A Boy and His Balloon

Years ago, my parents gave me a copy of Microsoft Digital Image Suite for Christmas.  Like Adobe Photoshop, it’s a digital image software package that lets you “play” with your digital images by removing existing backgrounds, adding new backgrounds, fixing photo mistakes, adjusting hue, changing colors, and a million more little tasks (okay, not a million – but a LOT!).  Just set me loose with some new software and I’m happily content for months.  Interestingly, my children now have photo memories that never really happened.

Here’s Ryan, my six year old, in a picture taken at his 3rd birthday party.  The balloon and Ryan are real.  The rest is digitally imaged.  I just thought he looked too darn cute and the balloon came out perfectly in the photo.

I painstakingly removed all of the background by zooming in on the picture in the software dashboard and erasing every pixel around him and the balloon.  Then I added stickers and stamps that came with the software.  To say I had fun is an understatement…this picture is version 5 which means I created four other renditions.

Parties are special occasions and I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to take pictures.  However, you may not have toyed around with digitally enhancing those pictures to create cool little memories.  A great one year anniversary gift for a special couple in your life might be a set of pictures from their wedding where you’ve taken a little creative license to make them memorable, funny, or downright unique.

As I continue to develop this blog, I must remember to use that software to provide images that really help you see the detail in the designs and decoration ideas.  In this particular example, I’m doing nothing more than being a big old showoff.  Moms get to do that, though, don’t we?  And he’s just too much fun not to have his photo hanging around in here.  I mean…I did include a balloon after all! 🙂