What are you working on (in September 2024)?

[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 monthly Wild Cat Calendar for September featuring the Iberian Lynx. The text is small so I'm posting it here, also:

"The Iberian lynx, a wild cat that used to be common across the whole of the Iberian Peninsula which includes Portugal and Spain, but from the 1960s its numbers plummeted. Habitat loss, poaching and road accidents all helped to push the species to the brink of extinction.
"Now, the cat is coming back according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The increase is largely thanks to conservation efforts that have focused on increasing the abundance of its main food source - the also endangered wild rabbit, known as European rabbit. 
Programs to free hundreds of captive lynxes and restoring scrublands and forests have also played an important role in ensuring the lynx is no longer endangered.
"Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, a coordinator responsible for leading the conservation action, described it as the "greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation."

Arial font used throughout. Photo of lynx modified by Art Media Pencil behind calendar grid.
Information from BBC News. I posted this full size (8.5x11) on Scrapbooking with PaintShop Pro on Facebook if you want to print it.

[Julie Magerka]

I have only sporadically worked with PSP over the last couple of weeks. And I was not satisfied with anything I attempted to do. Watching yesterday's Master Class made me feel more connected again. Then, in one of those moments that sometimes happens, I came across some info and pix of the "Galapagos Island" of the Indian Ocean with its rare botanical specimens found no where else. Of course, as is the case everywhere, this unique place is under threat due to many factors, including its location in a geopolitical hotspot.

I had never heard of this island before. There must be some fortunate and intrepid travellers in the world who have gone there. I won't be going, but it's dazzling to see the many images available. The trees alone are worth looking at. Dragon's Blood and Desert Rose to name just two unusual ones (pictured in layout).

And I know my shadow on the tag is a bit wonky. But I did what I could to make it appear a little lifted.

Edited September 2 by Julie Magerka

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Template 6 by Lady 22. She has started sharing some of her templates at Digital Scrapbooking. She also shares on her own web site. Word art, paw prints and paw print heart from Creative Fabrica. This is Poppy as a kitten. She is now 12.

 

[Julie Magerka]

I was fortunate to receive a recent photo of my great-nephew who is about to start his Aviation School training (his long-term dream) at Sault College in Northern Ontario. As always, more challenging to make a "male" layout, but I can live with this version. He has worked so hard and done so much preparation for this venture.

[Susan Ewart]

Lab 14-9 or Sketch 13, you decide.

I started out doing something for the sketch challenge and ended up watching the tutorials for the most recent Lab (14-9).  the items are:

• Striped Ribbon (2)
• Tight Diagonal

The Striped Ribbon turned into the frame around the outer edge.   I added a texture (blinds) and some noise and then duplicated and made a frame that I beveled.  This is a quick and very easy to do tutorial.  I kept my layers separate so I could decide on the background color (dark green looked better than white - it looks like black lines in the frame, but it's actually a dark green).

The Tight Diagonal is really cool and easier than I expected.  I did graphic of a hawk line drawing I found at Creative Fabrica.  Then I used a blend mode and lowered the opacity as it was really busy and dark.  Remember this tutorial when you do the Build A Kit next year, it will make for great papers. 

The hawk flying in and the hawk head are from Creative Fabrica and I changed the color of the feather on the head, used a blend mode, lowered the opacity and used the eraser tool to grunge it up a bit.  Fonts are from Creative Fabrica; Gravity Wanders (Title and the journaling) and Gudea (yellow quote), Gudea might not be from CF.  Background paper is Brook Gazarek (Digital Scrapbook).

The birdbath I had took off the pedestal for a crow that had a bad leg a month ago. It turned out to be the favorite of the birds and squirrel this yr.  This hawk flew in and stayed in the bath (it was hot out) for more than 20 minutes.  The magpies gathered and watched very intently and then a lone little blue jay flew in to a branch 3 feet above the hawk and gave it a good talking too.  All the birds were well behaved as this was big bird.  When the Merlin flies in, the magpies endlessly taunt it and nip at the tail feathers.  It's a much smaller bird. It was very exciting.  I don't know what kind of hawk it is.   

[Susan Ewart]

here is the outline version of the what the Tight Diagonal looks like.  I would be a very busy paper at that size.  

[Susan Ewart]

Here's what the tile looks like and I colored just the hawks by selecting (magic wand -opacity) the transparent parts and inverting the selection, then flood filled on separate layer with a gradient.  

[Julie Magerka]

12 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Lab 14-9 or Sketch 13, you decide.

I started out doing something for the sketch challenge and ended up watching the tutorials for the most recent Lab (14-9).  the items are:

• Striped Ribbon (2)
• Tight Diagonal

The Striped Ribbon turned into the frame around the outer edge.   I added a texture (blinds) and some noise and then duplicated and made a frame that I beveled.  This is a quick and very easy to do tutorial.  I kept my layers separate so I could decide on the background color (dark green looked better than white - it looks like black lines in the frame, but it's actually a dark green).

The Tight Diagonal is really cool and easier than I expected.  I did graphic of a hawk line drawing I found at Creative Fabrica.  Then I used a blend mode and lowered the opacity as it was really busy and dark.  Remember this tutorial when you do the Build A Kit next year, it will make for great papers. 

The hawk flying in and the hawk head are from Creative Fabrica and I changed the color of the feather on the head, used a blend mode, lowered the opacity and used the eraser tool to grunge it up a bit.  Fonts are from Creative Fabrica; Gravity Wanders (Title and the journaling) and Gudea (yellow quote), Gudea might not be from CF.  Background paper is Brook Gazarek (Digital Scrapbook).

The birdbath I had took off the pedestal for a crow that had a bad leg a month ago. It turned out to be the favorite of the birds and squirrel this yr.  This hawk flew in and stayed in the bath (it was hot out) for more than 20 minutes.  The magpies gathered and watched very intently and then a lone little blue jay flew in to a branch 3 feet above the hawk and gave it a good talking too.  All the birds were well behaved as this was big bird.  When the Merlin flies in, the magpies endlessly taunt it and nip at the tail feathers.  It's a much smaller bird. It was very exciting.  I don't know what kind of hawk it is.   

Great photo! Nice work on the elements too.

Whenever a hawk enters the airspace here, every other critter disappears!

 

Edited September 4 by Julie Magerka

[Corrie Kinkel]

12 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Here's what the tile looks like and I colored just the hawks by selecting (magic wand -opacity) the transparent parts and inverting the selection, then flood filled on separate layer with a gradient.  

Very nice way to use the tutorial Tight Diagonal and so different from the one that was in the tut. Love your photo of the hawk taking a bath to cool off!

[Susan Ewart]

5 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Great photo! Nice work on the elements too.

Whenever a hawk enters the airspace here, every other critter disappears!

 

Even the pigeons stayed up on the power lines.  the hawk was look around and up at his audience.  All birds except the blue jay were just chillin' .  I thought it was weird.  The merlin flew in the next day and the it had 6 magpies in tow and they kept darting at it and picking at it's tail feathers until it left, about 1 minute later.  The merlin is quite small but a real power house hunter and if it's flying around the school field the my house backs onto, the magpies are on high alert (Merlins eat the magpies chicks).  

[Corrie Kinkel]

I had a lot of pictures from our recent stairs renovation and wanted to do something with them. I tried different templates and in the end decided on cass-Hanging Photos 2 template because it had the number of photos that I wanted. The background is made from 2 "wood" papers from 2 different kits by Jessica Dunn and blended together just as the journal card. The stairs and the carpenter sticker I found on kisspng; the glue bottle is from a DIY-kit by Chantahlia Design. I like the Lab 14-09 tutorials and made a tight diagonal with the € sign instead of the $ sign, not all fonts have that €! I think that are probably older fonts and the euro currency is only since 1999 in existence. Our new stairs didn't came cheap and therefore I wanted that € for this layout. But in the end it was way to overpowering and I made a flairbutton out of it. Last I made a striped ribbon, also Lab 14-09 with a very faint blinds texture and used it for a frame. It has become a whole list.....

[Ann Seeber]

10 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

I had a lot of pictures from our recent stairs renovation and wanted to do something with them. I tried different templates and in the end decided on cass-Hanging Photos 2 template because it had the number of photos that I wanted. The background is made from 2 "wood" papers from 2 different kits by Jessica Dunn and blended together just as the journal card. The stairs and the carpenter sticker I found on kisspng; the glue bottle is from a DIY-kit by Chantahlia Design. I like the Lab 14-09 tutorials and made a tight diagonal with the € sign instead of the $ sign, not all fonts have that €! I think that are probably older fonts and the euro currency is only since 1999 in existence. Our new stairs didn't came cheap and therefore I wanted that € for this layout. But in the end it was way to overpowering and I made a flairbutton out of it. Last I made a striped ribbon, also Lab 14-09 with a very faint blinds texture and used it for a frame. It has become a whole list.....

Wow, your Euro flairbutton looks very handsome! Nice use of the hanging photos layout. I use it a bit, myself.

[Cristina]

On 9/2/2024 at 7:51 PM, Julie Magerka said:

And I was not satisfied with anything I attempted to do

Julie, this sounds familiar... 🙂 

I like the layout and the grungy look very much.

[Cristina]

On 9/3/2024 at 3:10 AM, Bonnie Ballentine said:

Template 6 by Lady 22. She has started sharing some of her templates at Digital Scrapbooking. She also shares on her own web site. Word art, paw prints and paw print heart from Creative Fabrica. This is Poppy as a kitten. She is now 12.

 

Poppy is so beautiful, and by the look, she seems to be so sweet. You created a lovely layout, Bonnie.

I like Lady 22's templates; they always have a mask. 

[Cristina]

On 9/4/2024 at 4:41 AM, Susan Ewart said:

Lab 14-9 or Sketch 13, you decide.

I started out doing something for the sketch challenge and ended up watching the tutorials for the most recent Lab (14-9).  the items are:

• Striped Ribbon (2)
• Tight Diagonal

The Striped Ribbon turned into the frame around the outer edge.   I added a texture (blinds) and some noise and then duplicated and made a frame that I beveled.  This is a quick and very easy to do tutorial.  I kept my layers separate so I could decide on the background color (dark green looked better than white - it looks like black lines in the frame, but it's actually a dark green).

The Tight Diagonal is really cool and easier than I expected.  I did graphic of a hawk line drawing I found at Creative Fabrica.  Then I used a blend mode and lowered the opacity as it was really busy and dark.  Remember this tutorial when you do the Build A Kit next year, it will make for great papers. 

The hawk flying in and the hawk head are from Creative Fabrica and I changed the color of the feather on the head, used a blend mode, lowered the opacity and used the eraser tool to grunge it up a bit.  Fonts are from Creative Fabrica; Gravity Wanders (Title and the journaling) and Gudea (yellow quote), Gudea might not be from CF.  Background paper is Brook Gazarek (Digital Scrapbook).

The birdbath I had took off the pedestal for a crow that had a bad leg a month ago. It turned out to be the favorite of the birds and squirrel this yr.  This hawk flew in and stayed in the bath (it was hot out) for more than 20 minutes.  The magpies gathered and watched very intently and then a lone little blue jay flew in to a branch 3 feet above the hawk and gave it a good talking too.  All the birds were well behaved as this was big bird.  When the Merlin flies in, the magpies endlessly taunt it and nip at the tail feathers.  It's a much smaller bird. It was very exciting.  I don't know what kind of hawk it is.   

Great photo and great layout, Susan.

[Cristina]

On 9/1/2024 at 1:53 PM, Ann Seeber said:

Here's my monthly Wild Cat Calendar for September featuring the Iberian Lynx. The text is small so I'm posting it here, also:

"The Iberian lynx, a wild cat that used to be common across the whole of the Iberian Peninsula which includes Portugal and Spain, but from the 1960s its numbers plummeted. Habitat loss, poaching and road accidents all helped to push the species to the brink of extinction.
"Now, the cat is coming back according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The increase is largely thanks to conservation efforts that have focused on increasing the abundance of its main food source - the also endangered wild rabbit, known as European rabbit. 
Programs to free hundreds of captive lynxes and restoring scrublands and forests have also played an important role in ensuring the lynx is no longer endangered.
"Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, a coordinator responsible for leading the conservation action, described it as the "greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation."

Arial font used throughout. Photo of lynx modified by Art Media Pencil behind calendar grid.
Information from BBC News. I posted this full size (8.5x11) on Scrapbooking with PaintShop Pro on Facebook if you want to print it.

Great work, Ann. I always learn something from your Wild Cat Calendar.

[Cristina]

13 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

I had a lot of pictures from our recent stairs renovation and wanted to do something with them. I tried different templates and in the end decided on cass-Hanging Photos 2 template because it had the number of photos that I wanted. The background is made from 2 "wood" papers from 2 different kits by Jessica Dunn and blended together just as the journal card. The stairs and the carpenter sticker I found on kisspng; the glue bottle is from a DIY-kit by Chantahlia Design. I like the Lab 14-09 tutorials and made a tight diagonal with the € sign instead of the $ sign, not all fonts have that €! I think that are probably older fonts and the euro currency is only since 1999 in existence. Our new stairs didn't came cheap and therefore I wanted that € for this layout. But in the end it was way to overpowering and I made a flairbutton out of it. Last I made a striped ribbon, also Lab 14-09 with a very faint blinds texture and used it for a frame. It has become a whole list.....

I guess renovations are never cheaper; one thinks they will cost a lot, but they end up costing much more. 

Corrie, great work with the layout ( this script is great) and the flair button.

 

[Bonnie Ballentine]

18 minutes ago, Cristina said:

Poppy is so beautiful, and by the look, she seems to be so sweet. You created a lovely layout, Bonnie.

I like Lady 22's templates; they always have a mask. 

Thank you, Cristina. She's a little manipulor and I fall for it everytime!

[Susan Ewart]

17 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

I had a lot of pictures from our recent stairs renovation and wanted to do something with them. I tried different templates and in the end decided on cass-Hanging Photos 2 template because it had the number of photos that I wanted. The background is made from 2 "wood" papers from 2 different kits by Jessica Dunn and blended together just as the journal card. The stairs and the carpenter sticker I found on kisspng; the glue bottle is from a DIY-kit by Chantahlia Design. I like the Lab 14-09 tutorials and made a tight diagonal with the € sign instead of the $ sign, not all fonts have that €! I think that are probably older fonts and the euro currency is only since 1999 in existence. Our new stairs didn't came cheap and therefore I wanted that € for this layout. But in the end it was way to overpowering and I made a flairbutton out of it. Last I made a striped ribbon, also Lab 14-09 with a very faint blinds texture and used it for a frame. It has become a whole list.....

Fabulous Corrie!  Lab 14-9 is good one isn't it?  Like Ann said, the flair button looks great.  The striped paper (2) is going to be really good for frames, I also used the blinds texture, it makes it look like a thick ribbon.  I like the colors you used in the striped paper.  And, your placement of the stairs is neat, it reminds me a bit of the game, snakes and ladders.  Your new stairs look great.

[Corrie Kinkel]

2 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Fabulous Corrie!  Lab 14-9 is good one isn't it?  Like Ann said, the flair button looks great.  The striped paper (2) is going to be really good for frames, I also used the blinds texture, it makes it look like a thick ribbon.  I like the colors you used in the striped paper.  And, your placement of the stairs is neat, it reminds me a bit of the game, snakes and ladders.  Your new stairs look great.

Thanks and those stairs reminded me of that game too. I even considered placing more of them in that manner, but in the end decided against it because it became way to much. I think as it is so easy to make a striped paper and use it as a ribbon I will probably make more of those with the colors of the layout I'm working on. A bow or knot will also look nice.

 

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Thanks and those stairs reminded me of that game too. I even considered placing more of them in that manner, but in the end decided against it because it became way to much. I think as it is so easy to make a striped paper and use it as a ribbon I will probably make more of those with the colors of the layout I'm working on. A bow or knot will also look nice.

 

I agree a bow/knot will look great.  a technique that fast to do, to make an element, can really personalize the layout.  What I really like too, is that you can make so many elements with both the striped ribbon (2) and the tight diagonal and then add different textures and techniques to it.  I think I'll start a list of tutorials to remember for when Build A Kit comes around again.  

[Bonnie Ballentine]

My friend, Maryann, is a self taught cookie decorator. I think her work is amazing. I gave her the car cookie cutter, thinking she might use it for weddings. She created a completely different design and turned it into a pickleball car! She also made this cookie when a new pickleball venue opened here. She used the company colors and changed the wording, etc. Needless to say, they loved it!

Heart cookie cutter by Brooke Gazarek at Digital Scrapbooking. Turner and rolling pin by Jessica Dunn, Baking Days at Digital Scrapbooking.

[Corrie Kinkel]

4 hours ago, Bonnie Ballentine said:

My friend, Maryann, is a self taught cookie decorator. I think her work is amazing. I gave her the car cookie cutter, thinking she might use it for weddings. She created a completely different design and turned it into a pickleball car! She also made this cookie when a new pickleball venue opened here. She used the company colors and changed the wording, etc. Needless to say, they loved it!

Heart cookie cutter by Brooke Gazarek at Digital Scrapbooking. Turner and rolling pin by Jessica Dunn, Baking Days at Digital Scrapbooking.

Those cookies are a joy to see and look yummy too but it is almost a shame to eat them 🍪 

[Susan Ewart]

This was a quickie for one of my best friends (since we were 12 yrs old!).  She recently moved to Scotland (7 hours ahead of me), and I left it until the last moment - life happens, right?  She loves birds and puzzles and all the silly stuff I wrote about.  I used 3 different puzzles and a HUGE THANK YOU to Carole for helping with an issue.  They are really fun to play with.  And good if you need to do a layout quickly (although no layout is ever quick for me).  Fonts are Gravity Wanders (CF) and Alex Brush (from a freebie sight).  And I re-used the tight diagonal paper from the Lab 14-9.