Friday, June 21, 2013

Vacation Bible School - and Sprucing Up Silly "Glamour" Shots With the Gimp

This last week I've been helping our church do VBS.  The theme:  Rome, Paul and the Early Church.  We do something like this every year...decorate our church like a Biblical city, dress up, and reinact a story.  I always have fun the the "marketplace" doing semi-period crafts from that time and place with the kids, while playing a character from that time.  Very fun.

We'll, I took a few shots of myself in silly/fun poses in the mirror in my garb...but of course the background is none too pretty there  (see below) ...so I had some fun with the picture in the Gimp.  Here's how it came out.


Pretty snazzy, I think.  First I changed the canvas size, and added an extra layer under the main picture, which I colored the same green as the stalls (using the dropper tool to grab the green color), then merged the two layers   I then used the clone tool to take out the strong lines, and used the smudge tool to make the smokey clouds (using circular motions with the mouse.)  I also dragged the dress down with the smudge tool into the bottom layor.    What a difference-- looks so much better without the bathroom stalls and glare.  I suppose I could try to remove my glasses...but that's a much harder project.


Pretty cool transformation  huh?  

Speaking of transformation, want to see how we transformed our church?  Here's some pictures...


Two volunteers dressed as statues during the week.  So cool. 


Entering into Rome
(this covered up a table)


Our Marketplace/Forum
where we had crafts, dramas, and worship.


Basket Weaving Shop.
There were several baskets for the kids to work
on, which will filled with baby stuff at the end of the week
to take to a local ministry.


Me in front of my Toga/Wreath Shop


Our Fountain (one of them).  
We have some talented artistsat our church!


Some of our volunteers really did some 
fancy hairstyles for this.


Another of our "Statues"

Fun, fun week.   The kids had so much fun.





Shared on...
Throwback Thursday

Thursday, June 6, 2013

"Stolen" Giveaways in June

The giveaways below aren't technically "mine," but since I sell through CafePress  and Zazzle anyone who won these could use their winnings to buy things from my shops at Zazzle and CafePress (they could...of course they wouldn't have to).  

$25 CarePress Cift Card at HSU Super Parents (6/5)

Various Father's Day Gifs Including CafePress Gift Card (6/19)