Template Workshop 2025

[Lynda DiGregor]

[Linda Rexford]

Day 6.  What's more fun for cats than a paper bag?!  

The flowers are from Digital Scrapbooking.  The papers came from CF.

The fonts are Cute Cats and Elephant.

[Carolyn Rye]

22 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

 Outstanding layout! I have to inquire, were the photos of paintings or is that an effect that you applied?

@Ann SeeberThe photo with the Car at the bottom right is a mural painting on a building.  The other two are photos. Many of the building in the small town in South Australia have beautiful murals on them.  They look beautiful.

Edited April 30 by Carolyn Rye

[Jenny MacKay]

I'm behind with these, I'll do what I can tonight, but then I'm going away for a few days. 

[Cristina]

18 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

 I finally finished my Day 7 assignment for PSP. Here is my Community Cat Crew, including the elusive Black Beauty, who is new. The title font is Dingo Nursery. The papers are from Jessica Dunn. Everyone but Batman is scheduled for TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) towards the end of May when there's room at Tara, the rescue vet. They'll also get their vaccinations and parasite treatment. I think at least one is possibly pregnant but we have over 2 months gestation so we may catch it in time. My Brandy was in the same boat. I'm not sure about Beauty as he/she appears to be a full adult and even someone's lost pet since he/she wants to get in the house and be petted*. Definitely not a fearful feral. I have put him/her out to the local Lost Pet website.  We'll see what happens.

*My 3 indoor cats would object to a visitor.

Very nice layout, Ann! And beautiful cats!

 

[Jenny MacKay]

Here's my Lesson 4.

[Cristina]

12 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

With so many wonderful posts in this thread (nearly 400!), I have not been able to keep up. I couldn't participate this time. But I'm getting back (slowly) to a more normal pace of life. So many things going on with family issues, all rather time-consuming and exhausting (and completely beyond my control).

I somehow have held the opinion that layouts need to be happy and upbeat (flowers, butterflies, unicorns, etc.) to celebrate all the big things in life. But I see layouts on many sites and, while many are like that, others are more mundane, and some are quite sad or soulful as they express darker emotions which are part of daily life too.

Everyone who has posted in this Workshop has done a great job. You've sure kept Carole busy keeping up!

Julie, if you subscribe to Lynn Grieveson’s newsletter, you probably noticed that she mentioned starting to document the not-so-happy moments in her pages.

She didn’t specify the problem, but it was very severe. Only recently did she decide to scrapbook about those feelings. For her, it was therapeutic.

For me, it’s a personal decision, and any event meaningful to someone is okay to scrap, whether small or big.

[MoniqueN.]

19 hours ago, Lynda DiGregor said:

Template Workshop Background and frame by Marisa of Creative Fabrica, template  cass template from the Workshop

Photos are mine and I really don't know what kind of flowers. If anyone knows what they are, let me know.

 

 

 

 

 

Helenium I think 🙂

[Jeni Simpson]

Template 7
Affinity 2.6
These two little sweethearts are a friend's grandchildren, Poppy and Ruby.
Poppy was so happy to hear she was getting a new baby, she happily gave up her nursery and helped redecorate for her sister.

Kit is Billie Irene's Collected Curiosities 2, and the fonts are Kirsten ITC and Scarletta Script.

I think this is the last one for me. Thank you, Carole for the fabulous tutorials, templates, and comments. It has been amazing seeing everyone's wonderful ideas.

Edited May 2 by Jeni Simpson

[MoniqueN.]

Lesson 7 Affinity

This isn't my best work, but I had so much fun discovering things! 🙂

[Susan Ewart]

On 4/27/2025 at 10:31 AM, Cassel said:

It is barely another "software". It is way more advanced, and it is something that already exists (open-source, so it is free). I don't know how it could be integrated directly into a script (not even sure if they speak the same language), but I have used this "workaround" in the script for Embroidered Patch. That is the first time I used that process (given to me by LeviFiction). Potrace is very stable and might have other uses. The only use I know (and use) is to convert a selection to a vector path. That is something we had asked Corel multiple times, without success.

Thank you, I appreciate the explanation of what the program is.  

[Susan Ewart]

On 4/27/2025 at 9:16 PM, Linda Rexford said:

Have you watched any videos for Affinity Designer?  That is what I started with when I switched to Affinity because I wanted to create things with vectors.  To me, AD is easier to work with vectors than PSP.  I was in a forum for Affinity and we had tutorials on how to create a lot of things and it was great.  Very much like this forum with Carole and PSP.  Unfortunately the Affinity forum is gone.  

I haven't but now I'm putting on the 'to-do' list.  thank you.  I know when I buy it, I'll buy the suite because one day I might actually learn it...along with a couple other programs I want to learn.  I hope I live till I'm 150, because that's how Iong I need to learn them all.

[Susan Ewart]

On 4/28/2025 at 6:46 AM, Marie-Claire said:

Day 3
font : Comica Boom

Papers : CristinaCarabi-Tenebris

Yay! Marie-Claire is back in the Campus!  So happy to see you and Poncho again, with beautiful layouts.

 

[Susan Ewart]

18 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

With so many wonderful posts in this thread (nearly 400!), I have not been able to keep up. I couldn't participate this time. But I'm getting back (slowly) to a more normal pace of life. So many things going on with family issues, all rather time-consuming and exhausting (and completely beyond my control).

I somehow have held the opinion that layouts need to be happy and upbeat (flowers, butterflies, unicorns, etc.) to celebrate all the big things in life. But I see layouts on many sites and, while many are like that, others are more mundane, and some are quite sad or soulful as they express darker emotions which are part of daily life too.

Everyone who has posted in this Workshop has done a great job. You've sure kept Carole busy keeping up!

I'm glad to hear you are back to a more normal pace.  I am going dark for the next week probably to wrap up the wedding card stuff.  After I get over the silly stomach bug I had (first time sick in over 7 yrs - I'm such a baby at it now).  I am looking forward to "normal" again and creating for myself and not for someone else.  

[Susan Ewart]

12 hours ago, Linda Rexford said:

Day 6.  What's more fun for cats than a paper bag?!  

The flowers are from Digital Scrapbooking.  The papers came from CF.

The fonts are Cute Cats and Elephant.

this is so sweet.  My cats love a paper bag or a box (if I fits, I sits).  

[Susan Ewart]

Lesson 4 - PSP

Photos are  mine.  The crow is sitting beside the sun.  It was the summer of wildfires and the sun was a white orb in the sky that you could actually look at, very surreal.  the original color is actually a desaturated brown but I changed the color balance to give it blue hue to match page,

Fonts are: Carmina Blk BT (title) and Castello Signature.  Probably from Creative Fabrica, one could be from Google fonts that came with FontBase that I use.  

I hope to get to the last 3 lesson this week, but it's a busy one with a big (to long ongoing) project that will finish by Sunday.  

[Cassel]

On 4/28/2025 at 3:06 AM, fiona cook said:

I've noticed when using the ClipTo It script, if the placeholder is in grey it is automatically turned to black and white mask layers.

Yes, that is on purpose because the level of grey that is commonly used in templates have no actual meaning. Some designers might set that placeholder to be black, others will set it to white, or grey. Some templates even have colors and it is just for "the look" of the template without any real meaning as far as transparency.

@Marie-Claire and @Bonnie Ballentine Glad to see your layouts, even if you started late. You really caught up!

@Julian Adams Most of the tutorials will be using Affinity Photo, but, in a future workshop, we will HAVE to use Affinity Designer to complete some tasks. The current version is 2.6.2 for the suite.

@Connie Collier I wonder if you might have either forgotten or hidden the shadows on the Floribunda layout. They are there in the Before the rain one.

@Hank Sobah That is correct. Corel has decided to no longer develop PaintShop Pro (and VideoStudio too). All the programmers who used to work on PSP were let go. And even the one, in Ottawa, who was in charge of the PSP page on their site (with the freebies) and their newsletter, was let go. There was no OFFICIAL announcement, but with all those layoffs and the fact that the beta-testing team was dismantled completely last year all leads to that "unofficial" state. Will they change their mind in 5-10 years? Would another company buy PSP to develop it? Nobody has a crystal ball.

@Linda RexfordCats love paper bags (and boxes). One of my cat discovered that potatoes make for a good toy: they roll, they make some noise, and move irregularly, and they can be clawed. When I accidentally dropped a potato, he played with it for such a long time, it became a habit of dropping a small potato whenever I would need to peel them, just for him!

@Jenny MacKayThose are wonderful sculptures. I had never heard of them!

I won't do any daily feedback but if you have more layouts to post, go ahead. We have a large audience to show to! But if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask as I get a notification of every single post.

[Connie Collier]

5 minutes ago, Cassel said:

@Connie Collier I wonder if you might have either forgotten or hidden the shadows on the Floribunda layout. They are there in the Before the rain one.

Indeed, I forgot them and didn't notice until I posted. Fixed and fiddled with.

 

 

[Connie Collier]

And my Template 3 as well. Thanks for the complimentary script, it's very helpful.

[Lynda DiGregor]

On 4/28/2025 at 6:44 PM, Julian Adams said:

So Pretty @Donna Sillia !

I especially 💖the iris. I used to live in an apartment next to a lady who was an iris breeder and planted her lovely unique iris around the parameter of our building. 

Ones like this:

 

Beautiful

[Julian Adams]

On 4/29/2025 at 5:09 AM, Cristina said:

Trying to catch up. Here is Day 5 - Affinity

Diamond Template, but I duplicated the row of pictures and changed the rotation of the journaling paper.
Elements and papers from Lynn Grieveson’s Sprout Kit.
From Cassel: 

• Alpha-Maker Script (Freebie)
• DateStamp#8 Script

Font: Dancing Script

Here is the original paper I used for the Title and the Button. I adjusted the color of both using Layer Adjustment (HSL).
This is the original Transfer, for which I changed the Blend Mode to Luminosity.

 

Very Nice! Just Looking at it brought me to a happy place 

[Julian Adams]

15 minutes ago, Cassel said:

@Julian Adams Most of the tutorials will be using Affinity Photo, but, in a future workshop, we will HAVE to use Affinity Designer to complete some tasks. The current version is 2.6.2 for the suite.

Yikes! That means instead of  $70, it'll cost $170. I'm a little short on cash and my car needs work. 😢

[Lynda DiGregor]

52 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

this is so sweet.  My cats love a paper bag or a box (if I fits, I sits).  

That is true...cats and paper bags. They are also fond of laser pointers.

[Julian Adams]

On 4/29/2025 at 7:21 AM, Donna Sillia said:

Thank you, Julian. The Iris is one of my favorites, especially the dark purple one. I love the one you posted and am going to look for a bulb or one similar. Do you know the name? I have a friend that works at a garden center and will ask her.

I don't know the name of that flashy yellow Iris. My next door neighbor was a member of the Iris Society and developed her own cross breeds. That one may or may not have been one she developed. I wish I knew and I haven't seen her for years so I don't know how to ask her.

[Cassel]

26 minutes ago, Julian Adams said:

Yikes! That means instead of  $70, it'll cost $170. I'm a little short on cash and my car needs work. 😢

Did you get the 90-day trial? Then, you might wait for a special. I don't know if they will have one but last summer, they had a 50% off.