Rene Marker

That is quite normal for scrapbookers. I've gone through phases where I don't scrap much at all. Quite often other things going on in my life become the focus and scrapbooking takes a back seat to those life things going on. But I will get my "mojo" back due to a challenge or some other inspiration later on and off I go. The other thing for me is when a layout isn't coming together, I just do a basic page and call it done. Then move on, quite often doing multiple basic pages. Eventually the creative part will come back maybe because of the photo(s) I've chosen to scrap.

B is for Baskets. Specifically Longaberger baskets. I fell in love with them in 1983 when I went to a home party. I still have the 3 baskets I bought that night. I got Mom hooked on them as well. In the late 90's/early 2000's I was a consultant and I was my best customer! I have downsized my collection over the years but still have a lot that are pretty much in use or used to decorate. These 2 baskets are in my dining room.

I haven't run across any videos on using pre-designed masks yet in my youtube viewing so I don't know if there is a way to use them. However, I have come across some other videos and it appears there are multiple ways of using masks. I certainly want to try them out when I've used it enough to feel more comfortable with the program. I've actually started a One Note page on tips and tricks for Affinity. I'll probably spend tomorrow watching a few more of some of the beginning videos to see what other tricks are out there. I've run across several videos about masking but haven't watched them yet.

I added the link to the kit in the post. It is a current kit sold at Sweet Digi Scraps called "A Cold Snap: Snowy Days" by Kristin Cronin-Barrow. I am a big fan of her kits and have bought a lot of them over the years. She has things in her kits that I could never design on my own! @Gerry Landreth Peyton has been using steps to get on the bed for a couple of years. For the longest time, she had no problem jumping up on it but she started struggling. For some reason, she started jumping straight up in the air and of course, not getting on the bed. My bed does sit high as well. So I bought a Rubbermaid 2 step unit and it sits by the bed. She didn't take long to learn to use it. It is also handy for when I need to get something off the top shelf in my closets. Funny thing about the bed though, if Peyton doesn't think about it, she can jump on it without using the steps.

@Corrie Kinkel You can do a reverse shadow. Just change the angle of the shadow. 160 looks about the same. You can enter the number of degrees you want since just moving it goes in increments of 15.

Nope. My issue was that I wasn't "dragging" the dropper to the color I wanted. I was trying to use it the same way you do in PSP. Once I figured that out, it worked fine. A little look at the help file was all it took for me to figure it out.

I used a kit by a designer that's been retired for over 10 years. I liked the trick with the selection to copy/paste. Now if only the color picker would work. Gonna have to get it figured out. Think I have an idea why but wanted to get this layout done before I play around with it.

Abr are Photoshop brushes (have to do the import to use in PSP). I found out that they can be used in Affinity and it is such an easy install. Much easier than the PSP install. If you want to test it out, just drag and drop the file on to the Affinity workspace. I actually went through my files to find the abr files and installed some of them already. Just didn't mention since they aren't being mentioned in boot camp right now. I have to say there are some features of Affinity that I really do like because they are easier than PSP but there are others that PSP does much better. For me the perfect program would have the best of both programs!

This is the layout that I worked on using the selection brush on the frame. Edit: To add a link to the kit used. Kristin Cronin-Barrow's "A Cold Snap: Snowy Days" available at Sweet Digi Scraps.

@Linda J Walker I think once we get past the basics, we will see how it can be used for photos. I've been watching YouTube videos today since we had no assignment and I've seen some pretty cool things done with photos (it's too cold to venture outside). But none of the videos even come close to "scrapbooking" as we know it.

I was playing with it today and struggled to make a selection (miss that magic wand) using the selection brush. I wanted a simple selection. I wanted to select the inside of a frame and delete the part of the photo that extended past it. I kept at it because I wanted to get the hang of using the tool. I did eventually get it. After I was done, I thought of the rectangular marquee tool and realized that is what I should have used. But I just watched a YouTube Video and my mind was blown. You can make a selection with the Pen Tool! But that is for something later down the road. I don't like the pen tool in PSP but I just may like it in Affinity!

Grouping only works if all the layers you want linked are next to each other. Same as PSP. I don't think linking is available in Affinity. It is a useful feature in PSP for sure. I have a feeling that Carole will get into this in future lessons.

I agree about scale with object. I saw a video where the presenter talked about having it checked all the time. She actually wishes it was checked by default. I tend to agree with her as I check that box before making any other adjustments.

Anne, your problem might have been with the installer your were using. There are several different installers for Windows and not knowing there was a difference I downloaded all of them. I tried one of them and got the same error. Then I looked into it and realized the 2 of them were for specific types of windows installation and that the plain old .exe installer was the one I needed. Once I tried it, it worked fine. The instructions are not very clear unless you know a lot about configurations of computers.

I know this one was not electric. I honestly don't remember where Mom got it but it had probably belonged to one of her grandmothers. That little piece of info was never written down in the info Mom wrote down about heirlooms she had. I do have a photo of this table in the living room in 1973. I know that the candy making started in the early 70's so that is probably when it was done. These days, it has a lamp on it except for Christmas when I put a table top Christmas tree on it.

Woohoo! Nice to be back. Didn't realize it was fixed so posted my layout in the old forum. Well, I was able to get a layout done. I used a kit from a designer that retired over 10 years ago. After figuring out that when you drag and drop something into Affinity, you need to rasterize the layer before you can delete, it went quite smoothly. And, I love that you can add a shadow to the text layer even if it isn't rasterized.

One of the first things I did in PSP was make my own custom toolbar and made sure undo/red were on it. So one of the first things I did in Affinity Photo was see if I could customize the toolbar. You can customize it but undo/redo are not available options. Hate it because I'm not one to use keyboard shortcuts

Appears I can post without the whole thread in this box.

You have 3 different letters that could be used... B - Bead, C - Crochet, N - Necklace. I've been making a list in OneNote of ideas for each letter. Some work for different letters. By making the list I can figure out which letter will work best.

Follow your own advice... scrap a page about it without a photo. Grab some images from the internet and make that page.

Way back when I had Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego. Can't remember if it was my first DOS computer or my first Win computer that I played it on. I had Monopoly and Mom and I would sit at my computer and play it (this would have been early 90's). Sometime in the 2000's I bought a CD which had several games on it: Game of Life, Clue, Yahtzee. That got loaded onto a laptop. That laptop was eventually upgraded to Win 10 and the games still work. I think it was a Hasbro CD but I don't think I have it anymore. I still have the laptop even though I got a new one in 2023 and every once in awhile I will pull it out and play Clue. I'm sure there were other games over the years as well that got lost with the upgrades of computers. I don't have or play any games on my desktop. But I do have some games on my Samsung tablet. I have games loaded on it that I don't play much and some games I play every day. I do have to limit how much I play though. When I had my iPad, I had a game that I would play hours a day. It was called Township and you built up a town. You could rearrange things which is what I would spend hours doing. When the iPad went black and wouldn't turn on, I got the Samsung tablet. I refused to load Township on it (actually didn't want to start over). I have seen some YouTube streamers play a game called American Truck Simulator that looks fun. Several of them will play it at the same time while streaming and it can be hilarious at times. I've looked at it several times but just couldn't justify buying it. It seems to get the full benefit of it, you need to have a "steering wheel" device (Thrustmaster) and I don't want to spend the money on one of those. I guess you can use a game system controller but I don't have one of those either. So I'll just enjoy watching them crash each other when they stream!

I was learning to knit about 20 years ago and I kept looking for a ripple pattern for an afghan but all I could ever find was crochet. Several years later I was cleaning out a small cabinet and tucked in the back of it was a little bag. That bag had a list of all the afghans my mom had made as well as the pattern and her circular needles! She made 23 of them over the years. I had a dream of making one of my own but I could never get the hang of one of the stitches.

I added a raster layer, moved it below the photo then flood filled with a color from the photo. Then I went to Effects>Texture Effects>Texture and found a texture to use. I wanted something to show off the word since on a regular layout, there would probably be a paper layer underneath it. As a singular photo, there is no paper so I just created one. The yarn in the afghans feels a lot like the Red Heart Super Saver yarn. Those afghans can keep you really warm even with the semi-open pattern of the ripple.. I have another one in my bedroom and will put it on the bed on top of the bedspread during the winter if needed. I hate to be cold at night!

Thanks Anne for that explanation. I had no idea. These afghans are knitted though. The only crochet my mom knew how to do was to tuck in the edges on the afghans.

So is anybody else thinking about other letters for this challenge? As I think of something, I take the photo now so I don't forget by the time that letter comes (like the letter V). I decided to Cass Word Edge Cutout Script for the word. I'm saving them as a pspimage and am thinking about making 12x12 scrapbook pages with 2 photos per page with a little journaling about the item. But that will happen at the end of the project. Here is A. I will journal about these afghans being made by my mother in the 1980's (although I do already have a layout about this with another photo of her actually working on one of her afghans).