January 30: Clean and Simple Challenge When I think about “Coming Home” and scrapbooking, to me it makes me think about what originally drew me to scrapbooking. And for me, it was the stories. I love taking pictures…my 10s of thousands of pictures on my iPhone can attest to that!! But above that, I want to able to look at pictures and remember what was happening, why I took that picture, what did it mean to me? And that’s where scrapbooking just made sense to me. So I set out and started with paper scrapbooking, as most of us did…back in the day. And during that time, I had the opportunity to attend a Creating Keepsakes University. Holy man, I was fangirling hard that weekend…I was soooooo excited that I was able to meet the makers that brought scrapbooking so far forward!! People like Stacy Julian, Donna Downey, Tim Holtz …and my most favourite…Cathy Zielske!!! I even got her to sign my clean and simple book (and I still have it!). So when we decided on a Coming Home theme for this MOC, I immediately went to what style originally started it off for me. And while my style has changed over the years, I still am drawn to the clean and simple style that was first spotlighted by miss CZ. I feel like there a couple different versions of the “clean and simple style”. First there is the “graphic lines” style that I feel Cathy does so well. She really lets the photos and the journaling shine through. Her pages are fresh and linear and are what really drew me in to scrapbooking in the first place. And then there is the “minimalist or white space” style that you see around the galleries. Where the majority of the layout is free of anything. All your photos and elements are contained to within ¼ of the space on your layout. This style also speaks to my heart... I love both of them, and they can both be considered clean and simple layouts. For this challenge I want you to create a clean and simple layout. As you can see below, you can definitely have different styles on your layout and still have a clean and simple page…simple is just less “stuff” overall. Simple to me means that the photo(s) and stories take center stage. Think “less is more” and see where you end up! For this challenge: 1. Choose either the “Graphic Lines” or “Minimalist” style (or you can go crazy and make 2 layouts!!) NO TEMPLATES PLEASE!! 2. You must have at least 1 photo on your page. It does not have to be a new photo. 3. The less “stuff” you have on your page, the better!! But you must have more than just your photo and the background paper. 4. Have fun and enjoy the process Here is one layout I created for this challenge highlighting the graphic lines style. Here is a layout I created, using the one of same photos, in the minimalist style. Here is another graphic lines style layout I made about my little sister becoming a first time mama. And again, with a photo taken just a few moments later, in a minimalist style page. Which one will you choose??? In addition to the specific instructions above, 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). Product from other stores will not be allowed for MOC; your pages must contain 100% Lilypad product (current or retired product from designers or guest designers presently selling at The Lilypad).
For Questions!! 1. I didn’t see any mention either way of templates. Can we use them or not? Totally understand if the answer is no. NO templates please!!
Thank you so much for this challenge, needed it I whitened the paper a bit. Photo is from last summer of my granddaughter.
@bcnatty I didn’t see any mention either way of templates. Can we use them or not? Totally understand if the answer is no.
I lost all my old layouts in a hard drive crash, but when I first started out, I was a Cathy Zielske fanatic and I had the book you are talking about! I did a graphic style page with pictures of Melissa wearing my glasses and I asked her why she was wearing them. She said “I look like Cathy Zielske” ! I wish I could see that page again, but it’s gone and the picture is lost too. Did you know she is on IG? @czdesigns
Thanks for the challenge...always been a fan of the Clean & Simple look...scraplifted so many of Cathy's pages back in the day!