Using crazy photoshop tricks, I turned this...

Into this.... (see technical info below).

The point of this assignment was to demonstrate another way of using textures in Photoshop. In Crazy Photoshop Tricks 1, I used custom pattern tiles and the pattern overlay layer style to show textures on a surface that is "perforated." In this project, instead of desaturating a texture to use with a photo, I desaturated the photos and overlaid them over a texture file (2 texture files). I used some photos I took of flowers and masked out the background. I duplicated, resized and rotated the flowers to make an all over pattern, and then merged all the layers and desaturated the whole thing. After importing the wood and brush stroke textures, I duplicated both texture layers to give them more drama (I also moved the brush stroke layer around to cover more surface), and then I played with blending modes until it looked cohesive. I added the text (a favorite Emerson quote of mine) just because.