Rene Marker

It was multiple issues and I think it was because of the actual computer. I was having all kinds of issues with that one. I could only have one program open at a time and that really hurt my scrapping process. Because of that all of my programs were freezing all the time. That computer actually had problems from the beginning, I just didn't realize how deep they went. The guy that helps me with tech stuff figured it was a lost cause. So I bought a new one and haven't had issues since.

Basically what I am doing is instead of the resources folder, I'm using the folders in Documents as that folder only just putting new stuff in one version and pointing all versions (oldest is X7) to those folders. So in a way, it is the same as you but located in a different place. I also have a copy of those folders on an EHD as a backup.

1 hour ago, Julie Magerka said:

These guys are adorable!

Thank you! I wanted a dog so much to keep me company but I had problems around most breeds until I found the Havanese breed. I fell in love, have no allergy issues and best of all, they are not huge. Pepper weighed 13 pounds at his heaviest, Paige (aka Porky) weighed 15 pounds. And, Peyton is just about 10 pounds. I got all three of them from the same breeder and Paige's father is Peyton's great-great-grandfather. Good bloodlines... Dante sired a Westminster Breed champion (Paige's half-brother).

I had a dog, a mutt, when I was a child and after she was gone Mom found out she was allergic to dog dander! So I wanted a dog that had no dander in case I had the same issues. Havanese don't shed so no dander. Show Havanese have long hair, I just have always kept mine in puppy cuts.

I did that as well Corrie only it screwed up everything for me. So many different things to detail it all out. So I put everything back to where PSP wants it (the numbered files PSP creates in the Program Data files) and the personal files in Documents for user created files. For now I am putting anything I obtain into the user files for one version that I use the most then go into my other versions of PSP and direct them to use those files.

Maybe someday I'll get brave enough to try it again but for now I've found a solution that works for me.

I sorted mine to sub-folders like Carole suggested. I don't have many brushes so it didn't take that long to do. Now when I do get new brushes, I set them up in Windows in a sub-folder in the Brushes folder right away.

Also signed up. Hope to learn something new!

I had 2 Havanese dogs between 2000 and 2015. Pepper and Paige loved to snuggle under any type of covering they could find. In 2017 I got Peyton (another Havanese). When she was small, she crawled under a stand to be close to the air duct. She no longer fits there. But now she loves to take her bumper bed all over the house and flipping it over to lay on the bottom of it.

It has been 5 weeks for me. It started the last week of January and it has only been the Creation Cassel newsletter email that have been going into spam. I distinctly remember that it happened the week before the last Master Class. 

It could have been gmail doing it though. They tend to throw stuff into spam just for the heck of it. And, then there are the ones I have put on my block list that still come through... Between spammers and robocalls, they sure have made things frustrating for many people! LOL

I'll just keep checking spam on Sundays!

For the last 5 weeks, the Sunday newsletter from Creation Cassel has ended up in my spam folder. I use gmail so it is not because of my provider. And, I mark it as "not spam" every single time.

Looking at the different emails I receive, they actually don't all have the same sender info. So for me, the only one that gets caught in spam is the Sunday newsletter. All others come through fine.

I guess I don't have as many brushes as you do. It hardly takes any time at all for my brushes to load.

Just like with fonts, I feel that less is better... less choices to choose from! I have less than 400 fonts installed. I do have a folder with lots more as a "just in case" I might need them but it has been a rare case that I have. Of course, that folder has a backup of my installed fonts so that I can make sure everything gets transferred to a new computer when needed! LOL

I did what Carole suggested. I had a bunch of brushes that I had gotten from various designers. I had always been using the png file then I learned how to import them from the abr file the designers included. They all ended up in the Brushes folder in my documents folder.  So I went and created a folder for each designer and moved the applicable files to their folders. Sure has made it easier when I just want to look for a brush.

I got mine hooked up yesterday. Thought I had it set up to use the button for right clicking but when I tried to right click in PSP, it didn't work. I had to go into the Wacom table properties window. PSP showed up as a separate application and the button was not set to right click but to "erase". I changed it and played in PSP again.

My biggest issue though is that I have a dual monitor setup and the tablet is using both of them so the actual working space for one screen is very small. Just half of a table with a working space of approximately 4 x 6. I know I can change it to only use it for one screen and I may have to do that but that would defeat the purpose of trying to get away from using the mouse (although I don't think that will happen for me).

I'll just have to keep playing. 

I scrapped the only photos I have from anything related to St. Patrick's Day back in 2012. Also, even though the grandparents of my Dad's mother came from County Kerry Ireland, St. Patrick's Day was not something that was celebrated by Dad and his siblings when growing up.

My 2012 layout made with a kit that has long been retired. I'm not sure if the designer is even still designing!

I cannot use a pen for everything. I tried many years ago. So even if I did use it for PSP, I would still have to have my mouse handy. I have a hard time even using a regular pen since I had rotator cuff surgery 20 years ago.

I should connect my tablet to this computer and try using it when using PSP since I've done a few tutorials that use the pen tool.

I had a very busy weekend which is unusual for me. Last Monday I found out an uncle had passed away and Tuesday found out that his funeral would be Saturday morning with visitation on Friday afternoon/evening. Just 30 minutes after that phone call, a cousin called and asked if we could do lunch on Friday. She had lost her son unexpectedly last July and I had invited her to come visit with us so we could actually spend time with each other (she lives 3 hours away). She could only stay for a couple of hours so it worked out for Friday. She would be leaving before I had to go to the funeral home. Before all of this happened, I knew I had a wedding on Saturday. A teacher my mom taught with was getting married for the first time. She is 76, the groom is 80 and lost his wife in a car accident in Oct 2020. I also spent a lot of time with this lady when we sold Longaberger baskets 23 years ago. We had the same upline. And, she attends and is very involved in my church. I was so tired on Saturday, just from being around so many people. I have tinnitus and cannot be in large crowds of people for long periods of time. My brain gets over stimulated and starts to shut down. It takes about 24 hours to recover.

And, Day 7:

The polka dots were blended with a flood fill of 113-196-206 (Multiply 100). Fonts: Only By Request and The Vintage Typewriter.

After a busy 2 days (lunch with out of town family, then funeral visitation on Friday and the funeral on Saturday with a wedding last evening), I have finally had time to do the last 3 days.

Day 5:

I used a snowflake brush for the mask then made the snowflakes following the Snowflake (2) tutorial in Lab 9, Module 12. I used a flood fill for the background, blending it with ps_elif-sahin_196132_gold-textures-texture-08-template_pu (Darken 100). Igloo Caps is the font.

Day 6:

I made a bunch of linoleum papers and chose 2 that I felt worked the best. The yellowish one was then used as a frame and has an inner bevel. The background is blended with an RGB of 77-119-60 (Multiply 100) for the background. Font is Only By Request.

Again blended a flood filled layer with a texture (ps_elif-sahin_79380_dear-old-dad-paper-texture-02_pu). This time using Color at 100. Font is PT Orchid Bold.

The mask was done on the lightpost photo. The brick photo was added to a layer below and the mask altered to show it as well.

I have to say that using masks is getting ingrained in my brain since I'm doing so many at once. I actually started working through the Mask Workshop in the past workshops in the Diamond area over the weekend. That helped to refresh my memory on doing them. I had not completed last year because of the computer issues so those layouts I did I labeled as 2022. Then started 2023 layouts on Monday. That has really helped me get the steps down.

Here is the 2023 extra mask for Day 3. I again blended a texture using burn at 100 (ps_elif-sahin_196131_gold-textures-texture-07-template_pu) with a flood filled layer (color 123-150-67) for the background. This is my 5 year old Havanese, Peyton, enjoying some sunshine on the patio.

Here is day 3. I did the kaleidoscope tutorial multiple times with various color selections. The last selection gave me a background I could at least live with.

But when I had originally gotten frustrated with the tutorial, I had switched to doing a plaid tutorial. I chose #1. I ended up liking it a lot better with the photo especially after I did a blend mode of multiply at 100 to a flood filled layer with the color 103-40-39 (RGB). This will be the one I print.

Now off to do the extra!

In between doing laundry and phone calls about a funeral this weekend, I managed to work on some more of the workshop.

Day 1 Extra. I flood filled the background then did a blend on it with a texture from Elif Sahlin (#196129) at Digital Scrapbook. For the title, I duplicated the vector layer, changed the color, then rasterized it. I then moved the raster layer below the vector layer and using the pick tool, offset it a little from the vector layer. I also linked the layers so if I moved one, they both moved.

For Day 2, I rotated the template 90 degrees to the right. I made the background paper using the Variegated paper tutorial. I made the Corner Cut out using the tutorial from Lab 13, Module 2. I filled the center with the variegated paper.  The font is Tracy. I also did a blend on the Variegated paper with a layer of white below it.

Day 2 Extra.

I flood filled the background then blended it with a texture by Elif Sahlin (#196132) from Digital Scrapbook. Font is Tracy.

2 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

Rene: That template mostly drove me crazy because everything was labeled in French and I didn't know a layer from a mask! ?

LOL, I went by the photos in the instructions to figure out which layer I needed!

2 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

Carole, I noticed the written-out directions for Day 1 do NOT include the step to De-Float. That may have been the source of my difficulties.

Step #8 was to Deselect the floating layer which fused it with the mask layer

@Cassel, never posted it because I never finished it. PSP kept crashing on me because of computer issues. So I ended up not doing anything in the workshop last year.

I found my unfinished Day 1 from last year's mask workshop so finished it and did another one (I had computer problems and couldn't complete the workshop at that time). The Blue Jay is from 2022, the birds is current. Photos of the birds are from last week. They like to hang out in my one tree. One day I had close to 30 of them.

Here is another one that I just did from a freebie template by Fiddle-Dee-Dee. Kit used is from Bella Gypsy "Here's To The Ears" for sale at The Lily Pad.

Cheryl (Fiddle-Dee-Dee) had the shadows already on this template as separate layers. So no shadows had to be added to the 3-D shape.