Mask Workshop (2024)

[Anja Pelzer]

my day 3 

fonts are Arnold Story and Handwriting

[Donna Sillia]

I added shadow to the text which I think makes it stand out better. After converting the text to character shapes and duplicating, I colored the bottom letters and then moved the top letters which kept black slightly using the pick tool to expose part of the bottom layer.

[Anja Pelzer]

now here is my day 4 , font is Arnold Story

[Corrie Kinkel]

1 hour ago, Donna Sillia said:

I am continuing with the amazing food the my daughter and I had in Fredericksburg at an Italian-Mexican fusion restaurant. One dessert is a goat cheese panna cotta and the other was a chocolate pot with hazelnuts. The background is actually a wood background that I made, but when I used the textile fill, this is how it came out. The pictures and the arrows are my own. The black border is from Creative Fabrica. The font is called "Los Pinata" from Creative Fabrica. I converted the text to curves as character shapes, duplicated them and now I can't remember the next steps, but I know that I did not use stroke. I guess I will have to keep experimenting and save my steps.        

You make me hungry!!!!

[Corrie Kinkel]

Day 4. A very simple layout that has the mask in the right hand corner because that suited my photo best. The font is Better Brush and I used a greyish background  with an inked edge. The only extra embellishment is a paint splash that is in my stash and recolored.

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Day 4...an old photo...blast from the past. There is a "Tank Farm" nearby. Old military equipment is restored there by volunteers. Once a year, they bring out everything to display to the public. They even fire the big guns a couple of times. Somehow, I lost my photos of the tanks, etc. A friend took this one of the motorcycle and sidecar.

[Anne Lamp]

4 hours ago, Gerry Landreth said:

This one depicts random thoughts. If it needed a title, it would be My Mother's Day.

Years ago, I started calling my mother on my birthday to thank her for being my mother. I called it My Mother's Day. When I moved back to Alabama to be with her, I would take her to dinner to celebrate (usually at a restaurant that gave a free dessert for my birthday!)

This will be the first birthday without her. I may still go to a restaurant. After all, she wouldn't want me to miss out on a free dessert!

The mask for my mother was made using a watercolor brush from Rikard Rodin. The raggedy edges and the gold from were made using Picture Frame in PSP.

Lovely tribute to your Mother. She was a lovely lady.  What you said about calling her on Mothere's day made me think about my Mother.  My Oldest Sister would call her on her (my sister's) birthday and wish Mom a happy Mothers day.  The first time Mom was confused and said it wasn't Mothers Day, and my Sis said well it was the first day you were a Mother.  Sis did that for years.

[sharon thompson]

9 hours ago, Julian Adams said:

@sharon thompson  When you save a jpg there is a slider in the dialog.  I pointed it out with a red arrow in my attached screen shot.  Higher Quality makes for a bigger file size.  The file size is shown too, so when saving to post on the forum,  you can adjust the slider to make sure your images are less than 300kb which is the maximum size allowed.  If I remember correctly Cassel recommends a quality setting of 12 as a general guideline but a little lower won't matter very much if that's what it takes to get your work at or below 300 kb.

Thanks for the help Julian. My optimizer box is set up a bit differently but it does the same thing. When I took my first PSP course, the first lesson was on how to set up the workspace, arrange all the icons, and what settings to establish as the usual ones to use. I never changed the compression rate after that and forgot all about it. Just goes to show that I really should have bought the PSP for Dummies book after all. Again, many thanks. Sharon

 

[Cassel]

@sharon thompson The difference with the compression is that you are likely using the File > Optimizer > JPG. In older versions of PSP, that was the only place to adjust the compression but since a few versions, it is available (like Julian illustrated) just in the Save as... dialog window when you choose jpg format.

@Harmony BirchThat is a fun way to combine different tools to create that background paper. And that font is so fun!

@Emerald JayAnother kitty picture. That background is great to showcase him.

@fiona cookThat is a very creative way to showcase that tree! It is fun to hear that you had two mask groups.

@Rene Marker Yes, when you have a sharp edge on a photo, it can be tricky. Depending on your preferences, you can consider placing an edge on the edge of the page, so that makes one less to worry about. But it won't always work out. Just an option to keep in mind *IF* it can work.

@bina greeneIs that "due today" actually written on the wall? 

@Julian AdamsThanks for your help about the compression. I had forgotten to point that out.

@Anne LampThat is a great idea to layer a colored version on a faded copy of the photo. The effect is very interesting.

@Gerry LandrethThat is such a cute tradition. I am sorry for your loss, but she surely would love to see you enjoy that dessert (free or not!)

@Donna Sillia Before reading your description, I thought you had used a sort of layered font! 

@Anja PelzerThose colors are so vibrant! It really makes that bird even more colorful! The layered papers really allow you to use a pattern that would otherwise be overpowering.

@Corrie KinkelThat extra paint splash is just one element but really suits that layout to emphasize the flowers.

@Bonnie BallentineYour adventures never cease to amaze me. There must never be a boring day for you!

[kasany]

L2. 

[Rene Marker]

8 hours ago, sharon thompson said:

Thanks for the help Julian. My optimizer box is set up a bit differently but it does the same thing. When I took my first PSP course, the first lesson was on how to set up the workspace, arrange all the icons, and what settings to establish as the usual ones to use. I never changed the compression rate after that and forgot all about it. Just goes to show that I really should have bought the PSP for Dummies book after all. Again, many thanks. Sharon

 

Sharon, I always use the JPG Optimizer that you show here. Like you that is how I learned to save images years ago. Now whether that was back in the 1990's when I first started with PSP or when I started digi-scrapping in 2007/2008, I'm not sure since I don't have the early versions to check! But I've been doing this for years and it has always worked well for me.

When I save my pspimage files using this, I set the compression value to 13 (always) and save to my folder for the images I will be printing. Since using this does not change the pspimage file by renaming it, I then resize it to 600x600. Then using the JPG Optimizer I adjust the compression value so that the Compressed number on top right reads between 200 and 250 kB then save the image to a folder set up for only 600x600 images.

The only time I use the "save as" is when I start a layout using a psd template so I can save it using the file name I want (and to not overwrite the psd template).

 

[Randy]

Day 1 - Yes, I am just getting started.

The pictures are from Creative Fabrica.

I saved the full size image also as pspimage as I should be able to change the pictures and add things as I want.

For the short term, there is a family member who loves cats and I am thinking of changing the cat pictures to actual pictures.

Thank you to all who are sharing their creations.

[Randy]

Day 2 

I really like what the background has done.

It looks really nice.

Thank you, Carole, for the turorial..

The Dog images are from Creative Fabrica.

[Anne Lamp]

My day 5. I did something different.  I used a heart brush set to white on the mask and also star shaped brush.  I then used the same heart brush set to white on a new layer and put it behind the mask group to make it show up better because it was on the dark background.  The moon pick is mine.  The background paper was created from a screenshot taken on an Explore.com live cam. It is so much fun to play play play.

[fiona cook]

27 minutes ago, Anne Lamp said:

My day 5. I did something different.  I used a heart brush set to white on the mask and also star shaped brush.  I then used the same heart brush set to white on a new layer and put it behind the mask group to make it show up better because it was on the dark background.  The moon pick is mine.  The background paper was created from a screenshot taken on an Explore.com live cam. It is so much fun to play play play.

Love the moon pic and the stars leading to it.

[fiona cook]

Lesson 5. I made a kaleidoscope pattern originally to use with my garlic photo but it didn't suit it. I was so fascinated though with the way the colours and shape from my original photo of an Easter cake worked in the pattern, I saved it for viewing. For my garlic photo: Brush tip ' Twirly Star. Text: Mama with white inner bevel and black shadow. Off to make my dinner now. Looking at garlic has made me hungry.

[Anne Lamp]

1 hour ago, Randy said:

Day 2 

I really like what the background has done.

It looks really nice.

Thank you, Carole, for the turorial..

The Dog images are from Creative Fabrica.

That plaid turned out great, and I agree it really sets off this page. 

[Doska St.]

Good evening,

phew, I don't understand why working in the layers is so complicated in PSP? In PI and PS you can work with each individual level separately. I don't understand what "floating" means and why you should constantly move a layer somewhere in between. That's when you get on your nerves. I was able to easily insert and edit the small photos in PI as a PSD file. I hope that the end result should look like this.

Titel: Girls & Horses

[Gerry Landreth]

Day 5.

The mask was made using Summer Punches from Cassel. The waves were made using the Waving script, also from Cassel. The beach background is from Pixabay.

I used the Sand Writing tutorial in the Campus to create the title. 

The "treasure" is my oldest great-nephew, Brelan who will be 16 in a couple of months. 

[Ann Seeber]

LESSON FOUR - MY CHILDHOOD HOME - I didn't get to do this in January so I used it for this mask lesson. The title fonts are am_intex for the decorated ones and Before the Rainbow for the san-serifs, treated with an inner bevel and shadowing. I found the bearded iris with Google Images and removed the background. The background paper is from Circle of Life mega kit.

Edited February 16 by Ann Seeber

[Marie-Claire]

DAY 3
Template: Lady22 (lady22.eklablog.com) - Butterfly: Janet Kemp (Digitalscrapbook) - Cluster: Jessica Dunn (Digitalscrapbook) - Wordart: Freebie (Creativefabrica)
The kaleidoscope patterns were always overpowering, so I solved it this way.

[Susan Ewart]

8 hours ago, Rene Marker said:

Sharon, I always use the JPG Optimizer that you show here. Like you that is how I learned to save images years ago. Now whether that was back in the 1990's when I first started with PSP or when I started digi-scrapping in 2007/2008, I'm not sure since I don't have the early versions to check! But I've been doing this for years and it has always worked well for me.

When I save my pspimage files using this, I set the compression value to 13 (always) and save to my folder for the images I will be printing. Since using this does not change the pspimage file by renaming it, I then resize it to 600x600. Then using the JPG Optimizer I adjust the compression value so that the Compressed number on top right reads between 200 and 250 kB then save the image to a folder set up for only 600x600 images.

The only time I use the "save as" is when I start a layout using a psd template so I can save it using the file name I want (and to not overwrite the psd template).

 

You are right on the money.  Doing what you are used to.  I am a "Save As" girl, which is how I learned with general computer stuff.  I must admit to cringing when I have to compress files.  Throwing away detail and pixels; might as well throw away all my money.  I'm a dinosaur, I think in terms of photography from back in the "film/slide" days.  I will compress to the least amount for the forum (Sorry Carole, I'm probably being a space hog) every time.  I don't limit myself to specific numbers since every layout is different, more compression is more loss of detail.  I get that it's just for the forum, but with such fabulous layouts (from everyone) I'd love to see them in all their detailed finery.  Not everyone posts on FB, I'm bad for even remembering to do that myself.  I also do that Rene, where I will open a template or image and if I do do shift D (because I'm too lazy to re-type the name when I do "Save As"), I'll just do Save As right away and usually I add WIP (Work in Progress) to the end so can find it right away.  When I'm finished I take the WIP off or I'll put FINAL in it's place.  I really enjoy seeing how everyone's work flow, flows, it's quite interesting to me.

[Susan Ewart]

8 hours ago, Randy said:

Day 1 - Yes, I am just getting started.

The pictures are from Creative Fabrica.

I saved the full size image also as pspimage as I should be able to change the pictures and add things as I want.

For the short term, there is a family member who loves cats and I am thinking of changing the cat pictures to actual pictures.

Thank you to all who are sharing their creations.

Randy, I love the cat pictures.  I have one that looks just like this.  I am way behind too (four days now).  It's been a long hard/physical work week and it's not over yet.  

[Susan Ewart]

5 hours ago, Anne Lamp said:

My day 5. I did something different.  I used a heart brush set to white on the mask and also star shaped brush.  I then used the same heart brush set to white on a new layer and put it behind the mask group to make it show up better because it was on the dark background.  The moon pick is mine.  The background paper was created from a screenshot taken on an Explore.com live cam. It is so much fun to play play play.

Stunning moon shot Anne!

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Marie-Claire said:

DAY 3
Template: Lady22 (lady22.eklablog.com) - Butterfly: Janet Kemp (Digitalscrapbook) - Cluster: Jessica Dunn (Digitalscrapbook) - Wordart: Freebie (Creativefabrica)
The kaleidoscope patterns were always overpowering, so I solved it this way.

PERFECT way to solve the Kaleidoscope!  It makes it look more like an art piece.  What a great idea.