January DIY Challenge (2023)

[Cassel]

This challenge has had great success in the past so we can continue to have it on a regular basis, don’t you think?

Just like those “some assembly required” kits that you can buy for a shelf, a chair, or a picnic table, I am including a 3600×3600 pixels canvas with some shapes.

You HAVE to use the shapes in the size and proportions they are. You can move them, rotate them, flip them, and rearrange the layering if you want but you cannot resize them.

You need to use ALL the pieces but you can add more if you want.

So it is like all the pieces to build a DIY shelf: you cannot change the size of the pieces but you can use them creatively.

Obviously, you will want to recolor them or replace them with papers, photos, etc. We just need to be able to recognize the initial shapes.

Here is a preview of the shapes involved.

Click here to download the layered template.

Post your projects in the gallery.

[Bonnie Ballentine]

I extracted the buck head at the top. I'm pretty pleased with it. I think it is my best extraction to date. Interestingly, I had been thinking I would like to do a layout with deer heads and this template appeared. Perfect!

[Susan Ewart]

Now that's the kind of residents I would love to have.  Fabulous Bonnie!, I love the one of the tail.  Great touch...and it's a the "end" of the layout. ?

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Thank you, Susan. I love my "deer people". I often stop work to watch them. 

[Joyce Nease]

[Julie Magerka]

I wonder why it takes me SO-O-O long to do one of these. I dither and worry and then change things around and then don't feel really satisfied with the results. But then I just want it out of my sight and posted. Later, I will want to make even more changes, but can't (thank goodness). I am thankful to have those two Cass scripts (open as new layer and clip to it).

These are my rescue animals who share the house with me. The one at the bottom is the one who lives outdoors with his/her tribe and gets chased all the time.

[Susan Ewart]

Julie, that's wonderful.  Love the little guy at the bottom (okay, love them all).  I know what you mean, I am in the throws of the DIY too.  It was a real challenge to find the design I wanted.  I moved stuff around for quite sometime.  Then saved it and came back and looked and thought, nope, not there yet.  Why is it that later in the evening I finally get an idea gelling....and it's bedtime?  Might take me few days get mine done.  At least I have a direction to go now.  I like these DIYs because they are hard and they really challenge me in a design sense.  

[Julie Magerka]

2 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Julie, that's wonderful.  Love the little guy at the bottom (okay, love them all).  I know what you mean, I am in the throws of the DIY too.  It was a real challenge to find the design I wanted.  I moved stuff around for quite sometime.  Then saved it and came back and looked and thought, nope, not there yet.  Why is it that later in the evening I finally get an idea gelling....and it's bedtime?  Might take me few days get mine done.  At least I have a direction to go now.  I like these DIYs because they are hard and they really challenge me in a design sense.  

Susan, I think you nailed it: they are really challenging in a design sense. And I don't have much of that! But it's fun to try.

[Cassel]

5 minutes ago, Julie Magerka said:

Susan, I think you nailed it: they are really challenging in a design sense. And I don't have much of that! But it's fun to try.

One way to "play" with those is to see which shapes you can "line up" or which ones you can "overlap". Typically, those shapes come from an existing template that I just tweak around for you ?

[Julie Magerka]

5 minutes ago, Cassel said:

One way to "play" with those is to see which shapes you can "line up" or which ones you can "overlap". Typically, those shapes come from an existing template that I just tweak around for you ?

Ah, a nudge to my design sense. Thanks for that!

[Susan Ewart]

I got 'er done!  No words.  Mother nature speaks in visuals.  These are trees on my street or down the road in the park (the little one second from the right side).  And no, that's not an upside down tree in the big photo.  that's my favorite of the trhee trees in front of my house.  It has a big wide canopy and i always look at it when I'm stretching after my workout.  I was standing under it shooting straight up.  I added more scallops, not sure why, it doesnt really add to the design.  When I lined up the boxes on the bottom I thought, "Yikes! they look like gravestones", until I added the pictures then it started to come together.  The ring was the hardest to fit into the design.  So I made many duplicates and lined them up on the bottom to make a design pattern with them (between the small pictures).  I used the blinds texture on the scallops and a texture on the background that might be too small to see.  Photo's are mine from Dec 31, day two of the hoar frost days.  That was actually the day it was more crystally type frost (I cant remember the name tough).  

[Ann Seeber]

I ended up quite pleased with this, though it was a struggle at first. This is my grandson, Will, and his family in California, on the Mendocino headlands. Luckily, no rivers to flood with the deluges they are having right now. All 5 photos were just taken by my daughter, Debbie. I combined two of the small rectangles to accommodate the journal card on the lower right from Elif Sahin at digitalscrappbooking.com, adding circles and some flowers clipped from the large photo. I took the scallops and did a clip-to-it with the flower photo and then used the torn edge technique on the scallops. Maybe I went overboard with scallops because I continued and created the white framing with them on the photos, also! I tucked a little beach grass behind, so the photos look like they're waving in the sea breeze. I have to complement everyone's work. You all inspired me!! 

[Corrie Kinkel]

I too had a difficult time choosing what I wanted to do, changing some aspects etc. But in the end I have something to show; I used all the elements but rearranged them. My topic is bridges; here in the Netherlands we live partly in a delta area and have a lot of rivers and waterways. Which in turn provide us with a lot of bridges and here are just a couple that I managed to take a photo from. The water background I made using a small part of the water in one of my photos, gave it a slight blur and a blend mode. The sky is also a photo that I put on top of the water to create a less sharp edge.

[Susan Ewart]

Corrie, that's cool what you did with the water and sky.  I wouldnt have known it was from two photo's.  The bridges are very interesting, I love the little old one (Amersfoort) and the lines of Dordrecht one, it's very artsy.  Nice when architecture can be please to the eye as well.   

[Marie-Claire]

After repeatedly placing and repositioning the elements, I am finally somewhat satisfied with this result.
Paper : Melo Vrijhof on Digital Scrapbook
Font: Magneto
For the Windy and Rainy I used the script : cass-ShapedText
On the circle vector I used the vectorTube script with a raindrop tube (don't remember where it comes from)
Photos of my own

[Julie Magerka]

31 minutes ago, Marie-Claire said:

After repeatedly placing and repositioning the elements, I am finally somewhat satisfied with this result.
Paper : Melo Vrijhof on Digital Scrapbook
Font: Magneto
For the Windy and Rainy I used the script : cass-ShapedText
On the circle vector I used the vectorTube script with a raindrop tube (don't remember where it comes from)
Photos of my own

I don't know if it's the colours or the beautiful pooch, but this is just outstanding. Love the little details you added to make it so unified.

[Mary Solaas]

Marie-Claire:  That's Poncho, isn't it?  

Really outstanding layout!

[Marie-Claire]

4 minutes ago, Mary Solaas said:

Marie-Claire:  That's Poncho, isn't it?  

Really outstanding layout!

Thank you!, yes that is Poncho Mary ?

[Susan Ewart]

Poncho is just stunning.  He looks so proud.  Beautiful layout, the colors are perfect.  

[Corrie Kinkel]

16 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Corrie, that's cool what you did with the water and sky.  I wouldnt have known it was from two photo's.  The bridges are very interesting, I love the little old one (Amersfoort) and the lines of Dordrecht one, it's very artsy.  Nice when architecture can be please to the eye as well.   

Susan thank you and I like the futuristic bridge in Dordrecht best. In many of our older cities you can find bridges like the one in Amersfoort. How to do the water and sky was just a try out, but it turned out well.