Mary Solaas

Here is my take. The papers and elements are all ones I made at different times. The pictures were taken by Laurie of David's creation for school several years ago.

All our talk about how to keep information on all the information we need to find, or go back to. One of the nice things Carole did for us was to arrange the labs and master classes in alpha order and to (in the case of the labs) tell what each module in the lab had instructions for creating. I have found that most helpful. I plan on keeping a folder in my special stash (K drive on my computer) for Workshops (the name of the workshop tells what it is instructing), and this may be instead of the database I would have to really study to complete (as well as the time to fill the different tables with items typewritten). I will keep the guidebooks and mp4's for each workshop there.

ME TOO!!!

Thanks, Carole. You rock!!!

That was my excel spreadsheet. The pictures were what I had done in working the labs. It was so cumbersome because I couldn't save the actual item I had created because it would take too much resource to bring it up and so I had to create a sample in order to put it in the spreadsheet. I am just starting on the database and I don't want it to take up too much of my time in learning it. I've been away from database programming for many years and so this may happen and then again it may not. In the meantime, the masterclass names tell a lot about what action is contained in it. Carole has a neat way of displaying the labs on her site - shows what is contained in each module of the lab. That is where I will go when I am looking for a tool, creating an element, pattern, etc. until (and if) I make a database. Also, she is pretty explicit in listing her other tutorials. Thank God for Carole!!!!!

Posting - Did rework the S and this is the result. Playing with that knife has been my bane in the past. I'll have to do some more work with it until I get it down pat.

Before the close of July, I'll post what I had started sometime ago as a spreadsheet of the things I had done in the labs. I abandoned this because of having to reduce the pictures of what I had done. I am now working on a database to show where articles about tools or actions (such as shadowing, creating masks, etc.) are located so I can bring them up and peruse them. I was a database programmer in my late adult years (that's what I earned my bread from), however, it is taking me to task and a new learning curve since Access 2016 is the new game in town and somewhat different and more sophisticated than my old Access database.

I've had a hard time with the letter and placing a tube around part of it. For some reason, the first letter I used was an S and then I had trouble deleting part of it (had to watch the video several times to get the fact that you select the part you want to remove and then hit the delete key - I kept wanting to select the part I wanted to remove with the selection tool- instead of just drawing around the part to be removed. Then I had a problem with how PSP was scripting the gems around the path - it kept limiting the size to the actual width of the letter. I scrapped the S and began again and chose P this time. Well this time the gems were the correct size. And, all's well that end's well!

OK - I'm just playing now. I bought that custom directional script - couldn't resist. Used the topaz heart gems I created with a script from Cassel some time ago. Had seen someone putting a picture inside of a letter and thought that's a great idea. Love that old Pooh bear and so put him and his honey pot inside of my D which I had made golden. Of course the background is the 100 acre wood.

Project 7a. Cass pink bead picture tube; treated the circle as a silver bracelet. Using the knife tool was interesting. I never really understood how to use it. But it is the edit mode that breaks the circle where the knife cut and moves the part of the vector you want moved. You use the knife tool when making a paper clip also.

Still playing with the Vector Tube script. Cass Pink Braid used this time and the background paper is the one I did earlier.

And now to 6a. Tried (with Artistic Effects>Balls and Bubbles) to make the original tweaked shape into a plumped pillow (I know - it needs work). Before I did that, I used the shape and Cass Blue Braid to do what the project is about. Then (since it was a pillow) I added the font (Aryaduta) and the corduroy heart I made earlier in this workshop. Anyway, this is the result. Oh - I forgot - I also used the warp mesh to give the pillow more depth and played with the words because they had to mold with the plump pillow!

Okay - project 5b. Really had fun with this. Made the background paper using a portion of the greenery in the picture and smudging it, blurring it, lightening it - and then saving it for use later; used a copy of the original vector circle to crop the picture to fit the vector; used a copy of the original vector enlarged to make the top circle; and then relearned how to make the text go the correct way at the bottom (at first it went in reverse - why???) but I did get it to go the correct way when I followed Cassel's instructions by just typing it after reversing the path and then offsetting it. Whew! Fun learning. Need to practice that again.

This is my project 5a - text on a path on a picture. I had a time with this - I used Baby Lovely font at first and my computer really locked up - couldn't understand it. tried it several times and every time it locked up. I finally just used task manager and closed PSP. Then I opened it up and looked at one of my other pspimage files and they all worked fine and the PSP didn't lock up. So I just deleted the one with the Baby Lovely font and started from scratch. This time I used Ambrogio font and it worked just fine. I'm not sure if I have used Baby Lovely font before, but it sure didn't like me this time. Anyway. The pic is by my son Chris at the Gulf of Mexico.

I did do a dino; however I didn't do it with vectors etc., but with the magic wand. One has to practice with it too. I copied the dino from the group with it; pasted it in a new image and began working on it to separate all the different colors on separate layers, creating a pspimage. Now, please don't ask me why. I never know exactly WHY I do anything. Anyway, I have it saved as a pspimage, a png (so it is an element I can use later on in a layout), and a jpg so I can post it here. This is the result after I hide the original and put together all the pieces!. I really have to move on to Project 5.

I went back to the cup and added a saucer today using the cup shape. (I did not save the cup and saucer as a shape). I added the artistic bubble effect on the cup to give it dimension. Again used Particle Shop Smoke for the steam, added shadows. I'm not moving forward yet, even though I'm just on 4. The fish looks good as an element - the shape will turn out as a silhouette, but I like it as an element. May have a go at the dinosaurs later today and then move on to Project 5. I'm slow - but there is so much to learn! Oh, the saucer I made using 3 ellipse shapes one for the top, one for the recess where the cup sits (just an outline here) and one for the bottom part.

Project 4 - create a cup shape. Did. And then used it in a simple layout to show off its use.

And this is the extra for Project 3. I chose the fish and the colors given. Whew! Did make it a shape by grouping the different vector layers and then changing the name of the group layer.

On to Project 3 - copying a leaf pattern and putting it in the shapes folder. Copied 4 of the leaves, used the Ctrl key to put all 4 in one export and the result is shown in this screenshot. (The holly leaf was made in a previous lab.)

Thanks, Cassel. I downloaded the Q&A for June and played some more with the scallops (balls) in a line. It worked and this is now my shape.

Lovely, Michelle! As always.

I, too, thank you, Carole, for a most informative workshop. Also, thank you to all who have contributed as your take on the various projects have been beautiful - and your comments have been helpful. I've been very slow in working through this workshop. I played with making a new "line" for the stroke to see if I can come up with a ball stroke that would enable me to make a layer shape I was working on in project 1. However, still need to work on that. I did finish project 2, but not past that. I will continue to work on these projects but will probably have to post them in What Are You Working On In July/August. Thanks again!

@Cassel I couldn't save it as a shape because the outline (or stroke) was circles from the paint brush. If I could have made it as a separate line, I could have used it then. However, I have forgotten how to make a new line - I know you showed us how to do that in one of the workshops or lab tutorials, but I couldn't remember which one.

You all are going great guns! I'm just finishing project 2. I had fun with changing the stroke and making a kite and a kite string (the kite and kite string had to be separate shapes because the kite string is a rectangle added to the kite).

Michelle - I always love what you do!