For the above 12x12 page, I decided to add some pop to the two images of me and my husband. To do so, I did some playing around in Photoshop with layers and a texture. Below, you'll find the step-by-step process of how I came to the final image.
1. Open your image and double click on it to make it its own layer
2. Create a new layer by going to layer ----> new ------> layer in the tool bar or by clicking the new layer icon in the layers palette (it's the icon with the turned-up corner). The keyboard shortcut is apple/control-shift N.
3. Fill your new layer with light beige. I used f8ebdf. To get this color, double-click on the foreground color in your tool box. That'll pop up your color picker. Type the numbers in the number field and click OK. To fill your new layer with your color, go to edit ---> fill Use Foreground color. Or use the keyboard shortcut alt-delete.
4. Go to your layers palette, and with that layer highlighted, select Multiply from the blending mode pull-down menu, opacity 100 percent.
5. Go to your layer tool bar, click on new adjustment layer ---> photo filter. Select the filter you'd like to use. I wanted a warm color so I selected Warming Filter (85) with a density of 47 percent. The blending mode for this layer is normal at 100 percent.
6. Open up the texture image shown below and drag it onto your canvas. By doing so, you're creating a new layer.
7. Put the blending mode of this layer on color burn at 100 percent.
8. Grab your original image in the layers palette and duplicate it by clicking Layer ---> duplicate layer in the tool bar. Or you can drag it on top of the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette, or you can use the keyboard shortcut Apple/control J.
9. Drag this new layer to the top of your layers palette and select screen for your blending mode. Dial down the opacity to 65 percent.
10. With this layer still active, add a layer mask by clicking on the icon with the white circle. You will see a link and a white box appear next to your layer. Select the white box and turn your foreground color to black by using your D or X keys on your keyboard (this switches the foreground/background colors in your tool box). When you have your foreground color set to black, that means you're erasing the image, allowing what's below that layer to show through. You can undo any mistakes by simply having white as your foreground color. Black erases, white adds. You can also select the opacity and blend mode of your brush in the bar directly below the tool bar. (The bar becomes visible when you click on your brush tool.) With that in mind, select a large, soft brush (about 100 pixels) and begin erasing the image with an opacity set to your liking. This will allow the color burn image to show through.
11. Once you're done, save your PSD file (the one with the layers) and then flatten (Layer ---> Flatten image) and save your image.
Play around with your layers and blend modes to come up with some cool effects!
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