Layout A Day (LOAD) - February 2013

Welcome to the LOAD, February 2013 bloghop.  As members of the ScrapHappy family, we are proud to share with you tips, tricks and information about LOAD.  Don't think you can commit to creating one layout every day for an entire month?  Come on, Guys - it's a short month, only 28 days and think of all the memories that you can document and get in your scrapbooks if you did a layout every day during the month of February.  Those stories that have been waiting to be told.  They could definitely be included.

Now how does LOAD work?  Well, each morning you receive an email with a video from Lain explaining that day's prompt, but guess what - if you're not feeling the prompt, you don't have to stick to it.  You can scrapbook anything you want that day as long as you make a new layout every day for the entire month.  Some of those who participate pick a particular event, like a wedding or a trip to Disney and work on that for the month and some, like me, stick to the prompts and one of the reasons I do that is because they challenge me to scrap about things that aren't always on the forefront of my mind but things that make great additions to my memory keeping.

Let me show you what I mean.  Here are some layouts I've made for previous LOADs - I wouldn't have any of these memories in my books if I hadn't been given the prompt during LOAD.

1.  Prompt:  Who I Am Now.  

I really had time to sit and think about what that means, the parts of my life that make me what and who I am.

2.  Prompt:  What's in a Name

The story of why my parents chose the names for me that they did

3.  Prompt:  Best Friends

4.  Prompt:  Cartoon Character

5.  Prompt:  Someone else's story

This prompt gave me the opportunity to document my husband's spelling talents.

6.  Prompt:  Dream

Ever since I was a little girl, I've wanted my own pool.  This prompt got me to put that story to paper.

The theme for this iteration of LOAD is happiness and LOAD definitely makes me happy.  Let me tell you the ten ways in which LOAD leaves me with a smile.

1.  As I said, I'm challenged to scrapbook things that I wouldn't normally scrapbook and that makes my memory keeping richer and more well rounded.

2.  LOAD helps me to get over my perfectionism and remember why I scrapbook in the first place.  I want to remember this stuff.  Having to do a layout a day requires me to "just get it on paper."  I often do this thinking I'll come back to it and fix it later when I have time and you know something that happens, when I pull it out again, I think, this is pretty good just the way it is.  I want to work on something new - so I do.

3.  Consider it your me time.  We're all so busy.  Some of us work, some of us have children to care for, there's the housework and the car pooling and the family and social obligations.  There's a million things that we are tasked to complete every day.  None of your layouts for LOAD have to take a long time, in fact Lain talks continuously about how important the memories are and how that is more important than how long your page takes.  I've completed layouts for LOAD that have literally taken a half of an hour.  You can give yourself a half hour everyday.  I promise.

4.  Lain's energy and passion for this is a great way to start the day.  The emails come first thing.  Watch it during your morning coffee and think about it while you're at work, then when you get home, you're ready to create it.

5.  I live on the East Coast.  The layouts are due at 3AM West Coast time.  Sometimes I've need those extra hours.

6.  You can win a prize.  If you upload your layout before the time it's due every day, you have a chance to win a prize.

7.  The stash gets put to good use.  Just think about the amount of supplies you could get off the shelf and onto a page in 28 days.

8.  As the stash dwindles - there's now space to buy more supplies and you know, CHA just ended.  You need somewhere to put all those new collections that just came out.

9.  Another thing that makes me happy is the stack of layouts that I have at the end.  Now, they may never make it into the albums where they belong, I mean who has the time.  Maybe we need to have file a layout a day or something - but the feeling of accomplishment seeing all of those completed layouts - that's enough to put a smile on anyone's face!

10. You have an awesome support system.  We're all in this together so when you feel your mojo and creativity waning you can head on over to the message board and get re-energized.  Don't stay over there too long though - you do have a layout to make, afterall.

Follow along on the blog hop to meet some of those individuals who will be your support system for the month.  See what makes them happy about LOAD, read their tips and tricks on how to tackle and conquer this project.

Heather Dubarry: http://noexcusescrapbooking.com

Alison Day: http://adayinthelifeor5.blogspot.com/

Danielle Taylor: http://scrapperonthestreet.com

Alison Charlton: http://scrappinginsingapore.blogspot.com/

Christy Strickler: http://myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/

Lynnette Nagle: http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Julie Shepler: www.sheplerfamily.com

Joy McHargue: http://www.studiowowjoy.com/

Kelli Panique: http://scrapbookgirl71.com/

Cathy Holiday: pikespeakscrapper.blogspot.com

Leslie Smith: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/

Lori Martin: Blogginthecrafts.blogspot.com

Connie Hanks: http://ClickyChickCreates.wordpress.com

Betsye Erazo: betsyerose.blogspot.com

Marcia Fortunato: mfortunato.blogspot.com

Regina Huminski: http://ginabeth1.blogspot.com/

Beth Soler: http://www.scrappingwonders.com

Kristie Sloan: http://kristiesloan.com/blog/

Danielle Hunter: http://ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com/

Interested in joining us?  You can sign up here.

Stay tuned to my blog for the month of February.  My goal is to have a process video posted daily for every LOAD layout I make. 

Also, if you reply to this post, I'll be choosing one random commenter to receive a prize pack of miscellaneous scrapping goodies to use on your LOAD layouts.  It will include enough supplies to make all 28 layouts.  The winner will be announced on Monday, January 28th and shipping will occur the same day.  So comment to win!