Show Your Skills

I have been following the Everyday Elements blog for a little bit now. They have a section called Show Your Skills.  I really like seeing how others edit there pictures and I love learning tips and tricks. So, this week I decided to try this one out myself though. This week the challenge is to edit this picture;

 We can edit any way really, but are encouraged to edit in black and white. Which is more than fine by me. I love Black and White pictures!!! I think it adds so much depth and feeling to a picture!! So, I'm a big fan :) 

This is my edit;

I edited in CS5. First, I brightened up the picture with Phaunt's Sunshine in your Hand. I just changed the opacity on the Sunshine layer down to 50% so it wasn't "over-exposed". Then I merged all my layers. Next, I ran Pioneer Woman's Boost action. I LOVE this action! I think it really brings out the contrast in pictures! I left that at 100% opacity.  I again, merged all layers. Then I ran PW's B&W action!!! This is one of my favorite black and white actions! It looks almost dreamy! It has such a creamy effect! And I love it! I adjusted the opacity on the Light layer down to 55% and I also brought down the Edge Burn layer to 55% as well. Then I merged again :) After all of that, I added a Shadowhouse Texture!!! I used the Sign of Aging texture and converted it to B&W via an adjustment layer. I changed the blend mode for the texture to overlay and brought the opacity down to 60%!