this is the time of year when it seems to be everyone's birthday! i'm making most of the cards with paper, glue and scissors this year, but some of them will need to be gimped instead. here's one i made for my middle sister ("grattis syster" means "congrats sister" in case you were wondering) and i think it turned out well. i started with a photo of a magnolia that i took in the botanical gardens this spring, the rest is just g'mic filters, gimp layer modes and layer mask magic and a whole lot of tweaking this and that.

i'll have time for adjustments tomorrow evening, so if you have important comments, please tell me! i'm so used to framing off my images some way, but with this one it feels just wrong to do anything at all with the edges - what do you wise ones of gimp chat say? i'm usually right, of course, (hey, erisian, what are you laughing at?!) but i'm prepared to listen to you.

Nice card AnMal.

lylejk: thank you!


i've seen that the colours are wrong - if i look at it from any other screen than my own it's far too pale and pastelly and the text looks simply awful. i'll borrow erisian' s laptop this evening and try to colour correct it. believe me, the way i see it with on my antique screen it's a real beauty!

Helan går, tjolahej tjolahopp.. oops, wrong song.. a pre-happy birthday from Ludde.
I don't know what color is intended, but i am attracted to that flower, so it must be ok.
The text though, i shall not speak a word about that. *zip!*

It is lovely Anmal. I'm sure your sister would agree.

On another note, on my reasonably modern computer at work things always look lighter than when printed. Check it first if you can.
(It may be the printer though or the programs used.)

AnMal, your creative card is nice with its magnolia. I don't know the filters you have applied on it, but the result is great. I'm sure your sister will be very happy.

ludde: hehe, do you often get those songs mixed up in real life? thanks for comments, i'm glad you like the flower. i agree about the text, less said about it the better.
sallyanne: thank you ! i don't worry about printing colours for this particular card - my sister and her family are in italy on holiday, so i had to send it by email this time around. otherwise it's my experience that colours usually look a lot darker and duller when you print than on the screen and i try to bear that in mind when i make cards. not easy though!
issabella: thank you! i applied a whole load of filters on it - some only on the magnolia, some only on the background - and used many different layer modes. to get the background, for example, i added a plasma cloud with a g'mic water effect, a plain colour layer in a turquoise shade, a random colour elipse layer and a plasma cloud layer i ran through the g'mic cubist filter. i set some of the layers to colour mode, one to overlay and one to lighten only, then i pulled down the opacity on the textured layers til i had just enough texture. so, lots of work as you can see . glad you thought the result was worth it!

i made an update. borrowed erisian's laptop and tried to get the same colours and contrast levels that my original had, viewed on my screen. with my screen it looks a bit weird, but hopefully it looks better on other computers now! my main worry was that text - the grungy texture i tried to put on it was practically invisible and the purple was going far too much towards the red end.

AnMal: Nope i don't, unless it's on purpose when my 'lovely humor is blooming like a..
Ps. and no, i hardly drink, unless it's for health reasons or something or, if i have to sing in public, then i need a pre-drink. lol
You are starting to sound like a perfectionist, it - is - lovely!

I'm most likely late, but I like how it looks. A very painted look to it.

It is quite lovely, I see no reason to change anything.

Excellent fake painting effect AnMal.

moko: thank you sis ! i'm happy with the effect myself, it's the best fake painting i've ever done.
2-ton: thank you ! after the second version i didn't change anything. i sent it off, and got a reply from my sister saying how much she liked it, so you were right.
erisian: thank you! i bet you just say that to get the last dutch waffle though.

Its a wonderful card that you did.

doodle dorp: thank you!