How to Add Your Own Doodles to Digital Photos

I'm in love with adding hand-drawn borders, doodles, and accents to my photos using the Beautiful Mess App. If you've ever seen my Instagram account, you already knew that, though, didn't you?

So I was thinking about that app the other day and I started wondering if I could make my own doodles and borders to add to my photos instead of always using Elsie and Emma's drawings. I did some playing around in photoshop, and it turns out to be relatively easy! I'll walk you through the process.

Start by drawing your picture by hand on white paper.

I prefer to draw in pencil, but that doesn't work as well as pen does for this process, so I drew my doodle in pencil first (step 1) then drew over it in pen (step 2) then erased the pencil (step 3).

Take a photo of your hand-drawn picture, or you can scan it if you have a scanner.

Load the photo into photoshop.

Click on “Image” then “Adjustments” then “Levels.”

Select the white eyedropper and use it to click on the white paper in the photo.  Everything except your pen marks should suddenly turn perfectly white.  If there are some spots that aren’t 100% white, click on them again with the white eyedropper until everything in the background of your drawing is white.

Then click on the little arrow below the graph on the left hand side and drag it to the right.  This will make your pen marks darker and easier to select in the next step.

Now go to “Select” then “Color Range.” 

Choose “Shadows” in the drop-down menu.  All of the pen marks in your drawing should now be selected.  If they aren’t, go back to the “Levels” menu and drag the little arrow to the right again, thus making your lines even darker and easier to select.

With your drawing selected, click Control C to copy the drawing then Control V to paste it into a new layer.

Now you can make the background invisible by clicking on the little eyes next to every layer except the newest one.

Save your project as a photoshop document (.psd) so that you will always have it on hand to open it up, select your hand-drawn artwork, and drag it on top of any other photo you’d like.  

Check it out:

Happy doodling!
xoxo
Laura

Link to Love: Daniela Edburg

Artist Daniela Edburg has used knitting as a central component in an entire collection of haunting, surreal photography.

Image via Daniela Edburg

Isn't this piece remarkable?  I love how it conveys a feeling of haste set against a serene natural backdrop.

Check out Daniela Edburg's website here.  All of her work is striking and unsettling and visually appealing.

My favorite pieces are in her Knit series, about which Edburg writes "This series portrays intense characters dealing with their restlessness and the passing of time.  The element of knitting is a constant, as a form of occupational therapy or channeling an obsession."

My favorite photos in the collection are Picnic (pictured above) and The Interruption.  What are yours?

Happy browsing.
xoxo
Laura

Work

My work week isn't Monday to Friday like most jobs, it's Thursday to Tuesday (with Wednesdays off).  And this week, my mind was so caught up in work stuff that I didn't have much time to think about my blog stuff.  Everyone knows how easily that can happen.

My work stuff is really fun though.  We've been practicing new tricks, watching the show we might skate in next summer, going to dinner with our fabulous casting director, performing with my big sister in the audience... things like that.

I also got to check out some cool pictures taken by photography students at Arapahoe Community College.  We volunteered to model for their class a month or two ago.  Here are my favorite shots.

Tomorrow is good old Wednesday (yay!) and I plan to spend the day off getting my head back into blogging mode.

Until then...
xoxo
Laura

A Few Snapshots

Our road trip is over.  We made it to Sandusky, Ohio yesterday after three long days in the car, and we started rehearsals for our summer show today.

Looking back on the journey, my favorite moment was at dusk in Indiana.  The colors of the sky were ridiculously vibrant; I didn't change them with photoshop.  I also realized how fun it is to shoot through a car window when it's covered in reflections.

I took both of those pictures through the side window.  The windshield was crazy gross.

Yep, those are bugs.

I'm not quite done with my road trip knitting project... I'll be sharing it soon!
xoxo
Laura

A Day in my Life with the Beautiful Mess App

Elsie and Emma from A Beautiful Mess released a brand new app this week and I love it!  It's only available for apple products (not androids) so I bought it for my iPad mini.  It cost a whopping $0.99 and it's packed with doodles, phrases, and borders to enhance your photos.

I wasn't blown away by the photo filter options, as there are only 3 color filters, but that's not much of a hinderance because it's possible to export your photos directly from the Beautiful Mess app into Instagram where there are tons of filters to choose from.

Here's what a day in my life looks like through the eyes of the Beautiful Mess App:

I spent the morning at the ice arena where I did some skating and coffee drinking.

Then I came home and made the easiest lunch ever: baked grilled cheese and mashed potato smiles.  I love making my grilled cheese this way because I don't have to wash as many dishes.

After lunch I pretended to pack for a while because I'm leaving for my next contract soon, but I really just ended up knitting on the couch.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the boys replace a giant window.  Doesn't Justin look right at home on top of my dad's truck?

Life is so great when I'm at home between contracts.  I don't think I want to leave yet!

Have you tried the Beautiful Mess app?  Did you like it too?
xoxo
Laura

Week in Review (Jan 27-Feb 2)

Here's a quick look back at some of the little things that made last week special:

Did you do anything fun this week?
xoxo
Laura

Photo Toaster

This week I'm loving the Photo Toaster app for the iPad.  I payed $1.99 for the full version, but there's also a free version with a few less features if that's more your style.

I love this app because it's like a cuter, simpler version of photoshop for the iPad.  It makes it really easy and fun to change the look of the pictures that I've been taking with my iPad's camera.

Here's an example of a picture that I was messing around with today.  First I cropped it.

Then I picked which filter I wanted to use.  These filters change the color and lighting in the photo, and there are little thumbnails at the bottom that show you exactly how your picture will look with each filter.  For this one, I chose the "happy" filter.

Then I added a fun outline to the edge of my picture.  Again, you can see how all the edges will look in the thumbnails at the bottom of the screen.

How cool is that?  In less than 1 minute, I took an iPad photo from plain to adorable.
I seriously can't recommend this app enough!

xoxo
Laura

New Year's Resolutions

Have you been thinking of some resolutions for yourself for 2013?

My #1 resolution is to take more pictures.  I love photography and I have a fancy new camera, so there is so much practicing to be done!  I usually feel tentative about having my camera with me, though, because it's big and pretty and breakable and I don't want to mess it up, but there's no point in having it if I don't use it, right?

I took it out with me on New Year's Eve (which I previously wouldn't have done because I would have been too nervous about it) and I'm so happy I did!  Had I not brought it, I probably would have still ended up with this first picture from one of my friend's cameras, but I definitely wouldn't have been able to take the other two, and those are the sorts of pictures I love the best; the candid ones where personalities really shine.

Aren't my friends adorable?  I love them.
Here's to a great 2013!
xoxo
Laura

The Perfect Camera Bag

This week I am absolutely loving my new camera bag that my parents gave me for my birthday! It's from Jo Totes and it's the perfect combination of a cute exterior and a functional interior.

I seriously want to take it with me everywhere I go now. I can't get enough of it!

What do you carry your camera in?

xoxo

Laura

This week I'm loving... Fall in Colorado!

Did you know that fall is my favorite season?  Saturday was the first official day of fall, and my friends and I went for a hike amongst the aspen trees.



Did you do anything fun to celebrate the changing of the season?  I'm thinking it's time for me to do some fall baking now.  (Yay!)

xoxo
Laura