Ten Challenges for the Month

This post is brought to you from Shimelle's ten on the tenth: click on the clicky to see what other folks are thinking.

You can interpret a challenge as Stuff-To-Have-A-Little-Tinker-With-When-I've-Got-Five-Minutes or as a less relaxed, more military, I-Want-To-See-Your-Pain type thing. Although quite why you'd choose the latter I'm not sure. But last month, I found I didn't do nearly as much crafty as I wanted to because I didn't make the time. And hobbies are important. My Grandad says so. They keep you busy and stop you from getting arthritis.*

So, I want to set myself ten little scrappy goals for the month. Then I have an excuse to break out with the stash, and something to work towards. During the month they can also work as prompts for blog posts and then I intend to round up my progress at the end. Ding! If you play along with any, some or all of the challenges, let me know and I can share linkages.

Oh, and there are no rules :D

*1*

It's got to be a photo challenge. The weather has turned chilly lately and the trees have all burst into a fanfare of colour and the air smells good - not sure why, it just does - and everything is autumnal. So, the photo challenge is: Autumn. Interpret as you will :D

*2*

A colour challenge. Just clicking on 'everything' on Pinterest produced a wealth of lush pictures in a wonderful variety of tones. I highly recommend trying it. So I thought I'd have a colour challenge to make the most of such loveliness. There are lots of options on the aforementioned procrastination capital of the internet, lots of inspiration on Design Seeds and so many different faces of colour that it's hard to choose. But I pick this one :D Feel free to pick your own.

*3*

Bit of a technique challenge this one. As I've just started getting savvy with the sewing machine (even managing to whip up a last minute drawstring bag to take to camp - oh yes!) I set the challenge thus: Include some stitching. I interpret this to mean hand stitching and machine stitching. It's meant to be a challenge after all. Feel free to eschew one or t'other.

*4*

Scrap from a sketch. Self-explanatory, so I'll leave it there. All you need to do is find your sketch!

*5*

I think this one will be tricky: use a found object on a page. I'm rubbish at including bits and bobs on the page that aren't stash items. I think they're not as pretty. So I am going to confound my own short-sightedness and find some pretty labels or tickets or leaflets or something to use on a page.

*6*

Scraplift a page. I love scraplifting, because you can steal, appropriate and generally thief as much as you like. So I shall find a page I adore (like this one by Kelly Purkey) and borrow the best bits for my own design. Then I shall call it inspiration and credit the original page because the internet is nice like that.

*7*

Time for another techniquey one. And this time it's paint. I love paint and lots of people use it beautifully. Witness Shimelle's page above. So I like the paint look, but I hate the crinkles. My challenge is a way to incorporate paint in such a way that I get the look without the wiggles.

*8*

Tell a story. A long one. And find a new way to include the words on the page. I'm all about the journalling and I love finding new ways to share it. So this challenge will (hopefully) make me think up something new!

*9*

Scrap about myself. Not something I did, but about me. So whether I go for the contents of my purse, my google search history or a timetable of a typical day remains to be seen. What would you choose to scrap about to show a new side of yourself?

*10*

Take up a challenge from the internet. Studio Calico, October Afternoon and Shimelle all have blogs bursting with ideas and challenges whether it's a sketch, a starting point, a product or a technique. I follow lots of scrapbooking blogs but somehow I never seem to get round to participating. This month, that's about to change.

And that's all folks! It's going to be a scrapbooky month. With any luck :D

[Images from Pinterest or linked blogs]

Kisses xxx

P.S. Actually have about fifteen more potential self-challenges in my head so if this works for me, I can try it periodically. Are there any other kinds of challenges that you love? Are you planing to join me on any of these this month?

P.P.S. Please so. I get lonely.

P.P.P.S. In case you were wondering, I'm making a cliched yet strangely heartbreaking sad face,

P.P.P.P.S. However, it was immediately ruined by excessive smirking.

*True story. My Grandad totally says this is true. He makes things too, but things like radios and model railways.