Susan Ewart

Ann, come to think of it, I don't think I did turn it to a raster.  My dashed lines came if I tried to make them the same font as the numbers I used (Prida Em Cooper), if I stayed in Arial the lines stayed solid.  It could also be that my PSP sometimes acts funny and when I look in "Save As" it's always set to PSP 8.  I've never ever saved in PSP 8 as I never had that version.  Even when I put it to PSP 2022 and save my workspace, it will still change back to PSP 8 the next time I turn it on.  So weird...and annoying.   I will keep that in mind though, about converting to a raster.  When things don't work, my brain cells de-rail I think. ?. I'm going to have to write that down on the "don't panic - read this first" list.

Anita, that is a beautiful photo, and the background technique is so painterly.  Thank you for the explanation of how you did it.

K = Knights of Alleberg

 

According to Swedish legend, the Knights of Ålleberg are ghosts of twelve knights who died in a 1389 battle.

Rene and Corrie, I always look forward to your Letters, both are very beautifully done.

 

Ann, Wonderful tribute, this layout.  Is that a paper script at the bottom?  It's really effective, almost looks like a city.  It's neat that your grandsons have the same initials.  Impressive careers as well.

Marie-Claire, WOW! ?

A = Apparition

 

 

Mary, that is really a difference using tone mapping.  I have never tried it.  I just started using adjustment layer too.  Much to learn.  That tone mapping might be good for when I take pictures of the birds through the window, it's always a bit blah and hazy (which I expect, but it would be nice to clean it up).  Did you get to Youghiogheny Art Glass while in Maryland.  They made amazing art glass.  I worked at a glass store (in Canada) and this piece of glass from there looked like an ostrich head.  Loved looking at their glass when it came in.

 

I haven't checked in this forum for a bit, quite a number of fabulous layouts.

 

Jannette, I love your layered glass.  Your shadowing is perfect and give the layout such depth.

Thank you, Mary.  I liked how you laid out your elements and the color scheme is spot on.  I also liked the orientation of the big rectangle used in portrait style.  I do really like the lowered opacity background and need to try that more often.  The water is perfect for that as it's not too busy.  I kept finding myself about to change the size of the element and had to remind myself that's a no-no.  I am not good using paint splats either, yet I love when others do.  I find they are okay when I really lower the opacity so it's like an old stain that won't come out.  I meant to add another element and date on the upper blue paper but totally forgot.  I blame the old furnace we just got replaced...it had 3 huge cracks in the condenser and despite hving several carbon monoxide detectors, we must've been breathing some carbon monoxide this last year...or two.  Good thing the seal in our back door wasn't great, the furnace guy thinks it was going straight out there as we could only smell an odd (not natural gas smell) smell at the back door.

Here's my DIY layout for Sept.  Had lots of time today and I was getting a shiny new furnace installed.

 

All papers from Digital Scrapbook, the blue I added a texture effect.

 

Fonts are Darkflame ('the'), Abiallyne ('perfect'), Wondershine ('landing'), Mathernal ('at the'), Romantic ('watering') and Mistic ('hole").

 

Reduced opacity on the paint splats, which in this case is splats of the birdy kind, that they leave behind.

 

Photos are mine through my very dirty dining room window.  This was a challenge.  In the beginning it's hard to imagine where to put the elements, but after a while it starts to come together.  I really like that this does challenge me.

 

Super layouts from you all.  Lynda, love what you did with your squares.  Betsy, a beautiful springtime layout, colors go so well together.

Marie-Claire, absolutely beautiful.  I love your backgrounds.  What an inspiration.  I agree with you.  I'd want one of everyone's calendars.  Hopefully we can view them in the gallery throughout the year.

Yikes, Michele and Mary.  I have caught your OCD.  My pages were FULL of guidelines.  It sure made it easier when the object snapped to the guideline too.

Michelle those are beautiful.  I got dashes too, and yes, it drove me crazy.  I had tried to use the same font as my numbers and it would not produce a solid line.  I kept the solid line as Arial and used the "leading" to line it all up (using the font I had choosen).  Thankfully it worked.  Seeing everyone's calendars makes me want to make more with different subjects.

Here is my calendar.  I added some of the moon phases because I love the moon.  Chris, for sure this is soft than I would normally use too.  I tend to like the darker shades, it's a surprise to me how it turned out.  I let the flowers tell me which direction to go. The best thing is I managed to keep them alive long enough to have flowers to shoot. I have a black thumb.

Thank you so much Ann.  It means a lot to me.  Your's (and everyone's) calendars are breathtaking.  The photos in yours are really beautiful, and of course the abstract ones really hit home with me.  I'm learning so many design ideas, eg.  Look at Chris's (#83696), I would not have thought of that.  Like a perfect peep hole into Cotswold.

 

You are correct; some are ashtrays, who knew they were also beautiful and not just utilitarian.  Some are oven dishes and a bunch are candle holders.  All found at the thrift store.  That's photography on a budget.  Next year I'll have a better idea of what kind of flowers I want to use and get lots of them.  There never seemed to be enough in bloom at the same time. The Calendar Workshop is perfect for making a cohesive set of pieces.  It's always a surprise and delight when I look at all 13 pieces together.  I love this workshop.

November, December and the Cover finally complete.  I wanted to add some of the moon phases.  I tested two styles, one with icons and one with words.  I think the icons are too distracting.  Not sure if I'll do the moon phases or not.

 

Ann, your November has such depth.  Everyone has done a fabulous job.  I love seeing the calendars in their entirety.

 

Suzy, I learned from Ann; take all the workshops because there is so much to learn that you didn't expect, or didnt know you would learn.  Eg. Copy Special was a new one for me.  Carole, if I do adjustment layers on a photo, is this a good place to use the Copy Special to the layout so I can leave the layered PSP edited photo as is.

 

I made a mask (thanks to the Masks workshop) for the cover as I wanted it to look similar to the interior and it's also the first layout in the workshop where I used an existing PSP gradient.  And, with this Calendar my flat-lay-flower-phase-photo-project (say that 5 times fast) has come to an end.  I really enjoyed this workshop, thank you Carole.

September and October.  I wasnt planning on the using the September image because of the black reflection in the glass but after seeing the template I changed my mind.  I tried so many different colors for the weekends.  White disappeared in some and I wanted it to be readable.  Chose a red version.  I liked the selection, flood fill, reduce opacity.  I didn't like the frame so on one (Sept) I feather the edge.  That was a hard one to do and found how by accident.  I know we did it in a tutorial some time ago, but I couldn't remember.  I think though, I like the straight edges of box in October.

 

Wow, such stunning layouts today.  I like reading about Washington, DC Ann.  And, Carole, when I watch the video, I use full screen and holy wow, it's tack sharp on the 21" screen.

Monique and Fiona, thank you for the kind words.  My heart is singing right now.  Joining the campus has renewed my love of photography, for that I am truly grateful.  (I just sold all my silversmithing tools/supplies so I could buy a new camera...I might sell my older, well-worn husband to get the lens I want ?).

 

Monique, my dad's side of the family is Scottish. Although I am adopted I consider myself an honorary Scott.  Most people have a hard time saying Ewart (my last name), which sounds like U-ert, we get called EE-wart? .  So we used to say, "it's like "Stewart, without the St., because we aint no Saints....).

 

Cristina, great layouts and what a great idea with the outer glow.

Ann, I love this photo.

July and August.  Prida 02 Calt is the font for the month and year, days are Prida Em Cooper.  Gradient with Texture from Effects.

 

Really love seeing how everyone lays out their calendars.  Stuff I had not though of and really like eg. where you place the month, year etc).  Beautiful and interesting photo's and the textures I'm seeing are so interesting.

 

April, that's a great idea for the desktop.

 

Linda your texture, color and photo are fabulous

 

Ann, I'm enjoying your Washington layouts, you are making me an armchair traveler.  Wish I could see it in person!

 

I wish I could comment on everyone, they are all so enjoyable to look at. With every visit to the forum I see something I want to try.

 

I also like the challenge of making the photo's fit the mask, it's exercising my creativity and problem solving abilities.

May and June.  I'm getting an idea of a style now.  Gradient background with texture effects.  I tried many versions of the texture from the materials palette.  I like that it's on a different layer, but I didn't like the texture it made.  I do like the texture from Effects>Texture Effects>Texture better.  I wish it was on it's own layer.  I think I'll duplicate the gradient background and put the effect on one, that way I can decide if I want the texture or not. I added the year smaller in the opposite corner.  I will likely change the Prida 02 Calt font.  Believe it or not most of the glyphs are just typing it out, without using a character map.  I had to go and look in the glyphs for normal letters and it's a super unorganized glylph section.

Carole, I added the font names to my March/April post.  thanks for the reminder.

Thank you Carole.  I did use a different font that worked.  It's good to know that happens and it's not something I did.  My computer was working slow because I had been looking at 100's of photo and the cache was full.  Did a re-boot and it was all happy again.  My husband works from home and uses the computer too, with very big files, and said after I use PSP he has to dump the cache as his program works slow.  It's good to know what to do when that happens.

 

Fiona!  Wow!  I lOVE your layouts.

 

Off to work now....I've decided I dont like working any day that ends in a "y"....hahahaha

Who says you cant put a circle (flower) in a square (glass) in a circle (mask)....or a circle in a star in a circle? ?

 

All kidding aside.  First off, Dawn, thank goodness for your result.  The "C' word is scary.

 

Here is my March and April works in progress.  I am playing with each month with colors, fonts.  April's front is nice but ugh, the color looks like bad bruise, so it will change, thought you'd get a laugh over it.  I will keep experimenting with color, font, texture and after the workshop I will choose what I liked the best.

 

Carole, I had something weird happen with using the glyphs.  Not sure if it's the font program (Font Base, subscription version) or just how some fonts are.  I copied and pasted the glyph and some of it is cut off.  Have you seen it before?  Is that just something that happens?  I did choose another font.

 

I like the masks, they are interesting.  At first I thought I shouldn't have the white space around images that were shot that way (I have other photos of the star one, shot on different colored backgrounds that I made sub in later), but now I like that white space.

 

Oops, forgot to add the fonts.  April is Prida02Calt.  March is PridaEmCooper.  I'm not sure where I got them.

Ann, you nailed the background for February.

Holy Wow Everyone!  Fabulous work.  Here's a start on my January and February.  I kept wanting to sharpen the images more, but I'm trying to do an ethereal dreamy flower calendar.  I had to go back and un-sharpen them.  I usually like really crisp sharp photos.  And I'm trying to work out of my comfort zone to promote some artistic growth.  You will see these flowers in different set ups most likely.    The font might change too. I have no idea what I'll do for a background at this point.

 

Good Luck Corrie!  Hope all goes smoothly with your surgery.  Sending healing thoughts your way.