Needed in Hawaii for her job, my daughter went out a few days early to explore Maui. She camped in a tentalow.
Quaintville Artplay Palette https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Quaintville.html
FotoBlendz Overlays 10 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/FotoBlendz-Overlays-No.-10.html
QuaintWordArtMix1 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/Quaint-WordART-Mix-No.-1.html
Leaf: Escape Artplay Palette https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Escape.html
Notes in Photoshop Elements 14
I started with the blank canvas and the photo of the tentalow, which I duplicated three times and clipped to different FotoBlendz Overlays. I used an additional Fotoblendz Overlay for the portrait of my daughter.
I added the backgroundArtsy Paper #1and then the word art, just to make sure to reserve a space for it before proceeding with the rest of the design.
To give the layout more of a tropical feel, I composited in a photo of palm trees that my daughter had shot on the way to the tentalow, in the upper left corner, using blending brushes on a layer mask. I realized I wanted to capture the memory of the interior of the tentalow for my daughter, so I added that photo as well, in the slide frame from the Artplay Palette.
When you're doing all that compositing, it's really important to view the work in actual pixels. I had so many stray bits and pieces and edges that it was a challenge to find and fix them all.
To continue with the tropical vibe, armed with some new skills from the Advanced Brushes for Photoshop Elements class, I snagged a leaf from the Escape Artplay Palette, transformed it into a brush, then scattered it around to create a leafy overlay. I used the eraser to scuff up the edges of all the leaves. Since I had used two different colors, the scuffing allowed for a bit of a two-tone effect. Smudging the edges helped with that, too.
I finished up by adding a flower to my daughter's hair.