So many 1 photo challenges

oh I hear you @QuiltyMom I actually used to be a photojouranlist too (in highschool and College that is ) I TAKE TONS! LOL, but I never could scrap them all, and I DID try, lol. I guess I finally cracked under the stress and decided to try something new, well, most of the time.

 

There's a page!
1 photo of you watching tv, and a list of what you watch. I bet it changes year to year. Yes, some of the challenges don't allow for journaling, but I always add it after. Because that I can't leave off - unless it's a cover page.

 

Another thought I had is scrap those events or moments you only have one photo for. I've done a few of that. I used two photos for my Christmas cereal story, but really, only one could have told the story just fine.

 

I am loving these suggestions! I also love to jam pack my pages with photos, but I do like to pull out the bigger stories and do one pagers. Often I'll make it into a double page spread with more photos on the second page that give you a sense of the scene and such. Especially love the suggestion about doing a 6x4 to create a pocket page card/photo. That's kinda what I did for the ATC challenge. I decided to make something that could be a filler card for one of my pages for Thanksgiving.

 

I had the same view of one photo per page before my first MOC. I did it just to try and decided I may or may not print iit. Or on some I went back and told more of the story. I now like them, although on my own I don't do as many. Clean and simple is growing on me, but sometimes I will go add another picture or use it as a separation page.
I try to keep the idea of MOC being for fun and learning first and getting the perfect page for my book I'm doing later. The last 2 years I stayed with 1 event and making a book. This year I'm mainly working on Documenting my December, but I have a couple other books in the works which sometimes get used. Attitude helps. On pages like this one today -- Clean and Simple -- I'll try it. I hope I like it, if not I can adjust it later. Have fun. You are learning something new -- it might apply later to some project.

 

I don't mind doing an occasional one photo. Sometimes I do it, but that's because there's a second page coming or I'm using the extra space for journaling, or the photo is really large and the focus of the layout. I like the option to scrap with one photo, but I prefer to scrap multiple photos! I also like being able to tell the story with journaling--how much, however much I think it needs! We aren't always going to be here to explain what's happening on the page or why we scrapped it. Our journaling is the last key of the memory of that page! <3

As far as these one photo layouts....I'm adding journaling afterwards and changing a few things on the layout to fit my scrapping style/needs. On my Blind Scrap, before I saved mine for myself, I added a lot of journaling and moved things around to fit my scrapping personality. And then, after I do all that, I want to post my up-to-date ME layout, with all the fixes, but I've already posted a sub-par layout for the challenge. That right there always gives me mixed feelings and I have a hard time bouncing back from the mixed feelings. Last year, I ran in to a couple very challenging layouts, my husband came home from overseas and I didn't want to be frustrated, so I quit to focus on his return and Disney! I was okay with that because it also helped me understand the emotions I'd have this month during the MOC. This year, I'm going to try to get through it, even though I am two layouts behind because some of them have been tough. But right now, I'm going to scrap a layout for myself (well one of my creative teams) and get back to my style so that I can come back and do the challenges that I've not completed.

In a nutshell, if you don't like the challenge finished layout, change it before you save it for yourself and forget about the sub-par challenge layout. Move things around, add more journaling and photos. Whatever you feel it needs to be completed. The same for those who don't like multi-photo layouts, remove what you don't like to fit your style! If you get frustrated, take a step back and scrap something FOR YOU so that you don't want to quit because trust me, scrapping for a $20.00 GC and a possibility at being on the CT sounds pretty amazing to me! Frustrating and all! And in the end of 31 layouts, you've completed 31 more layouts than you did in the beginning of the month!

 

I also tend to do pocket pages or pages with lots and lots of photos so the one photo challenges are tricky for me too. For the MOC, I tend to complete the one photo challenges with a scanned heritage photo - one that I only have one photo of anyway, and then express a sentiment or a story to go along with that one photo. For example, during one of the previous MOC's, I did the following layout of a scanned photo that I have of my aunts and uncles - three sets of twins in the same family. I'm not sure I would have ever done anything with that photo but now it's in my book instead of a photo box. I don't mind the one photo pages mixed in throughout my books (although I know some people do), and I actually really enjoy looking back at those one photo pages because they make a "single moment/story in time" shine, unlike my pocket pages. Just a thought.

 

I love all these suggestions...I like taking my 12 X 12 layouts and turning them into 6X4 and putting them in a pocket...more to see on one page and less thick albums ( I print individual 12 X 12 pages)

That said I REALLY like that when I flip through my albums no two pages look or feel the same. I don't scrap in chronological order so I may scrap something from 2005 and then scrap from 2016. Because of the way I print that totally works for me. Also because of my non orderly scrap fashion my abilities have grown and changed, and again my pages have a big variety in them.

Even when I look through my albums I notice I get board when they look or feel the same...One photo LO are more costly but the trade off is the ease and speed at which they can be completed. and when mixed throughout my albums they truly break up the monotony.

MOC pushes me outside my box...sometimes I like sometimes I don't...they ones I like I print and the ones I don't I use as Ideas or redo them...always learning always changing.

 

I rarely do one photo layouts...just because there are SO.MANY.PICTURES!

But I like that these challenges help me think outside the box. Sometimes to tell a whole story you don't need all the pictures...I have to tell myself this!

 

I have to say that I absolutely love the conversation here! There are some great suggestions and I love that you're all able to express your frustrations with a certain style and come away with options that will work for you.

The thing that I love the most about MOC and doing challenges in general is that it pushes me to think outside my normal scrapping tenancies. It is through MOC that I try new things and am really able to learn and grow in my creativity. That's the point of it all for me...that and being involved in this lovely community!

In the end, though, a page needs to work for you so that you will love and cherish the memory behind it. So, I think it's a great idea that if you're not happy with the layout you've completed for a challenge, submit it and then make changes that will make you happier with the end product before you print it.

 

LOL....I am so far behind trying to catch up...so I scrap what makes my heart sing for each challenge

 

Please, make a LO of that pic! I like silly LOs, and I bet that'd make a silly lo!
On another note, I think there could be lots of "everyday" moments without kids. You could do a "Where I Stand" photo. I did one tonight of me (well, where I was standing lol) and my hot cocoa. Or what about the weather? Has it been intense where you live? (I feel like it's been nutty almost everywhere in the US lately!) There are lots of ideas already mentioned here, but I just wanted to say that there are lots of chances in your day to take a photo. What about a pic of your most favorite outfit--or a pic of your closet? I took a pic of mine this summer after I organized it. I wasn't proud of my clothes, but I was goshdarn happy to see my shirts and pants arranged by season/style and then color-coordinated. Wow, am I anal-retentive!

 

This is my favorite challenge and not because this is my normal style. I think I like it because it appears so simple, yet it requires discipline and thought in deciding on and the placing of each element on the page. Because there's so few elements, each element becomes more important in expressing mood, story, harmony. The Zen of Scrapbooking.

 

Thanks so much for all of the fabulous ideas and suggestions.
The clean and simple challenge is the first that I haven't done on the day it was posted and I felt like I was the only one stomping my foot. I will make a layout for it, but it probably won't be a keeper. I think it heralds from my paper scrapping days when I scrapped photo filled and matching doubles for my albums. I can do large single photos or story filled single photos, or creative team layouts showcasing designers' papers and embellies with a smallish photo.
It does make me smile though reading peoples comments, some hate to journal, some thrive with artsy and some bemoan the small single photo. It is wonderful that we all have our individual styles and that we know what we like and want.

Done

 

Everyone who knows me knows that if they see me doing a one photo layout that it is either a challenge or a CT layout. But once it's posted, I can go back and add more photos or make it into a double page layout. Or if I don't do that, some of those layouts are saved to make my next calendar toppers.

 

I have a folder of miscellaneous photos on my EHD where I dump all the cute photos I get of my kids, family, etc. that don't have a story behind them: the posed ones where (most) everyone is looking at the camera, KWIM? When one photo challenges come up (although I regularly scrap one photo pages, anyways), I poke around in that folder for something to use.