A Mammoth Triptych

Wow, I have been a busy bee the last couple of weeks. Last weekend I finished up a couple of crafts, after failing at my attempt to fix the hubby's suit pants. He's got a hole in the pocket that I just cannot seem to fix! I guess they are going to get shipped off to mom's house! Cest la vie! Also, I was able to do some photo editing as well. Still needing to work on Florida, but these things were asked of me LONG ago.

We all love our smart phones and the fact that we can take photos at the drop of a hat. However most of these photo's are not print worthy. When my friend asked me to do some editing of some photos for his home I thought ok no problem. Well that is until he emails them to me and the below shot is one of them. Needing to color correct and remove the blue haze (caused from being in the shade and the setting sun) was my first task. Now since we are doing more to the photo, I didn't so super crazy with the photo editing, but the after (on the right) looks so much better than the original photo.

Before (Left) After (Right) Also, this photo was taken on a smart phone! Haha

I played around with a couple of techniques and came up with this cool, sketchy triptych. Although, I think were gonna need a little more work on the last photo, since it doesn't quite match the other two. Hey. Not too shabby for less than an hours worth of work! Hopefully we can figure out what kind of techniques to use, to make the photo's wall worthy. Once completed, I'll post em!

I also finished another baby shower quick gift. The diaper/wipes strap. Tutorial to come on that later! They look so cute! I am in love with the pink ABC fabric, too bad I'm almost out of it! :-( Also I did some hand stitching a couple of weeks back (finishing up a couple things) and tried some hand embroidery. Another new thing for me. All I had ever done was the simple techniques that come with the bib patterns. I think it turned out pretty cute! I love the colors! Need a technique for transferring an image for embroidery? Print your image off from the computer or wherever you would like, trace it onto Glad Press and Seal, pin to your fabric, and stitch over the design. You'll have to cut off the press and seal later, but it made my life so much easier! :-)

Closeup!

And finally a Saw It, Pinned It, Did It moment. This chicken with tomato and basil recipe I found on Pinterest. We had everything except the chicken so I thought, what the hell it's worth a shot! Once this was simmering, it was hard to not want to lick the pan. It smelled that good! Another one on the list for dinner rotation!

Tomato Basil Chicken

What You'll Need:
2 chicken breasts
kosher salt and black pepper
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tsp minced fresh garlic
4 Tbsp cold butter
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
freshly grated Parmigiano reggiano cheese, for garnish (optional)

Head on over to Menu Musings, for the rest of the directions! If you love Italian food, this is one for the books!

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

Comic Book Style

Last year, I was in need of some Christmas gift ideas for a friend of D's, Mr. P. We had all gone up to his favorite lake spot for Labor Day with his family (looking forward to this year!) and had taken hundreds of photos of water sports, scenery and sunsets. I decided that for his present that I would blow up one of the lake shots and then make a smaller poster size photograph for him to hang in his garage with the rest of his recreational gear. The lake shot was just a standard color fix and blow up, but for the poster I wanted it to look unique. Like it came from a magazine. So I took one of the best shots and went to work in Photoshop manipulating the image until I got the look I was going for. Of course I added in a little inside joke to it as well. We exchanged our gifts and when he opened the poster and I told him it was for the garage, he exclaimed "Oh no! This is going in my loft!" Shortly after Christmas Mr. P asked me if I could create another image like that one, so he would have a pair to hang in his home. We went through the shots and he selected one of himself carrying his wakeboard. I went through Google until I found an appropriate Comic Book style tutorial and away I went. 30 minutes later we had another great looking stylized piece of art.

He proceeded to buy frames and hang them along with the enlargement of the lake in his loft as a ode to his favorite spot on the planet. After a recent trip up to the same lake, he got a great group shot with him and his cousins. He then asked me if he could trouble me to do another poster to hang up for his housewarming party. I was a little apprehensive of how the photo would turn out, since it was taken at night, but with a little splash of brightness and some other minimal photo editing, I found I had a good base to put on the comic book style. I sent it to be printed and then the hubbs and I helped him hang it in it's rightful place in the LDP room.

Of course while doing all this fun stuff with photos I had to do one of the hubby and me too! So I took an old photo of us from a friends wedding and edited away! I love doing this stuff! Especially when I can see how the person responds to my creations and truly appreciates it!

DD!

What do you like to do with your photos?

No home is complete without a little Disney!

Since our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. A had birthday's this week, and since we are all a little obsessed with Disney, I decided to whip up a couple Subway Art's for their office with their favorite Disney characters. Mrs. A and I have an affinity for Sleeping Beauty; and this one, which I was trying to perfect, just didn't turn out as I had hoped. Even though I went for a purple because that is the color of royalty, it just didn't look quite right. She suggested doing a blue to pink gradient which is an awesome idea! So I will redo the Sleeping Beauty one and get another print made for her and one for myself as well! Still waiting on the hubs to decide what his favorite movie is! I also found a font that looks similar to the movie font. It's called storybook.

Mr. A's turned out great! I love the colors and how Stitch looks! I had a hard time determining which words were strictly Stitch because I have only seen that movie once, but I think I came up with a great combo of words! I also found a font that was similar to the one Disney used. You can find that here.

I hope you like them!

Subway Art

I have been seeing a big craze on the internet for Subway Art. It's not really anything special, it's just a lot of words that have some meaning or common theme put together with various size and style fonts. With my handy dandy photo-shop tool I decided to take a crack at making one for my sister-in-law and her new husband. They ended up being so much fun that I made two more as well, both for birthday parties that I am attending over the weekend. One for my cousin and one for my dear friend from high school (who is mildly obsessed with Peter Pan.) It seems that I surround myself, including yours truly, with people that obsess over a singular Disney film. Anyways, I thought I would share the files with you since I can't wait to pick up the prints and in the frame they go! Yay!

I will update once I get them in the frames! So Excited!

*Update: They were such a big hit with the recipients. I know I will be making more like the Peter Pan one for upcoming birthdays. Of course a Sleeping Beauty one for myself! I will keep you updated when I make them! Below are the images printed and framed! Enjoy!

A Side Business?

Because I was so stressed out over the house buying I decided to do a little stress relief and do what I do best. Create. My good friend Hope is getting married in October so I thought I would put my Photoshop skills to good use and come up with some invitation designs. After trying for a couple of hours, I finally got the hang of the set up and was able to come up with a couple of designs for her and her Fiance to review. I also made up one for my sister-in-laws bridal shower that is coming up. Darin took one look at them and said "You have a side business!" Well I don't know if I would go that far, but I did have fun with them and would like the opportunity to try and make some from start to finish. Maybe I will do some mock-ups with ribbon and such. Hey, its worth a shot right? Let me know what you think. (Pertinent information has been removed from all three mock ups for privacy reasons)