Agapanthus Blue...

'Linen' texture - Collection 1

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A birthday rose...

For the lovely LeAnne over at Flower Art Friday...I hope you are having a wonderful day!

I used my texture 'Plaster' from collection 2

And remember folks, there's just one week left to grab an absolute bargain

with all texture collections currently at half price!

 Just click over to my shop or website to have a closer look...

A big thank you to all who have bought them so far and for all the positive feedback I've been receiving these past few weeks regarding my texture collections. I really appreciate it and am now working on some new things...more on that soon!

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Dreaming...

Of  lazy Sunday mornings in the sunshine, amongst the daisies...actually it turned out to be a reality for Izzy this weekend...

And for me, taking pictures of Roses was a dream come true too! This one below is in our garden and I wish you could smell it, a delicate fresh scent, heavenly...

We went out in the afternoon to visit some gardens (pics to come soon!) and the weather was kind to us, Izzy had a great time as did I, at last I have a file full of flowers to work on :) a conservative 400 shots were taken, I'm more considered these days, I used to reel off hundreds of shots easily...but then there's the sorting out and deleting, which never gets done. It's a bit boring really...I'd rather be in photoshop :)




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Blog Award!

I was so grateful to hear that Merike at Merike Art had kindly given me this blog award...

What I now have to do is to reveal 7 things about myself and also to nominate 3 other bloggers who I admire, so here goes...

1: I love books, learning books especially...I find having books around me very comforting...I never get to read them all though :)

2: I'm obsessed with American culture and wish I could live there...I've never felt very British.

3: I have had a daily practise of meditation for 21 years and I pray every day although I don't class myself as religious.

4: I love stationery especially notebooks...I have lots of them piled up about the house, you can never have too much stationery in my opinion :)

5: My current top 3 T.V shows:

1: Friday Night Lights...can't get enough of this show right now!
2: Drop Dead Diva (new season at last - yay!)
3: Parenthood

6: I'm a very solitary, private person and am most comfortable in my own company...this is when can get to
be creative.

7: I adore things with polka dots on them...be it cups, coats, bags, I love them!

I used my 'Plaster' texture from collection 1

The 3 bloggers I'd like to nominate for this lovely award (and there are so many I love, it took me ages to decide) are the following:

Jill over at Jillsygirl Studio: http://www.jillsygirl.com/

LeAnne from Photo's By LeAnne: http://www.photosbyleanne.net/

Jeanne at Butterfly Tales: http://thebutterflymetamorphosis.blogspot.co.uk/


I do hope you're all having a wonderful weekend :) I've taken to snapping my pictures inside as it's either raining or very windy here...

Space to enjoy roses...

Bonnie's prompt for this week's Photo Art Friday is negative space...something that works really well for texture use, and I happened to have made a new picture today with some beautiful roses which happened to have some negative space in it...

I actually 'smoothed out' the background in photoshop using the brush tool before adding my 'Kiss and Tell' texture over the top...if you want to know how to smooth out or blend away unwanted things (in this case it was creases in the tablecloth used as the backdrop!) then check out my photoshop video tutorial...there are a few vids there if you're interested in some texture/photoshop tips :) more coming soon...


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Photoshop Tutorial: Adding Textures to Photographs

So, I know I've been promising some video tutorials for a  while..well, maybe it's been a few months...ahem...well, here's one for you! I've finally managed to set aside time and also the 'making a video fears' and took the plunge! I hope you find it helpful...it's a basic tutorial to help anyone who is new to using textures get started and to show you how I made this image below...I'm making some more videos covering more advanced texture use, so stay tuned! I'll be adding the videos to my tutorials page soon but for now, they'll be here on the blog...and you can find them on youtube too!

I used my free texture 'Vanilla' - see the video below to find out how I made this picture!

You can download the new free texture collection to try out this technique for yourself, they can be found on my freebies page...





If you have any suggestions regarding texture tutorial topics, do let me know...and if you want to grab some textures for half price, pop over to my shop and grab some beautiful texture collections to fire up your inspiration!



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Texture fun!

A huge thank you to everyone that has been scooping up my texture collections this week in my month long  half price summer sale.  I'm so grateful and  I do hope you enjoy them :) If you like textures, then check out my new shop page to find all my texture collections currently at half price!!

'True Grit' texture from my new free texture collection

More new things are happening on my freebies page on my website too with a redesign and a new free texture collection...which includes seven new free textures for you to try out...this picture above is using one of the new free textures called 'True Grit'...I'm loving it for adding a bit of fresh painterly/grungy texture...we have lots of greens in the garden as we're back to cold, wet and windy this week...it's turning into a lush jungle out there!

'Chapel' texture from my new free texture collection with some desaturation

I'm feeling highly motivated toward encouraging people to use textures in their photography or even their artwork and graphic designs, so this is why I offer free textures and also why I'm having a mad sale! I enjoy working with textures sooo much but I know it can all be a bit daunting at first, so I hope these offerings will inspire and encourage everyone to try them :) they're so cheap at only 39p per texture...

Getting creative really helps me to feel good and gives balance to my rather hectic working life...I hope you can get as much out of these textures as I do :) So, go get some freebies and pop over to the sale and grab a bargain! And remember, I have a tutorials page to help get you started :)

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Was that our summer?

Did I make the most of last week's glorious hot sunny days? You bet! It's the temperature I'd be happy with all year round...I even got some pictures taken for the first time (outside) in 6 weeks!!

Our first 'family' trip to Sissinghurst gardens was a success! Izzy rose to the occasion, there are lots of people and cars there but she did very well...then off went Patrick and Izzy round the large wooded estate and lakes so it was good and shady, while I took my camera into the beautiful gardens...everything's late here in the UK so this was the first rose of the year for me!

Izzy had a marvellous time going for a swim! By the time I met up with them she looked like a happy water rat!! It's great to be creating some happy memories for her and for us :)


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