Don’t Collide, Collage!

There was a whole lot a colliding going on in the good ol’ PNW of the USA this week.  I am sure there were records broken, not sure how many or what ones, but I bet you could find that out.  I’m positive, without looking personally, there are a ton of youtubes of all the collidin’ at least news channel stuff to see.  But I’m not gonna go look.   ‘Cause right now I am just too stinkin’ ‘cited to do that for you Clever Reader, and besides your name is Clever for a reason eh? 

So why is it I’m so rootin’ tootin’ ‘cited?!  Cause I got another header done for the weekly header challenge that I do with Dave, Fishing_Guy,  Mac, and Gail’s Man. 

Last week Dave bent us all over backward with his selection of a theme.  Ow.  Even though I took liberties, you know I did, I managed to take home – eh? – the silver award.  Sorry that I didn’t get back and post that fact but we’ve been fightin power outages here, not big ones just ones that manage to reek havoc with the internet. 

The Little Girl (la Nina) pounded us right after she whipped us with wind.  It went from not so abnormal cold temps to what-the-heck cold temps!  I promise I will tell you all about it.  Honest!  Really, this time I mean it!  Actually I have a bunch of stuff to log in here with. 

But for now I am just too excited about my new found skill!  And my buns need a break from the chair. 

What I will tell you is, that I made this collage of the weather we had this week, which was absolutely beautiful by the way, with PhotoShop Elements 6. 

I couldn’t figure out how to do what was in my head.  I wanted to outline some of the photos of a particular item and put them in the collage so that I wouldn’t have a lot of straight lines. 

As you can well imagine Clever Reader, straight lines bug me.  Sorta.  I do like the tile floor that I put in my house and it is nuthin’ but straight lines. 

I did figure out how to do what I did do while sitting and clickin’ and dragin’ and droppin’, undoin’, tryin’ sumpin’ new, dra…  and then all of a sudden there it was!  My first picture on top of a picture.

I knew I could do something like that from watching Tia do a similar move at the end of my last lesson, when we were mostly just bull-loneing and havin’ fun, and me not taking notes, I gotta learn to record everything that comes out of that girls mouth, she’s a gem.   Any way off I was to the races and with plenty of time to play with it and get the job done.

So I loaded up my collage background, learned that I could shrink or expand the pictures.  I could even tilt them. 

One of the biggest discoveries I made was how to manage the layers so that a picture looked like it was tucked underneth one but on top of another.

The hugest thing to remember, which I did not after I thoughtI was done thirty minutes before deadline, is after you have made all these different layers and you are satisfied with your end product, do not save it, go up to the top of PS and click on “Layer” go to the bottom of the drop down menu and click on “flatten image”.  Major important! otherwise the file is gi-freaking-normous, like Godzilla, King Kong and Jurasic Park all in one!  And that won’t load.  Word Press was kind enough to tell me that I should try a different file after trying to load it for twenty minutes.

But right now, I gotta get up and get some circulation back into my lower half, and my pinkies too.  I would be more than happy to do a more accurate step by step on how I did it, just not today, or at least not right now, movement first. 

And…. I gotta go be in my beautiful winter wonderland!  I know for you Midwesteners and such that must seem strange but it is about to go away by late afternoon tomorrow and definitely by Friday we will be back to nasty cold slimy mud and muck.   We ought to have more, according to the La Nina issue but that isn’t a gaurantee.  So out I go.  First to measure horseys for new blankets.  Then to have some real fun. 

But please, go see what the other fellas did. Dave, Fishing_Guy,  Mac, and Gail’s Man  I haven’t even peeked at them yet.  I bet they’re great though, they are all so much better at this photography thing than I am.  Really they are, not to mention my camera is the size of a deck of cards, minus a few cards.  Oh what I wouldn’t do for a “real” camera, hint hint to you Mr. Dirt.  EBet could do some pretty nice things with it too, sort of like getting two people taken care of with one purchase, smart eh?  Come on, I know you have somethin’ to hawk for it, like a motersickle?