Blurring Faces

For this activity, we used Gimp! This is a free program that has some of the same features as Photoshop. To blur faces, once you open a picture you are going to look at the tools provided on the lefthand side. On the top row there will be a circular shape with a dotted line, use that tool to make a circle around the face you want to blur. Next, on the tool bar on top, choose "Tools", "Blur", and "Gaussian Blur". You can type in larger numbers for a stronger blur so you cannot see as much of the face. This is a great tool to use if you are going to put any pictures from classroom activities on the internet, and if you do not get permission from parents to have their students' picture up, you can blur out their face to give them privacy!

Photoshop Cupcakes

This was a small project to show us some basics of Photoshop. We started out with a cupcake picture, and had to use the magic lasso tool in order to select the whole cupcake and delete the background. This way, when we save it as a PNG image, it won't show up with a white background rectangle but rather will have the item sitting nicely on whatever background you already have on your blog/website/worksheet/poster/etc.

Next we had to use the lasso tool to select the top of the cupcake and change its color, and same for the bottom half. Then we used a brush tool to add "sprinkles". Although my sprinkles are kind of "splotchy", I think this is from the brush I was using. Overall it was a simple project in order to learn some of the basic mechanics of Photoshop.

Magazine Cover

For this project we were to use Photoshop to create our own magazine cover. Once again, I decided to use a photo of my cat because I think he's hilarious. Anyways, when I opened the original in Photoshop I first had to use the magic wand to make a rough outline around Felix. I deleted everything except what was inside the outline, and then I used the eraser tool to get rid of anything around the ages that was inside the outline.


Next I put that photo on top of a background image. I used an image from Photoshop, but there are plenty of digital scrapbooking sites to get some adorable backgrounds. Once that was done, I made text boxes to create my headlines, added a few "shapes" from the program to spice it up, and I was done! It turned out really well in my opinion, and I can't wait to see what else I will be able to do with this program.

iSpy

This was a very cute project we did with the inspiration from the "iSpy" books. We took small objects and arranged them however we wanted to, and took a picture from straight above. Next we would put them on a slide and write something like this:

"I spy a pink paperclip, a smiling bee, and a shiny dime." Students can then try to find the objects that are listed. Supplies were limited so this iSpy was pretty easy, but there are so many small items that we could use in order to make some for our students. It is also a great project for students to make themselves, so they can create pictures for each other!

Poster

This is the poster I created using Photoshop and Powerpoint. Since there are many creative posters on Pinterest, it is natural that we would want to have some of these for around the classroom. Due to copyright restrictions, we cannot always use a poster created by someone else for free (unless of course they give this permission). I took a poster that I found on Pinterest and tried to create something very similar. Luckily things went smoothly and I think it looks great! Once again Photoshop proved to be a wonderful tool for creating classroom art.