Thursday, February 21, 2013

Original Gifts for Mom, New Mothers and Mothers-to-be

I so enjoy giving my mom unique gifts I have created. One of the things we both like: She can ask for and get custom created pieces for her house, and I get to create them! Below are some of my favorites for Mom or Moms-to-be.

Cute Folk Butterflies and Flowers Blank Card

Cute Folk Butterflies and Flowers Blank Card by Visages
Create card designs on Zazzle

Western Cowboy Boots in Sepia Drink Coasters

Western Cowboy Boots in Sepia Drink Coasters by Visages
More Cowboy Cork Coasters

Cute Country Folk Flowers Mushrooms and Bumble Bees Coaster

Cute Country Folk Flowers Mushrooms and Butterfles Coaster by Visages
Create a personalized coaster on Zazzle.

Monarch Butterfly on White Lilac Flower Bush Blank Greeting Cards

Monarch Butterfly on White Lilac Flower Bush Blank Greeting Cards by Visages
Look at Monarch Cards online at Zazzle.com

Bumble Bee Cherry Pink Heart Baby Supplies Canvas Bag

Bumble Bee Cherry Pink Heart Baby Supplies Canvas Bag by Visages
Design a custom beach bag at Zazzle

Big Brother Bumble Bee Cherry Blue Heart T-shirt

Big Brother Bumble Bee Cherry Blue Heart T-shirt by Visages
See other Big brother T-Shirts at zazzle

Monarch Butterfly on White Lilac Flower Bush iPhone 4 Case

Monarch Butterfly on White Lilac Flower Bush iPhone 4 Case by Visages
Browse more cases for iPhone 5 at zazzle.com

Cute Bumble Bees Flower Country Thank You Greeting Card

Cute Bumble Bees Flower Country Thank You Greeting Card by Visages
Create unique personalized photo note cards from zazzle.com.

Country Bees and Flowers Nursery Rhyme Poster for Baby Girl

Country Bees and Flowers Nursery Rhyme Poster by Visages
View more Bumblebee Posters at zazzle.com

Country Bees and Flowers Nursery Rhyme Poster for Baby Boy

Country Bees and Flowers Nursery Rhyme Poster by Visages
Look for more office art at zazzle.com

Sage Green and Gold Leaves Place Mats

Sage Green and Gold Leaves Place Mats by Visages
View more placemats.

Funny Vintage Retro Cartoon Comic Cook's Apron

Funny Vintage Retro Cartoon Comic Cook's by Visages
Make your own personalized apron from Zazzle.

Mom, I Love You Pink Flowers Acrylic Award Block

Mom, I Love You Pink Flowers by Visages
Browse more Pink Awards

Best Mother Ever Pink Flower Background Acrylic Award Block

Best Mother Ever Pink Flower Background by Visages
View more Best mom Awards at zazzle.com

Pattern Turquoise Black Messenger Bags

Pattern Turquoise Black Messenger Bags by Visages
Shop for more Rickshaw messenger bags.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Turn a Color Photograph into a Black and White Drawing

Using Gimp software, turn a color photo into black and white It's even more interesting to turn it into black and white line art.

Lets begin:

Open your picture in Gimp. Crop it getting rid of extra image you don't want.

I ALWAYS duplicate the image and close the original in the event I screw up in some capacity.

Next, desaturate the duplicate image.

This image shows desaturation using the "lightness" setting.

This setting is "luminosity" which is what I chose.

I change the brightness and contrast to make the darks black and the lights white.

Now remove the background. Use what works best for you. Sometimes I use the eraser while other times I use one of the selection tools.

Now you have the option of selecting the flower then copying and pasting it onto a transparent background thus removing the white background as in the example below.

With it pasted onto a transparent background, I sometimes take the opportunity to adjust the black and white levels a bit more.

You can see this is a different example and not all of the background is removed.

For speed's sake, I simply wanted to show you what the black and white drawing can look like.

It takes me a good part of the day to complete one black and white line art.

Examples of ways to use your line art are below:

Ferret picture clock

Cute Ferret Picture Clocks by Visages
Look at more Clocks online at Zazzle

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Personalize Gifts & Cards to be Unique

Here are some great personalized gift and card ideas.

Teddy Bear: Know someone who's having a baby or had a baby? Why not give them baby announcements. The shower invitation (pictured) wording can be changed to suit your needs.

Teddy Bear Baby Custom Invitations by Visages
View other Black Invitations

Garden Fairy: Change the messages on both the outside and inside to create your own unique card. You can even change the size of the card.

Garden Fairy Folk Art Birthday Greeting Card by Visages
Create cards on zazzle.

Spring Daisy Flowers & Butterflies Mother's Day Card

Butterflies: This card says "Happy Mother's Day" but you can alter the message. Change it to "We're moving" then give a box to someone as a going away gift.

Use it for an invitation to a house warming...

Spring Daisy Flowers & Butterflies Mother's Day Card by Visages
Create personalized cards online at Zazzle.

Owls: Personalize this spiral notebook with a message of your own. Makes a great birthday gift.

Who da Man? 3 Retro Colored Owls Spiral Note Books by Visages
More Red Notebooks

Schipperke cell phone case: Here's a great gift for a schipperke owner. Great for birthdays...

Schipperke Picture Iphone 4 Cover by Visages
Personalize iPhone case designs online.

Flowers and Bees Poster: Personalize this poster then give as a baby shower gift or birthday to your granddaughter.

Cute Country Bees to Personalize Poster by Visages
See other Bumblebees Posters

Crazy Aunt Tee: This popular T shirt will bring a smile to anyone. Give to yourself or your own crazy aunt.

The Crazy Aunt Tees by Visages
Make t shirts at zazzle.com.

Blue and Black Stripes, Polka Dots: Add a photo and change the text then give as a baby shower gift or baby announcement. Add a book of stamps to complete a perfect gift for the new mom and dad.

Blue Stripes & Dots Birth Announcement

Card Photo Card Template by Visages
See more Baby boy Photo Cards

Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Crazy Aunt

The crazy aunt... Who is she? Does every family have one? What does she look like?

The crazy aunt is the odd sister or great aunt. Just a tad goofy and maybe laughs a little too much. She's the loud mouth, baby-talking nut who goes into a tirade of ootsie, cutsie, cootchie-cootchie-coo foolishness over the new baby and keeps it up until the baby is well into his or her thirties.

"Look at that adorable, itty bitty face. Aren't you just so cute?" she demands of the new baby.

Then it is here she pokes her husband or boyfriend - who is enduring the first viewing of the infant - in the ribs. "Just look at that eensie, weensie version of (sister's or brother's name)." she demands of the husband or boyfriend who rolls his eyes.

"Awwwww... did you see that? The baby yawned. How adorrrrrrable!"

"Ooodie, woodie, boodie, scootie, bee bee bee...," might be the gibberish dripping through the aunt's pursed lips as she wiggles and curls a finger in the baby's face. Again, the husband or boyfriend rolls his eyes while the crazy gal's sister or brother glows with pride.

Whether every family has one is anybody's guess. Probably not, is mine although I have an inkling they are more common than I could imagine. Or perhaps there's a crazy uncle, grandma or grandpa in the family rather than an aunt.

Pull Quote

"Crazy aunts are no threat

to themselves,

the children

or parents..."

As for her looks, my imagination runs rampant here. Bouffant hair, ruby red lips and blazing blue eye-shadow come to mind but I'm from the fifties and that look is far outdated. Maybe she wears black and pink polka dots or zebra stripes, stiletto heels, has her hair cut short which she keeps in place with $20 hair spray, uses black fingernail polish and lip stick. In appearance, she's the opposite of her sister (or brother) who wears khaki pants or shorts and deck shoes or maybe flip-flops; someone I would pass on the sidewalk with but one glance and certainly not another.

Growing up, I had a crazy great aunt but hers was a sad story; driven to slight madness from tragedy in her life. She wasn't anything like the above description. Far from it, in fact. In Midwestern terms, I'd call her titched which I don't believe to be a word but we use it anyway as we squint an eye and tap our temple. Wink, wink... You know what I mean. Don't get me wrong. I'm not making fun of her, I'm only sayin'...

My best friend of nearly 32 years got a bit silly when around my kids when they were infants. Not much, just a little bit. The normal stuff, if you know what I mean. "Awwws" and "oooos" erupted from her mouth on occasion but she was more prone to helping them commit crimes (breaking household rules, that is) than she was to utter gibberish. Still, had I thought of it I would have given her a T-shirt with writing on it that said, "The Crazy God-mother". She'd have loved it.

But one has to have patience with them. Crazy aunts are no threat to themselves, the children or parents, and the memories the child or children will have of their crazy aunt (uncle, grandmother, or grandfather) will give them something to talk about for the rest of their lives. In fact, you might want to encourage the eccentric behavior just for that very reason because - face it - one day that kid is going to act a little loony once he or she is in their teens. Teen years give rise to the age old question: Are they clinically insane?

What better pay back?

LINKS:
Enjoy George Lopez Crazy Aunts

Crazy Aunt Makes Her Niece Laugh

Crazy Grandma

Read Ryan Seacrest's

10 Types of Awkward Family Members & How To Deal with Them

The Addams Family: The Kooky Collection Volume 1, Ep. 1 "The Addams Family Goes To School"

See The Crazy Aunt T-shirts at Visages Gift Store in cooperation with Zazzle.com.

The Crazy Aunt by Visages
Design your own t-shirts on zazzle.

The Crazy Aunt by Visages
Make t shirts on line at zazzle.com

The Crazy Aunt by Visages
Create unique custom printed t-shirts on zazzle.

The Crazy Aunt by Visages
View other Humor T-Shirts

The Crazy Aunt by Visages
Make a custom print t-shirt at zazzle.com.

Recipe search

using the word

"crazy"

Aunt Alta's Crazy Crust (Pizza) Recipe?

Crazy Cake (AUNT ELLIES'S) Recipe

Crazy Snicker's Salad (from Aunt Peg's Recipe Box)

See more baby-related gifts at Visages Gift Store

Friday, April 6, 2012

New Gift Items at Visages

April brings butterflies, tulips and a rag doll to Visages.

The butterfly - an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - was photographed right here in my own back yard where a lilac bush was in full blossom. Evening light softened the image allowing for a romantic feel.

The tulip photos were taken at a neighborhood house owned by an elderly couple who graciously allowed me on their property to shoot their flowers. The misses of the house lamented, however, "I wish you had come here a week ago when they were prettier. They're on their way out now." Ah, but they were still gorgeous.

The colorful primitive folk art rag doll I drew in pencil then scanned into the computer where I digitally gave it color and life. I originally called her Rag Doll with a Secret but is just as easily throwing a kiss. You'll find the art on a card. Very appropriate, I think.

You'll also find these three featured designs on coasters, necklaces, gel mouse pads and a whole lot more.