November challenges at the Just Art site

By on 8-17-2011 in Original photos, Places to See

I haven’t had time to post these pieces separately so thought I’d do them all at one time … November has been a busy month digitally.

This first page was done for my own challenge “your favourite book”. Wuthering Heights has always been a book that haunts me and I have read it several times. This piece is a composition of several photos from Deviant Arts site and the Morgue Files site.

Wuthering Heights

What if challenge … at first I didn’t think I would do this one because I decided years ago not to look back and ask ‘what if’. Then I thought of another way to set down these words. I’ve always loved watching the crows play in the thermals going up, up, up until they are just a speck against the blue of the sky and then soaring down in those same thermals. Crows are the only birds I have seen actually play, how awesome. The photos used in this piece are all from the Morgue Files site.

What if challenge

Stretch your wings challenge … we were to create a leaf and then use it in a page. I painted a maple leaf then added the real one with filters to create several different ones. The Maple Leaf Forever just seemed to be so right for this challenge.

Maple Leaf Forever

Middle passage and Sea Fever were created using Jilbert’s Bits of Bytes frame and brush mini kits. I chose a sailing theme for both of these pages which were the main November challenge. You can find Jil’s kits here: Jilbert’s Bits of Bytes

Middle PassageSea Fever

Mr. Wonderful is a tribute to our Canada geese who mate for life and look after their family to the death if need be. You see the gander with his head up and watching as his family feeds. He is Mr. Wonderful. This page was done during November’s progressive scrap.

Mr. Wonderful

Mosaic Mask for Photoshop Elements

By on 8-17-2011 in Original photos, Places to See

parliament buildings

At the new Just Art, a digital art and scrapbooking site we were discussing mosaic filters but in Photoshop Elements the technique for using this filter on a layers mask is not possible without creating the mask first. I have created this one to test out how well it would work using a black and white image, putting it through the mosaic filter and using that as your mask. This is how it turned out. I changed the mask colour to one of the sky colours and used the multiply filter on it as well. I am including the mask if you would like to try it yourself, just right click and save to download it. The photo I used is of our Canadian Parliament Buildings taken from the back, across the Ottawa River at the Museum. It is an interesting effect. The link for the new site is: Just Art . Come on over if you want to share and learn with the rest of us, you will be welcomed.

mask

Printing Plate Images from the Almonte Mill Museum

By on 8-17-2011 in Original photos, Places to See

My visit to the Almonte Museum last year yielded several wonderful printing plates. I couldn’t resist using them for digital images.

Printing Plate Image

The original plates are the orange plates. I changed the image from colour to black and white and then recoloured them. Faces were left as is and I rotated the others to give a right side up print.

Printing Plate Image

These images could be used on a digital or scanned background, set into transparency to hover above the background and another image set over top of that. Lots of play with these old plates.

Printing Plate Images

You could also transfer the images to fabric to use in your fabric arts or onto paper for a little ATC.

Children at the Carp Fair, Carp, Ontario

By on 8-17-2011 in Original photos, Places to See

A little boy carrying his prize dolphin and a little girl riding the merry-go-round along with her mother.

a boy and his dolphin

This little boy caught my eye as he was walking towards his mother. The dolphin toy he is carrying is almost bigger than he is. The coloured shadows of the dolphins as the sun shines through them beside him create a wonderful photo. I wonder who won the dolphin for him?

carp fair

Is there anything prettier than a little girl on the merry-go-round? This little one is hanging on to her horse, with her mother keeping her safe beside her. For me, this is what a fair is ….. families and their children getting together in our fast paced world, bringing back the feeling of belonging and adventure.

Happy Halloween to everybody

By on 8-17-2011 in Original photos, Places to See

Watch out for the ghosts and goblins tonight. I kept these three photos aside just for tonight’s festivities. All of these photos could be used as backgrounds for a spooky digital collage or inspiration for a dark nighttime quilt.

Orange moon through white cedar tree

A summer moon taken on a hot night. The white cedar shadow gives this photo it’s Halloween flavour.

harvest moon

September gives us a different moody moon. The moon this night was a beautiful silver with a big dog ring that picked up the moon shine and through it around the scudding clouds below it.

harvest moon

This is another summer moon. A June moon which was taken on a hot evening and another shadow of a white cedar tree.