Git 'er done - Challenge #1

Our first challenge over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge was to complete a started project.  My project hasn't been hanging around in limbo for too long, but this challenge was the perfect push to git 'er done before I lost my enthusiasm for it.

Last month I was "partying" over at the Whimsical Musings Challenge blog.  My good friend and fellow CKC Design Team member, Lisa is celebrating 100 inspiring and creative prompts.  Cathy, one of the guest designers, challenged us to make a list of our top 100 of anything we'd like.  She even said we could scrap just the top 1, if a list of 100 seemed too daunting.  I immediately thought of a top 100 song list, but as song names raced through my head, I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed.  How would I rank them? Would it include old songs AND new songs?  What would the design of the layout look like?

And that's when my brain shut down.  It was too much to figure out in the midst of summer fun with the kids.

But, I really liked the idea of documenting my love of music.

Then I thought of a way to make the project more manageable.  I decided to break my Top 100 list into (10) Top Ten lists based on different categories.

Here are the categories I chose:
Recent Faves
Childhood
Classics
Middle School
High School
College
Early Marriage
Early Kids
Christmas & Church
Summer

So, with a category jotted down on the top of individual notebook pages with 1-10 written down the side, I started brainstorming.  Some songs came back to me immediately, while others required me to look over my itunes playlist or google Top 100 lists from specific years.  I completed this in small chunks in between other household tasks.  I didn't worry about ranking them as that could really slow the process down and this project would NEVER get completed.  This process took a few weeks, and had it not been for this CKC prompt, I may not have had the push to follow through completion.

As for the design, I couldn't picture a list of 100 song titles on a 12x12 paper.  I wasn't quite sure how photos (and did I even have anything appropriate?) would fit onto the page.  A mini book may be the better way to go and that's when I noticed my August kit, "Office Max" and all of the Simple Stories project life style cards sitting around.  The little cards (and I had lots of them) are the perfect size for a list of 10.  I rummaged through and found ones that didn't have a complete graphic over them and then used the coordinating sticker sheet to make a few extra that would have room for a list.  The ones with graphics made good filler pages and the foundation for a front and back cover.  Hole punched and ringed and here you have a mini book detailing my top 100 songs.

Front Cover

                      

Recent Faves and Classics

Filler pages

Childhood and Middle School

Christmas & Church and High School

College and Early Marriage

Early Kids

Summer Songs

I altered the "Keep Calm" and "Do Something" cards to match my music themed book.

Back Cover

Are you up for a list of your Top 100?  You can see here that it IS possible if you break it up into smaller bites.  Or, simply scrap your top 1.  Check out Cathy's prompt here as the celebration over at Whimsical Musings continues for a few more weeks.  Lisa has some great prizes up for grabs and you have the opportunity to document some cool facts about your life.