by Ethan Johnson
February 1, 2008

The Layout A Day Challenge has come to an end at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The objective was to create one layout per day through the month of January. I succeeded in keeping page with the daily requirement. These are the final 3 layouts (out of 31).

Day Twenty-Nine: Bye Bye Beetle

I was flipping through a box of old photos and found a goodie of our long-gone VW Beetle that we took on the road to - believe it or not - Eliasville, TX. That trip really put the size of Texas in perspective. It took us hours on end to get a little ways past Fort Worth. Since the whole Beetle mystique is built around its roundness, I went into circle overload. Short of making the cardstock round. I finally used the circle cutter that we just had to own (smokin' sale price) but was relegated to a file drawer. I also took the extra step of popping two of the chipboard letters out of their circular holder and painted them green to contrast against the blue. Worth the extra time and effort, despite the deadline pressure. Sigh... I miss that car.

Day Thirty: I'm Not There

I opted to darken things up a bit and go for an "art journal" feel. I try not to let the propensity for some to address other scrappers collectively using strictly feminine terms - no different than if I addressed a room full of women as "you guys". I'd prefer more inclusive language, personally, but this is more my problem than anyone else's. To really go for dark and against the grain, I scratched at the photo paper with a craft knife. Believe it or not, I was in a good mood when I made this.

Day Thirty-One: Finale

Due to the daily proverbial gun to my back to produce, I was pleased that I managed to think ahead enough to know that this (or a variant) was how I wanted to close the series. I printed copies of all of the layouts over 30 days and cut them into 2x2 squares. Clearly measurements were approximate. Finito!

Lessons learned:

• I can do this! Really really really really!
• It's alright if it feels good.
• It's also alright if it doesn't. Art should provoke.

Well, that's that for that! I've totally got the shakes, as I have become accustomed to the demands of daily production. But I'm also welcoming the opportunity to slow down a bit and put more thought, time, and effort into my artwork. But, as the prior 31 days hopefully has proven, not everything has to be a major production to be a labor of love. And speaking of love, I've fallen in with a great crowd of scrappers who are kicking off a 3-day virtual crop party. I'm thinking you haven't seen or read about the last of my scrapping exploits. Big thanks to Lain Ehmann for pulling off such a huge hit in such a short time! I'll be back for next year. <EM>

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