Blessings of Liberty

4th of July Word Art Images
"With thoughts taken from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, here are a few patriotic word art images in honor of July 4."


Details: Made in GIMP with the background originating from a photograph of a piece of wood. Font downloaded from 1001Fonts.com. And a shout out to Catherine for exposing me to this kind of stuff. :)

Tutorial: How to Create Your Own Word Art!

Digital Scrapbooking: How to Create Your Own Word Art
"Do you want cute and customized text for digital scrapbooking, but you're not quite sure where to start? Here's a how-to in creating your own word art designs."

Details:

(1) The "Smile" is in the free font Scriptina and is filled with a gradient fill pattern in GIMP.

(2) The "David & Sara" is in the free font Beyond Wonderland and is filled with the same edited photograph that I used to make this blog's background.

(3) The "Best Friends" is in the free font Love Letters and another free font that I downloaded from 1001Fonts.com, but I can't seem to recall it's name. If it comes to me, I'll let you know. :) "Friends" is filled with a GIMP preset pattern--I think called water. I did this one a while ago, can you tell? Hehe.

Orange Marigolds

My mommy told me I should take some pictures of her flowers, so I did. :) Here's a teaser and you can view the rest of the slideshow with the link below.

Flower Garden Pictures: Orange Marigolds
"Here are a few shots of the orange marigolds in our backyard flower garden."


Details: I know it's hard to believe, knowing me, but I actually didn't edit this. Hehe, I tried, but it didn't make it look any better. :)

"Top Ten Mistakes Fine Art Photographers Make" by Mark Raymond Mason

Professional photographer Mark Raymond Mason has a top ten list of mistakes photographers make. I found some of his tips really helpful and wanted to share the link.

"Top Ten Mistakes Fine Art Photographers Make" by Mark Raymond Mason
"This article navigates some common pitfalls fine art photographers fall victim to as they follow their unique artistic paths. Not all of these issues apply to every photographer, but most of us will commit at least a few of these blunders at some time in our careers. Save yourself years of creative time - read this!"

Photo Editing Tutorial: Digital Cosmetic Surgery

Here it is, the article you've been waiting for: "How to Digitally Lose 10 Pounds, Rewind 10 Years, and Get the Look You've Always Wanted." :) As I say in the article, even if you're not seriously entertaining the idea of getting plastic surgery, it can still be fun to digitally alter pictures and see how your look can change. If you're interested, here's my tutorial.

Photo Editing Tutorial: Digital Cosmetic Surgery
"Digital Cosmetic Surgery made easy with the help of editing programs like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP. How to get the surgical results you want in your digital pictures."

In my own picture, working in GIMP and Microsoft Office Picture Manager, I used IWarp to adjust the jawline, airbrush tools to smooth skin and even out imperfections, paint tools to add false eyelashes, smudge tools to recreate the eyebrows, coloring tools to remove gray hair--you name it! :)

Old Sundance Pictures

So, a few summers ago I took a day trip to Sundance. You can click on the link to see a few pics from the experience. :)

Visiting Sundance, Utah: Slideshow
"Here's a photographic look at some of the beautiful scenery of Sundance, Utah, in the summer."


Details: Lightly edited in Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Happy Father's Day!

Hope the daddies out there have a great day! :)

Font: Scriptina. Edited in GIMP.

My Favorite Fonts

Top Ten Free Fonts from 1001Fonts.com
"My top picks for free font downloads from the website 1001Fonts.com."


Click on the link above to visit my slideshow containing font names, pictures, and links to download these amazing fonts for free.

Article: Tips on Photo Shoots with Kids

How to Improve Your Home Photo Shoots of Small Kids
"Having great family photographs shouldn't have to cost a fortune. Documenting the child-stage of life can be easy to do yourself when remembering these three simple tips."



Details: I edited this photograph in GIMP, basically just blacking out much of the mother-son duo and then inserting a gradient fill for the background (and color inverting the gradient fill to get it leading to white instead of black).

But, even if you're not interested in these weird kinds of pictures, hehe, the article is about steps to take when actually photographing--not about random editing effects. :)

Grandmother's Jewelry

I dusted off my grandmother's old jewelry the other day and took some pictures, which I lightly edited in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. :)

Click here for a few more pictures of My Grandmother's Jewelry.

Father's Day

With Father's Day coming up, I decided to try and make a card or something. But, neither attempt really turned out. And then I gave up. :)


Details: I used a background image from Stock.Xchng's ilco and free fonts downloadable* from 1001fonts.com. Then I added some borders and arranged the text in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Details: I got this Word Art design from Bethany and added a border and the shading in GIMP.

* "Downloadable" may not be a real word. But it should be. He he.

Little Red Flower Clip :)

Who knows why I take pictures of the things I do.


Details: Lightly edited in Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

My Mommy's Shoes

Her feet are so little. :)


Details: I did a little touching up in Microsoft Office Picture Manager and GIMP. Why should I get to get airbrushed and not give my mommy's shoes the same V.I.P. treatment? Ha ha. Ya, I really am that crazy! :)

Rain and Rubber Ducks! :)

Weather Pictures: Summer Showers in Denver, Colorado
"Colorado has recently had its share of tornadoes and thunderstorms, but here's a look at the more mild summer showers and brief hailstorm of June 10, 2009 taken just outside the city of Denver."

Associated Content Slideshows

I added my first two picture slideshows on Associated Content, with five photos in each. I've previously posted some of them here, but not all of them. So, if you're dying to see an additional few pics I edited, here are the links. :)

Pictures of a Woman's Face Digitally Edited in GIMP
"Here's an edited photograph I took with various overlays added in each version. You can learn more about GIMP (the free version of Adobe Photoshop) from my source page, if you're interested."

Digitally Cartooned and Edited Portraits
"Here's a collection of a few photographs I altered in GIMP (a free version of Photoshop) using the cartoon effect as well as various others."

P.S. I know it's weird I use quotation marks even when the text being inserted is something I wrote. But it feels wrong to copy and paste and not use quotation marks. So I thing I just have to go with it. Hehe.

Fill Tool (Bucket Tool) in GIMP

So, I'm still obsessed with Gimp's Fill Tool, which looks like a bucket of paint. I edited a picture and then noticed that the background was mostly the same color, so I just filled it with some of the preset designs that come in GIMP.

Details: The Fill Tool is just located on the main toolbar in GIMP. Once you've clicked on the icon, the corresponding settings will appear at the bottom of the toolbar where you can choose what fill gradient or design to use.

"Daddy's Home"

And for the unrelated video of the day, he he, here's a link to a clip of The Today Show featuring a soldier's reunion with his ten-year old daughter after being deployed in Iraq for a year. It kind of puts things in perspective, at least it did for me. :)

http://living.aol.com/morning-rush/daddys-home-today/25434372001

Wordle.net

So I think I may have just come across the coolest wordart site ever created for lazy people! :) It's called Wordle.

You can insert your own words or a url to extract text from. The design is automatically computer generated and you can play around with the format to customize it to your likings. I entered this site's url and here are some of the designs. Not bad for three seconds of effort each. He he.

Obviously, this has a lot of potential if you want to do specific themes, like religion, or father's day or whatever. The site asks you to always cite them, but they even give permission for commercial use of the designs. And that's pretty incredible.

One tip: a url must have an associated feed in order to work. So when I tried Lds.org and Mormon.org, it didn't work. But when I tried LDS Newsroom, it worked just fine. So keep that in mind if you're like me and can't fathom actually coming up with a whole list or words. :)

Blog Background Take 2

So, remember how I wasn't that content about my new cosmetics blog background? I decided to give it another go. I don't know why I'm being picky, it's not like this photo one is good. Or my free samples one. Or my new finance one. I guess I just think that a cosmetics blog deserves a pretty background. :)

I got the original makeup photograph from Val-J at Stock.Xchng. And the Swingset BB font from 1001 Fonts. Then I put everything together in GIMP.

But I can't decide. What do you think? Do we need a Take 3? :)

Tripod

Have you seen the movie Disney's The Kid with Bruce Willis? I don't think I even liked the film, but I find it extremely hard now to hear the word Tripod and not think of it. :) Anyway, I got lent a camera tripod and played around with it last week. Generally I just hold the camera in my hand, hence I usually only have face shots. He he. So I gave it the old college try. (Can you tell it's 5 am and I haven't been to bed yet? Ya, I can.)

Makeup Article

Now, the reason this article is relevant here is that I apply makeup pretty much the same whether it's digitally and in GIMP or it's with real-life products in the real-world. :) So, with only some minor adjustments, this article will fill you in on the digital makeup process I undergo when touching up photos for cosmetic reasons.

How to Do a Five-Minute Makeup Makeover
"Whether we're going to the office, running errands, or just staying at home, we--in general--want to look good. For busy days when all we need is a small pick-me-up, here are some basic steps in getting the most out of a five-minute makeover."

Forever

So, yesterday at Church, a 19-year old--who is preparing to go on a two-year mission starting next week--spoke to the congregation as well as two members who joined our Church later in life. The stories and testimonies were all so touching and it reminded me how truly blessed I am to know that Jesus is the Christ and God has restored His Church on the earth.

My sister took these photographs of the Denver, Colorado Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and wanted me to play around with them. No disrespect to my sister, but I don't think a photograph can capture the majesty of this building. If you're ever in the area, you should check it out for yourself. :)

Details: I made the black border overlay in GIMP and then I pieced together the photograph, overlay, and text in Microsoft PowerPoint. The font is a free download but I cannot remember what the name is. Do you really want me to go back and look it up? :) We put "Forever" on there because of our belief that, in the Temple, families can be sealed together for eternity.

The second image I did all sorts of weird stuff to. :) I combined various versions and layers of the original photograph with an Embossed version, something that can be accomplished using the GIMP tool of the same name (which can be found under the "Filters" tab in the category "Distortions").