Texture Tuesday :: Happiness

{you know what to do}

I don't have any pets, but I love to take pictures of animals! This happy kitty was sitting in the sun at Camp 18, when one of my friends and I stopped there on the way to Canon Beach for my birthday last summer. 

I took several photos of this sweet kitty, one of which I posted on my Flickr Photostream last year. I thought this photo would be a fun interpretation of this week's Texture Tuesday theme, Happiness.

Since this was a JPEG image, I made just a few basic edits in Adobe Camera Raw, such as Cropping, Noise Reduction,  Exposure and a Tone Curve adjustment, but didn't adjust the White Balance at all. I decreased the Saturation and Luminosity of the Reds, Yellows and Greens to tone down the background.

When I opened the image in Photoshop as a Smart Object, I used the Clone Tool on a blank layer to fill in the white patch in the upper left hand corner. I created a path with the pen tool to curve the text and added a Drop Shadow to it. 

The texure I used was Warm Sun by Kim Klassen, which I set to Soft Light Blend Mode at 40%. I brushed away the texture from the kitty and reduced the opacity of the layer mask to 70% in the Mask Panel. 

Now on to trying to catch up with Beyond Layers. I've decided not to put so much pressure on myself  and just do the best I can!

Have a lovely Valentine's Day!