Zest for Adventure - The K&Co. Challenge

Early this year, I joined my very first layout challenge. I didn't want to join at first given my busy sked plus I don't think I have the confidence to actually enter my work in a competition. Thankfully, Mabelle (MyScrapwork.com's Web Master) encouraged me to join.

There were three categories. I joined what I thought was the easiest.Challenge number 3 - the Brendalicious Kit challenge. Basically,I just needed to buy a kit from Pressing Matters and use only the materials in the kit for my layout. The kit costs about P200 so I thought that would be easy. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg and I wouldn't have any difficlty thinking of what papers and embellishments to use. Needless to say, I had been so wrong. What I thought was going to be an easy task turned out to be very difficult. For one, I can only use the chipboards in the kit. I got Z, A and J. How on earth will I use those letters? It took some time for me to come up with Zest for Adventure. In addition, I discovered how difficult it is not to have the option of using papers and embellishments of my own choice.Instead of choosing papers that will match my picture, I had to choose pictures that will go with my papers. I had to make my own embellishments out of the materials in the kit.

Aside from the chipboards included in the kit, other letters were cut using Sizzlits Girls Are Weird Die Set, edges inked to make them pop on the page. I likewise inked all papers on the edges to set the boundaries between papers. I added random hand-stitching throughout the page for added interest. I added paper embellishments like brads (done by sticking together 5 layers of paper cut using a hole puncher and inking the edges) and a flower buckle (traced from a chipboard). I concealed the journaling in the file folder which I cut using a Coluzzle template.
I stitched a pocket in the file folder to which I inserted a photo tag and a journaling tag. Journaling handwritten as follows:

“April is our adventure month. It’s that time of the year when we allow ourselves to explore and discover new places, meet new friends and try new experiences. It’s a time for fun, for relaxation and for remembering our best adventure yet – our journey into married life. (April 2001-lifetime)”

Anyway, I was quite happy with my final layout. However, when I saw the other entries, I thought I wouldn't have the chance given the great work of other scrappers. Never in my dreams did I imagine that my layout will win. Since it took some time for the winners to be announced, I kinda lost hope. Specially since I joined two other challenges after that first entry and I have yet to win a prize. Imagine my surprise when I saw my layout in the anouncement of winners just this morning. My layout received honorable mention!!! Wow!!! Happiness!!!

Seriously, winning the challenge is just icing on the cake. Joining this challenge indeed pushed my creativity a notch higher. I was forced to come up with a good layout using limited supplies. My husband will jump with joy if I can come up with more layouts that doesn't break the bank.

To see the announcement of winners, click here.

Oh, and don't forget to check out the entire May issue of www.myscrapworks.com. Great new articles including an exclusive interview with THE Becky Higgins. For my column (I know. I can never be as exciting as an interview with BH. But this is for you photo-editing nerds out there.), I wrote about retouching photos of layouts for submission to challenges. Happy reading!!!