Hints, tricks, how to's for Speed Scraps!
 

The basics:
Because of server issues, we would like to have as many people using our chat room instead of the boards, as possible. You may want to do a practice log in if you've never used the chat room before. http://client14.addonchat.com/chat.php?id=474111. Your username is the same username you use here at Mousescrappers.

Shortly before the speed scrap begins, log in to the chat if you are able and find the correct thread for that speed scrap.

The hostess will start posting directions when the speed scrap begins, one at a time, coming every 10 minutes or so, for a total of 7 instructions. They will be posting the directions in the chat as well as updating them on the first post of the thread, so if you miss something in the chat or start a little late you can find them in the thread.

You will have 4 hours from the start of the speed scrap to finish all 7 directions, post to the gallery, link to the appropriate forum area and then link to the speed scrap thread. You do not have to be online when the speed scrap starts, or even during the directions period. All that matters is you complete it within 4 hours, so if you need to be late, or are only available during part of the 4 hour window, participate when you can!

The host WILL be checking that you have completed the challenge and done all of the linking before your prize will be given. Keep in mind that the hostess will be checking links for every layout, leaving comments, answering questions and during the minnie marathon be getting ready to participate in other speed scraps themselves- so please be patient for your participation prize.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave loves for your fellow participants. Everyone loves praise and it is fun to see what everyone was working on while the chat was happening, as well as how they interpreted the directions.

Some Tips:
Especially for the Minnie Marathon coming up, it might be a good idea to do a little legwork before the speed scraps and decide which pictures you want to scrap as well as some kits or items that coordinate. You may get some directions that totally don't go with whatever you've got planned, if so, grab another picture/kit idea and work with something else you had thought of during your quick prep.

Be flexible! You may be thinking you are going to scrap the flower and garden festival and then the host says no flowers...grab a new set of pics/kit (see above) or think on your feet and see if you can scrap that flower and garden page without using any flower elements. You will surprise yourself with what you can come up with and you most likely will end up liking the results!

Your hostess will be flexible too! You were going to do a page about the Dinosaur! ride and you hostess says you must use 5 flowers...make em tiny! hide em behind something else! Unless she says you must use 5 patterned papers, use as many as you want. Unless she says 3 and only 3 pictures, use as many as you want! If the directions says to make a white frame around the pic in photoshop and you have no idea how to do it, I'm sure she will accept it if you used some white paper behind the photos to get a similar look. The hostess will give you 7 directions but in most they can be done many different ways and with lots of interpretation. They want you to be creative so don't get bogged down trying to follow the rules to the exact pixel, get frustrated, and give up. Be creative, be flexible, and they will be flexible too!

Don't try to make the layout a Michelangelo! It's hard to be creative on a time limit. Don't try to make it perfect. Be flexible (see above). You can always tweak it next week or next year - that's part of the joy of digital scrapping, right? So what if you don't love the buttons that were required...before you print for your personal scrapbook, take them off! If you only get to use two pics, but you have 8 you want to scrap...make it a two pager and do the second page to match later. Remember, everyone else is working with the same time limit and you don't expect perfect layouts from them, do you? Probably not! Don't feel like you have to make this layout worthy of being on the front page of your favorite website. Because you are working out of your comfort zone, it most likely won't be front page worthy! Remember this is supposed to be fun, not perfect.

Ask questions in the chat! Don't know how to add flowers to your dinosaur layout or how to make your photos sepia? Ask for ideas from your fellow participants.

You will need to give credits for all of the items you used, so keep track as you go. You don't want to have to go back and figure it out while you've only got 5 minutes till the page is due. You can write it out on a piece of paper or open up a word doc in the background and flip to it every time you use an item.

Leave a note thanking your host. It takes a lot of work to organize, create interesting directions, make or find cool participation prizes, leave loves for every participant, answer questions under pressure, make sure everyone linked where they were supposed to and followed the directions, and distribute the prizes. They are trying to make Mousescrappers a fun place for you....thank them for it.

HAVE FUN! Speed Scraps can be nerve wracking at first, but they are meant to be fun. Don't stress. Enjoy chatting with the other participants. Try things you've never done before. Use colors/items/layouts you normally wouldn't use. Check out what all of your fellow participants did. You'll be surprised at how many ways there are to do things or how other people interpret the directions. Don't expect perfection or the best layout you've ever created - that might happen but if it does it really is just a bonus after the fun experience.

Please add your own speed scrapping hints, tips, tricks, or bright ideas to this thread to share with others!

Great ideas Andrea!!

As I am still relatively new to speed scraps and for most of them only had an hour or so because of work, I try to use a larger kit that has a variety of elements and papers already coordinated. If a layout calls for flowers and I don't have something handy right away, I'll cut them from one of the papers and use a button or brad (or even a circle from a coordinating paper) as the center.

Thanks Andrea! I love your ideas. Getting ready for the :scrapbooking::scrapbooking::scrapbooking:

Great tips Andrea! :thumbsup:

Great ideas Andrea! Also wanted to add that I write down the instructions, and keep checking them so that at the end I don´t forget any! That works fine to me!

Wow, Andrea.. this is awesome! Thanks so much for taking the time to come up with all these tips and information!

Many MANY thanx Andrea for sharing this with us newbies to Speed Scraps! :D

Great tips guys!

I also wanted to add that you can use our weekly challenge templates for speed scraps as long as they are not the CURRENT week's template. Feel free to use any past template challenge template for your speed scrap but be sure you put your layout into the speed scrap category and not the template category of the gallery.

Thanks for the tips Andrea!!! I have a list of photo ideas & kits ready for the weekend. :yeah:

I second the notion of pre-planning. My very first speed scrap it took me 15 minutes to choose photos. I ended up changing photos 4 times!

Then, before the next speed scrap I threw some photos on a template, and tossed some papers and elements I might want to use. This was much easier to get started. :scrapbooking:

Cheers for all the info, I like the idea of using a past/old template and using pre-selected photos/kits. A very sensible idea, off to have a looksy around to see what I can come up with :D

Thank you so much for these instructions. I want to participate in the next Speed Scrap marathon, and had no idea where to begin. This helps a lot!!!

Oh wow, thanks so much for these tips!

I never read this thread before and Andrea those are some really go tips...:thumbsup:

Hey ladies, just wanted to give you a couple of hints that I use in any SS I participate in...(just suggestions, not requirements)
1. I always use a template, it's easier, especially when there is a specific number of photos....I go find a template with that number. If you have more photos than is required, make it a two page spread...you can do the second page later!
2. I use one kit only. (Now I might go find one flower or ribbon from another kit, but kits are made to be used at once, every color matching, etc.) It really makes things much easier.
3. I always use drop-shadow styles. It's so much easier, when the drop shadows are already done and you can just chose the DS for paper, photos, flowers, stitching, etc. Saves so much time and gives an easy finish to a page!
4. I don't do this, but would, especially with this marathon...do your journaling before hand. If you pick your pictures early, put them in a folder together, then open a word or text document, type your journaling and save it in the same folder!

You can all do it! SSs are so much fun. I hope to be joining y'all for most of them if possible!?!? (Saturday will be harder as my kids are in Ski School and I"m not sure where I'll be since I don't ski but have to take them! )

Thank you Andrea, these instructions helped me as a host too!

I have the second to the last SS on Sunday, by then the Girls will be tired so I am planning to make mine as flexible as possible. It will be awesome!:woohoo:

This are great tips, heather! I especially like the idea of getting the journaling done.

Also make a "Credits" Template...

Mine looks like this:

This is for SS Marathon #: (put the number of the SS here) Hosted by: (put name of the Host here)
Kit (Put Kit name here) by (put the name of the Designer here)
List rest of other elements here:



I keep this and then I just have to copy and paste it in the Credits box. It helps a lot!

Brilliant! I never would've thought of that.

Thanks!

I am making them ahead of time so the only thing I have to add is the Kit name and the Designer so my page looks like this:

This is for SS Marathon #29 Hosted by: Holly
Kit Enjoy the Moment by Sahlin Studio

This is for SS Marathon #30 Hosted by: Julie
Kit Sprite by Brittish Designs

This is for SS Marathon #29 Hosted by: Carmen
Kit Hollywood by Kellybell Designs

and so on...:D

Love this idea too! And it's something we can set up way ahead of time and get a jump on those challenges!

Great tips! Thank you!

Templates?
 

I'm confused, can we use any template or just old/past ones from template challenges from this site? I've never done a marathon speed scrap before so I just want to make sure.

Good question! You can use any template from any designer during a speed scrap. You could use the current MouseScrappers template challenge template, but you can't get credit for completing that challenge. So basically you can't double dip and get credit for doing both the speed scrap and the current template challenge. Does that clear things up a little better?

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Speed Scrap Question?
 

I LOVE all of the tips floating around on this thread - helps a lot for this first time speed scrapper! One question I have is this: say one of the hostesses says, for example, challenge #__ is all about Chef Mickeys. What if I have no pictures or experiences from Chef Mickeys..?! Can I not participate in that particular speed scrap?

:cheshire_bounce:

If a hostess is requiring a theme of some sort it will always be something broad to allow everyone the chance to participate. So rather than asking you to create a layout about Chef Mickey's they might ask you to do a layout about eating or food at Disney. That way you can make it fit for your needs. In that case it could even potentially be a pictureless layout talking about your favorite meal, each child's favorite treats, etc. Hope that helps!

Thanks Kathryn for answering my question! I guess I have one more - if we happen to miss the chat right on time, where would we find the challenge instructions, say, an hour later? In the chatroom or in a thread somewhere? Sorry for all the questions! Thanks!

:cheshire_bounce:

I thought last year for the Marathon we could do it towards that week challenges. I thought Carol wrote something...Let me search to see if I can find it...my memory can be wrong, normally this would be the case but I thought last year just for the Marathon it was allowed....:surf:

There will be a thread where the hostess will be posting all the instructions. :)

I could not find it...but saw this one on the template challenge,

http://www.mousescrappers.com/forums...?t=5891&page=2

see post #18

That says both the weekly & template challenges are not allowed to be double dipped with the speed scraps.

i have never done any kind of speed scrap before :eek: and i want to participate in this. :wave:

where do i upload my page? i.e., do i need to put it in a specific gallery here? can i post it somewhere external (like picasa, my blog, etc.)? where do i need to post a link to it? in the thread for that particular speed scrap?

i see posts by members in the master thread where they list "speed scrap #84" - "speed scrap #99". i'm assuming this is for those who are planning to do all of speed scraps? i will be out and about for most of the weekend (daughter's first birthday party), so i can't do all of them, but i'm going to try to do some of the friday ones. this means i don't need to make one of those posts, right?

aside from planning/selecting pictures and kits, is there anything i need to set up beforehand on this board?

:thanks:

Mouse Scrappers has its own gallery. You post your pages there. There are sections for each speed scrap, so you would post your page in the gallery section for the speed scrap number you attended and did a page for. Then you link it back on the forum in the speed scrap thread of the same number. You also post in the themed forum.... if you did a page about Mickey, you'd go to the character section, find Mickey and post your page there. This allows similar pages to be kept together, so if you are looking for inspiration to make a Mickey page, you have one single place to go.

As for prepping for a speed scrap.... I would get an idea of what photos you want to scrap (Disney related of course!). If you are very organized you can even make a sketch or grab a template to prepare yourself. And note possible kits too. If you have a few ideas planned ahead of time, when the instructions start rolling, you will have less places to look for things.

You could have a note saying you want to use pictures of the castle and they are in XX folder on your computer. You want to use XX template and XX kit with them.

Personally, for me... I need to see all of the instructions before I can begin... I've been bamboozled before! Nothing like making a down and dirty boy page only to get an instruction to use glitter or hearts!

Speed scraps are tons of fun, so come and join us!

thanks, Fran98765! :thanks:

looking forward to speed scrapping with you all! :scrapbooking:

This is my first speed scrap! Thank you SO much for the tips...I was really worried, but I think (hope) I'll be able to do this :)

It sounds complicated but once you do one you will see it is easy peasy! And all of the hosts here are great with questions and everyone is helpful, so if you have a question put it in the chat or in the thread for the speed scrap and I know someone will help :)

Thank you for the tips!

yes
 

I think I can do this! Thanks for the tips I have my planning pages printed out and am excited for tomorrow If I only get one page done at least I have it done :scrapbooking:

My big question now that I've done a speed scrap is about the chat room. I'm on a mac computer and all it says is i'm missing a plug in but it doesn't tell me what I need. Any ideas?