What are Scrapbooking Challenges?
Typically, digital scrapbooking challenges include steps or instructions to be followed as you create a page or layout, with a specific outcome in mind. Sometimes a challenge will include a quote, a set of colors, or even specific elements to use on your page — such as “1 ribbon, 2 photos, and a digital stamp”. Whatever the form of the challenge, it can spark your creativity and force you to think outside of the box and sometimes, out of your comfort zone.
Each eligible participant in my challenge receives a $2.00 off $10.00 purchase coupon AND is entered into a $5 coupon drawing held after the challenge period. I hope you’ll stretch your creative muscles and join in!
This month we’re going to stretch our creative muscles. I hosted a similar challenge a couple of years ago, and it was a huge success. So, are you ready for something different?
Ok, here goes. Sometimes the craziest of things happen when we give up control. When we allow ourselves to create without any preconceived notion of what we want to end up with — in other words, when we just “go with the flow,” really unexpected and, dare I say, amazing things bubble to the surface.
So … we’re going to let the words in my journal prompts freebie tell us what to create. Randomly choosing from words or phrases not only adds the element of surprise, but it also forces us to let go of boundaries we might not even realize exist. Sound interesting?
Do you think you can create a page using an approach you’ve never tried before? Are you willing to try this “word salad” challenge?
Video Instructions
This video, which I recorded the previous time I hosted this challenge, demonstrates how to randomly choose prompts. You also get to see how I put together the page for that earlier challenge! You can also refer to the written steps below.
Step By Step Instuctions for Randomly Choosing Prompts
Here are specific steps to follow — you’ll also want to watch the video below to see exactly how I made my page.
1. Open a new document in your scrapbooking software of choice, in whatever size you like.
2. Open the folder containing my February 2023 Journal Prompts (available in the February thread of my Oscraps Challenge Forum).
- Windows users, open Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder with the Challenge Prompts, and open it. From the Menu, choose View>List. You will see a list of all the file names NOT pictures of what they are! That’s on purpose – don’t look at the words ahead of time!
- Mac users, open Finder, navigate to the folder with the Challenge Prompts, and from the Menu, choose View>As List. You will see a list of all the file names NOT pictures of what they are! That’s on purpose – don’t look at the words ahead of time!
3. Pick a number between 1 and 85, find that numbered PNG file, and drag it into your page.
4. Repeat 9 more times, so that you have 10 randomly chosen images on your page.
5. Play with the words/phrases to form groupings that speak to you. The groupings don’t need to “make sense” or follow conventional grammar rules and there will probably be words missing. You can disregard any punctuation that may appear on the words and you may choose not to use some of the images if they don’t work with whatever bubbles up for you. You’re not creating a masterpiece — so don’t stress over it. Just keep re-arranging them until something works. Feel free to add a few more randomly chosen words and play some more.
6. Using your chosen words/phrases as inspiration, build your page under the words, adding whatever elements and kit bits feel right. For an even bigger challenge, you can randomly grab elements that catch your attention and not actually plan which ones to choose.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with – and if this challenge spoke to you! Please let me know what you think of this type of challenge in the comments when you post your page.
The full Challenge Rules can be found in my Oscraps Challenge Forum along with a link to my free Challenge Prompts. I hope you’ll join in the fun!
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