Miss Buncle's Book • DE Stevenson

These must be the most charming book covers I've come across in a long time.  And the books are delightful, too!

Book Covers and Christmas Cards

Browsing thru Amazon's Kindle Regencys I came across this book http://www.amazon.com/Greetings-Season-Stories-Barbara-Metzger-ebook/dp/B00GA2AS54/ref=pd_sim_kstore_71, which I naturally purchased.  I thought I'd add another picture for the cover.  Can't review the book, as I haven't read it yet, but it looks promising.  I'm rather flattered that they used my image, but [tossing head]. I wish I'd got a little credit, maybe a link to my (long neglected because my daughter HOGS the scanner all the time! Also I'm writing.) Blog.

I always wanted the gorgeous fashion plates from Ackermann's, Costume Parisien, Ladies Magazine (and others) to be used as book covers, and its gratifying to see it finally being done, though sadly, not very well. At least, not as well as my efforts.

http://athousandpix.blogspot.com/2011/09/regency-christmas-card2-2011.html
http://athousandpix.blogspot.com/2011/08/regency-christmas-cards.html

Making Lace in Photoshop/Photoshop Elements 6

I'm going to try to explain how I made the lace & cut-out cover, for those who are interested.

I used Photoshop Elements #6, so I think most anyone could reproduce the effects I managed.

Hmm. Where to start?  Well, let's start with the small (background) lace:

Finished "Background" of lace, without inserts or cut-outs.

STEP 1:  Set pallet to whatever cover background you want, with WHITE as the Top color.

Fill layer with your dark color, then duplicate layer.


On duplicated layer go to "TEXTURE" filter.

Use "Texture": Stained Glass.

Cell size: 8,   Border thickness: 6

Light intensity: 0 

(Border color should be White)

"Stained Glass" filter applied to blue copy of background.

"Select" dark background color, then use "Similar" tool to select ALL of the dark color.

DELETE dark background color (color will show through from the layer beneath).

Switch pallet background color to White, foreground color to Dark or Black

Select the Stained Glass "border".  [ & SAVE in "select" filter.]

Apply ARTISTIC: Film Grain to selected white border (aka: Lace)


Set Film Grain to: 15,  Highlight Area: 4
Intensity: 1

(Note: the "add noise" filter can also be used if you want a coarser-looking Lace)

Stained Glass with "FILM GRAIN" added to White Border.

Apply BLUR Filter: "Motion Blur"

Motion Blur:  Distance 3 to 5 pixels, Angle:  -45

Apply SHARPEN MORE Filter

White border (lace) with Film Grain Blurred & then Sharpened.

(Switch back your pallet with the original dark color underneath the white.)

Filter:

Sketch: Bas Relief  (this gives the lace  3-dimensional look)


Settings:  15,  Smoothness: 2

Apply Sharpen MORE filter again. 

Apply Filter: "Remove Color" to the lace.

BAS RELIEF applied to white border (LACE) before applying LEVELS.

In the LEVELS filter, "Adjust-Lighten" the brightness:

Right Input Levels:  212
Middle Input Level: 1.80
All other levels remain at Zero

"Remove Color" again (in lace) if you wish. Having the "texture" be the color of the background looks very nice, too.

Lace is lightened in "LEVELS" Filter.

AND THERE YOU HAVE YOUR BASIC "LACE" BACKGROUND, just waiting for designs.

You can easily change the background color in the Background layer, and the top white/shadow layer stays the same.

NEXT: Applying different designs!  NOW we get to the really fun part!

Book Covers for "Bride From A Hat"

Back Cover

Cover for my story "Bride From A Hat".  It is supposed to look like a lace veil. The woman is taken from a Costume Parisien fashion plate shown elsewhere on this blog.  The story is http://highwaymansclub.blogspot.com/  The blog is named after the London Club begun by the hero. To join, one must rob a coach, but only for a trifle: a lock of hair, a lady's glove, or a kiss from a pretty girl.  All in good fun, tho some grumpy old people have complained...

Georgette Heyer: These Old Shades for Valentine's Day

I'm feeling kind of 'meh' today, colors seem washed-out. We had a very pretty snow from last night which meant a "late" day for school. Fun. Then it warmed up a couple of degrees and began drizzling- melted the pretty snow.  So I decided to play around with my favorite Heyer Book Cover, the Pan paperback edition:

"Monseigneur, I would much rather be the last woman then the first."
"Little one," he said very low "since you will stoop to wed me, I pledge you my word that you shall not in the future have cause to regret it."

Costume Parisien, Ackermann's, Regency Christmas Cards

Adaptation of the best TOS cover. Orig cover was pretty damaged, but not hard to fix. 

 

Scan of Sprig Muslin cover, also "cleaned up"

Christmas Card

Just playing around

Book Covers I've done for Wings ePress

Here are a few of the book covers I've done for Wings ePress.

Reluctant Widow

I love book covers, though they never seem to live up to my imagination. The latest crop of Heyer covers, using portraits & paintings of the 19th century, should have been wonderful: so many splendid works of art to choose from. Instead, they were mostly awful, and often bizarre. One wonders if the person composing the covers had any idea of what the books were about. Edwardian paintings to show Regency era men and woman. People lolling about on the lawn when the book was a swashbuckler. Bleah.

Anyhow: I have this fashion portrait in my largish collection. I scanned it and added other details, which, I think & hope, give a potential reader an inkling as to what is inside the covers! The Reluctant Widow is a Napoleonic era (Regency) romance/mystery/gothic, all done in a tongue-in-cheek humor. One of my favorite Georgette Heyers'.