Learning from Lillias : )

Helen,

just WOW!!!!

Thanks, Frank. Thanks, teach! So here's something odd. I printed this for my granddaughter as she loved it....but it didn't even size to 8x10. Sooooo I thought that I would see if Gigapixels could enlarge it.
However, even though I can open it in photoshop and save it....and have PRINTED it......when I take that same picture from my desktop and bring it into Gigapixels.....I get this.





I obviously did something wrong when saving the image....saved as a tif.

Another WOW from me, Helen.

Lillias - give yourself a pat on the back.

Here ya go, Judy.

After I cut her out , I created a new layer and filled it with black and moved it beneath her.

I chose the blue color from her leotard and used it for the brushes adjusting opacity.
The important thing was to keep each brush stroke on a different layer.....some beneath her and some above.
The brush angle on each layer can be adjusted using free transform.
I remember using a gradient on one of the brush layers.....that's what introduced the orange color.
When I was happy with the placement I believe I merged the layers before using the rectangular marquee tool to draw out the placement of the
rectangle but then created a new layer to add the white stroke.  This allowed me to use a mask to remove the frame from
her feet and hands.

The font used was Capture it 2 which I downloaded for free.

I love these smoke brushes that I purchased from Ashe Design.  Notice that for $19.99 you can choose whatever you want from this site for one month.

But there are many free smoke brushes offered here. 

While Lillias has introduced me to creating scrapbook type pages, using brushes, keeping everything on its own layer, using free transform to adjust brush strokes, the one fact that she stresses is to save your creation in PSD format
to preserve the layers.   I didn't do that with this page as I felt it was finished.  However, when I shared it with a group that I'm in someone suggested changing the paint on her leg.....if I had kept the layers
that would have been easily accomplished.  

Hope that helps.  If you have any questions post back and I'll see if I can help.

Great work flow Helen - if I can just make a small point – before merging your layers you could have created your white frame and placed it below your subject and doing it that way you wouldn’t have needed to mask it and delete the parts covering her hands and feet. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with the way you did it and in some situations that would be the best way to do it.

And you are correct – I do bang on about saving your creation in PSD format to preserve the layers….LOL and I do that for obvious reasons. I also save as a jpg when I’m finished and if I am happy then the PSD file can be deleted – not that I delete mine – I save them on EHD’s. Having put so much time and effort into putting my pages together deleting them goes against the grain somehow, but that’s probably just me...

Helen, like Lillias, I also save all .psd files so I can go back and check the layers to see how I created an effect in case I can't remember after a while.
I also saved your above work flow to my Examples folder. You did a fabulous job.

Rita

Helen,
That is very cool. Love it! 
Clive