The beauty of summer's end

It's been a satisfying day at the computer. I managed to complete a full backup, install the newest version of iTunes, do an Adobe update and still had time for some creativity. I took an older photograph of my garden plus a texture plus a clipping mask and turned it into what you see above. You can do it too. Here's how.

First, you'll need a photograph. Flowers are nice, if you have 'em. Next, you'll need one of Marie Otero's excellent textures. Finally, one of my clipping masks. Open up photoshop, edit your photo any way you want, apply the texture of your choice (I used "Grunge Paint", using the Overlay blending mode at 80% opacity on one layer then the same texture on a new layer, using the Color Burn blending mode at 60% opacity), then lastly, apply the clipping mask (I chose "beautiful" from my sampler #1). My last step was to add an inner shadow to the clipping mask layer, merely to make the word "beautiful" stand out. And that's it.

Like I said, you can do it too. I hope you try!