Photoshop – Jennifer Michie

December 27, 2011 / 2 Comments

The Anatomy of a Christmas Card

Last year, due to the general craziness of school, the cottage being painted and other things going on, I never mailed out Christmas cards. Instead I made, “Happy New Year” cards in January and mailed those out. Since we were already being non-traditional, we kept it that way and had our design printed up on postcards with envelopes to mail them in.

I had so much fun doing that, that this year, I decided that I would do it again. I created a design to fit on a postcard and this time I had the help of Mr. Michie, Goose Girl & Foxy.

I gathered up a few of my Christmas items, GiGi & Foxy invited over some gnomes and deer to the party and we got to work.

We set up a green screen, laid down “snow” and set up lighting. It was a regular little photography studio we had going on here.

We posed everyone in different positions, until we found one that would work best, after going through all the proofs, we picked a few images to work with and got going.

Through Photoshop, I extracted out the background, placed in an image we found, that seemed to work in harmony with everything else and adjusted the lighting, placed an overlay on the top, to create a frosty feel and added in a “Merry Christmas” banner, drawn by Mr. Michie.

We designed a back for the postcard as well, with a small Christmas message and a vintage picture of Santa. This was a project I truly enjoyed working on and I can’t wait till next year, I already have ideas like sugarplums dancing in my head!!

(My work is my own, please do not use it for your own purposes! Thank you.)

February 1, 2011 / 2 Comments

A New Years Card

I have kept you guessing for the past few days and today I am finally revealing what my secret project was: a New Years postcard. Did you already deduce that? This past year, Christmas arrived in such a whirlwind and with everything that was going on in and around our lives, I had no time to send out my usual Christmas cards. But, I was not going to feel guilty about that, I had a plan, and that was send out New Year’s cards instead.

Well, New Year’s Eve came and went and I began my mission, I was on the hunt for Happy New Years cards. I had absolutely no luck. What was I going to do, I thought? And, then I realized, I am from a very long line of creative and artistic people, why was I even looking for a pack of cards. I would simply create my own.

I decided, that instead of drawing one, or creating one through a paper or fabric medium, I would design one using Photoshop. I went through a series of ideas, as all creating processes take and I stumbled on one that I liked.

I used images from a vintage children’s book and pieced different parts together to create my card. Using the background of one page, I removed items that I liked from others. Placing a little gnome in the corner and darkening his hat to a more Christmassy red. I put a glowing candle from the Christmas tree into his hand and placed a friendly woodland squirrel next to him.

Next, I placed “Happy New Years” on my card using pink and white as a highlighting color and the front was finished. Then, I moved on to the back, again using the same pink as on the front but with red as a highlighting color. After doing some more nerdy computer work, they were ready to upload. I have used a variety of printing services for different projects along the way, but this time I used MOO. They were a dream to work with!

Since, this was not going to be your normal “Christmas Card”, I decided that I would send out postcards instead. After uploading my design, I got envelopes to put them in and even had the chance to design my own sticker book. Everything arrived in my postbox this past week and this weekend I got down to business and wrote them.

I had so much fun coming up with a design and seeing the final piece printed up and in my hands, I don’t think I will go back, to buying cards again. So, look out, next Christmas I hope to be sending out cards designed by yours truly.

(Copyright, this design was created by Jennifer Michie and is not to be used without permission. All images property of Jennifer Michie)

December 5, 2010 / 0 Comments

A Little Frosting

What could be better than real frosting piped high on a cupcake or swirled around the edges of your Nana’s famous Marble Cake?

I think the next best thing could be this adorable set of frosting brushes from the lovely Sugar & Meringue! These would be perfect to decorate homemade labels for the Christmas cookies or other sweet treats you might be giving away to friends and family. Enjoy!

(Click on the image to go to her site, where you can download this set. Tag used in first image is a Pugly Pixel Freebie)