Susan Ewart

On 7/3/2024 at 2:56 PM, Julie Magerka said:

I made a couple of layouts for friends after they sent me some pix of things going on in their lives. Which tells you not much is going on in mine! 😁

Love the picture of the wee one.  and such a pretty Celebration layout.

On 7/3/2024 at 3:14 PM, Julie Magerka said:

Those slipped-in corners look really good. When I tried using that script I didn't get such a good result. Love the colours.

I did it manually and soon you will be too!

I'll mark my calendar too, for July 16.

1 hour ago, Susan Ewart said:

Oh, this makes me feel so happy!  They are so darned cute!  thank you.

I gotta ask?  is that the tongue sticking out or a berry.  Because if that the tongue, I might just lose it...😅🤣😂

PS  why does tongue have to be spelled so weird...tung would be so much better.

52 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

The swallows are aerial acrobats, I never tire watching them.  As for the ground squirrels, they never cease to make me laugh.  Mind you they weren't amuzed to have  jam on their faces and feet.  They would rub their faces in the grass to get it off, then lick the  jam of the  blades of grass, once they  had washed themselves.   I decided to place a spoonful of jam on top of the jar for them.  Such great enterainment all around, when one is prepared to  look for it. Plus it is free. 

Oh, this makes me feel so happy!  They are so darned cute!  thank you.

37 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

That's why, being a cat lover, I'm involved with TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) to keep the feral population down. We're trying to avoid kill shelters so we set up a sanctuary for those ferals that can't be returned to the neighborhood or domesticated. We do foster all the kittens we rescue. My Brandy One is now in foster as she's too young to be spayed and returned. Meanwhile, I have Brandy Two who showed up for meals and will soon be trapped and sent to foster.

What you are doing is incredible.  we humans created the feral cat populations so we should also take care of them. And you are doing just that.  I don't know of feral ones in my area, mine are all neighbour hood cats with collars or I know who owns them.  So I tend to put my donation dollars to disadvantaged animals in need.  It's hard to educate people that cats are not wild animals who need to roam. Nor, do I get into discussions with people like that anymore.  Unless it's only to say, your cat will likely die a horrible death at the mouth of a coyote or tires of a car, can you live with that? It sounds cruel but you can't talk to people who don't want to change, and I dont need that kind of drama anymore.  Thank goodness for you and animal groups that take on educating people.  

14 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

I'm now  caught up with this challenge.

WOW and WOW...and WOW again!  You have been busy.  Incredible shots.  Barn swallows are so cool aren't they.  When the horses would stir up insects in the long grasses , the barn swallows would be out with their fantastic flying feats, just like little fighter jets. LOVE the ground squirrel.  Such an opportunist. Gave me a good laugh.  That must be so fun to watch their antics.  

16 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

I too have bird window prevention collision strips on all the house windows.   Also all my feededs are out  in the trees, far the house.

I did the same with feeders too.  

38 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

My goodness, there must be loads of them, if your crew is only a small one.   On average cats will kill over one hundred million  birds a year in Canada.  Domestic and feral cats aren't native to any ecosystem. Not only on birds but other native wildlife.  It has been estimated that cats in Australia kills an average of one million birds per day.  About  three hundred and seventy seven million per year. Same, for the UK.  The numbers are staggering world wide.  Although they make wonderful pets for some people, they threaten birds and other wildlife and disrupt ecosystems.  Rarely, I will get a stray tom  cat from the neighbours, as they will travel long distances.  I trap and dispose of them, cruel as that may sound to some.  At least numbers are trying to be controlled in your area.  It is a controversial issue.  Here is a shot of one of  my   Red winged Blackbird's (male) on a cattail.  I haven't noticed any fledgelings yet.

I have also read about the cat predation of birds.  It's really quite sad people still let cats out to run freely.  You don't see people letting their dogs out to run freely.  Bird window strikes is another bird killer.   It's amazing we have any birds left with those two strikes against them.  I have Acopian Bird Savers (strings hanging outside in front of the window) on the windows I've have bird strikes and have had only 1 strike (pigeon) in the 5 yrs they have been up.  Just yesterday I saw it work in action.  the young magpies were in the yard all day and one flew straight at the window and then did it mid air halt right before the strings and went straight up to the roof.  (NOTE: if you want more info google Acopian Bird Savers or check out  https://www.birdsavers.com/  I used velcro to attach the ones I made (they give instructions if you want to make your own) to my vinyl window frames so I could take them off if I needed to change the parachute cord.  

9 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Week twenty six. Nestling tree swallows waiting for their parents to come with  food. I took this shot along  with many others of them, even being fed  late this afternoon. 

oh, such sweet faces.  Beautiful shot and great light.

17 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground. 

Beautiful shot.  We have them here too, one spot where many gather is right by a very busy intersection on the corner of a golf course in a marshy cat tail area. there is no place to stop to photograph them, unless i become a golfer.

Week 26

Half way there and I'm still going.  Nice to be almost caught up.  the background is from Riley B Graphics at Creative Fabrica, along with the fonts Aesthetic Violet Slant and Aesthetic Pattern Sans. 

Changed the magnet out for a button.  Not sure I'll keep doing the button, but it was what I wanted to do for the next 13 weeks.  I had to go really thick on the face of the button or it cut the '7' off and looked weird.  Also I made it huge so I had to take a chance on doubling or tripling the settings from the video.  It's really good practice though to do a button, so I might do them even if they arent great to look at and they are white on a white playing card.  Plus the cards themselves were so uneven on the actual deck.  

4 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Yes, it is unusually bright for you but the colors match the glow on your teapot! So well done and I love it!

Thank you so much Corrie.  That means a lot to me, as I always admire your choice of color in your layouts.  

51 minutes ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Cindy, I plan on doing the same, I want to join the Diamond Membership, and I am on a single income and bills get too high! However, I hope to do a monthly membership every so often when I can, because I think it is well worth the money.

I started by buying one month at a time.  It is insane the cost of living now.  I've certainly changed my spending habits in the last several years.  Retirement is on the horizon and how to make ends meet when that time comes is more on my mind now than ever before.  

Week 25

Working in colors that are quite bright for me.  The background is a gradient that added a gaussian blur to the max and repeated it several times.  Then i added a texture ("blinds" I think) and then added another texture on top of that (Texture>striation).  I used the same gradient on the ring of the magnet and in the text (week 25).  

23 hours ago, Donna Sillia said:

Copying a chicken from CF

I like your version better, nicer design, especially the wing and tail and chest area.  

2 hours ago, Daniel Hess said:

@Ann Seeber Maybe search the "documents" folder for USA-MAP.PspShape and see where it landed.  Apparently NOT in the documents/Corel Paintshop Pro/2023/Preset Shapes folder.  ???  I don't have 2023...I didn't see anything that tripped my trigger better than 2022 but am ANXIOUSLY awaiting to see what 2024 is going to bring.  I figure the best of 2023 will also be included in that.  Punctuation is KEY in the file names and folder names...you miss one capital letter and it will give you nothing.

 

 

Thank you for sharing your hard work Daniel, I got it too.  

57 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Thank you! For a while petunias were considered old fashioned but they are back in full swing. I always liked them and have them almost every year, but they are prone to lice.

Lice?  I would have never known that.  

2 hours ago, Sharla said:

Week 26 A marigold flower (calendula officinalis) catching the sun.

 

Stunning Sharla.  My kind of photo!  Dont you just love the side lit and back lit flowers?  Mother Nature is the earths first artist. We are artists capturing an artist in action.

12 minutes ago, Rene Marker said:

Pssttttttt..... I have a template for Canada with the individual provinces on it. It is still available at The Lily Pad. The designer also did one for the US and I used it for a layout I did in April documenting every state I have visited in the first 68 years of my life. Since I can now start working on my travel dreams, I will continue to fill it in the next few years.

I'll check that out, thank you.  

2 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Well I would like that lovely map as well because I have done a couple of short roadtrips with my family when I was visiting them. So far I always used Google maps to draw the routes we took, but your map with the states would be a great asset for which I would be very grateful.

I think we would all love that, it must've taken some time and a lot of patience to make it so precise. Daniel, you did a superb job on it.  There is only one question left to ask.... Where's Canada? ...we NEED that too!😁

1 hour ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Week-26, we are already half way through 2024. Where is the time gone, or do I sound a bit old now.......

After all the rain of the last weeks this week the sun did its utmost best to let us forget that and not only we but the plants enjoyed it too. I have taken the opportunity to shoot a lot of photos from the plants on my small patio. The gardencenter we usually visit often has a rack with small free plants that are no longer good enough to sell but if you take care of them they most of the time perform later on. This petunia was looking dreary and didn't like all the rain but, look what a couple of warm, sunny days did to it. 

That's fabulous Corrie.  There is so much variations in the color and the veining looks so cool.  Petunias remind me of my mom, she always had them.  

9 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Thank you Susan, at the moment I tend to use soft colors instead of very bright ones. By the way we had a couple of summer days but tomorrow the weather is changing to rainy and cold days again...... I used this week's good weather to take a lot of photos from the plants on my little patio for future use. The plants were so happy with the sun, as we were.

We also are heading back into to rain next week.  Should be sunny and in the high 20's (Celcius) by now.  the sun really helped my plants sprout up.

2 hours ago, Donna Sillia said:

I spent yesterday revising my wedding card. Most of the graphics are from CF except the silhoutte which is from Canva. The side font is ruritania. The other fonts are FarewellAngelina and FancyPants(I don't remember where I got them) and starinline(purchased from Deeezy.com). The other font is DDRadford from CF. I made the letters M and J, but stupidly forgot to save the vector so I don't remember what it is, but it's from CF. I also made the gold frame on the inside. The wedding is today so I just managed to get it ready after an extremely hectic week.

The card is an 8 1/2 by 11 printed borderless on card stock.

Wow Donna, that's a STUNNER!

2 hours ago, Daniel Hess said:

I'm now wondering what painting with paintbrush with "Lock" tool is all about.  Didn't see anything like that in the PSP help topics.

me too.  I wonder if it locks the settings in no matter if you try and change them in the F11 Variance palette.

oops i just saw Ann answered it for you.  I was WAAAAAY off.