S2S16 Challenges
 

Another year is almost upon us. I, for one, am looking forward to 2016 with excitement and anticipation. This is my third year of convening this forum and according to the number of posts (over 5000), it has been another success.
For those of you who are new to this challenge or just checking it out, I will explain what this is about. I think you will agree that we, as paper crafters buy much more than we use, or get out money's worth out of, especially if we are regularly on sites such as SCS or Pinterest. We see a card/project that someone has made and absolutely love that new stamp or die or other item seen. So we go out and buy it and use it once or not at all and there it sits on a shelf. Our goal here is to spend less, and use more. Sometimes, when you are as disorganized as I am, we don't even know where we put it. Last year, my goal was to get organized and truly, I did get started, but never finished and am right back where I started.

We're starting off a new year with a new perspective. Let's declutter, decide what we want to keep, donate the rest and clear the deck for all new STAMPING/ SCRAPPING/ CREATIVE FUN!

REMEMBER: There are NO SET RULES. This is all about helping you be more aware of your spend -to-use ratio.

THE CONCEPT:
Determine how much you want to PAY yourself for the following:
(These are just examples. Brainstorm what works for you)

How much will you pay yourself for:
1 double pg LO
5 cards (basic matting/ embossing/ embellishment)
5 ATCs
1 Altered Item
1 Premium Item (think explosion cards or intricate items)
1 Challenge (there are a lot of great threads on this Forum)
1 VSN event
1 Meet-Up event
1 Updated Creative Blog Post
1 Gallery Upload (this is one DAY - not Item. You upload Mon - Fri. you
get 5 credits.)
Participating/ completing a swap or RAK


Some people also pay themselves for non-stamping items (things they need a little extra incentive for)

1) working out
2) losing a pound
3) eliminating a bad habit (credit per day)
4) for each book read


How will you keep track? Some people (like me) have used an account book.
Others have designed Excel sheets to keep track on their computer.
It's up to you whether you carry the totals over from last year or not.
Every week, I will be posting a challenge to get you inspired and get your creative juices flowing.
Let's keep the RED out of our check register and on our projects for 2016!

Challenges
 

S2S16A 'Monkey Business' post # 168
S2S16B 'Call of the Wild' post #322
S2S16C 'New Embossing Folders' post #435
S2S16D 'That Old Black Magic' post # 530
S2S16E 'The Three Stars' post # 670
S2S16F 'The British are Coming' post # 890
S2S16G 'Coldest Day of the Year' post # 1153
S2S16H 'Border Stamping' post # 1366
S2S16I 'Who are you wearing?' post #1609
S2S16J 'Polka dots' post # 1839
S2S16K 'Blooms' post # 2111
S2S16L 'Easter Card with a Sun' post #2452
S2S16M 'Purple' post #2694
S2S16N 'Pennants and Banners' post # 2818
S2S16O 'Long and Lean' post # 2933
S2S16P 'Chris Hadfield' Post # 3149
S2S16Q 'Springtime in Paris' Post # 3263
S2S16R 'Fish' post # 3395
S2S16S 'Our mothers'
S2S16T 'Black and white'
S2S16U 'Boating' post #3644
S2S16V "Bees' Post #3744
S2S16W Wedding or anniversary card post # 3818
S2S16X Inspiration 'Karen's Place' Post #3965 & 3967
S2S16Y 'Get well' cards post #4125
S2S16Z 'Thank you' cards post #4252

S2S16 challenges for the second half of the year.
 

Challenges for the second half of the year.
S2S16AA 'Mountains' post #4437
S2S16BB 'Back to Nature. post #4629
S2S16CC 'Vacation in the City' post #4777
S2S16DD 'Taking a Cruise' post #4956
S2S16EE "Vases, jars and pots' Post #5076
S2S16FF 'Lighthouses, buoys, etc' post # 5186

S2S16GG 'Least favourite colour' post # 5324

S2S16HH "Cars' post # 5579


S2S16II 'Diagonal Double pocket card' post #5798


S2S16JJ 'Work' post #5977

S2S16KK 'Stencils' post # 6113

S2S16LL 'Snail Mail' post #6269

S2S16MM 'Collage' post # 6379

S2S16NN 'World Animal Day' post #6577

S2S16OO 'Windows' post #6649


S2S16PP 'Recycling junk mail' post #6731

S2S16QQ 'Fun Fold' post # 6806

S2S16RR 'Craft and White' post # 6926

S2S16SS 'Easel card' post # 7069

S2S16TT 'Purple'


S2S16UU 'Christmas card' post # 7324

S2S16VV 'Metallics' post # 7411

S2S16WW 'Three things'


S2S16XX 'Poinsettias' post #7623

S2S16YY 'Direct to Paper'


S2S16ZZ New Year's card post # 7752

Another post to save.

Joining in for 2016! Ina, thank you for this forum! This is my favorite chat group, don't know what I would do without you all!

My favorite chat group too! Count me in. I'm starting with a clean slate for the new year.

hey...hey...what about me

I am keeping it simple this year:

Card. 3.00
Scrap page. 4.00

I post a challenge. 1.00
I post a blog. 1.00

Each set of calendars . 6.00

I used to pay per challenge and for mailing, for uploading, for VSN, etc, just to overwhelming to keep track of! KISS! My motto from now on out!

I'm in too, hope to do more challenges this year, I make most of my cards with a person in mind so very often the challenges don't fit what I'm making, if that makes sense.

Sharon are you doing the scraplift this year?

What Kathy said!

I'm going to give myself a raise in 2016, one that really encourages me to craft! I was paying myself $1 for cards. But I should at least give myself as much as it would cost me to buy a basic card at Target, right?

My payment plan for 2016:

Card: $3
Journal page: $5
Scrap page: $4
How-to Lesson: $3 (First time completing a step-by-step art/craft tutorial or lesson of any type--lettering, drawing, painting, card folding technique, SCS tutorial, YouTube, etc. -- this is in addition to what I pay myself for any project I complete while following the tutorial.)
Other project: $ Varies (home decor, gift box, handmade journal, etc--depends on time, effort, supply cost, etc.)

Yes. I will post first challenge onMonday. After dentist appointment. Ugh! Crown came out. I hope it is a simple fix, just cement it back in....

Forgot some; saw Melissa's post and it reminded me of things. LOL. Never simple is it? When I lead the Encouragemnt Committee in card making, there are hours of preparation, so will have to figure out that, and I do an art journal and things like that, so will hav to figure that out too! Awwww....

Ditto. It's been fun getting to know everyone.
I wiped my balance out - declared bankruptcy as it were. Starting fresh with a new perspective on my spending habits.

I will be working again pretty soon, which will cut into my crafting time. So I will focus on learning new techniques this year.

Another goal is to use up all my bling, ribbons and embellishments - I have tons of this stuff and it doesn't jump on a card on it's own (I wish).

And of course, make more to donate.

I vow to nothing...yup...this year I will take it one month at a time...how does that sound...I hope Murphy heard me!

When I got the alert that a comment was posted, and I saw the comment, I immediately saw a grey cat with a cross look on it's face... I knew this was you. LOL

You have to have a goal of some sort - even it it's no more than to find a goal for 2016.

So if you have no goals and you do something, you're ahead of the game!

So I was looking at home made cards being sold on Etsy this morning. There is one woman that is selling A2 cards (that are nice) for $2.00. The shop is BlessedDesignsbyB.

How can you sell a handmade card for 2 dollars? I'm thinking the only way that would work is if you used digi art, colored it with photoshop, printed the picture - 4 to a sheet - on an inkjet printer, then cut it out with the Cameo...

Half of her cards are made with DSP. Not all of them are CAS cards. See a few sequins, but no glitter or ribbons. I'm just curious how she can make those cards and sell them for $2.00 and make it worth her while.

Here is her store:https://www.etsy.com/listing/2288127...-shop-header-3

I have a question for all those who have Comcast Cable. Maybe it's just a West Coast USA thing.

I noticed that video streaming has slowed down so bad that movies drop the connection (just stop and shut off), YouTube videos lag with the little spinning circle in the center, Netflix shows are choppy and lag - it's pretty much across the board that my video streaming has gone down hill. This all started the week before Christmas.

So I attributed it to all the people off from work, every one is home and streaming Christmas movies or on-line radio - so all the bandwidth is getting sucked up around me. But it is 12/30/15 and it has only gotten worse. Everything is hung up. My phone is clicky (my phone is over the internet also) and I'm missing every 3rd word on calls.

Anyone else experiencing a major internet slow down?

We only have them for TV. Every once in a while we lose a channel or two for a few days, then it comes back. Not sure what's up with that.

We had our internet upgraded free of charged before we went away, or so we thought, came home and it has been so slow, Steve rang and he gave him the name of an app to check the speed, called speed test, so when he checked ours it hadn't been changed, anyway he obviously does it online he must have pressed a button and suddenly we had fast internet. Try to download the app and see if it works for you, Steve has got obsessed with it, every restaurant that has WIFI gets checked now!, men and their gadgets.

Comcast is notoriously late in paying their channel subscriptions (so they lose the channel feeds) and this saves them major money every day they let it lapse. But they still make you pay for the service even though the channel can't be accessed.

Where I live, Comcast is the only internet and TV provider. I don't watch cable TV - they charge $100/month just for the basic package. So I watch TV off the internet at various web sites. So the only thing I pay for is the internet connection, then I stream TV and my phone is Vonage (which I absolutely LOVE) and that comes over the internet also. I pay $35/month and get my TV and phone over this internet connection.

There were lawsuits filed against Comcast because they would not fix their boxes up here in the mountains. We would be without service for 2 weeks, and they insisted we pay for 30 days of service. if there is a storm, they do not come in to fix equipment till 1 week after the storm - but we have to pay for that week. They sold "high speed packages" to people when the internet speed was the same as what everyone else got:( They were also selling high speed packages that tech magazines and engineers were saying wasn't even possible to deliver. They are not the most reputable company.

It's strange that I am seeing a rash of people complain about internet speeds right now. I'm wondering if it is because Comcast is throttling the bandwidth. When I call and complain, they tell me to upgrade my internet package (to double $$:lol:) and that will fix it.

They are just precious.

I suspected they hadn't paid their fees for those two channels. We are one if the few left who have no box. They bought out the cable company that first serviced us through cable lines years ago so they have to honor the channel line up we had. Some of those channels are on top tier levels and would cost more if we make any changes so we've kept it as is. Cable hasn't gone up in price but other fees and taxes have.

We have been doing speed check for years up here. We are told we have 100 MBPS, but we are lucky if we .2MBPS because we are out in the sticks and in a canyon (one set of lines in).

I did go through my register and cleaned it up, deleted all history and cookies, went through the background programs that are running and shut off everything that wasn't necessary, and reset my computer to recovery at an earlier date (thinking it was something that was recently downloaded that isn't compatible) - nothing works. Speed improves a little, but the shows still drop/quit and within an hour it is bottled again.

I think its' a marketing ploy to get people to call tech service to complain and get told that they need to upgrade to a more expensive package.

Ok...I should explain...in the past little while I had a real probelm with pain...I pretty much broke down...finally had spinal surgery in Feb...once I was finally getting better the rashes started on my skin...then was getting that under control and my son has an accident...oh and my dog died...so this year..I will work it one month at a time...my hands have been ok for about 2 weeks but are starting to blister and crack again...so I need to go back on the cream...but I cannot stay on the cream forever...so I will work it one month at a time and see what I can get done

I know my internet access slows when everyone is home...but by then I hope there are good shows on TV..LOLOLOL

I'm ending up the year with a positive balance of $34.41. But I am going back to 0 and starting over again.
I will continue with the same payment schedule, but give myself a little raise for cards made, from $1.50 to $2.00. That includes being sent out or given. Still $1.00 for a challenge posted or done. I also pay myself for exercise.......$1.00 for my morning walk, and if I decide to go back to weight training that will be an additional $1.00. I also pay myself for the printing I do for Sunday School. I usually print 10 sheets of card stock, so I pay $5.00. That's it.
Janet, I when I sell my cards, I charge only $2.00. Shipping would be extra of course, although I only sell mine around here.

Lynn, I feel your pain. My physical health has been worse this year than any other in my life. Two surgeries. Stuck in bed or a wheelchair January 10 through mid-May. A LOT of muscle loss; Gained a ton of flab. Balance & strength issues. Lost my beloved pooch to illness. Then, just when I thought my life was getting better, I got an upper respiratory infection that stuck with me for two full months.

I feel good now. No laryngitis for three days.
Still fat. Still poor stamina. Still electric shocks in my right foot. Still lazy. Still have to think before stepping off a curb. But overall, I'm better than I have been since Jan. 10 of this year. I'm looking forward to 2016 to be a year of good health.

Is your cream a steroid cream? Is that why you don't want to be on it long term?

I would pester your doctor. Tell him you want to know exactly what the problem is, how to get rid of it and how to keep it from coming back. Is it stress? Is it the cold weather? Is it an allergen they did not test for? Is it a possible delayed reaction to previous health issues? Tell them that you need them to help you figure out what needs to be done next. And if you still have problems, continue to bug them until they send you to someone who can help.

Maybe she loves to create and is looking to bless others with her work while recouping some of the money she spent to make the cards. It's possible that she doesn't want to turn her hobby into a business. That's the fastest way for a fun hobby to become work! (been there, done that, still trying to reverse the damage).

It's ok...I have been dealing with ...stuff.. for years...now I need to learn and accept..one month at a time

my skin issues will flare and you are right about the cream...so I need to find balance

question....what are you paying yourself for volunteer...or good deeds?

I cooked a chicken pot pie for supper and the trio is feasting on the remains...I would call that a good deed

another question...I am not certain if I should be scrapbooking for my son any more...I think his GF is great...but what if they split...do I rip all the pages out?

oh no resolutions for next year...I am changing my routine... change 1... write down the to-do list for tomorrow at supper so I don't worry about it at bedtime

It's been a couple years since I did any volunteer work. And I have no plans to do any in the near future. Now, I am helping few people start a writers guild in my area and will be serving as an inaugural board member (secretary) for the entire 2016 year. I guess that's volunteer work. But I don't think my time for that would go toward my S2S money.

However, I might find other ways to boost my pay: Exercise, eating healthy, losing weight. I HATE doing all three so paying myself might make it easier to make them part of my regular routine.

Good deeds?
Haven't you heard? No good deed goes unpunished! For that reason, I refuse to do good deeds. And if anyone thinks they see me doing one, they are mistaking me for someone who looks like me!

Yes! Keep scrapbooking!
No! No ripping out pages! Let him do that later if he chooses.

Who knows, they might get married and live happily ever after.

Or, she might become a mass murderer and your son will be the cool guy who lived to talk about back in the day, when he used to date her. (just kidding...she'll probably become a famous dancer instead)

As for resolutions ...
No resolutions for me either. However, I do have goals.
Goals give me something to shoot for. Resolutions give me a reason to fail. Not the same. Not at all the same!

LOLOLOL

THUD

I do good deeds for good people...I keep the trio in crafty things...and the twins made me Christmas ornaments! I would say that is a fair trade

oh oh my big change...I bought a different calendar...It shows a month at a glance and a week at a glance...and I am going to use all these nifty stamps I have to plan things...Like giving CAT her supplement every second day...how cool am I...doing this planner thingie! LOLOLOL

It's a business. And her Etsy store is doing well. She has quite a number of cards posted for sale.

She ships each in a cellophane wrapper and mails them out in an envelope.