The Hub

Twofer Tuesday: Special Guest Week!

ALTERED/COLLAGE CHALLENGE ~by Robyn, Christine and Jackie Eckles

We have a real treat for you this week!!! Christine and I have teamed up with the one and only Jackie Eckles (our guest designer here at SA this month). And we have cooked up one fun challenge!  And, to make things even more fun, Jackie has created a special freebie for all participants ... AND ... we will pick our favorite layout/ATC/piece of art at the end of the week and the winner will receive a $15 gift certificate to the Scrap Artist Shoppe!  And now for the challenge...

"WHAT IS YOUR DESTINY?"

We're gettin' a little introspective this week and the challenge is to create an altered or collage-style layout about your destiny ... read more >

See credits: Destiny by Jackie Eckles.

See credits: Same Stars by Fiddlette.

See credits: My Destiny by happyrobyn.

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HERITAGE CHALLENGE ~by Robyn England (happyrobyn)

"COUNTRY CONNECTIONS"

I love learning where my family originated. I know that I have connections to Canada, Germany, Italy, England and France. Where is your family from? ... read more >

See credits: Pietro Archangeli by happyrobyn.

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We look forward to seeing what you create!  If you have any questions or comments, be sure to post them in the forums.

Double the fun! Altered/Collage & Heritage Challenges!

~ALTERED/COLLAGE CHALLENGE~ by Christine Honsinger

For the past year, I have hosted, alongside my friend Robyn England, the weekly Altered/Collage Challenge at Scrap Artist. It has been a wonderful experience, and the challenges were always fun and quite popular. (Take a peek at the incredible gallery.) Our subjects ranged anywhere from interpreting a theme, such as “Finding your inner princess” to emulating and gleaning inspiration from some of the most popular and duly respected altered/collage artists out there creating today. Artists like Teesha Moore, Christine Adolph, Anna Corba, Sandra Evertson, Eduardo Recife and Michelle Ward. The “regulars” who visited and participated in our challenges really have become like a family to Robyn and me, and we all have enjoyed getting to know one another, and have truly developed into a community of women who inspire one another and enjoy each other’s online company.

It is our hope that this same close feeling and sense of community will continue through our new monthly Altered/Collage Challenges posted here at the Hub. We are also looking forward to meeting new artists and to welcoming new faces, everyone who wishes to join in on the fun, from beginners to advanced! We want to continue to bring you inspiring challenges and samples that will get your creative mojo kick-started to create something unique and artistic, in the altered/collage style, with the use of digital elements and materials. And as in the past, we are sure to make some of these challenges digital swaps, but also, happily, with the new monthly time frame, possibly we will also have an opportunity to host some IN REAL LIFE snail mail swaps, as well! If you have never participated in a real life ATC swap, then you are really missing some fun! There is still nothing like getting some FUN mail along with all those bills and all that junk mail we all get!

Before presenting this month’s challenge, I wanted to share with you what one of our regular participants, Rikki from Rikkiscraps shared with us last week! She was one of our participants in the aforementioned “inner princess digital swap” and decided to actually create a wonderful real life project with the cards she received! Take a look at her framed artwork (here is a link to the post in her blog):

Thanks for sharing that with us, Rikki! It looks terrific!

So now, without any further adieu, let me present to you our first monthly Altered/Collage Challenge via the Hub, Scrap Artist blog.

This month we are going to explore the popular altered theme of correspondence art, and alter some vintage postcards!

I know many of you have enjoyed altering envelopes in the past, as well as creating our own vintage styled postage stamps, but this is something we have never tried, and there is SO MUCH inspiration out there for this theme! Check out Sommerset Studio and some of the other Stampington publications at your local bookstore, and the pages are filled with altered mail! Here are some of mine and Robyn’s samples:

If you are in need of a postcard for use in this project, I have created one for you to use. Click here to download it. The most important thing is to enjoy the process, and don’t forget to share your work with us! We LOVE to see what you do, and also give you some much-deserved praise for your artistry! :)

Please post your layouts to the Altered/Collage Challenge Gallery at Scrap Artist.  And if you would like to discuss the challenge throughout the month, please see this thread in the Altered/Collage Challenge forum.

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~HERITAGE CHALLENGE~ by Robyn England

I will be the first to admit that I didn't totally embrace this new monthly format at first!  I have gotten in a groove with the weekly Heritage Challenge format.  And I want to thank those of you who have been so faithful to the challenge.  But I keep telling myself that change is good.  And in this case, it really is.  Instead of just simple challenges, this is an opportunity to really dig into the heart of heritage scrapping with in-depth challenges and themes.  And that's exactly what the challenge is this month ... a theme:

"A LIFE WELL-LIVED"

The challenge is to summarize a person's entire life on one scrapbook page (you can do a 2-page spread if you would like).  This will take some thinking for sure.  The page is intended to be bulky as it is trying to tell a story of a person.  If you have pictures from several different stages of a person's life, use them ALL!  But no worries if you don't.  Your journaling can tell the story.  Look on the Internet for pictures of places this person has lived.  Maybe you have newspaper clippings or an obituary.  I know this is a difficult challenge but you will be happy with the results.  I sure love the page I created.  (Please note:  the title of your page does not need to be "A Life Well-Lived.")  Here is my sample layout.

I can't wait to see what you create.  Please post your layouts to the Heritage Challenge Gallery at Scrap Artist.  And if you would like to discuss the challenge throughout the month, please see this thread in the Heritage Challenge forum.

Mojo Monday 2/5/2007

Wow!! Welcome to The Hub!! I am so excited that I get to be a part of the very first Digital Brew here at the Hub!

So, let's begin. Oh, wait, please, go refill your mug of coffee, tea, Pepsi, Red Bull...whatever your pleasure. Ok... here we go.

I've been thinking and researching and thinking and pondering what I could come up with that would be so fun and exciting for our big debut here. Then, one night while laying in bed, it came to me... start at the beginning. Start with the one thing that we all crave and search for and long to have an endless supply of... "Mojo"! Of course, this is also a good place to start since we are calling our Monday's here at the Hub, Mojo Monday!

Merriam-Webster defines it this way:

MOJO

Main Entry: mo·jo
Pronunciation: 'mO-(")jO
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural mojoes or mojos
Etymology: probably of African origin; akin to Fulani moco'o medicine man
: a magic spell, hex, or charm; broadly : magical power

Let me say, first, that I might not be saying anything earthshattering here, or possibly not even anything new, but hopefully you will have a little resource to come to when your mojo is on proverbial E! Let's get started with the M-O-J-O!

Make a pact! One thing that I don't hear often is, "It is okay, allowable and even healthy to be out of mojo". I am here to tell you that it is just plain ok to not have mojo sometimes!

Let me go a little deep on you here... if we have it alllll the time, then some of the "charm" and "magic" would be lost. I love to have an idea that just begs to be created. I love to see something and want to immediately scrap. For me, that is when I love mojo the most! I wouldn't love it so much if I had it all the time! You know that saying about absence and the heart!

BEWARE: Putting too much pressure on yourself can make you pop!

Organize! There are so many options for organizing your digital files!

Just to name a few... Picassa , ACD SEE , Digital ScrapRoom and of course, there are the libraries that you can get with PSE and DIP as well as the existing organizing programs that your computer comes with.

Take some time to choose a program that will suit your workflow and stick with it. You might be surprised to actually see what you own! Be a critic and go through your files and purge what you doesn't fit your style.

If you have a hard time deleting for fear that you will regret it, put all those items in a folder and put them on a disk. You can title it the "I don't love you, but I can't leave you" disk... tee hee!

BEWARE: Too much can be a bad thing!

Jumpstart! The bottom line is that we all have some procrastination in our blood and if you have a deadline but find your creative tank on E, then here are some ideas to jumpstart your Mojo!

- Surf the web! It is an amazing tool just waiting to take you down Mojo Drive! I just recently found this blog- Inspire Me Thursday WOW! I just love it! I also love Color Schemer , AccidentalCreative , Real Simple Magazine and Simple Shoes just to share a few!

- Read new blogs! Blogs are chock full of inspiration and ideas. You can find a nice list of both digital and paper scrappers here: http://scrapability.squarespace.com/scrapping-blogrolls/ Click on any name just to peek, you might find a new favorite scrapper!

- Go to your tried and true! There are a few scrappers who inspire my socks off! I have a folder of Bookmarks called "Favs" and the links are to the galleries of my favorite scrappers. Interestingly enough, I have many who are my style and some who are not. When I am looking for inspiration, I don't always look at the overall, I look for the detail that draws me to that layout. I absolutely love Jamie Waters, so I check out her gallery often!

If you don't have established tried and true's or you just want something new, check out the ScrapArtist gallery, it RAWKS!!!

- Go shopping! I know, I know, I was just telling you to purge but sometimes we all need a little something spunky and special! (speaking of, have you seen the True Love Combo at SA with Heather Ann Melzer...ohhhh yeah!)

- Take a Challenge! Check the Hub often! Or take a dare- check out the Effer Dares or the DigiDares!

- Download some new music, flip through idea books and magazines, break out your own personal Inspiration Book/File if you have one, take some new photos or even scraplift!

BEWARE: Over-stimulation may cause jitters and extreme creative adrenaline that leads to LO's that will blow your mind!

Outside! Step outside of scrapping and do something fun! This is where you can insert anything except for scrapping or anything scrapping related! You can read, ride your bike, go for a walk, go to the museum, play a game with your children or someone special, call your mom, visit your grandparents, play an instrument, cook a fancy meal, bake something yummy, catch some good tv or a movie, write a love note, go grocery shopping, update your blog, write a book, check the mail, clean your house, tackle a project you've been putting off... and on and on and on! Don't be afraid to get out and live a little. I promise, you won't miss anything and your computer will still be your friend! After all, we have to have some memories to actually scrap!
BEWARE: Don't take up knitting, I hear that it can be as addicting as scrapbooking, LOL!

CHALLENGE: If you have Mojo, I challenge you to take some of the inspiration from the sites that I've linked, or the dares and create a layout!!! If you do not have any mojo, that's okay, this post will be here when you do! But I have a challenge for you too, make yourself a personal mission statement and jazz it up a little if you want. This mission statement will serve as a reminder about why create! ETA: If you create something, PLEASE post a comment here with a link back to your layout!!! :o)

And... I have saved the best for last, can you believe this awesome freebie that Amber Clegg created for us!?
Click HERE to download! WOW! I was so in love when I saw the preview!!! Please, take it, create with it and pllllease post your creations at Scrap Artist!  A HUGE thank you to Amber!

So, there you have it friends, some Mojo Monday to getcha going or getcha relaxing. Peace, Love and Mojo!