Tuesday 21 December 2010

Scrapbook Challenges Week 3 Semi-Finalist Layouts {& a Merry Christmas to you!}

***If you don't have a chance to visit me here before Christmas here's wishing you a wonderful day {few days really!} full of JOYFESTIVE CHEERREFLECTIONWONDERFAMILY TOGETHERNESS,  RELATIONSHIP BUILDING,  and GLORY TO GOD!!***

I finally made some Christmas cards & a Christmas project (just in time!) so hopefully I'll get to load those before the big day!
Sadly I didn't make it into the FINAL FIVE.  I suppose my layout may not have had INSTANT APPEAL.  I needed to cram so many photos in to show what my days entailed, and wanted to journal a lot to convey a sense of fullness too...perhaps it was all just too much! 

The first time I posted this layout on my blog I didn't type out all the journaling so I went back into the forum thread & copied & pasted it all out so I could put it here.  I want to have a reminder of it on my blog.  I have also included the layouts of the 5 ladies that pipped me to the post, but first, the journaling!

Journaling reads:-
 
"Here it is - photographic proof of my days!  So much to do - so little time!  Loving your dad with all my heart, so that the 4 of you have a strong & secure environment to grow & flourish in.  Documenting your lives so that you will always remember your childhood vividly & have an awesome inheritance to pass on to your own children (your volumes of scrapbook albums). Ferrying you all over town to your singing lessons, football practices, dance classes & personal training sessions so you can realise your dreams.  Encouraging your academics so you have greater opportunity.  Going on family outings to Ushaka Wet 'n Wild, rugby matches at the stadium and to watch your favourite football teams.  Swimming at the gym followed by your favourite smoothies and snapsticks at Kauai.  Out for milkshakes for you & cappucino for me or at home helping you redesign your bedrooms or tidy up your cupboards.  Encouraging you to build the tallest Lego tower ever and arranging playdates with your friends.  Subscribing to your favourite magazines like "Spongebob" & "Cats".  Teaching you to care for your kittens and rescuing them from the laundry basket when you've put them "in prison".  Baking Christmas cookies & birthday cakes according to your orders!  Making papier mache masks with you for your art homework & weird flower arrangements with you when it's "posy day".  Painting & embellishing your class pot for the school auction & helping you create unusual items for market days at school, like the lava lamps!  (Thank Goodness for Google!) Buying you everything you need to create your tech projects using levers & cranks & working out how you can make a "real" volcano that can actually erupt in front of your whole class!  Spending hours in the car fetching & carrying.  Remembering your mini DVD players & DS Lite to keep you happy.  Helping you set up a "midnight feast" in the tent in your bedroom during the holidays & liaising with the Easter Bunny so that he still brings you your eggs even if we are away on holiday.  Opening the window for Tania the tooth-fairy when she has a collection to make!  Helping Santa to fill up your stockings so that they are spilling over...Laughing at our IJPJs {Inside jokes/Personal jokes}.  Believing in you & telling you that you can be and do anything you want if you put your mind to it.  Listening to you when you are having relationship problems with your peers.  Advising you.  Trusting in you.  Doing my best to get you to eat well. Cooking your favourite meals in turn and making sure we never run out of chicken nuggets, popcorn & juice.  Every day is different!  Every day is good!"
 LAYOUT BY MARILYN RIVIERA.

And this is what I wrote about my layout (in the forum thread).

I am so glad I was "forced" to get this layout done for this challenge as I love how it turned out & so does my family!  I created a giant collage in Picasa free software then mounted it on to some box cardboard that I cut into with my craft knife, for a distressed effect.  I added some bright yellow paint in 3 spots to create a visual triangle & keep the eye moving across the layout.  I typed up my journaling then inked my text box with yellow & mounted it onto colourful Crate Paper Restoration.  Finally added a few intentionally-positioned Maya Road resin roses to create 4 separate visual triangles so that none of the images got overlooked!

I used 31 photos in all & added plenty of journaling too.  Despite my layout being jam-packed & colourful (just like my life!) I kept things simple by aligning my journaling beneath my photo-grid & separating the photos & the journaling with a long, symettrical title. Quick, simple, inexpensive - the most difficult part was choosing the photos!  I love writing so the journaling comes easy.  It ties in with all the images so I wrote it as I scanned the photos {with my eyes} from left to right - top to bottom.  If you do the same you'll see that every image chosen is significant & has a snippet of journaling that relates to it.  The perfect page for the front of my most recent family album.
 LAYOUT BY SABRINA

These 2 ladies have lovely blogs that I have started visiting!  That is what I love about getting "out & about"-  meeting lovely new people with awesome talent.
 
LAYOUT BY CARMEN HENRIQUEZ-COHEN

I'm over getting depressed about not being "good enough" if I don't make it "to the top"  in everything I enter. Of course it's always a downer not seeing your name on the list but it gets easier with time...(and lots of rejection LOL)...believe me!  (I know because the recovery time is shorter ;-D)
 DIGITAL LAYOUT BY CHANELL RIGTERINK

I realise that this is a very competitive industry & there is literally an abundance of talent out there!  We all started scrapbooking because we LOVED the idea & I never want to not love it any more.  So it's important to have the right attitude & learn to take the bad with the good.  
 LAYOUT BY JOLENE BROWN

My ego is not so big that I expect to make it through in everything I enter!  There is no need to take it all so seriously, so if you are hesitant about taking part in contests my advice is GO FOR IT!   Get out there - Make new friends.  As they say in showbiz - ALL publicity is good publicity right?!


***   I do have some VERY GOOD NEWS in my next post!  I won something totally awesome so it's not all bad see?!***

I believe in entering as much as possible as there is always a chance of winning something, and along the way the journey is fun & educational, so it really is necessary to put yourself out there in order to grow!!! 

Until next time...HAPPY CRAFTING PEEPS {who am I kidding?!  I know that for me it's all about the wine right now lol....}

10 comments:

Alia said...

Amazing how you fit so many photos onto that LO! Now that's talent! :)

Diana said...

The LOs you posted are all very nice, but none of them are very "you". I can't wait to see your take on this kind of LO.
I hope you're not too disappointed about not making it to the final five. I'm so non-competitive in my scrapping it's hard for me to understand it, but I know it was something you wanted, so I was rooting for you.

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

I still love your page, even you did not make it to the top 5, you know you are good and talented right! : )
You were right about taking challenges, for me, I simply enter because I like to be challenged and it is a good way to push myself to create within a criteria, don't you think it let us get out of our comfort zone sometimes?

Sabrina Scrapbook said...

Hi Helene, thank you so much for visiting my blog and your lovely comments. I honestly think your LO is as stunning as others!! :) Happy scrapping and here's wishing you a wonderful week ahead :)

Nadia Cannizzo said...

Dear Helen! Thank you SO VERY much for your honesty. Isnt it so strange that yes we accept we will NOt win everything and YES it kind of hurts for a minute when you dont win! There is no shame in admiting that...as a teacher I know the power of praise and that never goes away..even as adults. The need to be succeful and to just simply..win. What a confidence booster that is right? So thanks so much for stating it because we ALL feel the same. And yes...we all started scrapping for the love of the craft or to preserve memories so lets not lose that in this competetine world xoxo Nadia!
PS. your layouts is just as good as the others. But who knows what they were looking for?

tania said...

You have done so well!!
Love your layout, you added every single detail:)in you documenting.
You have a wonderful Christmas*****

Shane said...

Excellent layout. Lush, it is (and no spelling mistakes!). A very talented artist, a great mum and a wonderful wife! x

Lynette Jacobs said...

You have done very well indeed. There is so many talented crafters out there and every one of them have such different styles...one never knows what they are actually looking for. Quite honestly I would not be able to take the pressure.

xx

Bente Fagerberg said...

Helen, I agree with the wise words of Nadia and the other lovely ladies. We all want to be winners all the time. But it is not always our turn. Your layout is a winner at least in my world!I love your candidness and I am going to be one of your followers today my friend!! Hugs

Ella Swan said...

I can't tell you how much it means to me to have so much support here! It's literally made my day today when I haven't had the best of weeks to be honest (beset by personal/non-scrappy related setbacks) so Thank You! to each & every one of you for your kind words ;-D