I'm loving challenges

I have found that the sketches and challenges that I have been using are really inspiring me to get more layouts done. It's a goal for me to complete the 1o monthly challenges at SnC. I also try really hard to get the Sketchy Thursdays sketch done each week. Sometimes I am not able to get this weekly sketch done, but I do try. I have found that some of the challenges that I am trying are really making me step outside my comfort zone.

This week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays was a nice 2 photo layout. When I saw it, I thought I would have no a problem putting something together using the sketch as inspiration. I'm totally loving using the border punches I have started collecting and I get very excited when I see a sketch that I can use one with.


When I work on a sketch, I try to incorporate a challenge at SnC with it as well. Sometimes this isn't real easy, especially if I've completed most of the challenges already. As an added challenge, I have been trying to incorporate a 3rd challenge into each layout. This is very difficult for me, so I get pretty excited when something comes together that incorporates 4 contests.

I have been checking out the sketches and challenges at Scrapbook Challenges, a ning site that has some great inspiration. One of their challenges for July is By the number. The challenge was to use 0 - Patterned paper, 1 - Stamp, 2 - Photos, 3 - Ribbons and 4 - Alphas or fonts. An added twist was to use yellow and orange as the main colors. As it turns out, there is a challenge at The Studio Challenges blog from July 4th to do a layout with orange and yellow as the main colors.

When I saw the 2 photos in the By the numbers challenge I thought of the Sketchy Thursdays sketch. As I was checking out my photos, and the challenges I have left to do at SnC, photos of Courtney and Morgan struck me as a good match for these challenges. When the girls were visiting in May, Courtney discovered a stone in the garden near the office window. This was the perfect perch for each girl to stand upon for a nice photo. Courtney went first. I don't know what she was doing, but she made a strange face. Morgan had a neat pose. I was not sure I was going to scrap these photos because I didn't really like the expression that Courtney had. I used a photo of Jessie in a another layout in May, and I didn't want to use it again. One of the challenges at SnC is called Pose. We are to use a photo featuring a funny or fabulous pose. Hmmmm.

I used a stamp and stamped all over a piece of white cardstock. I'm not a very good stamper so this took me some time. I used 1 ribbon across the middle of the page on top of a piece of yellow cardstock that I punched with a border punch. The other 2 pieces of ribbon I created flowers with. That was a bit of a challenge for me as well. I've never made a flower from ribbon before. For the title of the page I used 2 different fonts. In the body of the journaling I used 2 additional fonts, alternating at each word. I have always wanted to do this with fonts, and just never tried it. I feel so good that I incorporated these challenges together and the page really came together.

Thanks for looking.

Weaving paper

I was trying to figure out how to incorporate a 2nd challenge or two into a layout using the sketch from The Studio Challenges from July 7, 2010.


My friend Beth from SnC created a paper weaving piece shaped like a circle. I really liked it and wanted to try it, so I thought this sketch would work for that. And the challenge for Week 27 at The ScrapRoom Blog was to create a layout about a holiday. I had taken a photo of the table decoration for our Easter table from 2009, and the photo just hit me as I was scrolling through trying to decide what to do. So this is what I came up with:


The weaving went much faster than I thought it would. I like how it turned out. I was not able to enter the layout into The ScrapRoom Blog challenge, but I am glad that I scrapped this photo. Thanks for looking.