Christmas Magic

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you find some time to create a little art with your holiday photos. After publishing two photo story books while on sabbatical the last three months, I am looking forward to simply creating some artsy pages with my photos and sharing them with you on this blog.

Do you have any photo traditions? I call this particular photo my favorite. I have handed off my camera for the last six years just to get this shot. Aren’t those pajamas adorable, I loved their matching outfits. Mom’s pajamas said “Mama Elf” and Dad’s “Papa Elf.” If you look at the small photo on the left, taken in 2013, there is a lot more space for everyone to sit. The two older ones were perched on the outer edges of the fireplace this year.

There really isn’t a lot of space in this room to photograph even a small group. That meant there wasn’t a lot of edge space around us in the photo for masking on a layout. In this post, I’m going to share what I did to solve that problem.

Use an Inverted Mask

• Attach an inverted mask to the photo.
• With AnnaBlendz Artsy Brushes, stamp on the black mask with white to reveal the photo.

Ground the Photo

• Place paper texture 9 from PaperTextures No. 10 below the masked photo.
• Place photo of carpet above the paper texture, add an inverted layer mask and reveal enough to cover the texture shape.
• Place stains from Evergreen FotoBlendz No. 3 and recolor green.

Build Background

• To create a background place layers from Artsy Transfers Kristtorn below the photo layers.
• Add psd file 5 from MultiMedia Holly No. 1 to embelish.
• Place title from Holiday WordArt Mix No. 13.

I rarely hand off my camera, but for this bit of magic, I am more than willing.