Fake-me-out Photoshop, Part 2

In Part 1, I talked about how easy it is to use Microsoft PowerPoint to make fantastic graphics and collages that look as good as Photoshopped images.

In case you missed it, I proved my point by taking two images from Pinterest, and recreating them with my only images in PowerPoint:

Original pin here // My original post for these cupcakes here

Original pin here // My original post for this outfit here

So in Part 1, I showed you how to:

• Directly edit images in PowerPoint (including cropping) 
• Add shapes with text and editing shadows, transparency, etc.
• Group all elements to save your output as a picture

Today, I'm going to show you how to:

• Remove a background
• Incorporate free fonts and shapes
• Understand layering
• Use outside (free) tools with PowerPoint

1. Remove a background. 

A really popular use of Photoshop is image collages of items - must-have baby items, neon trends, etc. But when you copy and paste an image from a website, it usually looks like this:

See that white box? It means that if I try to position this blazer over a pair of shorts, the shorts will be cut off by the white box - like this:

Not cute. So what you want to do is remove the white excess.  This is something that would look very good if done in a professional tool like Photoshop, and also looks good in free tools like Gimp (an excellent and free alternative to Photoshop if you do want to learn the technical approach), but for how simple it is, PowerPoint does a dang good job.

• First, double-click your image.
• The "Format" tab appears.
• Click "Remove Background".

NOTE: I should have mentioned this sooner, but see how at the very top of the image is a green dot?  If you click that one, you can tilt the image right or left, even upside down! It gives you some more flexibility with creative arrangements.

Anyway, you now see a new menu with some new options. In addition, the previously white area is purple, and there is an editable area-selection tool on your object.

First, click the small white dots to stretch them around your shape until everything is inside that box.  See right now how the collar of the jacket and the ends of the sleeves have a purple-tint too? That means if we were to click "Keep Changes" right now, those would be removed.  But we want them, so we need to expand our selection area.

Now, the jacket is almost perfectly outlined!  Except, there is one little side area on the jacket that is also purple - likely, a white area from the jacket that blended into the background.  So I want to save that part.

• Click "Mark Areas to Keep".
• Click on the little purple area.
• You'll now see a little circle with a plus-sign over it.
• Click "Keep Changes".

Now, your image is perfectly "cut out" with the background removed!

Tip:

• If you have an extra white area inside that needs to be removed (like if you have a picture of a teacup - the inside of the handle) - use the "Mark Areas to Remove" button to add a mark in that space before clicking "Keep Changes" to make it transparent also.

2. Incorporate free fonts and shapes.

The one thing that will take your image from standard to impressive is free fonts.  There are some great websites out there (I love dafont.com) and you can even search "free fonts" on Pinterest to see links to some that others use. 

It is SO easy to download and install them.  There are a dozen tutorials out there to complete this, but since everyone's operating system likely varies from mine, I'll save myself the space here - BUT, if you get stuck on installing fonts, feel free to email me.

Here are a few of my favorites. You can Google the name with "free font" to find them for download.

But - whats cooler than free fonts?  Shapes!

Dafont has a "Shapes" section that provides Wingdings-like graphics when you press certain letters, once installed just like a font. Then, you have really neat, custom shapes to use!

So this graphic below, I used shape KG Flavor and Frames Part 2. I typed a capital O, and got that neat white shape with the brackets!

And the pennant banner was shape KG Flavor and Frames, with a lowercase t.  Because my computer is reading it as a font, I was able to change the color and add a shadow as I would any other font.

There are dozens of really neat options online.  Here are a few of my favorites:

KG Flavor and Frames

KG Flavor and Frames 2

Peax Webdesign Arrows

(These are great for pointing to OOTD pictures to say where you got something!)

There are 18 pages of shapes on that website, so a lot of really neat options to create really custom add-ons!

3. Understand Layering.

Each time you add something to your PowerPoint slide - text, a shape, a picture - you need to think of it as if they were physical objects.  So the last thing that you add or insert will be on top, just as if you placed it on a stack of items on a table.

Sometimes, you add something later that might look better on bottom.  Or maybe back a layer.  In that case, you can move the item forward or backwards.

So for this example, you've added your images. You've added text. You've removed the backgrounds. You've arranged them.  But it looks - off.  Wouldn't the tee look so much better behind the necklace and the chain of the bag?  And shouldn't those shorts be behind the blazer?

• To arrange the items, right-click the image.
• Select "Send to Back".
• Select "Send Backward".

NOTE: It is VERY important to click "Send Backward" and not "Send to Back".  If you click "Send to Back", it will go all the way back - behind your gray background! You want to only move back or forwards one layer at a time.

Once you move all of your images back or forward, you'll have a really well composed collage!  You can now follow the steps in Part 1 to group all of the images and save them as a picture.

4. Use outside tools.

PowerPoint obviously isn't perfect, and sometimes you need a little help elsewhere to really fine tune your images.

Often, when you group your images and save as a picture, the outside border isn't ideal, and needs to be cropped.  I like to use PicMonkey. Its a free site, and lets me upload my image and crop it.  Bonus - I can resize my image to the exact width of my blog template. Blogger only has five size options for images - Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, and Original Size.  Sometimes, X-Large isn't  big enough to fill the post area.  Sometimes, Original Size is too big. So its nice to know how big your area is, and you can resize to that exact amount.

For me, my area is 801 pixels wide. So I use PicMonkey to resize my images to that width (and it automatically makes the height proportionate) so that when I insert my image as Original Size, its a perfect fit.

You might also enjoy doing random YouTube video and Google searches for other tips and tricks.  Through that, I've learned how to:

Add "tape" to my images -

Create a "page curling" effect - 

And so on.

Have fun! And if you come across anything cool, please come back and share with me!

OOTD: The years are short (as are my shorts)

Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of CapFABB, a DC-area fashion blogger organization. They do a ton of events in the area and I've been dying to get more involved and meet more local bloggers. They were holding an event with Front Row in Bethesda - a screening of The Tents, followed by a cocktail party. I made plans to drop Guinevere off with Tyler at work and continue heading up to Bethesda - solo - for a night of fashion and fun.

Once I picked Guinevere up from daycare and got her settled in her carseat, I asked her like I always do, "What did you do today?" Normally, she replies, "Look, a tree!" or something else completely unrelated. Yesterday, she told me about how she made noodle necklaces, but she couldn't eat the noodles. And kept telling me about how they played with these noodles, and how fun it was. 

I already knew what she'd done that day - daycare sends me pictures. Plus, I'd sent in the raw pasta noodles for the activity. But to hear my not-quite-two year old voluntarily telling me about what she'd done, so that I could understand - it was incredible. We had a conversation the entire way to Tyler's office, and it wasn't just me asking questions like, "What sound does a duck make?" so she could reply, "Quack!" - we talked about the trucks and buses that we passed on the highway, and about what she does at school, and a dozen of other things. 

And I realized - in three years, she will be re-telling her day in vivid detail, and perhaps I'll be annoyed or drift in and out of the conversation as she recalls every word exchanged with a friend. But in ten years? She won't be sharing..her day will be "fine". So when Guinevere and I parked to go meet Tyler, I realized - I don't want to miss any more of today. 

So I skipped it. We went to dinner as a family to Rio Grande (my favorite restaurant) and Guinevere was incredible. She was laughing and talking and SO well behaved. She ate all her food, devoured the salsa, and used her manners. We didn't have to pull out the iPad once. 

After dinner, we went to walk around, and ended up at the grassy area by the splash pad (which hadn't been turned on yet for summer) and Guinevere had a blast exploring and running around. Hearing that little voice call, "Come on, Mommy!" and tug at my hand so we could "Go on an adventure!!" - well, I made the right call. I needed to be with my family last night.

The years are short, right? I don't want to miss a second. There will be more fashion shows in the future.

On the bright side, I had my camera.  So, you know, outfit pics. Not many, since we had to snap and sprint after a busy toddler, but I felt pretty fancy for Reston ;)

| i use affiliate links |

Blazer: Target | Tee: Target | Shorts: H&M (similar) | Heels: Michael Antonio | Bag: Theit | Necklace: Target

Linking up with Two Thirty-Five Designs and Long Distance Loving.

Fake-me-out Photoshop, Part 1

Sometimes, I want to incorporate text and images for my posts. There are some free websites out there (like PicMonkey and iPiccy) that allow you some creativity, but the best looking images were clearly created in Photoshop. While I have an old version of Photoshop, I have no idea how to use it. So the graphics that I have made for my blog?

They're all from Microsoft PowerPoint.  I know. That program that very likely came F.R.E.E. on your computer.

I've had a lot of requests on how the heck to do this, so I thought I'd do a quick series of posts with some of my tips.

ETA: Part 2 is now up! Click here.

Obviously, this graphic was also made in PowerPoint.

First, to show you how legit this is, I glanced at my Pinterest homepage for some pins that stood out - and recreated them - in Microsoft PowerPoint! I didn't bother going to find exact fonts, and I used my own pictures, but you can see how the impact is really the same. Also? Each of these took me under 5 minutes to make.

Original pin here // My original post for these cupcakes here

Original pin here // My original post for this outfit here

Pretty impressive, right? It goes to show that you don't need expensive software to make professional content, pinnable images, and a pretty blog.  I did the cropping, the background removal, the rotation, the resizing, the grouping - ALL in PowerPoint.

Here we go! This post includes an introduction, a tutorial on cropping, a tutorial on adding shapes with text, and instructions on saving as a usable image.

1. Open PowerPoint. I'm using version 2010.

2. Add images. If you want to do a collage of images like I did last Saturday, you can simply right-click the image on a retailer's website, and paste them into PowerPoint.  Or, if you want to add images that you've saved locally:

• Click the "Insert" tab
• Click the "Picture" button
• Find the image you want 
• Click "Open"

You don't have to add all your pictures at once - you can add more later if using many.

Now, you can edit the images IN PowerPoint.  Awesome, right?!

To edit an image, double-click it. The "Format" tab will magically appear at the top of the page, and will open many different options.

Let's look at that up close:

You can:

• Remove a background (for example, if you paste an image from Target's website, and it has that white background behind it, but you want to layer the product over a shape or another product - you can edit that out!)
• Make corrections to the image (sharpen, soften, brighten, etc)
• Add artistic effects (I'd actually highly suggest you NOT use this feature - this is the childish pixelation or cartoons, etc)
• Add a frame/border/shadow
• Rotate, position and crop

I'll go through a few that I use the most often.

3. To crop:

• Double-click the image.
• The "Format" tab is now displayed, and at the far right is a "Crop" section. You can use the number boxes to enter an exact width or height, or you can click the "Crop" button to free-hand the crop (my preference)
• Click the "Crop" button
• The image will now have black bars in the corners and on the sides of the image

• Now, you can drag each bar into the picture to crop the image. 
• NOTE: Make sure that you only grab the black bar and NOT the little white round dots - those are meant to resize the image and will distort it. So be careful to only grab the black bar. If you make a mistake, you can click the "Undo" arrow in the upper left corner, or press the "Ctrl" button on your keyboard and then the letter "Z" (so a Ctrl+Z combo for those of you familiar with shortcuts) to also undo your last action.

• When the image is cropped how you want it, click the "Crop" button to confirm the crop, and remove the excess edges.

Ta da! My images are cropped. I can now drag them around to arrange them however I'd like, and continue on to add text, shapes, or anything else I need.

4. To add text shapes:

• When I do a collage of clothes, I like to have numbers to tell where an item is from underneath. When I do a collage such as the current example of my outfits in the May 30x30 challenge, I like to identify what day an outfit is from.
• Click the "Insert" tab.
• Click the "Shapes" button.
• You can select any shape you want. I'm a fan of circles.

• The circle is on your image, in a probably very ugly color and outline. That's okay, we're gonna change that.  
• First, re-size it to the size you want. You can do this by dragging those white dots in the outer corner to make it bigger, fatter, taller, etc.
• Double-click the shape to bring back that magical "Format" tab - but this time, the options are a little different.

This time, you can:

• Change the shape to a different one
• Change the style
• Change the color and outline
• Change the effects (such as a shadow or glow)
• Change the style of text
• Rotate and adjust size

You will start to develop your own personal preference for this. I like to remove the outline (see how in the image above, there is a darker blue outline around the circle? I don't like that), change the color, and change the transparency. That means, when I layer it over my image, you can faintly see the image behind it.

To remove the outline:

• Click "Shape Outline".
• Click "No Outline".
• Conversely, if you like the outline, you can change the color, the thickness (or "Weight"), change from a solid line to dashes or dots, etc.

Next, I want to change the color.

• Click "Shape Fill".
• Click "More Fill Colors".

NOTE: For this, you could have selected a standard color that is an option. I like to click "More Fill Colors" so I can pick a different color and edit the transparency at the same time.

• A pop-up window displays.
• There are two tabs - "Standard" and "Custom". I work from the default "Standard" and select the color I want.
• Then, I adjust the transparency. 0 is completely opaque, 100 is completely transparent - you'll want somewhere in between.

• Click "OK".
• Your shape is now the color you chose, and for me, slightly transparent. 
• Click inside the shape to move it to where you'd like it to go.

Next, I want to number my images.  

• Click the image to select it. You'll know its selected when there is an outline with white dots around it.
• Type your word or number!

• You can then adjust the size and font.
• Use your mouse to highlight the text.
• Then, use the "Font" menu to adjust the font, size, color, whether it is bold, underlined or italics. You can also make the text wider or add a shadow. I LOVE adding shadows to my text, I think it makes it stand out so much more.

TIP: See how my "25" is much larger, and pretty close to "Day"? It isn't actually text in the box. I used the steps above to edit "Day" then pressed the "Enter" key to make a space underneath. I then clicked "Insert", then "Text Box" and after editing to the same font/color/shadow, I moved it into place. I could have just typed it there after pressing the "Enter" key, but I didn't like how large the space was between the two, and wanted more control over positioning it.

Once you have the shape exactly as you want, you'll want to duplicate it three times for the other days!

• Right-click the shape.
• Click "Copy".
• Right-click another area of PowerPoint.
• Click "Paste".
• Now all you have to do is change the text (so for me, "25" to "26", etc) and move it into position!

Looks great, right?  Now you want to save it.

• First, you need to group all of these items together.
• The easiest way is to position your mouse on one corner of the PowerPoint slide, click and hold, and drag down and across until all of the items are selected (again - you can see outlines and those white dots).
• Then, release your mouse button to see them all selected.

• Right-click inside any selected shape or image to bring up an option menu. If you accidentally click outside a shape, you'll lose all of your selections, and need to drag over them again.
• Click "Group".
• A sub-menu appears - click "Group" again.

• Now, all of the items, text boxes, shapes and pictures are just one object! If you did it correctly, you only see one outline around everything, with only white dots in those corners.
• Right-click the object.
• Click "Save as Picture".
• Save image locally wherever you'd like.

You now have a .jpg or .png (or whatever other extension you choose) to upload and use on your blog!  

This now goes down as the longest blog post EVER - so I'm going to break it up here.

I'll be back later with a Part 2 with tips for all the "extra" pizzazz - like in my Pinterest rip-offs above ;)

ETA: Part 2 is now up! Click here :)

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So for Random Wednesday and Friday's Five.

May 30x30: Days 7-12

Week two of the 30x30 challenge!

Day 7:

| i use affiliate links - more item information in this post |

Tank | Skirt | Heels

Day 8:

Tank | Blazer | Pants | Heels

Day 9:

Jacket | Tank | Skirt | Sandals

Day 10:

Blouse | Shorts | Heels

Day 11:

Dress (similar) | Sandals

Day 12:

Jacket | Blouse | Jeans | Heels

My favorite this week was definitely day 7. Love those colors together!

Everything so far -

Linking up with Style Elixir, My Style Monday, and Real Girl Glam.

And don't forget to go visit the other incredible bloggers joining me in the challenge this month :)