Hi everyone! I am here today to share with you one of my favorite products – Photo Canvases. Like most scrapbookers I have a sincere love for my family photos and enjoy displaying them in my home to remind me of favorite family memories and the love that we share.  I am also always on the lookout for a unique and attractive way to display those photos, and when I first saw this photo canvas idea I knew I had found one!

As President of our family-owned company, Adornit – Carolee’s Creations, I knew I wanted to share this with our customers. We have been offering this service for about a year now, and it has been very popular. These photo canvases are a very stylish, affordable way to display your photos. Alone, or in a grouping, the unique texture and dimension make your room come alive. Here’s a peek at the grouping I have in my home:

We offer two different options for printing your photos. The first is Canvas Wrapped, where the canvas wraps around and creates a box effect with a two-inch depth. These do not require framing and are what you see in the picture above. The second is Canvas Flat, where the canvas is mounted flat onto 1/8” wood and then you frame it.

We offer standard framing sizes, 8x10, 11x14, etc., and also a very popular square 8x8 size, perfect for groupings. We can also do customized templates, which makes it easy for your display to be super-unique.

For Valentine's Day I created this custom 12x12 canvas template. I enjoyed it so much that after Valentine's Day I decided to move it to a shelf in my room.

So how does this work? It’s very simple! I’ll walk you step-by-step through the process:

1.  Choose a place in your home where you’d like your canvas photos.

2.  Measure the space you have chosen and determine what sizes would work best.

3.  Choose the photos you plan to use.

4.  Go online to adornit.com.

5.  Using our online order form, choose Canvas Wrapped, Canvas Flat, or go here for the templates

6.  Also choose your size and a custom filter, if desired, then complete your order.

7.  Email your high resolution photo to info@adornit.com.

8.  Wait with anticipation while we process your order at Adornit. The happiness will arrive on your doorstep within 2 weeks!

Now for the fun part- who wants to win their very own
16 x 20 Gallery wrap canvas?

Leave a comment on my blog and tell us what what picture you would print and where in your home you want to hang it.

Thanks for reading about my favorite product

How do they do it? I know I’ve thought it at least a million times, and that was just this week! How do these wonderful mama-razzis, with the snap of a camera and a zip up in photoshop, achieve amazing results time after time. I’ve trolled through galleries full of amazing pictures, and imitated literally hundreds of poses and angles. But there is definitely something striking about pictures that have spent a little time in post-processing. Post-processing is anything you do to enhance a picture after it’s been taken. (Note: If you feel intimidated by the instructions that follow, just KEEP READING, because there's a FREE action at the end of this post that will allow you do get the very same effect with just one or two clicks of your mouse!)

Without getting into anything that’s too crazy stylized, there are several little touch-ups you can do to make your photos really pop. I know I’m a bit of a photo program junkie, so for this I narrowed my program usage down to just Photoshop Elements. When I say just Photoshop Elements (PSE), it is absolutely a program that gives you all of the tools to post-process to your heart’s content. And just a word of warning, adding that extra pop to your pictures is highly addictive! My dad often said, “Here’s Noel to make a long story longer.” So in keeping with tradition I’m going to walk through the process, and give an easy shortcut.

Every digital photo comes out of the camera in a sort of fog. (Think: Claratin commercials when the fog is lifted off the picture.) We’re going to bring our pictures out of that fog and into the clear in just a few easy steps.

The first step will be to brighten up the picture a bit. Open your photo in PSE, and click Layer > Duplicate Layer to copy your background layer. With your new layer selected, change the blending mode to Screen. (The blending mode menu is located in that little drop down menu just above the layers pallet toward the bottom right corner of your screen.) This will brighten your photo up... way up! It just might have brightened it up WAY too much. Luckily PSE lets you lower the transparency of each layer! So taking the opacity slider, on the top right side of the layers pallet, and slide it to the left until the brightness level looks appropriate.

Next we’re going to add a little color pop to the picture. Click on your Background Layer again, and click Layer > Duplicate Layer.  With your new layer selected, change the blending mode to Soft Light. Now it is very likely that this layer will also need an opacity adjustment. Moving the opacity slider to about 35% is a good starting point, but you can adjust it to suit your picture and taste.

Now to really blow that fog out of the air, we’re going to sharpen the picture. Before we do that, we’re going to need to merge all of the layers together. Click Layer > Merge Visible to condense all of the layers into one. Now click Layer > Duplicate Layer to make a copy of your background layer. To sharpen the new layer click Enhance > Unsharp Mask, and type in 100 for the amount, 1.0 for the radius and 3 for the threshold . Your image should be noticeably sharper. If the sharpening is a bit too much, you can lower the opacity down to a level that suits your photo. Again, we’ll want to merge the layers by clicking Layer > Merge Visible.

Finally, a little trick I picked up from my friend Janet Phillips to add that one last subtle touch of greatness, a vignette. For most of my pictures I add a darker vignette (an area that’s shaded off gradually) to bring the eye in toward my subject. To make a darker vignette, select the oval Marquee tool by right clicking on the dotted square on the tool bar, and selecting the dotted oval from the fly-out menu (or by pressing “M” twice). Draw a large oval by clicking and dragging your mouse. Now right click inside your oval and select Feather from the fly-out menu. I usually type in 250 pixels in the feather window, if your pictures are lower resolution, adjust the feathering to something like 150 pixels. Next we’re going to select the inverse of our oval by clicking Select > Inverse. This will select everything but the oval. Now click Edit > Copy, then Edit > Paste. You will now have just the selected area on a new layer. Change the blending mode of the new layer to Multiply. Lower the opacity to your liking, and you’re finished!

With that all said and done you may be saying to yourself, “This is a lot of work to put into every photo,” and you are right! That’s why I, with the help of a little Google research, developed a PSE action to condense all of these steps into a single step! If you’re not familiar with PSE actions, it is a series of Photoshop commands that are done for you, and they are fabulous. With the click of a button, all of the previous photo-popping steps will automatically be applied to your picture. How sweet is that! You can download the action here, and watch a video tutorial here.

After downloading the action, unzip the file and install it in PSE.

(If you need help installing the action, this site will walk you through that process)

After installing the action, open a picture in PSE, double click on the action in the Effects pallet and watch the magic!

You will still be able to adjust the opacity on each layer to suit your picture but all of the work will be done for you!

Once all of your edits are in finished, click Layer > Flatten Image to condense your image down to one layer, and save masterpiece.

Let me know what you think of this action, leave a comment on my blog.

Be still, my heart! Ella had a chance to sit down for a little tusk-a-tusk with the Digital Diva, Renee Pearson! Renee wrote the book (literally!) on digital scrapbooking, and she's recently launched the fabulous digital education site, reneepearson.com. She's also the author of our latest eBook, Special Effects for Digital Photos: 10 easy tutorials using Photoshop Elements 7.

Here's what Renee had to say:

Ella: What's your favorite late-night snack?

Renee: Popcorn...morning..noon...or late night!

Ella: I am with you! I LOVE popcorn. Sometimes I even have it for dinner. Lots of fiber, ya know! So, how did you become "the Digital Diva?"

Renee: It was so many years ago it feels like another life. I was actually working in marketing communications and graphic design. When I developed an interest in scrapbooking, it seemed natural to apply my digital design skills to my new hobby.

Ella: Because of all the time you're on your computer, you must do some serious online shopping. What's the last thing you bought?

Renee: Software...something I needed for the website.

Ella: What, no shoes? Alright, I guess business comes first.

Renee: Ha-ha! I’m really not a shoe person...but I adore handbags! I’ve had my eye on a Marc Jacobs beauty for quite some time. When I earn my first million I’m heading for the Marc Jacobs store!

Ella: And I'm not much of a purse girl, what with this TRUNK and all! ;) Tell us, what reading material is on your nightstand right now?

Renee: Oooh! I just finished “The Magician’s Assistant” by Ann Patchett. Loved it. Next up is the new Dan Brown book, “The Lost Symbol.” I’ve been waiting a long time for this sequel to “The DaVinci Code.”

Ella: Good stuff. Speaking of good stuff, you are quite the musical maven. What's your latest musical discovery?

Renee: Salem al Fakir...a Swedish pop/soul sensation.

Ella: I've seen you mention him on your blog before. Thanks for the recommendation! Hey, with everything you have going on, how do you keep track of it all? Do you make a daily to-do list? How many items are typically on it? Is it digital or paper?

Renee: I sure do. It’s actually a rolling list from day to day. It typically has 20 or more items on it. I keep a paper notebook that I work from. There’s just something satisfying about drawing a line through a completed item that can’t be duplicated digitally. My favorite notebooks are the Mnemosyne by Maruman. The paper is a joy to write on. 

Ella: I am going to get one IMMEDIATELY. You always have the coolest stuff! And speaking of cool stuff, what one thing do you want people to know about your book?

Renee: That they’re my favorite quick-and-easy tips for giving your photos that extra punch. And they really ARE quick and easy.

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...AND A CONTEST (OF COURSE)!

Renee's book is perfect for Photoshop Beginners (like most of the staff here at Ella!). If you're a little more advanced, we've got a great offer for you -- a seat in Renee's Collage 101 class at reneepearson.com, starting in October! Note: This class is rated Intermediate and is best for people with Photoshop experience. Interested? Leave us a comment telling us what digital topics you'd like to see covered in future eBooks! Hurry -- we're drawing a name tomorrow, Sept. 24!

Oh, and by the way... the winner of the Jodie McNally word art is...

 Mary F:

<<They were all good tips but I like the first one the best-I've been wanting to do a page like that for awhile and just haven't found the right subjects for it yet!>>

Mary, you have won a $25 gift certificate to Jodie's online store! Email us at comments@ellapublishing.com to claim your prize!

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One more thing... We've got a last-minute call for pages for our October Scrapbook Ellaments. We're looking for two pages. Submit your best for either (or both!) of the following:

1. A paper-based page using a premade quote

2. A paper-based page using a premade title

Follow our usual submissions guidelines here. Deadline is Sunday, Sept. 27. at midnight-ish. Winning layouts will receive copies of Jodie McNally's exclusive Ella digital scrapbooking kit, on sale next month!

Digi folks, don't despair -- next week we are focusing on digital all week long, just for you! We've got some cool stuff in store. This is the place to stay up on what's happening, so come back often. We're here daily (except when we're not).