Susan Ewart

14 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

I have no photos of this week, very unusual for me! We have had bad weather with lots of rain and we had to make some alterations in the house that were waiting until I was back from California and had slept off the jetlag. Therefore I decided today to make a photo from my workspace where I do all my scrapping; I already had decided to have that idea as a backup for when there really wasn't anything else going on.

What a nice neat and tidy workspace Corrie.  I'm jealous.

I also forgot to mention at the top right corner of the forum page you can click on FOLLOW and choose your options.  Even if I'm not posting in a particular forum, I'll click on it to see the beautiful layouts people make.  Like Sue Thomas said, you can pick up some really interesting techniques from looking at forums.

16 minutes ago, John Coury said:

Would like see some my scrap box projects?.were do i oist them?.

That would be fabulous.  Post them in the "What your working on now (May 2024)?" (click on Forums>Showroom>What are you working on in(in May 2024)?  Make sure to click on the word Showroom to get to the main section of that.  When you have just anything you are working on you post it there.  When you are doing workshops or Challenges, there will be a spot in those sections of the forum for you to post.  We resize our 3600x3600 projects to 600x600 and then make sure  it's less than 500 KB.  There is also a FB group to join that you can post your full sized projects.  Carole might comment on more places to find out what and how to post.  I'm just running out the door or I'd find them.  Sorry.  I looked at forum too late.  Oh, and we also have a gallery you can look through. 

Welcome John, looking forward to seeing you in the workshops and forums.

55 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

Thank you!  Actually I didn't use text on a path.  I used effects,  distortion, wave.  I used the same on the  flock of birds silhouettes, which was  a  dingbat font. 

Thanks, I wouldn't have thought to do that.  Great idea.

51 minutes ago, Peggy Dyar said:

I am days behind but enjoyed putting this together. I see today it's not 'unique', but good to know I'm not so far out there with the idea :-0

I can't wait to get some time to go through all the posts and see what everyone has come up with. I've seen a lot of inspiring ideas in the short time I've had to check them out.

Perfect graphics for this Peggy and this card would put a smile on the recipients face for sure (something they probably need at that moment).

5 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

I enjoy capturing birds, especially when I get them up close.
Maggie, the magpie, on the right was busy singing Happy Birthday when I sneaked up and took this pic.
The middle bird is a pāpango, or Scaup, a diving duck, and is native to New Zealand.
Billy, on the left, is an Australian, a Cockatoo, he loves roaming free, and befriending people.
I chose to colour the font, Garamond, in shades of orange, the opposite colour on the colour wheel from green.
I made the polka dot papers and the feathers came from an exchange in my one of my graphics groups.
Jeni

Very beautiful photos.  I love to see birds from other parts of the world.  The Magpies here are quite different.  How luck to Cockatoos in the wild, I cant even imagine how cool that would be to see.

19 hours ago, carol Woudema said:

 

Great Card, I'd come to this.  BTW are you from Jasper, AB?  

20 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Day 4.  The invitation cards are all fictitious.  Although I do live a 20 minute drive from Gardiner Dam, where there is always an abundance of birds of all kind.   American White Pelicans at Gardiner dam, on the South Saskatchewan river side of the dam. The other side of the dam is Lake Diefenbaker.   This card shows my attemp at being witty.🙃

Cool!  Even your text on a path has movement; like that of flapping wings (up, down, up down)

1 hour ago, Sharla said:

Hi Susan, I grow lots of things in raised beds and containers. The larger the container the least likely I am to change the soil but, in some cases, like with blueberries and the acer, I remove a couple of inches of the top layer of soil and add some fresh. If I don’t do this then I make sure that I give the plant a liquid feed during the growing season. 

Most of my annual plants like tomatoes, peas, and asters get planted into containers that still have some of last year’s soil within them – I just top up with fresh compost to give them a good start and feed them during the growing season. The old compost is added to borders or to the compost bin.

The idea of changing the soil is just impossible for me with the number of containers that I use so I generally don’t. To be honest,  I never found it very useful advice because it usually means that if the plant has a large root ball you need a bigger pot each year – and that’s just not practical as well as expensive. I just accept that some plants will thrive under my method and that some won’t.

 I never move pots around to catch the sun like you describe – once they have their spot that’s where they stay for the growing season. Out of the two you mention – if the conditions are good, rosemary really thrives (not in my garden!) but thyme always tends to get woody and needs to cut back drastically after each growing season or replaced. The best advice I can give you is to experiment, accept both the successes and the failures, and enjoy the process. And, if you don’t want to repot then start your young plants in a larger pot.

You’ll always have some plants that thrive and others that don’t. I used to try follow gardening advice but I’m not very good at following rules so I just experiment. I celebrate the good results and accept the failures as part of the learning process which never ends. 
 

Sharla, this is the best advice I've gotten.  thank you so much.  I do repot into bigger and I agree, it's really expensive.  I'll start feeding them and even try to remember to water then now and then (kidding).  the rosemary is great because I can neglect it and it just keep growing and even flowers.  You are so right about the thyme, mine is woody but I didnt know about cutting it back.  they were pretty old too, so I send them over the plant version of the rainbow bridge.  Sad to say, I only move the pots around for photo ops and not for the plants sake.  I would have being a terrible mother!   It's all about me😁.  I haven't had very good luck growing food plants in the past.  I plant and forget, usually my husband feels bad for the plants and takes over care (another reason I would have been a bad mother, on the other hand, my husband would have been a GREAT mother!).   I'm trying two veggies this year; peas and pumpkins.  We'll see how that goes.  I subscribe to your ways....not following the rules.  If it works, great, if it doesn't....I can always buy potted plants to photograph.  I appreciate your advice and help. 

BTW, I would read the back of the package and think, naaa, that doesn't work for me, I'm going to do it this way.  And I bought one kind of bulb....the directions say, plant with the "crown" up.  I"m thinking, what?! I'm growing a plant not a Princess!  I just planted the little green part sticking upwards, hoping it really is a plant since the whole dried up thing looked like the mother-of-all dried up cat hairballs!  Plants are weird...so am I, I guess we go together.

2 hours ago, Sharla said:

I’ve had it for a few years now and it’s a healthy little tree. I think it would have been much bigger if it was in the ground but it has adapted to being in a container (quite a large one). I really like it because of the colours you get over the seasons.

do you give it new soil every year too?  I have been doing that with my Rosemary and Thyme because I overwinter them in the heated garage with lights.  I'm just wondering if I need to be doing that.  My thyme didn't do so well this year, probably should have potted them larger at the end of the season.  I'm interested in people that do plants in pots and what they do, because I did the flowers (for the first time ) last year in pots so I could move them to different spots depending on the sun and backgrounds.  My herbs and plants only grow because of their own tenacity and because of my serious lack of experience.  I commend them for growing in spite of me.

3 hours ago, Dee347 said:

Card 2 - I changed the template by adding background squares behind the white squares, moved the top up and added a white scalloped border.  Created the ribbon with the Knot 3 script.  Added texture to the top panel, a polka dot overlay to the background layer, puppies from Creative Fabrica on the white squares and a tag with sentiment under the ribbon.  I made this for the Cards For Hospitalized Kids Charity.

 

 

 

This is so sweet.

2 hours ago, Wendy Sanders said:

I love this Wendy!   Beautify done. 

50 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

@kasany I had the same issue with a white card where the edges didn't stand out here in the forum. I pulled it back and added a slightly larger bottom layer and added a faint shadow. That helped! I'll show it here again...

This is s a good idea Ann.  

12 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

I will continue with the invitation cards tomorrow.  Today's card is one I have just made to send via email.  My son's mother-in-law is a keen gardiner, and yesterday she slipped and took a tumble,  hurting her back.  She will be fine, she's like me as tough as  nails.   I used today's  template.  I struggle to find elements, as I have very few kits, and odd elements to choose from.  Anyway,  I sent the ecard with the wavy lines, which I lightened even more.  I'm not a big fan of patterened background papers, they have to be subtle.  I also addd a texture and a little noise.  I also chose to  frame the text instead of the whole page. 

I love this.  I was scrolling the new cards from the bottom so before I saw your name I guessed that this was from you.  Beautiful colors and layout.  I like both versions; straight and wavy. With even a small amount of supplies/elements you make a big impact.

4 hours ago, Michele said:

Loving everything, especially from our "newbies." I'm very impressed.

I was so looking forward to this workshop, but I don't know if I'll be able to participate due to an injury. Since there is no time limit for the workshops, I hope to be able to start soon and catch up. 🤞

That's too bad Michele.  I hope your recovery goes well and fast. take care

Incredible work from everyone.  It's really inspiring.  Looks like I might not be able to join as this week is going to be an exhausting one!  But I will look forward to seeing your beautiful creations.

18 hours ago, fiona cook said:

I just love flowers and flower photography plus I have a niece's birthday coming up so the ideal subject. I changed the canvas to 1500 x1500. Used a Random Noise Effect to the scallop paper. The texture effect, 'Blind' on the strip is bold at 100%. The round element is 'happiness is homemade' by Marissa Lerin form Digital scrapbooking.com. The font I have used is also from Creative Fabrica called 'Babylone'

Fiona, this is so beautiful and the your color choices are perfect.  

4 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Here is my first greeting card, a birthday card for my great granddaughter, Magic. Her 4th birthday is June 4. It appears I have 4 more birthdays coming up in June so this workshop will come in handy! The birthday coin is from Cassel.

 

Awesome Ann.  Better add one more day in June....for me! ☺️ I'm already behind, not sure I'll be able to post anything this week at all.  It's very busy with my bestie moving to Scotland on Saturday and work being unusually busy.  At least I can download the supplies and get it done through the Diamond membership. 

1 hour ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

I'm on a roll! This is the last one of the intros and it is again a simple layout using a photo with a reduced opacity, except for the Mariposa Grove sign that I kept at 100%. There were information boards and I extracted them from the photos and put them here as info before the next photo pages in the album. I couldn't resist to make an admission ticket with my own script 😉.

I will make another intro but that one is with the family photos and I will not show those here because my family doesn't want me to do so. Which I of course will respect.

 

Beautiful Corrie.  My eyes go right away tot he Mariposa Grove sign.  Good thinking.  Congrats on that awesome ticket script!

1 hour ago, Julie Magerka said:

I should be too embarrassed to say how long it takes me to do a layout I can live with. Then, I should also be ashamed to admit how many times I had to try the interlacing elements technique that Sue T. pointed me back to. I have watched that video several times over the months and still have issues with which layer is top and which is bottom and then where does the darn Promoted Selection go! I'm going to keep using that technique until I get it right and quick!

Photo of irises from Unsplash. Adjusted blur & hue. The translucent frame around the single iris is from Natali Designs at Pickleberry Pop. Other stuff is just splatters and paint. Font is FrouFrou. I found out that when you do this interlacing with a frame, you can't add a bevel. But is that just me too?

Love this Julie.  Your interlacing looks great.  No one would even know; the struggle is REAL!

8 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

I'm working on the intropages for a photo album of my recent trip. I have 3 "chapters" for my album and each one has a scrapbook page introducing the topic of that part. Here is the 1st one about the road trip we took. The dimensions of the layout are specific for the kind of printed album I choose. For this page I used the cass-Photo circle template script that I bought recently and I choose squares and how many I needed. This is a great script I will write a review in the store! Then I used the cass-label1 script with different colors to write the places where we went and the photos were taken. I have a US highway sign as a template that I can adapt. I had already made a californian numberplate with the screws , so I just had to write the date on it. The tire tracks are done with cass-Tire Track 1 -brush; I used a color with a texture and later a grungy brush on them as well. The background is made of a google map with some overlays and blendmodes. The blue sky is an overlay I have in my stash and the car and road sign are by DiHiller (blogtrain june 2023) and the little wooden cabin is by Marissa Lerin. I'm happy to get slowly back into scrapping!

Fabulous layout Corrie.  I love how the cass-label1 labels are matching colors to the photo.  Well done! and now I want that script too!  

7 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Since Tuesday I have had an influx of birds.  A large flock of Goldfinches and Siskins turned up on Tuesday.  A Pair of Brown Thrashers turned up a fortnight ago, and another pair arrived on Wednesday.  Two  female Rose breasted Grosbeaks arrived yesterday, along with the first of the Wrens.  I have photos of them all, as I have erected  several new feeding stations out in the trees using loose and fallen tree bark. You will no doubt see many of the photos in upcoming layouts.  The remaining  white-crowned Sparrows with their  eloquent song, are here to stay, as the majority them  had moved on over a week ago.  I chose this image to showcase, as between his posture and expression,   he  simply  melted my heart. The trees are now teaming with birds and bird song.   Photo taken yesterday afternoon. 

 

So sweet.  He looks like he has a little helmut or cap on his head.  

7 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Now  I  remember, it is a script. You downloaded  the freebie from creation cassel blog. Looks good.

I have the script, it's really cool.  I like it a lot.

3 hours ago, Cassel said:

I am just updating this thread. After a few months, I am at the point where all the chapters and tutorials are done, at least, the first version.

There are two main sections: the Technical section about scrapbooking and a practical section (called "Scrap with me") that includes 10 projects, ranging from quick-pages to layouts done completely from scratch with different special effects.

So far, I have about 260 pages!!!

I still have to do the appendix, the index, the credits and references, and add a few more images.

So things are moving along!

Yippeee!  I cant wait to hold it in my hands...I might need both hands to hold a book that size!  260+ pages is awesome as far as I'm concerned.  😁.  Kidding aside, a book on digital scapbooking with PSP will be a joy to own and be a great reference tool.  I'm grateful you took on this job for our benefit.