About leveraging your original art to make new original art

 I completed my Artist Trading Cards that I will be taking for trade on an art retreat adventure. 

I could not pass up the chance to show and tell with a tutorial on how and why I decided to leverage a piece of my own art to get the job done.

So first of all, there was the issue that I need a whole bunch of cards to trade 

and

not a whole bunch of time to make them

and

I wanted to trade all original cards.

I started exploring my options and brainstorming ideas when I painted Catrina in my Journal.

My thinking was by using floral napkins, I could speed up the process.

During the journal page session, an inspiration bomb hit me. 

I had the perfect piece of original art with lots of flowers painted by me and 5 faces to work with. 

That excited me!

 I opened the above photo in Photoshop Elements.

First thing, I made duplicates of this image to crop from and closed the original image.

I cropped the faces in proportional 2.5" x 3.5" sizes.

Using the five faces and cropping some pairs of faces, I ended up with 9 crops. 

In Photoshop Elements, from the File menu, I set up a → New →Blank File

for 8.5" x 11" document.

Then I drug the 9 crops onto the new document as shown above. 

From the PS menu bar → View and select →rulers and grid.

The crops are in the right proportion; however, each may be a different size when you drag it to the blank document. 

Grab the corner of the crop and stretch or shrink using the rulers and grid to get them exactly 2.5" x 3.5" and arranged on the document.

The above photo shows my layout ready to print.

I print the "actual size" document from PS print function.

I printed on Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper (Matte).

You can get this paper at some office supply stores.

But I have printed on watercolor paper from a pad of such paper. 

Because I was in experimental mode that day: 

I printed one sheet using my Epson R2400 which is an ink-jet.

and

I printed one sheet on my HP ColorLaser Jet. 

I was curious to see if there would be any difference. 

There is none. 

Before cutting the cards from the sheet, I brushed on a layer of Golden Matte Medium #R3530. 

Seal with what ever you like to use. 

From left to right the above photo shows the unpainted card cropped from the original piece of art, one version from the laser sheet and one version from the ink jet sheet. 

I got the job done.

It was much fun.

But still took a fair amount of time. I could have gone on and on embellishing their faces. 

I ended up with a stack of original ATCards each one different.

I hope you enjoyed this and if you give it a try, please come back and tell us so we can go see.

♥ 

Momentum Motivation and Mojo

Do you loose it?  Sometimes I guess we all do.


Here is how it works for me.  When I feel the momentum of some "great" inspiration start to slip away (usually just because of not enough time), then the motivation goes and goes and goes until finally I'm wondering about my Mojo.


I don't know why this comes to mind this morning. It has little to do with anything.  Because there are two things I want to tell you about......no three things.

1. I'm going to discontinue "open registration" of my first online class, "Faces: All Norah'S".  This DOES NOT mean the classroom will be closed and students will no longer have access.  It just means that I think the class has run it course and even though new students come in monthly, it just isn't fun for me because they are all so quiet when it is a small group.


SO, If you want to register for the class, "Faces: All Norah'S", now is the time.  I will leave the registration open through this month and close it after May 31st.  Don't worry about access to the class because once you are there, you have as long as you wish to enjoy the videos.


2. I'm working on a new class and all I know to tell you about it at this point is the name of the class will be "A Diary of Faces".  How about you tell me what a class with that title means to you.


3. I want to share with you a new online class site that I think many of you will be interested in. Ann Passmore has set up a Ning network called Image Artistry.  Ann is very knowledgeable and skillful with Photoshop Elements and that is what her classes are about. And get this!  She is offering a beginner session free:  Join up for a FREE first workshop from the 20 May for six weeks to get started with Photoshop Elements.  Although it's to get beginners up to speed you might be surprised at what you learn and the Challenges should be fun!


All you need to do is go to Image Artistry and sign up to join her network and then you can join her free group.  


You might also like to visit Ann's Blog by the same name, Image Artistry to get a look at some of the things Ann does with PElements.  I think you will like it. 


That's what is on my mind today.
♥

Photoshop Fun and more

 I've been playing if Photoshop Elements this week and learned something new and very very fun. Here is what I did:

So, that's what I did.  I pulled two images into Photoshop Elements. Next, I dragged and dropped the pencils on top of the face.  Next, I used the layer menu and chose various layers and you see what happened.  

FUN!!!

All this fun was had during my "morning art" period and don't you know I had a reason for the fun.  


I was designing a DVD cover for my latest offering.  This is not a new lesson.  It is the DVD of my on line class Inktense Faces on Fabric.  After receiving a few request for the DVD, I decided to do it. 

Here is what you get with this DVD:

2 hours of viewing

A printed supply list

and

A small print of one of the faces demonstrated

all as shown above. 

$39.00

includes shipping and handling

---------------♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥---------------
I can't help but share with you some of my students Inktense Faces on Fabric projects.

 Student Showcase

for

Inktense Faces on Fabric

by Suze Rose of New Zeland
and Sam Johnson aka Gollywobbles