Hop to It Challenge #9

REMINDER: Your Hometown Assignment #3: Neighborhood Park is due Wednesday evening. Earth Day is this week and so in honor of that, today's challenge is to go green on your layout. You decided what you'd like to reuse; clothing tags, packaging, buttons from your sewing box, etc. The sketch to go with it is from Page Maps. Hop To It Challenges from this week are due Sunday evening.

So, it was a winning weekend for our family; 11 y.o. won his game 3-0, 13 y.o. won her game taking rally's #2 and #3 and 9 y.o. won his game 3-0! Weather cooperated most of the day so that was a bonus. Sunday was just a nice, as quiet as it gets in this house, day. However, Saturday night it was all about cropping! I finished four pages; two 1-pagers and one 2-pager.

Week in the Life Day #1

Did I mention that Apron Strings is sponsoring two kits to the Week in the Life over at Ali Edwards blog? True. Leave your comments over there for a shot to win, and as they say in math, "show your work" here and you could win something from me, too. :) I'm excited to start and was reading some of her posts about prepping for the week - that ambitious, talented woman is planning four pages per day. FOUR. PER DAY! And I'm just planning two for the WHOLE WEEK. LOL. But you know, that's what's so great about this exercise - you get to choose what works best for you. One page, one layout or one book - your choice. Read up on some of the great ideas she has for this year's version. I've already started taking pictures - a sure fire way I'll outgrow my 2-page layout by the end of the day. I also have no plan. Part of the fun is staying open to however it comes together. I'm also finding it's going to be a great way to play with and practice my photography. Come play along. Check out Ali's blog, then post a couple examples of what you're doing sometime during the week. I

Hometown: Assignment #3

Friday! WooHoo! It was a pretty good day today - the sun was sort of out, the wind was only slightly blowing and the rain has held off. But the best part was while driving to Costco I noticed how there's this tinge of green on the trees, bushes and grass. That great yellow-green that tells you new buds are popping. And if you look a little longer you'll notice little bits of reds and yellows that tell you tulips and daffodils are blooming, too. As thoughts turn to Spring and the chance to get out, or at least open doors and windows to the fresh air, in our house, thoughts of and requests to go to the park become more frequent. We are lucky, our backyard may be postage-stamp big, but we have a park less than a block away. I can see it from my kitchen window. It's a great little neighborhood pocket park. When the land here was a farm, the park space was an orchard, so there are huge apple trees, though they don't seem to be fruit-bearing anymore, a creek and a haunted (or enchanted depending on the season) "forest." Add the playground equipment and a large, open, grassy space and it's better than a backyard.

It was the scene for many neighborhood activities: Egg Hunts, with the bright colored orbs spread out all over the grassy area - hardly hidden, but exciting nonetheless. Pumpkin Patches, with mini pumpkins strewn in the haunted forest, which was decorated with other beasties and treats. 4th of July Picnics, where the 4th of July Bike Parade would end with cool refreshments like Popsicles and lemonade. There were pony rides, balloon artists, puppeteers, fire trucks and even a brass quartet that played Christmas music when Santa came to the park one frozen December afternoon. So much of my kids' holidays were enjoyed there. It's a little sad now, though, with the social committee gone, Matthew won't get those experiences that his siblings enjoyed for several years. He'll just know it as the park with the great haunted forest and a creek for "crawdadding." The sight for buried treasure and ghost hunting. And a good place to go swing. Assignment #3: Photograph your local park. One you go to regularly, be it traditional playground-style or maybe less traditional. Maybe your time, these days, is spent at soccer parks and baseball parks. Whatever type of park you frequent, take a shot of it. Have it linked up by Wednesday evening to be eligible for Treats.

Get Ready for "Week in the Life"

Next week we'll be following along with Ali Edwards' "Week in the Life" (Apron Strings is a sponsor! :D) - in addition to "Hop To It" challenges. I'll keep the challenges light with sketches for those who want to participate in Ali's, too. You can click the image above and go to her blog to read up about it and see last year's, but it sounds really fun and I plan to play. She has great ideas of what to collect or maybe a focus you could take. If you did Project 365, something like it or wanted to do it, this is a really great exercise. She talks about prepping for the week, prep is always a good idea, but she is also doing a mini album; I'm sure it'll be awesome, but for me I'm going more simple, though I DO love a mini album. Shoot, I still have my Project 365 to finish and my December Daily album - so, yeah, my Week in the Life will be a two-page layout. I'm focusing on pictures to capture the week, but will see what else I may be able to collect.

I don't see any first layout links :D, I need to look on my desktop next time I'm down there and see if the photo of my first layout is down there. If so, I'll post it. I AM NOT ASHAMED, LOL.

Okay, that's it for today. I've got a sick little man and while he's sleeping I need to get stuff done. Tomorrow is the next assignment in the Hometown exercise and Saturday will be another challenge.

Hop To It Challenge #8

Just a disclaimer, I did look for mine, as I know I've shared it online before, but couldn't find it in the files on this computer. I have one more place to look, but I'm gonna get this post up without it at this point. WHAT!? Why the next challenge of course. (insert evil laughter here) You know we all started scrapbooking somewhere. I, myself, started 14 (14?!) years ago at a Creative Memories crop - I suspect a lot of us started there. Back when there was nothing out there. Really. Nothing. But I cranked out pages and was amazed - sticker-sneezed, cardstock corners and all. My how far things have come. As great as those pages were then, they don't so much stand up now. They may in fact elicit a cringe and hearty laughter; the what was I thinking kind of laughter. Inspiration can be found anywhere. Anywhere. (evil chuckle here) Even on our first pages. So, dig out the first page you did and find something on it that inspires you to create another layout; could be the colors you used, maybe punches have you thinking of a new way to use them, the photo layout, clip art (yes, we had to resort to clip art at one time) makes you think of doodling again or even the stickers :). Be sure you link up both the original, first layout and the one you created. Now this isn't a REDO of the first layout - the first layout is inspiring your current layout. Now, if by chance the physical layout of your, well, layout isn't the inspiration your taking, here's a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays to help you move forward.

So, enjoy the trip back in time, try not to scream or cringe - rediscover your first page for what it was - your first page, the jumping off spot, the place where your scrapbooking was born. :) Oh, and I can't wait to see what they inspire in you now. And to laugh of course. No, just kidding. No I'm not.

Hop To It Challenge #7

How was everyone's weekend? Here? Gorgeous weather - upper 60's and 70's, just the thing you want when your standing on the sidelines. We enjoyed four games, plus a surprise make-up on Sunday. Of the five games we won one, forfeited one, lost three. Bummer, the three were close too. One of the losses was the first loss for my daughter's volleyball team; they didn't settle into the first match and they had to fight back in the second to win, only to loose the third by 3 points. On the positive side my daughter served to 8 consecutive points which brought them within range during the third match. Exciting. I have a hard time sitting still, which is why soccer is better for me. I can pace and jump around and yell. ;) They tend to frown on that sort of behavior during a volleyball game - it's almost as hushed as a golf game. What's up with that? So, we are up to our 7th challenge. How's it going? I'm seeing some great layouts! I'm doing my best to post comments when there's places to do so with your links. Loved the white challenge layouts and how'd it feel to pull out some of those save-for-the-perfect-photo papers? I don't know, but they all looked like great match-ups to me! Today, it's quick and easy - or it is for me to type anyway; pair up some of your oldest photos with some of your newest kits/papers. Chances are if they are older photos that you keep passing on, they're not so hot theme-wise, less than inspiring and probably not the best shots. But like most things in scrapbooking, it's not about the perfection, it's about the memories. So, grab them, sort them and find the best of the worst. Snag those new kits/papers and get them paired up with your pictures. You never know, the two together may create a new favorite layout. To make Monday a little easier, here's a sketch from PageMaps.

Here's to hoping your Monday starts off well, and continues on through the week. Oh, I know I have a couple weeks worth of winners to announce and am hoping to get them up here this week. Shipping starts today, so probably not today :(, but I'll get to them soon.

Hop To It Challenge #6

I'm at one game or another all day today - early soccer 45 minutes from here, that overlaps with a volleyball game, that overlaps with another soccer game, that overlaps with the last volleyball game that has us running for church. Should be fun. Today's Hop To It Challenge is based on the very popular 5 on Friday, only in honor of it being Saturday, it is 6 on Saturday:

• 1 sheet cardstock
• 1 sheet patterned paper
• 1 set round embellishments
• 1 length ribbon
• 1 border
• 1 transparency or frame

And like the regular 5 on Friday, only the items listed can be used on your layout. This layout and the other challenges from this week are due Sunday night to be eligible for the Hop To It weekly Treat.

I've had a couple questions in regards to "catching up." Yes, please do. If you'd like to qualify for the Grand Prize, you will have until May 5th to catch up any missing challenges and still be eligible for the Grand Prize.

I'm off to start the whirlwind day and expect to crash soon after getting home. Hope your Saturday is enjoyable, without needing to crash, maybe just relaxing you and your scrapbook supplies.