Thursday, January 1, 2015

One Hundred Cards Challenge

Firstly, let me say... Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2015 brings you many bursts of creativity, moments of pure joy and success in whatever you're working hard on.

Since it's the first day of the year, I'm finally ready to unveil my first big project for 2015 - One Hundred Cards Challenge. This is a yearly challenge where I will make 100 unique cards based on the following list of themes:
(click on the image to enlarge it)

I decided to do this challenge for two reasons:
1) To give myself a focus and always have something to create and blog about. I particularly hope to run this long-running series as a way to post on a regular schedule. I'm a planner and having a schedule just works for me.
2) To make good use of my existing crafty supplies. I've got quite a few supplies that were bought because I fell in love with them, but they never made it past being moved into their stamp storage pocket. I'd really like to change this and make every purchase be worth it.

And with that, let me talk a bit about the theme list... I came up with the themes on a whim, using a stream-of-consciousness exercise -- this is basically where you take one word and keep writing (or typing) the first word that comes to mind when you see it. I continued down the list until I had 100 words, then scrambled them all up so I couldn't guess what the next entry was going to be.

Some of the words are fairly easy concepts, such as #7 (Yellow) and #62 (Chevron). Other words are a lot more challenging - such as #50 (Passage) or #21 (Velocity). But I've found that the really challenging and risky themes are the ones that end up being the most creative and the most satisfying to complete.

To make things a little extra challenging, I'm not going to go through the list in order. Instead, I've written down the themes on bits of paper, folded them and put them in a glass bowl. Each time I create, I (or one of my lovely family) reaches in and picks a random theme to work with.

And there you have it! I hope you'll enjoy all the cards created for this challenge. And if you join in on the challenge, definitely let me know! I'd love to check out your creations. :)

6 comments:

  1. Such a cool idea! Looking forward to your creations!

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    1. Thank you! I thought it was a really fun idea, too. And it keeps me creating new things. :D

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    1. Thanks so much, Kathy! I'm loving it so far and keep getting bursts of motivation to keep creating. :D

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  3. Such a clever idea, Elle! I hope it really helps keep you inspired throughout the year ahead and I cannot wait to see each of the cards you make.

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    1. Thanks so much, Kylie! It is working just marvelously so far. I'm finding myself going back to the craft table to tackle just one more theme. And I keep getting new ideas to jot down in my creative notebook. Love it! :D

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