Calendar Challenge 2016

[Cassel]

Have you joined the Calendar Challenge 2016?

 

Show us the pages you have made so far. We would love to see how creative you are and how different each page will be.

[Wendy1672511069]

Here are my first two pages. Not sure if I'll keep them as January and February yet, might change them when I have all 12 pages.

 

 

 

https://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m20/wendypusey/2%20Calendar%20Pages_zpsigr0ncvw.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cassel]

Wendy, those are beautiful! You went the longer route and used the templates instead of the quick pages. Great job!

[Jan Wilson]

Ok being a novice, I used the template supplied, but used some of my own textures and some collected embelishments.  I used this page for November 2016 as a reminder of my son and my grandkids visit because I don't get to see them as much as I would like.

 

Having fun doing these though and have nearly finished Day 2 just a decision, if I will change some of the textures.

[Cassel]

Jan, as a "novice", you did a great job!!!

 

I think it will be a fun calendar to print and enjoy all year long!

[Sue Thomas]

Hi Cassel, I opted for the template, which as you can see I didn't follow to the letter. November is when the Snowy Owls migrate from the far north, and make their appearance further south, where I can take shots of them. I used several techniques, made my own postage stamp, drew my own branch, cut out the owl and promoted her to a new layer, and changed the colour of the Month I would appreciate any constructive criticism from you. What would you have done differently using the original photo, which is the owl sitting on the straw bale?

[Cassel]

Wow, Sue, that is quite a neat extraction. If you had not said anything about having drawn the branch, i would not have guessed you did it. I like the little details you added, like the lifted corner. Due to the yellow of the paper and the white of the owl, i might suggest adding a "reverse" shadow (something faint in the opposite of what the normal shadows are), just so it makes some differentiation between the two colors. It is a little trick i use when colors tend to be similar in an area where there is no shadow.

 

One sure thing, you did a great job of extracting that owl!

[Sue Thomas]

Thank you ever so much for the compliments. As for the reverse shadow I don't quite understand what you mean, or how I would go about doing a reverse shadow. Please enlighten me. Thank you Sue.

[Cassel]

A reverse shadow (or what i call a Fake shadow) is going to be set with something like these:

 

Offset : 2

 

Opacity: 20

 

Blur: 10

 

Such a shadow will show up on the top left side (while normal shadows will go on the bottom right) and will be quite faint (the exact settings will depend on the size of the project and the colors). Give it a try and see how it makes a more realistic separation between the layers. I might do a blog post tutorial about that in the future.

[Sue Thomas]

That is cool! Now I understand what you meant. I've slightly over exaggerated the reverse shadow a little, I agree, it does make it more realistic, and makes the stamped photo pop, so to speak. Had to remove the shadow from the top and left side of the stamp, as it was on a separate layer for the bottom right lift, and showed through a little. I'll be implementing that in more of my projects now. Thank you, thank you Cassel that's another awesome trick!

[Sue Thomas]

Using a template is definitely a good idea. One less thing to think about, the layout can then be edited as I go along to my liking. Again, I've extracted all the flowers and the Kingfisher from photos which I have taken. I created the bouquets, by placing the flowers in a vase with a light backdrop, then extracted the flowers (as a cluster) to be used at any time for any project. I'm enjoying the challenge.

[Sue Thomas]

Did you notice that I used just a hint of the reverse shadow trick? It does subtly enhance the papers.

[Cassel]

Yes Sue, that "reverse shadow" does wonders. I think i might add that in one of the tutorials of the series. It is a small detail but makes an obvious difference.

 

May i offer a little observation? In the flower element that has a bevel, you likely had an angle of 45 degrees. To be consistent with the rest of the shadowing, it should be 315 degrees; notice that on the bevel, the lighter area is facing top right, while the shadows say that the light is on the top left.

 

Keep them coming!

[AprilDawn]

Hello Everyone.....this is a pic of my 1st effort in this Calendar Challenge.  Thank you Cassel for all the templates this challenge will provide us.  I am enjoying the process very much as it is different to how I usually do my card fronts.  I look forward to seeing the coming templates. It took a bit of time to do this one because I don't usually use templates to do my cards. So for me, this is a good and enjoyable new part of my journey with PSP.

 

Dawn

 

 

 

 

[Paige]

Hi Everyone!

Here is my Day 1 calendar page. I was already working on fun things learned in Lab 5-Module 9, so a lot of this is created from that class, and some other tutorials on the internet. I know it is really busy, but it was fun to use some of the things I’ve created. I found myself trying to find a picture to relate to the layout, rather than the other way around, so I just took a pic of the wreath on my front door. I also am not certain which Month this will be for, so I left it off for now. I really need to work on the shadowing… any other CC you have would be wonderful!! I need all the help and direction I can get. I'm also not sure if it is normal for the resizing of the image for posting here to be so distorted, going from 3600 pixels to 600, or if there is certain method I should use to avoid it looking so crappy when uploaded?

 

All of the other pages posted above are really fabulous! What a creative bunch, also sooo inspirational. I’ll try to catch up a little quicker with the other pages…

 

Cassel, thank you for all the work you put into this. I don’t know if you created the quick pages, but they are really amazing, and I think I’ll make another calendar out of those as well.

 

BTW, have I mentioned that I LOVE working with, and creating vectors and Preset Shapes?? I’m hooked!

[Joanne K]

I have NOT made my pages yet.  I have one page sort of decided on,  and 2 pages that I have photos  decided on, (probably).  I am pretty sure day 7 will be a water scene for me.

 

The pages so far would fit any month, so I am waiting until the end to make my solid decisions.

 

 

[Cassel]

Dawn and Paige, i love looking at your projects. I also appreciate your kind words on the whole challenge and the supplies provided. And i enjoy seeing how you used templates. I am surprised that most participants used templates instead of the quick pages, but i am really happy that you took on that challenge!

 

Joanne, i am looking forward to see some of your layouts !

[Sue Thomas]

I look forward to opening my email each morning to see what you have sent. Your quick pages are very creative, and inspire one to delve into their photo albums. For a change I used one of the quick pages. I used 3 photos, to make one to fit into the photo slot. Used the smart selection tool, eraser tool, and a mask to blend the perch.

[AprilDawn]

Cassel, Day 8 is a really sweet design and I was prompted to use the quick page today with a photo of my Mother on her 90th birthday, which was a very happy time... she is now 97. I chose May, as it is the month we celebrate Mother's day here.

 

the other pic is using Quick Page Day 2... years ago I did some hand painting and this is a very simple looking Kookaburra one of our wonderful birds here in Australia. Some folks refer to them as just "Kooka". I also added a calendar on the page as I intend to print some pages out as a 6x6 inch stand alone calendar for the desk.  Thanks again Cassel for all the design templates.. it is a challenge... but also a joy to do.

 

 

 

 

[Cassel]

Sue that photo collage is great. I would not have known it was three photos put into one!

 

 

 

Dawn, it looks like her dress was a perfect match for the colors of the quick page! You might need to use a calendar on a single line on some of the pages where you might not have a large space to add the calendar boxes.

 

And printing 6x6 pages can definitely be an interesting way to use those pages.

[Wendy1672511069]

Months 3 & 4

 

https://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m20/wendypusey/Callendar%20Pages%203amp4_zpsjlshz7ua.png

[Wendy1672511069]

Months 5 & 6

 

https://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m20/wendypusey/Calendar%20Pages%205amp6_zpsjrmsh4sg.jpg

[AprilDawn]

I did 2 versions of Day 2 here is the second one  and  one for July.  Thank you Cassel for the date files received this morning. I am still enjoying this challenge and will miss it when it is finished.

 

Dawn

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AprilDawn]

this is Calendar Day 9 template... made it for December Christmas Time.

 

 

[Wendy1672511069]

Pages 7 & 8. I choose wedding theme for August because that is the month we were married.

 

https://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m20/wendypusey/Calendar%20Pages%207amp8_zpsib0rpbsu.jpg