Mary Solaas

I am finally back working in the Labs.  I had started Buttons & Bows several months ago, but had to stop because of other projects.  Finally finished today with the buttons.  I used my polka dot paper, but the other papers and elements including the buttons are from Fire And Ice by Cassel.  I like to change colors so the papers' colors were changed to go along with the pink and blue on Emma's bow and dress.  Even the buttons' colors were changed.  I used the plain papers for frames for the picture.  The B in "Buttons" and "Bows" is also from the kit.  The balance of the words were from a font but I don't remember which one I used - I did note that it only had capital letters.  The polka dot paper I did not use at 100% opacity and I used a blank white raster layer under it so that it is pale and doesn't outshine the picture.

 

 

Raymond - wow - wonderful job in restoration.

 

Shirley -I have been absent from the campus because I have been caught up in dealing with 40 years of photos - don't know if I could deal with 60!  Ha Ha!

 

Need to get back and my next project is laid out for me "Buttons and Bows" with a photo of my great granddaughter who has a birthday on 10-4.

 

Really miss being with you guys!!!

I am new to Diamond Membership and so I am starting back at the beginning of the labs.  This is my take on Lab 5 Module 9.  Didn't go into the Experiments associated with this lab.  I have done circle pictures before.  Was going to try to incorporate all the experiments and the tutorials with module 9, but that didn't go so well.  So here we are. Oh, I did incorporate one-word title which was one of the experiments.

Thanks, Art.

 

Ok, I finally finished the last day!  However, I wasn't sure I understood the directions so I went back to the leather tab instructions (which are very similar) and I understood it better.  I added the flowers from Gina Jones Pretty Bird kit just because I felt that something more was needed.  Had fun completing the Challenge.  And it really was a challenge for me. Thanks, Carole.  Oh, I'm beginning to like certain fonts to write with , print with, etc. And so I'm trying to keep track of them.  I have tried to stay with the same theme for this trip, so the backgrounds are the same all the way through.

 

 

OK - I went back and put the shadows in.

 

 

Art, did you work with a tablet to outline the Churches for your leather tag?  Outlining items with a mouse is really tedious.  I plan to stop after this challenge to practice working with a tablet.  Love your work.

Here I am again.  This time I did the stamps and so I am uploading them here.  Was interesting.  The .jpg of the block of stamps I put a black background on them so that the holes could be seen.  When I did it without the background, you could not see the holes.  So here is my take.  The scene is from that trip to Delaware by way of Niagra Falls in Pennsylvania on our way down from Hershey, PA to Deleware.

 

 

OOps!! Didn't do any shadows on page 3 and page 4 - 2 tied up with other stuff!  Sorry.

Hi, everyone - and especially you, Carole.  I know I am really behind time.  I finally finished the 4th day - the leather tag! I've had to go over and over that tutorial and I am still not sure but what I would have to go over it again.  Anyway, I did have to do it for the barefoot tag this morning as I had saved it as a .jpg and not a .png.  Actually, even though it has taken me forever, I've really had fun.  Also I am really studying your Tips & Tricks book that was printed.  I deal best with a print book I can hold in my hand.  Well, I really had trouble with the Hershey kiss - had to do that one over and over again, but it finally turned out well.  One thing sure - I am going to stop for a while after I finish the stamp, the postcard and the "Wish You Were Here" final day.  I am going to have to work with the tablet; on the Hershey kiss, I outlined that  with the mouse on that picture of the Hershey statues outside of the park.  I really like picture tubes!  I really appreciate everyone's take on this Challenge - some really good stuff here.  Thanks to you, Carole; you are one swell teacher!

This is my Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.  Been quite a learning experience.  Finally realized I had to save my passport date stamp as a .png in order to have a transparent background.  This is my first attempt at a double page and separating it!  I decided to continue on with the 1st page I did.

I have to say I love what all of you are doing with this challenge.  I guess I don't have to stay exactly with the plan.  I have sweated over day 1 for several days and am not happy with what I came up with, but here goes.  The trip I decided on was one my daughter and I took so that I could visit my last of the 48 contiguous states - Delaware.  However, we didn't go straight to Delaware; we meandered to Lexington, KY, Ark Encounter, KY, Columbus Ohio, Lake Erie PA, Niagra Falls, NY, Hershey, PA, and finally to Kodak, DE as a base and south to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean.  We then meandered back up into PA, MD, W VA, and finally on I-81 into VA, TN and back home to Memphis, TN.  It was one great trip.  I added a car from my group of clip art images.  played with color changing again. took papers and the ribbon from several kits.  Did use the Google map for the basic background.

I never could accomplish the download of the suggested kit.  I cropped the photo somewhat with the selection tool.  Background paper is from Dandeline Wishes kit.  The Alpha is from Cassel called Alpha Rain Drop and I downsized the letters - played with adding a brad to the top of each letter to thread them on a string, but it really didn't work; since it was a good color, I used this alpha.  I didn't do flat paper circles, squares and elipses, because I used the 3D inner bevel on each of them to make them thicker than paper.  Cut them from papers from Helpful by Rush Ranch.  The flowers are from Gina Jones' Pretty Bird kit.  Did not have a curly ribbon, so I used a bow from Pretty Birds and played with lifting the knot in the bow and lifting the ends of the ribbons by using that warp brush.  Had fun.

Took me much longer also.  Why? I don't know!  I'm trying to copy down all of the instructions you give, Cassel, for each of the projects.  I did use your Fire and Ice kit, except for the doily.  That really didn't fit with my pirate.  So I used the pirate ship that I had used for the album and the DVD I created for Chris.  It is a clip art.  It was too bold, so I toyed with the opacity.  Also, the clip art had the ship with a circle around it but on a square background.  I had to get rid of that background, so I used the Selection Tool set to circle.  I really couldn't think of just a one word title and the theme of Chris' 50th Birthday Party was Capn Jack Sparrow.  It was really interesting how you handled the

Ron Sherrod asked about the newest launch of the SpaceX Dragon flight.  this is my response:

I finally finished module 3.  Really had a lot to learn with this one.  I see where the presets are for the 3d drop shadows.  I had a hard time finding the text tools such as kerning, leading, etc., but I finally found them and used them in the project.  I used elements from several different kits and couldn't find a paint splatter that I felt I could use, but I instead used that wonderful star tube (had to relearn that you need to have a new raster layer on top of where you want the tube to go before you employ the tube).  Played around with colors and color replacement and the transparency tool.  Had a lot of fun but it took me a lot longer this time (did 2 but really didn't like the other one).  So here is my result for Project 3.

Thanks - that's the one.

I just finished my 2nd module.  I didn't have the alpha, so I used the one that came with the "Love Spoken Here" kit. I used the flower, bubble strings, papers and other elements from Gina Jones Pretty Birds kit.  I didn't have a banner, so I played with the shadow on a separate layer with the flower and the "bubble" word elements to give the effect of a shadow behind the elements.  I did give shadows to the letters and changed the color.  I am still having fun with the Color Fill tool and the Color Changer tool.  Each does something different.  For instance, I used the Color Changer tool to change the colors to the "bubble" word elements in order not to cover the words.  That was a neat trick to tone down the colors in the bright background paper.  Oh, I also changed the direction of the stripes in that paper - it was originally horizontal, but I turned it around using the pick tool.  I believe, though, that there is a simpler way to do it but I am not sure where to find it.

I finally started Project 1.  I made 1 set and was not completely happy with it (I used 3 pictures instead of 2).  I made a second set and was a little bit happier with it.  What did I really learn this time.  (I used CrlY some times which I learned about in the Scrapbooking Class earlier).  I learned about cropping a picture by using the selection tool, but I did it after it was in my project and that did not work too well.  In the first set (Niagra Falls), I did not have room to use the text elements and so I used a Text tool and chose a text that looks kind of like the one in the kit.  I used the Color Correction tool a lot.  For some reason I am kinda hooked on that tool. I find that it sometimes works much better than the fill tool. I am learning more about the shadows and am glad of the Cheat Sheets you provide.  I learned about intensifying a color by using Brightness and Contrast>Levels under "Adjust".  I don't think I used shadows on the Niagra Falls set, but I don't think they would have shown up against that dark blue background.

I am not sure why, but the color of the papers in the kits are not the same when I put them into PSP.  Why???  The background showing in PSP of Travel Buddies in actually a cream color, not white!

Last project.  I had not looked before to see that there are several different shapes - not just rectangle.  Many possibilities here.  I did not bevel a frame that came in a kit, but I copied a frame and took out just the center of it by using the rectangle selection.  I didn't have a flower that fit, but the birds I thought would be good looking at the picture and I did use the Image>Mirror to put the birds in the direction I wanted them to be.  So I learned that this time too.  The button I used and the leaves in the bottom left corner were from the kit "gina jones pretty bird kit".  I have used color changer for some of the background papers and just retitled them when I saved them because I couldn't find just the color I wanted for the squares.  When I got them on the pspimage, I still wasn't happy so I changed the color again until I was happy.  I agree that putting notes down help to keep the things learned in the head.  I have decided that I will learn the effects and filters in PSP as there are many possibilities there and you can double and triple them so that you get just the effect you desire.  So I played around with that too, but not on these projects - just playing around!! Thanks so much for all you do, Cassel, and thanks to all the participants for their great creativity.

Here is my take on busy bees.  I have wanted to do a scrapbook page about rainbows, so picked out some from my travels.  I enjoyed how different participants have used pawprints walking around on the paper, or footsteps, etc., so I used the rainboot to walk across the bottom and up part of the left side.  I am working at color replacement with the fill tool and the color palettes (I seem to have trouble with that color palette).  I did make a duplicate of the vector layer and converted it to a raster layer in order to make shadows.  Learned a lot this bootcamp - color replacing; working with the text tool and its layer; guides; using "pinking sheers" to change the edges of a piece of paper; especially getting familiar with LAYERS!

This is my 2nd incorporating the suggestion you made, Cassel.  However, I still wanted to bring the eye up to the top right corner as well, so I removed the glitter tube, copied the flower several times with an adjustment in the size, and grouped 3 in the bottom left corner and one in the top right corner.  I think I concentrated more in this scrapbook, and have learned a lot.

 

Thanks - I really am enjoying all the ideas each participant has.

Thanks a lot Carole.  My daughter-in-law, Laurie, said that the glitter tube I used to kind of tie the bottom left corner with the top right corner just wasn't right.  I like your idea to cluster the flowers in the bottom left corner instead.

 

On another note, I am not the only one interested in the "Simple" set of filters.  I am still working on trying to get a handle on it.  I feel sure that somewhere there must be an *.exe maybe that has the missing *.dll's.  Anyway, I have a support question in Corel addressing it.  When I get an answer, if it solves the problem, I will let you know so you can get it to all who ask about it.  One thing I notice, is that EukaEuka's use of it in the last project does not have the same effect it had in the first project!!!

 

I am late in getting up this morning as I was really stressed out yesterday trying to get a handle on it.  So - my Busy Bees project will have to wait a bit.

 

Love all of you and am really impressed with everyone's project!

Finally ready with the 3 picture project (not the BusyBees).  The colors for the various papers and the glitter pattern were not working out for me so I experimented with changing colors and this is the result.  Also used glitter in the "tube".  I am not completely happy with the final result as it seems to be lacking something.  But here it is anyway.

Joan, loved your 3 photos of gardens and that gives me inspiration for my project.  Thanks.