Your Appointment with Friday

Hi lovely people and happy Friday night!  Well, right now I am sitting on my bed snuggled up with Pumpkin at a Lodge in Snowbird.....and there is snow everywhere!  It's beautiful!!!  I decided that since I'm on vacation to take a week off from Bubblegum Life, and so you lucky people get to be inspired by the sweet and talented Stephanie Kelley from My Creative Brightside : )  And she has chosen the perfect photo prompt!  So without further ado, her is her inspiration.....

Comfort Foods

RECIPE FOR EGG DROP SOUP

serves 4

    4 cups chicken broth

    2 tablespoon dark soy sauce

    2 large egg

    4 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions for garnish

Steps

    - Beat eggs in small bowl - set aside

    - Heat the broth in a small pot and bring to a boil

    - Stir in soy sauce

    - Return to a boil then turn off the heat

    - While stirring soup in a fast circular fashion with a fork,
       slowly pour in beaten egg

    - Continue stirring until egg gets all cool and kinda stringy &
       that's it

    - Serve in a bowl with the green on top or panko crumbs which is
       what i did in the picture

The things we find comforting are in such a wide range from chocolate covered cherries to deep fired pickles :) I know it is a rather strange dish to call my comfort food but egg drop soup and i go way back. I have always had a fascination with ethnic foods and strange cuisine. My father used to feed me fresh octopus and frog legs when we would vacation in Mexico. So that being said its only natural that i would end up taking comfort in the gooiness of this tasty soup. I would sometimes go to China Wokery when i had a bad day and either sit alone and enjoy this, if my pride let me, or get a huge take out carton to enjoy in the comfort of my own home. Now, i have finally gotten up the courage to make my own and i must say it was quite comforting!! Lets see what your comfort foods look like!!

Lovingly,

Stephanie Kelley ( & Carrie )

Your appointment with Friday

OK.  So I know it's not Friday.....things got a little crazy this week....but here I am finally, with a new photo / photoshop prompt.....

Photo Into Pop-Art

Above is the finished pop-art, and below is my original photo of a sweet little girl I know.....

I wanted to use this mini photoshop project as the prompt for today so I could document my process (for future use) and also share it with you too : )

This idea all started with a friend asking me to design a project for her, and me deciding to try the whole pop-art thing for it.  And the first thing I want to mention is that my process with photos/photography and photoshop is just my personal way of doing things and options on what's easiest for me......I am sure that there are lots of other opinions and ways that are different and work great.  

1. That being said, when I opened up the original photo (above), the first thing I did was to remove the background and create a separate layer for it, so the background and the girls face (the main image) each had a separate layer.  
2. Next, I had to touch up her face quite a bit as far as adjusting the brightness and contrast, shadows, etc....and found that it would have been easier to make this photo into the desired pop-art if I had taken the photo with either little to no shadows on her skin.  So that is what I would do differently if I had to do it over again.  To get the finished product I ended up removing all the shadows from the left side of her skin and leaving only minimal on the right side, while at the same time leaving as many shadows as possible in her hair.  It was definitely a learning process.
3. Once I had the original photo prepped, I desaturated the main image layer (her face)
4. Then on that same main image layer, I used the "cutout" (Filter, Artistic, Cutout) filter to create 4 layers of gray.  So when the cutout filter tool pop up, you want to choose 4 for the No. of Levels, 2 for the Edge Simplicity, and 2 for the Edge Fidelity.
5. From here I was pretty happy with mine, but you may want to play with the levels and or edge simplicity a little more.
6. Next, to add the colors I just used the paint bucket tool (because I wasn't sure how I wanted the colors on her face to look), but if you want each shade of gray to to be the same color, it is probably faster to just use "Select, Color Range".
7. Last fill in your background layer with whatever color you choose with the paint bucket tool.  I kept my background the same color as the lightest shade of her skin so that her neck and shoulders would blend nicely with little effort on my part.

And that's it!  It's actually pretty easy and fun!!!  If you end up trying it, I would love for you to link me up and/or add it to the Bubblegum Life Flickr group : )

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's!!!  And I hope you all have a lovely day!  I'll be back tomorrow with my finished project.....

Love, Carrie

Project Monday

Hello lovely people!  I hope you all had a good weekend : )  Mine was filled with three memorable days of spending time with my family and especially this little fella.....

He really is as sweet as he looks in this photo <3  And as you can see, for my project this week I decided to do another digital layout.  Partially because I love printing them out (which I will do once I return to San Diego), but also because I didn't make time to have any photos printed at the Costco down the street so I could add it to my Spring art journal.  Silly me : )  Anyways, most of the background in this layout is my photo, but for the rest I used another texture off my Crumble, Crackle, Burn CD.....which is layered over a solid yellow.  For the journaling I used three different fonts, and to add a bit more depth created two other layers in different colors at only partial opacity.  I've used this style of digital layout once before HERE, and I think I really like it for this project too.  And now I have my photo with some journaling love and a reminder of wonderful memories from this past weekend.  Perfect.

Make sure to stop by Wednesday and say hi to our special guest for April.....many of us know and love her!  And as for today I hope your week is grand!!!

Love, Carrie

Bubblegum Sketches & DIY

Welcome to another Wednesday of Bubblegum Sketches!!! 

The sketch above is from Gloria's Project Monday Recipe Layout, and the one below is from Carrie's Project Monday Recipe Envelope.....

And today I thought it would also be nice to share a little DIY.....

This is how I made the recipe envelope for my project.  It's so fun and easy!  Here are the written instructions to go with the photos.....

1. Take apart an envelope in the size you want to use.
2. Pick a piece of scrapbook paper, and trace the envelope onto it (i used a pencil).
3. Cut the envelope out of the scrapbook paper.
4. Use your bone folder to fold over the edges so it matches the envelope you took apart.
5. Add glue (or a tape runner for not so strong hold) to the bottom edges of the right and left side flaps.
6. Fold bottom flap up so glue attaches from right and left side flaps.
7. All done!!!

There are so many possibilities with these sweet handmade envelopes.  You can add them to a minibook (like what I plan to do with mine), you can add it to a layout, and you can give it with a beautiful card.....simple little things like this really do make me smile : )

And for more Bubblegum Life fun.....if you haven't checked it out yet, there is a mouthwatering photo of a beautiful chocolate mocha cheesecake, with a link to the recipe on our Flickr Group (courtesy of Moon In My Garden).  Yummy!  If you have a yummy Fall recipe don't hesitate to share, we would just love it!!!

Please feel free to use the sketch images or DIY on your blog, just link them back here : )

See you tomorrow for more Cozy & Sweet Photos!

Love, Gloria and Carrie