You may recall from last month's challenge that the purpose of this challenge group was to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. You can see last month's challenge on my blog here.
Since the start of a new year often prompts us to look back and ahead, we thought we would do the same creatively. This month we were challenged to look back over the last year and share with you some of the designs that reflect some growth or success in our process.
I like that we take some time for reflection at this time of year - some time to assess and evaluate. I have always considered my papercrafting to be a journey of growth, and I think this was especially true this year. I am going to attempt to post my top 10 selections chronologically so the growth might become more apparent.
First, there are 2 cards in my top 10:
I made this clean and simple card early in the year and gave it to Sarah for Valentine's Day. Just fussy cutting and stitching but it held appeal and was my first card picked up for publication, in this season's Canadian Scrapbooker.
This card, made for my bff's birthday - well, I'm still growing, but I wanted to try some of my newly learned techniques on the small form factor that is a card, and I was trying it on a new substrate, watercolour paper, which is considerably heavier than the cardstock I use for scrapbooking.
I had to include this art journaling page in my top 10:
This is my first foray into art journaling and I hope to do much more of it 2013. There was so much stretching, growing and learning as I completed these pages - learning that my acrylic paints don't activate with water - that as amazing as PITT pens are for so many things, they aren't the best choice for journaling over lumpy bumpy things. Insert sad face here.
It was hard to narrow down the selections for layouts, but given the challenge that the choices be about growth and success, rather than simply favourite layouts (which could be faves because of growth or success, but could also be faves because of sentimentality, like the paper collection, like the photo - conditions that don't necessary fit with the directives of this challenge group), here's what I've narrowed it down to:
This layout, created in the spring, won an award on Courtney Walsh's blog, for a layout contest she conducted to coincide with the launch of her first novel. Unorthodox cloud colours and spiral twine flowers pointed to some out of my playful side that would be necessary for growth.
Scarlett Salamone shared some of her methods and techniques and this layout was my first application of what I was learning from her tutorials.
This layout, created for my Two Scrapbook Friends design team work, had me not only misting and applying modeling paste and using stencils, but burning the paper in a candle flame. This layout was featured on Authentique's blog for a fan favourite post.
After following an online tutorial by Denise Morrison, I applied a technique learned on this page and loved the outcome!
I took a watercolour class with Karen Ellis and the very next page I created was this - love the new things I tried here - resist technique, watercolour paints, mists, stencils, and rich colour with fussy cutting.
For this layout, I played with more new to me media - watercolour pencils, Stamper's Big Brush, and gauze. Another fun thing was applying washi tape to some of those wooden hexagons. I can't say what made me think of doing that, but I like it!
The last thing I'm including in my top 10 for growth/success in 2012 is:
This is the cover for my December Daily and I loved trying out some of my new favourite techniques and media that I've been applying on this new format. This was recognized on the Teresa Collins blog - very exciting!
I hope you will take the time to see what my Inspiration Elevator team mates chose as they reflected on this challenge.
