What are you working on (in May 2021)?

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Thank you, Annie!

[Ann Seeber]

I have a question. This week Corel is offering free bokeh picture tubes (green and yellow) but I'm unsure how to handle bokeh. I think it's a background effect for photos but what do I do with these Picture Tubes? I also seem to have a white one already installed, so now I have white, soft green and vibrant yellow. Suggestions appreciated! Thanks.

[Cassel]

Ann, as picture tubes, every click of the mouse will place one "dot". You can drag your cursor to place a lot, or just click away multiple times and you should get a variety of "dots" where you want. Of course, place them on their own layer so you can play with the layering and possibly the blend mode too. If you want to click multiple times, beware of the option of "Create as new layer" because you can end up with 50 layers!

[Ann Seeber]

Cassel, thank  you. I'm laughing because I already had to deal with the "50 layers" option! ;-) So does this create a background paper? Perhaps with a mask for the photo? I'm unsure since I've never had a camera that would create this effect on a photo, though I see them all the time.

[Bonnie Ballentine]

I often am unsatisfied with a layout. I put it away and let it stew...something usually comes to me after time passes. That is what I did with this one. Changed the color of the background and text. I like it much better.

 

Template MFish, Nearest and Dearest 03.

[Michele]

First "scrapbooky" pic I've done in a while for my gaming group's daily pic. The original template is by AnnieC from the March 2021 ALFLT blog train. I made a picture tube from a tennis ball clipart to create the scatters. The font is Didot and the tennis player is by totmacher69 on Vectorstock (she really tickled me).

 

I'm blown away by all the wonderful things everyone is doing. I can hardly keep up with the all!

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Love it, Michele!

[Sue Thomas]

I used one of Cassel's spiral binding tubes. I changed the colour of the binding to suit the book. The specs I found on pngtree. The lens wasn't transparent, which meant I had to do some erasing. The Robins and many other birds start their day at 3.20, with a before dawn chorus. I decided to get up, with the widow open and a cup of tea, I opened PSP. This is the result!

[Sue Thomas]

Everyone  on here are posting wonderful pages.  So much talent  and imagination being displayed.  A fantastic source of inspiration.

 

 

 

Michele, I love your tennis page, AnnieC has some  unique templates.

 

Bonnie, your enthusiasm  for pickle ball seems to rub off on the local wildlife.  Wonderful work.

 

Anni, your work always amazes me.  great stuff!

[Sue Thomas]

I have several pairs of Brown Thrashers nesting out in the trees, they are elusive birds, staying  low in the undergrowth.  They come  for baths, this one has almost dried off, after his daily dip in the bath. I duplicate the original photo.  I  created a mask of the bird.  The layer underneath I edit,  to achieve the effect on the outer edges, then I proceed  to create the frame.  No two frames are ever the same.

[Cristina]

Beautiful new layouts... So diverse and so inspiring. Great work, Ann, Corrie, Michele, and Sue!

 

 

[Corrie Kinkel]

B0nnie thank you and I already have signed up at Creative Fabrica and very often download their weekly and dayly freebies, it is a great site.

 

Annie glad you liked it, it took me some time to get that frame right, but in the end I got what I had in mind.

 

Sue great photo again, I envy your patience.....

[Annie Tobin]

Michele, quirky and different and I love it, well done Hon. ;D

[Annie Tobin]

Sue lovely work on both the book and the framed Thrasher. Understated and enormously effective, love them both my friend. :D

[Sue Thomas]

Corrie, thank you for your kind words on my page. When it comes to nature I have all the patience in the world.

 

Annie, thank you for your kind words. They are much appreciated and mean a great deal to me my friend.

[Michele]

Thanks so much for the kind words, Bonnie, Sue, Cristina, and Annie.

 

For today's daily pic I took inspiration from a layout I did a few years ago. I made my own mask this time and, boy, did I have to do a lot of mathematical calculations (got it wrong several times). I tried doing it on the fly, but my OCD wouldn't allow it. lol The font is kool beans and I have no idea where I got it.

[Ann Seeber]

Michele: That's awesome. I love the look of movement you've created. Displaying the photo in slats is very effective. Great job!

[Mary Solaas]

Sue: I hope it's OK, I am impressed by what you did with Brown Thrasher.  There are several ways to focus on a particular item in a photo, but that is something I've never tried since I'm new to masks.  So, I copied that pic and your description as something to try and something to think about.  Love it.

 

Michele:  Always love how you handle photos for your daily pic with your group.

 

 

[Cristina]

Michele, wonderful layout! I love the effect of slats on a photo and how you made them pop up...

[Sue Thomas]

Mary, Thank you ever so much for your kind comment on my Thrasher page. It's ok to use the photo as an example to  look at while creating your own.  The  instructions were  a bit vague, but you  should get the general ideal. You could always use a pre made masks, but I like to create my own, as some masks will fade/delete  parts of the main subject. Always remember that when using masks black will block.  Saying that it is possible to edit those masks too.  There are countless ways to edit the  background paper to achieve a different look  on every  image.

 

Michele, incredible layout.  Slats do give a dramatic effect.  I know what you mean, even  having one slat being out by a pixel or two out will reflect on the  image, and like you I'd pick it up, and it would bother me.  great work.

[Cristina]

Slowly I am getting along, and with this layout, I finally finished practicing the 2020 Lab Tutorials.

 

For December, they were: Word Tree - Holly - Round Label.

 

As I haven't been very creative lately, I again started with a template. This time was from Lynn Grieveson, called "perfect-panorama-8." As usual, I tweaked it a bit.

 

Now, onto the 2021 tutorials!

 

 

[Lynda DiGregor]

Love your surfer, Michele

[Sue Thomas]

I always beam from ear to ear when the Tree Swallows arrive. This year I have 9 Tree Swallow houses, over the past week, 7 of the nine houses have been claimed, and nest building is now in full swing. I had previously created a template for the flair button, all I have to do is add the photo. It saves a lot of time especially if I use more than 1 button. Depending on the photo, sometimes I have to start from scratch. I used extracted swallows from a few years back. I promoted the Swallow from the photo, blur and other effects to create the background. as you can see from the promoted Swallow it was very blue. As for the word art, I thought it appropriate as this male after keeping guard of his house, stretched his wings and took off for a bite to eat. I say sweets, the North Americans say candies. Hence "sweet little' referring to the candies and the swallows. ( My wired sense of humour) I used Cassel's candy script, and one of her lace fonts.

[Lynda DiGregor]

I combined the YouTube Splatter Portrait tutorial with a B&W photo and I used color changer to add blue to the eyes and pink to the lips. Again , I don''t know who the photo is of. It was a free download from a search that I did.

 

[Sue Thomas]

Beautiful work Lynda. Lots of effective techniques used.  well done!