I Found A New Website For Inspiration & Challenges!

I'm pretty excited about a new website I found! It's CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration and the link is:

http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/

I am really wanting to start doing some monthly challenges. I think they will be a good way to live outside of my "comfort zone" and challenge myself. One place I look often to find challenges or ideas is at the bookstore. I glance through any scrapbooking magazines they have and if something strikes me I pick up the magazine. 

This past Sunday, while looking through Scrap365 at Barnes & Nobel I came across 4 different ideas/articles that I really liked so I picked up the magazine. That is the real test for me as to whether or not I'll spend the money on a magazine - how many ideas or articles catch my eye? Let's face it - that is money that could be spent on papers, ribbons and more. This issue, however, warranted a purchase. 

One of the articles in the magazine was about the site CSI. I went to the site and checked it out and decided I would sign up. My membership (which is free) was approved today and now I can start entering challenges and meeting new scrappers. 

I'll be blogging about other challenges I find. I may even devote a page to challenges in the future. I really feel like these are a good way to learn new techniques and find new inspiration. One great thing about the challenge is that it's a single page layout. This means I can design it without the pressure of completing the entire album at once. I  can do these layouts in the middle of my current project too. Sometimes taking a little break from a bigger project to put together something can give you better perspective for the big project you're working on. 

I think, for me, I am going to start a 12x12 album for my page challenges. Then if I decide to use one in a larger album for a particular event I can always go back to my "challenge album" for ideas, inspiration or to pull a page to get started.

Where do you find inspiration? Do you have some great challenge sites to share? We'd love to hear from you!

Posted by: Stephanie