Calendar Workshop 2025

[Ann Seeber]

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

Edited Wednesday at 02:22 PM by Ann Seeber

[Mary Solaas]

My February in the 2nd set - Mardi Gras time!

[Mary Solaas]

I didn't like the background for February 2, so I created a gradient with  pale yellow and pale purple and used it for the background.

[Anne Lamp]

Here is my march after days 1 2 3  I went with font am-intex for the first letter and Lucida Calligraphy italic (that I plan to make more italic but forgot to do that before saving it) for the rest.   I also see I need to extend by lavender background a bit, or I assume that is why the left side is not right.

Edited Wednesday at 06:55 PM by Anne Lamp

[Ann Seeber]

@Cassel I have a question about the templates. The mask group seems odd in that the PHOTO HERE layer must be retained as it contains the design which underlays the frame. First time I've ever seen that. In the past you've advised to hide it or delete it, but you can't with these.  Also, the font Arial is displayed in POINTS rather than PIXELS on the templates. I get some odd size reactions when changing the font for the name of the month. Your videos show you using pixels, but they come out way too small on my PSP2023.

[Anne Lamp]

3 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

@Cassel I have a question about the templates. The mask group seems odd in that the PHOTO HERE layer must be retained as it contains the design which underlays the frame. First time I've ever seen that. In the past you've advised to hide it or delete it, but you can't with these.  Also, the font Arial is displayed in POINTS rather than PIXELS on the templates. I get some odd size reactions when changing the font for the name of the month. Your videos show you using pixels, but they come out way too small on my PSP2023.

I have noticed that too Ann and thought it was strange.

 

[Cassel]

9 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

@Cassel I have a question about the templates. The mask group seems odd in that the PHOTO HERE layer must be retained as it contains the design which underlays the frame. First time I've ever seen that. In the past you've advised to hide it or delete it, but you can't with these.  Also, the font Arial is displayed in POINTS rather than PIXELS on the templates. I get some odd size reactions when changing the font for the name of the month. Your videos show you using pixels, but they come out way too small on my PSP2023.

PHOTO HERE simply means to activate that layer to add your photo (which will be pasted just above it). That layer does not contain anything other than black so that you can see the effect of the mask above it. You can change it to any color if you want to see the impact. I could have chosen any other color than black. It is just for "visibility" purpose.

I am not sure what you mean by not being able to hide/delete that layer. I know PSP2023 has been a bit picky in that.

For the title size, which one are you looking at? Mine show in Pixels. It should be 200 pixels, but you can also adjust that based on the font you will use. 

[Sue Thomas]

23 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

@Cassel I have a question about the templates. The mask group seems odd in that the PHOTO HERE layer must be retained as it contains the design which underlays the frame. First time I've ever seen that. In the past you've advised to hide it or delete it, but you can't with these.  Also, the font Arial is displayed in POINTS rather than PIXELS on the templates. I get some odd size reactions when changing the font for the name of the month. Your videos show you using pixels, but they come out way too small on my PSP2023.

Ann with regard to the font being in points, all you need to do is to highlight the font and change to pixels if you prefer to work with pixels, as most of us do. All of mine are showing Bold pixels.  I don't quite understand what you are meaning when you say you delete the Photo here layer.  That layer can't and must not be deleted, it is needed.

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:18 PM by Sue Thomas

[Art Kuiper]

Hi All,

I could use some help with the Day 3 instructions. I am using PSP 2023 and I cannot select the Month as shown in the video. I bring a calendar blank into PSP and click on the Month layer. I open that month layer group so that both are selected and blue. Then I click on the T for text and the entire month (May in this case) is selected in a Pick box  (see Image Text 1). I have to double click on box to get rid of it. Then a vertical bar appears as in 'Text 2' but I cannot select the whole month or a single letter. 

Any suggestions on what I need to do?

 

[Sue Thomas]

Here is  May and June

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:29 PM by Sue Thomas

[Art Kuiper]

I'm OK now. It turns out that background colour is the same as the colour when a letter is selected. When I was did a background Fill with a different colour, the selected text in the month layer appeared. My bad.

[Sue Thomas]

6 minutes ago, Art Kuiper said:

Hi All,

I could use some help with the Day 3 instructions. I am using PSP 2023 and I cannot select the Month as shown in the video. I bring a calendar blank into PSP and click on the Month layer. I open that month layer group so that both are selected and blue. Then I click on the T for text and the entire month (May in this case) is selected in a Pick box  (see Image Text 1). I have to double click on box to get rid of it. Then a vertical bar appears as in 'Text 2' but I cannot select the whole month or a single letter. 

Any suggestions on what I need to do?

 

Art, go to the vector layer, and open it. Double click on the layer below, and the the bar showing in the screen shot will appear, you will then be able to edit that text.

[Cassel]

17 minutes ago, Art Kuiper said:

I could use some help with the Day 3 instructions. I am using PSP 2023 and I cannot select the Month as shown in the video. I bring a calendar blank into PSP and click on the Month layer. I open that month layer group so that both are selected and blue. Then I click on the T for text and the entire month (May in this case) is selected in a Pick box  (see Image Text 1). I have to double click on box to get rid of it. Then a vertical bar appears as in 'Text 2' but I cannot select the whole month or a single letter. 

Any suggestions on what I need to do?

One thing to remember is that when you highlight the text, it will show a grey background. Unfortunately (that would be on me) it is the same grey as the background.

One alternative is to Select All (Ctrl-A) as soon as you see the cursor appear. That will select the whole word and you can edit it.

But if you change the background color, it might show the highlighted text easier.

[Corrie Kinkel]

So far I have already seen great pages by you all, I'm becoming a bit jealous because just as this workshop started my week planning went topsy turvy and there are a lot of things coming my way at the same time which need my undivided attention. I know it isn't a contest and I have ample time to finish my calendars,

[Ann Seeber]

1 hour ago, Anne Lamp said:

I have noticed that too Ann and thought it was strange.

 

Oh, thanks, Anne. Glad I'm not alone. I can't figure out how to reproduce the effect so I can share it here. Those layers are definitely strange, though they work ok, just not as expected.

[Donna Sillia]

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

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:29 PM by Donna Sillia
To correct wrong calendar

[Ann Seeber]

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

PHOTO HERE simply means to activate that layer to add your photo (which will be pasted just above it). That layer does not contain anything other than black so that you can see the effect of the mask above it. You can change it to any color if you want to see the impact. I could have chosen any other color than black. It is just for "visibility" purpose.

I am not sure what you mean by not being able to hide/delete that layer. I know PSP2023 has been a bit picky in that.

For the title size, which one are you looking at? Mine show in Pixels. It should be 200 pixels, but you can also adjust that based on the font you will use. 

Here's an example of the strange effect from the mask group. I merged the mask/frame group and added a flowery paper as the background, under the group. As you can see, the paper ends up showing on TOP of the frame?? I decided to use a fill instead for May but I've used papers on my other months.

[Ann Seeber]

1 hour ago, Sue Thomas said:

Here is  May and June

 

Nice Sue. Wondering how you got those whisps on top of the photo/mask/frame?

[Cassel]

19 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

Here's an example of the strange effect from the mask group. I merged the mask/frame group and added a flowery paper as the background, under the group. As you can see, the paper ends up showing on TOP of the frame?? I decided to use a fill instead for May but I've used papers on my other months.

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? 

[Sue Thomas]

29 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

Nice Sue. Wondering how you got those whisps on top of the photo/mask/frame?

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

[Donna Sillia]

My March calendar. I wanted to honor the fact that they went to Thailand to play rugby. I used the woodburning technique for the Island of Phuket and a sign from CF. I made the background using red, white and blue, the colors of the Thai flag.

[Donna Sillia]

My April calendar. 

[Cassel]

@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?

 

 

[Julian Adams]

On 10/21/2024 at 8:05 PM, Susan Ewart said:

Jan and Feb

Thanks for the info on the line.  I got one on the Feb calendar too.  I don't even know how I fixed it, but I did.  I'm just happy I had some time tonight to work on this.

Gray is not a color I'd normally use but it looks perfect with the purple flowers

[Julian Adams]

On 10/22/2024 at 9:42 PM, Sue Thomas said:

Here is April.  Featuring the  Red Squirrel.

I love your font and colors.