I added a 100 Things About Me page a while back, but forgot to let you all know. I see these on other blogs and really enjoy reading through them, it’s amazing what you find out about people this way. I have hit the 80 RSS subscriber mark, + 70 email subscribers too, so someone must be reading this blog, maybe you’d like to know a little more about me (or not) let me know what you think.

The lovely Gill has honoured me with an Arty Pico Award. Thanks so much Gill you are a sweetheart! I shall award mine in a future blog post, so be on the look out…

I’m not sure how I came across this video, but down the bottom is the magazine that stars my baby and my Cover Layout for Digital Scrapbooking Magazine! Must say I was pretty chuffed when I noticed it!

This video is scary…. imagine what is happening to your brain while you are on the phone…

Photoshop Tip # 9

Feel Good…

PUERTO RICO

Lastly, so I am not excused of preferential blog entries, I’d like to report that at the last Puerto Rico evening, Brian won 1 and Suzy won 1, of course, if you include the handicap, Clinton has won every game since we started, (and some that we haven’t even played yet) but of course that only applies when we are playing in NEVER NEVER LAND!!!

And so I don’t disadvantage myself here, at the previous Puerto Rico evening, I won 2 and Jen won 1. And in case you’re wondering Clinton, that happened in the REAL WORLD! Where there are no Never Never Land handicaps! ;-P

Here is today’s freebie… 5 lucky commenters, chosen at random, will receive another kit, leave a comment and it could be you!

Blue Bayou

This gave me a laugh, I found The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator at AussieBloggers.com.au… what a great idea! I am sure I may find some uses for it, being a blogger and lazy, it’s made for me…

PHOTOSHOP TIP #6, #7 and #8

OK two three short and sweet ones here….

Tip #6 ~ Control>J copies the current layer. Love this one, use it regularly…

Tip #7 ~ Shift>Control>Alt>N Creates a New Layer, bypassing the New Layer Dialogue box, which can be pesky…

Tip #8 ~ or if you want the New Layer dialogue box, just hit Control>Shift>N then you can name the layer, change the blend mode, change the Opacity and change the colour of the layer in the Layers Palette all at the same time, before you even touch the New Layer….

Anything you’d like to see in these tips? Well post a comment and ask!

Have a great day

Now for the freebie, this is a kit called Come On Get Happy, bright colours are not what I usually use, so it was nice to make this kit and see where it took me… I hope you like it

Click here to Download ~ [download id="3" format="<a class="downloadlink" href="{url}" title="{version,"Version ",""} downloaded {hits} times" >{title} ({hits}) - {size}</a>"]

See above for how to get ANOTHER freebie by leaving a comment

http://theblissfulpixel.com/kits/LeeScott_ComeOnGetHappy107.zip

PHOTOSHOP TIP #4 (and #5)

OK this is a nice easy one, I’m sure most people know that hitting the letter “D” on the keyboard will get your foreground/background colours back to default. Very useful, particularly when using layer masks. The second tip is that by hitting the letter “X” on the keyboard, will switch between the foreground and background colours, again this can be very useful when using layer masks, easily switching between colours to mask areas out or back in, as the case may be. It’s also useful when try to add texture to backgrounds, switching between two colours and painting will add depth, particularly if you are using a textured, or grunge brush.

I just love these two videos, they both use stop motion digital camera images to achieve the effect. I found them on Photojojo.

et cetera from jacattack on Vimeo.

This one I like, especially if you are travelling, I think it’s a great idea, I am also intrigued as to why most of the feet are to the right of the shot? Why do you think that is? Maybe it’s because most people look through the viewfinder with their right eye, which means the camera is moved to the left….?

looking down. from hrrrthrrr on Vimeo.

PHOTOSHOP TIP #3

Wow this is hard, always wondering which tip is most useful!The truth is they all are!

OK, lets talk Blendmodes and another handy shortcut. I use Blendmodes ALL the time, on Photos, Digital Scrapbooking Pages, Papers, lots of different ways. The thing with Blendmodes is that the results can be unexpected and it’s not always easy to predict which blendmode will give you the effect you are after. So the easiest thing to do is to look at each blendmode. This is the easiest way to scroll through and find the blendmode that gives you the effect you are after.

* Click on the word Normal in the Blendmode box (found at the top of the Layers palette next to the Opacity Slider). This will open the dropdown menu. Now just click again. The dropdown menu will close but the word ‘Normal’ will now be highlighted (in Windows it will turn blue, I’m not sure what it does with a Mac).

* Now all you have to do is use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through each blendmode and see the the results live on your image.

I hope you find this helpful. If you do, leave a comment and let me know how you have used it.

If you want specific help, post a comment and I will endeavour to help you out

Hmmm, lots to report, speaking of reports (nice segue, hey), my girls got their school reports this week, and man I could not be more proud of them both. They are bright girls so I expect that their reports are good, but all I really want to know is that they try their hardest, and it appears they both do. I could go on and on, but I won’t bore you, you get the picture…

I have also joined Through The Lens – Digital Photography 101, over at From The Rubber Room. They are a great (big) bunch of ladies and I have had a ball dropping by some of the blogs, some great talent out there too. Here is my first Assignment, which was to take a picture of something you love. Obviously my family is up there at number one, but since Bronte was in the shower and Brian was cooking a lovely Penang Gai (Dry Chicken Curry), Quinn was the guinea pig for the first assignment. I have screen calibration problems, it looked very oversaturated on my screen, so I dropped the saturation slightly and now it looks under-saturated on the web… calibration does my head in!

Wow, what a great response to my Subscription Offer (see sidebar announcement), if you have subscribed to the blog but haven’t received your download link for the CD calendar template, check that your subscription has been verified properly, there are a couple waiting on verification, other than that you should all have your links. I’d love to see some pics of your CD calendar made up and in use, post a link in the comments so I can see.

I have another blog freebie to post, but I am on my way out now so will do it soon, so watch out for that in the next day or two.

I got to see my blog on another computer recently and it was a little skewif (technical term) because of the “highlighted notes”, I am working on the problem and hope to have it fixed soon, sorry if it throws things out a little.

PHOTOSHOP TIP #1 (and #2)

I am sure you all know this one, but I’ll start at the basics… I didn’t know which shortcut to post first, as there are just sooo many that I use every time I open PS, I have never much used shortcuts in programs, but PS has converted me and their usefulness is never ending and makes for a much faster workflow.

BRUSH SIZE

To change brush size on the fly you can use the Left (to make the brush smaller) and Right (to make the bush larger) bracket keys. They sit next to the letter “P” on your keyboard, they are second nature to me now, so make a concerted effort to use them he next time you are using brushes in PS, this will also work, for the healing, clone, history, dodge, burn and other brush tools as well.

BRUSH HARDNESS

And because I can’t resist throwing this one in, you can also change the hardness and softness of your brush as well (this means that your brush can have a blurred or hard edge to it) to use this shortcut just add the Shift key in as well, Shift>[ makes the brush softer and Shift>] makes the brush harder, this is very useful when you are masking or erasing close to edges, to get a cleaner more realistic edge.

I hope you found this useful… leave a comment if you have.

Edited to add: We introduced Clinton and Jennifer to the joys of Puerto Rico tonight. They seemed to pick it up very well and are keen for another game, I had to report that Jen won her first ever game! Go Jen! Also, I have been accused of only reporting my wins, so just for the record, Suzy has won and so has Lincoln and I think Brian is the next highest winner, and I am fairly sure (I will be corrected if I am wrong) I am currently the overall champ. And this is my blog, so I guess I can say what I like! LOL