Freebies & A Giveaway!

My friend and the very talented Nancy at A Rural Journal, is the host of the weekly photo challenge, Your Sunday Best.  This week she has generously extended the giveaway she is sponsoring of my Pixel Dust Texture Collection 1.  Thank you Nancy!  Nancy's giveaway is a collection of 36 of my fine art textures that I know you will love.  You can see the collection on my sidebar, or inspect the 36 textures more closely in my Texture Shoppe.  To visit Your Sunday Best, click on the icon beside this paragraph.    

Before you rush over to A Rural Journal to learn how to participate in the giveaway, scroll down to pick up two new free textures I have designed for you this week.

The first is Mirror, Mirror 1, a texture designed using a copyright free image from The Graphics Fairy.

This is the type of texture you may not use every day, but it is fun to have in your archive of textures when you want to add a little 'je ne sais quoi' whimsy to a piece of photo art. 

Download this free texture, 'Mirror, Mirror 1' by clicking HERE.

To demonstrate effects you can achieve with this texture, I added 'Mirror, Mirror 1' to this photo of Cranesbill Geranium (see below).

Editing workflow to achieve the above piece of photo art:

Placed texture on image.

Used Difference Blend Mode, reducing Opacity to 80%

Flattened image.

Duplicated image.

Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush

Reduced effect of Dry Brush filter to 59% opacity

Filter>Artistic>Poster Edges

Adjusted opacity of Poster Edge effect to 65% opacity

Made a Levels Adjustment to adjust white balance.

Created a new layer.

Signed piece with my initials using a brush previously made and loaded into PSE.

And that's all it took to make a sweet, little piece of art!

Also added the texture to this beautiful Oriental Poppy from my

daughter's garden in Ontario.

Yes, you do have to ignore the "rule of thirds" to use this texture, but rules are made to be broken - now and then - right?

Steps I took to achieve the above look:

Adjusted texture so that 'mirror' frame fits around flower in the image.

Used Overlay Blend Mode at 85% Opacity

Used a Layer Mask and soft brush to remove texture from petals and stem.

Created a new layer for addition of signature/initials.

Adjusted opacity of signature to get a soft, pale effect.

Easy Peasy!

Here's the second freebie texture entitled "Gauze Sheers".  Today you get two for the price of one!  :-) 

(If you don't want the border on this second texture on your final piece of photo art, simply drag the border off the edges of your image using the bounding boxes that come with your Move Tool.) 

I'd love to see how you employ either of these textures in your photo art, so do send me a link!

To download "Gauze Sheers" click HERE.

Now scoot right on over to A Rural Journal's "Your Sunday Best" and enter her draw for my collection of 36 fine art textures.  Good luck to all!

Terms for Free Downloads:  You are free to use these textures to enhance your personal or commercial artwork.  Please do not claim them as your own work, regift them or sell them as is.  I also ask that you do not use these textures with the addition of slight adjustments to make your own textures.   Copyright still applies after download.  I am only agreeing to forgo copyright once they are incorporated into your own art or photo editing work.