For the love of Pete! {Polaroid art}

...Literally. This post is dedicated to my boyfriend, Peter! He just turned 22 and I thought I'd share a fun project that I did for his birthday. The other week, when I was playing with Photoshop actions, I found this Polaroid action from DeviantArt.com. Note: You must have Adobe Photoshop to download it! I knew that I wanted to make him something for his birthday that was special so this gave me a perfect starting point! I have seen Polaroid collages on Pinterest and that's what gave me the idea to make this..

I first started out with creating the Polaroids. I didn't want them all to be the same and the action that I downloaded had several options to choose from. Before turning them into Polaroids, I changed the colors and made them look vintage by applying various different filters, like in this post. Then, I applied the "Polaroid" action to each photo. I changed the opacity of the "grain" layer so that some of them looked older than others. I also changed the opacity and saturation levels on the "background layer" so that some images would stand out and have brighter colors than others. Some of the "pattern" layers on the border of the Polaroid were a bit too intense for my taste so I hid them. (I know this is sounding a little bit confusing but if you download the action then you will see what I mean!) Most of the Polaroids ended up looking something like this..

Kissing at the Royal Crescent. Bath, UK

 Cool right? I love how the streaks on the photo make it look old and worn. I ended up making 56 in total. Some of the pictures were with both of us, some with his friends and family, and some were just random pictures we'd taken together. It took a few days and lots of patience but I love how they turned out!
Note: If you are trying this, make sure you save them all as PSDs, JPEGs,  and PDFs. That way you can go back and edit them if you need to (PSD), and the PDFs are what I needed to convert them to for printing.
Speaking of printing, I got an AMAZING deal! I was going to print them at Kinko's until I found out how much they charge. Then, I realized that my university has a print shop. They printed them onto 11x17's and then cut them all out for free! In total, it cost me $3.16, and they had them done in a day. Crazy right?! So thank you, Embry-Riddle Print Shop, you are a life saver! Word to the wise: If you ever need a cheap print job (and you aren't already a student), just pretend like you are and go to your local university! Chances are, they won't ask for your student ID and if they do, well then...uhhh...I don't have any advice from that point on.
Anyway, this is what they looked like when I picked them up...

I arranged them on the floor and then used poster putty to stick them to the wall. It probably wasn't the best thing I could have used but oh well.

I measured the length and width of it while it was on the floor and then used painter's tape to guide me.

And here is the end result...Love it! In total it cost me like $5... Hells yeah!

Picking up my cute British boy from the airport after a very long 7 weeks:)

Breakfast in Bed

Banana pancakes, eggs w/tarragon, maple sausages, croissants, fresh fruit and a cheese plate (wensleydale & cranberry, goat cheese, cathedral city cheddar and raspberry jam). 

Toby was extremely happy to have him back! <3

Needless to say, Georgie never noticed and could not have cared less:)