Inspiration – This is for the latest Lift Challenge but also for my personal challenge of stretching my creativity. I hyperventilate if I put too much on a page. I do mostly simple pages and when I do a page like this, I am never sure if it is any good or pure rubbish. But it is important that I a pushing myself and have a chance at getting better. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

Start – File>New 12X12 300
Paper-Placed Artsy Paper 2 from Find My Way above the background layer and desaturated it using Ctrl>U. I added a mask and using black reveal the white background the right-hand column. Later I revealed more of the background on part of a black column to reduce the amount of black in this area.
Photos – I added my portrait photo which I had played with in Photoshop following a tutorial I found then I extracted myself from the picture.
Elements – I added the stack of books element from Oscraps Live Life, I duplicated this and desaturated the copy. I put a mask on the copy and used black to reveal some of the colored books. I reduced the opacity of the colored books to 18% and the black and white copy to 48%. Then I added the brown glasses from Strom. I probably should have gone back and opened the PSD copy when I decided to add a drop shadow. But instead, I played - I duplicated the glasses and filled the original with black and added a gaussian blur and reduced the opacity to 38%. I moved the original glasses as a drop shadow should be. Then I selected the pixels of the copy with this the selection I went back to the original and erased everything inside the selection which left a nice drop shadow. I recolored the copy a little and added a linear light blend mode. Now I chose the camera from Evanish like that the color matched to the glasses. Now I placed Assemblage Overlay 2.3 on top desaturating the camera. Lastly, I added the frames from Watercolor template A 10.1. I added Artsy Papers 1 and 3 plus solid paper 1 from Evanescent to the mask of the frames using Layer>Create Clipping Mask.
Transfer – added Script Transfer 1 from Bountiful
Journal - With age comes the time to do the things you love.
But not always energy to do them. So having one hobby that requires me to get out and about and another that I can do sitting down works very well. for me.
Title – I placed 7 and 5 from Monster Treats on top of the frames. (My age at birthday later this month.)
I added a drop shadow to my portrait and to the 7 and 5 not knowing if this was right but I guess what makes it right is I prefer it with rather than without.