Susan Ewart

Happy Birthday Ann! I hope your day is filled with yummy cake and lots of laughs...and some kitty snuggles too!

Day 4 I tried the PencilSketch2 script but there was too many hues that are dark so it didn't work well. In fact I had planned on using an image of the paint palette on it's own with the tubes of paint in front of it. It didnt work. so I went on to trying to the use the brush with a "hide all" mask and well, it's looked something you'd throw out with the trash. I had this other image of me playing with 20 yr old gouache WC paint using only CMY K and White for my color group I belong to. I had the idea of having a desaturated image and using the mask to bring back color in the palette and certain areas. I dont know why, but that was a head scratcher using the two layers of the same image (one desaturated and one fully hue-full). I got there in the end and this is just the technique I have been wanting to learn. I need to practice it way more. I extracted the tubes from the other image I was going to use and put them on this image as separate elements. The little square color swatches is from my color group, something we are doing until the real color cards get made and mailed to us. The font is Evidance, by Creative Fabrica I think. With an inner bevel added and a gradient fill and lowered opacity (with the shadow layer below it turned in into a dark tone, as the shadow was not 100% black, otherwise it would have been a dark shade). Tomorrow I will only be 3 days behind. Yippee!

I love the paper. Good call to lower the opacity. I dont like it too busy either and end up doing that often. This sample is really nice.

thank you Carole! This is how I did do it. I couldn't make selections of the objects with the magic want even though they were on a white background. So I ended up using point to point and then "edit selection". the article is great and has reminded me of the two master classes that I was watch and follow along with since I couldnt seem to make the selection tools work well. I wonder because some of it was metal which has highlights so it wouldn't choose the outline. I have much to learn.

Day 3 Plugging along at a snails pace. Had fun with this one. I wanted one object in color but still with the Pencilsketch2 effects. I believe I used hard light blend mode with an extracted version of the pipe wrench (is that what it is?). The two little box wrenches(?) in the corners were originally photographed (along with a third ugly one that I didnt include in the layout) with the main group of tools. So I extracted them, inner bevel added. I used the Letter press script again with Gill Sans Ultra Bold font (formerly from MSWindows). This time I added the spaces you get when you add a space (I think) when entering the text. And this is a one row box you have the option of making. I did desaturate it to make it look like metal and I had to resize it because it was wooden and the box bottom shows through. The Letterpress script is quite customizable with the each element on a separate layer (when you choose adding the box for it it all goes into layers and I recomend using this because you can choose to use or not use the box and you can also group it all for easy resizing all at once for for copying and pasting into a layout as a group. It's much easier than handling each element separately. And like everyone else, I went down the rabbit hole for a good hour playing with the kaleidoscope effect. One to Day 4 now.

I think I need to join you in that intervention. I'm so bad and I have loads I haven't loaded (installed) yet.

Oh man, there is so many ideas running around my head that I couldnt sleep last night. I've said it before, I really need a 48 hr day...lots of money....and no job to go to! Okay, I added the last two items just for good measure. I'm about to post again. I had fun, but did a lot of extractions to get what I want that I think masks would be better for (like what I see in PS tutorials but for some reason I cant wrap my head around translating it to PSP.

There is nothing more peaceful than looking at a cat(s) sleeping. Am I right?

Love that plaid!

Yes, that's the ones we have around my house. They are zippy little birds for sure. The cats (and us humans in the house) love to watch them.

I love these little guys. They are tenacious and make a cute little sound. the ones I see have brown/rust(?) color on them. This one is so pretty in a blue tone.

The brush work on your Day 4 layout is really beautifully done. So perfect for that image.

Day 2! I'm just moving right along now. I might even get done by the end of next week! Yeesh, what week to have a heavy workload. Continuing on with playing with the PencilSketch2 Script and some old tools left by the previous homeowner when we bought the house (and he was "kind" enough to leave numerous mystery liquids in unrelated containers that we had to take to the hazardous materials dump since we didn't know what any of it was 😨). But, the tools were cool so I kept them. the railroad spikes I had already. I used the Lady 22 template 158 and changed it to fit my photos. I didn't do the plaid...mostly because I forgot and because it didn't fit with the idea I had, although plaid shirts and tools go together so maybe I should re-think that. For the title I used the Letterpress Script (Creation Cassel) and I used the steel version but added a bit of color. Background paper is from Sheila Reid VPS Set 01 - paper texture - 06 (Digital Scrapbook) - it's originally blue, I did a negative image then changed the color with HSL. I love the PencilSketch2 script, there is a lot you can customize with the layers you get after the script is finished. You might see a little more color in the smaller photo. The photo you use is also in the layers palette (a duplicate as your original is not harmed in any way) so I brought it up above the background layers then lowered the opacity so add a little more color.

PERFECT way to solve the Kaleidoscope! It makes it look more like an art piece. What a great idea.

Stunning moon shot Anne!

Randy, I love the cat pictures. I have one that looks just like this. I am way behind too (four days now). It's been a long hard/physical work week and it's not over yet.

You are right on the money. Doing what you are used to. I am a "Save As" girl, which is how I learned with general computer stuff. I must admit to cringing when I have to compress files. Throwing away detail and pixels; might as well throw away all my money. I'm a dinosaur, I think in terms of photography from back in the "film/slide" days. I will compress to the least amount for the forum (Sorry Carole, I'm probably being a space hog) every time. I don't limit myself to specific numbers since every layout is different, more compression is more loss of detail. I get that it's just for the forum, but with such fabulous layouts (from everyone) I'd love to see them in all their detailed finery. Not everyone posts on FB, I'm bad for even remembering to do that myself. I also do that Rene, where I will open a template or image and if I do do shift D (because I'm too lazy to re-type the name when I do "Save As"), I'll just do Save As right away and usually I add WIP (Work in Progress) to the end so can find it right away. When I'm finished I take the WIP off or I'll put FINAL in it's place. I really enjoy seeing how everyone's work flow, flows, it's quite interesting to me.

In addition to the the post Carole advised you to check out you can just click on the word "Quote" at the bottom of every persons post and it allows you to respond. the persons post and photo pops up and you can type in what you want to say and then below that on the bottom right is "submit reply". Just click that and it should come up. Sometimes it takes a few seconds and even sometimes posts go missing in cyberspace. Usually we add a post to Carole saying we posted something but it didnt show up. She can sometimes find it.

It does make quite a difference. I like this version best as well.

I had this problem once too. I never did find a reason. I think I just read did the layout. it was frustrating because I didnt know what I did to get to that point where I couldnt get back a color palette.

That kaleidoscope is awesome!

We used to paint the farm fences with it so the bird-brained thoroughbreds didn't chew on it.

It's a beautiful layout Kasany, and sad at the same time. Poor bunny.

Thank you Carole, but I'm not sure if I did it right in the first place. I lowered the opacity of the photo and overlapped them onto the small rectangles (to be made into masks) and moved and resized those rectangles to fit the photo. then once happy with the placement I made them into masks, then duplicated the photo (which I had put back to 100 % opacity) and moved each one into each of the masks. Is there a different way to do it? I've done it this way before but curious if there is a different/better way to do it.

That plaid is OUTSTANDING!