Affinity Bootcamp - January 2025

[Sue Thomas]

  On 1/19/2025 at 9:18 PM, Rene Marker said:

Thanks. I didn't see those typos. My new glasses need to come in ASAP!!!

I made the corrections on my copy.

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You can always guarantee that Ann will  spot typing errors in layouts. Almost as if she is seeking them out. I'm  certain that isn't  the case though.  Lol. It is nice to have a resident proof reader.  When it comes to using American English  or British English, confusion  on which to use can cause an issue for some, like myself.  I always use British English,  correcting what   digital devices'  spell checkers recommend. As they tend to favour American English. 

Take my tut/tech comment. I used the word  practise, as that is the correct way to spell it when used as a verb, and practice when used as a noun. Yet in American English, it's  always spelt practice.

I use mitre, which is  the preffered  spelling in British English, and miter in American English. 

I notice  that many people will use both American and British spelling in their text. It's  only what I observe, and there isn't  any right or wrong in it.  The way I was taught English has stuck with me. I am not being in the least bit critical, merely pointing out the differences.

Edited January 20 by Sue Thomas

[Euka]

I learnt a lot while creating this layout and I ended up with around 40+ layers - I couldn't decide on papers 😞  One of the things I learnt which solved a frustrating problem I had creating the previous layout,  was the need to rasterize - so easy when you know the why and how!    Another discovery was,  when selecting layers to add shadows,  if you happen to select a layer by mistake then deselect it .. it deselects them all!  I like how adding a small pattern/tile can be created into a larger paper so easily.   The striped paper was made from a selection taken from each of the photos and manipulated (in PSP) I tried in AF but am not there yet for that.    The fonts used sweet child script, arial bold and asiyah script.  The elements were from my supplies.

[Ann Seeber]

  On 1/20/2025 at 2:42 AM, Cassel said:

I am not 100% sure but I am wondering if the middle photo you used has been squished. It just LOOKS like the seat is not as high as in the other photos.

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I reset the photo but it looks the same. It was deliberately used to show granddaughter Ilana & Maverick (Mom & Dad) trying to clean him up. That photo was from farther back. Not squished to my eye. The photos are all mine from my iPhone. The other two are from closer in. 

Edited January 20 by Ann Seeber
forgot the image

[Angela Tilghman]

Affinity is not too hard.  Just trying to remember the formatting differences.

[Julie Magerka]

  On 1/19/2025 at 11:29 PM, Saara said:

This is my page for Project 3.  As we had to use 3 photos this time, I used actual photos rather than one of my Affinity Photo creations.

Up until I was 8 my dad's mum and stepfather lived near Weston-Super-Mare (which is in Somerset in the south west of England) and we spent the first 2 weeks of June there each year.

I absolutely love this photo of my mum.  She would have been 35 at the time and a 6 year old me thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.  Our last holiday there was in the summer of 1974 and it was strange going back with my husband after all this time.  A lot has changed in 50 years, including the pier which had to be rebuilt after a fire in the 80's, but I had my heart set on recreating the photo my dad had taken of my lovely mum, along with our daughter who travelled up from Devon to join us for a day at the beach.

I really enjoyed putting this page together as it has huge sentimental value for me.  I used a couple of the scrapbooking sets I bought from Opticillusions on Etsy, Under The Sea and Under The Boardwalk, with the glitter layer, the rope and knots coming from Piixabay.

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This is a wonderful tribute and a real keepsake. Just love it.

[Julie Magerka]

  On 1/20/2025 at 7:41 AM, Sue Thomas said:

You can always guarantee that Ann will  spot typing errors in layouts. Almost as if she is seeking them out. I'm  certain that isn't  the case though.  Lol. It is nice to have a resident proof reader.  When it comes to using American English  or British English, confusion  on which to use can cause an issue for some, like myself.  I always use British English,  correcting what   digital devices'  spell checkers recommend. As they tend to favour American English. 

Take my tut/tech comment. I used the word  practise, as that is the correct way to spell it when used as a verb, and practice when used as a noun. Yet in American English, it's  always spelt practice.

I use mitre, which is  the preffered  spelling in British English, and miter in American English. 

I notice  that many people will use both American and British spelling in their text. It's  only what I observe, and there isn't  any right or wrong in it.  The way I was taught English has stuck with me. I am not being in the least bit critical, merely pointing out the differences.

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I still spell practice/practise and licence/license, etc. the way I learned it at school: noun or verb.

[Cristina]

Here is my Project#3

The layout is the same as in 2019, and the kit is again from "Kim Broedelet -Seaside Holiday," but I used different papers from then.

I added Blend Modes (Multiply and Contrast Negate) to achieve different colors.

Font: Canastra

 

Edited January 20 by Cristina

[Gerry Landreth]

Project 3 features River, Lynda (RIP), and Rudy. The papers and elements are from several places.

Carole: Thank you for clarifying the use of the Inner Shadow. Once I zoomed in, I could see the difference.

Edited January 20 by Gerry Landreth

[Linda J Walker]

I was working on Project #3 last night. When I was finished, I saw that Carole had already posted her comments for the day in the forum, so I decided I would wait and take another look at my project today...usually I can see typos and things to change if I step away for a bit. Today I did see some things to adjust, and I'm sure tomorrow I will see more 😆 But posting now anyway!

I don't remember who made the comment, but I will agree, Affinity has not crashed on me yet! That is a plus. PSP has made me learn to save often, sometimes every time I added or changed something. It doesn't really seem to matter which version I am working with, it will often just close down. If I have not saved the file, I am starting over. Affinity has not done that for me...I fear I am getting lazy about saving...

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 1/20/2025 at 12:57 AM, Cindy Sheets said:

Okay, I like to go off the rails in tutorials and tend not to follow exactly. I used Katie Pertiet Love of a Lifetime kit. The color picker was very annoying but might be because I was using a template and had to write my text over the template and then delete the template words.

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Cindy, do you mean sighting? The text needs to come to the top so we can see the full word.As it is, it looks like 'a Rare Signing' and I think you mean 'A Rare Sighting'

[Jeni Simpson]

Day 3

My first project.
Using Jessica Dunn's Behold Autumn and Behold Spring mini kits, Autumn for the gorgeous colour of the background, the strip was colourised to fit the paper used as background. The Behold Spring mini kit had the hearts and the branch.

I recently travelled to stay with friends at Mt Hope Station in Roxburgh, Central Otago. On the second day, our friends took us over the hills to the mustering hut about one and a half hours away by truck. The first buildings we saw was this ancient cottage set beside an orchard.

[Corrie Kinkel]

Project - 3

Because life was interfering the last couple of days I started all over with project 3. I'm getting used to the rasterize command and look at the little icon before I do something. I like the place command and how to make a pattern from a seamless tile. The dropdown list for the fonts is so much easier to read! Some things really are easier in Affinity.

All the papers and the flowers are from kits in Digital Scrapbook Blog train of Februari 2023 and the hummingbird is from the September 2024 Homecoming Blog train. The glitters are by cass-BR-03 and the metal flourish is by Chantahlia Design. Title font is Broadway with an innerglow instead of a shadow it is a bit like a bevel and the font for the quote is Lucinda Handwriting. For the background I used 2 papers and played around with the blendmodes and opacity until I got the color I wanted. There are more blendmode options then in PSP, nice because I like to use blendmodes.

[Jeni Simpson]

Project 2
On our travels around the farm, in December, we came across a few cows, with the odd bull amongst them. These cows had an amazing view of the Clutha River across the road from the farm. They were curious and came towards the truck, although not too close, they were used to the truck and more used to horses during mustering time.

I used Nellie Bell's Lion Kids papers for the three papers, and Jessica Dunn's pail and barn from her Charlottes Farm kit.

[Sue Thomas]

  On 1/20/2025 at 3:56 PM, Julie Magerka said:

I still spell practice/practise and licence/license, etc. the way I learned it at school: noun or verb.

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Although learned and learnt are correct and mean the same, learned is American English, whereas  learnt which is what I  use, is British English. Just saying. Lol

[Raymond]

Glitter?  No, not at a zoo.  Besides, I don't have any glitter.

So, I cut out a small section of grass from another photo and stretched it to blur and distort it.  I put a heavy shadow on the title to make it look more like blocks and to make it stand out.

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 1/21/2025 at 1:15 AM, Sue Thomas said:

Although learned and learnt are correct and mean the same, learned is American English, whereas  learnt which is what I  use, is British English. Just saying. Lol

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Our language is similar to yours, Sue, and I type using either UK or Australian English. I'm always getting hints to alter my text, and I choose to ignore it. Funnily enough, when I was in the US many years ago, I was asked what language I spoke. When I said English, I was told, you don't sound English! It wasn't long before I realised the person meant accent!

[Julie Magerka]

Only today did I have some time to watch the Affinity Bootcamp videos. So I've done three of them (so far) quickly. The first three layouts appear, with bloopers and omissions. But I wanted to be part of the journey. Carole's lessons are so very helpful for the tools we need to do layouts, which is different from many of the videos on YouTube and elsewhere. I like Affinity so far, but I've got a long way to go before it feels "natural".

[Carolyn Rye]

Project #3.  This one I did find hard because the photos I wanted to use were rectangular.  It was difficult to align these.  I tried so many different ways before I finally got one that looked ok.  I am still having problems trying to use the FX on multiple layers using the same effects.  I do not get the same effect options as Carole.  I will keep trying because obviously I am doing something incorrect.  I am definitely finding my way around Affinity Photo 2 now, but I still have a lot to learn.  I am finding some things better in Affinity but at the same time, somethings better in PSP.  

[Linda Rexford]

  On 1/20/2025 at 8:51 PM, Linda J Walker said:

I was working on Project #3 last night. When I was finished, I saw that Carole had already posted her comments for the day in the forum, so I decided I would wait and take another look at my project today...usually I can see typos and things to change if I step away for a bit. Today I did see some things to adjust, and I'm sure tomorrow I will see more 😆 But posting now anyway!

I don't remember who made the comment, but I will agree, Affinity has not crashed on me yet! That is a plus. PSP has made me learn to save often, sometimes every time I added or changed something. It doesn't really seem to matter which version I am working with, it will often just close down. If I have not saved the file, I am starting over. Affinity has not done that for me...I fear I am getting lazy about saving...

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Saving is important!  Affinity doesn't boot you out often, but it only takes one time to waste hours of work!  I tend to save my work as soon as I start the project.  Also, Bo is so cute!

[Cassel]

@Jacques Maybe to get your mice stand out more, you might want to replace the busy paper underneath them? That is likely why they are harder to see with that busy background.

@Jenny MacKayGreat layout to showcase fun photos. I have two suggestions if you don't mind. The text in the center might be enlarged. There is enough room and it would make it easier to read. The other detail is the sub-title you have under the title. If you add a shadow on the title, we assume it has thickness. If it does, you could now add a flat "handwritten" sub-title. Even having the subtitle overlap the edge of the paper would not be realistic. Could you put that sub-title all on the blue paper?

@Linda Rexford Awe!!! cute photos!! Great color for the glitter.

@Euka You won't lose points for using PSP for things you don't know how to do with Affinity. There are things you still don't know how to do in the new program. It will come but in the meantime, you just use some familiar tools while learning a new one.

@Ann Seeber I do see a slight difference in the photo on both pages: we see less of the adult's head on top. It not a lot but it does make a difference.

@Angela Tilghman Good sizing of the photos. Did you use the snapping? I love that (I was happy to see it appear in PSP2023 too!)

@Cristina Did you happen to use a pattern under the photos? or is it a texture?

@Gerry Landreth The look on the black cat is special!!! It looks like "What are you doing now?"

@Linda J Walker You are lucky that Affinity has not crashed on you. It has for me a few times. See how technology is so "all over the place" for different people? I don't know if there is anything similar to Auto-save in Affinity. I have not found anything yet. And yes, if you rely on it being "stable" and don't save, you might be stuck that one time it will crash, unexpectedly.

@Jeni SimpsonGreat start with your first layouts. Nothing complicated is needed to get acquainted with the program.

@Corrie KinkelIf you add an inner glow to give a bevel-like look, make sure you also add a shadow since it means there is thickness.

@Raymond If you had used the glitter tile with a small size, it would have just looked like a texture and NOT like glitter. You can try that sometime, in a future project. But using a different design is a good idea. It is just harder to have something seamless.

@Julie MagerkaGreat to see you catching up. You will get to it. I am glad my videos suit you as far as showing what is needed in scrapbooking projects.

@Carolyn RyeWhen you are not getting the same thing with the layer effects are you getting something different, or getting nothing at all?

As for spelling, I probably still make mistakes. My excuse is that English is NOT my first language. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it! 😉

Watch out for the 4th project tomorrow!

[Cindy Sheets]

Day 5: Okay, the flood background eraser is AWESOME! But, ugh, when I would copy the picture over to my project it didn't want to allow me to move it. I don't know what it kept selecting but I finally deselected enough times on the project and the picture that I was finally allowed to move it after it was pasted into the project. I am a bit partial to this, though the triangle and square are blah, but worked as my shapes for this project.

[Jeni Simpson]

Day 7 Project 3

I chose to stay at a lovely cottage, in Riverton on the south coast of the South Island of New Zealand, for my 70th birthday, a few years ago.

Riverton is a lovely peaceful town, settled by Scottish settlers including my great grandparents, who married there.

I loved the decor of the cottage. There were lots of blues with some pop of colour here and there.

The kit is Homecoming and the Sept2024 glitters.

 

[Sue Thomas]

  On 1/21/2025 at 1:51 AM, Jeni Simpson said:

Our language is similar to yours, Sue, and I type using either UK or Australian English. I'm always getting hints to alter my text, and I choose to ignore it. Funnily enough, when I was in the US many years ago, I was asked what language I spoke. When I said English, I was told, you don't sound English! It wasn't long before I realised the person meant accent!

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I had the same when I  moved to Canada. Having a strong Welsh accent, I  was  frequently asked  and still asked to this day by strangers,  are you English,  Australian, even South African.  You'd  be surprised  how many North Americans there are that have never heard of Wales, yet alone know that it is a country,  which is part  of the UK.  

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 1/21/2025 at 6:07 AM, Sue Thomas said:

I had the same when I  moved to Canada. Having a strong Welsh accent, I  was  frequently asked  and still asked to this day by strangers,  are you English,  Australian, even South African.  You'd  be surprised  how many North Americans there are that have never heard of Wales, yet alone know that it is a country,  which is part  of the UK.  

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Surely they have heard of Shirley Bassey or Tom Jones?

[Cindy Sheets]

  On 1/20/2025 at 8:52 PM, Jeni Simpson said:

Cindy, do you mean sighting? The text needs to come to the top so we can see the full word.As it is, it looks like 'a Rare Signing' and I think you mean 'A Rare Sighting'

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Yes, I see that the layers need adjusting. This is just a throw away for the workshop