BOOTCAMP July 2020

[Fay Burnett]

Henry, I really like this layout but it's what you've told us about Nelson that makes it so special.  Would you consider adding the story to your layout?  I know it's said that "a picture is worth a thousand words" but sometimes the words are necessary to add meaning and purpose to a layout.  I know that you have not included journaling here because it's not part of our assignment but for your own album it would be a wonderful addition for those who see it in the future, especially family members.  ?

 

 

[Ann Seeber]

So here's my next page. I finally got a good photo of my newest great-granddaughter. She just came home from neonatal intensive care. Born June 26, she was a preemie and only weighed 4lbs 8oz. She had a feeding tube, which made it hard to hold her :( But, now she's gained her weight back and is finally home! As you can see, her Mom is fond of elephants and mandalas ;)

 

I followed the style of my first page pretty much but added more embellishments this time. I also added a vignette frame to the photo. Took me a long time to figure out to use the background eraser and save things as a .psd to preserve the transparent backgrounds.

 

Can you tell me where to find the printable list of keyboard shortcuts? That would be useful. Thanks!

 

Here is baby Sonia Anne..

[Fay Burnett]

Ann, Sonia Anne is a sweetie and I love the layout especially the dragonfly!  ?

[MoniqueN.]

It's so nice to see everyone making very different pages :)

[Robert]

Greetings all,

 

I have flowers and other photos from the same San Francisco trip as my ship images.  This is resized and cropped for the project.  No changes to the image.  The depth of field was done in camera.

 

I went with simple rectangles as the design elements.  I added noise to the rectangles to give it that cloth-like look and, of course, drop shadows.  (I never do things the easy way...like use a kit.  But adding noise is not too difficult.)

 

And, yes, I added a triangle using the Symmetric Shape in the Rectangle Tool fly out over top of the flower.  Using the pick tool I rotated and resized the shape.  I then reduced the layer's opacity to around 30 percent to give a hint of the shape and relate to the flower.  No noise added to this element.

 

The line drawing comes from one of Ron Deviney's brushes that I converted for use in PSP.  (Too technical to discuss as a Boot Camp topic.  But PSP has grown over the years and the process is not too cumbersome.)

 

All this was to play with concept of geometry in nature.

 

As a post script:  Kudos to all.  The projects look very nice.  Great sense of color and balance by all.

[Fay Burnett]

Nicely done, Robert.  I like your theme, also!

 

 

[Cassel]

I swear, we have gremlins in the Campus as my long feedback post seems to have disappeared, so let's do that again.

 

Bill, I see you are using a template. Did you know that those shapes like the flower below and the circle on top are meant to be only placeholders to suggest where to place your own decorative elements? Since you are getting more comfortable with manipulating the elements and layers, it is time to add your own! If you want a printed set of shortcuts, check out the freebie on this post.

 

Frances, don't worry about being behind. You will have time to catch up. Your scattered gems are lovely. May I ask if they come with integrated shadows or if you did add them yourself? I can see that the shadows are toward the top right for a series of gems, so if the shadows were integrated, you need to make sure not to flip them. If you added the shadows yourself, you need to do the flip before adding them to avoid that inconsistency. I have a little soft spot for kittens, so I LOVE your Happy Lap layout!

 

Allen, doesn't it make a difference with the shadows?

 

Brad, glad to hear that your brain didn't explode. We would miss you :)  I like your sense of humour! If I could offer a tiny suggestion it would be to check the layering of your elements. The leaf designs look like a brush imprint, and it would likely not be layered on top of the rope or on top of the confetti. A small detail only. Practice will help you remember all those tools and techniques. The Adventure in nursing could certainly benefit from the story you put in the post. What if someone looks at your page and does not have the background story? It is important!

 

Simon, you can also post the quick pages in the other showcase thread of "what are you working on?" Other participants are browsing that thread too. Your sandwich looks good. What do you put in your coffee? Your first project is great.

 

Susan, it might be hard to make this sandwich simply because it is your first digital sandwich. I bet if you made 10 more sandwiches, you would surely become faster.

 

Lynn, nice layering. I also find that the tiny overlap of the tail gives a little interesting detail to find.

 

Ben, the overlapping of the bird gives an interesting and dynamic effect to your page. The shadowing of the elements really give that 3D effect.

 

Cindy, I am glad you are getting more and more comfortable. As mentioned to Brad, it is all about practice, right?

 

Margaret, it is ok if you don't follow to the letter. The reasons I SUGGEST to follow somewhat closely are (1) so the techniques can be practiced, but if they are, while the paper is somewhere else, it is fine, and (2) when I keep track of the projects posted, for the random draw at the end, it is easier for me to know which projects were actually completed. As for your first project, I think that they are a bit large for what we are used to, but they do work very well together as they just give the impression of thick cardboard. This means that the settings work well together!

 

Henry, I agree with Fay that the story can benefit being added to the page. Scrapbooking is not just about the photos, but mostly about the story, whether it is told by the photo or added to it.

 

Ann, that is a lovely photo of your great-granddaughter. You mention saving in .psd format to keep the transparency. Did you know that the .png format would also do that? That is the typical format used for single-layer elements with some transparency.

 

Robert, you are really exploring your PSP and that is great. I am sure everyone here also appreciates it when you explain what you dit. It is always inspiring others to try or check more options. You said you converted the brush to PSP. Without going into details, what format was it initially? You played with the shadows but it looks like the photo is missing it.

[Cathy Anderson]

Hello All

 

I have completed a couple of pages but firstly:

 

1. Carole - I have successfully downloaded the zip file and redone my sandwich.  Not sure what happened but maybe the same gremlins as you are having problems with - :0

 

2. For practise I have made another sunset with a totally different colour scheme.  The heading font was Bodoni MT Black and the poem was Blackadder ITC.  The poem was found on the internet and I acknowledged the author's copyright (is this allowed for personal use?).  Elements were from Lara's Digital World (Inner Peace).

 

3. Project 3 for Day 5 completed.  I used elements from Connie Prince (Memories).   The heading was Bodoni MT Black and the journaling font was Script MT Bold.  I did not add shadows to the gold flowers at the bottom of the page as I thought they looked like stamped images.  The top left image was a cluster and the shadows did not work as well with that.

 

I would like to add how much I am enjoying the course and how helpful it is reading the answers to other people's queries eg about Autosave which I was also finding a little annoying as everything stops while it saves.  Now I have a solution - :)

 

Looking forward to Project 4.

[cindy harris]

Hi Teacher, :)

 

Yes Ma am,   Last lesson was nothing but fun No frustration or upset at all just really fun.

[Brad Jones]

I also went and figured out how to put a photo in my profile.  I'm the guy in blue.   The little girl graduated from college along with her mother a couple of years ago.   Not a good pic and I tried to use some fill light on it, but it changed so much if I used too much that it isn't much better than before.  Unfortunately, I am behind the camera normally, so there are very few pics of me.

 

bcj

[Brad Jones]

Ok,   Just changed my photo to one slightly better and cropped it pretty heavily.  The shot is only about 15 years old and I burned up the bike a couple of years ago.

[Ann Seeber]

Cassel: You said "You mention saving in .psd format to keep the transparency. Did you know that the .png format would also do that? That is the typical format used for single-layer elements with some transparency."

 

Well, I tried that, first just saving as a .png and when that didn't save my transparent background, I used the Export function as a .png where you can tell it what color should be transparent and that didn't work either! :( I must be doing something wrong or there's something wrong with the file.. I'll upload it so you can see.

 

BTW: I downloaded the Shortcut files but they only go through 2019 whereas I have 2020. Is there anything new in 2020?

[Ann Seeber]

Cassel: Part II -Well, I opened that .png file in PSP and it had the transparency!

 

¯\_(--)_/¯

[simon kidd]

Day 5

 

2nd project using an old holiday snap and the 'My Tribe' from the same site as the link in the video.

 

 

[Fay Burnett]

Very nice.  I love the combination of patterned papers.  ?

 

 

[Ann Seeber]

Cassel: Not able to download from the Facebook link for the Sweaters & Hot Cocoa kit. Here's what I get...

 

Ann

[Cassel]

Ann, I am sorry. I thought I had checked it before posting the link. I am contacting the designer to see if there is another way to download it. Thanks for letting me know.

 

As for the Shortcuts, can you download it again? I had forgotten to upload the updated version.

[Ann Seeber]

Cassel: Yes, thank you

[Fay Burnett]

I just want to mention, before I forget, that I found two procedures in the Day 7 (Friends) video very informative.  The first was how you, Carole, used the Guides for uniform placement and sizing.  The second was the "copy and paste" procedure you used within the engaged Text tool.  Maybe this is only possible starting with PSP19 or perhaps I never thought to try it in PSP15.  In any case, it's very efficient and a time saver.  I need to watch that part of the video again.  ?

 

 

[MoniqueN.]

I have been very busy searching suitable backgrounds and embellishment for my London picture. It took me several hours........

 

But finally my picture is ready:)

 

I've started renaming my layers, sometimes I can't see what the picture is on the layer I am working on.

 

Had a bit of a difficulty how to give shadow to my text, but in the end it worked, but don't remember exactly how I did it. Keep practicing I guess.

 

This picture I took when I was on a 4 day trip with my youngest son, trip given to me by my family for my 5oth birthday. It was very special to do this with my him, quality time. :)

 

 

 

Edit:

 

Question I forget to ask in my  post:

 

Upsizing pictures I can understand why it's not clever to do, but how is that with background papers? Especially when they have patterns and no symbols or something on them? :)

[Robert]

Cassel - my sharing what I do is the trainer in me.  Before retiring, I trained people (engineers, sales, etc) in motor and automation control.  When teaching software, I always encourage people to 'play' with software.  That's even more so with graphic and art programs (and even when I taught PowerPoint).  As I told my students: "If what you do  doesn't work...there's always CTL-Z.)   Let me know if I go too far with sharing.

 

Good catch (or bad throw on my part?) on the picture shadow.  Here's re-post of image with the shadow.  As part of my work flow I add effects affecting multiple layers as a last set of steps.  I must have missed the layer with the photo.

 

As a tip for others, if you add a shadow to an element and then rotate that element, the shadow also rotates and doesn't match the other shadows.  That's why I do things like shadows and other effects to layers as a group of steps so they all look the same.

 

As for conversion: ABR format.  Many times I just need one (or two) PNG files from a brush set to import into PowerPoint, PSP, DAZ Studio, etc.  I came up with my process years ago (long before finding your tutorial - which covers the same process I use).  You got me curious, so I googled the software.   I see abrMate has been updated.  I'll look to see what's improved.   I think it is a nice conversion utility.

 

BTW, thanks for the shout out on your blog.

[Fay Burnett]

Monique, I Love the layout and the story behind the photo as well.  ?

 

 

[Robert]

Faye - Thanks.  From the look of your latest project you may have jumped ahead to the next project.  I look forward to more of your projects.

 

Tip to others:  Taking Faye's observation about the latest video, you may want to remove guides.   (I tend to put too many on my work space and they sometimes get in my way.)  There is a 'handle' for each guideline on the ruler.  Just slide that handle all the way up (for horizontal lines) or to the left (for vertical lines).  They 'disappear' back into the ruler.

[Lynn Fowler]

Scrap Bootcamp - Day 7 - Project #3

[Allen Kivitt]

this project # 2