Rise to the challenge

I am part of a private scrapping board and right now we are doing a challenge called Rise to the challenge it is either 5 or 6 weeks long. Every week we are given a challenge and have a week to do the LO and send it to the secret judges. They then judge us on 5 different criterias and on Friday we find out how we stacked up.

Week 1

The rules: Simon Says
You all remember how to play right?! Have fun!!
Simon Says to use CS as your LO Base
Simon Says to use 3 PPsSimon Says to use Buttons
Simon Says to use anything to attach your items to the paper
Simon Says to Distress your photos
Use ink to distress it
Simon Says to use ‘White Space’
Simon Says to Use 2 Photos

My LO

the judges scores and critic

Devon 39 out of 50

Awesome LO. Nice use of white space without the LO feeling empty.

I like how you used the star pp and the star buttons to complement each other. I think, though, that your photos kind of blend into the white c/s background and into the pp that is mostly white, and so they don't have as much "punch" as the pp stars are, KWIM?

I think if you would have angled the whole thing across the bottom left corner instead of having it straight, it would have “fit” better. I wish you would have distressed the photos more. If you hadn’t mentioned where you sanded it, I don’t know if I would have noticed!

Like the patterned paper. Would have liked to see more of it used as there seemed to be a lot of white space. Probably a preference thing; however, the amount of white spaces seems to overpower the LO and make it look unfinished. Would have liked to see a title and/or some more journaling. Glad your tried the technique; however, it’s doesn’t show up much from your photos. Overall, like the color coordination and the star buttons are super cute.

pictures distressed?

Very cute LO, and great use of white space! I think you could have distressed your photo a little more. You could have been more creative with how you attached your elements to the page, and a title cut out of that bright pp would have looked great. Good job

my thoughts on the judging yes I didnt distress it much, I just dont like the way pictures look distressed ex without ink so I tried to just squeak enough in to make it work for this contest.

The pictures do look pretty washed out in the picture of the LO they pop out more IRL

Didnt know I was being judged on how creativly I attached my pics to my page guess I should have busted out my sewing machine

Week 2 The rules

Rules:
You must include a clear object on your LO (ie. recycle some plastic packaging, ghost shape..etc)
You must use at least 1 punch on your page (be creative!)
You must treat the Ad as a LIFT (not just inspiration of colors etc.)

All I can say is EEEK Ad challenges are not my strong suit! I would have NEVER choosen this one but this is all about getting you to try new things soooo.

Here is my LO

Here are my scores and Judges comments

Devon 36

Beautiful LO, I like how the blue and white cs compliments the pictures so well. I think you could have been more creative with your clear object. The flourishes and owl are a nice touch!

Great LO great work with the lift! I’d like to see more attention paid to the techniques and elements!

I like the placement of your title on this LO, and the placement of your flourishes. I get that the bottom white curve represents the snow, but I still would have liked to see some subtle detailing in that area.

Nice job overall. It seems a little incomplete though. Adding something to the blank area on the bottom would help and would be more in keeping with the ad.

The bottom of this LO seems plain. I think it would have benefited from some paper with more of a pattern. I do like the flourishes and the owl.

My thoughts I agree, I had a ton of things on that bottom white curve but nothing I had looked right so blank it remained.

Again I tried to squeak by with required elements and techniques. Trust me I learned my lesson next week!

Week 3

the challenge

Focus on the Photo

Create a LO that the Photo(s) are the center of attention!

Make sure your Photo is the focus of the LO.

Higher points if you can add close up detail to your Photo by focusing in on one area of the main photo with an additional close up photo.

Other requirements:
Technique - Doodling, you must doodle on your page....be creative!
Your page must include a pocket
Must include an arrow on your LO

My LO

a close up of some of the doodling

the results

Devon 40

Great job! Great use of a close up and nice doodling.

I love how you placed your title around your zoomed pic and doodled around it - really shows it off perfectly, and I love how you did the title itself. I'm not sure that the greens of the word frog, the frog pp, and the background c/s - kind of contrasting with the bright green grass - coordinate effectively. Wish I could see the LO IRL. Oh, I also like the placement of the arrow - understated but overlapping both pics. Great job!

Perfect picture for this challenge! Thank you for the close up of the doodling, I gave you more points once I could really see all the doodling you did!

you did a great job with this LO. I love how you enlarged the pic to fill the entire left side.

The pp goes perfectly with the theme. Nice touch doodling on the letters.


My thoughts I LOVED the way this LO turned out as soon as I read the challenge I knew what pictures I was going to use. The close up of the frog was actually a seperate picture that I took after the 1st just for use like this. LOL

Week 4 I cant show you the LO yet it is due tonight for judging. but here are the rules

Make a symmetrical LO that is also monochromatic. (monochromatic means only 1 color, no black, no white etc.... ) (Your photo is the only thing that can have color other then the color of choice in your monochromatic)
Your LO must include the following:
Technique - Stamping (Be creative!!)
Elements - Brads & Ribbon must be used

I will post it on friday with my scores!







Week 2






Week 3

Earth Day Blog Hop!

Happy Earth Day!!







For our blog hop that challenge was use recycled material somewhere on your LO. It can be recycled paper or something non scrapbookish you add to your page.
I used my cricut deep cut blade to cut some plastic packaging from a new cuttlebug embossing folder then embossed them and used alchol inks for some color (they are the 4 hearts if you cant tell)

I also made a card with a butterfly using the same technique

a close up of the hearts

Thanks for stopping by!

Now hop on over to Erica's blog and see what she did for this challenge!

More New LO's

I have been in an awfully scrappy mood lately. Here are some new ones.

Animal Kingdom 9-08 My DH was sick that day so it was just me, SJ, our friends and thier son.

Another Snow Tubing one.

Come back tomorrow for a special Earth Day Blog Hop!

This Saturday I am walking in the March for Babies to support the March of dimes. My son SJ was a preemie and its thanks to organizations like the March Of Dimes that he is a happy healthy 3 year old today! I honestly didnt think I would raise $100 so to have hit my goal of $300 is awsome! No anything I raise is above and beyond my goal.
Now I just need to walk the 3 miles Saturday Morning! Cant wait!!

got milk?

Just some SJ cuteness cant wait to scrap these pics.

New Lo's

The 1st 2 are from our trip to PA for my dads birthday last febuary

Some disney ones from our November trip, our next trip is 4 months away I am so excited!

SJs week

WE did some fun things this week, we made a Caterpillar after reading

The very hungry Caterpillar! SJ loved learning how it turned into a butterfly

Then on Saturday we went to an Earth Day celebration where they had a booth set up on how to attract butterflies to your garden well they showed SJ a tiny egg on a leaf and a Caterpillar that was eating and eating and eating getting ready to become a butterfly it was great for him to get to see it for himself. It amazes me how much he wants to learn right now.

There was also a bird rescue booth, SJs favorite was this owl. There was an American bold eagle there with a broken wing that SJ noticed right away and so he asked the lady what happened, after he found out, he told everyone that day he was truly worried about the bird it was cute.

He made this great mask

He also made an awesome bird feeder from a pine cone, peanut butter and bird seed

We also got our picture taken with this HUGE snake, I am not a fan of snakes but when your son says PALEASE MOMMY you do it. They had its head by me and it kept sticking out its tongue and i was freaked out so i let its head go down my back, not great for a picture but made me more comfortable. I look horrid, no make up still have lots of lbs to lose but here is the pic.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a wonderful easter, we are having an easter brunch with almost 40 people coming, an easter egg hunt for the kids and a raw egg toss for everyone.

I have a ham in the oven and will start the eggs soon. Hope it turns out to be a good time! I will post pics of course.

SJ found his easter basket this morning and was pretty excited to find everything in it. Then the Easter bunny left him a note saying he hid 10 eggs in the backyard, he found those all pretty easy and loved that there were cars in some of them!

Spa Weekend

one of my favorite blogs is hosting a great weekend check this out!

cant wait!

Rice Krispy Birds Nests

Todays project with SJ was rice krispy birds nests! You make rice crispy treats like you normally would, then shape them like birds nest (the trick here is to butter your hands up ALOT!!) then top with some jellybeans then a mama bird a peep. We ran out of peeps so I told SJ those birds went to get some dinner. LOL We both had fun making them, I have around 35 people coming for brunch on easter i hope they eat some of them!

Easter Bunny Visit

Today we went to where the easter bunny resides during this time of year, the mall! 1st time I have been there in a long time, didnt do anything but see the bunny though. SJ tolorated him but wasnt overly excited. The bad scrapping mama I am forgot my camera so had to take these with my camera phone. Of course i had to buy the package but its not the best either.

Then my little ham had to pose with the giant eggs. LOL

Candy Pretzels

So i found these adorable molds at my new Joannes and thought they would be prefect to make for my annual Easter Brunch. I was a bit scared since I have never done anything like this. So i started out with a single color. Cute right?


Then I got brave and decided to try 2 colors! Not perfect but i think pretty darn cute! Now i need to come up with a cute idea to display them at brunch so they will look pretty and people will eat them!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Crafting with SJ

We have been busy making bunnies around here!

A new LO. Another Disney LO this are my 3 favorite pictures of My dad and SJ from that trip. There is a contest on a private scrapping board I am on to use eyelets, the mickey head on the title block are eyelets. I had forgotten I had them!

Card Making Day

On Thursday my Grandma, Mom and Aunt came over to make some cards with me. My Grandma is an advid cardmaker, my aunt is a crafter but not a paper crafter and my mom well she has never really been crafty. So I came up with 3 cards for them to make.

This one I lifted from my friend Jen This one i lifted from the close to my heart catalog

This one I designed myself shocking i know!

I was trying to show them different tools to use, so we used the cuttlebug, stamps, and the cricut.
All in all it was a fun day even my mom said she enjoyed herself

A Scrappy Blog Hop

I am part of a great board that has a ton of talented scrappers on it. I thought it would be great to share all of thier wonderful work with all of you. So we started a blog hop! Take a look around at my stuff and when you are done, head over to Ericas blog she 3 adorable daughters and is one of the most talented scappers I know! I know you will love her work!!