Masks Workshop (2025)

[Sue Thomas]

46 minutes ago, fiona cook said:

I love the embossed purple background to the flower image.

Is it a texture that you used, or it is embossed?  Only curious to know.

 

Edited June 16 by Sue Thomas

[Jacques]

My grandsons haven't arrived yet. I've had time to do lesson #1 (with Affinity):

 

Edited June 16 by Jacques

[Sharla]

Day 1: I have loads of photos of robins so am going to try use them in this workshop. The is paper from one of the kits that Carole made available for download. Created in Affinity.

 

[Corrie Kinkel]

Lesson 1 and I used the Diamond Extra template because it fitted the photos I wanted to use better.

I will use Affinity and the theme, I like a theme, will be Monterey Bay which I visited this year. To be consistent throughout this workshop all the titles will use the same font Ubertas but probably not all will have those ligatures.

The use of masks is a joy in Affinity!

[Clarine]

I will dedicate this assignment to my father-in-law.   We miss him everyday.   He has taught us all many great lessons, was always so kind to everyone, thoughtful, generous and loving.  He was a GREAT man and a GREAT father.  We called him GRANDPA GREAT.  

[Robert Garrett]

Here's my first cut on this workshop... 

[gwen jewitt]

Day 1 using Affinity photo 2.63 even though it is easy using masks in Affinity photo I think I am still going to learn a lot. The main photo is an old one and the quality is not great

the shepherd is my son and his two best pals who still keep in touch.

 

[Ann Seeber]

Daughter Deb is visiting from CA and her sister, Laurey, met her in New York City where they toured Hudson Yards, The Met and the Natural History Museum. I'll be using Laurey's photos. She has a new Samsung Galaxy cellphone, and her photos are outstanding! This is from the visit to Vessel at Hudson Yards. Here is the journaling text: 

VESSEL is a structure and visitor attraction built as part of Hudson Yards in Manhattan, NYC.  Built by the designer Thomas Heatherwick, the elaborate honeycomb-like structure rises 150 feet and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings for visitors to climb.

My fonts are Franklin Gothic, Lucinda Bright and Frederika the Great. The background paper is from Marisa Lerin kit: Pine Tree bundle.

I struggled with the large mask a bit. Ended up putting the last layer of the mask group down below the whole group and then it rendered properly. 

[Corrie Kinkel]

2 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Daughter Deb is visiting from CA and her sister, Laurey, met her in New York City where they toured Hudson Yards, The Met and the Natural History Museum. I'll be using Laurey's photos. She has a new Samsung Galaxy cellphone, and her photos are outstanding! This is from the visit to Vessel at Hudson Yards. Here is the journaling text: 

VESSEL is a structure and visitor attraction built as part of Hudson Yards in Manhattan, NYC.  Built by the designer Thomas Heatherwick, the elaborate honeycomb-like structure rises 150 feet and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings for visitors to climb.

My fonts are Franklin Gothic, Lucinda Bright and Frederika the Great. The background paper is from Marisa Lerin kit: Pine Tree bundle.

I struggled with the large mask a bit. Ended up putting the last layer of the mask group down below the whole group and then it rendered properly. 

That is an interesting structure and a lot of steps to climb! On the little photo on the left it really looks like a vessel.

[Jeni Simpson]

4 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Daughter Deb is visiting from CA and her sister, Laurey, met her in New York City where they toured Hudson Yards, The Met and the Natural History Museum. I'll be using Laurey's photos. She has a new Samsung Galaxy cellphone, and her photos are outstanding! This is from the visit to Vessel at Hudson Yards. Here is the journaling text: 

VESSEL is a structure and visitor attraction built as part of Hudson Yards in Manhattan, NYC.  Built by the designer Thomas Heatherwick, the elaborate honeycomb-like structure rises 150 feet and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings for visitors to climb.

My fonts are Franklin Gothic, Lucinda Bright and Frederika the Great. The background paper is from Marisa Lerin kit: Pine Tree bundle.

I struggled with the large mask a bit. Ended up putting the last layer of the mask group down below the whole group and then it rendered properly. 

Wow, I love the images used; the shapes are beautiful, Ann.

[Sharon Murray]

I plan to do each lesson in both PSP and Affinity.  I have never used masks Affinity before - so easy!  🙂

The parrots were done in PSP; Tigers and toucans in Affinity

 

[Julie Magerka]

Here is Lesson 1. My wee long-term foster dog, Tucker, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge last October. I rescue/foster/adopt only older dogs and cats to give them some love and a good life for the time they have left. He was a quiet boy, but so sweet, with so many health issues. 

Used bits and pieces from the kits/masks Carole offered for this lesson. I use masks often in my layouts. 

[Julie Magerka]

5 hours ago, Robert Garrett said:

Here's my first cut on this workshop... 

You have done a great job your first time out with masks. Later you will learn ways to blend out the straight lines that are still visible. It's fun, isn't it?

Love all the kitty pix!

[Julie Magerka]

6 hours ago, Sharla said:

Day 1: I have loads of photos of robins so am going to try use them in this workshop. The is paper from one of the kits that Carole made available for download. Created in Affinity.

 

 

These are not like the robins I see here in southwest Ontario. They are lovely with the white breasts and splash of orange.

[Julie Magerka]

On 6/15/2025 at 6:34 PM, Jeni Simpson said:

I get confused with masks, haven't done the workshop yet, although did a few of the lessons when I noticed the workshops in Diamond, about 10 months ago. I am looking orwar to learning.

I think you will enjoy using them in your layouts. They are versatile and can be tweaked and adjusted as you need. One important thing to remember is to ensure your photo is large enough to cover most of the mask, if not all. Then, when you clip it (mask), it will more likely give the results you wanted.

[Jeni Simpson]

Day 1 PSP

Template - Alinamaria_DCS_templates _juin18, Font – Wendy Medium and Arial
Poppy was born on 6 December 2020 on the Gold Coast, Australia

Affinity

Template – MasksWorkshop2025-Extra1, Paper –ps_marisa-lerin_394987_for-the-love-of-cats-solid-paper-8_pu, Font - Gonestone Signature

 

 

 

[Jeni Simpson]

1 hour ago, Sharon Murray said:

I plan to do each lesson in both PSP and Affinity.  I have never used masks Affinity before - so easy!  🙂

The parrots were done in PSP; Tigers and toucans in Affinity

 

The images you have used are stunning, Sharon.

[Cassel]

Welcome, everyone, to this workshop. Some of you are new to it, others are returning participants. Either way, we all look forward to your projects. We also welcome any questions you have to address any issues you might encounter. Everyone is here to help you succeed!

@Jannette NieuwboerDid you create your papers for the card or were you using a kit?

@fiona cookLet us know how easier/faster it is, once you do this workshop a second time.

@Sue ThomasYes, Affinity is soooo much simpler to use for masks and templates! I totally agree with you on that.

@JacquesGreat layout. Since those projects are so fast to complete, maybe you'll find a few minutes, every day to give it a try. But if you don't, we understand, and you will have next week to complete them.

@SharlaGreat choice for the paper. The "plain" color help emphasize the colors of the bird!\

@Corrie KinkelUsing the same font for a themed series is a great way to tie everything together.

@ClarineGreat hommage to your grandpa. Did you resize his photo to fit in the rectangle? It "looks" like he is a little squished. If the photo does not fit well in the rectangle, it is better to adjust the rectangle than adjusting the photo.

@Robert GarrettWelcome to the Campus and to this workshop. Are you going to follow the workshop with PSP or Affinity? With those two cats, you are in good company here with many participants who are pet parents. You will see lots of cats and dogs! Your first project is looking great!

@gwen jewittIt is such a great idea to reframe each of the three children! And yes, using masks in Affinity is simple but you will see tutorials for other techniques too, along the way.

@Ann SeeberDid they climb that structure? If I ever did, I would want an elevator (or a slide) to come down afterward!

@Sharon MurrayAre you planning an album? Those three pages would look fantastic together! For the layout with the parrot, you could tweak the mask by brushing some white where the head of the bird is. It is a little faded in the background.

@Julie MagerkaMasks are fun and definitely allow so much more creative results than manipulating the photos directly. And really, any template can be used as if they had masks, which ends up being non-destructive.

@Jeni SimpsonGreat layouts. I hope you won't get confused by doing the projects in both programs! I guess, by now, you are already comfortable enough with PSP to not mix things up.

Keep those projects coming. If you take a little bit more time to complete your projects, don't worry. There is no real deadline so you can post them a bit later when you catch up.

See you again tomorrow with more masterpieces.

[Linda Rexford]

I have lots of birds photos (almost as many as cat photos!) so I will do birds this time.  When I finished this, I realized they were all females that I had picked!

The font is Garinstae Script and the back ground paper is from Frankentoon.

[Gerry Landreth]

Day 1 - This is one of my great-nieces, Amelia. 

Except for the cute dragonfly made with one of Carole's scripts, I'm working with Affinity. It gives me a chance to practice working with details such as shadowing and recoloring, which I did with the background paper.

[Sue Thomas]

3 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

These are not like the robins I see here in southwest Ontario. They are lovely with the white breasts and splash of orange.

Julie,that is  because  the North American robin is a member of the Thrush family, whilst the European robin is a member  of the flycatcher family. The early pioneers called them Robins, as they  resembled  the  European  robin, but they aren't at all  related.

[Jeni Simpson]

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

@Jeni SimpsonGreat layouts. I hope you won't get confused by doing the projects in both programs! I guess, by now, you are already comfortable enough with PSP to not mix things up.

Keep those projects coming. If you take a little bit more time to complete your projects, don't worry. There is no real deadline so you can post them a bit later when you catch up.

See you again tomorrow with more masterpieces.

Thank you, Carole. I created the first five  PSP layouts in July last year when I wanted to check out the Masks workshop, when I noticed it in Diamond. I was extremely green when it came to masks, and I found the workshop extremely helpful. I brought those layouts back and worked on them more to send to this workshop. I find Affinity reasonably easy compared to PSP, and I still want to go over PSP because I still use that programme. I am quite new to Affinity, yet.

[AprilDawn]

Lesson 1. Using Affinity. the dahlia image i have had a long time they were on a cd that i purchased.

Have enjoyed viewing everyone's pages.. they are all beautifully done.

 

[Jeni Simpson]

20 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

Julie,that is  because  the North American robin is a member of the Thrush family, whilst the European robin is a member  of the flycatcher family. The early pioneers called them Robins, as they  resembled  the  European  robin, but they aren't at all  related.

That is interesting, Sue. I have known mostly of the red-breasted Robin, from the nursery rhyme about him. In New Zealand, we have a little Black Robin, aka Chatham Island Robin, from the Islands of the same name, to the east of New Zealand. Sadly, these tiny birds are vulnerable; only about 300 are left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_robin. 

[Sharla]

8 hours ago, Sharon Murray said:

I plan to do each lesson in both PSP and Affinity.  I have never used masks Affinity before - so easy!  🙂

The parrots were done in PSP; Tigers and toucans in Affinity

 

I absolutely love how colourful and fun these layouts are. Fantastic.