Masks Workshop (2025)

[Sharla]

7 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

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, Tucker looks delightful and you are amazing to offer your time, care and love to the animals you foster. You have a big heart. 

[Sharla]

7 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.

Sue very kindly explains the difference better than I can. The robin in the UK is a very popular little bird who really comes into his own at Christmas time when he is featured on cards and absolutely everything else Christmas. 

[Cristina]

-Affinity-

At first, I considered using some of my photos, but I didn't feel inspired to create anything with them.   Instead, I chose to use pictures of the famous internet Bald Eagle Couple, Jackie and Shadow, and their eaglets, Sunny and Gizmo.

The pictures are from the internet, and the official site is Friends of Big Bear Valley.

The clipping mask is straightforward in Affinity, although completing this Workshop in PSP a few times made it easier as well.

Also, having Cassel's ClipToIt Script helps a lot.

Background paper by JustJaimee-Gesso textures

 

 

Edited June 17 by Cristina

[Cristina]

16 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.

 

This is lovely, Sharla. So cute!

[Jannette Nieuwboer]

6 hours ago, Cassel said:

ou create your papers for the card or were you using a kit?

@Cassel Its my own composition. The template was yours. With the colour picker I toke the colours out of the photo.  And the embossing texture effects from PSP.  I gave extra deep print  by the embossing. I made selections with the selectiontool. I made the template bigger so I could make precisly selections. but on an extra image for the text. With rulers on the same position of the photo. It was done in about one - one and a halve hour. Very fast for my way of working. 

[Cristina]

10 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

 

Sharon, they are so colorful. Beautiful.

[Cristina]

10 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

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. 

He certainly had a good life with you, Julie. As Sharla mentioned, you have a big heart.

[kasany]

L1-Our New Model.

 

[Sue Thomas]

Day 2 Using only Affinity to create the page.  Although I created the plaid, I'm certainly not a fan of  plaids, or busy background papers, never the less I incorporated the paid into the layout. The background was created using one of last winter's frozen lake  shots as an overlay.  Again I used a macro shot of a stunning  dragonfly.  Many of you will  know that I have a passion for finding, observing, documenting and then showcasing insects of every shape, size and species. Each  and everyone, in my mind are exquisitely beautiful, which lead complex lives.  Due to compression the images are no where near  as sharp as they should be.

Edited June 17 by Sue Thomas

[Susan Ewart]

21 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Day 1, created using Affinity.  I will be using Affinity for this masks workshop. It couldn't be easier, a simple case of drag and drop,  unlike in PSP.  

Beautiful pages ladies!

I too have some bees to show, but nothing nearly as awesome as these.  What on earth is that bee on the far right doing?

[Susan Ewart]

20 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.

 

Wow Sharla, these are beautiful.  

[Susan Ewart]

19 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. 

This is so cool Ann.  My kind of art.  I'm blown away you can actually go on it!  What views you'd see from the top and a whole lot of good exercise getting there.

[Susan Ewart]

14 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

 

Sharon, these are incredibly beautiful.  I love the colors and richness in them.  

[Susan Ewart]

11 hours ago, Linda Rexford said:

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.

Linda, these are amazing.  I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your layouts in the workshop.  

[Sue Thomas]

4 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I too have some bees to show, but nothing nearly as awesome as these.  What on earth is that bee on the far right doing?

The one on the far left, was in a state of torpor, that is how it spent the night.  The middle and the right is the same bee, waking up after a night of torpor, in the position   I shot it, which is on the right hand side. They are lethargic until the sun warms them up enough to enable to fly, and start their day.

[Susan Ewart]

9 hours ago, AprilDawn said:

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.

 

I agree, these are so beautiful and make the perfect photo subjects.  I tried to grown them, I failed.

[Susan Ewart]

10 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

Day 2 Using only Affinity to create the page.  Although I created the plaid, I'm certainly not a fan of  plaids, or busy background papers, never the less I incorprated the paid into the layout. The background was created using one of last winter's frozen lake  shots as an overlay.  Again I used a macro shot of a stunning  dragonfly.  Many of you will  know that I have a passion for finding, observing, documenting and then showcasing insects of every shape, size and species. Each  and everyone, in my mind are exquisitely beautiful, which lead complex lives.  Due to compression the images no where near  as sharp as they should be.

Stunning Sue!  You are the reason I'm not afraid of bees anymore (despite stepping on a nest twice when I was young - with an obvious bad outcome!) and now I even check out the other crawlies I see...sometimes from a distance though, I'm not that brave.  I stopped killing the ones in my house and now take them outside if I can catch them (if it's too creepy for me, hubby does it).  I really appreciate the close up shots you have so I can really get a good look, plus I learn a bit about them too.  thank you.

[Jannette Nieuwboer]

Again lesson 1 now made as mask the previous was made  as template. It was not easear. 

Edited June 17 by Jannette Nieuwboer

[Sue Thomas]

38 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Stunning Sue!  You are the reason I'm not afraid of bees anymore (despite stepping on a nest twice when I was young - with an obvious bad outcome!) and now I even check out the other crawlies I see...sometimes from a distance though, I'm not that brave.  I stopped killing the ones in my house and now take them outside if I can catch them (if it's too creepy for me, hubby does it).  I really appreciate the close up shots you have so I can really get a good look, plus I learn a bit about them too.  thank you.

You have made my day, I  like to think that I have  influenced others, not only in the campus, but on other sites where I showcase my  layouts.  The majority  of all creatures large and small fear humans, we are the most dangers of all creatures.  I  firmly believe that insects, really are worthy of a second look.  After all, they have been around far longer than us humans have. 

[fiona cook]

Lesson 2. Playing around with the masks, using my Foxglove photo but not adding journaling yet. I have found this second time around with the tutorial that it helps to understand (or try to in my case) what each step is actually doing. eg the mask layer takes on the shape by de-floating etc

[Robert Garrett]

Here is lesson 2. I'll be using PaintShop Pro X9 for all the workshops.

I had to increase the opacity of the group - masks photo layer to near 100% to keep the background plaid from showing through. 

[Corrie Kinkel]

Lesson 2- in Affinity

I used a mask from Jessica Dunn called Into the Wild. I have a lot of her masks but I choose this one because my photo has landscape orientation. The mask worked again so simple! But I had 2 other problems with this page. For making the plaid I had to select a 1 pixel rectangle! However that wasn't doable with my unsteady hands and I ended up with a 2 pixel one with every try. That was the point that I decided to cheat a little bit and I first resized that 2 px layer to a 1 px layer but still with the same width it had. After that I could resize again following the lesson. One problem solved but there came another problem when I wanted to have some paint behind my text. I have done so many times in PSP and after looking at the lesson I thought that it was a piece of cake. Sadly NO, so I looked again at the video to check if I had missed something but I just did it as in the video and still had no paint if I brushed on a separate raster layer. In the end I discovered that there is a setting in the top right corner of the brushed toolbar which for me is hidden (I work on a laptop). By clicking on a tiny arrow at that point there is a checkbox protect alpha! It was checked, after unchecking I could paint under my text to make it a little bit more visible. If anybody has this same problem, this is the solution.

[kasany]

L2-Autumn Park.

 

[Cristina]

17 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Lesson 2- in Affinity

I used a mask from Jessica Dunn called Into the Wild. I have a lot of her masks but I choose this one because my photo has landscape orientation. The mask worked again so simple! But I had 2 other problems with this page. For making the plaid I had to select a 1 pixel rectangle! However that wasn't doable with my unsteady hands and I ended up with a 2 pixel one with every try. That was the point that I decided to cheat a little bit and I first resized that 2 px layer to a 1 px layer but still with the same width it had. After that I could resize again following the lesson. One problem solved but there came another problem when I wanted to have some paint behind my text. I have done so many times in PSP and after looking at the lesson I thought that it was a piece of cake. Sadly NO, so I looked again at the video to check if I had missed something but I just did it as in the video and still had no paint if I brushed on a separate raster layer. In the end I discovered that there is a setting in the top right corner of the brushed toolbar which for me is hidden (I work on a laptop). By clicking on a tiny arrow at that point there is a checkbox protect alpha! It was checked, after unchecking I could paint under my text to make it a little bit more visible. If anybody has this same problem, this is the solution.

Corrie, I also had a 2-pixel selection, but I didn't bother changing it and created the plaid with it. 

Good tip for painting underneath the text. Something to be aware of if it happens to me.

[Cristina]

Day2

Once more, a layout about the Big Bear Valley Bald Eagles.

To practice the technique, I used the plaid pattern just as a mat for the journaling.

I increased the mask opacity to 100%; otherwise, the image would look washed out.