Thursday, December 24, 2015

White Christmas


Even though we live in the heart of the Midwest, there is no guarantee of a white Christmas. Forecasters had predicted rain this morning, with a few flurries mixed in.

Rain turned to light, fluffy snow earlier than expected and left us with a soft blanket of 8+ inches. Lovely way to start the holiday. Our yard is a winter wonderland and Barney is the self-appointed Snow King.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Friday, December 4, 2015

Create Photo Art the Easy Way


You don't have to be a graphic artist or even a great photographer to create unique photo art with some of the online digital tools available today.

Admittedly, I'm an amateur who likes playing with crafty-looking add-ons and altering basic photographs to change the style. I like to layer backgrounds and add overlays. I'm particularly fond of making my photographs look like ephemera.


Last week, I took this photograph out the window of my ninth-floor office during a light snow. It's not a high-quality photo, as the light was poor and I was using my iPhone 5. But, I liked the photo and posted it on Facebook. Then I decided to play around with it.

While there are many free digital photo-editing tools online, I generally use PicMonkey. It's easy and it feeds my need for cheesy, crafting-looking creations. There is a free version that offers many nice editing tools and a premium version that has many additional options. I pay for the premium version. It's worth the cost for me because I use it a lot.

The first image above could be featured in a small frame as a holiday accent or used as the front of a handmade holiday card.

Other styles of the same image open up many possibilities for the use of just this one photograph.






As you can see, photo editing allows you to make something interesting from a mediocre quality photo. The combinations of backgrounds, overlays, text fonts, frames and cutouts make the possibilities endless.

Explore some of these highly rated photo editing programs to find one that suits your needs best.

Make it a great day!
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