I used to talk about Club Scrap and how I loved it, and how I bought old kits on eBay, and how I finally got to join, and how much fun it was waiting every month for the "pizza box" of surprises, and then - six months later - how Mike was here and I had no time and the supplies were stacking up and I'd rejoin again later.
I've been meaning for later to be sooner for awhile now, but it just hadn't happened. However, I'm still on the mailing list, and when I came home Friday (really pleased with how much my last period got out of Whitman's "Noiseless Patient Spider" - PUNCH-AIR!) in the inbox was an announcement for the Club Scrap Pro Scrapbooking League.
Which is, basically, an excuse to make scrapbook pages that fit certain weekly challenges while hopefully feeling inspired and full of good natured camaraderie. Here I slowly say in my Fred Savage looking at Columbo in The Princess Bride voice, "Weekly challenges sound interesting."
Participants are randomly assigned to a team. You can post as many layouts as you like for the week of the challenge. These are worth two points each. If you do any other layouts, but they don't fit that week's challenge, you can still submit them to a "general" category for one point each.
All along, participants get discounts on this and that, and in the end, the winning team gets... well, something. More discounts? Prizes? I'm not really clear on this. Hopefully everyone else is just in it for the fun and prod-to-create (and hey, those of you who are not into scrapbooking or Club Scrap might consider this), because I don't plan to do more than one or two layouts per week. (Some people have already put up, like, ten layouts. If my team wins, it will totally be because of them.)
I clicked the "Draft Me!" button and eagerly waited seconds for the email to arrive. Team Silver? Team Purple? Team Pink? What would it be?
It would be...
TEAM ORANGE.
We are going to say that I put it in caps like that because part of my Attitude Adjustment is to CELEBRATE the colour ORANGE, a GREAT COLOUR.
Or we can be honest and talk about how much I hate orange and it's only by having not one but TWO students in the last two years who love orange and try to dress head-to-toe in it that I have reached a truce level with this colour. Yes, I love orange juice, but I myself don't want to be liquid sunshine. I haven't given away my Smiths albums yet, okay?
A few others on the team were like me, but most people were all OMG! ORANGE! HOORAY!, and this has got to be why I don't get the scrapbooking community. They're making "BFF!" layouts, while I'm trying to commemorate the Kennedy assassination with grosgrain ribbon, as you will see below.
Okay, so it's a new experience being on anything orange, so that's cool, but do you know what the pre-season challenge is? Make a layout of which 75% is in your team colour.
GACK.
But I'm a trouper, I even spelled it right, so I go to The Pile and, sure enough, about seven inches deep down, there are two pieces of orange paper. I mean, I have a little pumpkin, a little terra cotta, some coral, but dang, here is my chance to get rid of these two pieces of icky orange paper, and I'm not going to miss it.
But, what wonderful life experience did I want to vanquish to the orange pit?
Ah! Our first anniversary lunch!
Worth remembering? Yes. Photos available? Yes. Backstory to "journal" on the page? Yes. (My aunt and her family bought us this and the next lunch as a wedding gift - that was perfect.) Ephemera? Yes. (The ad in the tourist booklet that I ripped out excitedly the night before.) Conducive to the colour orange? YES! (Indian food pays off again!)
So, I ordered some photos from Flickr that night and picked them up at Target the next day - boy is that convenient and cheap. (Even though the chick in the lab kept trying to explain to me how Flickr crops all the photos in weird ways before sending them over and how I shouldn't use them and should use Shutterfly instead. I kept trying to explain to her that I crop the photo in weird ways, or else am using a digital camera which doesn't shoot 4x6, and it's not Flickr's doing something to everyone's photos; it's more a case of them not being cool like Shutterfly and letting us decide how they'll be cropped before Target gets the order. Or else a case of me not caring enough to add a filler border and reupload before ordering. All of which she didn't believe. This seems to me like a lot for a customer to make up then bother relaying, but okay: Flickr is the devil and they're cropping your photos funny after you place an order and then Target has to try to fix them back to their natural 4x6 state - you heard it here first. Or at the Boca Park Target. Anyway, photo developers should just add white space instead of cropping our photos like they've been doing for ages, but that's another story.)
Below is the resulting layout. Remember, I was determined to work in as much orange as possible. Also, I changed my mind about what I wanted to do several times, and instead of starting over I just added on. So. the orange/white sherbety stickers on top are from Plan G, and the ill-sized turmeric photo mattes are from Plan K, and the flowers are from Plan R. All together, it's my own little Plan 9.
Some of this game works on the Honor System. You are only supposed to post new layouts. If your layout is discovered to be posted elsewhere before it goes to the challenge (like a blog or Flickr or message board), your team loses a significant number of points and you're disqualified. (There are other rules like this - keeps it spicy.)
Similarly, "Assembly Line Scrapbooking" (ALSB) is a big part of Club Scrap now. It's where CS gives you instructions on how to use every part of the monthly kit to make 10 or so pages where all you have to do is add the photos, words, and any embellishments. It's hugely popular, although I only like it when feeling stuck in general or just uninspired by the kit. So, lots of people have tons of empty layouts all done that only need photos and whatnot added. These are allowed in the competition.
I had the layout below all all done except for the photos and some whatnots, and while it isn't ASLB, I decided it was in the spirit of ASLB and could be included for the general one-point competition. (The date of our visit is scratched onto the key. There may be a secret message on the yellowy light paper behind the photo, but you don't have the clearance to find out, sorry. Ask Donald Sutherland.)
In the end, this - the competition - was the sign to ride the CS skies again. I've rejoined on the cheapie plan (JR kit plus a la carte beads, fibres, and tags/paper embellishments), and hopefully I'll last several weeks into the playoffs before sort of wandering off and not mentioning it here again until September. ("In other news, I've decided to cancel my Club Scrap membership again. I just wasn't....")
I hate orange. Why don't we have a symbol for hate the way we have a heart for love? I wanted to write I Heart Orange with a big NOT!!!!
Anyway, guess what my school's colors are? ORANGE and black. Yep. It's disgusting, and needless to say, I look like a big jerk at all the 'spirit day' stuff when I show up wearing NO ORANGE.
Icky icky icky.
But, your anniversary lunch layout is as lovely as orange can be! Well done!
Posted by: Heather in PA | 04 February 2008 at 12:40 PM
I do not like orange, either. However, didn't you guys win the pre-season? And I live in East Tennessee, land of the University of Tennessee Vols, and their colors are ... orange and white. I can't go to home games because I look like a dead person in orange. I'm not kidding. And I think that the way I look in orange... probably totally colors my opinion of the color. I mean, for instance, I *love* the color purple. But somehow, Team Purple came in LAST this week. Not making that up.
Oh, and by the way, I've been ALSB'ing Nature's Wonders all week, and I have fallen in love with the way *that* orange look with blue and green and yellow. I never would've believed it. But working with it... makes me so much more fond of it.
Now I just need to find "hometown" pics that will make that orange stuff look faboo. Don't hold your breath. I live in the world's tiniest, most insignificant town ever. I fear Team Purple will come in last ... again......
I'm glad I found your blog!
--bay
Posted by: Bay | 16 February 2008 at 10:10 PM
Hey Bay - you shouldn't sigh because Team Purple has some of the most GORGEOUS layouts! I remember noticing when I was wandering through the forums.
I really like purple, too. I would've done such a happy dance if I'd been drafted to your team. (Plus I've barely touched the purple paper from Wheel and Sprocket.)
I'm looking forward to returning to quality over quantity. Last week I was just trying the digital kit for grins so I slung a lot of stuff out that I might not have committed to real paper. However, it was really fun to try new things without any risk of messing up that last perfect piece of whatever, so now that I'm back to paper I think I'll be more confident.
(And also more slowwwww - if Team Orange places anywhere near the top, it won't be because of me!)
Hmmm, little town? Yours will probably be amongst the most interesting layouts, then! You've made me curious! Nature's Wonders is one of my favourite kits. It was my first kit as a member (and not an eBay scavenger), and I remember just gasping when I opened the box. Can't wait to see what you do!
Meanwhile I need to post some updates here, but I've been too busy scrapping - lol. Now to get some photos printed... you'd think this week's challenge would be easy, living in Las Vegas, but how many "hometown casino" layouts do I want to do? *grin*
Posted by: Shari | 16 February 2008 at 10:44 PM