New Look

What is it about changing your look that seems to change your outlook on life? Whether it's my hairstyle, a new outfit, or a new blog header, I just like to change it up every once in a while. Maybe it comes from growing up in a military family; I just need a little change once in a while for my life to be complete.

This week's change: a new blog header and background!

For those of you interested in Photoshop here's how I made the header:

First after a bit of cloning in the corner, I copied the image (a photo taken by my husband) onto a new layer.

Here's the original unaltered photo:


I changed the levels on the top layer to make the lights lighter and the darks darker. Next, I colorized the layer to make it kind of golden. Then, I changed the blending mode to "multiply." The image ended up being a little dark so I changed the bottom layer's levels and brightness to make it a little lighter.

For the distressing, I used this tutorial. It comes with supporting files that I have used over and over! They are fantastic. I did make one change to the tutorial. I kept the blending mode as "normal" and then changed the opacity instead of changing the mode to "overlay." The folds just seemed to disappear when I used "overlay."

I got the background image from some site...over the summer sometime. I'm sorry, I can't remember where. I fell in love with it and saved it, but hadn't had found the right layout to use it with until now.