Ann Seeber

Another entry for Masks-Day 2 - An exhausted Barred Owl sleeping off a busy night. ? Photos by Dan Tooker. Background pattern Tibetan Grasscloth Spice. Vole from a .png site. I cribbed the staple from Day 1.

25 minutes ago, Rene Marker said:

Step #8 was to Deselect the floating layer which fused it with the mask layer

Rene: That template mostly drove me crazy because everything was labeled in French and I didn't know a layer from a mask! ?

My entry for Day 2 - using the alternative template. My grandson and family's vacation photos from Costa Rica. The title was included on their photo so I copied it and applied the plaid background to match. I did move the small photos to the left. 

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

Let me know what step is confusing or not working so I can help you further.

Carole, I noticed the written-out directions for Day 1 do NOT include the step to De-Float. That may have been the source of my difficulties.

One of the extras from Day 1 - a photo of great-grand Magic, font is Cabin Sketch, frame was a Corel freebie from a past year. Magic was proud of finishing a Bluey puzzle. Edit: I changed the mask to the colors of the February Palette.

DAY 1 - OWLS OF THE HUDSON VALLEY

Great-grand Logan Robert turned 2 on Feb 6 and there was a Toy Story themed party yesterday (Sat Feb 11). I used a template from Marisa Lerin. I found the Toy Story art online and the balloons were from a baby kit, which I duplicated and colorized. Logan's brother is due this June. He is slate to be Jonah James. 

My granddaughter, Anna, and her husband, Tj. He's a software engineer and she's a speech pathologist. They live in California so I don't see them much. I used some decor from 3 Valentine's kits I had on hand that seemed to be mostly in French. The heart mask was from Carole this season.

I = In Love ?

My granddaughter, Anna, and her husband, Tj. He's a software engineer and she's a speech pathologist. They live in California so I don't see them much. I used some decor from 3 Valentine's kits I had on hand that seemed to be mostly in French. The heart mask was from Carole this season. 

X = X is a shorthand for a kiss along with O for a hug.

29 minutes ago, Louyse Toupin said:

I like it! This is a very original creation!

Glad you like it, Louyse! It's the template included with Lab 13-02. You can play with it, too!

Playing around with Lab 13-02. I added corner punches and texture to the outside layers. This is a "community cat" that comes around and annoys my female, Eve, just by being near the house. I've started feeding her which upsets both my indoor cats. Oh, well, guess I'm a softie. I've named her Maybelline because she looks like she's wearing black eyeliner. ? Of the 5 photos, 3 are from behind my window screen, so the quality isn't the best.

T = Truffles (chocolate, of course!)

8 hours ago, Marie-Claire said:

Zigzag stitch and Embosses metal element
Font : P22 Corinthia



Diamond 3 pattern
Font: Today
Script : cass-LiftedPhoto

Well done! It would never occur to me to put a photo upside-down. All the layouts very effective. Love your dog's puppy photos!

36 minutes ago, Michele said:

Aw, sleepy cheetah.

Ha ha! I was going to label it Laughing Cheetah, but Sleepy works, too! 

Here's my monthly big cat calendar project for February 2023. I'll also put it up on Facebook with a large jpg in the files. The originals are 4200 x 2550. I think they came from Corel as a freebie. 

Susan, yeah, they're about the size of a Canada Goose so pretty large. They amusingly like to sit on top of our metal chimney tubes on the roof and keep warm in the winter. ?

Carole: Is there any way we can get some instruction on using pre-made masks? I have several but don't know how to use them. Thanks!

I used the template from Lab 13-01 which has a split title. I had to remove one photo group and my split title is actually hyphenated. Not exactly the same. Oh, well. The outside frame is a PSP frame labeled transparent. The blue patterned paper is from Rachel Martin and the woodgrain is Marisa Lerin, Winter Day. Mostly I just added texture to the other papers. The font is Bernard MT and the yellow arrow is from Marisa Lerin in a kit called 1000. The photos are mine, from my front yard, except for the top left portrait that I got from Ed Frampton. 

I finally came up with something from the stencil lesson. Actually, inspired by Pirkko's daffodils. The moon photo from Fred Coffey inspired a little science fiction. The font is SF Distant Galaxy. I turned the photo into a negative image. Also added a few flares from my Tube files. 

Corrie: Weren't the hearts in Michelle's layout part of a template from that Blog Train? She said they were top and bottom and she removed the top one for her titles. I looked at them and thought, hmm, another way to TRY to do the stencils. I'm not having much luck with them so far. I need to get back to Carole's video in that Lab.

I'll be here. I really need practice with "homemade" masks. I'm too dependent on Cassel's script: Raster-to-Mask which limits me to whatever shape the raster is and doesn't have those nice fading brush strokes on the edges. 

1 hour ago, Susan Ewart said:

I think that's a good idea.  And it's doesnt take much space to duplicate and keep the vector(and hide it) in case you need to edit it later. Saves a step I'm doing by closing and opening again to resize.  Did we read somewhere that using the jpg optimizer didnt have that problem.  I cant remember.  I dont use the optimizer, even having it explained to me I still dont see the difference in just using Save As, isnt it still the same amount of clicks.  Maybe I'm missing something.

I think I heard that, too, that the optimizer is better at stabilizing the text. It certainly gives you more control over compression. I created shortcuts on my toolbar for both optimizers, .jpg and .png. Very handy. They're right next to Cassel's new Guides script and Open as a New Layer-Rename. Really speeds things up a bit.

50 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

That happens to me.  I usually save the large jpg then close it and open the jpg again and resize it and the text stays intact.  There is another way other members do it and Carole will likely chime in to tell you about.  It happens to us all.

 

For that reason, I now make it a habit to rasterize all text. I found it especially touchy if it's created in a selection area.