Freebie Pts 5 & 6 and My Art

Good Monday to you all!  I made it!  I miss my little dog, but, I will be okay.  The house was so quiet over the weekend.  I kept thinking I heard her toenails clacking across the floor behind me.  Once, I thought I heard her scratching at the door and, out of habit, got up to go open it.  Then, I realized it couldn't be her.  I was afraid to look.  What would I do if she had been there?!  Did you ever read "Pet Sematary", by Stephen King?  I just need to get used to the house's sounds without her in it.
 

I've noticed that when something gets me in a funk, I get into my art and stuff.  I guess I try to tune everything else out and it works pretty good.  Last week I worked on a piece for a Digital Whisper's challenge.  We're doing 'photo-manipulations' and trying to perfect them.  'Treehouse' was the theme and we were given the trees and house.  I used one of the trees, but, I did something else for the house.  I spent quite a considerable amount of time on it, because it got me away from everything.  Here is that piece:

(Click to enlarge)

Each element of the work is a separate image, the cityscape, the tree, rocks, woods, vines, etc.  I put them all together and blended them to make it appear as one image.  It's fun and I learned some new stuff.  There are a few things I want to work on, but, overall, I'm happy with it and it was wonderfully therapeutic!

On the subject of Digital Whisper, we put out a book!  Kimmie collected from us a piece of our art and a little story about us and compiled them all in a nice book.  "Digital Whispers of Artistic Souls" is our baby!  All of the art is pieces that each of us favored.  I used my piece, "By the Lake", which I have in my DeviantArt gallery.

I hope to be able to purchase one of the books soon.  I've never had my art in print before!

And, now, what you have been waiting for, the last two parts for "My Fair Lady".  Each of my previews is linked to a part.  Be sure you click on both.  Then, click on Miss Edna's preview to go to her blog for her two parts.  Miss Edna and I are going on vacation next week - together.  But, we will be back in March for another goody kit.

Part 5

 

 Part 6:

Click image to go to Miss Edna's Place:

Until next time!

Smile pretty!

Hugs,

 Su

So Long, Old Friend

In Loving Memory - "Chelsea" 1996-2011

My sweet Chelsea is no longer with us.  She was fourteen years old.  This is so very difficult as she was my companion for the past twelve years.  I'm so used to her being 'there'.  She was a great watch dog, in that she would let out a bark if she heard anything that didn't sound right.  Always a gentle, peaceful lady, my "Neener-girl" knew me so well.  She could read my face and would be all concerned until I was okay.  She loved to lick hands and would sit for hours, sometimes, just holding and licking on my hand or my son's.  

 

Here she is sitting in the middle of a pampas-grass plant, like it was her nest.  LOL 

She never did have puppies, but, she was so gentle with small children.  She preferred to stay away from them, but, like if my grand-daughter sat by her and petted her, she would patiently sit with her.  My grand-daughter, J, who is four-and-a-half, was hysterical when she found out.  She really loved Chelsea.  She was forever sitting with her, reading her a story, putting a hat on her, whatever.  When she was with Chelsea was about the only time J was calm.  That just occurred to me.

Chelsea was always pretty healthy.  Around three or four months ago, she began having a lot of 'accidents'.  She was getting slower and slower at climbing the four steps up onto our porch to come in and out, so, I think some of the accidents were to avoid her having to navigate the stairs.  Her 'breed' has rather skinny legs and a barrel-shaped body.  I always had to watch her weight because I knew if she got too heavy her legs wouldn't hold her as an old lady.

The other day, Chelsea began panting, like she was having trouble cooling off.  A few times she just fell down, like, she collapsed for a brief moment.  She was making some raspy breathing sounds, too.  She wanted outside, so, I let her out and she went straight to my son's jeep, in the very back of the yard, and got under it.  She pretty much stayed there all day long.  Now, I think she knew she was dying, so, she was getting as far away from me as possible.  She didn't seem to mind my daughter going out to where she was and sitting with her.  But, if I went out there, she would get up and move.  I'm ultra sensitive and very emotional.  She seemed to know this.

My daughter and son took Chelsea to the vet that night.  There was an upper-respiratory infection, so, her breathing was almost nil.  She was also running a fever.  The decision was made to end her suffering, because of her age and how crippled she was.  But, that is such a hard decision to make.  I feel better about her now, because I know she is not in pain anymore.  (If you feel differently, please don't get down on me.  She was suffering.)

I just had to pay tribute to my dearest friend.  Chelsea never judged me, never got mad at me, and loved to 'spoon' on cold winter nights.  She wasn't a huge dog, at all, but, I guess about 45 or 50 pounds.  But, she kept me warm!  LOL  She was just a good dog!  I'm sure going to miss her!

My Neener-girl is at peace now.  Her body no longer causes her pain since she left it behind to go join her fur-friends in the big 'dog park' in the sky.  Rest in peace, little dog! 

Blessings, All!  Thank you for reading this. 

Miss Edna and I will be releasing the third and final parts to our February collaboration, "My Fair Lady", on Monday.  I'll see you then!

Hugs!

 

How about a rain check on that smile?  Another time.  I don't feel like doing much of anything, right now.  But, I'll be okay.  LOL  I'm a big girl!

Su

Freebie Collab Parts 3 & 4

Happy Valentine's Day to each of you.  Have you been given your roses and candy, yet?  What about that diamond?  LOL  Valentines Day seems to be a ladies' celebration.  Guys have to buy us stuff.  Eh?  Love.  Sheesh!  For each of us, love means something different.  One thing that does seem to be consistent with everyone is the pain that love can cause us.  Love-related pain is one of the the oldest and most often experienced pain among humans.  The major pain issues I have with love is that the men I have run across equate love with ownership.  They feel compelled to be my daddy and tell me what I should and shouldn't do!    I guess it is a measure of their security, or lack of, or probably just from the way they were brought up.  Whatever it is, they can have it!

Alrighty, then!  I'm probably not the best person to be writing on the topic of love!  LOL  Onward!

Blogger is at it again, too.  You can't see your cursor when you are typing.  If I try to locate it, before I can type anything, it highlights words I did not select and deletes them when I start typing.  I just lost another entire paragraph!  This sucks!

Here!  I'm just going to give you the links and be done!  I don't want to be in a bad mood!  I've already lost the files I uploaded into MediaFire for you this morning.  I don't know where they went!  I had to reboot for another reason and, wallah, they were there!  But, I lost almost an hour on it!

So, every month, Miss Edna, of Miss Edna's Place, and I do a collaboration together.  We give it away in two(2) part increments each, for three Mondays of each month.  That makes for twelve(12) parts total.  All of my past links are still up, as are Miss Edna's, I believe.  Just visit past posts and collect away!

Today, we give you parts 3 & 4.  My previews show papers and elements that are separate.  That isn't the way they are packaged.  We put a little of both, papers and elements, in all of the parts.  I'm just in the habit of making the previews that way.  Since we give away two(2) parts, click on the first preview for "Part 3" and the second preview for "Part 4".  Then, after you download mine, click on the next image, Miss Edna's previews, to go to her blog for her two(2) parts.

Part 3:

Part 4:

Click on either of her previews to go to Miss Edna's Place:

That's it until until later.  I may be back - it depends on this stupid pc and the rest of it all!  For Valentines Day, my karma sucks!  WAH!  LOL

Remember to smile!

Hugs,

Su 

A Freebie Gift & a Couple of Tips

Wow!  Two posts, back-to-back! LOL  I have several things I have been wanting to get posted, so, I thought I better do just that!  There are a couple of tips that I want to share with you and there is the matter of a little gift that I have been promising for over a month.  I wanted to make something that was truly Suruha.  I did.  LOL  I guarantee there is not another like it online!  The only thing I wish is that I could give you these things for real.  The folks that come here say the kindest things and I appreciate it.  I don't expect it, so, it is so nice when someone leaves a kind word.  Those of you who left messages when I was out, I thank you.  It really means a lot to me.  Thank you!

I'm going to jump right in here.  Did you know that the "Color Range" feature in Photoshop can help you in extracting something from an image?  Well, it can!  LOL  I use CS3, but, other program versions surely have a similar feature.  In CS3, it is located under the "Select" menu.  Anyway, click on "Color Range" and a box pops-up.  Typical PS!

 

I whipped up a simple greeting to show you what I mean.  Feel free to copy it and follow along.

 

Say that I want to remove the orange background and keep just the text and flourishes.  There are several tools in Photoshop that will help remove a large background expanse such as this one.  The "Lasso" and "Quick Select" come to mind.  But, the hard part is selecting the spaces in and among the swirls and leaves of the ornaments.  By using the "Color Range" feature, you can eliminate all of the color you don't want. 

 Open the "Color Range" box.

Your cursor will turn into an eye dropper for you to sample anywhere on the orange color.  The sample tells PS what color to select.
 

 If there were several shades of orange, you would hold down the "Shift" key as you sample all of the shades of that color.  

When you select a color, that part of the preview will turn white everywhere that is 'selected'.  

You can adjust the "Fuzziness" if you like.  This feature will cause the selected area to go from sharper to a little blurry, it looks like to me.  Anyway, around 60 is usually good.  Play with it and see.

Click on "OK".

Every place that is orange will now be high-lighted with marching ants.  This means it is selected.  Click on "Delete" and watch all the orange disappear.

Easy-Peasy!!  LOL  If you wanted to remove another color, simple repeat, but, click on that color.  This feature works really good for extracting a tree from it's background, providing the background is a different color.  Or, if you want to actually change the color, still using my example, after all the orange is selected and I've clicked "OK" on the "Color Range" box, just open an adjustment layer to the color settings of your choice.  (The "Adjustment Layer" button is the half-black half-white circle at the bottom of the "Layers Palette".)  When you click "OK", all of the orange will be the new color.  There's another little tip for you to store away.  You may even use it one day!  LOL

Next, did you ever want to link to a site in someone's comments and didn't know how?  All there is to it is one small bit of code.  The code is in red, the URL and the Text will be yours:

The 'URL' is, of course, the address of the site to go to.  For the text, you would type the name of the site or some other bit of text.  Here is how it should look if I wanted to link to my blog:

It ends up looking like this in the comment:

My Blog
(Click it, if you like.  It will just bring you back here.  LOL)

 And, that is all there is to it!  Be sure to include the apostrophe(') before and after the URL.  The words "My Blog" are all that will show when done, but, those words will be clickable to my blog.  You can use this in typing a comment on someone else's blog or website, where you want to direct the folks to some place else.  This code will work in almost any place where HTML code is used.  (I had to post the code examples as images since they were code.  It wouldn't show up if they were typed in text.  All you would see is "My Blog", because the code would take effect.)

I have been promising a gift for you all for forever!  LOL  There really is a gift!  I finally got it finished up for you.  It started out to be my contribution to the monthly Gothic Inspirations blog train.   For the month of February, Jessica gave the theme and the colors for a CU freebie.  What ever we made had to be CU friendly.  I started out with her color scheme, but, after missing the deadline, I put it all on hold.  When I returned and went to wrap it up, I found myself leaning towards the colors in this month's freebie collaboration with Miss Edna, "My Fair Lady", that we began posting yesterday.  I used a lot of the same pinks and light greenish-blues, as well as some other colors. 

If you folks are anything like me, you love keeping a diary, saving little ephemera from special days.  (I have every card my children ever gave me!)  I've always used some kind of book for posting my 'secret stash'.  My own personal diary is always a work in progress, with papers and other tid-bits stuck between it's pages all haphazardly.  I love it that way, though.  When I open up my diary, all of those 'stashed' items fall out and I have to handle them, thus, looking at them.  LOL  They send me on a little sentimental journey.  It's just one of my 'cheap thrills'.  LOL

My diary is actually a bound "Journal" book.  I've used spiral calendar books, as well.  The bound books come in lots of colours and have pages that are lined so I can write neater.  There is a ribbon attached for a page marker, like I need one.  I can find almost anything in those pages, because I only post special stuff.  If I wanted to gripe about something or blow off steam, there are other ways.  My diary is a kind and gentle, happy place.  I try to keep it like that.  Who wants to pick up a book and find it full of misery?  Some day, my children may read it.  I want there to be happy memories.  It may not be the prettiest thing they have ever seen, but, it will be nice.

When making this gift, I put together some 'diary' pages for you.  They are all old-fashioned fancy-schmancy, gaudy as hell, and all that good stuff.  LOL  They're done up as though I put together whatever was handy at the time - a scrap of pretty stationary, a pretty picture that I like, a fancy decoration or ornament I found, a bit of lace and pearls, etc.  I include some embellishments for you to decorate your pages with.  I also put in some pretty patterned 'notes' papers with fancy trims.  Feathers.  Yup!  Feathers!  LOL  Not all feathers, just on one.  You've got to check it out.  It isn't full-size or tagger-size, but, everything was made based on full-sized.  None of it matches and there aren't any specific pieces, except for the "diary" pages and the notes papers.  There are a few scrapbooking pages, some simple silk to show off your writing.  Throughout, there are a few scattering of hearts, since this month is Valentine's Day.  Everything is done vintage, so, it will appeal to many.  Since I made it all, you can use it for anything you want!  There are a few clip-art pieces from the internet, but, these particular ones are so universal, attributing credit to someone is all but impossible.   Believe me, I looked!  That being said, if I am wrong about any of them and they do belong to you, please, let me know.

There are 4 separate links.  They range from 40 to 50 mbs each, so, they're pretty hefty.  The files don't have that much in them; it's just because everything is huge!  I make everything BIG.  I figure you can always resize it down.  I resized nearly everything in the preview way down.  In the files, everything is larger.

Here ya go!  I hope you enjoy!

Diaries

Notes/Papers

Novelty Papers

Ornaments

I still have more to share, but, I have to get up.  I've sat too still for too long and I'm stiff.  Have fun with this stuff!  Add to it, throw in some of your own favorite goodies.  I "collect" odds and ends online, even, and have some of them in a few of my Photo accounts.  This is sort of like that stuff, only I can use this in my art, on my blog, in a layout, and even print it out.  So, Thank You!

Smile!

Hugs,

Su

New Freebie Collab with Miss Edna Parts 1 & 2

Greetings, All!  I've spent a little time away from my pc, lately, and it is weird getting back into the swing of things.  LOL   My e-mail is a nightmare!  But, it is nice to be sitting here.  Life can certainly dish out the poop, eh?  Sigh.  We seem to always manage, though.  I just had to stop and take stock of my self.  I'm ready to pursue my interests, once again. 

Blogger sucks!  I just lost half of my post.  It's sluggish as all get out.  I've had nothing but trouble with it today!

I was commenting on Valentine's Day and all the pretty hearts and all that I see everywhere.  I was writing that by sharing a smile or a small friendly gesture, it can not only make someone else's day brighter, but, it always makes me feel good, too.  But, somehow, after Blogger got done with me, this morning, I just don't feel very lovey, dovey!  So.....Spread the love, damnit!  LOL

I have plenty of things to write about and a gift for you all.  I'm not going to include that in this post, though, since this post is to bring you the new collaboration parts.  Miss Edna and I are at it again!  LOL  This month's theme started out one way and ended up another.  First, the title of the theme was to be "Loverly", from the song, "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" in "My Fair Lady".  Lo and behold, great minds think alike, or something.  There was another Valentine's themed kit by the title, "Lovely".  To avoid confusion, we just went with "My Fair Lady".  The story line is about a woman from a lesser station in life, a cockney flower girl, becoming the object of a proper gentleman's bet that he can transform her into one of his kind and station.  Eliza Doolittle's stubbornness makes for one major challenge for the guy.  She was a pistol!  The time frame is the turn of the century.  This lent itself well to an old-fashioned themed 'love' kit.

And, that is what we have for you!  The colors are a bit different, too, from the usual Valentine's Day palette.  Here are the colors:

See what I mean?  There is the red and pink, as should be included.  Then, though, we threw in some other colors, like black and the yellow and blue/green.  It looks so nice!  Well, see for yourselves!  As we have been doing, Miss Edna and I create a kit each month.  Skipping the first Monday of each month for other projects, we start on the second Monday of the month giving each of our parts away as free gifts.  We each give two(2) parts away each week, for three weeks.  So, that is four(4) parts a week for three weeks - twelve(12) parts!  Be sure to come back every Monday for the remaining parts.  All of my past kit parts are still available, as are Miss Edna's, so, you haven't missed any of them.  You can use the sidebar index to access archives.

Now, then, without further adieu, we present to you, "February's Collaboration:  My Fair Lady":

(Though I have two separate previews, one for the elements and one for the papers, each week you will download a selection of both.  Since there are two parts for you, click on the first preview for one part and the other preview for the second part.  Following my previews are Miss Edna's previews, which, if you click on either of the preview images, you will be taken to Miss Edna's Place for her two parts.)

MY PARTS:
(previews are linked to Mediafire)

PART 1

PART 2

 
MISS EDNA'S PLACE:

Now, go collect two(2) more parts from Miss Edna:

(Both previews are linked to Miss Edna's blog)

There ya go!  I have an 'add-on' that I will post either later or tomorrow.  What happened is I missed participating in Gothic Inspirations' monthly blog train this month.  The theme was to make CU goodies.  I did that, but, since I missed getting in on the train on the first, I kind of made it my own.  LOL  Actually, I found myself using the colors from our collaboration - I liked them so much.  So, I am adding it in as an add-on to our collab.  It's very versatile, free for your use anywhere, and, well, come back tomorrow!  LOL

Until then,

s m i l e

Hugs,

Su