Creating Magical Christmas Photos with Pretty Actions Magic

If you notice, the stockings are Star Wars in the background. I kept seeing cute pictures of magical sparkles and a light beam coming from a book kids were reading on the Pretty Actions FB page. I don’t have any little kids now. So how do I do this?

First, I used a photo sent to me by a fan of her cat, Merlin, reading one of my books. You see the jaguar print bedspread? He fantasizes that he is a hot jaguar too.

I added the bokeh to blur out the background, and the sparkles and light. Sparkles and light are from Pretty Actions Magic in all these pictures.

https://www.photoshopactions.com/

This was the first picture I worked using a book, and I didn’t have the technique down very well. The one of my daughter is much better. That’s the last one I used the sparkles on. I’ve been taking her weekly pregnancy photos, and she’s at 25 weeks. So I wanted to do something different, and I told her about the book and the magic light. She wanted to use Where the Wild Things Are, one of her favorite stories growing up as a child. And throughout all our moves, we kept that and a few others that she wanted to read to her first child, when she had one.

The baby kicks like a wild thing, so it seemed appropriate. Of course, a big Christmas book would be fun too, but we didn’t have one. I used her cell light on the book to illuminate her. And only the fireplace was on, and no lights in the living room. I used a smaller brush to have more control over the curling sparkles in her picture, then used a wider brush to go back over the first line to give it more width and magic. It was hot, and she was sitting by the fire so she wore a short sleeved shirt. Texas, you know. But I’m thinking if she wore a long-sleeved shirt, maybe in green or red, that would have been even better. I don’t know if she has one, but maybe we can get a big Christmas book for baby and retake it for her 26th week.

My second picture, I set up two nets of Christmas lights behind the fairy writing in a book. I actually have a little battery run candle on top of her lap, and the little lamp post also has a battery run light. I turned both on, then added a light from the Pretty Actions Magic to create the illusion of more light, sprinkled some sparklers throughout the Christmas lights, and added the magic dust. To get the blurred effect on the lights, I pulled her to the end of the kitchen counter to create more of a bokeh effect.

This was my first use of the Pretty Actions Magic. I was trying to think of how to create something to use it with before I thought of how I could do one with a book. I also used Pretty Actions Snow Overlay, and it’s really great for making a Texas scene where it was cold and wet that day to a perfectly magical snowy instead. Also, I added a glowing light in the slot for the mailbox. I love the picture of the mailbox, but it’s so inanimate, until I used the snow and magic to make it appear to have movement.

I want to do one with my puppies reading a book, but I haven’t figured out how I am going to do it yet.

Another idea is to have a special box that seems to have magic inside it. So I want to try that too. 🙂  But this goes to show you that you don’t have to have a child reading a book to have some Christmas magic fun. Just anything will do.

Just have fun!

Back to writing Loving the White Bear! 11,000 words to go.

Have a great one!

Terry Spear

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

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