New Photoshop Creations

Good morning! I hope you're all ready for a great Memorial Day weekend.
It's been a very busy week between getting things done & still finding time to
work on my Photoshop Class with Gail Schmidt. It is a fabulous class & I am
learning a lot of new things. I am posting two new creations & also the original photos.
The originals came from  http://morguefile.com/  & the masks/backgrounds came from http://shadowhousecreations.blogspot.com/.  I will probably finish up the class next week. I already warned Gail that she will probably see me in ALL her PS classes to come!
Gail is a part of the http://creativeworkshops.ning.com/. Drop by & check it out.

Two new photos & a new Photoshop class

Good morning everyone! Looks like a lovely morning in Ventura County  but....they say there's a bit more rain this weekend. It's really kind of nice that we're still getting rain here...it keeps everything green & beautiful.
I have a couple of PSE compilations this morning. The boat image was overlayed on another picture of a gorgeous body of water. I always adjust the hue & saturation as well as the opacity. The 2ND photo is a striking "plain Jane" that turned out quite nice. Her photo was overlayed on a slate background. Again...I have adjusted the hue, saturation & opacity. She has such a serene look.
Now, I just enrolled in another Photoshop class with Gail Schmidt called
Down & Dirty the Digital Way through Creative workshops. I am loving it already because she does videos. You are not trying to follow directions from a piece of paper.
You can see exactly what she's doing. Also....the workshop doesn't close it's door on you after a certain amount of time. The videos are available for an unlimited amount of time. Now that's a workshop!
Happy Friday!

Stormy morning & Angel in the garden

Good Tuesday morning everyone! I woke up to rain this morning & it's suppose to continue through most of the day. Probably our last soaking for a while!
This morning I am sharing a digital piece I put together with PSE. I used a cloud formation as the background (tweaking the colors on that) & I used the angel image over the top of that. I adjusted the color, contrast & opacity on the two together & there you have....Angel in the garden! I am quite happy with her.
Hope you all have a creative day!

Lady with the lovely hat

Saturday is here already...Where did the week go?? I hope you're all ready for a grand weekend! I am posting a digital picture this morning done through PSE. I really love working on the digital things as there is no mess! I love collaging, paper & gel medium but that does add up to a mess at the end. I do art like I cook.......I make a big mess when doing it. The weather is looking gloomy today so I think I may find some little art project to work on. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Flowers & Paso Robles

Good Saturday morning everyone! I have found myself in a bit of a funk lately. I haven't done any artwork! Just too many other things going on sometimes & it's hard to find some spare time. First off, I want to wish all my friends a very happy mother's day! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your families.
I am posting a few flowers this morning from my yard at home. The fourth pic down is  from our property in Paso Robles. The trees along the driveway were totally bare this winter but they came back so nicely. I just love this drive to the top of the property.
The last photo is from a neighboring ranch. Lots of horses, cows & goats in the area....and let's not forget rattle snakes too!

Bubble Girls & Dolores Del Rio

Thursday is here! I spent the last two days on jury duty but I am free today. I always find jury duty to be such an interesting experience. Seems like everytime I am called I make it up to a court room. What I really got so tired of was hearing people's BS about what a hardship jury duty would be for them. People will say anything to get out of their civic duty! Just amazing!
I am posting the bubble girls this morning which is a PSE conconction.... as we hit up around 90 yesterday in the valleys. It was a beach day! The 2nd pic is another PSE creation from a mural in Hollywood. The mural was done in 1990 by Alfredo de Batuc. Dolores Del Rio was a latina film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Wishing you all a great Thursday!

The Tulips in Mt. Vernon, Washington

Good Saturday morning everyone! I am finally getting around to posting again! I returned from a short trip to Washington State last week & it was a great time! We managed to get over to see the tulips this time in Mt. Vernon. It was VERY cold that day! Fortunately, we didn't have to walk through the muddy tulips as we were fortunate enough to catch a ride. It was so nice seeing all the gorgeous colors & some very cool kites too! I hope you enjoy the pictures & that you all have a great weekend!

Eating grapes & serious sisters

Hello everyone! Friday really crept up quick & the weekend is upon us. I hope you all have some fun plans for this weekend. My sister-in-law is visiting from Washington state so we are gathering for a BBQ tomorrow. That should be a lot of fun.
This morning I have a couple of PSE creations done with some free images from some generous bloggers.
I have tweaked & re-tweaked these images..particularly the top one. I combined 2 pics together & then overlayed that on another. The sisters are a bit boring but I guess every piece can't be bright & popping with color. The background on the sisters was a free Flickr background.
Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Another New Paintover

Good morning! As you can see, I am enjoying the paintovers that I learned through Lisa Bebi & the book
titled,  Art at the speed of life. If you don't have this book by Pam Carriker, do yourself a favor & pick one up. It is fabulous! This is my 3rd paintover & I do believe I am improving a bit each time. I also included the original pic in this post. I have no idea who this lovely little girl is but she has one heavenly little face!
The process again is a black & white photocopied picture...I print on cardstock as it's heavier.
You are simply painting over that picture. It's really a fairly easy process. I use ALL Golden products.
The book referenced above goes step by step & there's only 5 or 6 steps. 
Happy Saturday!

New Easter Card

Good morning everyone! Yesterday I mentioned the Easter card my friend & I were making & here it is!
This is Shadow & we put together a card with him, a bunny & a few easter eggs on a free Easter background. This will be the card she mails out this year. I was quite pleased with the results as everything came together pretty nicely. Shadow is a beautiful boy!
Hope you all have a terrific day. We're pushing 90 today but just today.

New ATC's

Well the sun is shining very bright this morning. Today's temperature..... 81 degrees!
I have a couple of ATC's for you this morning that I made last week. I have a friend coming by today
& I am going to help her make some Easter cards. Tomorrow my son & I are heading to the Merle Norman Museum over in Sylmar. Can't wait to go there. I believe they have 130 vintage cars on display as well as tons of other wonderful stuff. Their website is http://www.nethercuttcollection.org/ if you are interested in checking it out. Have a great Wednesday!

A New Paintover

Good Morning! Back to Monday & another busy week ahead. It is a lovely morning with the sun coming through very early. Should be topping out around 80 by Thursday & that sounds very nice!
I have another paintover to share this morning. I hesitated to do this particular picture as the quality of the photos was poor. The paintover does not give you a clear crisp look so I thought I would just give it a shot.
Her face came out even less clear than before but I just let it fly. Chalk it up to practice & experience. I am hoping to get my hands on some better photos to start with next time. This is my mother in 1933 in Venice, Ca. & she was 5 years old & an adorable child.
Hope you all have a creative week!

PSE Baby & California Shot

Good Morning! I have been really slacking on my blog posts! When I have other bloggers stopping by to see what's new & I have NOTHING....it's time to get my butt in gear! I really have been doing art....believe me. I am deep into ATC's right now. I just LOVE making those little things. The problem is none of them are photographed.
This morning I have this sweet little baby that was altered via Photoshop Elements & a shot that my son took driving up the coast to Paso Robles. I also tweaked that in Photoshop a bit.
I hope you all have a great weekend! 

Learning Lisa Bebi's Paintover Process

Good Morning world! One of my favorite new books is Art at the Speed of Life  by Pam Carriker. This book is so full of inspiration I can hardly put it down. The work from several artists are depicted in this book along with their technique. Lisa Bebi is one of those artists. My friend took Lisa's paintover class at ArtFEST 3 years ago & we all loved her creations. Basically, Lisa takes a black & white photograph & paint over that picture...a VERY cool little process. This is a pic of my mother from 1930 when she was about 3 years old. I also included the original photo. I was pretty happy with the results except her lips came out a bit more pink than I wanted. I will have to keep practicing! Definitely check out Pam's book..only $13.00 on Amazon & that is a steal! Happy Thursday & please keep those, less fortunate than us, in your thoughts.

Choo Choo & Brighten up that face!

Good morning everyone! I am going to have to post a little more often...I had a hard time uploading pics this morning for some reason. Blogger can be a bit of a challenge at times! This morning I have a train & a lovely face both altered in Photoshop Elements.
I am going to shoot for some ATCs this weekend. I am getting the little itch to make these again & I believe I will start another collage on a bit larger canvas.
I hope you all have a great weekend!

New Collage

Good Friday morning! Hope you are all having a great week with a lot of fun on tap for the weekend.
I am posting an 8x8 mixed media collage I completed a few days ago. I have missed having my hands in gel medium! I don't know what it is about running the brush over a piece of tisse that's covered with gel medium. I simply LOVE it! I have always loved tearing paper & decoupaging. Paper was one of my first loves when I entered the crafting world. This piece is many layers of paper...tissue & otherwise but mostly tissue. There is also several color washes & some gesso in between.  The main image is an image transfer on to tissue paper. The image transfer was done using Sheer Heaven. I was pleased with the look & the texture.
I hope you all have a marvelous weekend! 

New collage & PSE picture

Good morning! I hope you all had a great week & some fun plans for the weekend! I am looking forward to the Independent Spirit awards tonight & the Oscars tomorrow.
My first pic this morning is from my faux encaustic class with Jodi Ohl. I did 4 canvases with 3 of them finished now. It is 8x8 & has MANY layers of paper & colorwashes. I was really liking the whole process til we got to the end.....then came tar gel! UGH!! Did NOT like the way that looked at all! Mixed tar gel with a bit of titan buff paint  &spread across the top at the end. Well...I am posting this pic prior to the tar gel application. I believe I may have put too much on. I really liked this class a lot but I veered off path somewhat. Jodi does a lot of doodling & drawing...Diane doesn't! I chose not to draw what I call "stick flowers" on my canvas. Instead I used more text & did some image transferring instead. The female shown was an image transfer to tissue paper using Sheer Heaven. I am starting a new canvas today so we'll see where that leads.
The 2nd PSE image was done using one of my canvas backgrounds with a free vintage picture overlayed.
I was quite pleased with that one. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Dog Day Monday

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I have wrapped up all my OWOH obligations & my gifts went out last Friday. I was actually fortunate enough to win two items also. I will show those off once I receive them.
This morning I have a PSE pic on top & for the life of me....I can't remember who the artist was...UGH!
I used one of my backgrounds which is a tye dyed balloon. I overlayed the image & adjusted the opacity.
I like the colors. The 2nd picture is a 12x12 image transfer done with Sheer Heaven (my FAVORITE) transfer material. This is Patches & this was done for a birthday gift for my sister's best friend, Kathy.  Is this sweet guy drop dead gorgeous or what??  Hope you all have a great week!

Dexter helps select the OWOH winners! .

Good morning! My Bengal boy, Dexter, is helping me announce the winners this morning....& we can't thank you all enough for joining in this year. I ended up with 195 comments & 10 new followers. I had quite a bowl of little papers to draw from this morning. Actually the bowl was too small & I had to dump them all in a box. Now....the winners are:

Sharon at http://wildflowerhouse.blogspot.com/
Siziqu at http://suziqusthreadworks.blogspot.com/
Doreen at http://doreeng.blogspot.com/
Saskia at http://deliciousdoodlesblog.blogspot.com/
Nancy at http://butterflyatwork.blogspot.com/

A big CONGRATULATIONS to all of you!

PSE pics & last week for OWOH

Good Monday morning! This is the last week to enter the OWOH drawing. The winners will be drawn Thursday, February 17th. I've had approximatly 165 comments & picked up 9 new followers at this point so I am pretty happy with that response. I am only sad that this is the last year.
Two pics today were free images combined with some free texture backgrounds. I am quite pleased with the ballet couple....just something about the ballet that grabs me every time!
Have a wonderful, creative week everyone!