January 19: 'Same but Different' Elements!

Hello everyone, I hope you're enjoying the challenges! Today's challenge is a great excuse to really dig through and play in your stash, even if, like me, it is very unorganised!

As someone that hoards, I mean *collects*, kits that have birds and feathers in them, I'm always amazed at the new ways designers represent birds and feathers in their new releases! (If your family includes a furbaby or two, you might understand that 'must have' feeling and have a similar stash of dog or cat kits (or both!)).

Anyway, thinking about this challenge, as I was scrolling through kit previews, I also found a huge diverse range of things I don't actively collect. Things like flowers, butterflies, buttons and more unique Christmas trees than I ever thought was possible, which just shows how creative designers really are with their variety of takes on items that are often included in element packs and with themes like Christmas that repeat over and over (and those fresh new releases definitely make scrapping those same old events that happen every year much more exciting!). That creativity and diversity in design is what we are appreciating and focusing on today!

The goal of today's 'Same but Different' Element Challenge is to feature a wide variety of unique designs of the same element or element type on your page. All those elements will have something in common that is instantly recognisable, maybe they are all birds or butterflies, for example, or maybe they are all tags or buttons, but seeing them all displayed together showcases their diversity and differences in design!​

'What do I mean by that? And how do I do that for my MOC day19 page?'

• Look through your stash and choose an element to feature on your page.
  • This can be EITHER a broader element category (for example: buttons or tags) OR a more specific type of element (for example: birds or hearts).
  • Include at least 10 different variations of that element on your page.
    • They should have clear differences in their design, not just their colour and size. This is not a recolouring, rotating or resizing challenge.
      
    • And while I still want you to feel free to be creative, for this challenge, journal cards and paper pieces will not be considered elements and are not to be used as your 10 or more featured element.
      
    • Also some specific elements can be hard to count and distinguish, like paints and splatter, stitches and scatters; or are generally uniform in design, like staples and wordstrips, so I have made a visual guide highlighting these below.'
  This visual guide should help you see what is allowed (the left column) and what is not (right column).

Inspiration from the Pollys!
They did so great with this challenge but this post would be so long if I showed them all!

This page is by @amandac . I'm sure you can see her featured element! She has hearts galore on here but with slight differences in the curves of that identifiable heart shape, some in cork, chrome, wood; they are all clearly unique!

@Iowan chose to showcase postage stamps (30 of them!) and you don't have to be a stamp collector to appreciate the differences in design that is obvious in seeing all those postage stamp elements together!

This page by @lcpereyra also shows how much variation in design there can be for the simple ampersand (the '&' symbol) which is often in both element packs and alpha packs!


And this is my page with birds. I've numbered them in red just for this post so you can find them all.

Birds 1, 7 & 10 all come from the same kit and have the same colours but are clearly in different poses with different details. Birds 5 & 11 also come from the same kit and although they are different, it is not as easy to tell at first glance. If you think any of your unique elements are questionable, tag me or make sure to tell me this when you upload to this thread.

credits:
ForeverJoy Designs | Birds of A Feather kit; Dream Out Loud ; Happily Ever After
Lynn Grieveson | Nesting; Bird Call; Forage Brushes
Allison Pennington | Flock Elements; Flock Together Cards
Pink Reptile Designs | Feeling Blue elements
Rachel Jefferies | Pocket Art 2
Kim Jensen | Dino-riffic Alphas

Rules Recap for 'Same but different' Elements challenge:

• You must use at least 10 unique elements that have something in common.
  
• Check the 'visual guide' in this post for ideas on what is allowed and what is not allowed
  • For example, multiple recoloured items, even if they are included in a kit already recoloured by the designer, will not count for this challenge.
  • If you have an idea that you are unsure of, tag me (@bellbird) and ask in a reply in this thread just in case.
• Background paper choice is up to you, just make sure the elements can be clearly seen.
  
• Additional elements may be used but the featured type of element (eg. birds) must still be clear.
  • For example, if you choose to feature 10 different flowers on your page, do not hide them all with lots of different leaves - to celebrate the diversity of your flowers or chosen element, you need to let the flowers shine!)
• Templates are allowed for this challenge (just remember you can not simply recolour template flowers for example for this challenge - use the template as a guide to place your unique elements)
• Photos, journalling and title are all optional.

And as with all MOC challenges:
Your page must be a new page in order to count for the Month of Challenges. Your page must be posted in three places:
1. Uploaded to the TLP Gallery (not an outside hosting site).
2. Posted in your page thread you created in the MOC Layouts Folder. You should have one post per completed challenge page. If you complete all 31 challenges, your thread should contain 31 posts. Please do not comment in the participants’ page threads so we can keep them clean.
3. Posted in this thread. People can comment here if they wish.

Your page must contain Lilypad product (pages with photos and font only do not count). If you use product from other stores, your pages must contain at least 75% current Lilypad product (currently for sale in the store from either permanent designers or guest designers).


I can't wait to see what you create!

 

reserved post for Q&A

Q- can the page have journaling? The reason I am choosing the item will need the backstory.
A -

Yes, journal heavy and photoless pages are both perfectly fine, and just to be clear, you are not required to tell me why you picked that particular specific or broader category of element, just get 10 or more different ones on the page so i can see them all

Q- just a question in case that an element includes more than one of my selected elements, can I use it? for example a button that includes 3 equal buttons, but that is just one element in the kit.
A- just checking if I'm understanding - you would be using a group of 3 buttons that are all the same but are all part of one PNG in a kit?
If that's right, I'm inclined to say either try to extract just 1 of the buttons or mask the other 2, OR more simply (that I'd do because I find adding easier), add at least an extra 9 unique buttons to your page and make sure to cover 2 of the buttons from that grouped element.

Q- I have some questions that relate.Can I use heart stamps if they are all very distinct? If they can’t be used as stamps, can they be used if a style is applied to make it more physical? Finally, if I have 10 physical hearts can the stamps also be included?
A- I'll try to answer each question.

• If you are featuring heart stamps that is a very narrow specific thing, and as you say, all of them looking distinctly different would suggest maybe there's a flourish inside one, one is solid, out is a dashed outline etc. As long as that's clear, you can use 10+ heart stamps (postage or ink stamps). They can be the same or different ink colour as long as they are unique heart stamps. The design of each heart being different is the feature.
• You can apply styles if you want to differentiate them but please follow the not recolouring rule. (For example, using the same flourish heart in a pink heart puffy sticker style & then a blue sticker style & a yellow sticker style etc)
• If you want to just feature 'hearts', a less narrow specific element, you can use stamps & whatever else you want.

Let me know if I missed anything

 

Yes, journal heavy and photoless pages are both perfectly fine, and just to be clear, you are not required to tell me why you picked that particular specific or broader category of element, just get 10 or more different ones on the page so i can see them all - does that make sense?

 

ok sounds like you already have a plan, go for it!

 

Ummm ... Let me get a second opinion & have a quick think about it - I think it should be ok - here's my thinking
(While they are broadly 'paper pieces', they also come under the more specific element category of 'eyes' and have that in common, not just that they are paper pieces. If they were all paper pieces of stripes or polka papers, I would have a clearer 'no, sorry' answer in my head because the pattern/design is too uniform, but in this case they are each unique... but I don't want to tell you the wrong thing, so I'll come back with an executive decision!