Susan Ewart

2 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Love those names!

me too.  Echo is a grey tabby and Zeppelin (older now and does really wander anymore) is a black fuzzy long hair dude.  My black cat (Sumi) is in love with Echo, so you can imagine her surprise at him attacking the window screen (he's actually a chicken and make all these noises if a different cat comes into the 'hood).  we usually head out the door to stop the meeting.  They have a Chow named Jasper, barely ever hear him bark.  

16 minutes ago, Rene Marker said:

I actually like taking pictures of the moon when they are clouds or trees partially obscuring it. My absolute favorite picture I took was maybe 15 years ago. I was attending a camera club meeting at my church (we talked and learned about all things from usage of the camera to setting scenes for taking photos). When we came out it was a Harvest Moon in the sky with a cloud cover. I stood with my back against my vehicle to be as still as possible (didn't have my tripod which is highly recommended for night photos). I held my arms very close to my body and took several photos. One of them is absolutely amazing. I ended up having it printed as an 8x10 and put into a larger frame with matting. It was displayed in the church along with other photos from members of the camera club for awhile. It now hangs in my living room. I love the spooky feel of it!

I also did this layout of the photo.

I love that, it's moody and mysterious.  Beautiful shot.  

5 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

on this topic, I'm involved with TNR which is Trap/Neuter/Release of stray community cats that can never live indoors. When teaching kittens (who are able to be domesticated when they're young) to use a litter box, it is recommended to first use organic potting soil, which is similar to being outdoors. I know most cats prefer to be clean and I wonder if your local cat would use a litter pan instead of the garden if it had garden soil in it? They tend to prefer the confined space, which is why they love kids' sandboxes, too. You could add sand to it, and that might even be better and keep the cat out of your garden. Just slowly nudge it away a little further every day and before you know it your garden will be cat-free!😽

Good ideas.  Echo and his brother Zeppelin have been part of my backyard landscape since their owners moved in.  While I don't like it (especially when they try and attack my cats through the window screen and Zeppelin sprayed my downstairs window - with white frames, that are now spotchy yellow!), that they hunt in my yard and use it as a giant litter box (I dont care if they "go" in the bug hotel....the bugs probably think it's a feast), I want this to also be a cat-safe yard as we have lots of coyotes around here. And the neighbours are great people. We usually just knock on the window or go outside and call his name and he knows it's time to go home.  And I don't have weed...that's the main takeaway for me.  You'd almost think I planned it this way.  😁

I love what you are doing, it's so awesome that you take action and care for these disadvantaged cats.  It's sad to think they have to survive all the seasons, the predators and manage to feed themselves.  I'm glad my girls are safely inside!  the world outside for cats is scary.

1 hour ago, Julie Magerka said:

This is great. All those cool details you added. I especially like those 3 cutout lines near the bottom. So clever. (BTW, I've learned to live with some "weeds", easier than pulling them over and over. A garden that is too manicured doesn't attract enough insects. (That's my rationalization.)

I agree, and some weeds are quite pretty. I also have a bug hotel (very exclusive!), well, it's just some logs from the dead parts of a tree we had to cut off (now the tree is spindly but doing fabulous).  The Magpies keep eating the guests at the hotel! So, it's a stay-at-your-own-risk kind of hotel.  I'm lucky my hubby pulls the weeds, I don't because the neighbours cat does his business in the garden 😪. My husband has a stronger nose, and his icky-factor sense is higher than mine.

2 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

@Susan Ewart Yeah - I'm getting to like those layer styles.  They come in handy sometimes!

You did a great job as usual. I like those frames also. And the cutout strip at the bottom.

I like what you do with the layer styles.  You have good control.  I find I'm usually having to put it so low in the settings, wish there was more fine control on them.

20 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

One of the things I did recently was take a woman from BC on a guided tour of my hometown so she could learn about the place where her ancestors lived many years ago (here in Ontario). It was a very hot & sunny day but we had a good time. We had exchanged many emails back & forth and met for the first time that day. She took lots of pix and I took many of her in the places that mattered. With one of those I made this layout for her.

Julie, what a wonderful thing.  It must have felt surreal for her.  

6 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Yeah, I love it, too!

me too. 

7 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

Still working on the workshop. Need to practice. This time I made the outline of the dinosaur, exported it as a shape, used it and changed it to a raster shape and painted it using the paintbrush with the lock tool and this is what I came up with.

That's fabulous Mary!

Here the sketch I did.  Pretty much followed the sketch.  The three photos are mine (one was extracted- yellow dandelion).  The little tag was a vector shape I made in the first Vector Workshop.  I made frame by promoting the background layer and gave them a bevel.  the lines below the tag are the effect>cutout and i used a vector ellipse shape to have tapered ends.  It's the first time I made something I could use "Selection from Vector Object".  The background paper is a photo I did of dandelion seeds on a black background.  I first did negative image, then used a blend mode, then I think I used HSL and reduced the opacity or something like that.  the bottom tiling is a CASS punch (cass-Edge12), then a small inner bevel and small shadow which made it stand out more.  Fonts used are  Adorn Copperplate on the tag and Amanda Sunshine for the quote.  Both from Creative Fabrica.  My text tool was acting very strangely today.  I couldnt move it or resize it, it would just jump back to where it was.  Also I used cass-screwheads picture tube for the screw on the tag.  

I'm not sure about the quote.  I couldnt find any color that showed up well against the busy background.  I tried the paint behind technique but I did a dismal job at it so I used a layer style so the quote would at least be readable.

6 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

After finishing with the Vector Workshop I took a pause because we had such nice weather for a change. This was the first time this year we could sit outside in the evening, much welcome after all that terrible rain. But after a few days I wanted to see what the Argyle-2 script which I won is doing. I love it, it gives so many options qua colors that can be matched to a project. Of course I wanted to use it in a project and I took the Sketch and incorporated not only the argyle tiles but the photo corners freebie by Carole too. Those use the blogtrain color palette for this month and I have the freebie kits from Jessica Dunn and Marissa Lerin where all the elements are from. I don't know if it is clear in this reseized version but the background has a texture. The fonts are Crocus Monogram and Georgia and the photo is by me as usual.

So beautiful Corrie.  I love those soft tinty colors.  At long last summer has arrived for you.  I think we had our two days of summer and now it's fall, with constant rain.  

5 hours ago, Cassel said:

You really went wild with those cut vectors! Great results. The Flower tubes are from the follow-up emails for the Flowers freebie. For the funny answer in the quiz, it reminds me of one anatomy class, where our teacher was always joking. One exam we had, the first few questions were "normal" but then, after that, he would have hilarious options in the multiple choices, even offering 12 choices instead of the typical 3-5 choices. The options he gave were so hilarious that we knew when a student reached that first funny question; everyone would burst out laughing when reading it.

Thank you for the link to the flowers.  I'd have loved being in that class.  A sense of humour makes life so much less stressful.  it must've been fun watching the students, knowing what was coming. 

2 hours ago, Cassel said:

You don't know how true that statement is! 🙂

Works great for the rest of us!

3 hours ago, fiona cook said:

Beautiful. Everything so right about it.

Thank you Fiona.  It was fun to do.  The colors of the photo work well for the top portion to get a texture to look like matching paper where I could write my message to her.

18 hours ago, Anne Lamp said:

I got some pretty good moon picks a few nights ago and combined two of them and then put it on a Starry Night Sky background (probably from C,F.

Wow Anne, this is so cool.  

2 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Well, I took the quiz, and my score was 6/10. Oh, well, I'm working on it. 😉

I got 9 out of 10,

#7 wrong, I kept going back and forth and thought the one I chose was more important

I laughed at the answers from #4 - the last answer. 

it was a fun quiz to do.  I did much better from last year. 

51 minutes ago, Rene Marker said:

A book store? Are those still around? The only place I see books are at Wal-Mart and they aren't displayed on shelves because they don't have that many.

I understand what you are saying but in my opinion, there are some books that are much more useful in a lay flat version whether it is a coil binding or not. Workbooks and instructional books being the genre which is what I consider this book to be.

Although I will admit, I will not be purchasing Carole's book because of having been a scrapper for over 25 years. I feel it is geared more towards a beginning scrapper. I think it is a wonderful thing she did and I'm sure many of you will find it to be very useful.

hahahaha, no kidding about book stores.  We still have the big ones here, just a 5 min drive from me.  I haven't been in it for some time.  My husband is a voracious reader so i tend to buy used (thrift shops and used book stores) and only fill in a series with new.  Usually it's Amazon though, only because this huge bookstore doesn't have much variety, just a whole bunch of the top sellers.  I used to buy lots of books and magazines, but they take up too much room now.  I will buy Caroles book as it's a great reference to have  and i'm still a newbie at only 4 yrs into this.  I still love a book better than looking at a screen.  I've only bought books at Walmart twice, they have hardly anything useful.  The books I buy are very specific (types of photography, like product/still life or PSP related) so they'd never show up at a place like that.  

1 hour ago, Doska St. said:

Hello,

unfortunately, I can't make it to the workshop. I'm not feeling so well at the moment, and I have more challenges in my private life. And concentrating so hard on translating the video quickly tires me out. I'll continue doing it privately when I'm feeling better, without any time pressure. Because I'm very interested in these vectors handling. I hope these workshop threads won't be closed?

Doska, I hope you are feeling better soon.  We will all be here when you feeling up to returning.  Take care of yourself first.  

5 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

Lesson 5. I can't believe the trouble I've been having with the text tool and the path.  Anyway, I managed to get the text to go along the path on the mountain and the circles paths for the cup of coffee and piece of pie.  I know - the piece of pie doesn't look like much, but that's all I've got this afternoon for it.  It is what it is!!!!!

I agree, one piece of pie is never enough!

5 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Gerry, that flowertube looks great on your G! I have that one too and it is so versatile!

Is this a flower tube that is in the store?

5 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Susan so nice to see you got the hang of it! Once you know how to do such things it becomes easier each time you use it. So don't loose it, use it!

I think I will redo the lessons in a month or so.  If I dont I will surely lose it. 

4 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

Lesson 6. I'm going to have to work hard on this path business.  It seems that I've forgotten a lot! With the Globe of the earth, I had to put another circle around the outside of the globe as the maps of north and south america are also open and thus a path. The leaf was interesting - made the leaf last year in the vector workshop and using it as a path this year, I fooled around with different picture tubes and finally settled on the stars. The letter - I had already worked with it several days converting text to a path and this time no problem. I used a string created earlier.

Mary, the planes around the world look so cool.  

3 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

Wow, so daring. I think these are brilliant! I kept mine all simple, maybe next year, after some practice, I might be able to be more adventurous.

Jeni, I was not adventurous last year and even this year I started out just re-learning the lessons and had fun when I got further along.  I'm surprised it makes such a difference.  As a Diamond member we can have access all the time.  I think I should go back to the lessons every 3-4 months.  

5 hours ago, Rene Marker said:

Thanks for the answer. I only have your books in the Kindle version so no problem with "laying flat". But IMO, this is not a book that would work well in Kindle. For this type of book I like to have both pages side by side laying flat in front of me. A thicker book doesn't work well for me. Many years ago I got 2 books from Creating Keepsakes (Creative Sketches and Creative Sketches Vol 2) both around 160 pages. Neither would lay flat so I took them to an office supply store, had them cut off the binding and they bound both them in the same spiral binding. I still have them. Lays flat! I did the same thing with another book of sketches (Layout Blueprints) that is a little over 100 pages.

I think that is a hard decision for an author, what format to print.  A book has to show a spine when sitting on the shelf of a book store to have any chance of anyone looking at it.  I've had books that had a spine and inside the coil binding, the cost to print that and the added weight for coil in shipping (customer and printer) would be quite high.  BTW, the book I had didnt have that many pages and was over $60, likely because of the additional steps to have a lay-flat book and still show a spine to catch the customers attention.  

Lesson 7

Went pretty good, especially when I think it's a hard lesson, it turned out to be straight forward.  The tricky part is grabbing the right node after the cut.  Like Gerry said, it's hard to reposition the node you didnt want to be moving.  I ended up pushing it back (if I picked the wrong one) very slightly then I could see the other node I really wanted to be grabbing.  when I say see, I mean I had it zoomed in very close and when you move one node underneath it, the other node shows up.  Only 4 cuts of all the cuts I made was the correct node I wanted to grab to move away and delete.  I used undo a lot and learned to nudge the node into itself and not to the side as it would get too distorted.  I really love this technique.  On the Q I wanted to see if the lower cross bar was possible to isolate and it was.  It's really interesting to see fonts with nodes, I forget about that, I could also be manipulating those fonts too...didnt we learn that in a master class or the Text Workshop?

Thank you Carole.  Even with some stumbling blocks, I felt way better going through this workshop for the second time.  I'll get my question together (about the rocket) this week.  Thanks again for a great workshop.  

9 hours ago, Cassel said:

First, change the Selection Mode from Pressure to something else. It does not explain the greyscale image though. How is it when you use it manually and not in a script? Still greyscale? That is very odd. You might want to open the actual picture tube file for that flower and see if the image is still in colors or not. If it is in colors, re-export it to see if it solves the problem.

Well, my face is red.  Pressure was it and when I opened PSP again it was back to the setting and normal again.  but the most embarrassing thing.....There is I think 5 different flowers in this tube and somehow (the settings I was messing with) caused it to just have the one flower, which looked similar to the yellow one (which shows up so tiny).  What I was trying to do was to make the tube that normally is random in placement, be not random, but come out one after another and I chose bad settings.  This is for sure, user error.  Thanks for seeing the pressure setting (I'm not even sure what that setting does).