What are you working on (in January 2024)?

[Cassel]

It is a new month and new projects.

Show off what you are working on in January 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.

[Cassel]

As my first post for 2024, here is a summary of 2023 from the Campus. We could not have done it without you all.

[Ann Seeber]

Happy New Year! Here is my January Wild Cat Calendar for 2024. The image is from Wikimedia. The title font is Wide Latin. The Jaguarundi is a small wild cat from Central and South America and is listed as Endangered.

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Christmas Eve service...Kit from Digital Scrapbooking, Commons, "Ready for Christmas" by Saskia Veldhoen. Paper, solid, 03. Frame 18-10a. I extracted the tree from a photo. Gifts from Creative Fabrica. Tree graphic, 18-10a.

Edited January 3 by Bonnie Ballentine

[Susan Ewart]

On 12/31/2023 at 8:11 PM, Cassel said:

As my first post for 2024, here is a summary of 2023 from the Campus. We could not have done it without you all.

I love seeing these stats.  It would be cool to see these stats year to year.  

[Susan Ewart]

On 1/1/2024 at 12:50 AM, Ann Seeber said:

Happy New Year! Here is my January Wild Cat Calendar for 2024. The image is from Wikimedia. The title font is Wide Latin. The Jaguarundi is a small wild cat from Central and South America and is listed as Endangered.

it's the limo of all cats.  So bizarre looking.  even the head is long and almost weasel like. But those feet and that tail are all cat.

[Cassel]

4 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I love seeing these stats.  It would be cool to see these stats year to year.  

I'd love that too. When I have time, I can try to dig more stats, for previous years, but the platform has changed so I am not sure how easy that would be.

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

I'd love that too. When I have time, I can try to dig more stats, for previous years, but the platform has changed so I am not sure how easy that would be.

That would complicate it for sure.  Something the think about going forward.  

[Michele]

Most of the elements are from Creative Fabrica. I used their preview of their Pink Nutcracker Christmas Clipart as inspiration. The font is Bahgila from the CF Absolute Font Bundle from last year. The bundle is still available for $1. I love this bundle because all of the fonts have additional glyphs.

 

Edited January 3 by Michele

[Michele]

As most of you know, I love gnomes. These cuties are from CF (I have a subscription so I have a lot of their stuff). The font is Bestop Glistening, also from the Absolute Font Bundle. For any newbies to the Campus, I often create frames like this. I increase the canvas size, magic select around the bottom layer, add a new layer and fill the selection (in this case I used the same gold sequin pattern that I used for the text). Then I apply an inner bevel. It's a quick, easy way to dress up a layout.

 

[Donna Sillia]

I've started organizing my fonts into categories using NexusFont and Character Map UWP. In preparation for the Template Workshop, I have also been making masks using cass raster to mask. Most of the shapes are from preset shapes and preset shapes that I created using the ss Making preset shapes scrip. 

[Susan Ewart]

Can you come and organize my fonts too?

1 hour ago, Donna Sillia said:

I've started organizing my fonts into categories using NexusFont and Character Map UWP. In preparation for the Template Workshop, I have also been making masks using cass raster to mask. Most of the shapes are from preset shapes and preset shapes that I created using the ss Making preset shapes scrip. 

Can you come and organize my fonts too?

Also, the windows could use some washing...🤣

Edited January 3 by Susan Ewart

[Susan Ewart]

There should be an AI or a script that you point to the existing folder and it looks at your fonts and assigns tags, then makes a list of the tags and all you have to do is use the list to find what you want.  I get this sound just like a font program, with mine I have to do the assigning.  some seem to have tags but maybe less than 1%.  I'm being lazy and that would be a better use for AI's. 

[Donna Sillia]

9 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Can you come and organize my fonts too?

Can you come and organize my fonts too?

Also, the windows could use some washing...🤣

Organizing fonts is very tedious work. Installed fonts are no problem, but finding where I saved the uninstalled fonts was difficult since I have them in so many files. Then I put them into 2 programs. NexusFont and Character Map UWP. I like UWP since it shows all the additonal characters and is large enough for my poor eyes to see without strain. 

I have several programs to wash my windows, including a Dell program that came with the computer and Norton Utilities Ultimate.

Edited January 3 by Donna Sillia

[Donna Sillia]

I like NexusFont because as long as the fonts are in the uninstalled folder, I don't have to install them in the Windows font folder. I try to keep my installed fonts at a minimum. Creative Fabrica is not helping my font addiction.😄

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Donna Sillia said:

I like NexusFont because as long as the fonts are in the uninstalled folder, I don't have to install them in the Windows font folder. I try to keep my installed fonts at a minimum. Creative Fabrica is not helping my font addiction.😄

I am lucky to have a new video card with ram and lots of ram on the motherboard.  I no longer have to turn my font viewer off (I do anyway, it's a habit, but if I forget I dont even notice).  I don't get lag like I used to.  I can also turn them on and off singly or the whole group.  I am trying to cut it down too.  so much time is wasted looking for fonts I want to use.  So I'm putting the ones into favorites as I use them (ugh, when I remember), then I'll just keep the favorites on.  I have also saved the thumbnails and find going through them helps me to see a font better...cause it's all dolled up and pretty.  I might be changing font viewers this year so I'll check out Nexus Font.  My font viewer doesnt require I load them into windows, as long as the viewer is open (and minimized on my screen or fully open on my second screen) I have access in the PSP drop down.  

[Donna Sillia]

24 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I am lucky to have a new video card with ram and lots of ram on the motherboard.  I no longer have to turn my font viewer off (I do anyway, it's a habit, but if I forget I dont even notice).  I don't get lag like I used to.  I can also turn them on and off singly or the whole group.  I am trying to cut it down too.  so much time is wasted looking for fonts I want to use.  So I'm putting the ones into favorites as I use them (ugh, when I remember), then I'll just keep the favorites on.  I have also saved the thumbnails and find going through them helps me to see a font better...cause it's all dolled up and pretty.  I might be changing font viewers this year so I'll check out Nexus Font.  My font viewer doesnt require I load them into windows, as long as the viewer is open (and minimized on my screen or fully open on my second screen) I have access in the PSP drop down.  

I made sure that when I bought my new computer last year that it had a lot of ram, but I guess I'm still remembering the cautions about too many fonts installed slow your computer. What font viewer are you using? I have AMP font viewer also, but don't use it much even though it installs fonts temporarily.

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Donna Sillia said:

I made sure that when I bought my new computer last year that it had a lot of ram, but I guess I'm still remembering the cautions about too many fonts installed slow your computer. What font viewer are you using? I have AMP font viewer also, but don't use it much even though it installs fonts temporarily.

I use Font Base.  There is a free version and a paid version.  I chose paid, 1x a year payment.  that gives me access to the glyphs in a nice big format and I click on the glyph and it copies to the clipboard, it's easy for me to use.  It's the first font viewer I chose (after reading reviews) and I was very new to having one.  I'd like to see what other ones are like too.  and I never want to go through the character map in Windows again because it's so small and it doesn't pop out and enlarge when I hover over it, and even when it did it was still too small to see. 

[Susan Ewart]

4 hours ago, Donna Sillia said:

Organizing fonts is very tedious work. Installed fonts are no problem, but finding where I saved the uninstalled fonts was difficult since I have them in so many files. Then I put them into 2 programs. NexusFont and Character Map UWP. I like UWP since it shows all the additonal characters and is large enough for my poor eyes to see without strain. 

I have several programs to wash my windows, including a Dell program that came with the computer and Norton Utilities Ultimate.

I have Norton too, he's not very ultimate even though he says he is....cause when I look out the windows, they are still dirty.  

[Corrie Kinkel]

After today's Newsletter I checked the Store and saw the template freebie YearInReview-2023. I have started with the last lessons of the scripting course but couldn't resist the chance to use it. Well it's a diversion from studying the last lesson, which is a big one and I certainly can't concentrate the whole evening on it. 😉 From all the photos I took in 2023, I selected one from each month. Plus a bigger one from the Grand Canyon which was my highlight of the year, apart from seeing my family again. Furthermore nothing fancy, soft colors for the squares, because the photos are colorful enough and I didn't change the font for the months, only colored it. Now to bed and tomorrow back to the study!

[Susan Ewart]

6 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

After today's Newsletter I checked the Store and saw the template freebie YearInReview-2023. I have started with the last lessons of the scripting course but couldn't resist the chance to use it. Well it's a diversion from studying the last lesson, which is a big one and I certainly can't concentrate the whole evening on it. 😉 From all the photos I took in 2023, I selected one from each month. Plus a bigger one from the Grand Canyon which was my highlight of the year, apart from seeing my family again. Furthermore nothing fancy, soft colors for the squares, because the photos are colorful enough and I didn't change the font for the months, only colored it. Now to bed and tomorrow back to the study!

Beautiful.  Congratulations on getting to Lesson 25!  It's quite an accomplishment.

[Cristina]

Ann, Bonnie, Michele, and Corrie, those are beautiful layouts. I love everything about them.

Donna, those mask shapes are very creative... they'll look interesting and unique in a layout.

I downloaded the 2023 Year in Review after seeing it here!     I am so behind that I have only recently continued working on my 2021 Year in Review! 

 

[Cristina]

Here is a layout I started in 2021 for the Color Challenge, and although I posted it as finished back then, I left it in the unfinished folder for later tweaks.

The color that was supposed to be part of the layout was already in the photos, so I changed the background paper to a solid gray color and added an overlay.

I started with Lynn Grieveson's (The Lilypad) Template - #lgrieveson_messy_captured_4.

I created the Wordart for the first version, and  for this reviewed version, I added some elements following Carole's tutorials:

Post-It Note,  Straight Pin, Pinned Paper

The lifted photo effect was created using cass-LiftedPhoto Script.

Edited January 9 by Cristina

[Ann Seeber]

I went back to a former Year in Review layout and edited it for 2023. I picked out my favorite projects from each month of the year but, because the illustrations are confined to a square format, I didn't include our calendar project from November. The date is a font: Algerian with a gold metallic gradient and an inner bevel. 

[Mary Solaas]

Well, back to the labs.  Lab 11 Mod 7.  My 2nd attempt at this.  I did the fishhook, the bobbin, and the wave pattern.  I choose to do the wave pattern in the colors found in the river or lake in which my son and grandson are fishing.  I've used this pic several times; it is one of my favorites.  The fishing net I designed using cass's fishing net tube and adding a vector ellipse and  rectangle with inner bevels.  The fish in the net is from the vector workshop - loved that fish and have made it a shape, a tube, a pattern, (reversed the fish for another pattern which you might see in the 2 paper backgrounds).  Used my bark texture on the dark green paper.  The title is Rock Salt which was a freebie in this lab module.  The template I used is in the lab module and modified.