S.F. / Cool Photo Editing Website

I spent an entire day in San Francisco again yesterday with a different group of friends this time. We explored around the BART Powel station's area. Good friends, fun shopping, good weather, yummy food...it was fun! I never get bored of walking in San Francisco, because everywhere I go, there is something worth taking a picture of. My friends made fun of me taking a bunch of pictures = being a stereotype of a Japanese tourist but I impressed them by telling them I hate sushi. Yay! My second time at Chinatown in S.F. We stumbled upon a tea store where we sat on the counter and had many kinds of free fresh tea. I forgot what the store was called, but it was a really fun experience, just because the performance of the people working there were really entertaining, and the quality of their tea was just excellent! Me and three monkeys. My friend Jennifer took this picture and I kinda like this one. I wish I could show you guys many more pictures from yesterday, but I put up so many pics from S.F. just a few days ago that I guess I shall move on to crafty talk now. -------------------------------------------------------- There is a blog that I really want you guys to stumble upon, if you thought the vintage patterns I showed last time were cute. And I know a lot of you did. This very sweet seamstress, Pam from have it all was so super nice to look for a picture of herself in the dress she made using one of the patterns in 1970 and share the beautiful shot on her blog. Take a look!!! There is nothing else that could encourage you to have a go at making the dress more, is there? I was absolutely stunned at the perfectly made dress and now am really feeling like making the same dress, before this summer is over. Thanks a lot, Pam, for inspirations! -------------------------------------------------------- Pink, Pink, and Pink. I am working on something, hoping it will turn nice.. I'll show you once I'm done with it. -------------------------------------------------------- Oh, there is one more place online I want to recommend. I found this Japanese photo editing website a while ago and thought it's just amazing. We know the power of what great pictures contribute to any blog. But not everybody has a photoshop software nor knows ways to edit pictures on photoshop. Then how about letting this site help you out? From this page, choose the one you're interested in trying and click on the left link in Japanese words. The rule is that any picture for editing has to be within 30 to 500 pixels in both height and width and the format needs to be either gif、jpg、or png. Also, the size of your picture needs to be smaller than 500KB. And I just found that it has be on Internet Explore 6.0 (not I.E.7.0 or Firefox) AND has to be used with Windows XP. A little too much restriction..I know.. but it does look interesting to play along, doesn't it? If you have everything needed, you might explore using the options given and this translation site might help if you really need to know what it says. I used Internet Explore 7.0, so not all the features worked for me, but some did like.... The original picture. Pink tapes on it using this! Made it in just green and black using this! With the same one, me and monkeys.. Thanks for reading!

How to eliminate the background in a photo

I was asked a couple times how I eliminate the background in a photo. It sure looks nice to do this when you take a shot of whatever craft you made with some ugly background like a messy room or something that could distract viewers' attention from the craft itself. The photoshop work for it is really simple! Many photoshop books have different methods for it, but I've come to find that this way that I am going to show works the best for me. So this is how I do.... In Adobe Photoshop CS series, there is Polygonal Lasso tool that allows you to make a selection in a photo which makes a straight line from a point to point. By making a point to point far away you can make a straight line whereas clicking many times on the line gives you more control in shaping the line. (Gosh, it's so tough to describe this. I'm sure you know what I mean once you try!) When the first point and the last point are in the same spot, the selection is made. You'll see the selection line being active. If you click Ctrl+Alt+D, this little window will be displayed. I usually set Feather Radius to be 1 pixel. The higher number you choose, the more blur the selection becomes. Just 1 px blur makes the finished cropped picture more realistic than the one feather radius not applied. Copy. Ctrl+N and OK. Paste. Ta-da!! You can just save this file in the format of Jpeg or Gif and upload on Flickr or blog or whatever. It's quite simple, isn't it? I know there are a ton more technical ways to do this with photoshop, but I'm pretty satisfied with this easy simple way;) ------------------------------------------------------------- Started working on a new project! I like the fabric chosen for this project, so I am excited! Doesn't it make a big difference when you really like the fabric you chose for some project and when you are working with fabrics that you actually don't enjoy that much? When you are making a gift or something, you might consider the preference of whoever you are giving your craft to, and you might have to choose fabrics you don't like as much. In other times you are absolutely free in your selection of fabrics and are able to pick whatever you like. It gives me a healthier crafting time when it's a latter case. And this time, I was able to come up with fabric choices that I love and I know who I am making this for will also love. I love it when this happens!! Thanks for reading!