Project Monday

Hey friends : )  I knew right away i wanted to do a Chinese inspired page with cute little flags for this pic. I had a Chinese inspired 12x12 album that i store all the pages that match that theme that i never use so i drew from there. I wanted the recipe to look like a scroll pinned up on the wall so i used gold wired thred-like ribbon and some eyelets. I distressed the edges of everything to give it a little old world feel. I found the warm colors to be quite and comforting yet represent the picture. Hope you enjoy lovies!!

Love, Stephanie

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 )

Project Monday

Happy Monday to you : )  Today I get to share with you the finished project using my pop-art photo.....

These are invitations made for a friend.  Her little girl is having a birthday party next month that is artist themed.  At the party they will be painting and doing crafts, so they wanted a similar theme for the invitations.  I used a paintbrush and some ribbon for the binding, attaching two pieces of paper together to make the base of the card.  To decorate the front and back, the little girl and I had a fun afternoon splattering paint in lots of fun colors.  I even used a photo I took of the birthday girl for the pop-art on the front.....I hope they like them (I am dropping them off today).

Have fun creating, and I hope your week is excellent!

Love, 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

Hi everyone!  This week my project is brought to you courtesy of the Pink Ninja Addicts : )  I used their May kit *Scarlet Begonias Oner-Upper* to create the layout for my photo in a daydream.....

I decided to layer some fringe since it kind of reminded me of grass, plus I think it's really fun.....

And the *Scarlet Begonias* kit comes with these awesome frame overlays.....LOVE.....

Yellow is one of my favorite colors.  It's so cheerful and happy.  Just how I felt laying out on my Mom's soft pastel quilt, relaxing on the bluff.  Originally when I started to create this layout I was going to have it be very monotone, but alas, my creative juices led me in another direction (which it usually does) and I kept adding more and more colors.....the last being pink which I feel really pulls it all together.

I hope you are inspired to work on some fun crafts today!  Enjoy the rest of your day!!!

Love, Carrie