Want to add some pizazz to your pictures? Try exploring with textures, layer styles and layer masks! This last year, I wanted to give my mom something unique and from the heart so with a little thought I came up with this. It is a photo of my daughter with a several overlays including a handwritten letter where I was able to tell my mom all wonderful reasons why I loved her, but just my lips just couldn’t say.

This is where I started, with an image of my daughter, that I pumped up with my Editorial Action that will be coming out in my Chromo Color Collection of Actions that will be debuting at the end of this month.

When I used the layer of flower petals as an overlay, I then used my layer pallet, erased so my daughter’s face would stand out and lowered the overall opacity to 37% with a normal layer style.

Next, I added the letter I had written as a new layer with  100% opacity and set the layer style of luminosity which kept my color from fading too much.

And last, I made a border, set the color to keep within the color palette of the picture and set the opacity at 58%. And so the final result turned out like this.It was a simple easy project that was meaningful for three generations of women. My mom and daughter were thrilled, and personally so was I.

If you don’t know how to add textures, use your layer palette or use layer masks, this video is for you. It was designed for those who use Elements and Photoshop. It’s a ten minute tutorial packed with information that will walk you through step by step so you can create projects like this and allow you to take your images to the next level.