Give your photos a touch of texture using these simple steps. Of course there are several ways to achieve this effect but I’m going to show you a really quick and easy method that everyone can do.

First start with a photo you want to play around with and open it in your photo editing software. (For this tutorial I will be using CS5 as my example, but the functions should work with most forms of Photoshop.) Second, if you don’t already have a collection of textures, you’ll need to get some. Here are a few places that offer free textures:

Coffee Shop Blog – http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/p/t…tal-paper.html
Flickr’s Skeletal Mess – http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=text…33238509%40N04

You can also do a search either on Flickr or your favorite photo website for free textures & find more than you’ll ever need. Miss Mint’s textured & patterned papers make for interesting textures too! Once you’ve found some you like save them in a folder you can easily find.

In Photoshop, open the photo you want to play with & then open the texture you wish to use on the photo. Please note that textures aren’t always going to be the same size as your photos. And if you’re working with a black & white photo, but the texture is in color, you may have to change the texture to a greyscale to achieve the look you want. Also note, that if you are planning to have your textured photo printed it is important to make sure that the texture images you use are high resolution and not just web sized images.

Select the texture. (You can do this in a shortcut by using the keyboard Ctrl A, then Ctrl C). In your photo window you paste (Ctrl V). You’ll see that by pasting the texture it created a new layer on top of the photo.

In my example photo you can see that the texture is considerably smaller than the photo. To enlarge the texture, Ctrl+T for a free form edit. Pull from the corners and stretch the texture until it’s the same size as the photo. Hold down SHIFT while pulling the corners with your mouse to keep your image in proportion so it won’t stretch or distort.

Now it’s the size of the photo but it’s covering up the photo. Change the opacity, and play around with the layer mode. Adjust the settings to your taste. (I have my opacity at 44% and I left my layer mode on “normal”. Play around with the layer modes & see which one best suits your photo.) You’ll notice that some of the “text” of the texture is covering the baby’s face & doesn’t look natural, so we must remove it.

Make sure the texture layer is selected, and using your eraser tool, (set the opacity to your taste, probably around 75%, and select a brush with a feathered edge) erase over the subject’s face & skin for a more natural look.

Make any other processing adjustments you wish & save the file as a JPEG. So there you have a short, simple & easy way to apply textures to a photo.

Happy Snapping!

Article & Photography by: Sarah Harbuck for PeppermintCreative.com

Hi everyone! Sarah Harbuck here with a quick little tutorial on how to display multiple photos as one image to create a photo collage. It’s easy once you get the hang of it.

First open Photoshop and create a new document. 
To do this, go up to FILE and select NEW.

A dialogue box will pop up asking you how large you wish to make your document. I usually make my collages web ready, so I can easily post them here at PC. The maximum pixel size allowed here at Peppermint Creative is 600 pixels. So I leave my resolution at 72, and size my document accordingly. If I’m using all landscape/horizontal mode photos i size the document 400×600, if I’m using all portrait/vertical mode photos i size the document 600×400. Size it to fit your needs. This is just an example. If you want to make your collage high resolution for printing. Be sure to set your resolution to 300. Once you’ve got that set, open the photos you wish to make into the collage.

Resize the photo so it will fit neatly into a portion of your new document. I sized mine 200×300 pixels. (leave the resolution at 72). To resize your photo and maintain proportion click CTRL+T to bring up the transform tool and then hold SHIFT while using your mouse to resize the image.
 
Continue resizing each photo to the same dimensions. Select the first photo you wish to place in the collage & SELECT ALL & COPY…or use the shortcuts CTRL+A (select all) & CTRL+C (copy). Or simply just use your mouse to drag the photos between documents.

Then go to your new document and PASTE or use the shortcut CTRL+V.

Do this for all of the photos in your collage. You’ll notice that there will be layers in the layers palette of each photo you’ve pasted. Select whichever layer you wish to work with and click the MOVE tool (the arrow) and move the photo around until you get it where you like.

As you can see I arranged mine in a 4 square collage. Sometimes you may wish to put text on top of the photos. This is especially true for "before" & "after" photos.

To achieve this, select the TEXT TOOL, or the T in the tool bar along the left-hand side. Along the top you can select the type of font, the size & the color of the font (as shown in the photo). Then just type the words you wish to appear.

Your finished document will look something like this:

Then you save it as a JPEG to whatever file you would like & it’s ready to be uploaded to the web for display!

And there you have it, a simple & easy way to create a photo collage.

Ohhh! Just a quick sneak peek at what I’m working on…

So excited about this collection! The new Color Coded Collection will feature 30+ papers, flowers, strings, ribbons, rhinestones and various elements all perfectly coordinated so you can mix and match and create your own unique color combinations for your pages and projects.

COMING SOON.

A huge MESS…

AND some delicious cookies! (This batch turned out too thin!)

I decided that I really wanted to learn how to make those gorgeous iced sugar cookies…they look so delicious and fun to make and this year I’ve pledged to (a) spend more time learning/doing new things that I’ve always wanted to learn/do and (b) stop putting things off until ‘later’…since later seems to never come. 

Note that I know absolutely nothing about cookies making/decorating but thanks to my friend Google I was able to figure out enough to get started. One one hand, these are shockingly easy to do…on the other hand it’s a lot harder to ice a straight line than you’d think but if I could do it I’m quite confident anyone can.

So after a quick leisurely trip to Michael’s (where I stood with a glazed look of excitement/confusion in the cake decorating aisle for about an hour) I picked up a basic set of Wilton icing colors and some Meringue Powder and some cookie cutters. I already had a set of icing tips and bags that I bought last year during another one of my ‘leisurely’ trips to Michael’s thinking that ONE DAY I would need them to make something…I tend to do that.

I used this dough recipe and this icing recipe to rave reviews by family and friends. I gave one of my girlfriend four cookies to take home and sample (two for her and two for her boyfriend) and she texted me to say she’d eaten three on the way home…and promised only to leave her man only HALF a cookie to taste. LOL.

This was really just a trial run, which is why I didn’t bother to match up the outline color with the fill color but I think for a FIRST attempt, this isn’t terrible! Clearly I have some things to learn and improvements to make. I made them far too thin and learned that in my oven I had to double up the baking sheets so the bottoms didn’t brown before the cookies finished baking. It takes a while to get the hang of the outlining, which I still need to practice and honest to god I taste tested so many (you just have to, it’s the rule) I don’t ever want to eat another cookie ever again until later this afternoon BUT it really didn’t take too long and now that they’re dry I can go back and add some pretty decorations.

If I ever get to it I’ll be sure to share a picture. If you are thinking of giving this a try I did a bit more research online and found that the consensus seems to be that Americolor Gel Paste are FAR superior to the Wilton Icing Colors so I’ll be heading out this week to pick some up at a local cake supply store. Apparently they are much easier to use since they are squeeze bottles and you get much better more vibrant color.

Just wanted to share – and by all means if you have any good resources send them my way!

Here are some that I found:

BROWN EYED BAKER: How to Decorate Cookies with Royal Icing
SWEETOPIA: How to Decorate Cookies with Royal Icing – Top 10 Tips
ANNIE’S EATS: Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope everyone is having a chocolate, candy, flower, love filled day. I hope you had a chance to check out my new FAVORITE product of all time, the iPhone Candy Bar Wrappers. I’m obsessed! If you are sitting in front of the computer right now thinking ‘oh crud it’s VALENTINE’S DAY and I’m screwed’ have no fear, these babies are practically print-ready. Just download, add your own greeting and your adorable (or your child’s adorable) little face in the top right corner and print.

Includes: wrappers for 5 different candy bar/boxes plus separate front and back. Layered PSD and TIF files plus PNG files. 300 dpi.

Templates Included: Cadbury Caramilk Bar (52g / 1.83oz CANADA), Regular Hershey’s Bar (1.55oz USA), Nestle Crunch Bar (1.5oz / 45g USA/CANADA), Nestle Smarties Box(50g CANADA), Reeses Pieces Box (51g)

What a sweet way to celebrate Valentine’s and you just KNOW the kids at school (and your gadget geek friends) will just flip over this.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
xox

I don’t know about you guys but I was at a total loss for cute Valentine’s sayings for some of my projects this year. A quick Google search left me a little lacking so I started digging and digging (and thinking and thinking) and compiled a little list that will hopefully help you out if you’re busy crafting this weekend.

On a side note I’m completely OBSESSED with this picture taken by Sarah Harbuck for this week’s Click-a-Pic Challenge so I’ve decided to steal it from the gallery and post since it goes so nicely with my love themed article…don’t ya think?

You can see more of Sarah’s super cool photography here

Back to the LIST! Here it is…and please by all means add your favourite sayings in the comments section so we can compile the best list ever and I will add it to the Phrase Guide. ;)

SWEET SAYINGS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY CARDS

You’re ‘beary’ special (gummy bears)

I can’t ‘lick’ my problems without you (lollipop)

No matter what – we ‘stick’ together (glue, gum, lollipop)

You’re my ‘treasure’ (chocolate coins)

You ‘auto’ be mine. (toy car)

I’m a sucker for you (lollipop)

Life is more bearable with you in it  (teddy bear)

You’re ‘tops’ with me. (toy top, t-shirt)

You drive me ‘bananas’ (banana flavoured candy, monkey)

I have a ‘ball’ with you (gumballs, sour balls)

You are ‘eggs-tra’ special (chocolate eggs)

You go the ‘extra’ mile with me! (extra gum)

I ch-ch-choo choose you (train)

You can count on me when things get sticky (gum, jellies, marshmallows)

I’m ‘stuck’ on you (gum, jellies, marshmallows)

I’m ‘nuts’ for you (chocolate with nuts)

You drive me ‘nuts’ (chocolate with nuts)

You are ‘soda’ special (soda/pop)

You melt my heart (smooth chocolate)

I love you no matter how you ‘slice it’ (something with slices)

I ‘mint’ to tell you, you’re the best (mint-flavoured candy)

You were ‘mint’ for each other (mint-flavoured candy)

You go the "extra" mile with me! (extra gum)

You ROCK! (pop rocks)

You’re a real lifesaver (lifesavers)

I love/like you a latte (anything coffee related – gift card?)

You’re the cream in my coffee (anything coffee related – gift card?)

I love you for so many ‘Reeses’ (reese’s peanut butter cups)

Together forever (duct tape, super glue or anything sticky)

I ‘knead’ you (bread)

Orange you glad you are mine? (orange flavoured chocolate or candy)

You rub me the right way (sand paper, hand/body lotion)

We make a great ‘pear’ (fresh fruit, pear flavoured candy)

Let’s get this straight: you’re mine! (ruler)

You measure up! (tape measure, ruler)

You have left an lasting impression on my heart (sharpies)

Dog-gone it! Please be mine (toy dog, doggy biscuit)

You have my heart (candy hearts)

Will ewe be mine? (sheep)

Ewe are special – be mine! (sheep)

Especially for ewe. (sheep)

I get a kick out of ewe. (sheep)

You’re just my type. (different fonts, typewriter toy)

I’m hooked on you (fishing hook)

Bee mine (bee, honey)

CUTE VALENTINE’S POEM
Roses are red,
Violets are blue
I made this card
Just for you
It’s not the neatest,
It won’t pass a test
But I made it with love,
And that makes it the best.