Where Did January Go?!!

I close my laptop for what seems like one second and ZIP, it's the end of the month already!  I hope your month has been full of colorful cards, memorable layouts and fun altered art.  I hope you stretched your creativity and stepped out of your box with January's challenge to TEAR into your project by using torn paper.  I know I had fun with it!

As you can see on the sidebar, we have two new Blog Badges.  One is for you to advertise our blog and its challenges, and everyone is welcome to snag it.  The other button is for the winner of each month's challenge.  There were just a few challengers this first month of our new blog.  We hope each month this number will grow.  But for January, the crafter who gets to snag the winner's button is...
Karissa!!

Congrats, Karissa!  Here is her card. I love her torn vellum holding the tag!  Go ahead and snag the winner's badge, Karissa!

And to all you crafters who didn't win this month, your cards were amazing, but the winner is drawn randomly!  You'll have another chance starting on February 1.

Now for some fantastic news:  We are going to have a BLOG HOP! 
The date is February 29---that's right, the day that only makes an appearance every four years.  We have some amazing crafters lined up to play in THE LEAP DAY BLOG HOP, so mark your calendars now!  More info to follow on this creative adventure!
But wait, there's more!  We didn't announce the February Challenge!!  This month, we want to see those ATCs but with a twist.  We want you to make a 2.5x3.5" card - any theme, any color, but it has to be the size of an ATC (the size of a baseball card). 

I gave out these tiny cards to my co-workers every Christmas except this last Christmas and several people asked me if I were giving them out again.  I had been too busy to make them, and I found out that so many people looked forward to my tiny little pieces of art.  So now I have to work like the devil and make about 20 Valentine's Day cards the size of ATCs.  Time for YOU to inspire ME!
If you are a scrapper, use an ATC that YOU made on a layout.  For those who love to recycle, show me what an ATC can be made into (or onto).

You'll have all month (that's 29 days this year!) to come up with your ATC-sized cards.  Remember to link it below.  For those who don't have a blog, link to your photo in whatever gallery you use (PaperCraftPlanet, SplitcoastStampers, CreatingtheHive, to name a few).  For members of Your Scrapbook Place Yahoo Group, upload your photos into the album named 2012 Blog Challenges.

And as always, happy crafting!

Tear Into the January Challenge

Just nine more days to enter the January Challenge here at Your Scrapbook Place!!  The challenge was to "tear into" your creativity by using toen paper somewhere on your project.  Scissors?  Scissors?  We don't need no stinking scissors??  See what you can do when you tear! 

My card features a digi image from Hamob Stamps (a very well-known celebrity of children's books, mind you) and three pieces of torn paper -- the brown distressed cardstock, the sentiment and the library card behind it all.

I made the card for the upcoming blog hop over at Talk to the Ham Blog, staring on Friday, 1/27.  Their theme is book-inspired crafting.  The torn paper look fits right into my literary artwork,don't you think?

Now it's your turn.  Make a card, tag, bookmark, ATC, altered art.  Whatever you create, forego those scissors and reach for your inner child and TEAR that paper!!!  Then link it below. A random winner will get to snag the Crafting Queen Badge on the right!

Happy New Year!!!

2011 was an amazing year in the Crafting world.  We saw more challenges offered on Blogs, a drop in prices on Cricut cartridges, new nestabilities, more grunge (thanks, Tim), more white space, more store aisles for scrapbooking, new stamp releases...my goodness, the list goes on and on.

And now here's to the new year--may it hold creative discoveries and crafting passion for us all.  To start you on your way toward a more expansive style of crafting, Your Scrapbook Place Blog is offering its first 2012 Monthly Challenge.  We have plenty of projects to inspire you to use an age-old technique in new ways.   

We want you to TEAR INTO crafting this year, and feature torn and ripped paper on a card, layout or altered art.  No scissors, or very little cutting allowed.  Your project should showcase how tearing, ripping, pulling, yanking and otherwise parting paper without the aid of scissors or a cutter or any kind of cutting device or tool changes the look of a project.

Here, we offer a few cards for inspiration, as well as a layout and a piece of altered art.  The candle shown here is made by stamping onto a torn piece of tissue or mulberry paper, then heat setting it with a piece of wax paper and a heat gun.

Check out Pammie's Halloween card.  The torn paper totally makes the card--it's a perfect example of how tearing can give something a special look.

So here are the challenge guidelines: 
Craft your heart out, following the challenge of the month.  All we ask is that you try something different for a change, stretch your abilities, step out of your comfort zone.
Challenges run from the first to the end of each month.  At the end of the month, a random participant will be chosen to display a Crafter's Crown badge for their blog. 
Link your project below so we can see what you came up with.