My kiddo is in preschool…. SO that means Valentines cards! I know I’m more excited about these cards and this whole “holiday” than Miss R, but I know she’ll get more excited on the day. Why? Well, she’ll get a ton of candy. AND, in my kiddo’s world… candy = a good day.

The hardest part of this whole project: getting my child to participate and smile for this photo. She was happy one minute, then I mention taking her photo and it all went downhill. I eventually bribed her with a piece of chocolate. I got ONE sorta smile (see above) and MANY grumpy photos (see last photo).

How to do it:

- Get your kiddo to hold a stick (maybe a broom) and take a photo. We had an old dowel, so that worked. This will help you place the fishing pole (aka stick).

- If you’d like, add the wording “You’re a reel catch!”, or “You’re reel neat!” to the image in photoshop or another photo editing program. OR, you can just handwrite this out on a piece of card stock and tape it to the photo.

- Use an x-acto knife to cut a couple slits to slip in the fishing pole (the sticks I had came from an old floral display). Tape the sticks on the back of the photo to make it more secure.

- Tie a string on the end of the fishing pole, and the other end of the string to a piece of candy. I purchased some swedish fish and individually wrapped them up in saran wrap.

- Print out my free Trout Printout (right and left). Cut them out and tape them to each side of the swedish fish.

- Done!

The whole assembly of this project took about 1 hour (maybe a little longer since kiddo was “helping”). Cost was around $8 for 20 Valentines. Even though this photo below is super grumpy/sassy… I think it’s my favorite. This is pretty much a look she gives me EVERY day. We’ll save these special Valentines for her BFF’s. Hee.

- Chelsey

P.S. if you make this Valentine, please share a photo link in the comments below! I’d love to see it.

Day 24: Today I’m sharing how I created my Rockwell style Christmas card. It’s a bit complicated… and, WILL take some time. BUT, so worth it. Really. I absolutely love wandering back and looking at my past Christmas photos. Something I will have forever and get to enjoy with my family! Below is the intense amount of info on how I created this… P.S. don’t forget to enter the Holiday Photo Challenge here!

The image itself was created from 5 different photos. See below:

To blend these photos together, I layer the photos (one by one in Photoshop) on top of each other, and erase bits and pieces of each image… until I get the photo I’d like! If you need more info about this, here’s a tutorial I did a couple years ago on Paper Heart Camera. Here was my finished blended image (before photoshop color edits):

OK, onto the real fun…. How I created the Rockwell Style Photo (note: I use Photoshop CS5): 

1. When you have the photo you want, it’s time to do any brightness/contrast edits now (if you need to).

2. Duplicate your original photo.

3. Above all the other layers, create a New Adjustment Layer> Levels and increase the amount of dark black (the little black arrow on the left) into the photo by 7 to 12 (decide what you like best). Merge the Levels Layer down with the original photo copy. (click on image to enlarge).

4. Let’s add some contrast. Go to Filter> Other> High Pass and use a radius of 10 to 16 (your choice) and set that new layer to Overlay. (click on image to enlarge).

5. Click on your Background Layer (the original photo) and go to New Adjustment Layer> Brightness/Contrast. Set the Contrast setting to – 18 to -22 (your choice). (click on image to enlarge).

6. Above your Brightness/Contrast layer, add a new layer: New Adjustment Layer> Curves. For the Red Channel: increase highlights and decrease lowlights (creating an “S” shape). For the Green Channel: Increase the highlights, set the mid tones to neutral (set in the center), and decrease the lowlights. For the Blue Channel: Decrease the highlights and increase the lowlights (backwards “S” shape). (click on image to enlarge).

7. Above the Curves layer add a new layer: New Adjustment Layer> Solid Color. Choose a magenta color (my color # was: c14683). Set that layer to Screen, and reduce it’s opacity to 15 – 35% (your choice). (click on image to enlarge).

8. Click on your Background Layer (the original photo) and go to New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation and move the Saturation to -20 to -30 (your choice). This will take out a bit of the pink/red from the skin. (click on image to enlarge).

9. Click on your Background Layer (the original photo) and duplicate that layer to create a Background Copy. Go to Filter> Noise> Add Noise. Add a bit of noise, this is completely up to you. I added just a TINY bit of noise (.19). Note: make sure Uniform is selected and Monochrome is deselected.

10. Staying on the Background Copy layer you just created, go to Filter> Lens Correction and in the Vignette section change the Amount to – 20 to – 50 (your choice) and the midpoint to +30 to +50 (your choice). This is to add a vignette. (click on image to enlarge).

11. This step is totally you! Adjust each layer. Maybe the numbers I shared weren’t really your taste, adjust opacities and numbers. Make it your own. Have fun!

Extras:

- I was way too distracted by the background in this photo…. so, I replaced it with a grey solid background. I felt that was more Rockwell, anyway.

- Optional: add some rosy red spots to the cheeks. Adjust the opacity.

- Add extra bits and pieces. I added in a newspaper (to tell the photo’s story better), flames to the candles, and splashes to the mugs.

Now that you’re all done, time to enter my Holiday Photo Challenge to win some AHmazing prizes!

- Chelsey

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

To keep up with my 50 DIY Days, click here:

Zombie Chelsey says, “Blarhgle, Happy Hallllowspleen! Brains!!!!”

- Zombie Chelsey

 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

{If you have a Wordless{ish} Wednesday, please feel free to link it up below. And, feel free to link up to these blogs too… Parenting by Dummies, Project Alicia, Jenni from the Blog, Bree: his honey and her mommy, and Live and Love Outloud.

I hope my GIF’s don’t give you all massive headaches… but, I sort of love making them. Aaaaand, I had quite a few photo sets to work with from New York.

Read the rest of this entry »