Sue Thomas

8 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Nice to meet the North America badger! We have badgers too and I suspect they are related to the UK badgers, because they form a family group as well. They are more or less used to humans and there are families that love to make their "homes" under railway tracks. The tracks lie on a manmade elevated trail so their burrows will keep dry in wet conditions! Of course this poses a danger to a track if it is undermined this way. The badgers are a protected species and have to be relocated carefully. The endangered tracks were temporarily closed until they were caught and given a new home while the old burrows were being filled and bared so they wouldn't be able to come back.

The UK and  European badger are one of the same species.  In canada they too are endangered, not through hunting or trapping so much but through loss of habitat.  In the UK there is a totally different  view to the badger, they  have been persecuted for hundreds of years, through badger baiting  as sport, which has been  illegal for a long time now, but still goes on under the cover of darkness. It is barbaric.  Farmers will trap and kill them as their cattle and dairy cows  can contract TB. Farmer have to have their cattle tested every six months, at their own cost.   Over 220,000 badgers have been culled to date, blamed for the disease.  Actually the TB  bacteria lives in soil and water.  East Africa is the home to TB and it's human host.   Yet, the badger bears the brunt of the blame for transmission.  which I don't agree with. 

2 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Beautiful family.  This is the only chance I'll get to see them up close.  The information you give to us is always informative and interesting.  

It would have  been wonderful to have seen them  when they were  much younger, and smaller. Still you can see that she is still suckling them, even though  they are as big as mum. I was so excited to see them, a real treat.

Week 27.  It is prooving difficult to single out a photo to showcase for this challenge. Never the less, I won't be short of  photos to showcase down the road.  North America sow badger with her 3 cubs.  They are not closely  related to the UK badger. American badgers breed between July and August. The embryos don't  start to grown  unitl  December or February.   They don't hibernate.   I see their tracks in the snow throughout the long winter months. Also the UK badger is a social badger, whereas the American is solitary. Mother was keeing a close eye on me, and I wasn't going to antagonize her either, as they can be  aggressive, espcially when  felt threatened.  Her set is  impressive,  just over  half way up the drive, which also runs under the drive, with several entrances and exits on either side.  A rare treat to see them out in  daylight, as they are nocturnal.

1 hour ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

@ Sue Thomas

Your photos for the weeks of June are spectacular and some made me laugh! Your love of nature is so apparent in this photos, even more then in a layout because here it is all about the animal in the photo!

Thank you Corrie,  photos  can speak volumes.  Not only about the subject, but  also the photographer.The fox cub is one of three out in the  crop. I have photos of them playing  while mum sits and watches over them. As for the ground squirrels,  I wish I  could tell them apart  but I  can't.  Choosing a weekly photo is difficult, it would be easier to post them all if it was possible.

21 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I gotta ask?  is that the tongue sticking out or a berry.  Because if that the tongue, I might just lose it...😅🤣😂

PS  why does tongue have to be spelled so weird...tung would be so much better.

Susan, it is the tongue, just prior to lapping up a mouthful of jam.   They are hilariously entertaining. Unfortunately, as much as I'd  love to post far more shots, the campus isn't  a photographic  site, plus resizing down is time consuming. You will have to wait for when I  create layouts, where I  can add multiple photos. 

33 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

WOW and WOW...and WOW again!  You have been busy.  Incredible shots.  Barn swallows are so cool aren't they.  When the horses would stir up insects in the long grasses , the barn swallows would be out with their fantastic flying feats, just like little fighter jets. LOVE the ground squirrel.  Such an opportunist. Gave me a good laugh.  That must be so fun to watch their antics.  

The swallows are aerial acrobats, I never tire watching them.  As for the ground squirrels, they never cease to make me laugh.  Mind you they weren't amuzed to have  jam on their faces and feet.  They would rub their faces in the grass to get it off, then lick the  jam of the  blades of grass, once they  had washed themselves.   I decided to place a spoonful of jam on top of the jar for them.  Such great enterainment all around, when one is prepared to  look for it. Plus it is free. 

I'm now  caught up with this challenge.

7 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I have also read about the cat predation of birds.  It's really quite sad people still let cats out to run freely.  You don't see people letting their dogs out to run freely.  Bird window strikes is another bird killer.   It's amazing we have any birds left with those two strikes against them.  I have Acopian Bird Savers (strings hanging outside in front of the window) on the windows I've have bird strikes and have had only 1 strike (pigeon) in the 5 yrs they have been up.  Just yesterday I saw it work in action.  the young magpies were in the yard all day and one flew straight at the window and then did it mid air halt right before the strings and went straight up to the roof.  (NOTE: if you want more info google Acopian Bird Savers or check out  https://www.birdsavers.com/  I used velcro to attach the ones I made (they give instructions if you want to make your own) to my vinyl window frames so I could take them off if I needed to change the parachute cord.  

I too have bird window prevention collision strips on all the house windows.   Also all my feededs are out  in the trees, far the house.

2 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

They are very aware of threats and spook at everthing! We have cats and hawks galore and the ferals were here long before I was. There are several very large colonies in the neighborhood. My little crew of 7 or 8 is just a sampling. Here's an overhead porch-cam shot of Brandy on the lower far left trying to stalk birds. She's still too young to neuter and goes around chasing squirrels, birds and bugs but is only successful with bugs, so far! 😉 

 

My goodness, there must be loads of them, if your crew is only a small one.   On average cats will kill over one hundred million  birds a year in Canada.  Domestic and feral cats aren't native to any ecosystem. Not only on birds but other native wildlife.  It has been estimated that cats in Australia kills an average of one million birds per day.  About  three hundred and seventy seven million per year. Same, for the UK.  The numbers are staggering world wide.  Although they make wonderful pets for some people, they threaten birds and other wildlife and disrupt ecosystems.  Rarely, I will get a stray tom  cat from the neighbours, as they will travel long distances.  I trap and dispose of them, cruel as that may sound to some.  At least numbers are trying to be controlled in your area.  It is a controversial issue.  Here is a shot of one of  my   Red winged Blackbird's (male) on a cattail.  I haven't noticed any fledgelings yet.

13 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground. 

Cool photo you took with your phone, better than I  can take. You must have a body of  water close by, as typically they like marshes, with cattails, sedges and bulrushes, nesting close to the ground. I'd be concerned for their safety from the ferel cats you feed.. They flock with the grackles during migration. 

Week twenty six. Nestling tree swallows waiting for their parents to come with  food. I took this shot along  with many others of them, even being fed  late this afternoon. 

Week twenty five,  fledged North America Robin siblings.

week twenty four, ground squirrel  helping himself to the  Robins and Orioles blueberry jam.  I have run of my own jam.  I have to wait until the new season of Bluberries come into the shops.

Week Twenty two,  male barn swallow. Fox cub, around  13-15 weeks old.

1 hour ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Ann in turn I didn't know this. I used the translation of the Dutch word "luis" or plural "luizen" and found louse or plural lice. It are those little greenish basterds that leave a sticky surface on the plants and ants love them! When you notice them in the garden than you are sure to see ants feasting on them. We use the word "luizen" also when there is a lice infestation in the hair of schoolkids. It seems that lice is a more generic word for a small and wingless parasitic insect on man, animals and plants , while aphids is only used for plants. At least according to my old and trusted Webster's New World Dictionary.

Ants will farm aphids, as aphids feed on the sap of plants, they secrete a liquid called honeydew.  Aphids are sometimes called  plant lice, but they are not related.  Aphids are closely related within the suborder Sternorrhyncha. Lice belong to the suborder Troctomorpha, in the order that also contain book lice, barklice, and bark flies.  We look for aphid infestions in the crops.  I studied the  aphid when I was recording and documenting the life cycle of the  ladybird several   years ago.   As Ladybirds feed almost exclusivley on aphids.

13 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Thanks Sue. I don't know why that one mask gave me trouble. Usually using masks is easy for me. But I was also rushing and that doesn't help.

Sometimes it takes several attempts at drawing around the image to get the effect I am looking for.  Also I will  edit the mask after I have run the script.

Julie Magerka, there is youtube video on using the  paintsplash script.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cass+paintsplash+video+youtube&oq=cass+paintsplash+video&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgCECEYChigATIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAhGAoYoAEyCQgCECEYChigAdIBCTExMDk2ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7d7638c2,vid:MrEy7coigwE,st:0

There's  a simple explanation Ann. Alicia clicked on the  previous  year's vector workshop  to post  her page, in error. The other day, I  received  11 likes from Cindy, all from posts  I  posted in last year's  vector workshop. It would appear Alicia, didn't  click on the  current  workshop.

3 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Thank you Sue, accolades from you mean a lot to me.  I sure did experience not getting the text edge to edge and wondered why my magic wand was acting oddly. Until I zoomed in real close and saw I was a few pixels shy on one side, therefore, opening up the whole top part of the canvas.  I will have a look at the "No Kit" masterclass this weekend, after I get through the busy work week (next week is the lighter work week - we all like that one better!).

Undoubtedly, always a pleasure.  I have been rather busy, and meant to comment on your last layout, as it escaped me until now.  You altered the word bye using the  kerning, which  you specified in your comment as looking rather odd.  May I suggest to you  to get a better result,  whilst the text is still a vector,  STRETCH the word vertically and horizonally instead.  As you will still maintain the shapes of the glyphs and letters  as they were exactly written. Of course,  stretching within reason mind.

Apologies for not commenting on everyones  outstanding pages posted.  I will be getting around to  doing this random challenge. I am  currently  preoccupied  with the camera.  Young badger and fox cubs.  Nestlings and fledglings, all currently  in abundance.  Riding and cycling.

7 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Yup, I spelled it wrong.  ARGH!  I didn't notice until I was looking up information about Calla Lilies.  Weirdly, I found some Canadian sites that use two Ls.  I'm pretending it's the Canadian spelling or maybe I accidently bought Left handed lilies?  They are spelled with two Ls, right?

I didn't quite get the layout horizontally in equal halves either.  It was fun to make though.  

The font is Lophinky from CF, which has LOTS of glyphs by the way, and Arial.  Photo's are mine, I used 3 photos and a blend mode to set to Lighten.  I didn't know the flower is actually the pointy thing in the middle (pistil?) and what I thought was the flower is actually a leaf.  They are quite beautiful.  

Stunning simplistic page.  They are easy to create, providing there aren't  any gaps in the text from edge to edge of the  page. The correct spelling for the flower Lily is spelt with one l. As it comes from lilium which is its genus. A child's  name Lily can be be spelt in several ways, including two l's. There are other variations on creating this type of layout  in the  no kit masterclasses if you are interested.

Something else I have been working on.  I created a vector flame,  used geometric effects to get the shape of the word happy to fit in the flame.  The colours aren't the best, but when I come to create a card I will use colours and patterns to match.  This is a trial run.  

18 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Sue thank you and I'm going to play a bit more with the candle, I need a couple of cards for family and friends who have a special birthday coming up in the next months. I'm not 100% happy with my first attempt but I know now which adjustments I have to make and I have to think of appropriate Dutch words because we tend to have longer words, so the fonts and their spacing will be important too. Luckily I have been using the meshwarp before that makes it way easier. Thanks again to you for the initial idea and thanks to Michele for her suggestion. I wish I had thought of using wordart for a candle. I think many of my X-mas cards for this year are going to have a candle!

One little tip I'll give  is to use a guide when you are manipulating the duplicate vector, to get the extra thickness on the curves.  So the  pen nodes are aligned to create both sides symmetrical. Also lower the width of the duplicate vector.  I'm still making adjustments when I  create a candle.  I've done  several templates  The more I do the better they get, as will yours.  Not that  I could find fault with  yours, but   you are like me.  I have to be happy with what I create.

20 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

 Two days ago when the Campus was up after that terrible gremlin attack, Sue very kindly gave instructions how to make a candle out of wordart! She has been perfecting her initial idea on this. Here is my try to make something too. To me it was clear it must be done with the warpmesh tool to get the rounding, but that you could use wordart to do so is a genius idea. I didn't want to copy her "card", so I tried a birthday card. I'm not totally happy with the colors I used and I have to try to make a better ellips on the bottom. I didn't have a realistic flame and I haven't a subsciption by CF. When I tried to just buy a flame they want me to take that really nice subscription for a year, which I at this point won't do. I just updated my filter forge and that was my budget for now. I'll see if I can find some flames there, but in the mean time I wanted to post this 1st try. I can see nice, unique cards made this way, Sue thank you so much for sharing this with us.

It was  my pleasure to share with you all, once I  had played  with it. You did an awesome job!  I love it.

I can now post again.  I hope that is the end of the  issues, as Carole, I'm sure somteimes technology can  be a nightmare. I created this for a friend, whose birthday was yesterday, using one of my bird photos, as she is also an avid bird and insect watcher, like myslef. (Barn Swallow) The colours used in the candle can all be found in the photo. I used one of my embosed cutout templates. It's a 5x7 ecard. Which my friend was able to print off. I'm currently unable to comment on posts in the campus. Corrie Kinkel I love everything about your candle! If anyone was going to try their hand in creating one, I knew it would be you. They certainly do have the potential to be used in a variety of ways. I only wish I had thought of it long ago. Thanks Michele Fineron, for the suggestive challenge, as without your vision I may not have had thought to take the candle to this level. By the way, everyone has been posting wonderful, inspiring pages!

I see that the posts I had posted, which disappeared, have been restored .  I  will now post the updated  transparent wordart candle which I posted on facebook as promised.   Anyway, after some playing I can create celebration, festive candles which I  will be happy with. Which are  ever so easy to  create, yet the results are quite impressive.  I will start with the base. Using the vector elipse shape create the shape, duplicate. Using the pen tool move the side nodes in on  the top layer, merge down, after duplicating, any gaps can be filled with the  brush tool. Using the feather tool in selections feather severeal times until you get a nice tapered gap.  Of course you would create the base after you have created the candle itself. Once you have  created the wordart, stretch it out horizontally, and and a little squidging down.   In order to achieve  a shorter more compact candle. If  that is what you'd prefer.  Always duplicate, then  convert to a raster.  I won't go through the instructions of  using the warp brush to  create the  rounded effect and shadows.  Check out the  tube tutorial in the  creative scrap.  Instead of using the usual written verse inside some  cards I intend using  a candle.  The candle flame came from CF.  I won't challenge you , but give it a try, and post it.  It really is  that easy.