Mary Solaas

@Julie Yes the dog is a doodle, She's our sweet Lucy.

@Cassel I just want to say "Thank you!" for the 2024 Template Workshop. It proved to be a wonderful refresher course since I took the 2022 Challenge. I did learn some new things, used kits from other designers where I have been prone to use my own things lately (which isn't so bad I guess); that neat tool of using blend modes and opacity to produce new takes for backgrounds; also learned new things to think about from the other participants in this workshop. Thanks again.

Last - Template 7 Diamond. All the papers and the brad group are from Cassel's Fire and Ice kit. The bow at the bottom is also from Cassel. The font is Violenty Script.

Template 7. The background paper, the 2 round papers, and the elements are all from my desert kit we did last year. The font is Wigglye from CF. The paper on top of the background paper is a picture from the same group as the 4 pictures that are dominant; however the opacity has been reduced, the underlying paper is white, and the blend mode is Multiply. The font was innerbevelled and shadowed.

Template 6 Diamond. Because one of the pictures was horizontal, I had to change the layout somewhat. I colored and textured the 3 ribbons; that Winter Vibes font that was talked about and several of us downloaded it, the sticker and the mitten banner are mine as is the background paper. The Hot Chocolate card in the center is from Pixel Scrapper – Jessica Dunn (one of my favorite developers). The 2 hot chocolate buttons holding the mitten banner are from Pixel Scrapper – Brooke Gazarek. The 3 generations are from different families of mine.

To quote the captain in "Galaxy Quest" - "Never give up! Never surrender!" Galaxy Quest is one of my favorite movies!

Template 6. Changed the layout by moving the title to the bottom, moving the pictures up, adding a journal sheet, and removing some of the elements replacing them with my own elements. I had fun – and learned something new – to put a paper on top of the textured layer and working with the blend mode and the opacity of the paper layer. Great stuff!! The title is Annie Tobin’s font (she was such a wonderful lady) which I glittered and innerbevelled. The heart in the top left corner is from CF and I innerbevelled it. The bow I made with Cassel’s Bow 2 script. The Santa sign is from my stash as is the poinsettia cluster in the bottom left corner. The star tube is from Cassel. The pictures are from scanning 1991 35m prints. They were in bad shape and I used every trick that PSP has (well almost). I had forgotten about fade correction, but Cassel reminded us of that tool and I used it and de-noised it to the max and sharpening it to the max. The difference is amazing. That trip was special and finding it was such a gift. You can't imagine - as we went down the road into the town, it was dark - everything was closed up tight - no lights - off to the left at a distance was an oil drum that seemed to have a fire in it - something that the people on the road in the depression might have used to keep warm or cook food - the scene was really eerie. Dolores really wanted to turn back, but I just felt we had to go further. And then, when we turned that corner it was like Judy Garland opening the door into Oz - from blah to radiant color. I will never forget it.

Workshop Template 5 Diamond. I think I am tired out and there is still 2 more project day templates to go. Thinking about the theme (pictures, etc.) is now the hardest part. I texturized and colored the 3 small papers (that was fun) - I used "tiling" under effects>texture effects for the first time and I like it - gives me some ideas for making ribbons. I played with the Change to Target tool on the flower element in the lower right corner. Interesting that this time there was no TITLE layer. I guess the journaling tells all.

I'm not happy (again) with this layout, but it is what it is! I haven't kept all the different techniques I used on each of the elements, pictures, font, papers; but, I did use different blend modes, and I began to take off when I changed the hue>saturation>lightness on the background paper (which was from a marisa lerin kit) and then played with the blend modes and opacity - which worked with what I was trying to do. I played and played and played around with trying to figure out what to do with the elements in the lower left corner and ended up with a doily since it is round to balance the round paper in the top right corner. Of course, you can see that I also played with the placement of the picture layers and placed the title at the top.

I don't sell mine, but since the Scrapbook Kit Workshop in the beginning of last year, I have decided that that is the best way to keep the many elements and papers I have made.

Day 4 Diamond template. The pictures are from Creative Fabrica – Freebie from a day or two ago of watercolor winter scenes. The 3 smaller pictures are from 3 different scenes in the group. I textured and used brightness and contrast on the white layer background; the font is Winter Vibes (sorry, I couldn’t get the one which I downloaded that had snow on it to come up in my font list, so I just went with this one as I like it too. I innerbevelled the font twice and then gave it a slight shadow – I picked the color from one of the pictures. The 3 small pictures I chiseled so that they would stand out since the background large picture is very busy.

@Lynda DiGregor Thank you for the link.

To all - WHERE is that font with the cutout on top called Winter Vibes. I checked with Creative Fabrica and the only Winter Vibes (which I downloaded to see if there was anything such as a cutout to place on top of the letters - which it didn't). I searched through Creative Fabrica and couldn't find but one which had a cutout group that went on top of the font but wasn't anything like what you have shown. I also checked with DaFont, but it didn't recognize Winter Vibes.

Day 4 Template. St. Augustine, FL in June, 2017. I did increase the opacity of the lower right photo layer as directed (I originally forgot that little trick but the picture came out dull, so I then remembered and did as directed). The picture I used Adjust>Depth of Field in order to focus on the bird Anna was feeding on her arm. I used Adjust>Brightness and Contrast on both the main picture and the picture of the fountain of youth. The background paper is a double layer each a paper from PS-marisa-lerin-change. I treated each of the layers (including the white layer included on the template) with different blend modes: the white layer is normal, the green layer is luminance, the cream color layer is color and an opacity of 38. The title font is Violenty Script (CF) and the St. Augustine, FL and the 2017 are Arial Rounded MT Bold. All the fonts were duplicated and changed to raster layers, then I inner bevelled each of them. The layout frame I colored, then selected it and modified, expanded it and then colored the expansion too. Then I innerbevelled it.

Template 3 Extra – I’m treating it as a poster. The subject is my AI Andy Warhol cat from CF Spark, the font is Catlover from Creative Fabrica, the colors on the papers are from the cat.

Day 3 - Diamond template. All the papers and elements were created from scratch – the flair buttons from tutorials by Cassel as well as the stylized flower in the center. The font is Butterfly Wish – most of my fonts are from Creative Fabrica. The butterfly picture was taken in Blue Earth, MN, and the bee picture was taken at an RV park in St. Peter, MO.

@Ann Seeber THANKS!!!!! You have given me a new toy to play with. So much fun!!!! I guess I've never been to those effects before. NEW TOY!!!😂

@Ann Seeber I've just been going over the lot of pictures we've posted in this forum. How did you get that wavy effect on the striped paper in the kit???? It's so even.

Day 3 template. Kit used: cpjess-tomorrow-folder-mini for the 3 patterned papers; I colorized and texturized the 2 small papers; the font I used was Brailganta Script (Creative Fabrica); I made the tag in back of the title from a preset shape which I texturized. The picture is from another Jessica Dunn kit. I did colorize the stitching and innerbevelled it.

@Cassel I didn't have issues with the text wrapping coming unwrapped, I had that wonky text doing its own thing with size - not points or pixels or maybe I choose points and it shows up as pixels. I'm keeping the yellow gold flowers I did in the previous template workshop for my facebook page. With the day 3 layout which I will post below, I didn't have any issues with wonky text. Go figure.

The extra from day 2. I treated it as a poster. The 2 pics are watercolors from Creative Fabrica.

Trying to catch up. Day 2 Diamond template. The paper on the right side was taken from a kit: cpjess-reach for the sun; the background paper was colored with a color of the bird as was the journal paper; the triple spiral element I made in a recent lab; the title font is Black Castle (Creative Fabrica font); the journaling is arial. Again the text tool to determine the size of the text was wonky – don’t know why this happens as it doesn’t happen except once in a while. My daughter and I went to our favorite park in Memphis (not far from home) where there is a lake. The lake has “Canadian” geese that live there year round and ducks, but occasionally a heron stops by – usually a great blue heron, but sometimes we have other herons that appear – I have a picture of a LITTLE blue colored heron as well as this one of the green heron.

My text acts wonky too - I'm using PSP 2022 Ultimate and I believe you are using PSP 2023 Ultimate. Just strange when it changes from points to pixels and doesn't matter whether you choose points or pixels. It happened on the one I just posted.

On to template 2. Kit used is PS_Jessica-D-wintertropics-mini – the Background paper (reduced opacity), the scalloped paper and the paper in back of the scalloped paper; the title is a metallic title I made in a lab; the paper above the background was simply colorized as was the circle element which was texturized. I’ve used these pictures before except for the magnolia blossom – it was on a tree in the gardens and was just beautiful – perfectly formed and I’ve been dying to use it. The font is Arial for the journaling.

And using the same picture and my papers - Workshop 1 extra.