Simply Kelly Designs

Photoshop Elements 10: Blur Photo Background

Posted by Kelly on May 16, 2012 at 7:00 AM 4 Responses »

May 162012

One effect that I use to add some punch to my photos is to blur the background to give my subject more focus. I often use this method on photos that have a busy background like this one.

The before photo on the right has a busy background. The after photo still has the same busy background but the background is blurred so the subjects pop in the photo. The process to create this effect is simple and consists of just a few easy steps involving a selection and a Gaussian blur in Photoshop Elements 10.

If you cannot see the embedded video, click here to see it on YouTube.com.

Now try to give one of your photos a pop using this method!

Personal Yearbook Comes Home

Posted by Kelly on May 14, 2012 at 1:36 PM 4 Responses »

May 142012

Today was the last day for Kara’s teacher at school. She will be gone for the last 2 days of school and pre-K graduation on Thursday. Mrs. Moore is an exceptional teacher and she has prepared Kara and her classmates well for kindergarten. The class had a goodbye party for Mrs. Moore today and one of the activities involved the personal yearbook that I worked on with the students all year. Each student received their finished yearbook and discussed which [more]

Mother’s Day Layout Inspiration

Posted by Kelly on May 14, 2012 at 7:58 AM 2 Responses »

May 142012

Last week I attended two separate Mother’s Day events at preschool with my kids. First was Colin’s Muffins with Mom breakfast. I was so surprised by the flower pot that Colin made for me. His teacher told me that he planted the flowers and painted the pot himself. They also made the butterfly out of his hand prints to decorate the flowers. Colin loves it when I am in his classroom so I got lots of hugs and kisses too! [more]

1st Disney Visit

Posted by Kelly on May 12, 2012 at 7:33 AM No Responses »

May 122012

I have the honor of being a guest creative team member for Connie Prince this month. She has a cute Disney themed kit name My Happy Place so it was only natural for me to use it and my 15 Photo Layered Template No. 2 to scrap my children’s first trip to Disney. Every kid has to enjoy a chocolate mickey ice cream bar on their first visit to Disney right? My favorite moments of the day were when my [more]

Teacher Appreciation Scrapbooks

Posted by Kelly on May 7, 2012 at 7:49 AM 2 Responses »

May 072012

I assembled these 8×8 albums on National Scrapbook Day this past Saturday. The four black albums are for my children’s teachers and the purple and red albums are pre-K graduation gifts for my daughter’s best friends. All six albums contain a total of 140 scrapbook layouts. All the fun started with the arrival of the 8×8 photographic prints from Persnickety Prints. I only use Persnickey Prints to print all my layouts because of their great quality and customer service. This [more]

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