Editing with Layers

Lately I've been loving pictures that have texture. (This basically means that the original photo was, in a sense, "merged" with a photo of some sort of texture. Like so:)

(photo from: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/10/cs5-10/psd-vintage-look-layers-tutorial.html)

See the paper texture? Awesome, right? Well duh, of course!
This kind of edit can be really cool when used on a portrait, so, being extremely eager to try it out for myself (and rushing into things yet again), I snapped a few quick self-portraits and took a shot at it with photoshop. On my own. No help whatsoever.
.....and, well.....I needed help. And lots of it! I did finish the edit, but it's not exactly my best work. See for yourself:

Yeeahh, so it's not the best ever. It seemed to me that there was just something (or several things) off about it, so I went to the critique section of the main photography website I use (http://www.soaphoto.com/lounge/critique/critique_main.asp) and asked for some pointers. A lady by the name of Birgitta  (who, by the way, has a very cool testimony: http://www.soaphoto.com/album/journal_view.asp?jcode=6353&datetime_vc=20100324&uid=kobresia) helped me out and pointed me towards a tutorial she had written on just such a subject. So, knowing that there was much to be learned, I went to the web page a read the tutorial.

As it turns out, Birgitta is totally awesome at this kind of edit, and she taught herself! I grabbed the same photo I had used for the first edit and got to work. After searching for some good textures (which I eventually found on www.textureking.com), 1-2 hours later (hey, it's a learning process!), I had finished this:

Much better, yes? I though so, anyway. This looks much more professional vs the first attempt....which, in my opinion, looked like a 10-year-old edited it on Picnik. Haha in any case, I was very proud of it. I do indeed look forward to using more textures in the future. Let's just hope I dont go overboard!