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Playing with Carole's pixel stretch script.

Thank you, now I finally know what this creature is. It was quietly sitting in the citrus tree and we could take a good look at it.

What a great capture Corrie, it is not a beetle of any kind. At first glance, and after reading your comment on its size, it is a bumble bee. My guess is that it is possibly a carpenter bee, or a species of black bee. I hasten to add, that they are completely harmless, unless unduly provoked.

Sue you know so much about insects and I wonder if you could help me. I took this photo when I was in California in the end of April last year and I have no clue what it is, I think it is a beetle but I'm not sure. It was rather big, a couple of centimeters. I searched a bit on line but couldn't find anything similar. I don't think it is rare it was just in the front garden, but my granddaughter who is always interested in everything living said she hadn't seen it before.

Here's some layouts I've worked on lately. I have no particular focus, just react to photos I have or get and try something with them. I am dabbling and rather scattered, but I like to work on something everyday. The last week to ten days of each month is a busy time for me, so I am not able to comment/react/post very much. But I do check out the wonderful layouts that appear in the different topics. This place is my "stay sane" place. (However, I have to scroll quickly past the spider pix! 😛) The fellow on the bike is a good friend of my (older) sister from 'way back. I've bugged him for a long time for a copy of that photo. The couple are my parents just after they were married. And the blue layout is about my yearning for Spring which is still elusive here. Photo in that one from Pixabay. The designers whose materials I have used are: Vicki Robinson, Anna Aspnes, ET Designs, Marisa Lerin, Rachel Jeffries, and maybe some others.

Many of you will know that one of my passions is the wonderful world of insects. I observe, macro photograph, document and showcase them. Here is one I previously did.

Several years ago, the kids called me outside as they found a huge butterfly. It was my first encounter with a Luna Moth. Unlike most moths, this one is quite colorful. I noticed that the moth was on the ground, and our cat was about to pounce on it. I grabbed it and it kind of hopped on my sweater and crawled on my face. It was likely injured, but it ended up flying away (and we brought the cat inside, to give it a chance). This moth has a life span of about one week.

Recently Anna Aspnes was retiring a lot of her older products and had those on sale with a big discount and I bought just a small kit and in this kit was a butterfly and lovely backgrounds and elements. With this month's theme I had to try to make a layout in Affinity and I used one of my own butterfly photos and put it inside the frame from the kit. Then I had to use a pin from my stash to "hang" the frame on. The font I used is called My Butterfly and has lovely swatches and although I have found a way to use some I couldn't figure out how to use others. There is so much to learn.......

This was from our Text Workshop last November.

It seems I was really into bees 2 years ago! 🐝

I used a bootcamp layout for a Bee festival that my daughter was involved with.

A few of my photographs taken over the years

Even though my bookmark says this is still February, I will post my new March Wild Cat Calendar. The template is from our calendar workshop last Oct. '24. They have unusual masks that add to the surrounding frame, and a separate layer which can be colorized. This is an action shot of a powerful jaguar attacking a caiman, which is a relative of the alligator. I get my information and photos from Panthera.org. The background paper is from Marisa Lerin. It started out purple but I changed that with the Change to Target brush using the dark blue color from the caiman's skin. The greens are from the photo. The March title font is Aviation Cocktail. I will post a full size version in our Facebook group Scrapbooking with PaintShop Pro and Affinity that is suitable for printing. I put mine on my refrigerator.

Another technique I like to use. This is a Ladybird larvae. Ladybirds go through 4 stages, 5 if you incluse the adult stage. (Macro Photography)

I often use masks to blend two, or three photos together. Here I used two photos. Mind you it makes it a dawdle when I take this technique into account when taking photos. Shadows, etc. It also helps when the insects are within the same vacinity. (Macro photography)

Anne, another great calendar page. This beautiful mask makes it unique.

Grasshopper on windshield. Photo taken several years ago. I think I put a towel inside on the dashboard of the car to get a clearer picture. The shadow in the picture was not created, it was actually on the glass.

Nice picks of the moth, I have never seen one of these. I bet that tickled crawling on your face.

I keep that trick with huhs in mind. By the way my family isn't wondering what we in Europe think, they know! It are the contacts with the Amies that can be tricky now and I suppose it will be a lot of huhs, nodding and smiling.

This si beautiful Ann. I never did the workshop in 2021, I thought it way above my level at the time. I didnt know then that all Carole's classes can be done by beginners to advanced users. I love seeing you layouts all together like that. I think I'll still need an extra week to finish. Sigh. Thanks for showing it, I love to see all the magazines. And I get to arm-chair travel the world, free of charge!

That's sad, and interesting that you mention this (your family wondering about what Europeans think). I have friends who moved to Scotland 10 months ago. They've told me what the that part of the Europe thinks of North America, even before I asked. Corrie, don't worry about offending people here and in the US. Most in N.A would agree, the actions of a few these days horrible. Even the average North American will think the same thing. Initially my friends were talking about the extreme measures we went through to appease the Woke culture (to the detriment of productivity in companies and expenditures to accommodate the culture), now I can only imagine what Europe and the rest of the world must be thinking. I also find some people are overly passionate(extremist) about what they believe. There is no talking to people like that, and they don't even want your opinion, they just want to blather on about how much they think they know and how right their opinions are. I usually just make my grocery or to-do list in my head and insert a few uh huhs when necessary.

Oh yeah, I saw her sale! Good markdowns. You did justice to her elements.

And then I was into spiders. The challenge topic was "FEAR"

I may have to give up on this month's game if people keep posting pics. LOL

Lovely layouts, Julie! Again, you are mastering this artsy way of scrapbooking.

S = Silverfish / Firebrats Domestic species such as silverfish and firebrats may cause extensive damage to household goods. They often feed on wallpaper paste, bookbindings, and the starch sizing of some textiles. Cardboard and other paper products may also be damaged. The species is particularly long lived, some as much as 6 years.

R = Roach (yuck!)

Love the shadow. What you have here is a Katydid, and not a grasshopper. Katydids are in the suborder Ensifera, while hoppers are in the suborder caerlifera. The best way to tell them apart is that Katydids have the longest of antennae.

I do have another magazine layout to show you. This was from 2021.

I see it is "tickling the ivories" - apropos for an elephant, of course! 😉

E is for Elephant Toy. I got this toy for Pepper and Paige more than likely around 2002/2003. In those days, I was still doing paper scrapping and all my stuff was in the basement. So I would go down there and the dogs would follow me down. This had been made into a family room in 1987 and Dad used to watch TV down there. There was a loveseat couch and some chairs along with the dining room table from their first home. I used that table to scrap. There was also a bed down there that could be used for company. The dogs loved to play on the bed or curl up on the couch. In 2018, I got rid of a loveseat couch that was in my office ( that I had bought used in 1982 from my boss at the time) and had the one from the basement brought upstairs. When I took the cushions off of it when my neighbor and his son moved it, I found this toy. I had stopped scrapping down there after an ice storm in 2005 so evidently the toy was in the couch for over 10 years. It was still in good shape so I put it in Peyton's toy box. She loves it and I'll see it at various places around the house which means she moves it because the only time I move it is to put all the toys back in the toy box before the cleaning lady comes!

When you use the Fill tool, make sure that the Source: (in the toolbar) is set to Current Layer. It tends to default to Current Layer & Below, and in that case, it is NOT working as we would expect.

My husband got a 3D puzzle from the Eiffel tower and it even has lights in it. It was a bit of a puzzle 🤔 to make a nice photo, but when it was dark it worked fine. The font for the letter E is Puzzle and the rest is fruity cereal outline. Eiffel tower is in Dutch Eiffeltoren and it is pronounced differently the o sound is like the o in borrow and we write it as one word instead of two.

Just for fun