Happy Holidays! Word 2010 as my Art Studio

Wishing you all the best for the Holiday season and the Coming Year!

This card has been in the works for well over a year. Last December I prepared decorations as I remember them from way back in Europe some seven decades ago: Home-made cookies and candy and real candles, of course.

Then came the photo session. The shot I finally settled on was this: You can see some of my set and how the lights were set up. File conversion, touch-up and cropping was done in Windows Live Photo Gallery. For the final picture editing and manipulation, I used Microsoft Office Word 2010 and the marvelous Picture Tools it provides. The image was converted using Artistic effects – Cutout, set to 6 shades. I added three shapes – a black box to define the background, a gradient for the glow around the candle and a four-point star for the light spikes. It is nice how images can be stacked with specific colors picked as the transparent layer. Cropping and the greeting text, with Text effects applied, finished it to my satisfaction. 

Sure, I have image editing programs that can do all that, and better. But I enjoyed using the simple tools in Word, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Paint, to create just what I wanted to share with you. We all enjoy making and receiving home-made gifts. This one I made for you!

Technorati Tags: Photography,photos,digital pictures,digital imaging,image effects,Windows Live,Windows Live Photo Gallery,Microsoft Word 2010,Paint,text effects

 

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, story, Photography, photos, digital pictures, digital imaging, image effects, Windows Live, Photo Gallery, Microsoft Word 2010, Paint, text effects