It's not that complicated to get nice spirals and familiar fractals patterns! Masking shapes and textures can be a bit tricky to begin with, but there are lots of tutorials, and the ones in the program are very useful. The layout is similar to photoshop, with layers etc, so it shouldn't be too confusing if you've used that.
I think I'll give it a try. I've never really played with computer generated image programs but I've always had a secret fascination. Let's see what I come up with
It is free to download and use, but beware that there will be watermarks if you render the image. I think it's still worth trying though. It's a lot of fun, and you could always do screenshots.