Rene Marker

28 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Ya, turns out hubby had one, since we upgraded to Win 10.  and now I'll soon have to upgrade to Win 11.  Not thrilled about the constant screenshots it will be taking (especially when I'm doing online banking or putting in passwords!).  I've read you can disable it but wont have use of windows snipping tool.  Hubby watches a lot of tech shows and said the computer techys in the industry are up in arms about it.  I didn't pay much attention because I'm just person they will be able to steal whatever data they want and I wont even know it.  Kind of like that doorbell cam company that told all it's customers their doorbell snapshots were on a local HD (the customers) and would never be uploaded to the cloud (aka: there is no cloud; only your files on someone else's computer/server), then customers started getting text messages of the screenshots they had long deleted from their  doorbell cam system.  Turns out the company was  also sending it to the cloud even though  they stated on their website that they never store on the cloud.  No apologies from the company thus far as they are heading to court I believe. The regulators in the US arent too happy about it, hence the court case.  

I've never heard about the constant screenshots on Win 11. As far as I can see, the user has to initiate the screen shot. I don't use the snipping tool to do screen shots anyways. I've never even used the snipping tool!

As for the video doorbells, I just googled that case and apparently it was stuff that happened over 5 years ago and the customers with certain devices will be getting refunds. I have cameras from that company that I got 3 years ago and just to log into the cameras I have to go through 2FA every 30 days.

3 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Thanks Ann.  I dont have an MS account yet, deciding if I really need another account to deal with...until I get Win 11 that is, then hubby or I will have to get one.

I couldn't sign onto my Win 10 computer unless I had a Microsoft account.

4 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

And I bet you had looked at the layout (as you were doing it) lots of times and read it, but your eyes just fixed the spelling before it told the brain.  I've done that when it took someone else's eyes to see my mistake.  funny how you keep reading it the same over and over, even when it's wrong.

I actually used the names of the 2 daughters of my cousin instead of the daughter and granddaughter. For years it was Allison and Ashley... now it is harder to remember Allison and Caroline! Because usually it is Luke and Caroline in the layouts (Allison's 2 kids)! And, Caroline is that age where she is looking so much like her Mom and Aunt Ashley since she is now a teenager.

2 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

I just realized I spelled the state wrong! Good grief!

I wondered about that!

Don't feel bad, today I was downloading photos from my cousins FB account and for a certain event, I didn't want to download the photos I had already scrapped. So I was looking at the layouts I had already done and realized that I had the wrong name in the journaling! Thankfully, that layout hasn't been printed in a book for them yet but I had already printed my copy. I changed it and will get it reprinted for me.

3 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I think we would all love that, it must've taken some time and a lot of patience to make it so precise. Daniel, you did a superb job on it.  There is only one question left to ask.... Where's Canada? ...we NEED that too!😁

Pssttttttt..... I have a template for Canada with the individual provinces on it. It is still available at The Lily Pad. The designer also did one for the US and I used it for a layout I did in April documenting every state I have visited in the first 68 years of my life. Since I can now start working on my travel dreams, I will continue to fill it in the next few years.

33 minutes ago, Anne Lamp said:

After seeing Rene's comment and photo I went back to some picks I took last year and created this one

Love it!

On 6/28/2024 at 10:43 AM, Susan Ewart said:

I love that, it's moody and mysterious.  Beautiful shot.  

I just looked at all the photos I took that night. This was the first one and the best of the bunch! The others aren't quite so moody and mysterious. And my camera was a Canon PowerShot S3 IS on Auto mode. Exposure Time was 1s, Aperture 3.63 and F Stop of f/3.5.

57 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

 

Rene what a great shot and your layout is very wel suited for this photo! I like it very much. What I said to Anne about not being in the right place for such photos is however true. In the Netherlands the streets and squares in the cities and villages are on a totally different scale as what I have encountered in the States. We don't have many open spaces in our villages. Of course the really big cities like New York are an exemption. I tried to take photos of the moon in my village but, there is always a street lamp, a car or a building obscuring my view; believe me, I wouldn't mind a tree. 

There are multiple street lights in the area I took my photo that is in town with streets and buildings with outdoor lights on at night around it.

On 6/25/2024 at 4:40 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

Anne nice picture of the moon; you must live in an area without light contamination!  I wish could take such a picture but the few times I was in such a place with a full moon, there were clouds!

I actually like taking pictures of the moon when they are clouds or trees partially obscuring it. My absolute favorite picture I took was maybe 15 years ago. I was attending a camera club meeting at my church (we talked and learned about all things from usage of the camera to setting scenes for taking photos). When we came out it was a Harvest Moon in the sky with a cloud cover. I stood with my back against my vehicle to be as still as possible (didn't have my tripod which is highly recommended for night photos). I held my arms very close to my body and took several photos. One of them is absolutely amazing. I ended up having it printed as an 8x10 and put into a larger frame with matting. It was displayed in the church along with other photos from members of the camera club for awhile. It now hangs in my living room. I love the spooky feel of it!

I also did this layout of the photo.

20 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I think that is a hard decision for an author, what format to print.  A book has to show a spine when sitting on the shelf of a book store to have any chance of anyone looking at it.  I've had books that had a spine and inside the coil binding, the cost to print that and the added weight for coil in shipping (customer and printer) would be quite high.  BTW, the book I had didnt have that many pages and was over $60, likely because of the additional steps to have a lay-flat book and still show a spine to catch the customers attention.  

A book store? Are those still around? The only place I see books are at Wal-Mart and they aren't displayed on shelves because they don't have that many.

I understand what you are saying but in my opinion, there are some books that are much more useful in a lay flat version whether it is a coil binding or not. Workbooks and instructional books being the genre which is what I consider this book to be.

Although I will admit, I will not be purchasing Carole's book because of having been a scrapper for over 25 years. I feel it is geared more towards a beginning scrapper. I think it is a wonderful thing she did and I'm sure many of you will find it to be very useful.

13 hours ago, Cassel said:

The copy I have kind of stays open (not really flat) but I personally hate to "crack" my books open. My guess is that if you do, then it should stay fairly flat. The binding is glued. If you have my previous book, it would be similar.

Thanks for the answer. I only have your books in the Kindle version so no problem with "laying flat". But IMO, this is not a book that would work well in Kindle. For this type of book I like to have both pages side by side laying flat in front of me. A thicker book doesn't work well for me. Many years ago I got 2 books from Creating Keepsakes (Creative Sketches and Creative Sketches Vol 2) both around 160 pages. Neither would lay flat so I took them to an office supply store, had them cut off the binding and they bound both them in the same spiral binding. I still have them. Lays flat! I did the same thing with another book of sketches (Layout Blueprints) that is a little over 100 pages.

Looks good but one question... will it lay flat?

I would actually like to sit outside more but because of allergies, I don't very often.

I do have a nice patio with a 2 seat cushioned bench, 2 cushioned chairs and a table that came as a set. I just got the cushions out this week for the first time since 2022. I physically wasn't able to do it last year. There is very little shade on the patio so it can get quite hot on an very sunny day. However, Peyton loves to go on the patio (it is fenced in) and she'll lay on the furniture in the sun. I have a set up that when I go away in nice weather, I leave her outside. She can be on the patio or go in the garage if she wants.

I have a very small front porch but do have 2 chairs with a very small table between them. I used to have those plastic chairs on it but last summer I got 2 cushioned chairs at a garage sale when my cousins were selling my aunt's stuff (they moved her to an assisted living community). They are comfortable and look nice. There is a nice big bush in front of the porch so people can't really see me but I can see everything going on.  The porch is in the shade so I do like to sit out there in the early evenings and read for awhile. Peyton goes on a tie-out so she can lay in the grass if she wants but can't run away.

Increasing the thumbnail size just means not as many layers will show in the layers palette. And, I want to have as many visible there as possible. I just changed mine to 100 (way too big for my many layer layouts) and 75 (better than 100 but still not many layers showing). Even at 100, some of the smaller elements are too small to actually see what it is.

Also, with my PSP settings/layout and screen size, I can see 7 layers when it is set at 50. A setting of 75 has 5 layers and a setting of 100 has 4 layers. 

However, changing the tooltip size is a better choice for me. A size of 200 seems to be good.

Again, personal preference. I will sometimes rename layers but since I drag and drop my papers and elements directly on to the layer palette they get renamed to the file name that way. I've been doing this so long, (long before I even knew about a script to open as a layer) it is just an automatic for me. I'm an old dog that has a hard time learning new tricks 😉

In 2012 I got my first Kindle, so I now collect books on it. My reading tastes have changed as well. I'm more into cozy mysteries and biographies. I find a lot of new authors to me through a copy of daily email lists with books offered at extremely low prices or even free. I have also gotten the Kindle version of my favorite series shown in the above layout by John Jakes. I got a new, smaller Kindle before my surgery last fall and took it with me in case I felt like reading post surgery. I did use it before my 3rd surgery when I got a blood transfusion the day before. It took about 4 hours so my cousin and I sat there and read... me with my Kindle, her with a hard back book from her library! She still likes the feel of a book in her hands.

I do have a wish list on the Ohio E-book website through my local library so every so often I will get books through there instead of buying them. A couple books were so popular that it took over 6 months to get them even with the depository having 6 to 8 copies! One of them was so good, I couldn't put it down and finished it in one day. I highly recommend the book "Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make it Home" by Benjamin Hall.

Several years ago, some of the scrapbooking readers on another forum chose to do layouts from their Goodreads list. (I do track what I read on there and a spreadsheet so I know what books I still need in a series since I read a lot of series). I was still working in 2017 so not as much time for reading (although I haven't been reading lately, I go in spurts). Here is mine:

I've got several old layouts about books.

The first one shows all the hard back books I had at one time. I had joined The Literary Guild in my 20's so collected books that way. Also have books that my mom had collected over the years. I have donated quite a few of them to a local organization that sells used books to raise money for scholarships for girls (AAUW). But there are some that I will not give up. These bookcases look different since I've gotten rid of books but the larger one is still full of books! The smaller one no longer has books on the top shelf and the books in it are not as tightly packed in.

6 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Thanks, Rene, I will have to look into that. Is that the CreditListCompilation script?

Yes, it is!

1 hour ago, Susan Ewart said:

Great idea!

Carole has a script that will the name of each layer into the image information. I use it to keep a record of the various kits I use on my layouts. I do have to add the name of the fonts used after the script runs though since it only reads the name of the layers.

Although, the script doesn't always run as it should in both 2021 and 2023. I still have X8 and the script runs perfectly in that version. So once I've saved the pspimage file, I open it in X8 to run the script then save the jpg (sometimes in X8, sometimes in 2023).

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

I was glad someone had a reasonable camera to show those colors as mine gave me NOTHING!

I had to use different settings than my normal to get anything. Manual mode, ISO of 1600, F stop 5 or lower, and a longer shutter speed. All articles I saw on it, said to use a shutter speed of 15 seconds with a tri-pod so there is no movement of the camera. I didn't get my tri-pod out so used a shutter speed of 1 second and stood with my arm and back braced against the door jamb/frame. Even though I didn't get any northern lights, I got night photos like I've never gotten before! I tried both my Canon T5 and my Canon SX740 since they both have manual mode. Even my Canon SX 540 has manual mode.

Every one was saying to use a cell phone but I knew that wouldn't work for me since my hand shakes when I try to take photos on it. I also have no idea how to make any adjustments to settings on it since I don't use it for photos very often! The cameras were easier for me and I'll always prefer to use a camera.

2 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Last night the northern lights were visible right down to our area in southwestern Ontario. I wasn't out and about to take pix, but I did find a local photographer who did. His name is Steve Biro and I think he works out of Windsor (Ontario).

Many years ago I worked as a summer student at a fishing camp in far north Ontario where the northern lights were on bright display. They were so wonderful to see.

Several of my neighbors got photos last night in west central Ohio of them. All I saw with the naked eye was a slight pink glow. They were saying that we could see them again tonight and I've been out every 30 to 40 minutes taking photos but no luck.  Even a friend in Dayton, Ohio (an hour south of me) got photos last night.

I normally keep my vehicles for at least 6 or 7 years. The first vehicle that I drove was actually owned by my mom since I was only 16 when I started driving it. It lasted me through college when I bought my first car after graduation. It was a used car that was 8 years old when Mom got it but it served me well. I did have one vehicle 13 years, which was the only vehicle that I bought that wasn't new. I sold it to my neighbor for his son. It got the son through college and his first few years of working. When the son got a new car, my neighbor decided to let his wife's granddaughter that had just turned 16 drive it. Sadly, she only got to drive it a few months since she was in an accident and the vehicle had to be totaled. That Blazer had a good run of over 20 years! I really loved that vehicle. It had so much room in the back for all my stuff when I went to scrapbooking retreats! In fact, I did a layout of all my vehicles in 2021. A couple months later I ordered a new car that finally got here in March 2022! I hope to keep this one for many years.

Here is the layout. I used a retired template from Scrapping With Liz and the kit "License To Drive" by Kristin Aagard available at The Lily Pad.

On 5/5/2024 at 11:33 AM, Rene Marker said:

I haven't been scrapping much lately but took time last night to do a layout for a challenge at The Lily Pad. Main requirement was to use a template by Scrapping with Liz (she gives a free template upon completion). To post the layout in their gallery you need to use a kit sold by a designer in their store (retired kits are OK to use). So all my supplies for the layout are from The Lily Pad: SWL Recyclables 79 template (deleted a photo spot) and Forever Joy's Dog Tails.

Instructions for the layout:

1. An odd number of photos (1, 3, 5, etc.)
2. At least one background paper with pink on it
3. At least one other paper/paper piece with yellow on it
4. At least one blue round element (can be button, flower, word art, etc.)
5. At least one orange word (can be title, date, journaling, word art, etc.)

If you posted in the thread before the challenge started, you could delete one of the instructions if desired. I deleted #5.

The dog was actually a flat paper element as was the word strip. I used an inner bevel on both of them and like the result, especially on the dog. I think it looks like a magnet!

Don't mind me but I have to brag on myself... The designer of the kit I used (Forever Joy at The LilyPad), has added this layout to her Pinterest board where she highlights layouts done with her products! This is a first for me with her products!

Forever Joy

3 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Is it possible it's a vector shape? That would keep the effect from working. Just convert to raster and it should work.

I don't use vector shapes much so I wouldn't know. Not sure how she did it either. I've used the inner bevel on elements from bought kits which would have been png files on a raster layer.

2 hours ago, Michele said:

Thanks, Rene. I've been having the problem of the C drive getting full for a while now. I've been moving and uninstalling things, but I guess my luck has run out. One big problem is too many programs don't give the option of installing anywhere but C the drive. And I created a Documents folder on the D drive early on. I'm sure the Geek Squad will be great; they usually are.

In that case, maybe it it time to let go of some of the programs you might not use anymore. 

1 hour ago, fiona cook said:

Hi Rene, I think I know what could be achieved by that...to make the frame look a bit like a tyre? I like the idea (and thank you for your interest) but am out of my depth on how to do it. I have tried making a selection and then using the Inner Bevel command but nothing seems to register. Any suggestions?

You don't have to make a selection to use the inner bevel. As long as the frame is on its on layer, you just go to Affects/3D Affects/Inner Bevel.