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Adding Pattern Files to Photoshop Elements
Here’s a Tech Tuesday post about the ease of downloading pattern files to use in Photoshop Elements. It’s easy!
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100 Days Of Creativity
If you’re feeling a bit stuck and need a push to jump-start your creativity, take a read and see what we have to suggest!
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How To Obscure Faces in Photoshop Elements
We’re taking a little break from sewing to show you how to obscure faces in this Tech Tuesday post from Kris.
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Fabric And Steamers For Sale
Fabric and steamers for sale! Yes, we are selling our prepared-for-print fabric on bolts our vertical and stovetop steamers.
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Our “Home” Project: Reworking “Log Cabin Redux”
We’re sewing again! Take a peak at our latest project, which is actually an old piece we’ve torn apart! Find out the why of this latest project.
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Rosie Lee Tompkins and Her Velvet Dreams
Get yourself down to the Berkeley Art Museum soon to catch the amazing and inspiring Rosie Lee Tompkins exhibit! The exhibit ends July 18.
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Went To See Van Gogh, Got An Earful!
We are on the road again! Our first trip together since the pandemic was to San Francisco to see the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit.
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We Track Our Artwork on the GYST Cloud – Should You?
We’ve been tracking on our artwork with Gyst for years, and now we’re moving it to the cloud. Read on to see, if you should, too.
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Visit Katharine McCormick “Live” in San Diego!
California is open! Plan a visit to the Visions Museum in San Diego to see “Deeds Not Words” and our “Katharine McCormick: Making Her Mark.”
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Adding Brushes to Photoshop Elements
Today we’ll show you how to add some new brushes to Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, including a cool Keith Haring set of brushes.
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We’re Zooming! Join Us for 4 Women : 4 Stories
Please join us on June 8, 2021 at 4:30pm EDT (GMT/UTC -4) as we give our presentation called “4 Women : 4 Stories” for the Maryland-DC-West Virginia Region of SAQA.
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We’re Back In The Studio Again!!
Here’s a little taste of our first day back in the studio after our pandemic hiatus!
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Use the Difference Blend Mode to Match Things Up
Today the Pixeladies will show you how you can use the difference blend mode in Photoshop to match up different images. Ah, perfection!
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Pixeladies’ Student Art: Alison Becker & Masks
Recently a former student, Alison Becker of Berkeley, California USA, sent us the following email about her quilt on masks: Hi Deb and Kris,I have taken your Photoshop classes a couple of times and want to thank you so much for your inspiration…. I have been making masks for family and friends since the beginning…
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SAQA Spotlight Auction: Small Works, Small Prices, Great Art!
Looking for great art for a small price? Well, we’ve got a deal for you! We are currently at the annual SAQA conference, via Zoom, of course, and the Spotlight Auction has already begun. You do not have to be a SAQA member to bid. You just have to get a paddle and start bidding!…
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What To Look For In Fabric-Printing Companies
There are more and more fabric-printing companies out there to turn your digital designs into fabrics of many types. From cotton duck to silk organza, the sky is now the limit. We had written about fabric-printing companies for the SAQA Journal a few years back. Recently they asked us to revisit the topic again. The…
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Digitally Designing Scarves
Years ago, shortly after Pixeladies was born, Kris and I made scarves. Tons and tons of scarves. We took custom orders. We designed them in Photoshop. We printed them on china silk, georgette, and charmeuse. We even sewed the narrow rolled hems by hand. We always wore scarves when we were giving presentations. They were…
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Kick Your Digital Designing Up A Notch . . . Or Two!
Have you played with your photos in various phone or tablet apps? Have you created some drawings or abstract paintings on your phone or tablet? BUT, do you think there is more you could do with the piece? Do we have a class for you. Our Digital Designing class is starting soon. Using four principles…
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Artificial Intelligence, It Turns Out, Has Racial Bias, Too
We are teachers and users of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. So we appreciate the advancements in artificial intelligence and how it has improved our digital editing and organizing capabilities. We’ve written about Photoshop Elements’ artificial intelligence here and facial recognition here. It’s time for us to reevaluate implicit bias in the tools we use to…
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Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts Worth Memorizing!
Once you start working with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you soon realize that learning some keyboard shortcuts can really reduce your work time. The problem is there are so many shortcuts, that you don’t know where to start! Well, we have our favorites, so why don’t you start there? Where Can I Find Shortcuts? In…
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Create Text On A Path In Photoshop Elements
We thought we’d give you a little gift this week. It’s a lesson from our online digital design class about putting text on a path. You can see how we teach online. In our class, you receive a video lesson and a handout with each topic along with access to a classroom website to post…
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Go On A Magic Carpet Ride With Photoshop Blend Modes
Apologies to John Kay and Steppenwolf, but get ready to go on a magic carpet ride once you enter the world of blend modes. In the real world, if you have two sheets of paper stacked on top of each other, you usually see just the top layer. If the paper is thin, you might see…
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Join Us In Canada (Via Zoom!) For 3 Women : 3 Stories
Well, we can’t travel to Canada right now, but we can at least Zoom our way there! Please join us on Feb 24, 2021 at 4:00 pm PST as we give our presentation called “3 Women : 3 Stories” for the Region of York Quilters Guild. The cost is Canadian $7. Register for the event…
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Windows Ink, Writing Tablets & Photoshop Elements
Curses, Windows Ink! Every time we teach one of our classes, we inevitably have a student who, when working with a writing tablet, is unable to perform some of the actions in Photoshop Elements. (Many thanks to Laurel K. for the reminder!). We can often trace the issue back to Windows Ink, but since the…
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Logging Museum Memories Because We Miss Visiting Museums!
Oh to be able to go to visit a museum again! The last museum I (Deb) visited was the Crocker Art Museum on February 27, 2020. I thought I’d reminisce about one of the exhibits on display there. I hitched a ride downtown and took myself on a little art date. There was nothing special I…
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Rainbows, Books on Color, and Creating Color in Photoshop Elements
Are you interested in creating color? This is Kris with a confession. I registered for the Color Seminar offered by Studio Art Quilt Associates. It’s free for members. Let’s just say I am a big slacker because I haven’t created anything for class. But, the one thing this seminar has done for me so far…
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The Usefulness of Abstracted Image in Photoshop Elements
One of the things we teach in our Photoshop Elements Essentials classes is how to transform a photograph into a cartoon, or abstracted image that you can use as a pattern for creating a quilt or other collage. When you create a quilt pattern, separating the colors into shades of dark, medium, and light helps…
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Bernie Memes, Brendan Smialowski, And Copyright Laws
Well, Senator Bernie Sanders is making the rounds again. This time it’s in memes galore with his amazing handmade mittens at President Biden’s inauguration. So, what does Bernie Sanders have to do with Brendan Smialowski, and who is Brendan Smialowski anyway? Mr. Smialowski is the photographer who took the now iconic photo of Bernie Sanders at…
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Why Image Resolution Is So Important
Last week we alluded to the importance of image resolution for your creative output. You can read that post here. Today we want to show you how the use of different image resolutions creates effective results in Photoshop Elements. (The image above was created using the crosshatch filter on low-resolution image.) General Considerations Our students…
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Pixeladies’ Student Art: Chris Beardsley Masters Photoshop Elements
Here’s a new topic for us: student art. We have been teaching online for years—way before the start of the Coronovirus/Covid-19 pandemic. We certainly love online teaching, but one of the bad things about this format is that we rarely get to see the our students’ finished projects. Imagine our joy, then, when Chris Beardsley…