Scrapbook Round Robin

Another new thing I started this year with my group is a scrapbook round robin.

Here's how it works. In January, each member submitted a stack of photos along with journaling and any memorabilia in a two gallon ziplock bag. At our AYM meeting, they handed off their photos to another member, taking someone else's for themselves. That first month, the assignment was to crop and lay out the photos. Each member selected papers from their own collection and designed the basic layout. They put the paper scraps back in the ziplock bag along with the layout.

The next month, the layouts were traded around. The assignment was to decide the title and apply the journaling. Sometimes the journaling had to be re-typed to fit the layout or to use something unusual to put the journaling on.

The last month came embellishing. Every idea was left up to whoever had the layout. The only thing the "owner" decided about the layout was whether her photos could be cropped or not.

The results were awesome!! Here's mine:

I submitted the photos from Mindy's bridal shower along with the invitation and journaling.

Susan had them first. She laid out the page using the colors of the invitation as her color scheme. She even photocopied the back of the invitation because she liked the pattern of it. That's the diamond shaped design seen in the upper left and lower right corners. She passed it on to Nancy for the title and journaling. Nancy (our beginner scrapbooker---although you can't tell it by her pages) titled it "Tick Tock" since it was an "around the clock" shower. (For those that don't know what that is---invitees are assigned a time of the day. They select their gifts based on that time. For example, if you got 7 a.m. you might get a coffee pot or waffle maker. It's really fun and an imaginative way to see what people come up with). Nancy also formatted the journaling for the page. I provided my journaling via the computer so it could easily be re-formatted without re-typing. Lastly, my layout went to Karolyn who did the final embellishing. She added the baker's twine and button.

We all had such a good time with this that we've decided to carry on with it.

What we learned from this experiment:
1. There seems to be a bit of pressure when working on someone else's page. I jokingly said that I didn't feel pressured. "After all, it's only so and so's page!"
2. If there are a lot of photos, the person that lays them out needs to remember to allow space for title and journaling. I, personally found that it was difficult to create a fold out page after the fact.
3. By the time you get to embellishing, often, not much is needed. Some people got carried away and did most of the embellishing before the page was handed off.
4. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed working on someone else's page. Each person added their own personality.
5. It gave us "permission" to scrapbook as it was a timed commitment! With all of our busy lives, somehow, scrapbooking is looked upon as low on the list of priorities---just because it's fun. Everything else seems to take precedence. Now it doesn't have to.

For this next round, I'm going to figure out how each person can add their name to the layout. I have an idea. Don't I always?