Today I’m excited to kick off a new scrapbooking challenge series … our Inspired by Real Life Scrapbook Challenge!
When you’re in need of new ideas or your scrapping mojo has gone missing, it’s common to run first to your scrapbooking idea books, favorite online galleries or related blogs … and these are great sources of inspiration.
But how often do you simply stop and look around you at the everyday objects in your home, your workplace, your community … your “real” life?
This challenge series is designed to help do just that … to develop the habit of looking for creative inspiration all around you.
What To Expect…
Each Thursday for the next several weeks, I’ll share a new Inspired by Real Life challenge focus here on the blog. Sometimes this will be in the form of an overall category, such as today’s challenge, and other times it will be a bit more narrow in focus. When appropriate, I’ll share several examples of how you might apply the challenge, as well as point you toward any resources I think might be helpful in your endeavor.
Your task at that point is to create a scrapbook page based on the inspiration focus presented in the challenge. You may use the actual example shared in the challenge or you may find one from your own “real life” that fits within the theme. Once your page is done, you will post it in the current theme’s challenge gallery. If you decide to use your own inspiration piece, you will need to share that in your layout description through a link to an image, a website, or whatever else is appropriate for your item. I will also create a thread for each week’s focus in our Challenge Central forum, so if you’d like to link us up to your page, please do so. This will also be an easy all-in-one place to refer to as the challenge series progresses.
The deadline to complete this challenge each week will be noon (Mountain time) on the Tuesday following the challenge. After the deadline has passed, one random winner will be selected from everyone who successfully posted by the deadline. That winner will be announced in that week’s forum thread and will receive a $5 gift certificate to the online scrapbooking store of their choice.
In addition, for every layout successfully posted by the deadline, I will put one ticket with the artist’s name in a basket. At the conclusion of this series, one winner will be drawn to receive a special grand prize, which will be disclosed at a later date. The more layouts you create, the more chances to win … and yes, you are welcome to create more than one layout for each challenge. I’ve even challenged myself to participate right along with you, though of course I will take my name out of the contests.
Ready to get started? Then let’s go…
If you’re looking for inspiration, you can’t go wrong with a stack of children’s storybooks. Whether they belong to your children, your grandchildren, or are favorites you remember from your own childhood, there are numerous ways you can use a storybook as a springboard for a scrapbook page. Just for starters, you could…
- Borrow the storybook title as the heading for your layout.
- Imitate the author’s writing style. Many storybooks use rhyme, repetition, or a predictable sequence of events, such as an ABC format.
- Create a page about your favorite childhood storybook … or that of your own child.
- Model your page design after the book’s cover or a particular page.
- Incorporate specific quotes or phrases from the story into your page.
After spending just 15 minutes sifting through my own storybook collection, I came up with several layout ideas. Here are just a few books that caught my eye and the ideas they sparked for possible layouts …
Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? I have the most adorable photo of my son Kody at the age of 3 reaching up to the kitchen counter to sneak a cookie when he thought I wasn’t looking. Ideas ranged from borrowing this as a layout title to incorporating some of the repetitive verse into the journaling.
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch This is the story contrasting Rancher Hicks’ uneventful trip into Sleepy Gulch with the outrageous happenings going on back at the ranch experienced by his wife, Elna. I thought it might be fun to copy this concept with a page contrasting my “quiet” day at home with the kids to my hubby’s supposedly more intense daily trips to the office.
Everything to Spend the Night This is a fun ABC story that shares a list of everything one little girl needs for a successful trip to her grandparent’s house. I can envision a page … or even a mini album … copying this story with a list of all of the things we seem to “need” to make a similar trip with our family.
I Spy Mystery This book, part of a favorite series for many children, includes large, two-page photo spreads with hidden objects and rhyming verse listing the objects on the pages. It reminded me of a photo I have of my firstborn when he was about six months old, propped among a bunch of teddy bears and other stuffed animals. It might be fun to enlarge that photo and model the journaling after the book … I spy a white fluffy lamb, a brown fuzzy bear, a cute little boy with curly red hair…
Childhood Favorites Books have always been a big part of my life and these are a few of my first favorites … the actual well-worn copies. I have vivid memories associated with each of these which I’d like to get documented through my scrapbooks.
If you don’t have children’s books at your home, check out your local library or spend a few minutes browsing the children’s section of Amazon.com. Your options are pretty much unlimited.
Challenge Rules:
- Create a scrapbook page inspired by a children’s storybook.
- Post your completed layout in the Challenge #1 gallery album before noon (Mountain) on Tuesday, April 20th. (You are welcome to post to this album after the deadline, however pages posted late will not be eligible for prizes.)
- Be sure to include the name of the storybook that inspired your page in the layout description and if possible, link us to an image or online book description.
- (Optional) Link us up to your layout in the Challenge #1 thread in the Inspired by Real Life Challenge forum.
- Come back next Thursday for our next Inspired by Real Life Challenge!
Chat Reminder…
Be sure to join us this evening at 7 p.m. Mountain/9 p.m. Eastern for our Just My Type! Challenge Chat! We’ve got a great freebie, a fun challenge and a very cool prize from sponsor Darcy Baldwin to give away to one lucky guest! Everyone welcome!
Get the inside scoop, be the first to know about new product releases & get special discounts by subscribing to our new weekly newsletter, the Log Your Memory INSIDER. Delivered directly to your INBOX every Sunday afternoon.
Please share your thoughts in a comment below …
About Kristin Rutten
Kristin, how fun is this? Can’t wait to get started..have all kinds of ideas running around my little brain! Thanks for the challenge.
Kristin, how fun is this? Can’t wait to get started..have all kinds of ideas running around my little brain! Thanks for the challenge.
I am terribly excited about this challenge. I already have two or three ideas for this one and I am no where near my children’s books. Just think if I were actually looking at them. Thanks for another great challenge!
I am terribly excited about this challenge. I already have two or three ideas for this one and I am no where near my children’s books. Just think if I were actually looking at them. Thanks for another great challenge!