Monday, February 16, 2009

party animals

Thanks Collin for the sweet & funny Valentine! I may need to change my password before I really regret it! ;)Yaya stayed home with our girlies and we went out for a night on the town. My mom told us to stay out to 2 am and have fun.

6:00 Dinner at Thai Ruby (Our fave!!)
6:50 Done with dinner (We've learned to become fast eaters with 2 little kiddos.)
7:00 Run into family at dinner (I guess I shouldn't be surprised since it's a family favorite! :)
7:10 Hit up the local shiny bowling lanes. (When the clerk hands you shoes that are still steaming from the last gal you know you're in for fun!)
7:15 Pick out my 10 lb ball
8:30 Together we bowled a whopping 240 score... I contributed double digits to that! :)
8:45 Figure out if we should go to a movie or go home
9:00 Picked up some ice cream and movie
9:17 We are home
We are real party animals huh? ;) We did have a blast-hope you did too!

I'm still working through your questions:
mj said...
this is my burning questions...where do you learn about all the fun Photoshop stuff you do? did you take a class or did you just play around until you figured it out?
-Hi mj!
I learned some Photoshop tricks from a couple sites. This one has some great free tutorials. I didn't take a class, just messed around like you said. :)

Dave and Mindy said...
I love the look of your photos and was wondering if you used a specific action to create the aged/muted color look? It's great.
-Hi Mindy (or Dave) ;)
When I don't manually mess around with my photos in Photoshop there are some actions I like to use. My friend Maggie Holmes is a scrapbooker slash photographer & now a Photoshop Action genius!! She sells her secret to great photos here on her Photography blog. I love them!!


Here I used the one called 'urban' from her Color MIX Action set. Turn down the opacity to about 50%.



Before & After: Here I used her 'color pop' from the Color action set & 'urban' from the Color MIX action set.

This is my cute sis-in-law Bethany! Or at least most of her. :)
I used one of Maggie's funky actions 'urban cross' from Color MIX set. "I think it works best with Blues and Reds.

The best part about Maggie's actions is that recently she made them compatible with Adobe Photoshop Elements! Like I said-genius! :)
They are super easy to use, my only tip is to turn the opacity way down maybe 50-60% depends on the photo & if you want to mix actions just flatten the image after running each one.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Happy Monday! :)

17 comments:

Ariel said...

Hey Liz,
I love your blog. I am new to scrapbooking and especially digital scrapbooking. I was wondering if you do a lot with digital scrapbooking or even hybrid scrapbooking and what tips you might have for a beginner...Thanks so much.
P.S. You are a super cutie!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the great tips. My 'to do' list now includes: click on all the things Liz has on her blog today. (after the boys go to bed of course). So are the top photos using the polaroid option I sent you? They look really cute. I haven't had a chance to try them out yet! My VD was nice. My husband and I exchanged a list of 10 things we love about one another. We decided on 10 since we've been married 10 years. Thanks for the idea. I really needed to hear those things. It was the best VD gift I've ever gotten and didn't cost a penny, but it was priceless to me. I'm going to scrap a page about it!

angie worthington said...

looks like you 2 lovebirds had a great time!!!...i love to bowl...my hubby & i were on a church league a long time ago...so excited to see the answers to some of the questions that were asked!!!...go over to my blog & check out the new me ;)!...hehehe...

Lesa said...

I hope that I am not too late on teh questions...I have one about your camera. I have a rebel xt which is at least a couple of years old. I'm thinking about upgrading to the 50D...in your opinion was it worth it? what are the advantages before I go shell out the cash???
Thanks!

Jasey said...

Love the Q&A... yes that is Quincey & Avery and Question & Answer both! I was just flipping through old mags and am wondering if you still have Mookie Pompous and if you do why don't we ever see her/him? I am NOT a dog lover.... just wondering.

Jasey said...

One more question... what is in your hair in the yellow/ color pop photo... adorable.

mj said...

thanks for your answering my question! (now if i could only get picked for a give-away ;o)

I guess I just need to let go of some control and have fun!

Anonymous said...

I'd like to know what the heck 'actions' are!

susette said...

so sweet of you to share some great tips.

Kirsten said...

Can you explain actions a little more? I am sooooo excited Maggie did them for Photoshop Elements!! Yeah!! Do you know if she only has the color action or if she is selling the urban one for elements too? Thank you!! You made my day!

Being Mrs Miles said...

Ha, my husband hacked my blog too! I LOVE visiting your blog - you always inspire me! ♥ Barb

andrea said...

You are adorable! And I love that you are answering questions. SO... Is it me or is your blog larger? Does that make sense. I tried to make my pics larger but they ran out of room. How can I make my blog larger? Edit HTML somehow?...thanks!

Anonymous said...

How did you make your photos look like poloraids? So cool...

Nicole Renee said...

love the photos, now how did you get them on the polaroid frames? Care to share? : ) PLEASE!!!

kelsey said...

Thanks for these great tips! I've always coveted yours AND Maggie's pics-so I'm super SUPER excited!;) I even just ordered and upgraded to Elements 7 so I could do these! But shhh, do tell the hubby!;)

Jessie said...

Sounds like you had a great Valentine's Day! My husband and I have been going to Thai Ruby for Valentine's Day for 4 of the past 5 years, it's our favorite too. And yes, I did see you there and recognize you from your blog. And yes, I feel slightly creepy admitting that.

~ m said...

Thanks for answering my question! Your friends actions look great. I love the blog redesign too!

~mindy (but Dave would agree as well)

;)