Today’s post is part of the Creative Crafters‘ Make a Wish Blog Hop.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your hop so far and I’m glad you’re here.
If you’re coming from Connie Umstead’s blog, you are in the right place! (If you want to start at the beginning, go to http://www.craftyneighbor.blogspot.com/2013/09/september-blog-hop.html.

Making a Wish on a Birthday

Birthday cakes are a big deal at our house. Of course, part of our ritual is the obligatory photograph before the candles are blown out.  I always wonder briefly what my kids wish for. I’m sure they much more immediate (like for gifts they’ll unwrap), than the wishes I have for them.

Looking back over my photos, I decided to preserve a memory of my oldest son’s space shuttle stage as well as my wishes for him. That birthday, he actually got two cakes: the one you see below and a complicated three-dimensional fondant covered spaces shuttle.

Two Versions of my Make a Wish layout

Version 1

Version 2

Instructions

I made this digitally, but it would actually be easier to accomplish by hand.

Digital instructions are for PhotoShop Elements, but most softwares will have similar functions. I started with a blank 12 x 12” page. Because I anticipate printing it, I set the resolution to 300. For online displays, 72 pixels per inch is sufficient.

I added my birthday photograph, set it off at an angle and added a slightly larger rectangular shape as a matte. In version 1,  since my son was into all things NASA, I decided to use an image from NASA un-copyrighted space images. You could also print a NASA image if you wanted to do a traditional layout.

For a more “child-like” look, for version 2 I found an adorable digital “Space Explorer” kit by Inspired Designs and used some of their elements with the same layout. The same steps apply to both versions.

Make a Wish Narrative

As always, I started with my narrative. I decided to make my narrative look like planets.

Because PSE won’t render text in a circle (that I know of,  please correct me if I’m wrong), this part was a tad painstaking. I found a sample of print that was formed in a circle from GettinGrungy and imported it into my editor. I used this text as a guide. I formed my  text box on top of this layer and typed my wishes on top of it. I increased the size and bolded my key words.

Text:  My wish for you:  That you will always go confidently after each one of your dreams… That you will feel as if you’re holding the world in your hand… Than you become whatever you want to be… That your smile smile will always stay bright… That you’ll always be close (geographically and otherwise) to me, your dad, and your brother… That you stay safe during your explorations and come home safely….That you don’t grow up too fast!

The GettinGrungy template had a background circle for clipping, but I wanted to use it as a solid planet. Here’s how I colored it to match my space photo:

• I added a solid colored fill layer
• adjusted the opacity until I liked the color (68%)
• Clipped the colored layer to my shape, by selecting both layers and let my mouse hover over the two layers, looked for the icon with interlocking circles, and clicked.

Setting layer opacity

Fitting the background

Next I added my  shape to my layered layout and sized it around my text.I repeated the planetary procedure to have three different planets. Since I’d sort of blown my wad with my narrative, they all say the same things. Of course, you could be more creative and have them each have different wishes.

As always, when I was done embellishing, I selected each layer and added a drop shadow (Layer -> Layer Style -> Style Settings).

Next Hop:

Go on over to Patti Chenail’s http://www.stamppattys.com/2013/09/make-wish-blog-hop.html and see what beautiful project she has prepared for you.

My wish:

That you’d leave a comment and subscribe to my newsletter.