Vintage Val's Hunt for the Perfect Christmas Tree

Vintage Val is back for her Christmas adventure!

This year, she visits a pine forest in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

Since this year, I challenged myself to composite all my Christmas portraits

into Winter Wonderland Christmas Card scenes...

I wanted to do the same with Val.

Thus, we shot everything in front of my famous white board on my back porch!

Fortunately, we were able to accomplish this one day before we had a big

snow storm!   

I figured out the story line and decided to use background

photos I took in a pine forest last winter.

I had each photo carefully thought out, so I could photograph Val at the

perfect angles to fit the scenes.

Quite an ambitious project...but OH, SO FUN!

You can see the props on my grill!

The beautiful red furry coat was on loan from my friend Terri.

I sewed the hat using fake fur from another hat!

Here's the story of

Vintage Val's Christmas Tree Adventure

Val leaving her Christmasy home to hunt for a Christmas tree!

Only Vintage Val would have a car to match Christmas!

My father-in-law's vintage saw!

My husband's boyhood red racer sled!

I photographed the red vintage car at an antique car show!

My red ladder I found at Goodwill!

Vintage Val and I wish you the happiest holidays EVER!

Creating Santa's Arm Photos

I have always loved the charming photos with Santa's arm, 

but didn't want to purchase a Santa suit to create them.

A few weeks ago, I had a FLASH vision!

In my mind, I saw one of those cheapy Christmas stockings

with the toe cut off and an arm through the top...

Instant Santa arm!!!

When I get these visions, I am on a mission to

accomplish what I saw, so I hurried over to Goodwill and

found one of the red fake fur stockings for 49-cents!

I used a vintage cotton white glove that are readily available 

at most thrift stores, but you could also use a simple

white knit glove available at a dollar store as pictured.

Then I invited my photo pals Lucy and Terri to come over

and play Santa!

We used lots of mugs and fun Christmas props I picked up 

at various thrift stores for a few bucks.

We were laughing so hard and having a great time with Santa's arm!

Try setting up on a table with your Christmas tree in 

the distance to create glittery bokeh in the background!

Try putting your kids' names on the naughty or nice list. 

I think this would be a fun project with the kids!

Maybe have Santa's arm interacting with the children, handing them

some candy or a present.

Terri thought of creating a naughty or nice list for pets!

How CUTE!!!

Terri also had the idea to have Santa's hand patting her

pup's head!

There are endless ideas for photographing Santa's arm

making it personal to you and your home!

I hope this sparks your imagination to come up with

even more fun poses!

If you do this project...post your results on my Facebook page and

I will share them!

I hope you have as much fun as we did!!

How to Make Christmas Bulbs in Photoshop

This photo looks like a beautiful, sparkly glass Christmas bulb!

But, I actually created it in Photoshop from this photo I took

at our town's Festival of Trees:

This technique is so fast and easy, I couldn't stop making them!

The original photo is below each bulb.

To create these masterpiece Christmas bulbs you only need to follow

four very simple steps in Photoshop!

Open the photo you want to use in Photoshop.

1.  FILTER-DISTORT-POLAR COORDINATES click on: POLAR TO RECTANGULAR

2. IMAGE- IMAGE ROTATION-180 DEGREES

3.  IMAGE- IMAGE SIZE.  Unclick: "constrain proportions".  Now, change the pixels of 

the longest side of your photo to match your shortest. (You are making it into a square.)

4.  FILTER-DISTORT-POLAR COORDINATES-RECTANGULAR TO POLAR

You will LOVE seeing the finished bulb that you created

so quickly and simply!

Photoshop applies the coordinating background during the process.

Try the technique with other photos, like I did with this

summer still-life.

Flowers work especially well with this technique!

Have a blast with this fun technique!