Introduction
As promised, here is my review of 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges authored by Elizabeth Kartchner. For those who are not already aware, Elizabeth won the “Scrapbooker Of The Year” contest in 2007. She also maintains a blog here.
Description
52 More Scrapbooking Challenges
The challenges in the book are organized into eight chapters – “inspired by”, “take a number”, “design & color”, “use your stash”, “around the house”, “journaling”, “techniques” and “photo fun”. These titles should give you a pretty good idea of the types of challenges you can expect to find throughout the book. At the back (p.160 & 161) there’s a list of the ten contributors including Elizabeth herself, along with a few details about each of them and their blog addresses if you care to look them up online.
Who Does It Suit?
The great thing about this book is it suits scrappers of any skill level. Often I’m turned off by layouts that are too complicated, require specialist tools or suffer from “product vomit”. I’m delighted to report the layouts inside 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges are none of these things. They’re very stylish, but still simple enough for anyone to have a go at re-creating. The challenges themselves offer a range of different ideas like challenge #1 “Get inspired by an outfit” or challenge #52 “Take photos of a collection”. You’d probably be hard pressed not to find any inspiration here and of course you can recycle the challenges over and over again. (On a personal note, the challenges from the “use your stash” section were my particular favourites.)
Good Points
- Each chapter has at least one “Try This” section featuring an idea or technique to try along with a few pertinent tips. Most chapters have two “Try This” sections.
- Each chapter has a “Quiz” page featuring prompts to get you thinking.
- Each chapter has a “Lizzy’s Last Word” section with Elizabeth’s personal tips on the chapter’s overall theme.
- Layout examples throughout the book are are stylish, but not overly complicated.
- Images are large and easy to see.
Bad Points
I don’t have many negative aspects to point out. If I have to complain about something, maybe there could have been more challenges in my favourite category – “use your stash”? Or maybe I could grumble about Elizabeth looking so fabulous in all of her photos. It doesn’t seem fair that someone so attractive is also a talented scrapper AND is someone who can author a fabulous book. Hmmm…some people seem to have far more than their fair share of gifts. (I’m joking of course! 
)
Recommendation
Overall I’m happy to own 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges
If you’d like to pick yourself up a copy, you can always grab one from Amazon like I did. My copy arrived from the US in only a week surprisingly enough (and I’m in Melbourne, Australia). If you don’t already have the first edition by Elsie, I’d recommend grabbing that at some point as well.
Buy Now: 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges
Buy Now: 52 Scrapbooking Challenges
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