What are you working on in September (2023)?

[Cassel]

It is a new month and new projects.

Show off what you are working on in September be it a scrapbook page, a collage, a tutorial, or anything else you want.

We are curious and want to see, learn, and get inspired.

These threads are quickly becoming a fantastic source of inspiration, support, and friendship. Keep them coming!

Remember to size down your image to about 600x600 pixels and save it in .jpg format before posting it (if you are creating a double page, you can resize it to 1000 pixels in width if you don't want to post the pages separately).

Here are a few guidelines for everyone:

• when you post a project, give as much information on your sources or techniques used. It will help others who are curious and would like to do the same.
• if someone uses something that you like on their page, ask where they got it. Sometimes, you can go get it too and it will be better quality than trying to extract it (as it would have been resized to post in the forum anyway).
• if it is something that they did from scratch, ask how they did it. It would be so helpful to everyone!
• if you like a photo and would like to “play with it”, ALWAYS ask permission. Sometimes, there are some limitations and the person is not allowed to let others use it. Don’t get them in trouble. Usually, people are happy to say yes (if they can) when you ask politely. And if you get permission, you might get a better-quality image than the resized image anyway.

[Ann Seeber]

Here's my Wild Cat Calendar for September. Template from Cassel. Photo from FreePix. Information from The Wildcat Sanctuary, Sandstone, Minnesota. I used the pattern Wood Tile 01 to fill the photo frame, the top strip and the calendar grid. I have this posted on Facebook in its full size, so it is printable. (I have it on my refrigerator door @11x8.5")

Edited September 1, 2023 by Ann Seeber

[Sue Thomas]

Creating a magazine cover is another way I like to showcase my photos, and I enjoy creating them. They are quick and easy to create, as they don't require shadows, textures.  Whilst getting all the information that a scrapbook page  will  contain. Title, date, location and so on. They are flat pages.  Although the toads are amphibians, I still added them to the cover. The snakes are reptiles of the suborder Serpentes. The Plains Spadefoot toad are small, this one was an inch and a quarter, as I measured it. The other one wasn't much bigger at 2 inches. I love everything about snakes. This on I picked up to take a portrait shot, looking around for  a   non busy background.

 

[Helen]

Hello everyone, thought I would share something that I created today.. Tomorrow is my dad's birthday, he has been gone sixteen years. 

 

[Julie Magerka]

6 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Creating a magazine cover is another way I like to showcase my photos, and I enjoy creating them. They are quick and easy to create, as they don't require shadows, textures.  Whilst getting all the information that a scrapbook page  will  contain. Title, date, location and so on. They are flat pages.  Although the toads are amphibians, I still added them to the cover. The snakes are reptiles of the suborder Serpentes. The Plains Spadefoot toad are small, this one was an inch and a quarter, as I measured it. The other one wasn't much bigger at 2 inches. I love everything about snakes. This on I picked up to take a portrait shot, looking around for  a   non busy background.

 

What size canvas do you start with Sue?

[Julie Magerka]

6 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Creating a magazine cover is another way I like to showcase my photos, and I enjoy creating them. They are quick and easy to create, as they don't require shadows, textures.  Whilst getting all the information that a scrapbook page  will  contain. Title, date, location and so on. They are flat pages.  Although the toads are amphibians, I still added them to the cover. The snakes are reptiles of the suborder Serpentes. The Plains Spadefoot toad are small, this one was an inch and a quarter, as I measured it. The other one wasn't much bigger at 2 inches. I love everything about snakes. This on I picked up to take a portrait shot, looking around for  a   non busy background.

 

Wow! the pix are beautiful. If I reached out, I could almost feel the snake's skin.

[Julie Magerka]

1 hour ago, Helen said:

Hello everyone, thought I would share something that I created today.. Tomorrow is my dad's birthday, he has been gone sixteen years. 

 

Doesn't matter how many years go by, does it? They are missed and in our hearts forever.

[Helen]

1 minute ago, Julie Magerka said:

Doesn't matter how many years go by, does it? They are missed and in our hearts forever.

I agree totally,, my mom passed in 2011.  I must I have never felt so alone when she passed, even now some days are still hard. 

[Julie Magerka]

2 minutes ago, Helen said:

I agree totally,, my mom passed in 2011.  I must I have never felt so alone when she passed, even now some days are still hard. 

My mom died young in 1971. That's so many decades ago, but I still talk to her and miss her terribly some days. I only wish we'd had more picture-taking back in those days so I would have more pictures to look at.

[Sue Thomas]

1 hour ago, Julie Magerka said:

What size canvas do you start with Sue?

This one is 8 1/2 x11 inches , it depends on the layout I have in mind. My preference for most of the covers I do is 8 1/2 x 10.  

Edited September 1, 2023 by Sue Thomas

[Sue Thomas]

1 hour ago, Julie Magerka said:

My mom died young in 1971. That's so many decades ago, but I still talk to her and miss her terribly some days. I only wish we'd had more picture-taking back in those days so I would have more pictures to look at.

My mum died just before her 70th Birthday.  23 yrs ago.  I don't know about you, but as I have got older the more I miss her.   Out of the blue I would ask her a question pertaining to something I was doing at the time.  Or something that I'm doing would remind me of a memory of her.

[Sue Thomas]

3 hours ago, Helen said:

Hello everyone, thought I would share something that I created today.. Tomorrow is my dad's birthday, he has been gone sixteen years. 

 

what a lovely tribute to you dad!  The simplicity of the layout is perfect.  I trust you have saved  the  layout as a PSP file. As you have a typing error.  I think you meant to type  then, and not than.    Even then I could go on.

[Julie Magerka]

I wanted to get in here early on this month's projects. This is a simple one, an ode to one of my favourite months. The quote comes from a poem called "September" by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885). She was friends with Emily Dickinson and Harriet Beecher Stowe. If you wish to read the whole poem, just google her. It's quite lovely.

As a child (and teen), we had to learn "memory work", usually poems or passages from Shakespeare (in high school). Those things are deeply embedded and don't fade away. Every year, as I pass the corn fields or the orchards near me, the poem leaps into my mind. Even when I was a "big city girl" for many years, I would recite it.

The background has a texture of wet autumn leaves applied, and I used it again for the font on the title. The image is from online with added borders. The label is from DS, colour adjusted.

[Sue Thomas]

I bought the  new Punches in the store earlier.  I simply had to have them and try them out.  What photos shall I showcase tonight I thought.  Anyway, this is what I came up with, using one  of the  new brushes, as a label.  I also used  one of Carole's corner punches on the  strip.  Instead of putting a frame a round the  photos I  embossed the background paper around them for a change.  Of all the Blisters the Epicauta sp. is my favourite, and I call them velvety greys, not only do they look velvety, they feel ever so velvety to the touch, as does the  tan blister.  The velevety grey's  legs also reminds me  of the parts of a Meccano set. 

Julie, we had the same idea, I too used a photo of one of the Blister Beetles on  a Goldenrod plant.  It's one of the Blisters favourite flowers.  And one of the last flowers to bloom here. 

 

Edited September 2, 2023 by Sue Thomas

[Sue Thomas]

7 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

I wanted to get in here early on this month's projects. This is a simple one, an ode to one of my favourite months. The quote comes from a poem called "September" by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885). She was friends with Emily Dickinson and Harriet Beecher Stowe. If you wish to read the whole poem, just google her. It's quite lovely.

As a child (and teen), we had to learn "memory work", usually poems or passages from Shakespeare (in high school). Those things are deeply embedded and don't fade away. Every year, as I pass the corn fields or the orchards near me, the poem leaps into my mind. Even when I was a "big city girl" for many years, I would recite it.

The background has a texture of wet autumn leaves applied, and I used it again for the font on the title. The image is from online with added borders. The label is from DS, colour adjusted.

A great page, I love the colours you chose. Did you use an overlay on the background paper it's beautiful? 

[Julie Magerka]

9 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

A great page, I love the colours you chose. Did you use an overlay on the background paper it's beautiful? 

Thanks Sue. It was simply a texture from the Effects menu>Textures. I usually forget there are more choices there than in the Materials Palette.

[Sue Thomas]

The beauty of  observing and shooting these  entertaining creatures, is that I can create a  story behind the shots.  Umpteen times they will pack their cheeks and disappear down their holes to their burrows to fill their larders.  In the bottom photo you will see him packing a piece of carrot in to the cheek.  Stretching the skin, to reveal the pink skin, something I hadn't noticed before.  

[Suzy]

I love the way you used the corner in the Stocking the Larder! In face, I love the whole thing!

[Sue Thomas]

1 hour ago, Suzy said:

I love the way you used the corner in the Stocking the Larder! In face, I love the whole thing!

Thanks Suzzy.  I try to create  balanced pages.  The heading at the top left, needed something  down in the bottom right, to balance it out. I feel a balanced design is naturally pleasing to the eye.

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Template from this month's Lab. A pickleball celebration of my birthday. One photo cropped to make 3. This was the only picture of me taken that day.

[Michele]

On 9/2/2023 at 9:06 PM, Sue Thomas said:

The beauty of  observing and shooting these  entertaining creatures, is that I can create a  story behind the shots.  Umpteen times they will pack their cheeks and disappear down their holes to their burrows to fill their larders.  In the bottom photo you will see him packing a piece of carrot in to the cheek.  Stretching the skin, to reveal the pink skin, something I hadn't noticed before.  

As I said on the FB page, I really love your use of the punch in the bottom right corner. Besides being pretty, it really does balance out the composition as a whole.

[Michele]

I made the paper using what I learned in the Meli-Melo creative scrap tutorial and added a texture and some extra blur. Doing/re-doing these tutorials is really helping me. The font is Ambrogio and I used the Outer Bevel 3-D effect.

 

[Michele]

I found this beautiful stained glass image in Creative Fabrica (can you believe it's meant to be a mouse pad?). I used it to make the background paper by applying 100 Gaussian blur on the original, adding the Mosaic Antique effect, and then another little blur. The text was made using the text cutter option for the font (Andalusia). Then Inner Bevel on both the text and the main pic.

 

[Jannette Nieuwboer]

 That's beautiful Michele. A feast for the eyes. 

[Sue Thomas]

4 hours ago, Michele said:

As I said on the FB page, I really love your use of the punch in the bottom right corner. Besides being pretty, it really does balance out the composition as a whole.

Carole and I were talking about   her corner and frame punches, and we agreed, that they are unique.  You won't find them anywhere else, not even in photoshop.  I use them a lot,  not only on strips or labels, but I will quite often  punch out a quarter of a page or more, which will give a lovely effect.  I can't remember who it was, but someone commented how large the punch was, and never thought to use them in that way. 

Michele, your pages are always fun, the colours and effects you use  are as Jannette said a feast for the eyes, and brighten up anyone day, with your choice of  colours.