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This week I went to visit "Het Depot" of Museum Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. It is a building special build for storage of all the artefacts a museum has and a place where they research and restore old paintings etc. I have been there before and used the photos from that visit in the Magazine Challenge. There are display cases with some objects from the collection and this one is a dress made out of paper.

Sue, it must be amazing to see this! I enjoy seeing the few (not even close to this scale) that get together here before migrating south.

I must admit there's so much beauty and wonder all around. Which compensates for it's long brutal winter. Yet, winter here has to be embraced with all it has to offer.

I didn't go to the lengths I did on the last one. However, this one - I developed the picture from a clip art I had from Kissclipart that I had used in my Alphabet Workshop, put it on a background that I had created to reflect grass and sky, merged it into one image and then used Instant Effects - Watercolor and used strength 50%, Color Match 30% and smooth 22%. I cropped the image to fit inside the first (light) frame.

Wow, what a fantastic sight of so many birds! I love and admire the place where you live and the harshness of it too.

Week forty four. Whilst the smaller migratory birds have left, the Geese are now congregating in their thousands in our area. They are feasting on what the combines left behind in the stubble fields. I hear them as they fly over head throughout the night. The majority of these are the snow geese. Truly a sight and sound to behold. As seen through my eyes!

This is June for the 2nd set. It was interesting cropping the photo to fit inside the first frame, adding a layer behind it to make the next layer cream (which I saw let in the background layer as well) so I extended it just a fraction so that it made another frame (cream). Carole, those masks are very interesting. I would love to know how you made them - they are intricate!

Thanks, Ann I have contacted a couple of print shops and am waiting until after the weekend to hear back. I added a couple inches to the top to make room for the coil and left the backgrounds white. It will be less expensive to have one sided printing.

Yes, I did, Donna

These huge gatherings are a common occurrence at this time of year. When I first came here it was ever so overwhelming to witness. I still get overwhelmed at many of the sights.

Corrie, the whole calendar is lovely, and I am sure the recipients will greatly appreciate it. The result you achieved with the blend mode is beautiful!

I was 14 when we lost my sister (who had recently turned 15). At the time we lived in California. In 2005, my mother passed away. Her cremains are buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where she will be joined by my father when he passes on, (hopefully not any time soon, though he turned 82 this past February).

I actually didn't make them. I happened to have them in my stash from many years ago. I thought they were different than the ones we had in previous calendars. I didn't think it would be that challenging though as I just expected that people would just use a large image and the "extra" would simply fill in the outside. I didn't think participants would go through all the lengths you all did to "separate" the main photos from the "extras". But it could definitely become a class or something like that.

thank you so much Monique. I'm glad to see your getting time to get to your calendar. Mine will have to wait a week or so. I love the rich colors you use.

For all the pages I used a clipart from my stash that suited the month, but I kept them simple because the photos are the stars of the calendar.

If I buy the humble bundle would you be able to suggest tutorials for how to use corel draw, or at even just how to turn a raster into a vector?

I guess it is past the extra 7 days that the non-members have access to 😞 I am not sure why there is no page for the lesson 8. Here is the link, but I suspect it is also not available anymore for non-members: https://scrapbookcampus.com/workshops/calendar-workshop/lesson-8/

Ann, when you had your calendar printed, did you leave the back white?

Ann, another great calendar layout. I love the idea and the photo you added behind the dates!

yes, of course. I should have remembered that. I do get the emails. I'm thinking I would only use Corel Draw for making rasters into vectors and finally seeing what the EPS files are.

The cemetery my parents are buried in is right here in town. I've gone there for many years multiple times during the year. For quite a few years I would go 3 times in May -- Mother's Day, May 20 which was my mother's birthday and Memorial Day. Then I would go on Dec 26 which was her date of death. After Dad passed away 8 years ago, I would go once in May, June 14 (his date of death), Oct 15 (their anniversary), Dec 1 (his birthday) and Dec 26. So I pretty much saw all the seasons of the trees in the cemetery. I always take photos when I go. Since a couple of the dates fall in the months that I do a layout for each day of the month, I have scrapped a lot of layouts of the cemetery. I will share a few. My October layout in 2023 was a few days late because I wasn't feeling good after my surgery. In December 2020 we had a snowstorm on the 1st so I went on the 2nd. The last layout is one I did in 2012.

YES, YES, YES. New class! Yay!

I decided to print my pages just to see how they looked and am really glad that I did so. Then, I compared the cmyk that I had also saved; the rgb colors printed much more vibrantly, although I had to increase the vibrancy on a few, especially the reds. They look garish on the computer, but printed they are much better. No more going to the trouble of converting them to cmyk.

Love the quote! (And the page 😉

Flowers are alway wonderful to use on a calender🙂

It's funny I didnt recognize the texture at all. I was planning on reshooting the garage doors (that's where the texture is) this year with my better camera. Well, you can see how I got around to that. Now it's cold and frosty so i dont want to be out in that.

Fabulous Corrie. The cover is striking and really sets off the beautiful mushroom. I cant believe how red it is.

Yes, corporate greed is everywhere these days. Mostly with the wedding invites it's the blacks in the text that is important to me. Especially with fonts that have really thin lines. And putting cardstock through my printer, even on the thick cardstock setting, leaves unsightly black streaks. My printer is 17 yrs old and still going, but not up to that kind of work anymore.

I just had a lesson learned about pngs. I am doing the wedding suite and i took the files to Staples just for test prints...well, it considered pngs a photo and would not size at 100% or at actual size (same as 100%), wouldnt even give that option. I lost 1/8 of an inch off the size of the cards in the suite. Doesn't sound like much but it really is, in the design of the card. So I had to convert to PDF (I had to ask Corel how to do that, I'm still such a newbie - and they were great and gave me directions. who knew it was so easy - not me). The calendars are like photos so I'm curious to see how they turn out for you Donna. I really want to print stuff and know that there won't be cut off parts, like I get when getting prints at a photo lab.

I will follow your advice. I have the files saved in both formats, just in case. I worked on a book for one of my friends and have contacted his printer for advice, although it will be a small order and I don't know if they will print it. I am also contacting Staples and UPS printing. I have a very good experience with UPS when a needed a card printed fast.

All my classwork is done in 300dpi so no conversions were needed. Staples didn't ask for CMYK. I was working in .jpg and that was fine.

I think it all depends on where you get your calendar printed. Some places will offer a template and you just fit your JPG or PNG file in that template. You might want to change the resolution to 300dpi, but for some printing places, that is not even necessary, so check what is required. I have had books printed and was never asked for a CMYK version, so again, check if it is required at all.

Today I am converting all my pages to 300dpi and then copying them into Photoshop to convert them to cmyk. Since Photoshop won't save them as png, I am opening the psd file in Paintshop and saving it as a png. After I am finished, I will be contacting a printer.

This is my May for the 1st set. I created the photo with a CF watercolor of the jumping fish, and added a background using one of my papers I made with AbstractCurves and adjusted it with HSL, and then added PSP Instant Effects - Watercolor. Then I worked with it to get the softened effect (think I used those extra tools with brushes - push, smudge, etc.

I'm interested also. The only way so far that you showed us was in the vector workshop - how to draw around the raster object, highlight the nodes and make them symetrical to soften and make the curves as needed. Works, but Corel Draw has intrigued me for some time, but the cost was too high.

Thank you so much,, Susan. I used Adobe Express and Filter Forge a lot for the backgrounds.

Corrie, I'm blown away by your calendar, it's just stunning (like everyone else's I see, this is just like opening a present on Christmas morning!). I really like the dates starting on Monday, it makes the weekends look really nice in the calendar. I like how the mushrooms have a gradient, how did you do that?

I agree, each page with it's glory of color is like celebration. I love color so there was so much to discover in Donna's pages. it really has that "wow" factor. So many different calendars that had me going "WOW" that's fabulous.

I changed my mind about my pages ie: I moved the photo from January to the front cover since I also have another topic I want to feature for the zoo, their adventurous zipline ride and the dinosaur experience. I will make a back cover also since I need two new areas to fill. Here's my front cover.

Thank you, Corrie. I am so glad that I chose my grandson's photos to use in these challenge. I am planning on have it printed for him and his girlfriend for a Christmas present.

And here are the next 2. I tried to have some texture on the background layers for just that little bit extra and each month has a clipart on the empty space that goes well with that month. It is time to go to sleep now, I forgot initially to include the months💤💤💤

Donna I love all those Thailand pages, each month is so vibrant, and those colors suit you perfect!

Cover: I used an Adobe Express creation for the picture. I created the mask using one a cass preset piping shapes and the cass raster to mask script. The background paper is a tan taken from the image.

Almost forgot the "cover". Here it is.

Finally, the December calendar I once again used Adobe Express for the background with a few adjustments. The photo is from David, and I thought it looked festive even though Christmas is not celebrated in Thailand. The bottom picture is also from David and is actually a Gay Pride festival. I merged the mask and added color to the opaque areas and then applied a bevel. The nutcracker was made by me from an Adobe Illustrator tutorial for my Build a kit 2. I wish I could make backgrounds as beautiful as AE.

Marvelous !!

Here is my submission for this new challenge.

Week 43 On a day out in Dumfries I was lucky to photograph a cormorant drying his wings.