Calvinball Take Aways and final digi layouts.

As one who likes to mix it up in my scrapbooking, I’ve always taken pride that I can make a very simple page or a very heavily embellished page; that my page backgrounds could be patterned, colored cardstock, dark, kraft, white/cream; that I can use wet media or not; that my pages didn’t always look the same. –So -- My take away from Calvinball for traditional pages is how I create a page with less lazy factors thrown in.

• -         On almost 70% of my layouts I used my own handwriting, at least 5 patterned papers, and had at least 15 elements on the page, and some form of shine.
• -         On about 45% of my layouts I used a punch (not a die cut), stamping, veneer, paint/ink.

Since I was not letting the bonus point rules dictate what/how I created, I found this interesting and thought it would be a great to tweak it so that I could see how I use my supplies and what I truly use. Because although I do use doilies and washi and other things, I don’t frequently use them in the quantities that were needed for points on most of my layouts.  My electronic cutter is used frequently or my manual die cutter and those items weren’t tracked during this adventure at all. Neither was my twine usage, which I know at least 2 or 3 layouts had.

So I’m thinking of a checklist that I could check off items used per layout, maybe using hash marks if I decide to be analog or just upping the number manually in an excel spreadsheet. I’ll be working on it this month. I see it as a way to say, "hey, I haven't used a rub-on, I need to do so." or "all of my layouts have had pattern paper backgrounds lately, it's time to mix it up."

And here are my final digi layouts.

 

 Now to find the best place to print them. Plus I have the last few years of digi layouts that haven't been printed (whistling while looking innocent).

Calvinball Recap

My goal for Calvinball was to finish a swap which I did. And then to create 8-10 layouts.  I was hoping to work on the 2ps refugee stash and bonus and maybe the sketch challenges.  After that I hoped to tackle some much needed Christmas layouts. 

I started scrapbooking in 2002. My Christmas layouts consist of: 1 layout for my son’s first Christmas in his 1^st year album; 3-4 layouts from 2013 completed in 2014/2015; and a shutterfly8x8 pre-Christmas preparation book for 2008.  As you can plainly see, Christmas representation in my albums is sorely lacking.  Pre-calvinball, I printed photos for the rest of 2013 and for 2011 in hopes of creating traditional layouts and pocket pages.

After finishing my swap, I continued to create a total of 24 layouts: 13 traditional and 11 digital.  That’s a MAJOR WIN in my book.  Woo Hoo!! Now I didn’t get to those printed Christmas photos, but those 11 digital photos are all 2014 Christmas. 

For Calvinball you get points for production and bonus points for things used, team building, and marketing.  My overall total was 201.5.  My layout total points were 172 from that 121 points were from my traditional layouts and only 51 points from digital layouts. This means my average traditional layout points were 9 and my digital were 4.6. This isn’t a huge surprise as my digital stash is not as well organized and I tend to open 1-3 kits that I think go well together and create just within those elements, using a pre-designed template. Cuz my digi skillz need some improvement, yo. (sorry, don’t know where that came from.)

I created my layouts as I normally would have, although knowing I was getting a point for using the embossing folder or a point for paint/ink, or for stenciling, definitely helped me not be lazy and include the item if I really wanted it there in the first place. The only thing it didn’t help me get over lazy wise is hand stitching. I love the look and would love to include it more, but it’s time consuming and, did I mention this already, I’m lazy. I have limited time to craft as it is, so I really want to complete my pages in a timely fashion.  

Although life also helped me out in creating those 24 pages, I was too sleep deprived to really do any major home projects (it took me a week to spring clean my living room) and my husband was traveling for 2 weeks for work.  I’ll be anxiously awaiting next year’s Calvinball and I’ll plan accordingly, so I won’t have the guilt of not doing the housework/home projects.  I highly recommend it as a motivator to create some pages. I can totally see doing something like this on our 2peas refugee board in the summer or fall.

Calvinball also gave me another idea which I'll share with you tomorrow. 

Reworking a Layout

I'm not an advocate of reworking layouts. My time for scrapbooking is too limited to worry about little imperfections. I'm way too imperfect myself to be a perfectionist. So I often leave well enough alone with a "Done is Done" attitude.  However, there are times when a layout just isn't right.  In this short video, I show you how I reworked a layout where the balance portion of design principles were just way too off for me.

What say you? Rework them all the time? Only every once in a while?  Never?

Kill A Kit & Layout Share

I killed a kit.  Look and see what I started with and how much I have left!!

Here is the layouts made with this kit along with their CalvinBall points (the game of creating as many layouts as you can that is being played at GetItScrapped.com)  I find myself just creating the page in the style and fashion that I'd like and then seeing how many points bonus points I have.

This one I made on 3/11, so on the previous week total for Calvinball.

 Layout +1: 2+yr old stash +1; veneer +1; shiny +1; 5+ patterns +1

Total of 5 points

All others were made the week of 3/13 to 3/19.

 

 Punch,  15+elements, 2+yr old stash, pet, stamping, veneer, 

5+pp, 3+fonts, embossing folder, paint, shiny.

Total points 12

punch,  15+ elements, 2+yr old stash, +3 gold elements,

handwriting, 5+ pp, shiny.

Total point 8

15+ elements, 2+yr old stash, bought this week, pattern paper only,

handwriting, stamping, veneer, 4+washi, ink, shiny.

Total points 12.

2+yr old stash, handwriting, 5+ pp

Total points 4

2+yr old stash, handwriting, +3 gold element, hidden journaling, 

photo +10yrs, wet embossing, gesso, shiny, +15 elements.

 Total points10

Punch, 15+ elements, 2+yr old stash, pattern paper only,

handwriting, pet, stamping, ,5+ pp, ink, shiny, dark background.

Total points 12.

2+yr old stash, handwriting, 5+ pp, veneer

Total points 5.

Punch, 2+yr old stash,hidden journaling, handwriting, pet, 

5+ pp, photo 10+ yrs old, shiny, dark background.

Total points 10.

My total weekly points for CalvinBall was 78, which brought my grand running total to 125.5.
This week I finished 9 Layouts - 8 stories and 1 cute pic. Success in my book. 

OH MY!

Calvinball, Shimelle's Online Crop, nicolejones911, 2peasrefugee Stash Challenge. 

You've already heard about this month's calvinball going on over at Get It Scrapped. The goal is to scrap as much as possible.  Nicole Jones decided in honor of the Calvinball game to have her facebook group reach 1000 layouts shared. woot woot!!  And Shimelle gave us an impromptu crop over the weekend with the ability to share until next weekend.  Woo Hoo!! And over at the proboard 2peas Refugee group, Karen hosts a Stash and Bonus Challenge each month. 

I feel so motivated! Motivated to let the house work slide. How can I put those new wood floors down when I have so much scrapping to do!!

I had a bit of a cold that left me unmotivated last week, so I took the opportunity to work on my journaling spot swap (from the Two Peas Swap Chat facebook group). I already had the ideas I wanted to do and all of the supplies gathered, so this was easy. Except for that I like to stand and scrap and I had to move each portion to either my couch or kitchen table as I didn't have the energy to stand. But it worked out fine.  And by Sunday, I could actually get some layouts going.

 Themes in order: Spring, Summer, Winter, Anything Goes (Valentine)

Calvinball points: 4.5 

.5 for completing

1 for  make your own embellishment

1 for using a tool that you haven't used in a long time

1 for a new technique (fuse)

1 for my first post to Calvinball gallery

 Shimelle's Online Crop: Using Her First Collection Challenge

I think I may have some of True Stories in there too. Love how it pops on the black cardstock.

Calvinball points:  3

1 for a layout

1 for using 5+ pattern paper

 1 for your own handwriting

2Peas Refugee Stash Challenge: Polka Dots, florals, metallic, last purchase, handwriting and enamel dots.  (the handwriting and enamel dots will be added when I get the jouraling spot swap back and can put the jouranling on the layout.  Also for Shimelle's Online Crop: Using her Monday Challenges maps and globes and Mixing old with new.

Calvinball Points:  9

1 for a layout

1 for using 5+ pattern paper

 1 for your own handwriting

1 for using all pattern paper

1 for using punches

1 for stamping

1 for making and using your own PL card (I added that rule)

1 for 3+ photos 

1 for using something 2+ years old

Lots of fun to be had for all!  And there's still time to play. Go check it all out!