Donna Sillia

Day 4 - More photos from Thailand. The red background was modified in FF, and I made the flowers for my calendar. The scripts are all from CF: Modecque with an added pattern, Royal Thailand and Autumn.

Day 3 - I love monarch butterflies and took a lot of photos when I visited the Butterfly house. The background is one of my own with a gradient on the other curve. The caterpillar, pupa and milkweed are from Canva. I made the arrow fasteners from an arrow dingbat font from CF. The first letter of "The" is Butterfly Monogram from CF, and the title is called MeLove also from CF. The word milkweed is from some png letters downloaded from CF and recolored. The gold circles are from my Build a kit 2. The crown is from AI, Adobe Express.

The photo was taken by my grandson. The banner was made with Carole's Banner Font. The brick background layer is a PSP texture. The other background and the three clips are from Canva. All of the fonts used are from CF.

I had started the Detroit page a couple of days ago in order to see the effect of the 3D mask that I made from a Canva graphic and also because all the talk of the bridge to Windsor reminded me of all the times that we have crossed that bridge. The photo is mine taken from our Windsor Casino window. The patterns in the font are from Canva. The car is one that I made after the Vector Workshop and, both of the mask shapes are from Adobe Express. The record was made many years ago in Photoshop. I changed the color and added "Platinum Record Motown." However, the letters on the record are not very visible. The fonts are both from Creative Fabrica - Banner and Type and Write. We will be crossing the Ambassador Bridge on November 27 since we will be spending Thanksgiving at the Casino.

Me, too, Patty

Thank you, Susan I made all the squares separately as vectors so that I could lower the transparency on the outer square, then converted to raster. The I added a layer for the brush under the rectangle and merged. I used raster to mask script to make the finished mask. My AI patterns had to be converted to brush before they would work. I haven't tried any preset shapes yet.

I've been working on the type of mask that was in the 2025 Calendar Workshop. I created the square first, then added the brushes, merged visible and finally, converted to mask using the raster to mask script. I saved the square because I don't know if I can remember how I did it the first time. I have created some brushes using a few AI patterns that I made.

I made this image for our last mask workshop from a photo that I received from my daughter in law. Today, there was an article on yahoo about this same deer crossing Lorain Ave near where they live.

I am waiting to meet with the Jane, who will be doing the printing of my calendar. She will show me a sample of the printed calendar, and I was flattered that she asked if she could print one for herself.

Thanks, Ann I have contacted a couple of print shops and am waiting until after the weekend to hear back. I added a couple inches to the top to make room for the coil and left the backgrounds white. It will be less expensive to have one sided printing.

Ann, when you had your calendar printed, did you leave the back white?

I decided to print my pages just to see how they looked and am really glad that I did so. Then, I compared the cmyk that I had also saved; the rgb colors printed much more vibrantly, although I had to increase the vibrancy on a few, especially the reds. They look garish on the computer, but printed they are much better. No more going to the trouble of converting them to cmyk.

As I explained to Carole, I was helping a friend with his book using Canva, and he introduced me to Jane, the woman who owns the local business that does all his printing. I have contacted her, and we are discussing printing and formats. I will let everyone know how that turns out. I would rather support a local business, if possible.

I will follow your advice. I have the files saved in both formats, just in case. I worked on a book for one of my friends and have contacted his printer for advice, although it will be a small order and I don't know if they will print it. I am also contacting Staples and UPS printing. I have a very good experience with UPS when a needed a card printed fast.

Thank you for the information, Ann. I will try them.

Today I am converting all my pages to 300dpi and then copying them into Photoshop to convert them to cmyk. Since Photoshop won't save them as png, I am opening the psd file in Paintshop and saving it as a png. After I am finished, I will be contacting a printer.

Can someone give me advice on how and where to have my calendar printed? I keep reading that you have to convert to CMYK colors and 300dpi.

Thank you so much,, Susan. I used Adobe Express and Filter Forge a lot for the backgrounds.

Thank you, Corrie. I am so glad that I chose my grandson's photos to use in these challenge. I am planning on have it printed for him and his girlfriend for a Christmas present.

Cover: I used an Adobe Express creation for the picture. I created the mask using one a cass preset piping shapes and the cass raster to mask script. The background paper is a tan taken from the image.

Finally, the December calendar I once again used Adobe Express for the background with a few adjustments. The photo is from David, and I thought it looked festive even though Christmas is not celebrated in Thailand. The bottom picture is also from David and is actually a Gay Pride festival. I merged the mask and added color to the opaque areas and then applied a bevel. The nutcracker was made by me from an Adobe Illustrator tutorial for my Build a kit 2. I wish I could make backgrounds as beautiful as AE.

Slowly getting there. Thailand pictures suit my proclivity towards gold and glitter. Red seems to be a prominent color in many of the pictures. The background is Adobe Express AI, but I did make a few adjustments. The ornate frame just called out to me for glitter. The bottom picture is of the King and Queen of Thailand with my future daughter in law in the forefront. I used the same mask that I created on a previous page.

I finally finished October. The background is from Adobe Express just lightened a little. Photos are from David. Columbus Day clip is from Canva. I had to mark Columbus Day because I am Italian and my father would never forgive me if I called it something different. The little witch is from CF. I hope to fiinish today, but now I have to go and exercise.

I love that Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, and I love flowers. Yours are beautiful.

My final September page: I made a new mask for the golden lady, changed template resolution to 300, and everything worked well. Thanks for advice about saving as a png since I am intending to have the calendar printed as a Christmas present for David and Rachel who sent me all the beautiful pictures that they took in Thailand. I had to make the template mask a little small so that the month could be seen.