Calendar Workshop 2025

[Julian Adams]

I'm here to see how much I remember from last year.  I'm really busy right now and I don't think I'll be able to keep up.  I have do one done.

Julian 

[Ann Seeber]

9 hours ago, Cassel said:

Oh, I think i see what you mean. You put the image in the central part of the mask, leaving the grey sections partially transparent. That means that the background paper will show through that transparency. Is that possible? 

Not really. As I said, I first merged the frame/mask/photo group, then I added a background paper underneath it in the layers. I was astonished when the background paper pattern showed on top (or through) the frame/mask/photo group.

[Ann Seeber]

5 hours ago, Cassel said:

I need to adjust the Kerning for that one character

Oh, I didn't know you could do that. It must be while it is still in vector format but how do you adjust it?

[Ann Seeber]

9 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

I didn't  do anything Ann. They are part of the mask. 

Funny, they are not showing on my May calendar I posted above...

[Sharla]

I’m using photos I’ve taken of flowers and plants. The dates have been created using Caroles Custom Calendar script – I’d already produced a calendar using these for 2025 so I saved a set as png files and am reusing them in this workshop. I have changed the colour of the days and will colour bank holiday dates blue. The month font is Century Schoolbook, Gautami for the dates.

January: The photo is of frost on a small conifer in my garden taken in January of this year. The background layer is a colour from the photo with a very light watercolour texture applied. 

 

[Sharla]

And for February I have used a photo of some winter aconite photographed on a cold February day in a churchyard.

 

[Julian Adams]

February.  These are coming out in unexpected ways!

[Julian Adams]

13 minutes ago, Sharla said:

I’m using photos I’ve taken of flowers and plants. The dates have been created using Caroles Custom Calendar script – I’d already produced a calendar using these for 2025 so I saved a set as png files and am reusing them in this workshop. I have changed the colour of the days and will colour bank holiday dates blue. The month font is Century Schoolbook, Gautami for the dates.

January: The photo is of frost on a small conifer in my garden taken in January of this year. The background layer is a colour from the photo with a very light watercolour texture applied. 

 

 

11 minutes ago, Sharla said:

And for February I have used a photo of some winter aconite photographed on a cold February day in a churchyard.

 

Lovely!

[Sue Thomas]

3 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Oh, I didn't know you could do that. It must be while it is still in vector format but how do you adjust it?

What I  tend to do is to duplicate the font, close the one and change the other to character shapes, making the adjustment manually. In my opinion the result is better. 

[Mary Solaas]

@Cassel I think you are right (as usual). Thank you. I've seen how various members have handled the days of the week and have decided to handle it by using the abbreviations since they are just 3 letters and will be easier to center over the blocks. Will take me a while to go back and redo the January's and February's and I have done one March so that one too. ONWARD!

 

[Sue Thomas]

3 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Funny, they are not showing on my May calendar I posted above...

I can't  think of an explanation, as to why you are not showing the same mask, unless it's due to 2023. I use 2022, for  the simple reason that 2023 has so many issues.

[Sue Thomas]

6 hours ago, Julian Adams said:

I love your font and colors.

I'm not at the  lap top, I  believe it's  called sparky dream. I like clean  legible fonts, not to frilly so to speak. More importantly legible for anyone to read.

[Sue Thomas]

9 hours ago, Cassel said:

@Susan EwartMinimalism looks great to focus on those lovely flowers.

@Sue Thomas You have the most photogenic models of all!

@MoniqueN. I think that we will have many more projects posted as the workshop gets closer to the end since all the tutorials will have been demonstrated. Looking forward to yours.

@Ann Seeber When using fancy glyphs on single characters, I noticed occasionally that it SEEMS to add a space, which can just be removed manually. Other times, I need to adjust the Kerning for that one character. I don't know if it is the case for yours, but something to check, just in case. I like those subtle papers you are using.

@Mary Solaas Have you considered centering the days of the week instead of aligning them to the left? I am not 100% sure, but I wonder if it would make them a little more balanced? Maybe not.

@Anne Lamp It is possible that the layers had been slightly shifted before saving them on my end, which might explain why some pages show a little line on the edge. At least, it is easy to fix by expanding the mask layer a tiny bit.

@Corrie Kinkel Hopefully, you will still have enough time to complete your pages and get them printed in time for the holidays.

@Donna Sillia On your February page, the decorative flower on the bottom corner has its light source coming from the right. Flip it horizontally and compare the shading.

Although I plan on making written tutorials in the form of blog posts, you can check out the webinar that I hosted for Corel, a few years ago. Maybe I could revisit it as a Master Class? What do you think?

 

 

I agree Carole, the models I  find to shoot are the best, saying that the majority aren't always cooperative to pose for a photo shoot. Those that are make the time and effort all the more rewarding. Lol

[Julian Adams]

I like this one better.

[Sue Thomas]

3 hours ago, Sharla said:

And for February I have used a photo of some winter aconite photographed on a cold February day in a churchyard.

 

I love the simplicity  and cleanness of your pages!

[Sue Thomas]

5 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Oh, I didn't know you could do that. It must be while it is still in vector format but how do you adjust it?

It  has to be a vector in order to make any adjustments.  In order to adjust the kening, you need to  highlight the  letter/letters you want to move.  

[Mary Solaas]

Well, I changed all the January :& February layouts (& the pspimages) so that the days of the week are abbreviated and centered. Works out well. The Arial Bold font that I am using doesn't show the small i very well. This is the March 2nd set page. I'm having trouble with the March 1st set since I am using St. Patrick's Day for the theme.

Edited October 24 by Mary Solaas

[Julian Adams]

17 hours ago, Donna Sillia said:

My finished (for now) Jan and Feb calendars. I changed the font to Royal Thailand from CF.

 

 

Those are very nice Donna! I was trying to remember how to get the little squares with the dates pop up like that. Used to know how to do it but I forgot. How do you do that?

 

 

[Michele]

I haven't been posting my progress because I know we have to go back to prior days as we learn more. I'll post them when we're all done. I love what you've all been doing. This is a great group.

[Julian Adams]

I asked Microsoft copilot AI to generate me an image of a leprechaun counting his gold at the end of the rainbow and this is what copilot gave me.  

 

@Cassel The image I had to work with was square but the window and the mask was a rectangle. Is there a way to edit the mask to make the opening in the middle be square without sacrificing any of the cool little squiggles that extend outside of the frame?

 

Edited October 24 by Julian Adams
several typos

[Donna Sillia]

11 hours ago, Cassel said:

@Susan EwartMinimalism looks great to focus on those lovely flowers.

@Sue Thomas You have the most photogenic models of all!

@MoniqueN. I think that we will have many more projects posted as the workshop gets closer to the end since all the tutorials will have been demonstrated. Looking forward to yours.

@Ann Seeber When using fancy glyphs on single characters, I noticed occasionally that it SEEMS to add a space, which can just be removed manually. Other times, I need to adjust the Kerning for that one character. I don't know if it is the case for yours, but something to check, just in case. I like those subtle papers you are using.

@Mary Solaas Have you considered centering the days of the week instead of aligning them to the left? I am not 100% sure, but I wonder if it would make them a little more balanced? Maybe not.

@Anne Lamp It is possible that the layers had been slightly shifted before saving them on my end, which might explain why some pages show a little line on the edge. At least, it is easy to fix by expanding the mask layer a tiny bit.

@Corrie Kinkel Hopefully, you will still have enough time to complete your pages and get them printed in time for the holidays.

@Donna Sillia On your February page, the decorative flower on the bottom corner has its light source coming from the right. Flip it horizontally and compare the shading.

Although I plan on making written tutorials in the form of blog posts, you can check out the webinar that I hosted for Corel, a few years ago. Maybe I could revisit it as a Master Class? What do you think?

 

 

Done! Thank you, Carole. I will have to be more alert when using AI.

[Donna Sillia]

33 minutes ago, Julian Adams said:

Those are very nice Donna! I was trying to remember how to get the little squares with the dates pop up like that. Used to know how to do it but I forgot. How do you do that?

 

 

Thank you, Julian. I am attach the bevel settings that I am using on the calendar squares. 

[Susan Ewart]

On 10/22/2024 at 10:46 PM, Sue Thomas said:

I like the idea of using the fading white gradient.  Like you I  will choose to use a subtle texture later on the background. Your photos are great. 

Thank you so much.  You have made my heart sing!

[Susan Ewart]

On 10/22/2024 at 11:18 PM, Sue Thomas said:

Cheers! It's a sunset. Although I  have and do use the calendar script, it's  quite quick and easy  to create my own dates/boxes. Carole demonstrate  creating calendar date boxes and more in her Corel you tube video.  I remember it because Carole uses some of my photos to demonstrate different layouts.

I have seen it I believe...and of course always meant to go back and try the techniques, then I see something shiny and forget all about it.  

[Susan Ewart]

On 10/23/2024 at 8:21 AM, Ann Seeber said:

Here are my preliminary March (Andean Bear) and April (Red Panda). I'm on a roll with papers as backgrounds...

Ooooh, I LOVE Red Pandas!  So sweet.