photo.

I am taking fewer personal photos these days because I was getting overwhelmed by the amount of images I had to edit and trying to choose my favorites. Remember the days of film when you took some photos, had them developed, stuck them in your photo album and you were done? I must be getting old because I am starting to be really annoyed by some technology.  Don't even get me started on texting and I-Pads and Facebooking those annoying quizes that tell you what cartoon character you most resemble... ;-)

My goal now is to simply enjoy the moments, and if I get a decent snapshot every once in a while, that is icing on the cake.  And with fewer photos I can enjoy editing them once again and perhaps even start getting them printed and in albums so my kids can enjoy them.  :-)

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

Amanda picked her Everyday ElementsWorkshop Winners!

 Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing for a spot in an Everyday Elements workshop. Due to the overwhelming response to the giveaway, Amanda has decided to give away TWO spots for her workshops. Winners may choose the class that best fits their needs.

The lucky winners are #20 and #67, who are Jill and Beth.

CoffeeShop Drop Shadow Blog Background!

I have had so many people ask me how I add a drop shadow background to my blogs. Well, here is the tutorial!

This is a simple colored background with a white drop shadow area behind your posts. You can download it HERE and follow along with the tutorial.  This file has two layers and can be opened in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. The bottom layer is a simple color fill layer and the top layer is the white drop shadow area that goes behind your posts.

This background white area is perfect if you have the standard 2-column Blogger Minima template installed, but it will be too narrow

Coffee With Amanda: PSE Workshop Giveaway!

***********Closed!**************

Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing for a spot in an Everyday Elements workshop. Due to the overwhelming response to the giveaway, Amanda has decided to give away TWO spots for her workshops. Winners may choose the class that best fits their needs.

Coffee With Morgan: Print Order Forms!

Once again Morgan comes to my rescue. See, it is my wedding anniversary weekend and my dear husband and I have a date night. These are quite rare because I hate dumping my kids on poor relatives/friends. However, we need an evening dining alone in a nice restaurant.

As I wrote that I started laughing thinking about what we have been doing lately to "get away".

We have this amazing huge front porch

{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!

And who doesn't love new baby chicks!  Meet the newest members of our family, Blackie Little Peep and Fluffy Tweetie. Yes, I have two tiny chicks living in my laundry room for a few days. You know you are a redneck when... ;-)

Coffee With Amanda! Soften Skin

Amanda is back again with a great tutorial on one of her versions of skin smoothing. And even better, you can find her video tutorial here! 

And if you haven't checked out my free retouching actions that include skin smoothing layers (if you want to be really lazy!), you can find them on this page (page down to the middle). Baby PowderRoom, Perfect Portrait, Glamour Glow and PowderRoom are all great actions that will allow you to do a complete touch-up. :-)

Good morning, Coffeeshop Friends!! Today I am going to share with you simple steps to soften skin in Photoshop Elements (works in PS also, just the screen looks different). To utilize this tutorial, you will need to have Rita's Layer Mask Action because PSE does not come with the mask tool. Rita's action is spot on and works perfectly! I use it almost every day and if someone told me I could only keep on action for PSE, that would be the one. I love it!

Now, let me warn you that I don't use the mask to brush stuff off of a layer like most people do (black brush on white mask). Instead, I invert it and brush ON effects (white brush on black mask) only where I want them. I prefer to do it that way because I feel I have more control and can be more specific about where the effect is shown. Does it feel like I'm speaking French to you? Don't worry, go through the motions of the tutorial and you'll understand.

Step 1: Open image in PSE.

Pinot Evil: Words to Live By

OK, I have to say it, I love my husband. We have been a couple since I was 17 (I will blog about how we met soon) and now, decades later, he still cracks me up. In a good way.

We have a little tradition during the summer. On nice evenings after we get the boys to bed, we pull out our finest box of wine and bring it out to the backyard. He pours me a glass (it is always too much, but it would be rude to complain, right?) and pours himself a bigger glass (he works out and can afford the extra calories) and we sit and chat.

This is going to sound corny, but we discuss serious things like religion and politics, and insignificant things like how many time the boys said poop in one day and the interesting nicknames they give their bodyparts... 

So the other day we were sipping this light white wine and chatting.

Funny, there is a picture of all of  the men in my family

CoffeeShop Web Frame It PS/PSE Action!

If you loved the CoffeeShop Color Block It, Web Rounded Corners and Web Drop-Shadow actions, then you will love CoffeeShop Web Frame It! Just like my other web actions, Web Frame-it crops and sharpens your images for the web. But it also adds a custom colored border and frame around the image.   This action works in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

To use the action, simply have your edited image open. The action will flatten and sharpen the image and then prompt you to adjust the border color. It is preset to white and 10px, but you can adjust the size and use the pull-down menu labeled "Canvas extension color" to adjust the color to taste. If you select "Other" you can use the eye dropper to select a color in your image as the action runs. I show how to do this with screenshots on the Color Block It post.  :-)

The second prompt frames your image. It is preset to 30px, but again you can adjust the size and color to taste.

Your image is now flattened, cropped, sharpened, and has a border and frame. Now go post your web-ready image on your blog!

I used the CoffeeShop Vintage Blush action on this image in Photoshop Elements.

Download the free CoffeeShop Web Frame-It PS/PSE action HERE!

I can't resist, one more dandelion photo... This is a preview of one of my new actions coming out.  It is a vintage B&W action, but in this case I turned off the B&W layer.   I also used the Web Frame It action to get this baby ready for my blog. ;-)

I have also added new designs to my Blogger blog design page.  Check it out if you are in the mood for a shiny new Blogger blog.  :-)

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 going to start posting one image (no caption) every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy.  It won't necessarily be great photography art (like any of my photos are anyway!), but just an image that makes me pause for a moment and reminds me how fortunate I am to have such a blessed life.

If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!  By the way, I used my CoffeeShop B&W CoffeeBar LightRoom presets on this edit.

Have a great weekend.

This and That...

Army Guy Adventures: Happy Mother's Day!

I noticed an Army Guy in my flower bed. Well, flower bed/occasional cat box /chicken scratching area if you want to know the truth. I am amazed this rose even exists. 

I wonder who he is radioing?

Here comes an old beat up Bronco. Kind of reminds me

Blackberry Bliss

It is that time of year; when young hands and faces are stained with purple sticky juice and mothers are pulling huge blackberry thorns out of little finger tips with their teeth. Yes, it is Blackberry Season here in Texas.

Once we got rid of our cows

Coffee With Amanda! Color Pop with Soft Focus Tutorial!

I am so excited to introduce Amanda!  Amanda and I have a lot in common, like our love of Pioneer Woman, homeschooling, chickens and taking photos of weeds, kids and farm animals.  So when she touched base with my on my CoffeeShop Flickr Group and asked if she could write a few tutorials for my blog I was completely thrilled!  Not only would I learn some new techniques along with my readers, but I would get a much needed break from the computer.  :-) 




Meet Amanda! I am a "Pioneer Woman" of sorts, although not nearly as talented, witty or culinarily gifted as the real one. I grew up in the suburbs or on military bases, but ended up in country on a cattle and chicken farm an hour from any sizeable town. I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom to four children, ages 11 to 4.

My photography journey started last spring, and it has quickly become a passion. Most of my subjects are my kids, the cows, my mother-in-law's flowers and my weeds (they're prettier in a picture than in real life). I enjoy editing (with PSE 7) and continue to learn daily. The tutorials I write are very basic and well documented so that brand new users can learn how to use their editing software.

I recently started a photography resource blog, PhotographyHaven where you can find lots of free actions, tutorials, workshops and more. You can view my personal pictures at Moving Forward or my Flickr stream.

Today I am going to show you a VERY simple way to give your photos a quick, soft focus effect, plus a little pop in color, which sometimes is all a picture needs. I edit with Photoshop Elements 7, but these steps can be done in both PS and PSE.

Johnna's Dreaming of Black and White Free Actions and Rita's Texture Tutorial!

Dreaming of Black and White Action Set by Johnna LaFaith

If you haven't visited Johnna's blog in a while, please head over there right now. I visit all of the time

Army Guy Adventures: Oh my! PG-13

I want to start this post off by saying that I have been watching the news for hours the last days and am horrified by the oil spill in the Gulf. I have spent many a summer in Galveston Island, South Padre Island, and in many of the beaches on the Gulf Coast all of the way to and including Florida. This is a tragedy not only for the wildlife and beautiful beaches, but for all of the hardworking Americans that fish and own/work at hotels and tourist attractions on the Gulf Coast that will be affected. You are all in my prayers.

Today, to cheer me up, I invited the Army Guys back.

So while I was sweeping the back porch the other day (the boys were playing on their swingset) I came open this scene. I was shocked! What were these two Army Guys doing with my children's bubble pipes? I decided to walk away since the Army Guys are of age and are usually very responsible. But I will have a talk with these guys later and mention that this is something they need to do after my boys have gone to bed.   

When I returned a few minutes later,