Love Story Challenge 2021

[Cassel]

Barbara, even after using PSP extensively for 15 years, I still learn new things regularly. And to help me, Corel adds new features to every version!! Did you use the mask to show the blue background? If so, that is a great (although different) way to use them. You don't have to use them for photos only! As for printing, I think that the paper and the printer are big factors. When I did the welcome frame for Xavier, I printed the letter blocks on cardstock. It was horrible: bland, faded. I decided to try on photo paper, and it was a world of difference. Maybe you can try professional printing for a handful of layouts and see how they turn out. You can frame them if you have only a few, but if you find a great printshop, you can print a complete album.

 

Shirley, I certainly know about not taking many photos (or I should say not taking GOOD photos). Out of a 24-photo roll, I was happy if I had 6-8 good ones! I am glad I was able to help. I find it interesting that you used squares for the mask. Although I probably would not have thought of using it, the result is good.

 

Minka, I am happy to see you use that puzzle script in your page! Painting outside the lines is definitely allowed and even encouraged and I am glad it suited you!

 

Susan, your mother is gorgeous. I agree with you that a shadow would not fit well with those flowers. It is good that you were able to reason why to not add shadows.

 

Mireille, great idea to use a photo as a background paper too!

 

Jnet, did you add the confetti with an overlay? Or were they really on the photo?

 

Lynda, you will have to make a matching page for Max too! I am glad the instructions for saving the mask worked. It is not always easy to explain just in words.

 

Sue, I am definitely going to have to get that font. It is lovely and since it has even lines, it would surely work well as a metallic wire element.

 

Cristina, the use of a fabric "paper" is very well suited to use a fuzzy edge mask as you would not expect sharp edges on fabric, most of the time! Good choice.

 

Laurie, I agree that writing on the plates is a great idea and it was well done by the server. On your page 3, the edges match particularly well the clouds on the photo! On your page 4, did you add the brush strokes on the mask or on another layer? If it were on the mask, it would show the photo underneath. It looks like you brushed different colors. Although it is not the same technique, it certainly works fine on your layout!

 

Jennifer, great mask. It is good that the photo was large enough to allow the mask to be that wide.

 

Anne L., that is a nice mask with all those hearts. Very fitting for this dog you love so much.

 

Donna, you did post it. I just checked and it was caught in the spam filter. If you ever post something that does not show, drop me an email so I can check it. Of course, you can also repost, if you prefer :) You are getting great pages  about Thomas. Did he see them yet?

 

Wanda, if the mask didn't cooperate, you can always come back to it when it does. Adding white to the mask later will  possibly make that "blah" become "wow". Who knows? Did you check the Brush Variance palette (F11)? Corrie had the Opacity jitter set to 100%, and it seemed to have caused issues. Not sure it is the same, but worth checking.

 

Jean, Sue responded before I did. That is what she uses often on her layouts when she creates fancy wordart. Not all fonts have extra glyphs, but you might end up with some favorite. I use the Mama font, which is free. The link was on the first tutorial page.

 

Corrie, beautiful photo and you did a great mask too.

[Shirley]

Hi.  I am catching up, here is day 4, and Aunty is taking her to the baby show.

[Shirley]

Annie, I think we are in the same boat, it is just as well we have some humour embedded in us.  It was certainly a Carole job with the lost icons.  She is a wizz, what would we do without her, I think we will have to clone her. I was interested to hear if anyone else had the same issue.

 

Carole, It took a lot of playing around to get the right balance because of the shape of the subject, and the black and white photos don't help much.  Hopefully I will be into colour soon.

[Linda J Walker]

I am only on Day 3!

 

I used the kaleidoscope for the background paper. I adjusted the brightness a bit. I could play with the kaleidoscope for a long time, maybe too long. I think I will add another photo on the left of the text, but I can't find it right now. I will need to get some sleep, so I just left space to add it later.

 

I am enjoying seeing what everyone is doing! I guess I need to go back and find how to save the mask, I must have missed that.

[Annie Tobin]

Day 5 is completed.  This is not my favourite way to mask and I think it shows in the end result.  Anyway, I did do it the way Carole taught ... after playing around with a thousand different brush tips (slight exaggeration) and then stamping frantically around the image, lol.  Thanks for takin a peek my friends.  ;D

[Mary Solaas]

Day 3 for me.  Had fun with creating the paper - actually saved several papers as I was trying to decide on the one I would use.

[Gabriela]

Trying to catch up ..

 

Challenge Day 3

[Gabriela]

Challenge Day 4

[Mireille Beaudet]

La graduation de ma belle Myriam.

[Annie Tobin]

Hello Scrapbook Campers. Well there are just too many beautiful pages and participants for me to comment individually so I will say congrats to all. Juniors and Rookies you will soon be in the rank of enthusiasts I feel sure ... progress under Carole's tutelage is forging ahead, well done. ;D

[Cristina]

Annie said: ... "after playing around with a thousand different brush tips and then stamping frantically around the image..." You sure described me working with my last mask!  lol

 

Your Day 3 page is spectacular!

 

 

[Ann Seeber]

Really enjoying seeing everyone's work. It's all quite inspiring! Here's my Lesson #5 which features an animal sanctuary that was near where I lived back in 2004-2008. No matter what I tried using various brushes to add to the mask just didn't look right so I went with a frame, instead. The background is a paper I had in a Fall kit and, this time, pasting in text to a selection rectangle finally worked for me! It's hard to see on the Forum but there's a white border all around that I make with an extra layer under the paper and then "pick" the paper layer in on each corner. I've learned it's best to use guides so things come out even.

[Sue Thomas]

I was up really early this morning,  my resident Great Horned Owls where chatting to each other for most of the night.  It's at this time of year, during this brutally cold month that  they breed.  Annie, I know what you mean,  when I use decorative brushes on the outer edges I tend to lower the hardness and the opacity to give  a more subtle effect.  There are brushes out there that are already softer when you use them. It all depends on what effect one is looking for.

 

While listening to the owls, I went back to day one, scrolled through every page and read  every comment.  I took a trip around the world from the comfort of my home.  Everyone has done superb pages.   With  combined creative minds, there isn't anything that can't be achieved in psp.

[Sue Thomas]

Here is my day 6.  The lino pattern is one  of my favourite patterns to create. I use it a lot, and more often than not I will edit it.  I must say I'm not really a  pattern person.  These delightful small sunflowers grow and thrive along the road side, stretching for miles. They flower late in the summer. I extracted one flower  from a photo to use as an element.  If anyone would like to know the name of a particular font that I have used in this challenge, all you have to do is ask.

[Gerry Landreth]

My great-niece Maggie turned 12 recently. This picture is from 2016 when I first moved back to Alabama. It is still my favorite picture of her because of the impression she made on that day. She is named after my mother.

 

Font: Tiberius. Paper: Pixelscrapper - Gina Jones, Embrace Change Stacked Paper. Leaf Element: Pixelscrapper - Gina Jones, Autumn Winds

[laurie solaas]

Annie Tobin your swan image pulls together in a really nice overall design. I love how the blue elements add balance, and the poem is very sweet. I also love  the richness of the green color.

[Alicia Garbelman]

I have watched the tutorials daily, but haven't had time to work on my pages very much. Here are my layouts from Day One and Day Two. If the photos and pages look redundant, it's because, like Carole, I have a new grandson. When creating my plaid paper for day 2, I discovered too late that my single-pixel selection box was actually 4 pixels high - for some reason, the custom size didn't apply the way I expected it to. But when I looked at the filled background paper, I thought that the waviness made it look like a baby blanket, so I kept it instead of re-doing it.

[Corrie Kinkel]

After all the trouble I had with the brushes yesterday, day 5 went smoothly for a change! I stayed with my mountain theme and used an iconic mountain flower to make my mask. And that only needed some text and some flowercorners.

[Barbara Hall]

Here are days 4 and 5.  I actually start each challenge day following whatever the directions are but, at some point, I forget  what I am supposed to be doing and the results end up not fitting the assugnment.  But my initial intentions are good, if that counts for anything.

[Barbara Hall]

Cassell:  I use the load/save mask under the layers tab a lot to cut background papers into different shapes.  I have lots of masks that I've downloaded over the past couple of years and they're in folders basically by similarity in shape.  All I have to do is hit  "load/save mask" and scroll through until I find one I like and the program does all of the work.

 

When I tried printing out cards I also used cardstock.  I have photography paper but I've never used it, though I'm not sure why.  I'm thinking for cards, I might print on the photography paper and then glue that to cardstock.

 

I think of  scrapbook pages as my contribution to family history, but I don't think I'd ever print them out.  My family is much more digitally inclined so I think they're happier getting a sd card with everything on it than they would be with printed pages.

 

 

[Cristina]

Ann, Sue, Gerry, Alicia, Corrie, and Barbara, lovely and creative layouts. Nice job!

 

Sue, I like the tip you gave to Annie about lowering the hardness and opacity on the outer edges, and I am going to this from now on...Like you, I am not a pattern paper person and always find it hard to use them in my layouts; usually, I hide them at the bottom, but I do like the linoleum pattern...  You are the master of Word Art! I love them all.

[Cristina]

Here is my Day 4

 

Elizabeth Minkus: Pixel Scrapper 2019Feb "Walk on the wild side" paper09

 

Eyeinspire: Alpha "Camp"

 

PBS-Escale amoureuse- Talie - elt2

 

Fonts: Candy Round BTN and Typewriter

[Linda J Walker]

Day 4-- I think these take me longer than they should, because I am often not sure how to do what I want to do, so end up doing what I have been able to figure out! And I always have to search for photos.

 

I used the snowflake brush--I was too lazy to figure out how to load the watercolor brushes, and the snowflake matched the snow on the mountains.

 

The frame is from Katie Pertiet, wood veneer frames.

 

Our daughter got married in Denver in June 2019. That is a long way from Pennsylvania. My youngest sister and her husband have a place in Pagosa Springs, so we went there for a few days after the wedding and my sister showed us around. I expect we will be going back to Colorado, as our daughter is moving there this year.

[Sue Thomas]

My dear Cristina, thank you so much for your kind words on my work.  It's always very much appreciated. I'm pleased you are going to use the tip I suggested.  If the settings are to low I tend to  keep clicking in the exact same  spot until it's the way I like it, or  up the settings, I tend to do the latter.   You have created another lovely  page.  It's lovely to have you back, taking part in this challenge. I've always been a fan of your work, and  you have been missed. Hope you are well.

[Lynda DiGregor]

Day 6

 

Max