Julie Magerka

I have collected a few clusters over time, but I end up never using them on the few layouts I do. I'm not a scrapbooker so frills and embellishments are not to my taste.I think Sue Thomas's idea of having a layout and then creating the cluster makes good sense. I wanted some spring-y colours in mine to go with the warm weather we're having, which is really unseasonable for this area, as in 'way too hot! The wavy ribbon is from lindsay jane designs and it's a border that I resized and changed the shape of. The flowers and paper strip are from Di Hiller. Only a tiny bit of shadow added since I see that many designers offer their clusters with and without.

Just sent mine this morning. What fun! It felt like being a kid again!

Happy birthday Corrie. Hope your day was special and memorable.

Poncho singing! This is priceless.

I downloaded some freebies from Di Hiller Productiions. The only thing I did was the text (modelled on hers). I just love the colours in this for Spring. Easter greetings to all, and Passover too.

When I lived in Toronto, the garden centres there were open year-round for the reason you mentioned. I used to love going to them during the doldrums of winter to see the greenery and breathe in the smells. It was reassuring. But - sadly - none of them at that time offered a coffee shop. That would've been great.

I like these challenges. It keeps me on my toes trying to create something worthwhile. I have no gift for layouts so using someone else's ideas is helpful. The background paper is from Digital Scrapbooking, Melo Vrijhof, called Animal Kingdom collage paper. I added the outlines of gnarly tree branches to the background and adjusted the opacity. The frames are vector shapes with effects added. The photos are by Bobbi Goodrich, a US photographer and artist. Her work is outstanding. I've had them for years and wanted to do something with them.

Corrie: Nice! And you're already going into garden centres and seeing the alluring colours. Lucky you. Ours won't be open for a few more weeks. We can't even plant most annual flowers until well into May in case of frost and cold nights. Our weather has been mostly wet and chilly for March, but I guess that's better than the snow we often get. I AM ready to see colourful beauty again in nature.

Thanks Michelle. I did what you pointed out, and it's a bit better. Can't be bothered to reduce & save again to post it a second time. But I'm really glad you pointed out this technique to me.

Day 7. Done. The text says "marina" in case it's not easily readable. I find it's often a bit challenging to read the letters when they are cut out as pictures. The photo is mine of the lovely marina we have in our small town on Lake St. Clair (not a Great Lake officially, but part of the system). I really enjoyed this series of lessons and prompts. I used techniques I wasn't familiar with and got a bit improved in some of those. Thanks Carole. Having your templates was a great help as well. I don't do scrapbooking, but I do enjoy just creating layouts for birthdays or other things. Mainly, PSP helps me work with old photos to make them better quality for my history and genealogy projects.

Trying to get caught up. Here is Day 6. There are many things that didn't work out well, but sometimes that has to be good enough. Photo is from my garden a few years ago. The cheerful and welcome little crocus. The title is done with a small colored ball and the vector tube script. It filled each letter entirely....oh well. I wanted colour, and I got colour! (I used American spelling on the layout.)

Nadine: I know what you mean. I often feel so disappointed and dissatisfied with my layouts after I've spent hours on them! In the beginning, I think I have a good idea, and it goes downhill after that! But I think your finished project is great!

That's a cute little critter that I don't think we have around here in SW Ontario. Always enjoy your pix.

Day 5 is done. Those are acorns in case they are not very clear in the reduced size. Never use them to feed critters, but used 'em here! Photo taken not that long ago. Crazy weather lately.

Love that cat font!

If handsome Poncho is in the layout it just makes me smile! And this one is too precious!

It will get easier with help from here and all the tutorials and labs. It's a massive program to master! I wanted to give up many times, but it's worth sticking around. :-)) And, for the first attempt, you've done such a great job! More than I could do when I got started.

I have fallen a bit behind, so here is Day 4. I am SO grateful to have the templates provided to save some time. Thank you Carole. The photos are all from UnSplash, and the rest is likely all from Digital Scrapbooking. Not very spring-like here yet, so I think the poor robins must be hungry and chilly, and they've been around for a while now.

I wanted to make something for this challenge. But I couldn't think of ONE song with Spring in the title, so of course I googled for one. I chose this one by the King of whom I was not particularly a fan back then, but really love his voice now. I just wanted to "mess around" with it, and that's what turned out.

Your l/o has many elements, but it's not too busy. They all work together well. And how nice of your brother to get you your first camera.

So impressed with your use of elements/papers etc from your own kit!

I was so ready for Day 3. And Carole gave us a template to work with! So, how hard was it going to be? Well, let me say...I spent way too much *@^$# time on this project! The text tool has a mind of its own (which is what I thought before I started this series). When I clicked on the Text Tool and tried to change the size, the colours would change. So, then I'd click on the Materials Palette boxes to change the colour, and the text size would revert. Or I'd click on the Font colour button on the text toolbar, and nothing would happen. And this went on and on until I was ready to do damage to the laptop! Sigh. So here is my Day 3 with wrapped text. I'm so over it. (I used an old photo b/c I happened to have it for some work I was doing on a history article.) And then, I wanted to go back to change a couple of things, and I saved the .pspimage merged. Not my day. EDIT: I just couldn't walk away from the project. I had to try again. I started with the template and same image, and worked it through. I still had a few glitches with the text tool, but not nearly as many as the first attempt. Now, I AM DONE with this!

Yikes. I jumped when I scrolled to this one!

Another kit designer shows her stuff! Nice.

Lesson 2 Text. Having fun with this stuff.