Photoshop Layers Match

Saturday's PHX Layers match was myself versus Victor Vasquez. Basically what happens in a Layer match is first, a coin toss, and whoever wins has 30 minutes to come up with a design in Photoshop. After their time is up they then pass it off to their competition who has another 30 minutes to manipulate the file keeping some element(s) from the previous design. This goes on for three rounds. It's tough, thirty minutes is not a lot of time once you get started. 

It's kinda strange because I think I'm becoming addicted to this competition, it's fun, I even get butterflies right before it begins.  Check out PHXLayers.com to see all the matches. 

Here is my final "volley" from Saturday's match. 

PHX Layers Competition - Qualifiers

A couple months ago I invited my friend Elliot to a Photoshop tennis challenge, being called Phoenix Layers. It's a chance for local Phoenix designers to show off their skills and will eventually be  part of the Phoenix Design Week. It is being done tournament style, I think there will be an elimination every week or so, then the top two will go head-to-head live during the Design Week Conference at the end of October. Elliot and I both qualified to be in the tournament, here is the first challenge between us.

Elliot started the challenge with an image of his new devil-baby, Cash.

Next, I had a little trick up my sleeve for Elliot...or should we call him "bunny"?

Dazed and confused, Elliot didn't know what "bunny" meant, but he fell for the trap and kept the "bunny" theme going. 

Little did he know, that, wham! I found a picture of him, dressed like a cute lil pink bunny. 

He tried to make himself look like a badass in a bunnysuit, by going the "look at me, I'm crazy" route. 

So I took his crazy eye and turned it into a happy ending. 

Thanks Ell, it was fun! 

Hopefully I'll make it to round two, I'll post when that happens!

Andy's "Friend" - Rehabilitated

Can you believe he went from this sad, rundown, pea-soup-lookin' old man...to this new and improved awesome guy (plus entourage)? It's like he saw the God of Style and couldn't help but be reformed.

What a turnaround, and I couldn't have done it without help from Sally "The Slayer Seamstress " Hauser. I first started by stripping the green layer, and found that, woohoo, there was another layer beneath it! I thought about leaving it, for padding, and I tried shampooing it, but seriously, it was dirty. So, I stripped the orange layer as well. This guy has had a colorful past.

Okay, so next step, pull out nails (pulling out twenty of these 5-inch, thirty-year-old nails reminds me that I should probably get a tetanus shot soon). I am now left with a box, some springs, wooden feet, metal plates and buttons that will need to be recovered.

After staining the wooden feet a dark, chocolaty brown and painting the brass to silver, I drag all the remaining parts over to "The Seamstress Slayer's" house. She is a vetted reupholsterer and I'm hoping she can help me out with the piping around the top ledge. Of course she does, plus much more. But I have to beware because she is the dangerous type and does "accidentally" shoot me with the staple gun, though I should be lucky that it's not a rattlesnake this time.

After my near-death experience, we covered the wooden box and springs with new batting and muslin so it's nice and clean. Sally suspects that, because of the style of the orange fabric, that this ottoman may have originated in the 1930's or 40's. So it is probably a good thing that I decided to replace it rather than cleaning this 80-year-old (wow) fabric.

I am pretty happy with how he turned out. Clean and off the red chicken. 

I had some leftover pieces and I'm not about to throw away this awesome fabric. So pillows to go on the couch where the ottoman will be is just what needs to be done to pull everything together.

Little details, it's what I'm all about. This is the custom tag that I tacked to the bottom.