Scripture Design from Scratch | Graphics Design

A few weeks ago, you may have seen this Scripture graphics design.
When I did it, I decided to screenshot the process so I could share with you–and hopefully you can get some ideas to do your own Scripture designs.
The program I used was Photoshop Elements 10.
First, I create a 4×4″ blank file (resolution at 500 pixels). Then, I dragged an image I had onto it.
I like to use random images for my background–they give creative textures. For this one, I went to Filter>Gaussian Blur.
I did a serious blur on this (106.8 pixels).
Next step: I copied the verse and pasted it onto the file.
I “took apart” the verse, enlarging the key words of the verse. This gave me a lot of text layers to work with.
This next step could have been done before or after, but I did it now. I had gotten a color palette idea from Pinterest. I don’t usually do this, but I wanted something different than my “earth tones” that I default to.
With my color grabber, I selected the purple.
Copying this purple color to my working page, I then grabbed the color replacement took (right click your paintbrush).
Selecting my background layer (lower right corner where it says “Layer 1”), I colored over the background this purple color.
Going back to the color palette, I chose some colors for text. The first color: orange.
I put all of my key words in font Windsong and changed the font color of those words to orange.
Second font color: green.
As you can see, I decided to swap my font colors. 🙂 Green was a better key-word font and orange for the smaller words, in my opinion.
I didn’t want the background quite so bold, so I lowered the opacity of the background to 70% (lower left corner).
Right-clicking the fonts, I decided to add a drop shadow to make it pop from the background.
The only change I made was bringing the size up to 10 (from 5). I did this with all of the text.
Changed my reference color (whoops — forgot about that earlier).
Began tweaking the placement of all of the text.
Decided for the simple text to be in italics (Times New Roman font).
More placement tweaking.
And then I decided that the orange was a little too bright for my preference, so I dragged the color down to have a little more peachy-grey tones.
Added my blog site and voila! Here you have it.
Have you ever designed a Scripture graphics? Is it online somewhere that I can see it? If so, leave a link in the comment and I’ll check it out!
If you’ve not done one, and you have a program to DO one, here’s your assignment for next week: find a verse and create a graphics! (simple ;))

Playing the Part | Book Review

About the Book

Lucetta Plum is an actress on the rise in New York City, but is forced to abandon her starring role when a fan’s interest turns threatening. Lucetta’s widowed friend, Abigail Hart, is delighted at the opportunity to meddle in Lucetta’s life and promptly whisks her away to her grandson’s estate to hide out.

Bram Haverstein may appear to simply be a somewhat eccentric gentleman of means, but a mysterious career and a secret fascination with a certain actress mean there’s much more to him than society knows.

Lucetta, who has no interest in Abigail’s matchmaking machinations, has the best intentions of remaining cordial but coolly distant to Bram. But when she can’t ignore the strange and mysterious things going on in his house, it’ll take more than good intentions to keep her from trying to discover who Bram is behind the part he plays.

My Review
3.5 stars

Lucetta is a famous actress…but she is not on stage for almost the entire book as a sudden threat enters the scene in the first chapter. Abigail is certain that her grandson’s castle is the fortress to protect Lucetta, but the day she arrives, Lucetta is almost killed several times. Is the castle truly going to keep her safe?

What I liked:
The style so had me laughing! Mrs. Turano certainly has a gift when it comes to witty scenes and just making them humorous. The story kept a steady pace moving forward.

What I didn’t like:
There were a few things that could have been left out–like the description of Lucetta’s clothing when she was running from the goat. The scene would have been complete without drawing our minds to how her dress slipped when she wasn’t paying attention. Also, I can hardly consider this a Christian book, according to my standard. God was mentioned 3-4 times and then it was only in passing or a character realizing that their relationship with God wasn’t as it should be. No continuing spiritual theme could be seen in this book.

It’s not a book that I WOULDN’T recommend…it was indeed enjoyable. I just don’t wholeheartedly endorse it as a spiritually edifying book.

*I received this book from LitFuse in exchange for my honest review*

Purchase a copy: http://bit.ly/1RQM4QD

About the author:


Jen Turano, author of the Ladies of Distinction series and the A Class of Their Own series, is a graduate of the University of Akron. She is a member of ACFW and lives in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.

Website | Facebook 


Enter a giveaway for Playing the Part on LitFuse!

Learn more about this blog tour here.

The Path to a Modest Lifestyle | Book Review



About the Book

When you’re obeying His commands and serving the Lord there is a certain satisfaction that you feel. Serving Him brings you great joy and pride. But what about giving yourself and your life to Him entirely? In giving Him your life, that includes giving Him your appearance, your attitude and your heart’s desire. You are a daughter of the one true King. It’s time to step into the life that God has meant for you to live; one filled with confidence in your natural beauty and grace. Let His glory shine through you, bringing His light to the world. Within these pages you’ll learn to unlock your natural beauty that God has given you.


My Review

This is a short and easy book to read (I read it while getting distracted from editing a book ;)), but I enjoyed every minute of it. Amanda covers a lot of ground in a few short words–from accepting the body God has made you in to embracing the role of womanhood.

Not only does Amanda cover Biblical reasons for modesty, she gives some very practical insight in how to change one’s wardrobe. The simplify chapter was very organized and had a great list of questions to determine what to keep or get rid of.

A quote that stood out to me:
“[Wearing dresses] has become a wonderful daily reminder of the thought and hard work God put into making me who I am: a woman.”

*I received a complimentary copy of this book to read*

About the Author

Amanda started writing at the age of 13, already an avid reader, she decided it was time she tried her hand at the craft. Just a few months after beginning to write she became a regular contributor at The Link magazine. After starting high school, Amanda put her writing career on hold and went on to be a normal teenager. It wasn’t until Amanda entered college that she started her first book Searching for Summer. Now twenty-three, Amanda is an avid writer, and reader. Her love of books whether written by herself or others has immensely grown since her childhood. She now runs her blog, A Pinch of Faith and her online business AmandaLeite.com. She has recently published her first book The Path to a Modest Lifestyle and has plans for many more books in the future.


Enter to win 1 of 3 paperback books!

Word Wednesday #100

Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour. 
Numbers 24:11
Obeying God may cost us earthly promotion, but nothing can compare to the spiritual peace and blessing that comes from steadfast obedience.
~*~*~

Share a verse that God has given you today or copy the button if you’d like to join in Word Wednesdays with your blog! Did you post on your blog? I’d love to see — share your link in a comment!

 
 

The Solid Rock | Blog Tour

TSR Release Banner FB and Blog 

I am excited to be part of this blog tour for a new Christian Western! Faith Blum joins us today to talk about her new release, The Solid Rock. It is about a talented detective with a mission to find his kidnapped colleague who finds himself working undercover with a heinous outlaw who has more plans than first meet the eye. I had the chance to read this book as a beta reader, and it sure is exciting!

About the Book

3D The Solid RockJoshua woke with a quiet groan. As his senses woke up one at a time, he cracked his eyelids open. Sure enough, there was a silhouetted form standing at the foot of the bed. From the smell, the person was either from the brothel down the street or had recently left one. He forced himself to breathe evenly and reached for the knife in his thigh holster. With as tough and evil a voice as he could imitate, he spoke, “State your intentions.” Pinkerton detective, Joshua Brookings, is sent on a job that seems simple on the surface. His fellow detective has been kidnapped and his boss, William Pinkerton senses foul play. Joshua is sent to investigate Edward’s case in hopes of finding the kidnapped detective and helping solve the case that has taken over ten years to investigate. Arriving in Cheyenne, Joshua finds much more than a simple kidnapping. Yet again, he must go undercover, something he made his boss promise never to make him do again. The only Christian in the outlaw group, Joshua falters and almost loses faith in God’s providence. Will he stand on the solid Rock or drown in the sinking sand?

buy-button-amazon You can also preorder a paperback copy here for $14.00 plus shipping.

Excerpt

Quotable #5 
Elizabeth nodded. “The notes are on the desk. I’ll be around the house most of the day. Let me know if you need anything.”
Joshua turned to her. “Before you go, can you tell me what you know?”
Elizabeth leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms. “Father was hired by a man named Allen Reese who had informally investigated some strange outlaw activities. He has paid Father for the last ten, almost eleven, years to slowly investigate whatever is going on. Recently, Father has been preoccupied and distracted unless he’s working on the case. About a week before his kidnapping, he warned me something might happen. He knows some of the people involved, but doesn’t have hard evidence and he wants to catch them all. He also doesn’t know exactly what they are planning. He did leave a list of people we can trust if it comes to that.”
“You said the house was ransacked. Was there anything missing?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Not that I could tell. They broke a few things and they didn’t touch my room.”
Joshua sat in the chair behind the desk. “So they were only after your father.”
“As far as I know. Father said they would probably kidnap him so he couldn’t get any closer.”
“Which means their plans for this crime must be almost finalized.” Joshua stared at the desk for a minute. “Thank you, Elizabeth. I’ll try not to bother you for a while.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Thank you for helping.”
“My pleasure. I love mysteries.” As long as they don’t involve lying or going undercover.

Giveaway

TSR Release Giveaway Meme 

 Faith is giving away a full set of paperback books! Fill out this form to earn entries to the giveaway. Each entry gives you one point, plus there are opportunities for bonus entries.

AMF Availability  If you haven’t read any of my books and would like to try one for free, I am working on getting A Mighty Fortress available for free on all formats. It is currently free on Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and Kobo. If you also wouldn’t mind helping me get it free on Amazon, I would appreciate that. To help, all you have to do is grab 1, 2, or 3 of the links where it is free and go to AMF’s Amazon page, click on “tell us about a lower price” and submit a link or three. Thank you!

Facebook Party

TSR Release Party Banner FB 
 To celebrate her release, Faith is holding a Facebook party on March 31st from 2-4 Central time. You can join her and 3 other authors here. There will be fun, games, giveaways, excerpts, and more. Some of the giveaways will stay open through Friday evening, April 1st. Fun fact: the other three authors are all homeschool moms.

About the Author

Author Picture 2015-2016 croppedFaith Blum started writing at an early age. She started even before she could read! She even thought she could write better than Dr. Seuss. Now that she’s grown up a little more, she knows she will probably never reach the success of Dr. Seuss, but that doesn’t stop her from trying. When she isn’t writing, Faith enjoys doing many right-brained activities such as reading, crafting, writing, playing piano, and playing games with her family. One of her dreams is to visit Castle City, Montana someday to see the ghost town she chose for her characters to live in. She currently lives on a hobby farm with her family in Wisconsin. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Blum/e/B00GSPBHW6Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HymnsoftheWestTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/Faith_BlumPinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/FaithBlumAuthorWebsite: http://www.FaithBlum.comBlog: http://www.FaithBlum.wordpress.com

Tour Schedule

March 26
Writing Dreams-Excerpt and Spotlight
Tee Garner-Excerpt, Spotlight, Interview
March 28
George’s Shorts-Spotlight, Review
Karan Eleni-Excerpt, Spotlight, Review
BlondeRJ-Excerpt
Zerina Blossom’s Books-Excerpt, Spotlight
March 29
In the Bookcase-Excerpt, Review
Kelsey’s Notebook-Review, Interview
With a Joyful Noise-Excerpt, Spotlight
Melanie D. Snitker, Author-Excerpt, Spotlight
March 30
Jaye L. Knight-Excerpt, Spotlight
Stories by Firefly-Excerpt, Spotlight, Interview
Kendra’s Thoughts-Excerpt, Interview
Frances Hoelsma-Excerpt, Spotlight
March 31
David Todd-Interview
Reading in June-Excerpt, Spotlight
Rachel Rossano’s Words-Excerpt, Spotlight
Trust and Obey-Guest Post, Spotlight
April 1
Writings, Ramblings, and Reflections-Tour Wrap-up, giveaway announcement

Biblically Speaking – Ways of Men (vs. God’s way)

Part 20 in my study on what is abomination in the sight of God.
Recap:
Many believers have fallen into accepting that which is abomination in the sight of God. Unless we study God’s Word to learn His Mind on what is abominable, how will we know to purge ourselves from abomination? Lord willing, I will be posting the fruits of my study on the word “abomination,” but feel free to leap ahead of me and study it for yourself. What is an abomination to God?

Ways of Men (contrary to ways of God)
Luke 16:15 – And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
In context, this verse follows Luke 16:13-14, No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

The Pharisees had their list of rules of “right and wrong” however Jesus reminded them that God’s ways are higher than man’s ways. We can refuse to listen, but that does not change God’s laws and His ways.

Shapes and Swirls | Graphics Design

Last week, I pushed all of my fonts on you. This week, I’m going to introduce something that I have SO MUCH FUN with! Some are under the category of “Dingbat,” others are just swirls and designs. All of them plug into your fonts on your computer.

Some of the dingbats/swirls I have on my computer and use often are Kfon, Nymphette, WW Floral Corner. 

For example, here is the banner I created for Orphan Journeys:


You can see it on the top of Journey to Love.


Compare the new Orphan Journeys series banner to my former thought (which was…no banner).


How did I create the new and improved? Let me introduce you to my favorite “font,” Nymphette. I probably overuse it, I like it so much!

First, I kept “Orphan Journeys” in the font Cinzel. Then, using good ol’ font Times New Romans I placed a line on top and on bottom of my text (yeah, I could have just drawn a line, but this is just how I do things the hard way).

THEN, the fun part! I used Nymphette letters KL (capital, yes) to create the double swirl. Then, I copied those, flipped them horizontally, and here ya go.


It is simple, but adds so much! Here are a couple of other designs in which I’ve used Nymphette to embellish:

What do you use to embellish your work?

Do you have a link to something you’ve designed? Share it in a comment–I’d love to stop by and see it!