Susan Ewart

Just saying the words, "Banana Box Christmas" you cant help but laugh and sing it.

Week 52 Background started out with a gradient, then I think I did the blinds, added noise, then line halftone horizontally. I tried applying the blinds to the Vectors but it made it harder to read. Played around with the opacity in the blinds settings and blend modes(outside the blinds setting), but still it seemed a bit harder to read, so I've left it the original red which seemed to fit the background well and did nothing to it in the end. I used the Lifted Photo Script on the playing card. Two more to go and my deck is complete. What a ride it's been. I've learned a lot and tried things I never would dreamed of. What a pleasure to see into everyone's lives and enjoy their photography (and other photographers that were used - what a delight to see). I find it amazing when I look in my "finished" folder and scroll through the weeks. We've made quite a body of work. The cool thing is we can hide the Vector layer and make them any kind of card we want.

Congratulations! Best Christmas ever!

Thank you Corrie. I found it and downloaded the blog. I have used one of the masterclasses when we did the build a kit. I'm just not that good at them. I takes practice getting it to look balanced. And for sure, finding the right fonts is pretty important and the most time consuming

It's always so cool when you do it and realize just how real it looks. I love that.

You have the best instincts, dont doubt yourself. I'm always wondering how the heck you do what you do, it's awe inspiring. I've learned a lot of new techniques from the book, that I never would have known about and knowing exactly where to find the tutorial is such a time (and stress) saver.

Week 51 Did lots of stuff here, wish I could remember it all. I do remember I used a paper (from Dancing Tiger Designs) and selected and promoted the beveled design on it. then made changes to the bevel, new color, blend modes and re-beveled it and added a large shadow to the paper below. I actually left the design on the paper below because it also had a blend mode and some of the interesting colors came from leaving the pattern intact. I could not find a font or Alpha to fit the busy ironwork design I had created. I had a idea, and a brilliant idea (hahaha, the positive grinch I am!) to use the Letterpress Script choosing the metal option which I used HSL to color it a bit. The outline I wanted to have a metal bar so I added thickness to the stroke on that preset shape outline, and used a metal pattern. I duplicated that, beveled the top layer, used a blend mode, and reduced the opacity and then used the bottom layer to add the shadow too (very light shadow) 3 more to go, to get to 54 cards in the deck.

That is my wish, to be able to remember it. I need to use it often to remember it and then make sure I do it often enough not to forget.

Week 50 Paper was made in the Paper workshop and Slipped In effect from Carole's book, It's easier for me to find that instruction as I know exactly where it is in the book (pgs 267-269).

That's so pretty Ann, these would make great Christmas cards and each could be unique. Is that a picture tube you used for the "garland". And I see some some campus goodies decorating the tree.

Well done Corrie! I love all the different fonts. I would love a workshop on this type of element, candles Christmas balls etc. I'm sure there is a masterclass for it, but I do so much better in a workshop. (well, except the paper workshop - sigh)

OMG! Today might be my favorite too. Hilarious!

Here's the lighter more feminine version of the first image I posted. Usually my niece and nephew (for them, the spouse, the kids) get money from my hubby and me. And previously I'd make an elaborate vessel/box to put the money in. Lately I have been making a separate card than one I would give to them and there family unit. This one would have been for my niece.

It's hard to pick just one door. I 7th door has such a yummy cookie alphabet and I loved the 12th door, such a neat looking frame. And who doesnt love a puzzle on 16th door. I had missed a few due to work and coming home to fall into bed. One of them was the 5th door with Banana Box Christmas. Thank you for opening up all the doors (so far) for us to enjoy. I look forward to it each day (that I dont forget 😁).

I love this. That light looks so cool. You know I love flowers against black, they stand out so well and it makes it like a formal portrait.

I chose the laughing icon only because your last sentence was funny. Who knows what happens when you aren't around. I wonder if the endless MS updates are messing with stuff too. Now my email program spams all the campus emails and I have to go to webmail to get them to send through. Well, it's spamming at the webmail program, but never did this and all of a sudden (2 months ago) it started doing that after a windows update. I have marked the send (and the doman) in the settings as safe and not to mark as spam and still it goes to spam. I don't relish hours waiting on the phone waiting to find out how to get it fixed.

Lucky you, I did playing cards so I end up having 54 weeks in this year. I love this picture. they are dogs of the river, oh, like fruit bats are dogs of the sky (I want one! - and a wombat too)

That is what I think is happening with mine. I can use text as long as i dont wrap it.

I do need to look into it further.

I'm so sorry to hear of your sad news Jannette. Cherish the time you have with your husband. And try to remember to look after yourself too.

That's too bad it's not something that stays embedded and when you have a problem they could give you instructions to send it. That turns everyone into real world testers that could have made the program that much more robust. If I was to point fingers, I'd say that once acquired by Alludo, the plans for the company didn't include going forward with a graphics program. This happened in a company I was in, in the end just under 270 stores were closed.

I too had PSP randomly shut down. Making the Christmas designs this would happen. I always thought it was me clicking too many times and too fast and it couldnt keep up, despite having 64 GB of ram and a graphics card with 12GB of ram and a fast CPU ( i7 11700K - whatever that means). I have also learned to save often. It shut down and I was able to use the one I found in the Auto-Preserve folder and go from there. After that happened I saved after every step I did. Also do any of you have the tmp files saving ALL the time. Sometimes I go to click or use a tool and I cant and then realize at the bottom, it's saving temp files, like 2-3 of them. Is there a setting to turn that off?

Always a feast for the eyes to see your layouts. Glad to see you back in the Campus.

Here is Design 1 of my Christmas cards that didn't get to the print test page. This would be on the outside of the card, the insides never even got designed. I'll post this also on FB as it might appear really dark here. Soon as I saw this quote I had to do it for my Nephew. Hope it doesnt offend anyone. I added a white-ish(textured) border so you could see it. I was going to use the paper as a white border going on a grasscloth textured dark desaturated brown cardstock (from Bazzill). I'll post the next 4 designs over the next four days.

Isnt it a great feeling to finish something that was unfinished. What a beautiful quote. I always find it so neat to look at where people live and think, hey, the nature there looks just like the nature where I live. same grasses, same trees. Those photo could be in anywhere in the provinces (Canada) I've lived in.