Susan Ewart

2 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

To answer your question Susan, yes they are Native to North America. I'm surprised you have never seen one, being around horses.  They used to be called the Buffalobird.   They are a smallish blackbird.  Related to the Grackle and the Baltimore Oriole.  All being members of the Backbird family.

I probably have but didnt know it.  I wasnt as into birds back then.  Except for an owl we'd hear in the mornings when we went to clean stalls (at one farm).  Around 5am, I tried to find where the call was coming from, but never could find it. And at one race/breeding barn we were at, an eagle landed in the yearlings field.  20 very excited horses running around, luckily they were 5 acre fields.  It was exciting but nerve wracking to make sure they didnt go through the fence (which happened once on another part of that farm).   

9 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

Cowbirds are a reviled species that don't build nests. Instead, they lay their eggs in any other birds' nest and fly away, leaving the nurturing to the poor invaded birds. They are black with brown heads, rather dull looking. I see little sparrows with HUGE fledgling cowbirds, trying to feed these huge babies that probably pushed the sparrow babies out of the next, even. ?

OMG!  NOT mother of year material there.  Are they native to North America.  Or invaders like the starlings.  

1 hour ago, Rene Marker said:

I had a very busy weekend which is unusual for me. Last Monday I found out an uncle had passed away and Tuesday found out that his funeral would be Saturday morning with visitation on Friday afternoon/evening. Just 30 minutes after that phone call, a cousin called and asked if we could do lunch on Friday. She had lost her son unexpectedly last July and I had invited her to come visit with us so we could actually spend time with each other (she lives 3 hours away). She could only stay for a couple of hours so it worked out for Friday. She would be leaving before I had to go to the funeral home. Before all of this happened, I knew I had a wedding on Saturday. A teacher my mom taught with was getting married for the first time. She is 76, the groom is 80 and lost his wife in a car accident in Oct 2020. I also spent a lot of time with this lady when we sold Longaberger baskets 23 years ago. We had the same upline. And, she attends and is very involved in my church. I was so tired on Saturday, just from being around so many people. I have tinnitus and cannot be in large crowds of people for long periods of time. My brain gets over stimulated and starts to shut down. It takes about 24 hours to recover.

You did really well with all the people.  I do not like large crowds either.  I dont like noisy places (I laugh now, because I work where is a newspaper web press and an inserting machine 0 it's noisy).  I should say, outside of work I hate crowded noisy places.  Nature is the best place for me.  It must have also been an emotional roller coaster weekend too.

4 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

My daughter, Laurey, took me to dinner Saturday for my birthday. I turned 82. Sounds like a good number! My two cats are mad at me because I've been feeding the calico stray that now, of course, keeps showing up. And I suddenly have tons of Red-winged blackbirds, grackles and cowbirds who have joined the party at my feeders. I just got news yesterday that Beth is going to open the theater for the season on March 31. Originally it was slated for the 17th but she says she doesn't trust the weather and the place is impossible to plow out. The company that hosts our website and sends out our email blasts has changed its software to now I have to learn that! Aargh!

Happy Birthday Ann!  Even the birds came to celebrate with you.  I wish we had Crackles.  I will have to look up Cowbird.  The one I recognized in the list is the Red-winged blackbird.  

No long weekend for me.  If the holiday is a Monday we do some of the work on Friday but still have to work on the holiday Monday.  But Normally I have Thursday and now Fridays off.  So, I get a 4 day weekend whenever there isnt a long weekend.  Which is a lot more weekends than long weekends in the year.  I did tons of mask fun with PSP this past weekend, like I'm sure a lot of others did too.  The big cram session to get all the lessons completed.  

36 minutes ago, Mary Solaas said:

Project 5.  Still behind.  Using several layers for the background and the top layer was a pattern from a previous project and the blend mode.  There is a brush that looks like a record (kind of) so I used that for around the original circle mask.  I also used it for the records as elements.  The font was Fresh Hansler Duo (CF) for the title.  I used some different settings than I usually use for the Sun Records placque - inner bevel, and I used chisel on the paper behind it.  This has been a challenging workshop and I do intend to finish it.  I played around with creating a mask from those watercolor brushes from an earlier project and I'm also going to post a layout using the one I developed that uses some odd but interesting brushes around the edges.  I think I learned more about blend modes this time as well as refreshing my understanding of how to make a mask.  Anyway, it has been most interesting.

This is very nice Mary.  The music notes going through diagonally makes it dynamic.  Those discs really do look like records, the mask is well done.  I learned more this time around too.  Perhaps I wasnt as much in panic mode at learning new stuff.  

10 minutes ago, sharon thompson said:

I leaned a lot (like how not to assume that you have finished watching all of the video when you are interrupted by a power outage). The pick tool is one that I never used before and it is fast becoming one of my favorites. The text on a path links from Cassel were especially appreciated but my head still aches over brush variances. I loved the chance to practice masks and get individual as well as group feedback. Plus I have a list of things to try that other students used in their assignments. It was a delightful way to spend time during a cold and wet and gloomy week. Many thanks to Cassel and all the participants.

 

Sharon, this is really stunning.  

I just did the quiz.  I am hanging my head in shame.  I have cats, I love cats, and the only one I got wrong was the name of the cat!  My own cats are disgusted at me right now.?

17 hours ago, sharon thompson said:

Today I learned how to move a mask and how to make polka dots. I also learned that text on top of polka dots is not necessarily a good thing. I played with both the size & blending of the dots as well as the type and size of text and ended up frustrated. I added a border to finish it off. I think that I will make a batch of polka dot washi tape instead and stick to textured or plaid paper in the future. The font is Script MT Bold.

 

This is beautiful Sharon.  

21 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

It's  very rural where I  am, wide open spaces in every direction.  I'm  on a farm surrounded by arable land. I have 25 acres for the horses, the rest is rented out, as we don't  farm ourselves.  Which I  miss,  I miss the livestock, especially the sheep. 

Oh, that's sounds so wonderful.  My husband and I lived/worked on several horse farms (he was a stallion handler - for breeding) many years ago. I miss the horses too.  Having our lunch out in the field with the pregnant mares, listening to them munch grass and swish their tails.  I find the city noisy, I can always hear beeping of industrial equipment as this city does alot of stuff at night.  

1 hour ago, Sue Thomas said:

Good thinking to create  the brunt edges on the paper.  I love it. As the sky is certainly on fire.  Like you we also have incredibly stunning sunrises and sunsets.  Which I'm addicted to photographing. 

I do love anything "sky" related; sunset/rises, clouds, lightning.  All so fascinating.  Often though, I am driving to or from work, or at work seeing out the windows at beautiful sunsets and can only just watch.  I'm in an urban area so there is much clutter from power lines and houses.  It always seems like when it's a day off, it's a cloudy day.  It's looks like you have some good open space, or at least maybe you are able to isolate a tree for a silhoutte against the sunset/rise.  

Day 7.  This is a fun way to make a mask.  I quite enjoyed it.  I also went and sought out the "burnt edges" tutorial in the campus.  I think it would also look better if I added a curl to one of the corners...I'll need to head back to the campus for that one.  I also did a version without burnt corners.  

Here's the deets:

Font: Beast Bird

Screw Heads: a freebie picture tube from Carole (cass-screwheads)

All the elements (except the screws) are from Digital Scrapbook (KMRD, Gina Jones, Elif Sahin, CPJess, Jessica D - are the last two the same person?)

I used light beam (or something or other) I found going through the effects drop down to make a bright spot on "sun".  

So many beautiful layouts came in today while I was working on mine; they are fabulous! What a great workshop this is.

1 hour ago, Sue Thomas said:

Days 6 and 7.  Friday and Saturday proved to be productive full hiking days.     Corner punches used on both pages,  lino  paper, and  instead of using polka dots, I used 2 different  snowflakes, with different sizes.  I used 2 overlays on the 18th Feb page.  Brushes  to create the masks.   Pages sized down to 5x7 photo  paper.  I haven't exactly conformed with what Carole demonstrated.  I  sort of went off on a whim.

 

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE this!  Wow, beautiful layout and really beautiful inspiring photography.  I learned reading another post you said males are mostly white.  I didnt know that.  What an experience that must be to see (and photograph) the creatures and spaces you travel in.

2 hours ago, Gabriela said:

Day 7 

Fonts used : Kelly Ann Gothic----Adobe Fangsong

Background created with the polkadot------3 different size layers 

Elements are from PNGTree

Picture taken by me ...the Snake was on the rocks surrounding my flowerbeds ,luckily it stuck around long enough for me to take some pictures

I love snakes.  This was very interesting to read.  I was shocked they are that big.  I havent seen any snakes in Alberta, but when I lived in various parts of BC (canada) we saw rattle snakes and garter snakes. 

5 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

 

Those are the usual suspects I see everyday.  This happened to be in October of 2022, I leave the baths out as long as I dare if the weather is good.  They love the red bath, but were a bit miffed when I had to put a rock in it for the LBJ's (little brown jobs) as one drown in it one year and I was horrified that it happened.  

5 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Monique is it possible that you had the picktool not to scale, sometimes the setting goes to to something else without you doing so.

That is my pick tool these days.  I used perspective ONCE and now it goes to it every time, even when I'm using the pick tool set to scale multiple times in a few minutes.  

Day 6 Diamond Extra.  

I tweaked the blue frame by the little circle. Made it bigger and used it as a frame, as the inner frame seemed distracting.  It was hard to find a background I liked.  I tried many versions of the lino paper but could find one I liked.  Used a gradient that seemed like the sky... and now having typed that I could have found a photo with the actual sky.  Font is Adobe Devanagari and the water droplets on the sign are from Digital Scrapbook - Jessica Dunn Coastal Spring Water Droplets.  You can see in the smaller photo that I was shooting through the window.  You can see a reflection, sometimes there is no getting away from it.  Angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection... sometimes you just cant get out of the angle. I hate physics.  

2 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Day 6 finally done. Used my own photo taken at the marina/park near where I live on a crisp autumn day. I spent way too much time on the lino effect and then playing with the frame. I wanted to try dynamic frame style but it really didn't work for me, so I opted to cut off a bit at the bottom right. Then,, when I thought I had something, I realized I'd forgotten the mask! I know what I want in my head, but it usually comes out differently in the layout.

Julie, this is really beautiful.  I miss seeing cormorants.  Your lino background is really nice and fitting with the rocks in the photo.   I know what you mean, what I first envision isnt what the end result is.  Often thought, inspiration takes you in a different direction.  I like what you did with the frame.

2 hours ago, Bonnie Ballentine said:

Day 6

 

Bonnie, that lino background is fabulous.  Love that flower.  You are on a layout roll.  

2 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Carole you asked about the word "Goudvliesbundelzwam" and it really is one word in Dutch! When I translate to English the litteral translation read as: "Golden skin bundle fungus" which as you see the picture of it, comes very close. Languages never stop to amaze me.

I agree.  Really good input from everyone and so many inspiring layouts.  O[ops, I answered in the wrong quote.  I agree about so many wonderful layouts.

2 hours ago, Ron said:

Late start (surgery). Took me close to 10 hours to do my 1st lesson. ? I don't use PSP that often and have to hunt for the tools after I figure out which tool I have to use. Really need to start using PSP more than Zoner 18 Pro. At any rate, here's my stab at lesson 1. The words in French I translated as much as I could. Translation had no idea on some of the words.

 

So sweet Ron.  Love the look on Simba's face.  So cute they all sleep together.  Good to hear you are on the recovery road and working on PSP.

2 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Already day 6 of this workshop and there are so many fantastic layouts done wich such a diversityof subjects!

I saved this photo specific for this tutorial; it's not the first time I do this workshop! The fungus in my photo is called a "Sponzenzwam" and if I translate to English it is "Sponge fungus". Not surprising, it really looks like a sponge and I think the linoleum background from the tutorial has something of a sponge too, so it fits. To get the effect I wanted I used a blendmode. Made a simple round frame and put a sponge that I had in my stash as embellishment. This is a fungus that you can eat, for instance just as mushrooms in a sauce or pastadish.

Corrie, that is a perfect lino background.  It looks so much like that sponge-shroom.  Which is really beautiful by the way, it looks more like a flower than a mushroom.  I cant believe how many different ones you have there.  I recently read a very interesting article on mushrooms.  they are really fascinating.

Day 6.  All about Linoleum paper.  It's almost as fun kaleidoscope paper.  This is two lino papers (a yellow and light brown one), with the yellow as the top layer I used multiply and it gave me a darker brown.  but it wasnt dark enough so I put a black layer under the two lino layers and reduced the opacity of the middle of these three layers (or the layer above the black which was the light brown one).  That way I got it dark and moody for the shot.  The moon and clouds are a composite shot of two photo's taken less than a minute a part.  I extracted the moon and placed it over the blown out white moon that was in the cloud photo.  

Font: Risen (from Creative Fabrica)

Quote: Frederick L. Knowles (found by searching "moon at night quotes")

Photos: mine from Oct. 2022

I'm feeling more comfortable on my second time through the Masks Workshop and trying for adventures things:  like the preset shape tool....I know, going where I've never gone before.?

1 hour ago, sharon thompson said:

Hi Susan. I love how you have the mask breaking into the inner frame. Neat idea.... have to save that for using myself. many thanks. Sharon

HI Sharon, the mask in that tutorial had the broken type frame as part of the mask, but I edited it out so I could make my own frame using the preset shape tool (a new thing for me!) and then using guides I made selections to take part of the frame away.  All newish stuff for me.  Getting braver and braver with PSP.  Give it a try.  It's based on Carole's design, she deserves the real credit.

Day 4 in the bag!  I'm finally catching up.  Around the same time as the baby squirrely whitetail showed up, this pigeon showed up, strutting her white finery.  It left me wondering what's going on, all the wildlife turning up with white pants and white tailcoats.  Even the local famous white Magpie made an appearance in my yard this year, far from it's normal territory.  None of my pictures were good enough to show this strange sight.  When it spreads it's wing and fans it's tail feathers in take off it looks like an angel.  So cool.  The pigeons are quite comical and thier eye makes them look a little crazy and scatter-brained.

Fonts used: Gill Sans Ultra Bold Condensed ("take a walk"), Gold Night ("on the"), Dancing Clarisha ("Crazy"), Good Morning Christmas ("side").  All from Creative Fabrica except Gill Sans...(windows).  I used Gina Jones Bright and Cheerful paper 06 for the background, two layers, on upside down and used a blend mode of lighten to get rid of the darker color on the paper.  Two borders were used, both by Sheila Reid - at the beach burlap border and Doodlelines page border (both Sheila and Gina are from Digital Scrapbook).   Photo's are mine