How do you?

So far with the challenges I read the requirements and think about what photo or photos will work with what is required. Then when I decide on the photo, I then go search out the papers and embellishments.
I personally like to finish one challenge before I start the next or my mind would go crazy thinking about two! Also for me so far the challenges have been posted at my night time so I get busy and try to finish before 11pm ( my normal bed time). I would not sleep if I had not finished a page.

 

Gosh, I wish I could give you an easy to follow process, but it seems that I go by the seat of my pants.

Working backwards, with Day 3, I decided to go with one designer (Pink Reptile) and I just went looking through her kits alphabetically for neutral color frames and tossing them on the page on a diagonal. Then I went looking for 2 photos. Once I decided on our cats, the kit had a tag "the right mix of chaos & love" which to me was perfect for cats so I started putting all kinds of string, swirls, messiness that seems to go with cat toys.

For Day 2, I mulled the list I was making over until I decided to go with ordinary everyday things that I am thankful for and make my days just a bit better. Once I had the list done, I just played around.

For Day 1, it was all about the single photo and trying to fit all the stuff for the requirements in. I'm just 80% happy with that page.

I try not to look at what everyone else is doing lest I latch on to one of their ideas and replicate it.

Hope that helps in some way.

 

I too do one a day and look at the challenge first thing in the morning - before emails etc. I may have to ponder it a while but mostly I only groan when I have to use much more product than I'd like. Too bad, I just get over it. If I'm at a loss by 9am or so I will scan some of the layouts that are already up (thank you European scrappers!) and it usually gives me some clues about what "I" might like to do. I'll also look at some of my own old layouts because I often know I may have made a page very much like what is necessary for the challenge. Today I remembered I'd done a page filled with frames for a day in Genoa where I had a lot of photos and most of them were of equal value so I could put 8 or more on the page - with frames.

I have years and years of photos but try to always tell a story in addition to fulfilling the requirements. I can make a story about most anything!!! which I see is a gift for scrapping. I also think that my children/grandchildren might be more likely to keep albums/pages that are about them!!

 

I try to see what I need to get scrapped. Ya'll know how far behind I am! ha! For the 10 favorites list challenge I did my favorites from our trip to Joshua Tree last month. I still haven't figured out the other two since I can only think and scrap when the contractors aren't banging around the house. I feel like the Grinch: “And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! There’s one thing I hate! All the NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!” lol!!!

 

I, on the other hand ALWAYS look at the other posts for ideas! LOL I am a notorious scraplifter, and usually my final product can't even be recognized as a scraplift unless that is its purpose!

Also, once the requirements are met and posted, I have no qualms about changing the LO if it is one I want printed, and has some elements required by the challenge I would rather not include in the printed page.

 

I scrap by album/project. For example, right now I'm working on January to June 2018. I have about 20 layouts left to go, then I'll get that photobook printed and move on to July to December 2018. For each album I have planned, I have a folder of photos and stories I need to scrap. When I look at a new MOC challenge, I start by seeing if anything in my current project's folder will work. If not, I check the other projects I plan to work on soon, like the next chronological album or a vacation book.

 

When I load photos into Lightroom, I three star my favorites. ( Don't ask why I don't 5 star, I'm weird). So, for day 1 I decided to look at Christmas and three star photos. I knew I had a bunch of document your December and that it combined beautifully. So, I went with Christmas theme. I had my 3 star photo and boom! page done.

Day 2 and 3? I haven't started yet! Just read the instructions.
Day 2. I'm going to make my list first, then see if I have photos to complement otherwise it'll be photoless.
Day 3 when I read about the frames, I immediately thought about a photo wall with frames. So I'm thinking I'm going to pull photos from one of the photo shoots I've made my kid do lately. There's a ranch one that lends to any neutral frames or a Christmas one I could use dyd product again. I could use one of our vacation days, probably whale watch because I know I took a ton of photos that day too. I'll probably stick to the photoshoot because of the photo wall feel in my head.

That's your peek into my brain!

 

I always start with the photos an the story I want to tell, then move into my stash. I'm also a sketch scrapper. When possible, if one of the sketches or templates in my stash matches a challenge criteria I use them. It speeds up my creative process and I spend more time creating and less time trying to work out what to do.

I scrap a mixture of recent and catch-up. At the moment I still have a lot of photos from 2019 to do, and am working through 2010 for the older - cute little kids photos. Most of my photos lend towards multi-photo pages, which made day 1 tricky for me as I only had a few single photos in either year to scrap and most would not work with flowers. I might have to start listing unscrapped photos from 2011 if there are too many more single photo only pages .

For MOC, I check the day's challenge when the kettle is boiling. For days 1 & 2 I was able to launch straight into scrapping with my cup of tea. Yesterday breakfast came first, and scrapping was done in short stints interrupted by children needing my assistance, or to use my computer.

Today I spy another single photo page ... and the kettle is now boiled.

 

Mostly I just keep a list (my trusty excel spreadsheet) on things I want to scrap in general. Each day when the challenge is posted I look at the rules and then look at my list to see what sparks my interest (and matches the number of photos).

 

I feel the least organised this year than other years & I'm just not focused on scrapping really at the moment, but the grid technique sparked my interest & I got that page done quickly by limiting myself to 1 kit after getting the grid itself to work.
The 10 frames one I'm sorta stuck on b/c I can't think of a specific product or frame pack off the top of my head & I always end up just losing time looking thru my stash (which is unorganized) but @bestcee s gallery wall idea sounds good & I'm planning to just look thru that days thread for specific product inspiration!
The next days template I haven't even grabbed yet but 1 photo is often my stumbling block b/c usually my photos are the visual story telling kind that work better in groups & again looking thru my photos loses me time there - @ForeverJoy had some challenges & tips last year & I'm thinking about just scrolling backwards in my camera roll & just finding & using the first single photo that works technique she suggested to help me get that one done quickly

 

I have a weird way of doing it. I stalk the forum to see what the challenge is and I think about it. Sometimes I think for a day on it. Usually what type of photo I am going to use. Then when I am ready to scrap I usually pick one designer and I look through her stuff to see what I am going to use. It is not the quickest method because sometimes I look at store previews for that which leads to oh I need to buy that...and also leads to me remembering something similar that I have from another designer. I then go through all my elements and open them up in the bin on pse. (Currently working on the frame one so I had to see what frames I had and how I wanted to decorate said frames.) and then I wind up not even using half the stuff I opened. There is a lot of do I like this? Or this happening. Well that’s my helter skelter approach to the challenges. I am sure it makes sense to no one but me, lol

 

I like to scrap with BYOC and M3 sets of product so I have lots of papers and elements that work together. I'll look through my photos for a story to tell and then consider the colors when I look through my stash. It is like shopping in my stash until I see something I love.

I also like to look through the LOs already posted for inspiration. Lots of wonderful inspiration in the gallery here!

 

I read the challenge first and think about what photo/kit/theme/style I want to do. I then find the photo that I feel will fit the challenge and go from there. Many times it doesn't end up the way I thought it would, day 2 of 10 faves is totally different than where I was first going but I really love how that page turned out, same with day 3-simple template and day 5-grid photo--all different than how I saw them but am very happy with the end result.

Now that my Christmas break is over I may fall behind and have to do them out of order or more than one when I have time but I try not to stress and save all my pages as a tiff file so I can change afterwards if needed or I missed a part of the challenge I'm not redoing an entire page.

Big thing is to try not to stress and have fun!!

 

I have a similar process to many as stated here.

I have an old list of pages i wanted to scrap, in order to complete 2 specific years of albums... but none of those pages/stories were super inspiring right now. So i haven't done them. I have DYD album to do... not feeling it, so those got skipped also.

In the end, my process is: read challenge, review others already posted if I'm not immediately inspired. Scroll through photos till i come up with something that meets some criteria: most recent first, hasn't been scrapped, or has but needs retold, correct number of photos to tell the story. I search my templates for something that will work (if not provided). Then i usually go to the store and do a search for kit(s) that meet the theme and are currently in the store and in my stash. Then go to town on the page..

 

I already had a whole folder of "MOC8 Photos" so that helped. Like some of you, my layouts are photo-driven (unless they're photo-less of course). Luckily, I have a large number of real recent pictures from over the Christmas holiday that are just waiting to be scrapped.

 

Hmmmmm.

I didn't read all the responses, but I think mine is different than most. MOC is the time of year when my creativity is poked, prodded, and propelled into a higher level by the challenges. I find myself more creative in January than at any other time.

I need that creativity boost on February 1...