LOAD214: in Review

The results are in. I completed well more than 28 layouts this month. However, I technically did not complete the LOAD challenge. In the last week, my family got sick and I just couldn't get my page posted by the midnight deadline. That's ok though. I don't participate in LOAD for a prize. I participate just to see if I can complete one page a day and to push myself or find other stories through the daily prompts. It's also a wonderful way for me to use up supplies. Here are just a couple of the layouts I made specifically for LOAD.

CopyCat by Christy Strickler| Supplies Patterned Paper: Studio Calico, Crate Paper, Amy Tangerine; Letters: American Crafts; Patch, Jewels: Freckled Fawn; Tape: October Afternoon, Freckled Fawn; Wood Veneer; Studio Calico;Frames: Dear Lizzy for American Crafts; Other: Button

When Momo was a kitten, he would often mimic what our older cats were doing. He especially liked following Boo around. When Boo napped, so did he.

Swingsets Wear You Out! by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper,Vellum: Amy Tangerine for American Crafts; Letters: American Crafts; Die Cut Frames: Dear Lizzy for American Crafts; Tags: Elle's Studio; Tape: Gltiz Designs, Freckled Fawn; Stickers: Freckled Fawn ( Oh Deer Me Kit!); Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye; Scraphappy Inspiration for Feb. 2014

I could have easily just made this a layout about my son sleeping. However, it will be placed next to several layouts of him playing on his new swing set. I love how the title came together for me.



I was really happy to use up more of my supplies this month. I had a great time during LOAD 214 and I am looking forward to the next round. Did you participate in LOAD214? How did you fare?

Supply Options
from Simon Says Stamp and Freckled Fawn's Oh Deer Me Kit.

Oh Deer Me Kit	*American Crafts Amy Tangerine STITCHED VELLUM POCKETS Cut & Paste	*American Crafts Amy Tangerine 12 X 12 CUT & PASTE Paper Pad	*Studio Calico WANDERLUST Stitched Cardstock Frames 331992
*Studio Calico PRINTSHOP 12 x 12 Paper Pad 331755	*Studio Calico BLISS PINK Thickers Alphabet 331093	*My Mind's Eye HAPPENINGS Enamel Dots Now & Then Izzy NT1026	*Freckled Fawn LOVELY BITS CONFETTI Pack of 60 LBconfetti
*Crate Paper STYLEBOARD Mixed Confetti Sequins Maggie Holmes 683433	*Elle's Studio YOU AND ME TIDBITS YM015	*Elle's Studio YOU AND ME CIRCLE TAGS YM011

InLinkz.com

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LOAD214 and Project Life

Over the course of February, I have been participating in Layout a Day, also known as LOAD. Some days, I stayed on target with the prompts. Other days, I had very little time. I decided that pocket pages and working the prompts into my PL spreads would help me save time while getting pages in my album.

This will be the title page for my January 2014 album. I saved the vintage postcards expressly for my January pages. I found them in my JBS Mercantile December Antiquarian kit. The Antiquarian always sells our fast since it's chock full of vintage treasures. I used some of my January Main kit along with the January Artisan and Historian kits to complete the page.

The vintage postcards were not quite 4x6 in size, so I mounted them on patterned paper.

This was one of those quick pages I created for Load. We were to journal in incomplete sentences. List journaling worked well for that and allowed me to get a lot of photos on the page. I documented some of our errands and the sites we see as we drive around Nassau. Photo number three was a bit of a triumph. I finally got a nice photo of the chickens that live on one of the cities side streets. I also documented how we don't pump our own gas.There are almost no self service stations here. It's something I put on my list after participating in the Give your Stories Podcast about posing with Cars.

During Janaury, we had lunch with one of the resident rat catchers. A local resident lets this sweet little calico cat live in it's outdoor patio. She visits the customers and helps keep rats away. We also went up to the resort for the buffet. My sona nd I both had our first macarons. When we saw them, I knew what paper I would use. I had this macaron print paper in a Webter's Pages 6x6 paper collection.

Unfortunately, we also had our first sick day in Janaury. The vintage pill box from the January Antiquarian kit came in handy for this layout. I really don't mind adding dimensional elements to my layouts. I also discovered an easy way to use up some of the 2014 cards. I have ended up with several of them. I simply added a bit of washi tape and used some small letters to write 1st illness of over the top. I plan to do the same thing with number cards and other firsts for us this year. This was completed for LOAD 214 as well. We were to document something unpleasant in our lives.

Each month, I take a variety of wildlife photos as we walk the island. Finding a way to document something that is pretty much repetitive can be difficult. For this page, I decided to document how the local birds catch fish. And yes...that is another vintage label in the title. The small silver fish is a German foil fish which was part of the JBS Mercantile August Mini Album kit.

Despite being sick in January, I had a lot of page spreads to create. In fact, I am still not done. I still need to add the fireworks and finish a couple more pages. I really enjoyed mixing my PL spreads into the LOAD prompts. I also enjoyed working on the spreads throughout the month, versus sitting down to do it all at once.

Supply Options

Many of the supplies used came from JBS Mercantile kits. I mixed in some of the Becky Higgins Project Life Core kits. Some embellishments came from the Freckled Fawn Oh Deer Me Kit.

Additional Resources

Our Day Begins- Documenting our Janaury day to day with a 12x12 layout and PL spread.

Project Life Inspiration Board

Give Your Photos Stories Podcast: Posed with Cars

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LOAD214: an Update

I am about a week into the Layout a Day challenge. I almost didn't make it yesterday. Not because I didn't make a layout. Our internet was out most of the day which made the ability for me to upload a page a bit questionable. I did manage to get my page in very close to the midnight deadline.

My Stats so far:
Layouts for LOAD: 10 done ( one was a two pager)
Layouts for JBS Mercantile: 4 done
Layouts for Get It Scrapped: 1 done

It's always a challenge for me during LOAD to be able to keep up with my Creative Team duties. When I can, I try to make my CT pages ahead of time and have them posted before LOAD even begins. Sometimes though, that just doesn't happen. What does happen for me, is that I often want to create more. It's not unusual during LOAD for me to end up making a few extra layouts. Creativity breeds more creative play. I do sometimes combine challenges or sketches from other web sites during LOAD. This year is no exception.

M-F by Christy Strickler |Supplies Cardstock: Colorbok; Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers, Studio Calico; Project Life Card, Wood Veneer,Letters: Studio Calico; Stickers: Twine and Ink; Stencil: Prima; Modeling Cream: Viva Decor; Tag: Life-Love-Paper; Other: Doily; sketch from Simple Scrapper Premium membership collection

This particular layout was based upon a challenge from the Document Life Project. The idea was to incorporate your front door in some way. I decided to document how we always anticipate my husband's arrival from work every evening.

Gummi Snake by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: Studio Calico, Echo Park, Cosmo Cricket; Letters: Studio Calico, My Little Shoebox; Stamps: Kellie Winnell; Paperclip, Tape, Stickers: Freckled Fawn; Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye; Ink: Tsukineko;based on a sketch from Scraphappy

My original LOAD LO was a bit bare. I came back and tweaked it a bit later. There is, after all, no rules stating you can't come back in and add to a page later on.

Totes Adorbs by Christy Strickler |Supplies Cardstock: Colorbok; Patterned Paper, Tag: Elle's Studio; Letters: October Afternoon, Jenni Bowlin;Vellum: American Crafts;Wood Veneer,German Foil, Bingo Cards: Jenni Bowlin; Flowers, Badge, Tape: Freckled Fawn; Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye; most supplies are from JBS Mercantile February kits

Saturday was a bit hectic and I was also worn down a bit from a busy week. I kept the design simple in order to make things easy on myself.

I chose to link back and share these Lo's with the Memory Nest.






Not all of the pages were created using the daily LOAD prompts. If the prompt doesn't work for me, I save it and move on. Sometimes, I just need a bit more time to think. The nice thing about LOAD is that I will have access to the prompts and can revisit them in the future.

So, now, here we are on Sunday afternoon. I am just sitting down to consider today's LOAD prompt. My goal is to try to work in the latest class from Masterful Scrapbook Design. It's a new Scrapbook coach class about rulebreaking. How are you spending your Sunday afternoon?

Additional Resources

GIS Membership

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Scrapbook Mythbusters Pre-LOAD214 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Layout a Day Scrapbook Mythbusters Blog Hop. If this is you first stop along the way, you may want to head over to Kelli's blog so you don't miss any of the pre-LOAD tips.You should have arrived here from Kim's blog.

It's that time of year again! February is fast approaching, which means many of us are getting ready for LOAD 214. What is LOAD 214, you ask. Load stands for Layout a Day. These events occur a few times each year. February being one of those months. Hence the 2. The fourteen simply represents the year. Each time, a different theme is chosen and we strive to create a layout each and every day. This layout needs to be submitted by the stroke of midnight.

Some of you are now a bit intimidated by the thought of creating a layout each and every day. At one point in time, I myself was. I am now a veteran of the process and can proudly say I have completed 2 full LOAD challenges. I have written before about what Layout a Day really has meant for my process. I have a few kits prepped and will be, in a large part, working to use up my current and past JBS Mercantile kits. I'm ready to choose products on a dime and finish pages in under 30 minutes. Yes, that's right...30 minutes.

Most days I allot about an hour to a LOAD layout. Some days I have extra time, however, many days I also need to work on pages for creative team assignments. I have to homeschool my son, keep house, and I still want to spend time with my family. This means I have learned just how much time I have to dedicate to LOAD. What does this mean?

1. I have to understand that not every layout I make during LOAD will be super awesome. That's not to say it isn't a good layout. It just means that I need to give myself a little leeway in regards to perfection and must accept the layout as is when the timer goes off. I can always tweak it a bit later.

2. I accept what products I have at the ready and use them on the layout. No shuffling through items. No thinking about whether or not this paper or that embellishment might be better than what I am holding.

3. Nix the fancy techniques. I don't plan on doing things like handstitching or using art supplies that have a long drying time.

4. I like to have some photos ready, but should the photos I  have on hand not fit the days prompt, I am more than willing to explore my computer files. I just make sure to set a time limit on the search. The first photo to catch my eye and make me feel like it can work with the prompt is the right photo for that moment.

Sometimes, all the planning in the world doesn't work out the way you expect it. There are nights when I find myself creating the layout while watching the clock tick towards midnight. Luckily, I have found a few spots in my scrap space where I can take late night photos. The lighting is adequate. I let go of the fact that they will be less than perfect pictures of the layout. You can take a better picture in the morning for you blog. Meanwhile, make sure your camera has fresh batteries.

Most importantly of all, Layout a Day is about having fun. If you would like to join in, there is still time.
Click here to view more details

Now it's time to hop on! Your next stop is Lisa. 
Just for reference, here is a list of all the Pre-Load Blog Hop Participants:
Kelli www.useitscrapbooking.com/
Dani scrapperonthestreet.com
Valerie myrainbowcoalition.blogspot.com/
Karen www.photoskeptalive.com/
Danielle ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com/
Connie clickychickcreates.com/
Sherrie littlebitofeverythingme.blogspot.com
Cara www.vincens.typepad.com/
Heather noexcusescrapbooking.com/
Kim sweetscrappinggma.blogspot.de
You are here-> Christy myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/
Lisa E lisae-design.blogspot.com/
Lisa H lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Additional Resources

my past LOAD Experiences
Sketches for quick layout ideas

This is a free tool which enables you to quickly outline a story for your photos. It can be used on-line or printed for reference.