Welcome to our Scrapolympic celebrations! It has been four years since our first Olympics together. My, how time flies! This year, we will be celebrating with 6 different events, one daily, except for today, when we have two! Each day will will describe the actual Olympic event, and then we will introduce the write. click. scrapbook. twist to each of the events, showcasing the talents of our own talented athletes, or designers!
The Olympics are a time of unity, celebration, and awe. Seeing athletes succeed after years of dedicated training inspires us to do better. We find parallels to our own craft, as we learn and grow in what we do, we perform better and faster. As the old saying goes, imitation is the best form of flattery. So we imitate their hours spent by spending our own countless hours crafting pages. We imitate their skill honing by learning and studying design, photography, and color theory. We aim for success, just as they do.
So let's enjoy our week of Scrapolympics. We look forward to increasing our Olympic knowledge and creating some amazing layouts together this week.
Biathlon
Our first event is the biathlon, which is a two-sport event combining shooting and cross country skiing. Here is the official Olympic history statement.
Biathlon was staged at the 1948 Winter Games in St Moritz as a demonstration sport. At the time, it combined cross-country and downhill skiing, shooting, fencing and equestrian events. Inspired by modern pentathlon, it was the first attempt to introduce a multi-disciplinary event. It was included on the Olympic programme in Squaw Valley in 1960. Women’s biathlon was organised as a medal sport in Albertville in 1992.
Until the 1976 Games in Innsbruck, the events comprised an individual race and a relay. In Lake Placid in 1980, a second individual event was introduced.
In Salt Lake City in 2002, a 12.5km pursuit event was added for men and 10km for women. From Turin in 2006, a new mass-start event was introduced for both men and women. This brings together the 30 best athletes from the World Cup.
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For our biathlon today, we will be combining the sport of sketch usury with the equally delightful sport of color palette selection.
ROYGBIV + SKETCH = BIATHLON
Representing Writeclickscrapbookland in this Biathlon event, we have Team Spectrum&Sketch consisting of Lisa Ottosson, Amy Kingsford, and Marnie Flores.
First to leave the starting line is Lisa.
Lisa used the color palette from April 2013 with the September 2013 sketch to help Writeclickscrapbookland head toward first place.
In the second heat, Amy is working hard to keep Writeclickscrapbookland in the lead.
Bringing together the March 2013 Sketch and the August 2013 color palette, Amy created a page documenting the love she has for her son. Altering the sketch somewhat so that it was a better suited to an 8.5 x 11 canvas, Amy resized and moving things around a bit. Then she used the color palette as a starting point as a way to help her select a kit from which to work. You may notice she threw in some navy, using it as a secondary neutral, which creates a great backdrop for the brighter colors.
All You Need is Love | materials cardstock (Karla Dudley) + patterned paper, journal card, diecuts, stamps (Celeste Knight) + flower, glitter (Paislee Press) + flair (Creashens) + washi tape (Celeste Knight, Amy Kingsford) + fonts (Courier New)
This layout certainly gives us a great time and score.
Last up, hoping to successfully bring us home is Marnie.
Marnie used the October 2013 color palette and the August 2013 sketch to create her layout. Marnie thought the even sized photos were a great fit for her love of symmetry. She did switch out the icons for journaling however, in order to keep her layout successful for its purpose and not just for the event!
And while we are quite certain that our team will be first to cross the finish line, for bonus points, Lisa made another layout using the January 2014 color palette and the January 2014 sketch.
Here is the result.
With that, the gold is ours, don't you think??
And now, it is your turn. If you pop on over to that left hand margin, you will find many color palettes and sketches to choose from. Put two together, make a layout and leave us a link in the comments. There will be awards at the end of the week both for participation and for best entries!
Sprint
Our second is the sprint. We are going to look to speed skating where you race together. Here is the official Olympic history statement concerning speed skating.
Speed skating appeared for the first time in 1924 at the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix. Initially, only men were allowed to participate. It was only at the Lake Placid Games in 1932 that women were authorised to compete in speed skating, which was then only a demonstration sport. It was not until the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley that women’s speed skating was officially included in the Olympic programme.
The events almost always follow the European system, which consists of skaters competing two-by-two. At the 1932 Olympic Games, the Americans organised American-style events, i.e. with a mass start. This decision brought about a boycott by many European competitors, which allowed the Americans to win the four gold medals. This system would give birth to short-track speed skating, which was added to the Olympic programme in Albertville in 1992.
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For our sprint today, we will be creating pages as fast as we can.
SPRINT = CREATE A PAGE AS FAST AS YOU CAN
Sharpen your trimmers, pick out your supplies, dress in your most comfortable scrapbooking gear, and get ready. Take a very deep breath. Focus. And go!
Today, representing Writeclickscrapbookland we have Team Velociscrapper consisting of Valerie O'Neall, Aliza Deutsch, and Marnie Flores.
Our sprint team is excited to race for the finish line in record time. On your marks, get set, let's go!
Valerie was excited to join the sprinting team as she really enjoys time limit challenges. Forced not to overthink things, she'll look to choose embellishments and scraps of paper that are already out on her desk. Currently taking the Life Scripted class at Studio Calico right now, Valerie couldn’t wait to use her own brush script on a layout. And we are so glad she did. It's lovely!
Valerie's page gets points not just for speed, but also for sticking to the winter theme! Go Valerie!
To maximize her success, Aliza used two time saving strategies. First, she matte her background and patterned papers in black (an easy way to help them look more polished without having to stew over colors). Next, she opted for handwritten journaling. A definite time saver.
In light of full disclosure, Aliza did want to confess that she did lose track of time. While this might impact our gold in the real life sprint, here we cheer her story of inspiration: even though she failed to finish quickly, she did work much faster than she usually does. And while we love a champion, we also adore the underdog. (And the S-IOC applauds her for not blood doping or using metabolic steroids to enhance her performance!)
Knowing that she is not genetically created to scrapbook quickly, Marnie took some measures to ensure her success. First, she picked a digital kit that coordinated with her page's subject matter: facial hair. Next, she limited herself to the colors that came in the kit so as to not spend too much time worrying about making things more complicated than they needed to be. Lastly, she gave herself permission to create a single photo layout, certainly her favorite (and therefore fastest) pages to scrapbook.
How about that awesome beard? and page!
In summary, some time saving tricks:
- stick to what you do best
- limit yourself on product
- choose coordinating products/lines
- handwrite journaling, handdraw titles
- don't overthink the process
And remember, there is not time limit; just an effort to keep moving a little quicker than normal.
With that, our sprinting draws to a successful close as does day one of our Scrapolympics. We heard your applause and thank you for your cheers and your support along our journey!
Don't forget that it is now your turn. We look forward to seeing your Biathlon and your Sprint pages. Again, there will be participation awards, so get those pages done and link us up!
Until tomorrow...
