Rene Marker

I did this last year only taking at least 1 photo every day then doing weekly layouts. I'm undecided as to whether I am continuing in 2024, but have been taking photos every day in case I do decide to continue on.

I call my version "Week In Review" and all 7 photos are on one page so at the end of the year I have 52 layouts.

48 minutes ago, Cassel said:

You can use a picture tube of a thread. There might be one already available in PSP, depending on your version, or you can create your own with the String tutorial in the list of tutorials.

Then, it is a matter of adding some darker shading on the right side and lighter shading on the left side.

I am pretty sure that was illustrated in a class, at one point, but I really can't figure out. If you want, you can add that to the Q&A for this month, and I'll add the idea to a possible full-length class, later on, all about buttons.

I has asked about this and I think you illustrated it in a Q&A... April 2023.

1 hour ago, Marie-Claire said:

Now that this has been brought up, I also have a question.
I scanned old photos at 1200 dpi. so they are large files. I just bring them into my project like this. And then resize them in my project to the size I want.
Does that make my project large as a pspimage file?
Is it important that I resize the photos in advance to approximately the size that I will use in my project?

I never resize my photos before adding them to a layout project. I resize them in the layout since I can see better how it will fit in the layout. I also have all my cameras set for a large pixel size and do not resize them before adding them to the layout.  I want the best quality of photo on my layouts.  Even before I started using the Raster to Mask script, I would make a selection and delete the part of the photo that I did not want in my layout. Trimmed the fat on the photo!

@Julie Magerka

A quick glance at some of my pspimage files for their size, I see that the projects that have a lot of layers are larger. One has over 80 layers and is 144MB in size. The largest file size I saw has about 59 layers with 28 of them being the drop shadow layer. There is one text vector layer and 2 layers that have no shadow (paint and a photo that is at the bottom). It is 186MB in size. That layout also has a lot of linked layers and layers that I color coded in the layer properties. 

What I also just noticed is that layouts that were done with older versions (X7 or X8) are smaller in size than those I did in PSP2021 or PSP2023. Curious...

I have no photos from my childhood of me with Santa.

But I do have one when I was in my late 30's. My parents would go to Florida for 5 months so I would go to them for the holidays. Their trailer park had a Christmas party for the residents that wanted to attend. A gentleman in the park played Santa elsewhere so was willing to dress up for this party as well. His wife dressed up as Mrs. Santa. They let the party goers take pictures with Santa. I have a photo of Dad on Mrs. Santa's lap and he is kissing her on her cheek. Then there is a picture of me on Santa's lap hugging him. Same for Mom.

I'm so sorry ladies... mine was around 4:40.

But then I do jigsaw puzzles all the time. I have an app on my tablet for jigsaw puzzles and I try to do one every day. And, I do 500 piece puzzles during the holidays to help combat my seasonal depression. I just finished my 13th one since November 21.

I eventually get 99% of my layouts printed.

For my personal use, I get 12x12 prints from Persnickety Prints out of Utah. The normal price is $1.99 for prints or print credits but have sales probably 4 or 5 times a year where they only cost $1.49 (not sure if they have raised prices lately though). I usually buy the print credits then order prints when I have at least 50 layouts to print. Although I usually wait until I have 100 since the shipping is a flat price no matter how many prints you order! And, yes, I have a lot of layouts I've done since 2008 (over 2500). I then put the layouts in page protectors in Creative Memories strap hinge albums.

I have also used Shutterfly to print books. My first one was a soft-cover 8x8 about 10 years ago to see how they were. I then did an 8x8 hard cover using layouts I had already printed for me for my cousin in 2013. I definitely liked the hard cover better. Since then I have done several more books for that cousin all using the layflat pages with hard cover and each one has at least 100 pages. I have one sitting on a shelf waiting to give to them when I see them next (they are in FL, I am in OH). I also did 2 books for another cousin (brother and sister) in the last several years. I did layouts documenting COVID from January 2020 to May 2023 and chose to make a Shutterfly book out of those layouts. I always wait to order Shutterfly books when they have a sale on "unlimited pages" which really helps keep the cost down. I started getting the 10x10 size from Shutterfly when I started getting the layflat pages. This size is closer to the size of a regular book and for me the journaling is much easier to read. 

3 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

@Susan Ewart As the waiters are roaming about the restaurant with pots of additional food you might want, there are waiters with carts of freshly baked yeast rolls, and if you want a roll, they will throw you one.  Sometimes it is from the front of the restaurant to the back (they must practice on the baseball diamond).  And the food is fantastic - just like it came from your grandmother's kitchen. and the 45 pages are actually counting each double page as 2 pages.  It was interesting putting them up on Shutterfly last night.  As the double page doesn't go straight across 2 pages, it splits and you match up the center of the page on each page.  I had never uploaded double pages before so this was a new experience for me.

For me it is so much easier to just use single pages even for a double page layout. I guess it is because of how I print the single layouts and put them in individual protectors. On Shutterfly using single pages is so simple, no adjustments needed (except for the covers).

1 hour ago, Mary Solaas said:

Thanks for the answer.  I'm going to bite the bullet (if I finish the travel tale album) and buy it on Cyber Monday.  The previous albums I had printed at Shutterfly were great - couldn't afford the 12X12 but the 8X8 worked well.  Those were only about 20 pages.  Gave them to my daughter who really loves them.  Her children loved them too.  This one is going to be more than 40 pages..  I like my Epson 6100 printer.  I print out my greeting cards on them.  You said you print directly from PSP?  I haven't tried that, as I've been printing them from Word.  I may try that next.

I get the 10x10 books from Shutterfly. Easier to read the journaling! And, fit quite nicely on regular book shelves.

The only thing I print right from PSP is 4x6 photos.

2 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

Thank you for answering, Rene.  I, too, prefer the real camera to the phone, although I sometimes use it. I'll research that printer you said you have.  It must be a beauty.  I have an Epson that I'm fond of but it won't print 12 X 12 - it has 5 cartridges.  The travel tale I'm working on will be over 40 pages by the time I'm through.  Shutterfly has been my go-to for printed albums (not many - just 2 so far) and I've been pleased.  So if I'm reading right, you wait for unlimited pages at Shutterfly, then order your 12 X 12 pictures which you place in page protectors and put in a purchased album.  Is that correct?  I think I can see that.  This is a great forum for airing problems in photography and displaying photos.  Before joining this forum, I would print albums with the Canon program (8-1/2 X 11) and was very pleased with it as it also gave me the ability to add text and clip art.  I would print out the pictures and put them in albums that had page protectors and everything was fine.  But I am so glad I graduated to this forum.  Carole is absolutely the best teacher (much like my cook book - great at step-by-step even if you don't know how to boil water!).  But now the problem is that I have so many layouts that I would like to get printed.  My daughter suggested that I put them in videos (I had also worked in Video Studio, and it was good for an ametuer, and was fun, but I'm a book person and like to hold it in my hands and flip pages.  Well, on to making a decision.  thank you for your input. 

Sorry if I confused you. The Persnickety Prints 12x12 pages go into page protectors that are in CM albums. Those are my personal albums. I also buy print credits when Persnickety Prints has them on sale. Normal price $1.99, print credit sale price $1.50. Then I can just order prints when I want. 

Shutterfly has a book design where you can upload your own layouts instead of placing photos into their pre-designed albums. The books I make for my cousins use that and I upload copies of my layouts to Shutterfly to make them. So at this time they have a Shutterfly book and I have the CM album but I have told them, the CM albums will be theirs when I'm gone.

My Canon printer is the Pixma MG7720. Nothing real fancy except for having the 6 cartridges. Only prints 8.5x14. Scan size is 8.5x11. I got it at Wal-Mart and have had it several years.

17 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

@Rene Marker Have you ever ordered a photo album from them?

No, I've never done a photo album. I print 12x12 prints then insert those into page protectors that go in Creative Memories albums. The few photo books I have printed for gifts for my cousins have been done at Shutterfly. I wait until Shutterfly has an unlimited pages sale then order a book with about 100 pages. The quality isn't bad and my cousins absolutely love them since none of them are scrapbookers!

I have a Canon printer as well. From my very first ink jet printer to my current, they have all been Canon. My current printer has 6 cartridges and I have found that to be good enough for me.

As for cameras, yeah, my phone is not it. I have 3 cameras, 2 Canon PowerShot and a Canon T5. One is kept in my purse (Canon SX 740HS). The other is a Canon SX 540HS. This one stays on my desk. I need to have substance to my camera as my hands shake when I try to use my phone. I do have some photos taken on my phone if I don't have my camera handy but I much prefer a regular camera!

21 minutes ago, Cassel said:

With all those fantastic ideas, I might need to write an encyclopedia!

... or maybe build a website ?? 😉

I know a lot of the information is available on the internet but you have to search all over the place to find it. And, that can be frustrating! Especially since most of it is focused on PS and PSE. I think a book would be great for a start then possibly build the website to go with the book.

I've only learned what I know by trial and error and frequenting various forums over the years. I already was familiar with PSP when I started since I had already been using it for over 10 years for scanning and correcting photos. I was familiar with layers since the first thing I ever did with PSP in a class on ZDNet was make signatures for forums! But I was a complete novice when it came to digital scrapbooking although I had done paper scrapbooking so knew what scrapbooking was. I needed to learn more about the process.

I just thought of something else that isn't PSP specific but how about having testimonials from scrapbookers that use the program giving their tips for how they do things. (For example, when I shadow my layouts I start with the bottom layer and work my way up the layer palette. This way I always know which layers have shadows when I don't use shadows on a separate layer.)

Ann, my go to for printing my layouts is Persnickety Prints. I do print 12x12 size but they have a multitude of sizes that can be printed (as photo prints). I just looked and although they don't have 8x10.5, they do have 8x10 and 8x12 for $3.99 per print. They also have 8.5x11 for $1.99 per print. The quality of their prints is exceptional and if you don't like it, support will work with you until you are satisfied.

If I was doing a calendar for a gift, I would use Persnickety and get the 8.5x11 prints and see if they would put a white border all around it. Then I would bind it possibly with ribbon like Sue suggested. Persnickety's customer support is awesome and works with their customers to make sure everything is what they wanted. Shipping is usually very fast, I've gotten orders within 4 to 5 days (Utah to Ohio). If I was doing a calendar for me, I'd just print it on my printer.

8 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

  As well as Supplies and subcatagories for supplies like Papers, elements, Alphas.  What about "ready-to-use" masks and templates and how to use them?  It's a pretty complex task and figuring out how not to go with too much ideas or not being thorough enough.  

I definitely agree that a chapter on supplies that are already there for people to use would be nice. Most digital scrapbookers that I know like to buy a pre-made kit then scrap their layout when they first start out. Heck I've been digital scrapping since 2008 and still prefer to buy kits. I prefer my scrapbooking time actually being spent on scrapbooking not creating although I have enjoyed learning more about creating my own stuff.

As for templates, make sure to include the fact that PSD templates can be used in PSP. Even though PSD templates might have native PSD features in them, they can still be used in PSP. A PSP user will just get the basic template to use (I do it all the time).

One of the designers I have bought from has glitter styles as an add-on to her kits. Since PSP can't use styles, I always ignored them. Until I found out that the png files of the glitters could be used by saving them in the patterns folder. Not to mention all the commercial use paper textures from Pixel Scrapper that can be used by saving them in the textures folder.

I do agree with Susan about using Bootcamp as a starting point. But make sure to expand into more crafty or complex pages. Show what can be done with PSP because quite a few PSD or PSE users think PSP users cannot do everything they can! Most of the scrapbookers that I know started out with very basic pages but as they continued on they found they enjoyed the crafty (and what some call busy) pages. I've seen (and done) some crafty pages that do have the story on the page as well. Just because a page is crafty doesn't mean it can't tell a story.

Since you don't want to go in to detail about the tools, if you mention something but don't want to go into a lot of detail put a disclaimer that more info can be found at.... whether it be one of your books or a blog post or tutorial here at campus. A sneaky way to advertise 😉 

My first thought was a chapter about layers, a basic explanation at first. Then go into using layer groups, linking layers and using the color highlighting in the layers palette. I personally use linking with the color highlighting to know which layers are in my clusters. I use layer groups for both clusters and alphas to resize the elements all at once.

Knowing these basics are useful when creating clusters and the shadowing of the various layers.

Another item would be shadowing and explaining how the bottom layers have smaller shadows than those higher in the layers palette especially in clusters. Also, with shadows explain how the warp brush or mesh warp tool can be used to make subtle changes to the shadows.

(On a side note I just found out a member of the Sweet Shoppe Designs design team uses PSP and I never suspected it because her shadows look great on clusters. I always though she used PS. I asked for her shadow settings and have played with them a littler and WOW what a difference on clusters!)

As to your original question about go-to scripts, these are mine:

Raster to Mask: to place photos on the templates I've bought from designers

Merge Group Rename: always use after placing photo in Raster to Mask to keep the photo name. I drag my photo directly into the layers palette which keeps the original file name. Using this script keeps that name which then shows in the credit list compile. 

Credit List Compile: I mainly use designer kits so I use this so that if I post to a gallery I can credit the designer

Guiding Lines: I use this when I think of it!!!

I do have a lot of the element scripts but since I mainly use designer kits, I haven't used them much. However, if there is another Build-A-Kit Workshop, I will be using them! Some of those are the plaid paper scripts, Ribbon Factory, Custom Kit Ribbons, Buttons and Labels and various bow scripts.

And I think 385 fonts are too many!!!

I don't decorate much at all. I put some decorations out at Christmas usually after Thanksgiving. These days I use table top trees since I have no gifts to put under a big tree and I can't handle a large tree by myself anymore. I have 4 table top trees that I keep decorated and when not out, they are covered by a plastic bag and live in the bottom of a closet. One goes in my office, one goes in my living room and the other 2 I alternate putting them on the dining room table.

Last year I added an ornament tree with some of the pewter Longaberger ornaments I've had for yours as a decoration in my living room. I never put it away! Also, last year I never took down the tree in my office. That may be the extent of my decorations this year.

I had my surgery follow-up this week and the replacement valve has not settled in place like it should have so I haven't been feeling too great lately. I'm having a test on the 27th to see what can be done. Once that is done, I wait until the cardiac structural team has a meeting about their cases to discuss what treatment is indicated. No idea when that meeting will be so it could very well be that anything will get done before the holidays so I probably won't be able to put anything else out unless I get someone to come get the stuff off the shelves of the closet for me.

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

Yes, it seemed like something local, but I have no idea where to look.

It might be worth it to get a subscription to Newspapers.com (an Ancestry company). I have been using it for genealogy research so I just checked to see if it had Australian newspapers... and it does. You can enter a name and have it search all newspapers or narrow it down to a location. You can even have it search specific decades of year.

There is a free trial although I don't know how long it is for, maybe 7 days?

Although it may not have papers from the area you want. I do know that the website is constantly adding new papers. There are no papers from my county in there at this time but luckily the names I've been searching are in some papers that are already there... broke down a brick wall with what I found!

1 hour ago, Susan Ewart said:

I'm hoping to get to this, it's my favorite of the challenges, but my computer is in pieces right now.  I might try on my laptop but have very few photos on here.

15 years ago when I was going to scrapbooking retreats with my laptop, I saved all my kits and photos on an external hard drive. Even when I worked at home on my desktop, I saved what I was doing on that external hard drive. I also had a cloud backup that would backup my desktop hard drive and the external hard drive. So I still had more than one copy of everything.

Over 5 years ago I began having issues with my computer disconnecting from the internet on its own. Even new modems from the ISP didn't seem to solve the problem. Then in May of 2019 we had a power outage due to tornadoes in the area and when the power came back my 7 or 8 years old computer wouldn't even turn on. So I had to get a new one. While I didn't have a desktop I had to use my laptop which was not connected to the cloud backup... and I had no internet disconnects at all! I got the new computer and got everything setup including the cloud backup and the internet disconnects started happening again. I paused the backup and no more disconnects so I cancelled the service.

So these days, I keep everything on my hard drive but whenever I download my photos or buy and unzip new kits, I back them up to 2 separate external hard drives. I also have 2 other external hard drives that I will back up everything to about once a month. I've also gotten to the point that all my old stuff are on the external hard drives but not the hard drive of my desktop. If I would need something I just hook up the external. This gives me more room on the desktop.

I no longer like to scrap on my laptop because I'm so used to the dual monitors but I do have PSP loaded on it. So if I were to go away and take my laptop, if I take one of my external hard drives I could still scrap if I wanted. System works for me!

Just now, Jannette Nieuwboer said:

Interesting to know Rene. Is the house in the picture yours or is that the house opposite you?

I took the picture from my front porch. The driveway is mine as is the mailbox on the right side of the photo. There is a street that meets up with my street (almost directly across from my driveway) and the house you see is on the corner of those 2 streets. The neighbor that does my lawn work for me is across the street from me to my south and sits on the opposite corner of the house you see.

3 hours ago, Jannette Nieuwboer said:

In some neighborhoods, large iron crates are placed in the fall where people can deposit their leaves. When they are full, they are emptied by the municipal cleaning service. 

The city has leaf pickup service but my neighborhood is outside city limits so we don't get access to it. So way back when the neighborhood was built in the 1950's, the original residents started a leaf pickup for the area we call "the woods" since it is where all the trees are. Just in the last 5 years, my house was allowed to join but only because they needed volunteer workers and my neighbor east of me was one they wanted! They will pickup the leaves for about 6 to 8 weeks depending on when the last of the leaves fall and they then take them to the city farm/compost facility where they pay a fee to dump the leaves. When dad still lived here, he just used a mulching mower to mulch the leaves every fall since our house wasn't a part of the pickup group (even though he asked to be included back in the 1960's!)

18 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

I don't do a big cleanup in the autumn of leaves and branches and plants. I learned long ago that the materials provide refuge and food and safe spaces for the birds and other critters during the long winter. By spring, the leaves are mostly gone and the cleanup is less back-breaking overall. And, the fact that I am slightly lazy and have a sore back really contribute to my yard hygiene.

I wish any leaves that don't get cleaned up in the fall would be gone by spring but around here they aren't! I only have one tree in my backyard but live in a neighborhood that has lots of trees to my west. The winds come from the west the majority of the time so I get those leaves as well. They also tend to collect against the north side of the house and in the years I didn't know better and let them go, they destroyed the flower beds and the grass. Six years ago I had a new patio put on the north side of the house and the leaves still collect only now they are on the pavers. I usually use the leaf blower to get them into the yard but since I just had surgery, I can't do it this year. When I do that my neighbor that mows my grass will pick up the leaves to put them out for pickup that our neighborhood has available for a yearly fee (totally worth it!) The first pickup for the year was yesterday. This photo is what the neighbor to my east had raked for the pickup. Notice all the leaves that haven't been raked yet... some of his trees still have leaves on them and they fall in my yard! My only tree is in the back yard.

2 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I wish I had photos to prove it, but the local Burger King did the same thing. They built a brand-new store next door to the old and tore down the old for parking. 

The new McDonald's was built on a property that at one time had originally been a Ponderosa restaurant. When Ponderosa closed, it opened as a different non-chain restaurant that eventually closed as well. Then the building was torn down due to structural issues and the lot was empty so McDonald's snatched it up to build the new building that had 2 drive-through windows. The main reason I took the photos was because I had worked there! The Ponderosa building didn't mean anything to me so I never documented it.

Ironically, the new McDonald's was built in 2014 and I have never been in it or even used the drive-through to get food!

I started working in the relatively new McDonald's in my town during my senior year of high school. I got the job because I was 18 and could work past 10 p.m. to do the closing chores needed. I worked all summer before heading off to college. When I came home for Thanksgiving, I stopped in to ask if I could work during the break between semesters and they said yes so I worked during those 4 weeks over Christmas/New Year's. At that time they told me that I would be welcome to work there the following summer if I wanted. So I did. So my job during my early college years was McDonald's.

The funniest story though is that my dad absolutely loved their "fresh" French fries. He was under the impression that they cut fresh potatoes every day for their fries. Boy did I burst that bubble when I told him they were frozen! He still loved them.

I quit eating fast food about 15 years ago unless I am traveling. For me it was for budgetary reasons... fast food was expensive even then.

Here is a layout I did 9 years ago about the store I worked in. The owners were building a new store next door to the old one. The store I worked in was torn down and is now parking for the new store. One of the owners was an employee at this store when I worked there in the mid-1970's. She worked her way into management and after getting married to another manager, they set their goals of owning their own store. Last I heard, they own 3 or 4 in the area. 

48 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

Susan, inexperienced or not, it is quite a common mistake.  Especially when planting trees.  Many people forget or do not take into account that a  6inch sapling  will grow to possibly to 100ft tall, and spread branches.  Same goes for flowers. It is amazing how plants will adapt to their location, twisting, turning, stretching to reach for the sun.  

And many people just let things grow and never tend to them. I've had some plants put in by a company that did landscaping work for me. There is a lovely yellowish plant they put in a few years ago that I fell in love with and had them put a couple more in after taking out the hydrangea that ended up being too much for the area. My neighbor does pruning for me and has kept the original gold mop cypress to a nice height.  I asked the landscaper this summer what plant a different neighbor across the street has as it looks a lot like the gold mop cypress. It goes to the roofline and pretty much hides the windows. Turns out it is the same thing I have... gold mop cypress. They have never pruned/trimmed it in all the years they have had it nor have they done anything with the shrubs by the house. The only thing that gets trimmed is a shrub that is by the stop sign and road sign in their yard. And all that gets done is cutting the weed that grows up the middle of it to the same height as the shrub. 

I wish I was able to do yard work but unfortunately I can't. With arthritic knees and allergies, it just doesn't happen. Thankfully I have a neighbor that is willing to do it. I pay him for it just as I pay him to mow the grass and collect the leaves in the fall.