Do you love to read? Do you love to scrap? Does the idea of combining those two things make you giddy with excitement? If so, then you're in luck!
Welcome to a new challenge series, The Open Book Challenges. The Open Book Challenges are a series of bi-monthly scrapbooking challenges based on the books we've read and loved. Each challenge provides you with multiple prompts, both design- and content-based. Feel free to use them one at a time or combined; the choice is yours! Although we're offering no prizes, we do hope you'll join us every two weeks, as we share one of our favorite books with you and offer you scrapbooking challenges to go along with it.
To the right is a blog button that you can grab and post on your own blog if you'll be playing along (or if you just want to support this idea and help us spread the word). If you click on it, you'll be taken to an index page where you'll be able to find a list of all the Open Book Challenges, as well as bio information for the lovely ladies who are helping me to put these challenges together each month.
Challenge #1 is brought to you by Audrey and focuses on the novel, The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
I blogged yesterday about how much I adored this book; it's such a powerful story in so many ways. Rather than rehash those ideas, I wanted to talk for a bit about my thoughts as I worked my way through this story. First of all, I was completely caught up in it. I stayed up way too late for several nights, reading -- at times I wouldn't even get up from my desk or from the table (after a late supper or two) to find a more comfortable spot in which to read. And I'll be honest, I'm hesitant to share this, because it makes me look dumb, but I want to be honest with you. I kept having to remind myself that this was a book set in the 1960's, not the 1920s or 1930s. I had to stop and remind myself, "No, this was not a long time ago -- this was when your momma was little. This was just ten years before you were born!" A naive part of me wants to think that the violence and ignorance of the Civil Rights movement is long behind me, but I know it's not. Not really. Even my own children aren't that far removed from these same attitudes. The real kicker, though, is that this is not a book about racism and prejudice. Not completely. I'm amazed that such a weighty topic doesn't completely overwhelm this story -- but it doesn't. Because ultimately, this novel plays out as a story of hope and love and friendship and womanhood. And that's where the TRUE power of this story lies.
Have you read it? I'd love to hear your thoughts -- feel free to post them in the comments section.
(As a side note, let me explain the challenges briefly. With each novel we post, we'll include a list of challenges. Some of them will be design-driven, inspired by the artwork, the color scheme, the typeface of the novel. Others will be content-driven, inspired by a quote, a topic, or a theme from the novel. The challenges are not rules-based -- you can choose to do them solo, in combination, or not at all. Perhaps you'll be inspired by the book in another way. That's fine!)
This week's challenges are:
1. Use birds on your layout.
2. Use a scallop-edged frame to hold your journaling or your title.
3. Use the following color scheme, taken from the book cover:
4. Scrap about racism and how your life has been personally affected.
5. Scrap
about a time when your perspective on an issue changed because you went
from looking at it as an innocent to looking at it as an adult.
6. Scrap about the relationship you have with another woman (or group of women) and how that has impacted you.
Here are the layouts our team put together this week:
by Audrey
credits: Honeybee and Flights of Fancy by paislee press, For the Birds by One Little Bird Designs, Metro alphabet by Taylormade Designs
credits: vintage school artwork from my schoolbook collection. Map: from my map collection. Bookman Old Style, Kid Print, and Underwood 1913 fonts
by Jennifer:
credits: template, ChrissyW; yellow paper, Audrey Neal - butterfly fancy; bird paper, DHD Spring Fling; purple paper,Audrey Neal/Paislee Press New Leaf;Word Art - Audrey Neal/Paislee Press-Photogenic
by Amy:
credits: From Anotha Mista by Simply Scraps, Solid Paper Pack by Sarah Bennett, Scratch by Secret Garden Creations, Dreaming of You by Shanmomto4 Designs, Mother Nature - A FPD collab kit, Softly Spoken by Joyce Paul and Singled Out Template by Shanmomto4 Designs
by Kerry:
credits: paper is from Track Team Digital Kit and Cherry Blossom kit by Kerry'd Away Designs and the Frames are from the Cherry Blossom
Frames by Kerry'd Away Designs
by Dawn:
To participate, just create any paper-crafted item -- a layout (digital, hybrid, or traditional), a card, an altered item, or home decor item using any number of the challenges above. Post a link to your project in the credits, and make sure to share any thoughts about the novel as well. We'll have a new challenge up on May 24, 2010. Thanks for playing along!
I LOVE each of these LOs and also was impacted by the book. Great novel, which would be very helpful for everyone to read!
Posted by: Gramjak | July 14, 2010 at 04:59 PM