Since I’ve learned how to retouch photos I’ve been practicing and experimenting on my own. I said on my previous post my next project would be “Weightloss through Photoshop.” I tried but I just couldn’t get it right, so I will continue to play around with that project until I get it right. In my frustration with it I decided to do more makeovers for more practice and experimentation. I found a great website, Hollywood Celebrity Pictures has a bunch of celebrity photos downloadable for personal use. I browsed through the site and did makeovers on Hillary Swank, Claire Forlani, Fergie, Jennifer Lopez, Lindsay Lohan, and Minnie Driver.

Here are the final images… click on them to view their transformations.

Since this Christmas was the most un-Christmas Christmases of all we decided to treat ourselves with a trip to Sensapolis. A huge indoor amusement park packed with kiddie fun. It has a spaceship, a castle, a jungle, a pirate ship, a rock climbing wall, a restaurant, a mini version of the Discovery Museum in Los Angeles. The place is packed with slides, I didn’t go down any of them because #1, I’m fat so I’ll go down much faster and these things are like dead drops! You actually lift off your ass as soon as you start sliding. #2, I was afraid. The photos I took couldn’t fully describe the place because there’s so much to do and frankly we were having too much fun to concentrate on taking photos. My favorites were the science experiment sections they had all these cool stuff like the pyramid bubble, the facial expression camera, and so much more. The sad thing is that my boobs are so big that the camera thought it was another person (you’ll see the photo)! It’s really time for me to starve myself for a few months.

Here are some photos from our adventure….

Click on the photo to view larger images.

I am having way too much fun playing with Photoshop. I’ve learned so much about the program this week more than any other time I’ve used it. I could help but dig through photos I want to fix-up! The bad thing is that I hate all my photos now! I just want to airbrush all of them! In this project I cleared up my skin, lightened my eyes, put some makeup on, and extended my eyelashes~digital mascara!!

I would like to thank a couple websites for this project “5 Second Eye Enhancement” for teaching me what the “Dodge Tool” is for and ObsidianDawn.com’s “Eyelashes Photoshop & GIMP Brushes” for my mascara.

Click on image to view before and after photos in larger formats.

During the past couple weeks I’ve been playing with Photoshop, and the past couple days I’ve watched a bunch of tutorials about how to do makeovers. So I looked through my photos and found one I wanted to do a makeover on. No drastic changes, I just wanted to have smooth skin like they do on magazines. I also did photos of the kids I took for their passports a few months ago. Gabby was really sunburned so her freckles were out in force and her skin was a bit red. I also added some eyelashes and emphasized her eyebrows, being in the California sun bleached the poor girl’s eyebrows. Alex was sunburned too so I wanted I decided to do his photo to remove blochiness and whiten his teeth a bit.

So I did a Google search on “Photoshop tutorial airbrush” and clicked on the first one on the list “Airbrushing – Natural Smooth Skin Photoshop Tutorial” I always hesitated trying these tutorials because they just look so complicated. Initially, they were a few months ago when I first installed Photoshop CS3 I was so frustrated with all the controls! It’s like learning to fly a plane, maybe more difficult… I’ve met quite a few pilots in my day and a lot of them aren’t that smart. So now that I have a faster computer and having more knowledge on Photoshop I released my fear and actually read the tutorial. Now, I’m kicking myself in the ass because it is so simple! I could have learned this a long time ago! Any way, here’s my first attempt to airbrushing my face. My next project will be “Weight Loss Can Be Achieved Through Photoshop.”

I can’t believe Christmas is next week! This year has been a roller coaster ride and it continues to be. I feel like there’s nothing to really celebrate about. I mean of course there are but it just seems inappropriate to celebrate the holidays when there is so much drama going on. What is up with all the drama this year? 2008 just blows past and marks my heart with pain. Will 2009 be better? I hope so.

A few things I’m really looking forward to the new year are…

1. Yay! Back to school for me! I can’t wait till the 9th of January when I start school again!

2. Barack Obama takes over as the new president!

3. I turn 20! Yes, twenty! Go to my Kaboodle list to buy me a present!

4. I finally get to have a summer and Christmas alone with my husband!

5. We hit our golden anniversary! 5 years baby yeah! It’s the new 50!

Thank you PSDtuts.com for the “Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect in Photoshop” tutorial!

For no apparent reason I got up at 5:30am this morning. By 10:30am I had nothing else to do, so I sat down on my desk and started stumbling through websites. StumbleUpon is one of the best web surfing tools around. You just click a button and ta-da you’re at a web page you probably never would come across. So here they are, the 10 interesting sites I stumbled upon today.

10 – Скульптуры из песка (43 фото) – Sculptures of sand (43 photos) – what if it rained?

09 – The Vampire Library – get your fill of vampire lore here.

08 – Eye Spy: Filmmaker Plans to Install Camera in His Eye Socket – oh the things people do for art!

07 -The Rise of the Machines – I don’t remember meeting a robot in Japan, South Korea, or Singapore when I was there. I don’t even know of any here in Germany. I need to get out more, I guess I haven’t traveled enough.

06 – Males of All Species Are Becoming More Female – the environment is turning our men into women!

05 - Cheap First Class Airfares: Airline Secret Exposed! – the key word here is Y-ups, just remember that every time you make flight reservations! Get first class tickets for almost economy class prices.

04 – Who Needs a House Then? – where’s the pool? Gotta have a pool?

03 – Brain Pop – yep, knowledge is power, learn something new.

02 – The Simpsons parody iPods, iPhones, Apple Stores, Steve Jobs, and even Apple’s 1984 commercial – I have a white ear buds!

01 – Cookie Recipes – this has to be the best site ever! I’m starving for some Margarita Cookies!

I can’t believe Christmas is almost here! This year flew by so fast it seems like we just celebrated last year’s Christmas yesterday. I’ve felt the Christmas spirit creeping up but now that it is December I feel like I need another month or so to be Christmas ready. I usually have the house half way decorated by now, but this year… we haven’t even decided what colors to do. Last year we did red and gold, I love that combination, and this year we can’t quite decide. I think we’ll go with the traditional holiday colors.

Christmas cards? Last year our Christmas card was a photo of Kookiis and Vandy wearing their holiday couture. This year I decided to design the card in Photoshop and here is what I came up with. I will be sending them out soon, I hope in the mail, but if not you’ll get it as an e-card.

click on the photo to view larger image

Thanks to PSDTuts for the tutorial. “How to Create That Last-Minute Holiday e-Card in Photoshop“