Sue Thomas

Like the Vole there are several species of mouse, the most common, which spans the whole of North America is the North AmericanDeer Mouse. Which has colour variations. (Peromyscus maniculatus). You can't mistake a vole for a mouse, and vice versa. We live and learn!

I can vouch for voles biting, they can give quite the nip. I have catch and release mouse/vole traps. Those that I catch, I take way out into the field to the stone pile, to release them. I have the meadow Voles, the most common are the Red-backed voles. There are 5 species in North America. Voles are also referred to as field mice. To have been invaded by them, they must have peaked. Females are able to give birth to a litter every 3 weeks. They have population cycles, peaking and crashing ever 2 to 5 years. When they crash, it has an effect on the population of those that feed on them, like owls and foxes.

Susan, as always there are several ways of doing anything in PSP. The technique I used is just one way, and relevantly quick to do, with a nice result. I have to go Danielson Park to see and photograph Red Squirrels. I think a created a page, and posted one of the Park's squirrels. You'll have a lot of fun observing the squirrel family, and the young growing up into adults. I hope you get the opportunity to to take some cool shots. Many thanks for your kind words on my work.

3 weeks will simply fly by, as I know you will have a wonderful, memorable time. A new city and places to investigate, and document with lots of photos to take. What an adventure you are going to have. Have a safe, uneventful flight. Already, I'm making notes and putting aside items for my trip home for Xmas. I'm hoping to be out in the kayak by the time you come back. At the moment there is still some ice on the lake. However you added the bridge, you did a grand job. When the time comes to use the tag in a page, may I suggest you add a slight texture, to give it some body. Again, we both had the same idea, as I added a vole to my tag. I used the selection tool, feather a few times, copied and paste, added a blend mode.

Corrie, I'm delighted to read that these tiny, secretive creatures are growing on you.

There is never a shortage of anything to photograph when it comes to Nature. I absolutely adore these tiny creatures. As per usual to get the best shots, I have to lay down on the ground for long periods of time motionless, waiting for them to emerge. I have over a hundred pics to choose from. Some have even run over me. I quite literally have hundreds of them this year. This year is a year when they have peaked. Anyway, I started this page last night. Finishing it off this evening with a tag. Layout, papers, everything is my own work. Including the photos.

I hadn't taken that into consideration.

I don’t want to come across as being critical, but even with my good eyesight I had to look hard at the month, which looks as if it’s embossed on the bear. I also have a question about your framing, was it a pre-made frame, or possibly an extracted frame, as it looks like you have a double frame visible on the left side, and one solid frame on the other 3 sides. The top of the frame isn’t as bevelled as the other sides either. The frame isn't consistent on all four sides. Carole has masterclasses on basic framing, if you are having problems creating frames. Using the rectangle tool, I can create a single frame like that in literally 5 steps, that includes the sculpture tool as well. I’m curious to know how you did the frame. It stood out to me, which distracted my eye from the the main focus, and that is the photo on the page.

The script you mentioned I used in the page below. It's a page from 2015. I haven't used it in ages. It was one of the very first scripts I bought. I tend to use the rotate command, which is located in the centre of any image. You will also find the technique in Carole's book called Tips and Tricks for PSP

I was only toying with you, as in your post you mentioned the April and May Tag masterclasses. Looking forward to the second Tags class tomorrow.

I'm ahead of the challenge, as the May Tag Masterclass hasn't been yet! ?

Last night I created this birthday ecard. After discovering the May tut/tech challenge this morning, I decided to use it to advertise a fictitious event. There are so many different tag designs which can be used in so many ways to help showcase photos. The one with the threaded ribbon I copied from a magazine. I created my own version of a ticket design, which I saw somewhere or other. I jot down on paper designs that I see on the telly, or in a magazine, or online ads creating then as when needed. The pinned tag design will be familiar to you. I frequently use many other techniques in my pages, putting emphasis on small realistic details.

Many, many thanks Cristina. I suppose being minimalistic, with some fine details, could be my signature.

The Horned Larks arrive much earlier, like the Meadow larks, they fill the air with their beautiful songs. They sing from the top of their voices perched on fence posts, and are quite tolerant of being photographed at fairly close range. We have Meadow Larks in the UK too.

I do like the broken frame effect. A great page. Try making the black button smaller, to be in proportion and place it on the young man's T shirt, as a Halloween pin.

I like this challenge, it's not a lot unlike the scavenger hunt, or bingo challenge, which are my favourite challenges. I'm not accustomed to using buttons in my pages. Nor do I have any button scripts, hence I made my own. I don't have the folded corner, or folded paper scripts either. The paper was folded, but when opened out, you still have the fold. The knotted ribbon, is one of Carole's scripts. The frame is my own, made especially for the photo.

I have always steered clear from using pre made frames, including the psp frames. I create a one of a kind frame for each photo. All to often I see frames that are not of equal proportions, or if they have been rotated, the shadowing is wrong. The majority of my frames are used only once. Personally I enjoy creating unique frames. Carole now has a frame script, for convenience and time. Also she has 2 frame materclasses.

The Kestrel is common across Canada too. I have many shots of them They are our smallest falcon. They often hover in one spot while hunting, the Merlin ambushes, at high speed. The Merlin in my photo, is either a female, or an immature ( one of last year's clutch). The one in your page is a male. Both feed mainly on insects, but will take rodents, and birds.

I'm the same. My goal is always to draw the the eye to my photos, with minimum elements and embellishments. I'm not a fussy, frilly, clutter sort of person, never have been, which also reflects in my pages. That doesn't mean I don't like pages that are busy, it's just not me.

Thank you for the comment Susan. I hope it may give you some ideas and inspiration.

Experimenting with new styles of labels. I used a photo for the background along with overlays. and blend modes. This layout isn't a template but one I created myself. April palette challenge.

April Palette Challenge. Created the little flowers for the background paper (pattern, flood fill). Background paper overlays, blend modes, and colours, using several layers. Replicating colours from the photos. Some of the first things I learnt to create were the eyelets and stitching, when I first joined the campus. Due to adding noise, and textures some colours have have changed slightly. Some flower pics I have taken on one of my trips home.

Day 6. As you can see I didn't use the template. I used a photo from last year, as I'm yet to get a shot of one this year. I thought I saw one on Wednesday, and then this morning I saw one at the top of our drive. It's a bit early for them yet. Slats script. Text on a path using my own vector arrows. Cassel's bead tube around the word Squirrel, and the dingbat corner elements. The label is mine, the gold element is also a font.

I use the straighten tool to find out the angle of anything, the angle used will be in the tool bar.

On the contrary hares aren't mad in March. It's the courting behaviour of mating hares. As mad as a March hare is a British idiomatic phrase. There weren't enough hours in the day yesterday, hence combining yesterday's and today's text techniques on one page. Here are 3 of my 5 resident hares. After a wonderful display of the Northern lights last night, and early hours of this morning, the hares were very entertaining long after they were meant to retire for the day. Drastically resizing really does degrade my photos.