“app” happy wednesday #26

Good morning! I’m so excited to have the amazing and talented Roxi Hardegree from Creating Beyond The Layers as a guest poster today. I’ve “known” Roxi for years … it goes way back (5 years) to the days when I was on the Creative Team at E-Scape and Scrap. Roxi is a designer and she was one of the designers whose products I always used – they’re so classy and beautiful.

Roxi tells me that she’s going to be featuring her favorite shots from 2014 throughout the month on her blog, so be sure to check that out.

So, without further ado – here’s Roxi!

Taking pictures has always been a part of my life. And I’m not such a purist that my iPhone photos now are exceeding the number I take with my Canon. You see, first, I’m an artist, then I’m a memory keeper.

I have a hard time ‘leaving a photo alone’, in its unedited form. Already having a Photoshop background, it was easy to go down the rabbit hole when mobile editing was made possible with apps. My first introduction to altered mobile photos was with Instagram. I shot and loaded my first photo in November 2011. I was sitting on the sofa and took a photo of the fireplace using the Instagram app, applied a filter and uploaded it. I turned to the left, snapped a picture of hubby and filtered him too. (They are the two best subjects for my experiments. My Hipstamatic roll is full of them. lol)

Soon after that I took a course on Snapseed and continue to use it on almost every photo. Besides knowing it like the back of my hand, it’s a great basic editing app with tons of extras.

My favorite style is textural edits. I’ve used DistressedFx a lot but my current favorite is Stackables. I usually play around adding layers but lately I’ve tried some of their formulas and then put my own twist on them.

A lot of my edits are ‘happy accidents’. I have very few ‘formulas’ I follow, except my watercolor/ink edits for example. But for the most part it’s play, play, play.

The best advice I can give is to pick one app, use it a lot, say for a week or two and get to know it real well. Even though I have well over 200 apps on my phone there are just a few that I seem to gravitate to, the ones I ‘know’.

• Hydrangea made with Stackables and Snapseed, self-portrait with Snapseed and Image Blender, Fall Watercolor made with Artomaton, iColorama and Image Blender.
• My current favourites: Snapseed, Stackables, PixlrExpress’ Picfx’ Mextures, DistressedFx, Hipstamatic, Superimpose, iColorama, VCSOcam.

OK, I literally gasped when I saw the images that Roxi sent me … stunning work isn’t it? Today I’m linking to an image I made after being inspired by these masterpieces (ahem, not in the same league here, but that’s quite alright).

If you are new to the party, this is a link-up to share your photos edited with “apps” of any kind! Let me stress there are no rules!! Just join the fun and share any kind of artsy creation.

Let’s see what you’ve been up to!

Use any “app” you like and perhaps explain how you used it.

• Did you use just one? Did you combine apps?
• Simply create some art. Post it on your blog or Flickr or wherever you are uploading your work, and then come back here and link it up!
• Visit a few friends to see what they are up to and perhaps learn some fabulous new tips and techniques.
• Spread the word about the link-up, the more the merrier!

Sorry … this series is closed.