Gearing up for the Challenges



Slide from my Tenants of Creativity
Gallery on the web site. Digi images
from Deviantscrap.com



As I emerge from my totally amateur status I am discovering some fun new twists in the paper arts world. One of these fun new (to me) twists is the online challenge. Essentially, the web site or blog owner posts a challenge to create a project using a certain theme, product, style, or combination of these and other requirements.

___Advantages of playing along____

Challenges are working well right now for many reasons. I love how they are just one more way to make the world a little smaller by allowing participants from all over the globe and all levels of experience to join in and have fun with the paper art. Some of the other advantages of challenges are:

o ability to surf and blog hop through links to challenges

o promote products

o inspire technique and process experimentation

o most are open to all levels of artists and crafters allowing the joy of creating to be shared

o allow creation of one unique project as opposed to creating time consuming multiples for swaps

o focus the artist’s efforts to a particular theme



Using my favorite products for upcoming challenges

As part of my designer work with Paper Temptress I will be using the PT products to enter some online challenges. Patricia, the amazing Temptress of Paper herself and host of the Paper Temptress Community Blog, has given the designers creative freedom to enter their choice of online challenges. Deciding which challenge to enter is a challenge in itself. Deb Felts has made the selection process easier by publishing a blog called The Daily Dare http://dailydare4u.blogspot.com  where she lists links to all the new blog challenges she can find as they open each day.

While I appreciate focus, I like to create more of the quirky, artsy style projects. In my quest to fiind challenge blogs that would feel comfortable for me and show off the Paper Temptress card stocks in the process—I found these favorites:

1. The Three Muses http://thethreemuseschallenge.blogspot.com/
2. Theme Thursday http://themethursday.wordpress.com/
3. Tag You are It http://tagartchallenge.blogspot.com/
4. Collage Obsession http://collageobsessionchallenge.blogspot.com/
5. Fun with ATCs http://funwithatcs.blogspot.com/
6. Sunday Post Card Art http://sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com/
7. A year in the life of an art journal http://oneyearartjournal.blogspot.com/ (naturally I cannot wait to roll with this one in my journal—wicked grin)

__Show and Tell__
I'll be playing along with the favorites I've listed here and I'd love to hear about your blog experiences too. If you have a a project on a challenge blog any time in July, please post a link to it on the comments or send me an email. Share your favorite challenges and why you like them here too. I'm totally fascinated by the folks I've seen entering one art  piece in 5 or more challenges at the same time. Do tell your secrets for getting all that done.