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Finally finished my Sketch Challenge. Introducing my new great grandson, Raja Blue Lennox, little brother to Magic. He was born at home on Aug 31, and it took the parents a week to come up with a name. 🤭 I think he weighed in at nearly 9 lbs. Daddy Will introduced him with a musical rendition of the opening to The Lion King, so I went with the theme and used a Lion King poster in the background, mirrored and screened in each of the 9 squares. The mat behind them has a wood grain pattern. The crown brads are from Janet Kemp. The title font is Broadway, treated to a Copper gradient and a Chrome Reflection gradient. The little word art top left is from Marisa Lerin. I tried out PSP's One Step Photo Fix and was impressed with the results. I think it is improved in PSP 2023.

Here's my take on the Sketch Challenge. No words, just pictures. It was fun to do. I did the silver frame with vectors, not sure why, just seemed easier to do it that way. the outer frame is one object and the 2 verticals are one object and the 2 horizontals as one object. It just occured to me to make it a preset shape. Wonder if it would be useful. The background is a patter I got of rusty metal. It only has a number name (02) but I think it came froim of the ...eezy website (Brusheezy, Vecteezy etc). Lighting by mother nature...background by a non-descript black background I dragged outside....and had to weight down because it was like sail on a windy day and kept blowing over onto the poor subjects.

Fun with clip art! The background is from years ago so I don't know where it came from, but I'm sure it was free. The gnomes are from CF (I love gnomes and d/l them all). The bee is by AnnieC from a Scrap Designers blog train a few years ago. The fonts are a duo called Bee Kind, also from CF.

Another Autumn page in a series that I'm doing, on the birds that stop off for a brief visit, before continuing their long migratory journey. The border is a combination of a corner element which I added a thin border all around to, overlay. Phrase strips which I created, adding one of Carole's new punches. I really do love these, they are ever so easy to use. I do recommend using guides or grid when using them. Text on a text path, masks to slot the photos in . Photo frames are done using the vector rectangle tool.

And my last winter tree for this workshop,

I've completed a couple more pages in my Winter Trees Magazine.

for day 7 I show you some funny trees around my home I made the template with the instructions from Carole

Here is another one. The sign post was ideal to be placed in the small snow drift., rabbits in close proximity to the white tailed hares prints, same for the deer, as Antelope had passed through the yard earlier that day. With the right photos, they work well with clip art to create a page.

Carefully choosing one of my photos for the background, I then added some clipart to create a card. The prints in the snow are either from the white tailed hares or other resident four legged creatures. Placing the dog where some print are visible. No one would be any the wiser who made those prints.

We spent a great deal of time at the beaches, and National Trust (houses, buildings, gardens coastlines and countryside). I certainly had my money's worth from that membership.

Another one.

This year my little girls requested their very own calendar. Using photos I took when I was home last year, here are a few pages for the calendar.

Happy October! I love Halloween, and wild cats. Here's my October Wild Cat Calendar featuring Sushi, the Fishing Cat. There's a full-size version on our Facebook page that you can print @ 11" x 8.5". I do one for my refrigerator door. LAYOUT DETAILS: Info from: SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZOO Fishing cat | Smithsonian's National Zoo 2023 Calendar Template from Cassel Fish and Halloween Witch illustration - Pngtree Title font under photo and journaling- Agency Fishing Cat photo of the recent rescue, Sushi, from The Wild Cat Sanctuary in Sandstone, MN I find it hard to read the journaling on the reduced-size version here so I'm posting it separately: "The Fishing Cat is one of the largest of the small cats. This robust, deep‐chested cat has a body length up to 45 inches and stands over 16 inches at shoulder height. The adult male weighs up to 31 pounds. As their name suggests, they swim, dive and fish for food. Their body is ideally designed for under water movement and their toes are partially webbed. These cats "fish" at the edge of bodies of water. They appear to scoop their prey from the depths of the water and have also been observed playing with fish in shallow water. Fishing cats are native to southern Asia. Their conservation status is listed as VULNERABLE, mainly because of habitat loss due to encroaching civilization."

My project started many years ago but I finished it in Sept of 2023. It is a series of pictures to hang in the family room. It is a series of six pictures all 11x17 inches the biggest size my printer will print.It is printed on glossy photo paper. All of the picture gathering and editing was done using Paintshop Pro Ultimate 2023. It is composed of many family photo's gather for many years. The F in Family are pictures of my mother and father-in-law. The A is my mother and father. The M is my wife and our family. We had 3 children so it worked out just fine. The I is our son, the L is our oldest daughter and her family, and last but not least the Y is our youngest child and her family. I posted a larger picture of just the F and A. I have used Corel software (Paintshop and Video Studio) for close to 20 years and I'm still learning new things about how it works. Maybe one day I might open the instructions.

Day 7 , my self-made template.

Not an easy thing to do.

Day 6 and I decided to feature his Halloween illustrations. Hayden Williams has created so many looks for his Haunt Couture Collection, more than can be displayed here. I keep forgetting these are supposed to be magazine layouts and I have to stop myself from adding shadows, borders, and textures.

My Day 7 - Needless to say , Mom carried me out on the steel pier a few times when we were living in New York and Philadelphia back in my baby days. Post card of boardwalk & Steel Pier entrance.

Changes to Magazine Lesson-2: Changed color of mat behind text to green from blue to better match the photo. Will be working on Lesson 7. I have enjoyed this workshop very much. Thank you Carole!

Changes to my Magazine - Lesson 1: I added the Date on top and FIRST EDITION on bottom. Font is Arial Narrow. Then I changed the frame colors from blue to green. Made the larger frame just a little bit darker green than the small frame.

My Page 6. Amazing the difference in Myrtle Beach from the 1950's to today.

This all started with me wanting to show that moon and branches photo of mine through a window. It grabbed me and took me along for the ride for the rest of it. The room, ghost, pumpkin, cups, and bird were modified from Creative Fabrica downloads. The sprites or whatever they are were made with various paint brushed such as smoke etc. I have been playing with this off and on all day and had a blast..

A couple of projects from the Grunge Class - good, fun class, thanks Carole!

I used a framed pic of the barn swallow I did a short while back, showcasing it in the wood frame 2 tutorial. I like this wood frame. I thought using screws or nails on frame would be a bit much. Anyway, they could also be glued together.

Well! I started out with the intentions of using the sketch. It didn't take long for me to do my own thing, once I added the photos. The background paper is the photo of the Immature White-throated Sparrow, blurred, overlay, and lowered opacity I added the rosehip photo to add a vibrant colour to make the page pop, on an otherwise earth toned page. I screenshot the poem to save me having to type it out. Blend mode multiply.

I have created some memories for a relative using the masking procedure that I learnt from the magazine workshop. I was happy to learn more about the masks as I have always struggled with them. Helen is having a birthday, and I thought she would like these memories of a 6oth birthday, a win at the dart competition, and her precious old dog who passed a couple of months ago.

here is mine for the challenge, hot days in Germany and after work, I want only relax

I'm coming to the end of my Xmas card making for 2023. Here I used one of the templates from the greeting card workshop. Using the watercolour technique on the photo.

Day 7 shows some of the individual illustrations he made for this collection. I had a tough time balancing the two pages. The first page had the pics almost on the right edge. When I made the second page, the pics were spaced evenly horizontally but it didn't look right when I combined the two. I ended up moving the first column of groups on Page 2 to the right. Damn my OCD! I think this is one of the few workshops I've fully completed and it had some great lessons for me. Hopefully, I'll complete future workshops or even past ones so I can keep learning.

And so pages 17 and 18. Used some of the instructions in the Text Workshop this year. The little flare button on the 18th page is from Pixel Scrapper.

Day 5. I decided to add a pop of color to this page. Is it too much? It's really difficult to get out of the "scrapbook" head.

The last day of September, so the last layout for What are you working on this month. I saw a layout I liked, played with interpretation of it, and got this. Used a photo of my niece and her daughter in the leaves from many years ago. The background stripes are mine and the masks I used. But not much else.

My Lesson-7: I followed Carole's tutorial and used Day 5 as the first page. On the second page I used horizontal rectangles and made them just a bit larger as my photos were larger also. I am posting both pages and will try later to combine them into a double page. This has been a great workshop. Thank you Carole and everyone here. Your artwork inspires me.

Redo of Day 5. I forgot that they were supposed to be two separate pics. I knew it when I started but lost track of what I was supposed to be doing 🤪. I also reduced the size of some of the stars as per Sue's welcome suggestion.

Thought I'd also post my Sketch Challenge here to introduce my new great grandson, Raja Blue Lennox, little brother to Magic. He was born at home on Aug 31, and it took the parents a week to come up with a name. 🤭 I think he weighed in at nearly 9 lbs. Daddy Will introduced him with a musical rendition of the opening to The Lion King, so I went with the theme and used a Lion King poster in the background, mirrored and screened in each of the 9 squares. The mat behind them has a wood grain pattern. The crown brads are from Janet Kemp. The title font is Broadway, treated to a Copper gradient and a Chrome Reflection gradient. The little word art top left is from Marisa Lerin. I tried out PSP's One Step Photo Fix and was impressed with the results. I think it is improved in PSP 2023.

I started very brave with the sketch but this is what came out of my hands.

September sketch I just made windows out of the sketch Nevada mountains Moon, Sycamore Eagle, Forte Sea on Lake Michigan

I keep working on something, fuss around with it, and then set it aside. Can't seem to settle on anything I like. Maybe one day.... For now, for the occasion of this special day, I thought I would contribute my support for the Indigenous peoples of Canada. I forgot to wear an orange shirt!

Michele, your illustrations remind me of Jessica Rabbit in the Disney film, "Who Killed Roger Rabbit?" when she sings, famously, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way!" 🎵

Our (Canadian) Thanksgiving is coming next Monday. To keep things easy but to satisfy the urge to "make" something, I did a card for friends/family I won't see. Just really simple.

I have wanted to make a button for a long time and today I finally succeeded. It's not a very big one. And not too sharp either. But I enjoyed making it. I used the Eye Candy 5 impact glass plugin for this. The scrap kit is new. I got it this week. And is from Susan. It is named 'leaves of autumn".

I had a great deal of difficulty understanding the Canadians when I first moved here. Especially when they spoke, as they leave out letters. They don't' say Toronto, but Torono. Under the bonnet is the engine of the car. I'd often say, he's tinkering under the bonnet. In other words working on the engine. When the settlers arrived in Johnson in 1621, they came from all over Europe, with the intentions of starting a fresh. They wanted to leave behind the turbulent history, of inter country fighting dating back hundred and hundreds of years. Border wars etc. They adopted the English Language, as their primary language, but Greek and Latin makes up a great deal of the English Language. So, they decided to change many of the words. Changing a letter or omitting a letter in a word. Such as Tyre (tire) Colour (color). It didn’t stop there, they would change words like bonnet and boot, to hood and trunk. That is why we have (old) English and American English. North America has done it’s best to eradicate everything related to the settlers native countries. They believed that a continent like North America would be untouchable by invading countries. It was true. North Americans have led sheltered lives. Since WW2, the US has instigated over 200 wars in European and Asian Countries. Including dropping 2 atomic bombs. Russia has been involved in a total of 4 wars by invitation of the respective invaded countries. How the US has changed since those first settlers, they wanted a peaceful new life. My mother lost 2 of her eldest brothers to WW2, and a cousin, my dad lost an uncle. Today I say to myself, what did they die for. Hollywood has portrayed the US as the heroes of WW2. Not true, Russia was the primary army that defeated Hitler and the Nazi. With the highest mortality numbers. I can remember to this day, how my gran spoke kindly and fondly about the Russians. As they were allies of GB and the US. I knew the second the house speaker of the Canadian parliament, introduced a Ukrainian Canadian officer who fought against the Russians in WW2, that he was a SS Nazi of the worst kind. It worries me, that if the neocons of the US government, and governments around the collective western countries aren’t reined in, I fear for what is in store for the future of generations to come. I've gone off on a tangent here. It can be deleted if inappropriate.

If anybody has Filter Forge, see a couple of my filters. They are still there 10-15 years later! (This idea is from today’s Filter Forge Masterclass - I bought it and was surprised to see my old account was still viable!) https://www.filterforge.com/filters/9010.html And https://www.filterforge.com/filters/9012.html They each have over two thousand downloads and work with FF 2.0 and higher.

So clever the way you combine your photos with clipart. Impressive and creative.

That's one very pretty kitty. Didn't know about it before, so thanks.

Lesson 7 as a double page combining Lesson 5 and 7. I really enjoyed this workshop and learned a lot about selections, masks, creating a layered template and double pages. Thank you Carole!

@Phil Kettmann I have used Corel software (Paintshop and Video Studio) for close to 20 years and I'm still learning new things about how it works. Maybe one day I might open the instructions. Me, too, Phil. Cassel's the greatest teacher. She explains things so well. Even if I can't boil water, she teaches me how to.

Mid October is when I usually start thinking about the festive season when it comes to making Xmas cards etc. As the days get shorter, and the nights get longer is when I find I have more time to be creative. This year is an exception, as I have been steadily plodding along making all my cards and calendars since I knew that I was going home for the whole of December and January. I'll be printing more of the cards than usual, as I will be able to give them to the recipients in person., which I am really looking forward to.

Christmas cards? And you're finished with them? What a wonder worker! I'm not even sure what I'm having to eat later....🙂

I think it's just right. Love the color! And what you did with the gradient is really neat. I would not have thought of that, it sure put the focus on the girls.