So the result came out this week, with all the point totals being posted today. I’m happy to say that I made it into the final top 10! LOL I think I actually came in 10th overall for the advanced category which I was definitely happy about. My goal going in to the competition was just to make the top 10 one week. I made the top 10 2 weeks and received points for 4 of the 6 weeks so I figure I did pretty well. I mean let’s face it, when 433 people sign up for a competition, odds are you aren’t going to win! LOL
I haven’t gotten around to posting my layouts in any galleries yet but I did upload them to my gallery here and thought I’d go ahead and post them on here complete with some commentary, yay! hehe And for the big reveal I was contestant number 17023A.
Week 1: The challenge for this week was to scrap dreams and use brushwork.
I actually really liked how this layout came out although it only received like 3 comments in the gallery so I was absolutely SHOCKED when it made the top 10. I still feel like the fact that I scrapped “peace” was a little cheesy, but with Adam in Iraq it was something that was definitely on my mind. I don’t think I’d ever done a layout without a photo before but for some reason I never even considered using one for this. This was one of the few layouts that I had a vision of what I wanted before I started. I think it came out pretty cool.
Week 2: Scrap what makes your life “sweet” and use patterned paper.
I really like this layout as a layout, but I don’t really like it as a contest layout. I think it came out cute but I didn’t really feel like it was going to stand out enough to get points. Turns out I was right, lol. It did get quite a lot of comments in the gallery which I found funny since my wk 1 layout got so few.
Week 3: Song Lyrics and Typography
So this layout stirred up a bit of controversy, hehe. The day the results were posted for Week 3, someone decided to post that graphic layouts don’t count as scrapbooking because all we did was” slap down a photo and some text” and call it good. Nevermind the fact that this layout actually took me 2 days and 2 different versions to get it right! LOL Honestly, some people. I did make the top 10 again with this layout and it actually got the most points of all my layouts which I think makes sense. Out of all the layouts I did for the contest, this one is by far my favorite. I just felt like everything really fell into place and it fit the challenge perfectly. Getting the photo right was a total pain though. You try taking a photo of your hands in a heart using a remote, it’s not easy! Especially since I knew I wanted the depth of field to be a certain way. I actually thought at one point (when my hand started cramping, lol) that I might not manage to pull it off like I wanted but I am so so glad I did. I think it came out really cool.
Week 4: Emotion and Color
I actually really loved how this layout came out for the most part, still not quite sure about the border, but sometimes you get to a point that you just have to call it done. I hate when I get to that point because it usually means that something isn’t working for me and yet I can’t figure out what, but oh well. Of all the layouts I think this was the most emotionally difficult for me. I had just had a week of job ups and downs, ending with getting turned down once again for something that I was really given the impression that I had. (I mean, what job has you go observe for 2 hours unpaid, without then offering you the job?!) Anyway, I kind of feel like this didn’t fit the challenge that week so much as it was a combination of week 2 paper and week 3 typography. I just wish I’d had the idea for the paper mosaic during week 2, lol. But I still think it came out really cool.
Week 5: Simple yet graphic
I’m not going to lie, at this point I was really over the whole competition and I definitely wasn’t feeling this challenge at all. While I love graphic layouts and I think I do them fairly well, only being allowed a line of text really isn’t my thing. I saw some really fantastic examples of what I felt the challenge was looking for, but they just aren’t what I feel like I do well. So this was a rough one for me. Overall I think this is my least favorite layout of the contest which is a shame because the topic is something I’ve been meaning to scrap for awhile. I just felt like the confines of this week’s challenge didn’t allow me to tell the story the way I would have liked. Oh well, you can’t win them all. It did get 7 points though, so I guess someone liked it. lol
Week 6: What you are going to do to help the world now
I was a little scared about getting this layout done since I had gone back home during this week and we’d spent the entire weekend traveling around. But I actually really like how this one came out, especially the photo with the text. I had done that part first and then was trying to come up with something to do around it. Adam actually suggested doing some kind of circle or half-circle, which is how I eventually came up with this. I figured the curves kind of symbolize the shape of a smile so for me it fit. I like that I did maybe a more unexpected idea for the topic, this one would have been really easy for me to go political or do about the war but I purposely chose not to. I just didn’t feel like I had the time to really delve into all my feelings about that when I knew I’d be limited in the time I had to work on it. Plus I just felt like I’d rather do something more upbeat. But I like it and it got some points, so yay. lol
So that’s all my layouts from the challenge. Overall I think there were a few things I learned from competing in this contest.
1. 6 weeks is way too long, at least for me personally. I think 4 weeks is more reasonable. 6 weeks is just too much to have every week come up with something really fantastic. By week 4 I was definitely feeling underwhelmed and by week 5, forget about it, lol. I think week 6 went better only because I’d had several days of vacation that kind of reenergized me.
2. I don’t like vague challenges. That’s my one complaint about this contest. For me the prompts were just too vague and cheesy. Dreams, goals, it’s all fine stuff but I just don’t feel like its really challenging enough. Plus a lot of the topics were ones I’d done before, either for the Digi Dares or in other contests. Totally not the fault of the contest runners, but for me it was hard to be motivated. I think the only 2 weeks that I really had an idea as soon as I read the prompts were week 1 and 3, which were the two I placed in. The other weeks it felt like I had to find something that fit rather than be inspired by the challenge.
3. Contests aren’t as fun without Adam here. I’m sure he’ll be super pleased to hear that, since I know he loves helping me so much, LOL. But honestly one of the things I enjoy about contests is trying to come up with something new and different. Something that is maybe more unexpected than what normal scrapbooking entails. In doing that though, I sometimes get stuck where maybe an idea I tried didn’t quite work and I’m not sure where to go from there. That’s when I’d usually ask Adam for advice (which he is actually really good at!). But since our time to talk is limited and only happens at specific hours, it was much more difficult to get his feedback. Not to mention that is internet at the time was so ridiculous that even sending him to a page that had images would kill it. So for me that was pretty frustrating. I think I got the most help from him on week 3, which is partly why I think it’s my favorite. It was the only one that I didn’t feel “stuck” with at the end.
Ok well, that’s a bit of insight into my contest experience, lol. Now that I’ve written a novel I think I’ll go ahead and wrap this up. Until next time…
