For my first attempt at photo editing I am very happy with the results. It took a lot of re-dos and oops's but i somehow managed to pull it together in the end.

I used Pixlr for the editing. It's a great program. and my goal was to use every tool but i didn't make it quite that far....maybe next time.

Please leave your constructive criticism and advise as I look at this as a great learning experience.

I hope you enjoy my house on Halloween.

Thank You
And PLEASE vote for me in the Halloween Photo Edit Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Step 1: Night Sky and Moon

I tried taking pictures of the house at every moment of the day and night. Strangely enough the best pictures seemed to work in the day time. So I had to create the night which is more fun!

First I opened the MOON pic and copied it to my main canvas. Then I selected the black color w/ the COLORPICKER and painted the rest of the canvas with the BUCKET TOOL.

I hope the full moon brings out a few werewolves!

Step 2: CLEANING UP THE HOUSE

This was the best part! I love using the CONE STAMP TOOL!!

Cleaning Up the House

First I cleaned up the house by removing the street light, the garage light and my car from the driveway using the CLONE STAMP TOOL.

Since I have a new sky it is time to get rid of the old one.

I highlighted the sky using the WAND TOOL and then inverted the selection. Then I selected the ERASER TOOL and took out the sky along with the trees in the background.

Who Turned Out the Lights?

Because I took the picture in the day time, I made the image darker by selecting the BUCKET TOOL changing the TOLERANCE to high and the OPACITY to 10% and kept adding until I was happy with the shade.

Bring On the Night

Finally I selected the house with the WAND TOOL again and moved the image to the main background with the moon.

Step 3: How Much for That Mummy in the Window?

How to fit an over sized mummy into your house.

I opened a new image with the mummy pic. Then I copied an image of the window from the house and layered it over the image with the mummy and cleaned up the edges.

Using the COLORPICKER I selected the black around the mummy and covered up the lines. I then used the CLONE TOOL again to cover the bars on his hand.

Then for a little extra touch I highlighted his eyes with a little red before transferring the window back onto the house.

Mummy is home!

Step 4: What Makes the Grass Grow?

The CLONING TOOL does!

I decided that the driveway needed to go. Using the CLONING TOOL again, I highlighted a section of the lawn and began to cover up the driveway.

It was very simple and very fast.

Step 5: Tombstones

My mind flooded with things that I wanted to put in the front yard. Demons, werewolves, a evil looking portal to another world. After coming down to earth I needed something I wouldn't pull my hair out doing. I found this great picture with all types of tombstones and thought...Graveyard!

Using the WAND TOOL I selected my favorite ones and placed them around the yard.

Then I used the BUCKET TOOL selected a low OPACITY and TOLERANCE to darken each of the stones in the background.

And just so they didn't seem as flat, I used the brush tool and went around the bottoms of the tombstones to make it appear as if the grass was growing in front of them.

I wonder if anything lurks here after dark?

Step 6: Garage Monster

I tried to think of stuff that scared the ~!@#$%^& out of me when I was little. First I thought of the Nothing from the Never Ending Story, or that thing that lived under the stairs in the Munsters.

I found this image which brought back a collection of scary monsters from my childhood.

After blacking out the garage, I shrunk the image until it fit nicely in the little area.

I hope he doesn't eat the mower!On second thought I wouldn't have to mow the lawn tomorrow....

Step 7: Hanging Out in the Graveyard

The graveyard seemed empty then I though of a little family reunion on Halloween. So some old friends decided to fly in for the night.

I opened new images with each skeleton. Using the WAND TOOL I tried to select the most details as possible.

After isolating each image I wanted to add that something extra. I selected FILTER TAB and then NIGHT VISION. I dropped the NOISE to 0 and set the GAIN to max. This gave them a creepy green glow.

After everyone was on the page, I started to move them around and change the order of the skeleton pics with the tombstone pics until I got the layering just how I wanted it.

Step 8: Who Smugged the Windows!?!

Just like Hotel California you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. As the guest in the second bedroom found out. What do you think got him? I don't think it was the mummy.

First I opened the hand image and flipped it creating one left hand and one right. Then using the WAND TOOL I selected them and removed the background.

After that I copied them to the main photo and shrunk them down to fit.

Step 9: Black Cat

I thought I was done, but it just isn't Halloween without a black cat. It was hard for me to make him blend in well with out losing too much of his fluff so any help with that would be great.

After searching for a black cat image I opened it and started to clean it up the best I could. Then I moved in on over to the main image.

I thought he would be safe on top of the tombstone so the dog doesn't get him.

Step 10: All Done!

I hope you enjoy my photo. I am thinking of having the image copied onto my invitations that I am sending out for my Halloween party.
I am very pleased on how it came out and again any advise or tips would be great. I think I found a new addiction!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN