RTTC Weeks 4 & 5

I just realized that I never posted the results to the Rise to the Challenge contest my board was having.

I'll post about Week 4 first, which was by far the hardest challenge of them all, at least from my perspective. Our LO's had to be monocromatic (blech) AND symmetrical (double blech), so far out of my box, I couldn't see the box any more. A fish out of water, that's how I felt with this LO.

The RULES:
Symmetry & Monochromatic
Make a symmetrical LO that is also monochromatic. (monochromatic means only 1 color, no black, no white etc.... ) Your photo is the only thing that can have color other then the color of choice in your monochromatic.
Your LO must include the following:
Technique - Stamping (Be creative!!)
Elements - Brads & Ribbon must be used
Judging Criteria:
Overall LO Creativity (1-10)
Symmetry (1-10)
Monochromatic (1-10)
Use of Technique - Stamping (1-10)
Use of Required Elements - Brads & Ribbons (1-10)

This was certainly not my favorite LO. It was challenging, but I just don't like the way it turned out. Things just didn't work out the way they planned and I think my lack of enthusiasum for this challenge showed through in my work.



Here are the judges comments:
Kelsy 32
I like all the curves you used, it makes the symmetry more interesting. You missed a few points for the copper brad, and there could have been more stamping, but overall, a cute LO!
I like how creative you were with all of the elements. I don't think that the shades of green worked very well together, though, olive and a more primary green. I think that different intensities of the more primary green would have been more in keeping with Gooses's shirt (which is what I think you were playing off of in choosing the green?)
Sorry it was such a troublesome LO! Love the swirly things you used. Very cute.
Such a cute LO and I'm still laughing at the pic of the dog eating the bubbles. Very nice job! I deducted points on the stamping since it didn't work out and for the lack of brads.

Week 5's challenge wasn't any easier, but as soon as I saw what it was, I knew what I was gonna do.
More than just a pretty picture.
In this weeks challenge you may NOT use a photo anywhere on your LO.
You must include something other then a photo for your theme.
Other requirements for this week are:
Your LO must have Embossing on it (dry or wet)
You may only use 20 items on your LO. Every item counts as 1!!
Here is the 5 categories the Judges used to rate your score:
Overall LO Creativity 1-10
Use of the technique (Embossing) 1-10
Following the 20 items only requirement 1-10
No photo creativity/item use 1-10
Page Coordination 1-10
NOTE: Things that are 'free' -ink, paint,embossing powder, journalling pen or printer ink. The paper they are on is not free, just the ink itself. Also techniques like distressing are free.

I know, I don't really talk too much about personal stuff on here, but Hubs and I have hit somewhat of a rough patch and we are working through it. This LO was done with him in mind. I handwrote the lyrics to Pink's "Please (Don't Leave Me)" on some very distressed PP.

Here is what I used: lots and lots on ink/embossing powder - I even used pink ink *on my lips* to make some lip prints, 1cs, 1pp, 1 flower, 2 foam hearts, 1 fiber, 8 ribbons, 6 cb letters I wanted it to look like something torn out of a teen's journal, angsty and in love. And for once, the ideain my head turned out on my LO. I am so proud of this creation!





Not many comments from the judges this week:
Kelsy 47
Personally, not my taste at all, but the creativity and artistry gave you great scores from me
This is very cool I LOVE the embossing (da da da) visible behind the torn pp and the lacing. You definitely achieved the look you were going for. So creative!
Verycool idea for a lo!

But I did get the high score for the week. Hoorah! And ended up 6th over-all in the contest. Not too shabby, considering how great the competition was. And there was only 10 points that separated the 1st place person from me, so I'm quite proud.

TFL!!

Rise to the Challenge - Week 3

I can finally share my RTTC-Week 3 LO with you all. I really like how it turned out, but the judges were kind of harsh this week. Here was the challenge:

Focus on the Photo
Create a LO that the Photo(s) are the center of attention! Make sure your Photo is the focus of the LO. Higher points if you can add close up detail to your Photo by focusing in on one area of the main photo with an additional close up photo. (I don't see where it says ANYWHERE that one photo had to be bigger or smaller than the other OR how we were supposed to distinguish between the "focus" photo and the main photo. But just like on American Idol... NEVER argue with the judges b/c it just makes you look like an ass and a douche!)

Other requirements:
Technique - Doodling, you must doodle on your page....be creative!
Your page must include a pocket
Must include an arrow on your LO

Here are the 5 catagories the Judges used to rate our LO's:
1. Over All LO Creativity (1-10)
2. Photos (Focus of the LO main photo 1-5, higher points for close up photo 6-10)
3. Use of technique (doodling) (1-10)
4. Additional page elements (pocket & arrow) (1-10)
5. Page Coordination (ie. PP matches, colors work together, photo correlates to the page elements) (1-10)

Here is my LO:

Some Close Ups:

And the Judges' comments:
Kelsy 34
I love this LO and the lower score is because of the lack of a close up and minimal doodling. Beautiful job!
Cute, playful LO, goes with the pictures well!
I love how everything works together in this LO, and I love how you cropped it closer for the bigger color shot. That is a GREAT pic, too!
This is a gorgeous LO. Love the title, and the huge picture. Unfortunately the second pic wasn't exactly what was asked for so I had to deduct some points for that. Overall great job.

So I get that I lost points for not doodling. I admit, I totally forgot about that till the end and just threw some on. But I'm kinda upset about losing points over the pictures. I feel like I did what they asked but put a different creative spin on it (see the underlined portion above... at least one of the Judges got what I was doing) but aparently, with the exception of one, the other Judges felt I did not follow directions correctly. Oh well... my guess is that this will be my low score that gets thrown out. It sucks to get such a low score on a LO I totally LOVE!

A Scrappy EARTH DAY Blog Hop

Here come the ASP bunnies again, hippity hoppin' along, why don't you join us? You may remember this post from earlier this month... well, we're back!

And this time we have challenged ourselves (and you, if you want to play along, just link your LO in my comments) just for fun! And in honor of Earth Day our challenge was to use recycled materials on our LO.

This time I am linking up to my friend Tiffany, she has a really cute LO up. It's a lift of Jodie's that I have been drooling over for ages. Both of them made some AMAZING LO's, so go check them out!

So... here is my LO. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and use this as my Week 2 Rise to the Challenge LO. It was an Ad Challenge and we also had to use the ad as a scraplift?) that part confused me. We also had to use a clear object, my clear object was cut from the front of a Barbie box. Cinderella, if you must know!

Here is the ad:


And my LO:


Some close ups, you can see the clear (recycled!) item better in these. It was hard to get a good photo w/ the glare from the flash.




And here is the feedback I got from the judges panel (A worm? Really? My colors don't match? Hmmm......):

Kelsy -40
I like how you punched and cut the flowers. Maybe it’s the lighting, but the pictures and the pp don’t look like they coordinate. Very creative source for the plastic; however,the long skinny shape looks odd. Those are some cute pictures of your family!
I love how you did your title! I'm not so sure about the flourish - the shape of it looks a little worm-like to me, lol - but I think that this is a fun & funky LO! Good job!
I really like this! The colors all pop and the design is right on!
The glitter chipboard seems out of place in this LO. A bit distracting, imo. Love the title you picked. Very clever to make the swirl out of packaging material.
Very nice!

Eh... not saying I agree, but I'm pretty happy with my points. Many of my fellow blog hoppers are playing RTTC as well, so if you want to see my competition, go check out their blogs!

Rise to the Challenge - Week 1

My scrappin' board started a new contest. 5 (or is it 6?) weeks of LO's to be judged anonymously on a 50 point scale. At the end of the 5 (or is it 6?) weeks, your lowest score is thrown out and whoever has the highest cumulative score wins. And you know I love a good competition.

We are currently on Week 2, but because of the judging we aren't able to reveal our layouts until they have been voted on. Week 1's challenge was a Simon Says challenge; here are the rules:

• Simon Simon Says to use CS as your LO Base
• Simon Says to use 3 PPs
• Simon Says to use Buttons
• Simon Says to use anything to attach your items to the paper
• Simon Says to Distress your photos
• Use ink to distress it
• Simon Says to use ‘White Space’
• Simon Says to Use 2 Photos

White space? No ink? WTF?! Here is what I came up with...

I used stickers mostly to attach everything to the page but I did loose points for adding the flower. I also lost points b/c I loosely interperated the "3PP" rule. I use 3 double-sided PP's, which aparently counts as 6, oh well. I ended up with a total score of 42 so thats not too bad at all!

I'll keep you posted for the next 4 (or is it 5?) weeks and let you know how I do. I am already dying to show off my week 2 LO but you're all gonna have to wait 'till next week!

xoxoxo! TFL!