Photoshop - Amazing effects using Textures on Photographs

Here is a simple trick to create AMAZING effects on a photo without a lot of steps.
Find or better yet, take a photograph of an interesting texture. It could be gravel, tree bark, wood grain, or anything your imagination comes up with.
Or, here is a free site that contains hundreds of free high resolution textures. http://amazingtextures.com/textures/
This is the texture I decided to use. It has a lot of character!
Open any photograph you want to add a special effect to. I decided this texture might look good on a barn.
When you have your texture and photograph here are the steps you need to follow:
Open your texture, Select > All, Edit > Copy.
Open your photograph.
Edit > Paste
This will paste your texture in a layer above your photograph.
Now we're going to play with something called "Blending Modes". Don't worry if you've never used a Blending mode before. I'll walk you through it.
Make sure your Layers palette is open. If not Window > Layers
Select the top layer (layer with the texture)
Change the blending mode to Overlay.
Instantly you'll see the amazing effects of your texture applied to your photo.
You can even adjust these effects. To get less of a texture change the opacity of the texture layer down below 100%.
What a great way to create "faux" paintings for yourself or friends.
Enjoy!

Create a decorative frame border

Greetings Fellow Fun Seekers!
Want to add a decorative frame border around your photograph?
Let's see how you can go from thisTo this with just a couple clicks of the mouse.
There is a "Wooden Frame" Action built right into Photoshop. An Action is basically a bunch of recorded steps in Photoshop ready to play in sequence for you. Here is all you need to do.

1. From the Photoshop Window menu select "Actions"
2. Click on the Wood Frame Action
3. Select the Play button at the bottom of the panel
4. A message will come up telling you that your image needs to be at least 100 pixels wide. Click Continue.

That's it. You have a wonderful frame around your photo like shown above.

Take it to the next level
Want to customize the color of your frame? It involves editing the Action but I know you can do this.
In the Wood Frame Action, click the box next to "Fill". This will STOP the Action at this point so that YOU can choose a color for your frame.

Open an image and select the Wooden Frame Action. Click the Play button again. This time the action will stop allowing you to pick any color you want. Open the "Foreground Color" dialog to select a color. I chose a red hue. Then click "OK".
The action will finish playing with your customized color!How kewl is that?

Take it yet to the next level
You can pick a color that resides inside your photograph for frame. When the stopped action comes up asking for a color selection, move your mouse over your photo. An eyedropper appears and you can click on any color in your photograph to be your frame color. Then click OK.
Talk about a perfect matching frame!
Enjoy!