{"id":21573,"date":"2017-12-29T22:29:46","date_gmt":"2017-12-30T06:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/?p=21573"},"modified":"2017-12-29T22:29:46","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T06:29:46","slug":"fun-photo-gifts-made-with-adobe-photoshop-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/fun-photo-gifts-made-with-adobe-photoshop-elements\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Photo Gifts Made with Adobe Photoshop Elements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My daughter and I have been playing around with the Adobe Photoshop Elements<\/a> software this past month.  You may recall, Adobe Photoshop Elements was highlighted in our Top 10 Tech Christmas Gift Ideas for Moms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smartphones make it so easy to capture the moment, in fact many moments.  If you’re like me you have thousands of wonderful (and not so wonderful) pictures on your computer, filed away in neat little folders.   But after they are digitally filed away, how often do you see them? <\/p>\n

With the kids out of school, my daughter and I decided to work on a couple of crafts together to utilize some of our favorite pictures we’ve taken over the years.  With some craft supplies and ideas given to us by Adobe, we created some fun projects, adapted with our own sense of style and whimsical approach.<\/p>\n

Now here’s the thing.  I’ve dabbled around in the new Adobe Photoshop Elements software enough to see what it’s capable of.  In fact, to test it out thoroughly, I enhanced a number of pictures.  But to achieve the real possibility of what’s possible, it’s best to have a project in mind, so we created these fun photo gifts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fun Photo Gifts<\/span><\/h2>\n

My kids are great at creating made-at-home gifts, so these projects were right up their alley.  Here are the fun photo gifts we created…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Frameworthy Puppies<\/h3>\n

For Christmas last year, we got the kids two puppies, they’re sisters.  We named the pups Piper and Curly, they are Maltipoos and bring us a lot of fun and laughter.  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My daughter took this picture of the pups last year.  I left my chair to get something and Piper took my seat.  We now call her a “dog with a blog,” since she swiped my seat at the computer.<\/p>\n

We love the way the pups look in this photo so we thought we’d frame them separately.  To do this, we used Adobe Photoshop Elements’s “Replace Background Effect” guide to select each dog to separate her from the rest of the picture. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Auto-select tool made it fairly easy, but we had to use the Refine tool to clean up the selection to make sure we captured just what we wanted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After removing the background, we changed the background to black so our white pups’ pics would pop more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"photo<\/p>\n

Then we took plastic photo frames and spray painted them with a template for a unique design to dress them up.  Now each of our kids has a fun picture of their favorite pup.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lighted Picture Cube<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"photo<\/p>\n

For this project, we used the Shape Overlay guide to place a heart over the picture of my in-laws and turn the rest of the picture into black and white.  We printed their picture on clear sticker paper, adhered it to a glass block, and added lights inside. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"photo<\/p>\n

For an added artistic element, we added a piece of paper with crisscrosses behind their picture.  Nice sentimental photo gifts my mother-in-law will enjoy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A friend of mine told me about her Christmas card of her family.  She couldn’t get her two sons home from college so she had a friend photoshop one son in.  They left space in their family portrait so this could be done more easily. <\/p>\n

When her Christmas card arrived in our mailbox, our whole family couldn’t wait to see who could spot which son was photoshopped.  It was so hard to tell.<\/p>\n

Now we can do the same thing with Photoshop Elements.  I was bummed that our Christmas card this year didn’t include our two puppies, as it was taken when we were on vacation.  But next year, I’ll just photoshop them in!  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ideas for Using Photoshop Elements<\/span><\/h2>\n