Hollyhock Fresco

Still playing with the hollyhock image ...

I cropped down the previous pic, and ran it through Topaz Impression with the Cracked Fresco Filter.
Click on it to see the larger view.  It's pretty neat!

Summer Hollyhocks on the Farm

Here's the photo processing recipe layer by layer :

Good thing I saved that old pallet for a background!  I had my husband holding up the pallet behind the flowers so I'd have more of a barn wood background

Layer 1) Background Image Hollyhocks
Layer 2) Copy Layer 1 - Screen Blend Mode - 24%
Layer 3) 2LO Winter Storms 10 Texture - Multiply 50%
Layer 4) Copy Layer 3 - Soft Light - 100%
Layer 5) Sweet Leaf Texture - Alcohol Ink #5 - Soft Light 100%
Layer 6) Sweet Leaf Texture - Iron Gall Ink - Soft Light 100%

Layer 7) Crop to middle section for Rule of Thirds
Layer 8) Vignette

 

Crop to Square-ish

I think I like this one best.

I just couldn't bring myself to muddy up the old wood with text.

Breathe

Just a simple reminder ...

Made with one of my watercolor textures.

Loved by the Sun

Hmmh ---  There's more "glow" to my original than this version small-ified for the web.

Too hot to do much else today, but sit under the fan and play with images.

Here's the recipe layer-by-layer :
1) Background image of cone flowers, cropped.  Extended canvas with respect to Rule of Thirds.
2) Lighten
3) Topaz Impression - Watercolor Treatment
4) July Watercolor Texture (Scan 6 - mine) - Soft Light 100%
5) Copy Layer 4 - Multiply 90%
6) July Watercolor Texture (Scan 6 - mine) - Used the texture this time. - Soft Light 43%
Masked off some of the texture on the flowers.
7) Photoshop Artistry MO8-2012-3 - Screen 43% - (Lightens the center area.)
8) Photoshop Artistry Edge 18 - Overlay 27%  (Lightens the edges)
9) Text - Dear Joe 4 font (one of my favs) - Soft Light 100%

I was thinking about an old movie that I love, called Legend, with Tom Cruise and Mia Sara.  Jon Anderson from Yes does a song called "Loved by the Sun" as the credits roll up.    Someone made a nice video retelling the whole story in just 6 minutes.  Here it is :

Celebrate

I made this as a card for one of my Nun-Friends who is celebrating 60 years with her Community.  She likes purple as much as I do.  ;-)

Made with one of the Distressed Stains Textures.

So nice to have a bevy of my own textures to choose from for backgrounds.

So nice to have a color printer at home!

She Laughs ...

"She is clothed in strength and dignity

And she laughs without fear of the future."

                           --Proverbs 31:25

I made this for a friend who recently endured a bout of domestic violence on the dating scene.  I am so proud of her for standing up for herself and not putting up with it.  She called the cops, and the guy was sentenced to jail for 9 months (but only served 3 for "good behavior"--kind of ironic, huh?).  

She deserves so much more ...  She has strength, dignity, laughter, and love.  I wish her all things good.  All things this dude could not see nor appreciate in her.

And still -- it makes me sad, because we lost a family member last February to domestic violence.  She was my age, murdered in her own home by her boyfriend of 5 years.  Not everyone lives through it.

So I post this here for ALL women who have lived through similar ugly situations.   They are Survivors.    My hope is that they will KNOW their true worth in this world is without price, that they learn what they will NOT put up with, that they find the people who will love and treat them well.

May it be so ...