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Posted
1 hour ago, Julie Magerka said:

This is a layout I did when I was feeling really down & out in early May. It's about my own feelings and reactions to life at the time.

unspoken layout.jpg

Julie, I'm glad you are back and feel a bit more your normal self! The top 2 layouts are great and I can imagine your friend being very happy with those. The last one has indeed a somber and unhappy vibe around it and I think that although you were down, you have managed to convey that feeling very well, which in itself is an achievement.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

This is a layout I did when I was feeling really down & out in early May. It's about my own feelings and reactions to life at the time.

unspoken layout.jpg

I love this layout, it's art!  And it's therapy too to create when you in a darker headspace.  I know people that make great works when they are in a darker phase.  I am more paralyzed mentally if I'm stressed and can't focus enough create...usually that's when I organize(for some reason I find it destressing).  (Note: dont read that as me being an organized person, I am organized to the T with work, but at home all bets are off- I'm a hot mess these days).

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Posted (edited)

Another lab done - Lab 14 Mod 5. The font is Bell MT; requirements: knot in a rope (not really happy with it, but it is what it is); and craft paper envelope. The photo was taken by my daughter as we were following along with a FedEx plane in the sky and a Goodyear Blimp (I'll use the blimp sometime later). The ledger paper I made in another lab (in several colors); the background paper was made from a picture I took of my cousin's couch pillow (I'm always looking for textures and interesting items to make into a pattern for papers, etc.) I have the pillow pattern in several different colors using Hue,Saturation,Lightness.

Lab 14 Mod 5_600.jpg

Edited by Mary Solaas
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Posted
23 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

For quite a while, I was producing mostly really bad layouts that I would then discard. Then I'd start again and repeat the discard. It was so disappointing b/c working on layouts is a great stress reliever and distraction for me (usually).

Then a good friend sent me some of her old family pix which were mostly bad snapshots (the newer ones). I told her I could work with them and produce something more viewable for her. So that's what I started to do. It helped to get me back in the saddle, so to speak. And she seems happy with what I've done so far. It's interesting to me that the older B&W photos are much better than the colour ones from the 70s and 80s.

Here's an extraction I did from one of the snaps of her mom. Don't remember what I used but likely elements from Anna Aspnes.

I'll post a couple more separately, without the preamble.

AG remember this_600.jpg

This came out great, Julie! The way you selected and manipulated the subject, and how you blended it with the other elements. Lovely work!

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Posted
23 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

This is a layout I did when I was feeling really down & out in early May. It's about my own feelings and reactions to life at the time.

unspoken layout.jpg

Julie, even if it shows a moment when you were feeling down, the layout is beautiful.

This reminds me of some layouts by a designer whose newsletter I subscribed to and have already mentioned here.

Her work is quite artistic, and at times, she designs layouts that showcase the not-so-good moments of her life.   It likely serves as a catharsis.

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Posted

I have been playing with a moon pick I took a couple of nights ago trying to make a strawberry moon and this is what I came up with. 

strawberry moon.jpg  6.jpg

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Posted
2 hours ago, Cristina said:

Julie, even if it shows a moment when you were feeling down, the layout is beautiful.

This reminds me of some layouts by a designer whose newsletter I subscribed to and have already mentioned here.

Her work is quite artistic, and at times, she designs layouts that showcase the not-so-good moments of her life.   It likely serves as a catharsis.

I think this layout was done with elements etc. from Rachel Jefferies and Lynn Grievson. I subscribe to their Substack feed and get lots of stuff from them, including some inspiration from what they post.

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Posted
21 minutes ago, Anne Lamp said:

Here is how I used that strawberry moon.  The background and angel are from C F. 

angel and straberry moon manna from heaven..jpg 6.jpg

That does look yummy! 

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Posted
On 6/10/2025 at 11:19 AM, Susan Ewart said:

I love this layout, it's art!  And it's therapy too to create when you in a darker headspace.  I know people that make great works when they are in a darker phase.  I am more paralyzed mentally if I'm stressed and can't focus enough create...usually that's when I organize(for some reason I find it destressing).  (Note: dont read that as me being an organized person, I am organized to the T with work, but at home all bets are off- I'm a hot mess these days).

I wish that I would clean, tidy, or organize when life is throwing curves at me! My house would benefit from that.

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Posted
On 6/10/2025 at 5:24 PM, Mary Solaas said:

Another lab done - Lab 14 Mod 5. The font is Bell MT; requirements: knot in a rope (not really happy with it, but it is what it is); and craft paper envelope. The photo was taken by my daughter as we were following along with a FedEx plane in the sky and a Goodyear Blimp (I'll use the blimp sometime later). The ledger paper I made in another lab (in several colors); the background paper was made from a picture I took of my cousin's couch pillow (I'm always looking for textures and interesting items to make into a pattern for papers, etc.) I have the pillow pattern in several different colors using Hue,Saturation,Lightness.

Lab 14 Mod 5_600.jpg

I love your background and your paper envelopes look real!  I like this layout, it's nicely balanced.

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Posted
23 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

I wish that I would clean, tidy, or organize when life is throwing curves at me! My house would benefit from that.

I dare say I like to organize but I still feel super unorganized.  Why do i need to keep supplies from crafts from 20 yrs ago, thinking I'm going to do them again, when I have some time.  I dont have time for my current hobbies why do I think I'll have time for hobbies from 20 yrs ago.  I wish I could be brutal and keep only what I need.  

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Posted
3 hours ago, kasany said:

Spring in a local park. Photos taken by JK.

Spring.jpg

That looks like a wonderful park to go for a leisure stroll on a spring day!

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Posted
7 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I dare say I like to organize but I still feel super unorganized.  Why do i need to keep supplies from crafts from 20 yrs ago, thinking I'm going to do them again, when I have some time.  I dont have time for my current hobbies why do I think I'll have time for hobbies from 20 yrs ago.  I wish I could be brutal and keep only what I need.  

I have that same problem!  There is so much craft stuff here that I'll probably never use again, but you never know!  

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Posted
7 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I dare say I like to organize but I still feel super unorganized.  Why do i need to keep supplies from crafts from 20 yrs ago, thinking I'm going to do them again, when I have some time.  I dont have time for my current hobbies why do I think I'll have time for hobbies from 20 yrs ago.  I wish I could be brutal and keep only what I need. 

It can always come in handy! I started a quilling project when I was in my teens, and I never finished it. When I moved out on my own, I brought the little box of half-completed quilling flower pots. It turned out that I was able to use those pots and plants when I did my daughter's miniature green room. It was just 45 years later! 😂

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Posted
20 hours ago, Cassel said:

It can always come in handy! I started a quilling project when I was in my teens, and I never finished it. When I moved out on my own, I brought the little box of half-completed quilling flower pots. It turned out that I was able to use those pots and plants when I did my daughter's miniature green room. It was just 45 years later! 😂

That is how I think of it too, but getting old(er) now I doubt I'll have all the years left to use everything I accumulated 🥲

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Posted

I am glad I am not alone and in very esteemed company, in the "Over-Supplied Crafter Club" (OSCC for short).  Yesterday I got rid one one thing, this morning I took it back, because...you never know, right?

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Posted

Two days ago, on June 12, I observed the 100th anniversary of the day my grandmother brought my mother and her baby sister to Canada to join her husband who was already in Canada (in Ontario) working on a farm. My mother was 5 years old. They disembarked in Halifax after nine days at sea. Then they took a train across many provinces to get to their destination.

It is a significant anniversary for me and yet sad b/c they are so few people whom I can share this layout with. My older sister has been in a state of cognitive decline for a year or so, and has lost all interest in any of these things. But I did it to honour them and for me.

The image of the ship in the bottom right corner is the actual ship they were on. The layout is meant to be ragged and distressed, as I'm sure their lives were at the time.

 

 

100 years ago 1925.jpg

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Julie Magerka said:

Two days ago, on June 12, I observed the 100th anniversary of the day my grandmother brought my mother and her baby sister to Canada to join her husband who was already in Canada (in Ontario) working on a farm. My mother was 5 years old. They disembarked in Halifax after nine days at sea. Then they took a train across many provinces to get to their destination.

It is a significant anniversary for me and yet sad b/c they are so few people whom I can share this layout with. My older sister has been in a state of cognitive decline for a year or so, and has lost all interest in any of these things. But I did it to honour them and for me.

The image of the ship in the bottom right corner is the actual ship they were on. The layout is meant to be ragged and distressed, as I'm sure their lives were at the time.

 

 

100 years ago 1925.jpg

Beautifully done Julie.  I cant even imagine what 3rd class even was.  And the hardship it must've been for your grandmother, on her own with two young children.  You succeeded in giving it a feeling of ragged and distressed.  I got goosebumps when you mentioned that is the actual ship they were on.  I'm sorry to hear about your sister.

Edited by Susan Ewart
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Posted
On 6/11/2025 at 6:01 PM, Julie Magerka said:

I think this layout was done with elements etc. from Rachel Jefferies and Lynn Grievson. I subscribe to their Substack feed and get lots of stuff from them, including some inspiration from what they post.

Yes, those are the ones I was referring to.

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Posted
6 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Two days ago, on June 12, I observed the 100th anniversary of the day my grandmother brought my mother and her baby sister to Canada to join her husband who was already in Canada (in Ontario) working on a farm. My mother was 5 years old. They disembarked in Halifax after nine days at sea. Then they took a train across many provinces to get to their destination.

It is a significant anniversary for me and yet sad b/c they are so few people whom I can share this layout with. My older sister has been in a state of cognitive decline for a year or so, and has lost all interest in any of these things. But I did it to honour them and for me.

The image of the ship in the bottom right corner is the actual ship they were on. The layout is meant to be ragged and distressed, as I'm sure their lives were at the time.

 

 

100 years ago 1925.jpg

I can only imagine the range of emotions your grandmother must have felt during this trip with two small children. When I look at some photos, I tend to focus on the eyes; I believe they reveal so much.

You did an excellent job, Julie, honoring this moment in their lives.

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Posted
9 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Two days ago, on June 12, I observed the 100th anniversary of the day my grandmother brought my mother and her baby sister to Canada to join her husband who was already in Canada (in Ontario) working on a farm. My mother was 5 years old. They disembarked in Halifax after nine days at sea. Then they took a train across many provinces to get to their destination.

It is a significant anniversary for me and yet sad b/c they are so few people whom I can share this layout with. My older sister has been in a state of cognitive decline for a year or so, and has lost all interest in any of these things. But I did it to honour them and for me.

The image of the ship in the bottom right corner is the actual ship they were on. The layout is meant to be ragged and distressed, as I'm sure their lives were at the time.

 

 

100 years ago 1925.jpg

A beautiful tribute to your grandmother and great grandmother.

About 50 years earlier, my grandmother brought her 2 youngest children with her in 3rd class steerage to the Upper Michigan area in USA to be with her husband, leaving her 2 oldest children in servitude in the Tyrol until they could afford to bring them here. Her 2 oldest children were my grandmother and her brother. They traveled here in steerage a few years later. The draw to the UP was the iron ore mines that were advertising in Europe for workers in the mines. That area turned out, as a result, in being settled by many different nationalities from upper Europe.

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Posted (edited)

Beautiful, Julie! I honor my father in June as it will be his birthday on the 23rd and it's Father's Day here in the States. He's been gone a long time (born in 1892-died 1981) but I still miss him. I update and post this same layout every year in his honor. As you can see, he was a railroad man - chief night dispatcher for the Erie Railroad for over 40 years. 

FATHER'S DAY 2025-HAROLD TERWILLIGER_600.jpg

Edited by Ann Seeber
Added a detail
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Posted
15 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

Two days ago, on June 12, I observed the 100th anniversary of the day my grandmother brought my mother and her baby sister to Canada to join her husband who was already in Canada (in Ontario) working on a farm. My mother was 5 years old. They disembarked in Halifax after nine days at sea. Then they took a train across many provinces to get to their destination.

It is a significant anniversary for me and yet sad b/c they are so few people whom I can share this layout with. My older sister has been in a state of cognitive decline for a year or so, and has lost all interest in any of these things. But I did it to honour them and for me.

The image of the ship in the bottom right corner is the actual ship they were on. The layout is meant to be ragged and distressed, as I'm sure their lives were at the time.

 

 

100 years ago 1925.jpg

Julie a beautiful tribute to your grandmother and however the hardship must have been she is also traveling to her husband. Hopefully that thought will have sustained her during the crossing. Did your mother tell about it, she was old enough to remember some of it. I'm sorry to hear about your sister, it must be hard on you to see her like this.

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