Challenge Me!

I love challenges.  Whenever I'm feeling a little mojo-less, I turn to a challenge.  Particularly because I don't scrap chronologically and I'm pretty much "caught up," sometimes I need a spark to get me going!

Currently, I'm participating in "The Sketchbook Olympics" at The Sketch Book.  I saw the challenge listed on the Pub Calls blog and I decided to sign up.  The first challenge was as follows:

So, the first sport we are tackling is Cycling. We thought we would go easy on you for the first week  

Here are the rules:

Create a layout (8x8 or bigger) using a circular/wheel theme.

You must include:
1. Circles as embellishments on your page
2. Circle / dot patterned paper

That's it! Not too hard for the first one right??

I used the Parfums d'ete' collection from Sultane for the challenge.

Here is a close up of the layered circles, which are super cool in real life:

I'm also participating in "Collage Play by CrowAbout."   Each week the group leader, Nancy, posts a collection of collage elements.  We need to incorporate them in some way into an art journal page.  Here is my page for the week:

 

Most of the people playing along with the challenge are collage artists, not scrapbookers.  So, my stuff is a little more literal than theirs.  I'm hoping to get further and further away from the literal as I go on with the challenge, but I've never been much of an abstract thinker.  It's hard for me.  I like text and story way too much!

Here are some other challenges that I like:

• Scrap Mojo: Leaning towards the artsy fartsy, these girls have a funny, hip vibe.  Their challenges usually involve a bunch of moving parts (so to speak) and they often feature some very hip guest hosts.
  
• How Much Is Too Much: Started by a bunch of ladies who felt that they had an abundance of scrapbook supplies (don't we all?), this challenge features prompts asking you to use up a lot of stuff on your pages!
• Method Playground: This one was started by a bunch of HOF runner-ups.  Each week they feature a technique and challenge you to use it.
• Mixed Media Monday: There's a theme every Monday.  Participants create pages, quilts, objects, paintings - lots of different mixed media eye candy - based on the theme.  This week is Recycle/Repurpose.
• One Little Word: Every other Wednesday, the crazy talented design team challenges you to use a certain word as a jumping off point for a layout.  On the in-between weeks, they offer up a technique tutorial.
• Scrapping the Music: The very international design team at this site chooses a song every week and ask you to put the lyrics on your page.  I have found that even when the music isn't my style, the lyrics often get me moving.
• Pencil Lines: Celebrity hosts, lots of different styles, each week there's a brand new sketch to inspire you.  They're up to sketch #99 this week!
• The Art is Found: Artsy fartsy and verging on something that isn't quite scrapbooking (collage, maybe?), this is a relatively new challenge blog (started in March).  It's all about making art based on the little things around you.  Art is everywhere.
• The Creative Type: Brand new challenge site (they're still on challenge #1) focused on typography.
• The Story Matters: As you might guess from the name, the focus here is on telling your story.  This site is a new discovery for me.  I haven't participated yet, but I hope to very soon!
• The Digi Dares: Another new site for me.  I found it by following a link on someone else's blog.  I'll bet you can guess from the name - it's all challenges focusing on digi artists.  But, they're not necessarily digi-specific.  The current challenge is to use the word "create" on a page.
• The original: The Effer Dares: I may be wrong, but I believe that the effer girls were the first ones to create a scrapbooking challenge blog.  Always good inspiration, but between you and me, I find their website hard to navigate.  It gets all jumbled for me.  But, it's worth hunting around and playing along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Comments

[Nat]

those layered pop up circles are so cool.Awesome layouts!
I love challenges too to get my mojo dancing ;-)

[Lilian Schneider]

Wow, you make great stuff!

And thanks for the urls of the challenge blogs.

[Gina]

I didn't know of a few of these. Thanks! I'm always on the look out for challenge blogs. I love em. I just found a cool art journal one by Elise Blaha she does weekly. Its pretty cool. It also has a flickr group.

http://eliseblaha.typepad.com/paper08/

[Helen]

I feel exactly the same about the Effer Dares one, I can never get the hang of how to navigate it properly, and always end up feeling I'm just not 'in' enough to play :(

Another great site is http://creativetherapy.wordpress.com - inspiring guests and worthwhile challenges.

[noelia]

Great pages! Thanks for sharing the challenges blog links.

[PatternPaperAddict]

Wonderfully awesome LOs!

[Charleen]

love the moma LO. it's diff :)

[Pearl Maple]

Great selection of challenge boards, something there for everyone, thanks for sharing all that inspiration.

[Deb Wisker]

Great links!! Just did a post to send readers here to explore the sites. Great resource! Thanks!!

[gigi]

hey julie! great list! & so happy OLW is up there...wow that makes me honored :)

& i was just on the quilting arts blog & saw you won some fabric! small world this internet world is sometimes...lol

hope you are having a great summer :)

xoxo

gi

[Lee]

Love your work! Thanks for the list, it's exactly what I've been looking for and I appreciate it all in one place :)