What are you working on with AFFINITY (in July 2025)?

[Cassel]

It is a new month and new projects.

Show off what you are working on in July be it a scrapbook page, a collage, a tutorial, or anything else you want.

This thread is specifically for AFFINITY projects.

We are curious and want to see, learn, and get inspired.

These threads are quickly becoming a fantastic source of inspiration, support, and friendship. Keep them coming!

Remember to size down your image to about 600x600 pixels and save it in .jpg format before posting it (if you are creating a double page, you can resize it to 1000 pixels in width if you don't want to post the pages separately).

Here are a few guidelines for everyone:

• when you post a project, give as much information on your sources or techniques used. It will help others who are curious and would like to do the same.
• if someone uses something that you like on their page, ask where they got it. Sometimes, you can go get it too and it will be better quality than trying to extract it (as it would have been resized to post in the forum anyway).
• if it is something that they did from scratch, ask how they did it. It would be so helpful to everyone!
• if you like a photo and would like to “play with it”, ALWAYS ask permission. Sometimes, there are some limitations and the person is not allowed to let others use it. Don’t get them in trouble. Usually, people are happy to say yes (if they can) when you ask politely. And if you get permission, you might get a better-quality image than the resized image anyway.

[Sue Thomas]

Thank you Carole for creating this thread specifically for Affinity created layouts.  

In order for me to use Affinity more, I need to learn several techniques which I like to use in PSP. I'd like to know if there is a simpler way of expanding and contracting a selection. (like in PSP) I neeeded to expand the photos, in order to delete the papers underneath. I had to use the pick tool, which meant I had to use the snapping tool, in order for the expanded size to  fit perfectly around the photos before deleting.   The template was one I created in PSP, which I replicated in Affinity. 

 

Edited July 6 by Sue Thomas

[Sue Thomas]

8 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Thank you Carole for creating this thread specifically for Affinity created layouts.  

In order for me to use Affinity more, I need to learn several techniques which I like to use in PSP. I'd like to know if there is a simpler way of expanding and contracting a selection. (like in PSP) I neeeded to expand the photos, in order to delete the papers underneath. I had to use the pick tool, which meant I had to use the snapping tool, in order for the expanded size to  fit perfectly around the photos before deleting.   The template was one I created in PSP, which I replicated in Affinity. 

 

Finally worked out to expand and contract a selection.  Under select, almost at the bottom is the grow/shrink command.  Mind you I had to select circular  in order for it to expand as a circle. Otherwise you get a rounded rectangle. Something new  that I won't forget. 

[Sue Thomas]

I am very new to Affinity. My aim is to get to grips with, by  focusing on one or possibly two tools at a time, over a period of time. Last night and early this morning it was the text tool, using the layer  effects tool. Using two photos and a mask layer I experimented with the gradient tool, found on the left hand drop down tool bar.  So many tools  are easier and much quicker than in PSP.  I particularly  like the gradient tool.

Edited July 7 by Sue Thomas

[Donna Sillia]

On the Affinity Forums, there is a link to a site that converts photoshop gradients to an Affinity palette. https://mikestimpson.com/GrdToAfpalette/#

[Cassel]

9 minutes ago, Donna Sillia said:

On the Affinity Forums, there is a link to a site that converts photoshop gradients to an Affinity palette. https://mikestimpson.com/GrdToAfpalette/#

Maybe a future Featured Resource!

[Sue Thomas]

Created in Affinity, using what I had learnt in the vector workshop, and experimented with Affinity's warp mesh tool.

[Corrie Kinkel]

22 hours ago, Donna Sillia said:

On the Affinity Forums, there is a link to a site that converts photoshop gradients to an Affinity palette. https://mikestimpson.com/GrdToAfpalette/#

Donna I think you mentioned this before and I have used it and have a lot of my photoshop gradients, which I kept as zipfiles after converting them to PSP,  now converted to Affinity too. 

[Corrie Kinkel]

On 7/6/2025 at 7:45 PM, Sue Thomas said:

Finally worked out to expand and contract a selection.  Under select, almost at the bottom is the grow/shrink command.  Mind you I had to select circular  in order for it to expand as a circle. Otherwise you get a rounded rectangle. Something new  that I won't forget. 

Great you found out how to do it! It was mentioned in one of the tutorials we had for one of the workshops , but because it s all so new it takes a while to remember it all, which in turn will take a lot of practice!

[Corrie Kinkel]

On 7/7/2025 at 9:43 PM, Sue Thomas said:

Created in Affinity, using what I had learnt in the vector workshop, and experimented with Affinity's warp mesh tool.

I like what you are doing in the above layouts, you are going fast and before long you will be making just as nice layouts in Affinity as we are used seeing in PSP!

[Corrie Kinkel]

Carole thank you for making this  Affinity thread. For this month's theme challenge Fishing I made this layout which I posted in the theme challenge as well, of course  mentioning it was done in Affinity. I'm still practicing making my own masks with the brushes that I have. I imported quite a bunch of them that are photoshop brushes. I always keep the zipfiles and now I can use them with Affinity too. I made a fish brush as well. The 2 fishes next to the text are from the freebies that came with the theme and in stead of preset shapes you save them as assets. The background is made out of different papers from Marissa Lerin's kit Oregonian Fisher.

Edited July 8 by Corrie Kinkel

[Sue Thomas]

5 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Great you found out how to do it! It was mentioned in one of the tutorials we had for one of the workshops , but because it s all so new it takes a while to remember it all, which in turn will take a lot of practice!

It certainly does take time to remember everything, especially as we get older. For me it takes repetitive  practice.

[Sue Thomas]

5 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Carole thank you for making this  Affinity thread. For this month's theme challenge Fishing I made this layout which I posted in the theme challenge as well, of course  mentioning it was done in Affinity. I'm still practicing making my own masks with the brushes that I have. I imported quite a bunch of them that are photoshop brushes. I always keep the zipfiles and now I can use them with Affinity too. I made a fish brush as well. The 2 fishes next to the text are from the freebies that came with the theme and in stead of preset shapes you save them as assets. The background is made out of different papers from Marissa Lerin's kit Oregonian Fisher.

I really do love the fish frame,  mask, along with the  text on a path.  Beautifully done.

[Corrie Kinkel]

16 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

I really do love the fish frame,  mask, along with the  text on a path.  Beautifully done.

Thank you, making simple brushes is very easy in Affinity and by using the different settings you really can adjust to what you want for a layout and use other settings for another layout.

[Corrie Kinkel]

I wanted to do the 1-2-3 challenge with Affinity Photo but couldn't figure out how to make a stitched shape and did it in PSP. Linda Rexford was so nice to explain how to make such a stitching, thank you Linda! This is my shape (alpha) with a stitching. I have giving the stitches outline some noise, a bevel and shadow. If you know how to do it it is so simple and according to Linda it works in Designer too.

Here is her explanation, I don't have designer so I used the second option and duplicated the alpha and instead of convert to curves I used an outline on the bottom Alpha so my stitches are neatly inside the Alpha. I think this works on most shapes, if not use the convert to curves etc.

It can be done in either, but I did it in Designer because to me it's easier.  I have Designer set up for vector work and have tools handy for the stroke, styles etc.

I just used the pen tool and drew inside the T and changed it to the Dash Line Style stroke.  You can change the size of the stitches with the numbers at the bottom.   You could also duplicate the letter, remove the fill color and change the outline, Convert to curves and then adjust the nodes for your shape.  I hope this helps.

[Corrie Kinkel]

I have been playing with a photo I took of a flower in a bouquet that I got last Sunday. I used a mask from Jessica Dunn followed by a mask that is in the big Anna Aspnes bundle. The background has more overlays. brushes, splashes and a thread from that bundle. I wanted to see if I could make a cutout from a text like the TUT/TECH challenge for PSP for this week and I was pleasantly surprised how that worked out. However I only managed to get a real cutout where the paper is cut, like the first option in the blogpost. For the second option where there is no real cut paper, well I haven't found a solution yet but I think there probably is a way to do it. Maybe a question for the next Q&A. 

[Corrie Kinkel]

It's after dinner now and I think I have found the solution for the second manner in which there is no actual cut in the toppaper and it has the option to move/resize the "cutout". I'll try to explain. In the first method the toppaper is cut and that is done by clipping the text layer to the toppaper layer with the shadow on the toppaper layer. The second method uses a duplicate of the bottom layer and that layer is clipped to the text layer (the opposite of the first method) and that clipped layer is moved on top above the toppaper layer. To get the appropriate shadow I used the layereffects > innershadow with the angle for the shadow at 135. Now I can move and resize that layer but I don't know if this is the correct way to do it, maybe there are more options to get this result.

[Linda Rexford]

I love to play in the liquify persona in AD.  Here is one I did a few years ago.  The original picture is a couple bluebirds on a branch in my yard.  There are lots of choices in the liquify persona and for this I used the twirl.  Then I duplicated the layer and flipped it horizontally and applied a Saturation blend mode.  I then duplicated it again and applied a blend mode of Difference.  The different blend modes really make a difference on what you get.  I use it for wall paper on my pc sometimes.  Here is the original, the twirled layer and final image.

[Susan Ewart]

Wow everybody.  I didnt realize the Affinity Forums had already happened.  I must've been sleeping.  I just caught on when I realized what I've been posting in is, What are you working on in PSP.  I'll blame the heat.  If you dont see me in here checking out the awesome layouts, it's because I've forgotten it exists, I think that's why I wanted both programs in one basket, cause I'm slow on uptake these days. 

[Corrie Kinkel]

7 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Wow everybody.  I didnt realize the Affinity Forums had already happened.  I must've been sleeping.  I just caught on when I realized what I've been posting in is, What are you working on in PSP.  I'll blame the heat.  If you dont see me in here checking out the awesome layouts, it's because I've forgotten it exists, I think that's why I wanted both programs in one basket, cause I'm slow on uptake these days. 

I must admit it is a bit confusing to say the least and originally I was in favor of dividing into 2! When there is a challenge like this weeks theme Architecture and if I choose to use Affinity I will still post it in the theme thread and say I made it with Affinity (or PSP). But if it happens to be I make something without a challenge I have to post it in the "What do you work on in August with PSP" or in the other with Affinity.

[Rene Marker]

Not confusing to me at all. But then I always go to the main forum page that shows all the forums and what forums have new posts. Then I can choose whether to look at them or not. For instance, I never go into the Alphabet Game thread. If there are no other new posts in that forum, I mark the forum as read and move along to a thread that interests me.

[Susan Ewart]

4 hours ago, Rene Marker said:

Not confusing to me at all. But then I always go to the main forum page that shows all the forums and what forums have new posts. Then I can choose whether to look at them or not. For instance, I never go into the Alphabet Game thread. If there are no other new posts in that forum, I mark the forum as read and move along to a thread that interests me.

I'm lazy, I don't want to go looking for stuff, I want see it in front of my eyes.  My life is busy enough, my job is very physical so I'm often mentally and physically tired, so any extra hunting for something I usually weigh in my mind and decidif I want to put the energy out for that or for something more meaningful that I could be doing, that I dont have to work to find.  I really do look forward to retirement...just not the getting older part.  

[Corrie Kinkel]

1 hour ago, Susan Ewart said:

I'm lazy, I don't want to go looking for stuff, I want see it in front of my eyes.  My life is busy enough, my job is very physical so I'm often mentally and physically tired, so any extra hunting for something I usually weigh in my mind and decidif I want to put the energy out for that or for something more meaningful that I could be doing, that I dont have to work to find.  I really do look forward to retirement...just not the getting older part.  

For your consolation: the getting older part will happen if you are still working or retired! But we have a saying: "Je bent zo oud als je je voelt" Translated it says: "You are as old as you feel"

[Susan Ewart]

52 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

For your consolation: the getting older part will happen if you are still working or retired! But we have a saying: "Je bent zo oud als je je voelt" Translated it says: "You are as old as you feel"

Yikes, I feel like I'm 125!  Only because it was a rough week and I was finally able to get back to working out so I'm tired and sore yet today, I feel more energetic than I have in a long time.  I hope it lasts.

[Rene Marker]

7 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I'm lazy, I don't want to go looking for stuff, I want see it in front of my eyes.  My life is busy enough, my job is very physical so I'm often mentally and physically tired, so any extra hunting for something I usually weigh in my mind and decidif I want to put the energy out for that or for something more meaningful that I could be doing, that I dont have to work to find.  I really do look forward to retirement...just not the getting older part.  

I don't have to go looking for stuff. The forums with new posts are indicated on the main forum page. To tell you the truth, there are only 3 to 4 main forums that regularly have new posts. Clicking on the forum title takes you to the forum and all threads (or sub-forums if applicable) with new posts are indicated. It doesn't take much time at all. I can actually read all the new posts in the forum in less than 10 minutes. Takes longer if I respond.

My bookmark for this place is set for the main forum page.