May 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. Because of the size of the shapes, there will obviously be overlaps. Will it be for papers or photos or both? That is up to you!

Click here to download the layered template.

Post your projects in the gallery.

[Bonnie Ballentine]

I think this serves for 2 challenges...DIY and April's Font Challenge...although a little late. The Blue-eyed Grass volunteered in my yard and I love it! There is also a white variety and I think we have a small cluster of it...the white is rare, they say. Blue-eyed grass is deer resistant and drought tolerant. It is a wildflower but they say you can buy it in nurseries. It should be planted in early Spring...I've missed that deadline for this year. Last year I tried to transplant it but critters dug it up. I hope to buy some plants next Spring.

 

[Sue Thomas]

May DIY challenge.  In order to retain the size of the  small shape I opted  to creating an out of bounds effect.

[Cassel]

9 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

May DIY challenge.  In order to retain the size of the  small shape I opted  to creating an out of bounds effect.

Definitely one way around the limitations! I read often that working within limits tends to generate more creativity. This is a great example!

[libera]

@Bonnie and Sue,  really fantastic works!

Last week I thought of you both. I watched a short report at TV about Pickleball growing more and more in Germany and a bit history of it. I was a bit surprised because I never heard before about this german trend. 

Thursday, (holiday because of Ascension), there were documentaries (landscape and wildlife) about Ireland, Scotland and England.
A special about Wales, that was so beautiful....I was virtually travelling .

 

 

[Sue Thomas]

10 hours ago, Cassel said:

Definitely one way around the limitations! I read often that working within limits tends to generate more creativity. This is a great example!

Thanks, I rarely use templates, I tend to create a layout to fit the photos, hence, this challenge made me think of an alternative whilst working within the limits.

[Sue Thomas]

2 hours ago, libera said:

@Bonnie and Sue,  really fantastic works!

Last week I thought of you both. I watched a short report at TV about Pickleball growing more and more in Germany and a bit history of it. I was a bit surprised because I never heard before about this german trend. 

Thursday, (holiday because of Ascension), there were documentaries (landscape and wildlife) about Ireland, Scotland and England.
A special about Wales, that was so beautiful....I was virtually travelling .

 

 

Thank you Libera,  I may be bias, but I agree Wales is a beautiful country, particularly the Welsh coastline,  and steeped in ancient history. 

[Jannette Nieuwboer]

My contribution to the May Challenge. Although not a real challenge to me. I'm used to working with templates. 

I have Lily of the Valley in my garden but these photos are from the internet. And it is a real may flower here. I guess the are called in France Muguets.   Muguet is a woman's name as well I 'v learned just today.  I've called them the original name, Convallaria Majalis. There can be made medicine as well. but I do not know what physical ailments it's good for. 

I had to resize the photos a bit. The name of the font is 'Always Amora'. I love the font in projects like this. 

 

 

 

[Marie-Claire]

layered template : Cassel

Digitalscrapbook, blogtrain,
Papers of Elizabeth Minkus, from minikit Oct2018 That Smile.
Tag of Sharon Dewi, from minikit SpreadYourWings

Font, Lucida Handwriting
Photos are mine

[Ann Seeber]

WATERFALLS - Gradient background - green shiny paper - cork texture - cass-curved-photo script - BMU_Eve_Butterfly2-cutout - brad=PSBT_Songbird_Element (1) - US Park Service quote found on Facebook - font= Century Gothic. I did a lot of "out-of-bounds" to create the tucked-in effect with the photos. The shadows were tricky!

[Sue Thomas]

This challenge is one of my favourite challenges, the scavenger hunt is my  number one. Some of you didn't comply with the specifications of the challenge, which is what makes it a challenge. 

Ann, you did 4 out of bounds.  I'm going to suggest a quicker way of doing it for this particular layout.  Select the background paper, contract, invert, promote to a new layer, move that layer above the photos.

[Ann Seeber]

50 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

This challenge is one of my favourite challenges, the scavenger hunt is my  number one. Some of you didn't comply with the specifications of the challenge, which is what makes it a challenge. 

Ann, you did 4 out of bounds.  I'm going to suggest a quicker way of doing it for this particular layout.  Select the background paper, contract, invert, promote to a new layer, move that layer above the photos.

Not following that suggestion, Sue, as the green paper is almost full size behind the photos and the "cork" layer. It would cover up the photos completely. I'm sure there are easier ways to achieve my result. I'll have to try it again, sometime.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Ann Seeber

[Sue Thomas]

6 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

With the instructions I gave, all you will be doing is  placing the width of the background paper which is showing above the photos, I did a quick example using my layout, showing the layers and the result  in this screenshot. It can't get any easier than  this technique.

 

[Ann Seeber]

11 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

 

Thanks, Sue, I tried it and it worked perfectly! ?

[Sharla]

The photos are from pixabay. The papers are as simple as you can get - just colours.

[Nancy McNamara]

4 hours ago, Sharla said:

The photos are from pixabay. The papers are as simple as you can get - just colours.

Love the bright colors!

[Susan Ewart]

This baby squirrel visited us only on one day.  We've had a number of momma squirrels leave their kids with us to baby sit for a few hours.  These babies are oblivious to harm and the dangers in it's surroundings.  Even coming right up to my feet. The magpies had a keen interest in taking it home to meet their hatchlings.  I spend 3 hours watching it and chasing off the magpies and male squirrels (who are just mean and nasty to the little ones) and the neighbours cats.  His/hers mom only came twice to check on it. Not really Mother-of-the-Year material.   They run around for a bit and then just where ever they are, they stop and sleep.  I can go right up to it while is sleeps, sometime it would wake up look at me and go back to sleep.  They would sleep 3 or 4 times.  It's amazing they make it through this time.  The picture of it sleeping is only about 2.5 feet off the ground.  

I used one paper from Gina Jones-A night in October Solid paper 02 (Digital Scrapbook)

Font is Flower Love (Creative Fabrica)

Photos: mine

This was a tough one to design, took me some time to find something I was okay with.  

[MoniqueN.]

I have never done a DIY ,but it was fun!??

It's a bit busy for my liking, but it isn't "ugly" either ? The font is Creepy crawlers (?) And Marisa Lerin was my elements source ?

During the bootcamp we learned (again) how to put edges around the photo's, that worked fine. (I completly forgot how to do that, I just added mats when I needed a border. ?

[MoniqueN.]

8 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

This baby squirrel visited us only on one day.  We've had a number of momma squirrels leave their kids with us to baby sit for a few hours.  These babies are oblivious to harm and the dangers in it's surroundings.  Even coming right up to my feet. The magpies had a keen interest in taking it home to meet their hatchlings.  I spend 3 hours watching it and chasing off the magpies and male squirrels (who are just mean and nasty to the little ones) and the neighbours cats.  His/hers mom only came twice to check on it. Not really Mother-of-the-Year material.   They run around for a bit and then just where ever they are, they stop and sleep.  I can go right up to it while is sleeps, sometime it would wake up look at me and go back to sleep.  They would sleep 3 or 4 times.  It's amazing they make it through this time.  The picture of it sleeping is only about 2.5 feet off the ground.  

I used one paper from Gina Jones-A night in October Solid paper 02 (Digital Scrapbook)

Font is Flower Love (Creative Fabrica)

Photos: mine

This was a tough one to design, took me some time to find something I was okay with.  

I agree. ? I made all the photo's etc. to the size needed, hid them and added  the photo's one by one and then the elements. Especially the short stitching, where to put it??

[Ann Seeber]

1 hour ago, MoniqueN. said:

I agree. ? I made all the photo's etc. to the size needed, hid them and added  the photo's one by one and then the elements. Especially the short stitching, where to put it??

My problem was the long, thin strips. I finally added text to them and buried them at the bottom of my layout in the same color as the background.

[Susan Ewart]

5 hours ago, MoniqueN. said:

I agree. ? I made all the photo's etc. to the size needed, hid them and added  the photo's one by one and then the elements. Especially the short stitching, where to put it??

 

4 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

My problem was the long, thin strips. I finally added text to them and buried them at the bottom of my layout in the same color as the background.

I totally agree with you both.  I played around for a few hours and it didnt come together until the very end.  Those strips and the short stitiching were a challenge and I was putting them all over and at the very end I put them where I did.  I had wanted the head shot picture to have those co0l faded edges that Sue does, but do you think I can even remember how to do it.  I tried a few things, looked for a tutorial but didnt find it.  PSP was acting weird too, wouldnt go to layers when I clicked on them.  I would do  selection>modify>select selection borders on a photo that was under another photo on the corner and it would select edges around the photo and the edges of the photo above it, but only the part that was overlapping.  Finally I just filled it to see what it would look like and the odd "extra" border wasnt there.  It was very late at night so now I think maybe I just imagined it. ? That's why I like these challenges, because they can be hard, but I keep going until I am saftisfied with it.  

Edited May 27, 2023 by Susan Ewart

[Sue Thomas]

4 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

 

I totally agree with you both.  I played around for a few hours and it didnt come together until the very end.  Those strips and the short stitiching were a challenge and I was putting them all over and at the very end I put them where I did.  I had wanted the head shot picture to have those co0l faded edges that Sue does, but do you think I can even remember how to do it.  I tried a few things, looked for a tutorial but didnt find it.  PSP was acting weird too, wouldnt go to layers when I clicked on them.  I would do  selection>modify>select selection borders on a photo that was under another photo on the corner and it would select edges around the photo and the edges of the photo above it, but only the part that was overlapping.  Finally I just filled it to see what it would look like and the odd "extra" border wasnt there.  It was very late at night so now I think maybe I just imagined it. ? That's why I like these challenges, because they can be hard, but I keep going until I am saftisfied with it.  

I'll start with the strips, although they can be a pain to use.  If  I'm stumped by them, I nearly always resort to  using them to add text, they make excellent elements for  all kinds of journaling.  With regard to the faded edges that I do, I'm not fully  understanding what you are referring to.  So, I've posted what I think  you may be referring to. If so, a lot of different  techniques depending what I want to achieve are used.  What I will say is, they are all  created using  the mask tool.   I could give you step by step instructions for a specific project I have done, but then again there will be a lot of factors to take into account, to get the desired effect.  I think, it may be a project for Carole, for a masterclass.  

[Sue Thomas]

here are two more.

 

[Sue Thomas]

For this one I used over 3 masks, and adjustment layers.  For the Primroses, I used the same the selection tool to select some flowers, overlays, adjustment layers to create the outer edges. 

[Sue Thomas]

2 minutes ago, Sue Thomas said:

For this one I used over 3 masks, and adjustment layers.  For the Primroses, I used the same the selection tool to select some flowers, overlays, adjustment layers to create the outer edges. 

At this moment in time I can't think any tutorials which will include the majority of  techniques I use, there is the  adjust what masterclass, which covers the adjustment layers, and there are lots of mask tutorials, also there's the beautiful mess masterclass.  I'm sure Carole can suggest other classes to watch. Over the years, and in time  you will be able do the same,  I can adapt techniques that I have learnt, and incorporate them in other things.  Just like what I suggested Ann did with her out of bounds photos, but that was a very simple alternative technique .