Wow!  Two posts, back-to-back! LOL  I have several things I have been wanting to get posted, so, I thought I better do just that!  There are a couple of tips that I want to share with you and there is the matter of a little gift that I have been promising for over a month.  I wanted to make something that was truly Suruha.  I did.  LOL  I guarantee there is not another like it online!  The only thing I wish is that I could give you these things for real.  The folks that come here say the kindest things and I appreciate it.  I don’t expect it, so, it is so nice when someone leaves a kind word.  Those of you who left messages when I was out, I thank you.  It really means a lot to me.  Thank you!

I’m going to jump right in here.  Did you know that the “Color Range” feature in Photoshop can help you in extracting something from an image?  Well, it can!  LOL  I use CS3, but, other program versions surely have a similar feature.  In CS3, it is located under the “Select” menu.  Anyway, click on “Color Range” and a box pops-up.  Typical PS!

 

I whipped up a simple greeting to show you what I mean.  Feel free to copy it and follow along.

 

Say that I want to remove the orange background and keep just the text and flourishes.  There are several tools in Photoshop that will help remove a large background expanse such as this one.  The “Lasso” and “Quick Select” come to mind.  But, the hard part is selecting the spaces in and among the swirls and leaves of the ornaments.  By using the “Color Range” feature, you can eliminate all of the color you don’t want. 

 Open the “Color Range” box.

Your cursor will turn into an eye dropper for you to sample anywhere on the orange color.  The sample tells PS what color to select.
 

 If there were several shades of orange, you would hold down the “Shift” key as you sample all of the shades of that color.  

When you select a color, that part of the preview will turn white everywhere that is ‘selected’.  

You can adjust the “Fuzziness” if you like.  This feature will cause the selected area to go from sharper to a little blurry, it looks like to me.  Anyway, around 60 is usually good.  Play with it and see.

Click on “OK”.

Every place that is orange will now be high-lighted with marching ants.  This means it is selected.  Click on “Delete” and watch all the orange disappear.

Easy-Peasy!!  LOL  If you wanted to remove another color, simple repeat, but, click on that color.  This feature works really good for extracting a tree from it’s background, providing the background is a different color.  Or, if you want to actually change the color, still using my example, after all the orange is selected and I’ve clicked “OK” on the “Color Range” box, just open an adjustment layer to the color settings of your choice.  (The “Adjustment Layer” button is the half-black half-white circle at the bottom of the “Layers Palette”.)  When you click “OK”, all of the orange will be the new color.  There’s another little tip for you to store away.  You may even use it one day!  LOL

Next, did you ever want to link to a site in someone’s comments and didn’t know how?  All there is to it is one small bit of code.  The code is in red, the URL and the Text will be yours:

The ‘URL’ is, of course, the address of the site to go to.  For the text, you would type the name of the site or some other bit of text.  Here is how it should look if I wanted to link to my blog:

It ends up looking like this in the comment:

My Blog
(Click it, if you like.  It will just bring you back here.  LOL)

 And, that is all there is to it!  Be sure to include the apostrophe(‘) before and after the URL.  The words “My Blog” are all that will show when done, but, those words will be clickable to my blog.  You can use this in typing a comment on someone else’s blog or website, where you want to direct the folks to some place else.  This code will work in almost any place where HTML code is used.  (I had to post the code examples as images since they were code.  It wouldn’t show up if they were typed in text.  All you would see is “My Blog”, because the code would take effect.)

I have been promising a gift for you all for forever!  LOL  There really is a gift!  I finally got it finished up for you.  It started out to be my contribution to the monthly Gothic Inspirations blog train.   For the month of February, Jessica gave the theme and the colors for a CU freebie.  What ever we made had to be CU friendly.  I started out with her color scheme, but, after missing the deadline, I put it all on hold.  When I returned and went to wrap it up, I found myself leaning towards the colors in this month’s freebie collaboration with Miss Edna, “My Fair Lady”, that we began posting yesterday.  I used a lot of the same pinks and light greenish-blues, as well as some other colors. 

If you folks are anything like me, you love keeping a diary, saving little ephemera from special days.  (I have every card my children ever gave me!)  I’ve always used some kind of book for posting my ‘secret stash’.  My own personal diary is always a work in progress, with papers and other tid-bits stuck between it’s pages all haphazardly.  I love it that way, though.  When I open up my diary, all of those ‘stashed’ items fall out and I have to handle them, thus, looking at them.  LOL  They send me on a little sentimental journey.  It’s just one of my ‘cheap thrills’.  LOL

My diary is actually a bound “Journal” book.  I’ve used spiral calendar books, as well.  The bound books come in lots of colours and have pages that are lined so I can write neater.  There is a ribbon attached for a page marker, like I need one.  I can find almost anything in those pages, because I only post special stuff.  If I wanted to gripe about something or blow off steam, there are other ways.  My diary is a kind and gentle, happy place.  I try to keep it like that.  Who wants to pick up a book and find it full of misery?  Some day, my children may read it.  I want there to be happy memories.  It may not be the prettiest thing they have ever seen, but, it will be nice.

When making this gift, I put together some ‘diary’ pages for you.  They are all old-fashioned fancy-schmancy, gaudy as hell, and all that good stuff.  LOL  They’re done up as though I put together whatever was handy at the time – a scrap of pretty stationary, a pretty picture that I like, a fancy decoration or ornament I found, a bit of lace and pearls, etc.  I include some embellishments for you to decorate your pages with.  I also put in some pretty patterned ‘notes’ papers with fancy trims.  Feathers.  Yup!  Feathers!  LOL  Not all feathers, just on one.  You’ve got to check it out.  It isn’t full-size or tagger-size, but, everything was made based on full-sized.  None of it matches and there aren’t any specific pieces, except for the “diary” pages and the notes papers.  There are a few scrapbooking pages, some simple silk to show off your writing.  Throughout, there are a few scattering of hearts, since this month is Valentine’s Day.  Everything is done vintage, so, it will appeal to many.  Since I made it all, you can use it for anything you want!  There are a few clip-art pieces from the internet, but, these particular ones are so universal, attributing credit to someone is all but impossible.   Believe me, I looked!  That being said, if I am wrong about any of them and they do belong to you, please, let me know.

There are 4 separate links.  They range from 40 to 50 mbs each, so, they’re pretty hefty.  The files don’t have that much in them; it’s just because everything is huge!  I make everything BIG.  I figure you can always resize it down.  I resized nearly everything in the preview way down.  In the files, everything is larger.

Here ya go!  I hope you enjoy!

Diaries

Notes/Papers

Novelty Papers

Ornaments

I still have more to share, but, I have to get up.  I’ve sat too still for too long and I’m stiff.  Have fun with this stuff!  Add to it, throw in some of your own favorite goodies.  I “collect” odds and ends online, even, and have some of them in a few of my Photo accounts.  This is sort of like that stuff, only I can use this in my art, on my blog, in a layout, and even print it out.  So, Thank You!

Smile!

Hugs,

Su