I know some of you popped by the Blog to check out Tutorial Tuesday, and are disappointed to see there isn’t one. The power cord on my laptop broke a week ago and I’m still waiting for the new one to arrive. (Who knew I’d have to go to Amazon to get one?!) It’s supposed to arrive today, which is great, but it won’t give me enough time to pull a tutorial together in time. Stay tuned…

Instead, let’s talk about the amazing GingerScraps Challenges. One of the most attractive things about GingerScraps, at least for me, (after the list of fantastic designers and terrific sales that is…) are the inspiring challenges the GS designers host each month. (It doesn’t hurt that there’s a huge collab awarded to those who complete 10 challenges in any given month either.) If you’re a dedicated GingerScrapper, you know all of this, and probably have a huge stash of these collabs to play with. But let’s pretend today’s your first day at GS. What do you need to know?

1. Challenges are open to EVERYONE, no matter your experience or skill levels.
2. Some of the challenges include a link for a free template, word art, mini-kit or brush. Who doesn’t love free stuff?
3. The only rules for winning the monthly Gingerbread Ladies’ Challenge collab are that you complete a total of 10 challenges and that your layouts are made with a minimum of 50% of the items used being products from GingerScraps‘ designers. Oh, and no double-dipping. Each challenge has to have its own, unique layout. Before I forget. you’ll receive the Challenge collab that’s awarded in the month you reach 10 completed challenges. For example, if you did 3 challenges in February and 3 in March, you’d need 4 challenges in April to receive that month’s collab. Be aware: any “extra” layouts you complete after you’ve reached 10 DON’T carry over to the next month… they only carry over UNTIL you hit 10, then the ticker resets. If you did 9 challenges in April as in the example I gave you, you wouldn’t reach the total for May’s collab after 5 more… you’d need to do 10. Don’t be afraid to send missdamsel a message if you’re having trouble understanding the rules.
4. The designers who host the Challenges (and everybody else!) want to see your work, so you must post a copy of your finished layout into the thread in the Forum.
5. The Cookie Jar is where you document your challenge work. Missdamsel provides the list of challenges in her pinned post that you can copy into your tracking post. Then when you finish a layout and post it to the Challenge Gallery for that particular challenge, copy the URL for the layout and paste it into your tracking post. Easy peasy! At the end of the month, missdamsel checks all the Cookie Jars to make sure the rules have been followed, then sends out the coupon code for the Challenge collab to each lucky scrapper. Being rewarded for something you’d do anyway is a terrific incentive, don’t you think?

I have my favourite challenges, and there are some I never participate in. But I’ve only NOT achieved 10 challenges in one month twice in the 4 years I’ve been a GingerScrapper. There truly is something for everyone in the Challenges. Let’s have a look at some of them.

April’s Brush Challenge revolves around a brush created by Neverland Scraps.

This is how Judy (aka chigirl) used the brush. It kinda looks like she used one of my tutorials for this one, doesn’t it?

Then there’s the Colour Challenge, hosted by Miss Mis Designs. She challenged us to use YELLOW and WHITE in our layouts.

Glee went this way with it.

April’s Daily Download Challenge, hosted by Trixie Scraps, takes advantage of the free kit Look Who’s Driving provided by Mag’sGraphics in March. (That’s how the DD Challenge works. The previous month’s kit will be in the spotlight.)

Debbie really was inspired by the kit!

One of my faves is the Mix It Up Challenge, hosted by CathyK Designs. There’s no specific theme for this challenge, which makes it all that much more fun! Cathy asked us to create to a layout using a themed kit where the layout is completely OFF-TOPIC. What this challenge shows is that most kits can be adapted to almost any topic without much difficulty.

Lisa (aka slfam) used a wintery kit from Ooh La La Scraps called In the Frosty Air (which is one of my favourite go-to kits of all time!) for a layout about swimming with stingrays.

The last one I’m going to show you is the April Template Challenge. Each month there are TWO templates provided by the GS designers for your use; one is posted at the beginning of the month, the second around the 15th. The first template this month was provided by Little Rad Trio and it looks like this:

I used it for this layout of my youngest grandson and his daddy.

The second template is from MissFish.

Breoni ran with it. (Pardon the pun.)

Did you notice how I slipped in a tutorial on participating in the GingerScraps Challenges? Pretty slick, wouldn’t you say?

There are at least another dozen challenges we haven’t looked at today. Best news?? There’s still time for you to get your 10 challenges finished before the month ends… but you can’t waste any time. Ready? Set! GO!!

Jan