Magazine Workshop 2025

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 2/19/2025 at 4:49 AM, Susan Ewart said:

I went to an open house for a Pit Mine in Canada and I remember how little the machinery looked when you down to the bottom of the pit.  Back at the main yard there was machinery such as we saw in the pit tour  and they were unbelievable huge.  This is very interesting.  have you been to Coober Pedy Opal mine?  That would be a cool place to see.  Although I  saw it's a heck of road to get there. I used to watch this show called "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe and he went there (he's from the US) and he even coined a song "On the Road to Coober Pedy"  It's hilarious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mLY2lSd9ig

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The video is not available in New Zealand, so I went to Mike Rowe's website and found it...haha, I can imagine that road to be dead boring! Same scenery for hours!

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 2/19/2025 at 1:57 PM, Susan Ewart said:

How cool that the houses are underground.  It's amazing that people can live there.  Water must be in short supply there. 

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The Great Artesian Basin is just 25 kilometres from Coober Pedy so their water will be pure and great tasting, I would think. I believe water is a problem in many places and Australia would have its fair share of water shortages during times of extreme heat, and, they do have extreme heat, often in some regions.

[Corrie Kinkel]

Day 3  Yosemite is famous for its many waterfalls that especially in spring are spectacular because of the amount of water they get from the melting snow in the mountains. I would have liked to include the thunderous sound they produce when you are near them. I had to make the photo area a bit larger to show the length of the falls to their full glory and I made a frame on this page to give it a bit more "body". Sometimes it is a struggle to get what I want in Affinity; just a frame but it took a while before I realized how to do it. The frame is nothing more than a rectangle with no fill and a stroke, simple ....... The good thing is that I probably won't forget this.

[DianeM]

@Corrie Kinkel - thanks for sharing how to make the frame. It does seem simple but also easy to forget!

Here's Page 3. I want to find another way to make the text standout on a busy background. I like having it directly on the photo but will choose a plainer one next time for this type of title.

[Harmony Birch]

Ok so finally ready to post day one. I am visiting my family in Cornwall so the topic for me is obvious, the number of photos available to me will increase as the week goes on. 

[Jean Naumann]

Here is a quick day 3 page.  With all the talk about Coober Pedy I couldn't resist going through my photos.  We visited Coober Pedy in August 2008 on our way home from a trip to the Red Centre.  So, here is the Underground Catholic Church.  Lots of houses are underground, it is fascinating, if the family grows, you can just dig out another room!  Later today I'll do another page on my Immigration theme.

[Harmony Birch]

And here's my day 2, the youngest grandchild at the seal Sanctuary with my sister.

[Clarine]

Page 2 done.  🙂 

[Art Kuiper]

My day 2 page. I am trying some things a bit different using the elements of lesson 3 and learning a lot more about PSP. Merci, Cassel.

[Harmony Birch]

And for day 3, today I got just the perfect picture for this technique

[Gerry Landreth]

Day 3. The font choice for the title is not the best for this. As we move through, I'll look for another one that fits better with all the pages.

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 2/19/2025 at 5:46 PM, DianeM said:

Here's page 2. Again in Affinity.

 

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Diane, I too, have watched these fearless bungee jumpers, many times. In Queenstown, there are places where people have jumped, on the Kawarau River, up off the Skippers Bridge, etc. My back is killing me, and I think from jumping out of perfectly good aeroplanes, so jumping from bridges, buildings etc, is not my thing!

[Jeni Simpson]

Day 2
Another photograph was taken from high above Roxburgh.
These cattle come down to the flat land when winter hits because it is cold and usually snowy up where they are.

[DianeM]

you're brave @Jeni Simpson! I could never jump out of a plane and barely like flying.

[Linda Rexford]

Day 3 We explored the hotel grounds and this is one of the things we found.

[Cassel]

@Carolyn Rye Glad you found a nice way to display your cover page without the frame. I guess the blue rectangle matches the blue in your photo for the Day 2 page.

@Euka I see you managed to get the text as you wanted. Can you remember what you did differently to get it to "work"?

@Cristina Your pages certainly look like a magazine! One common feature of magazine pages is the absence of shadows. Afterall, the pages are meant to look "printed" and not 3D.

@Jen Brown Thanks for the information about that quilt pattern. I guess the fabric around that central square are well matched and the seams don't show. That is what led me to believe that it was applique.

@Jacques If I can offer a suggestion on your page "Beaucoup de pièces à manipuler", it would be to adjust the width of the title to match the width of the image. It might look more "even". I am still looking forward to all those photos you will share!

@Lynda DiGregor It is an interesting idea to use a semi-transparent rectangle to add your text! I love the background paper for the Day 3 page. Is it something you created?

@DianeM You did a great job with the resizing of the template to fit what you need. If you feel like that frame is uneven on all sides (due to the resizing), you can always add a rectangle yourself and adjust for an even stroke and no fill. When adding text on top of a busy image, the font choice is important but also the color and the placement. 

@Rene Marker It is a good idea to add a little stroke on the white text. I don't know if it would work but have you tried to keep all the text outside of the image the same color as the top text?

@Connie Collier The two colors of the title look great! With the white background, it looks like it is cut out! Great effect!

@Art Kuiper Adding more text can surely look like a magazine!

@Donna Sillia That background paper looks like swiss cheese! Did you notice that?

@Anne Lamp Using the same background can help create a sense of cohesion between your pages.

@Corrie Kinkel For the frame, I went lazier: I just copied and pasted the frame from the cover! 😉

@Harmony Birch That will be a wonderful project with all personal photos like that. I am not sure if it has something to do with the resizing (maybe) but it looks like there is an additional thin frame that shows over your cover picture. On your page about Aunt Joanne, you seem to have a typo with the word "become".

@Jean Naumann I like the idea of "digging another room" as a family grows. Just trying to envision the process. Interesting.

@Clarine That story about Mingo is so cute. Did that nickname stick?

@Gerry Landreth The focus is on the process so you have all the opportunities to tweak your projects and practice more!

@Linda Rexford Have you tried the technique of using two colors for the text? Not that you HAVE to, but just as a practice.

I am so happy to see so many participants! Keep those pages coming! And if you have not started, it is not too late!

[Jean Naumann]

Had some time this afternoon to do another one, so here is my Day 3 on the Immigration theme.  I'm not sure I like the split colour of the title, maybe I just haven't got it in the right position. But it's a great thing to learn.

[Carolyn Rye]

Day 3 using PSP again.  As you can see, we loved our little fur baby Bundy.  I just wish I was a far better photographer because I could have had so many more photos of this darling little boy. I am enjoying being able to use text because it has always been one of my weak spots.  I try to take advantage of anything that will teach me more about using text.

[Carolyn Rye]

Day 3 with Affinity.  Love this photo of Bundy playing with his Kong.  He loved to play with all his toys whereas our other fur baby would prefer to sit with us.  She is not a very active dog.

As I said before with PSP I am not very good with Text.   I am not sure yet whether I prefer Affinity or PSP when it comes to using text.  Time will tell.

[Jenny MacKay]

  On 2/17/2025 at 1:10 PM, Jacques said:

Giant Puppet Walk that took place in Montreal in May 2017.

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The giants came to Perth, Western Australia on 14 Feb 2015, just about 10 years to the day. The pearl diver and the girl were very impressive. My grandchildren loved them. 

[Jenny MacKay]

  On 2/19/2025 at 10:02 AM, Jean Naumann said:

@Euka and @Susan Ewart I've been to Coober Pedy.  It is a really interesting place.  Not really anything like Kalgoorlie, in fact I don't think it's like any other place I've ever seen.  We were in our caravan, and at the caravan park we had to pay for showers. And to fill up our tanks we had to pay for water. And the houses are underground, and the temperature underground was so cool, it was sweltering on the ground level, but in the houses underground the temp was amazingly comfortable.  The landscape outside was like what you would expect to see on the moon. 

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Coober Pedy is amazing. A very unique place, nothing like it anywhere that I'm aware of. 

[Jenny MacKay]

I was away when the workshop started, so I'm just catching up now. This is my cover page for Day 1. 

[Euka]

@Cassel  I should have just closed down the pc at that time of night!   Nothing was going right.  But i have since finally figured out (a slow learner here 🙄) I didn't need to rasterize the text layer  - although I am still not sure why the font kept returning to default and the colour picker kept changing.  Also in the FX layer it is not enough to just tick the selection (outer shadow in this case)  BUT also actually click/select the word to active the areas to adjust. 

[Euka]

Day 3 - and the Two-Up Shed / School just out of Kalgoorlie -  they have games on Sundays.   For those not sure what 2 up is  it was very popular with Australians during the war and is legal only to play on ANZAC Day when it is played in Returned Servicemen's League (RSL) clubs and hotels..  I believe the Perth and Melbourne Casino are also licenced to play it.

The game itself is a total gamble that’s been around since the 1800s. A ‘spinner’ throws two pennies, two metres into the air using a wooden board. Anyone else can bet on whether they’ll land on heads or tails before they hit the ground. Pretty simple and very fast-paced.

[Ann Seeber]

  On 2/20/2025 at 12:50 AM, Harmony Birch said:

And for day 3, today I got just the perfect picture for this technique

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Wow, nice, Harmony! Tell me the name of that font, it is perfect for that layout!