Florabella Textures Review, Tutorial and Giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. ANY ENTRIES MADE AFTER 11 pm EST WILL BE DELETED.

Winner was Holly, comment #298!

I love textures. Let me say that again….I love textures. Love them. Love. ♥

The very first textures I ever paid money for were from Florabella. I bought both her sets (that she had available at the time) and was extremely pleased with the purchase. They were unique, gorgeous, addictive. I could not find enough pictures to use the textures on. My sister finally had to say something to the extent of “I’m doing an intervention…Step away from the textures.” 😉

Over time I learned moderation, unwillingly. Still, I love textures. I have textures from many designers and have never been disappointed (yet). I have tried making them, but alas, mine all tend to look the same. So, instead of trying to make them, I will teach others how to use and love them. Shana from Florabella has the gift of making them, and I have the gift of getting others addicted. In other words, she needs me (please don’t burst my bubble).

Alright, let’s get down to the business of me showing you my infatuation with her recent texture set that just came out yesterday. I *heart* them more than I could have imagined. If you can buy only one of her texture sets, get set III. Seriously.

Here is picture I took yesterday of a bush while my kids were at Karate (I’m tired of photographing kids). Seriously drab but had potential, I thought.

To edit, I decide that textures are going to be what I use to enhance this photograph. I did ONE levels adjustment, bringing in the black slider a good bit, and the white just a tad. Then I flattened and brought in THREE textures from Florabella’s texture set III.

I changed the blend modes, trying various ones to see what effect it would have. If you are unsure about blend modes, here are some I enjoy using with textures:

• Multiply
• Color Dodge
• Overlay
• Soft Light
• Hard Light

When adding textures I go through the following process:

• Size it to fit the picture
• Change the blend mode until I find what I am looking for
• Lower the layer opacity to suit the image
• Add a layer mask and use soft, black brush at low opacity and brush texture off some areas
• Add a blur to the texture if I want to keep the hues but lose some of the texture

After adding three textures, playing with blend modes and tweaking as I listed above, here is the resulting image:

If you would like to see a before and after side-by-side, here you go:

Is that not an amazing transformation, just by adding a few texture layers? I love textures (no, I have not said it enough yet).

Oh, hey, did you notice in the post title that I mentioned something about a giveaway? Shana is graciously and very generously allowing me to giveaway a $100 gift card to her shop. Yes, that was $100! What an awesome spending spree someone is going to enjoy! Oh, the actions (drooling over her Luxe sets) and the textures. You really cannot go wrong with anything she offers.

Giveaway Specifics:

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment telling me how you heard about this giveaway (Facebook, blog reader, Twitter, Clickin Moms, Rock the Shot, etc.).

Extra entries can be earned by doing one or more of the following:

• “Like” Florabella on Facebook
• “Like” Everyday Elements on Facebook

If you are already fans of one or both of those pages, be sure to leave a comment stating such. To recap, you can earn up to three entries: one with your answer, one for Florabella’s page, one for liking Everyday Elements’ page.

Giveaway ends on Friday, February 25th at 11 PM EST. Winner will be chosen via Random.org and will have one week to claim the prize, after which another winner will be chosen.