Cecil

All is great, enjoying the travel...

In a way yes and no.  My brain would do all the thought processes, AI button the action(s).  Laziness no, at 71 and disabled, what seems easy for most is extremely difficult, at times, for me.  Initially I was captivated by OP question, three improvements.  When working on any project, 100 questions, what and how.  My solution, read each forum post and try to gain some knowledge, while enjoying the project or process I am trying to achieve.  I have to remind myself it’s a hobby, not a business.  I know many are professional level artist and each improvement is paramount in their workflow. Many years ago in a military training setting it was stated: “Continuous improvement is better then delayed Perfection.”

In this video, You will see, How to make a sliced text effect in Affinity Designer.
 

I did redo the project.  Inpainting barely removed the leaves and repeated process several times.  I then selected background layer and changed context tool bar to current layer and no problem removing unwanted leaves.  I guess the lesson was meant to show that multiple layers could be used to remove unwanted items; however, IMHO it worked better on single layer.  Not questioning lesson, just providing feedback.  So much to comprehend processes that will be beneficial when working on my photos.