LOAD what? A load of laundry? Load the dishwasher? Nope, LOAD as in Layout-a-Day, the most magical time of the year, right next to Christmas of course!

If you’ve come to Clicky Chick Creates from the LOAD215 Blog Hop, welcome!

For those not familiar with LOAD, it’s a month long challenge to document life via memory keeping / scrapbooking. We receive a daily prompt, create a layout, upload it to our private Flickr group gallery and ooh- and aah- over all the gorgeous layouts in the gallery! No running to a physical class or crop, as it’s all done from the luxury of our own computer. You might get part of your layout done between work, school or getting dinner ready. You can even do it in your jammies! It’s pretty brilliant, actually!

This will be my 10th, YES, tenth, LOAD! I had heard about it for about a year before I jumped in, and I’m ever so glad I finally did just do it! Some LOADs have been more successful than others, but ultimately, I end up with more layouts than I started the month with, so it’s definitely a win in my book!

I’ve posted about my LOAD experiences several times, and you can find lots of insight here, here and here, where I’ve shared my top tips for an amazing LOAD experience, lots of my favorite layouts, why LOAD is a life changer and I’ve even shared my top-secret Crock-Pot Chili recipe that makes my family quite happy during LOAD!

So if I’ve written so much about LOAD already, what could I possible have to offer this go round without repeating myself? Loads! {Pun intended!} Instead of strategies or tips, I’d love to share a few things I didn’t know about LOAD, and that now, as I approach my 10th LOAD, am blessed with and look forward to sharing with you…

Prompts that make you scratch your head

Before participating in my first LOAD, I thought I’d just create layouts. Period. I knew I’d receive a daily prompt with some layout examples, and being fairly new to scrapbooking at the time, I thought it would be “use a green piece of paper, 5 brads, and 2 photos” but I was wrong. There’s so much more to LOAD than the month long challenge and a daily prompt.

I had no idea that the prompts would be so insightful. Some of the prompts made me immediately think of the page I wanted to create. Other times, the prompts challenged me to scrap about a topic that would’ve otherwise not made it onto my pages. I should probably say that pre-LOAD, I was mostly an event scrapper, with birthdays and Halloween monopolizing most pages. So making a page about my twin uncles, or my husband’s guitar wouldn’t have been top of mind. But through the awesome LOAD prompts, those pages happened! Curious what the prompts were those days? Little Girl Crush made me scrap about my super cool and handsome uncles, and the Five-Senses: Hearing prompt led me down the path of creating a layout about the 12-string guitar I gifted my husband years ago…way back to our pre-kids days when we had money for our own toys 😉

 

Inspiration from Prompts, People, Pages

There is no shortage of inspiration during LOAD! Not only are the prompts fantastic, but the pages you see in the private gallery created using the same prompts you’ve received, is amazing! It’s truly inspiring to see the beautiful pages, read heartwarming / real / funny / poignant  journaling, and find that someone may have processed and interpreted the prompt so differently from you, that you’re inspired to create another page using the same prompt! There are usually over 5000+ pages created during LOAD – talk about endless inspiration!

Friendships, the real kind, not just surface stuff

So during LOAD, not only are we creating pages, but we’re seeing everyone else’s pages in our private gallery. And what’s usually on our pages? Our lives! Our loved ones! Our past! Our present! Our dreams! It’s beautiful to know so many of these women and their families through the layouts that have been shared. Marriages, babies, graduations, losses, deaths, family challenges… we’ve all shared so much on our layouts. Many of us have formed deep and meaningful friendships, and have even met in real life for retreats, shopping, coffee, classes, crafting, laughs and more! I really had no clue how close I would become with so many of these women. We come from all parts of the world, all different ages, shapes, colors and sizes! Our common thread of scrapbooking brought us together, but the friendships go so much deeper than sharing a love of paper! I’m forever thankful that I made the decision to try LOAD all those years ago!

All in all, I’m really thankful for LOAD and wish I would’ve known sooner, how amazing the community is, the support, the inspiration, the camaraderie, the friendships that are formed… they’ve made a huge impact on my crafty life path and many have left their inky fingerprints on my heart forever ❤

So are you ready to join us? You’ve gotta do it, at least once upon a time! Sign up here!

One of the sweetest LOADsters I had the pleasure to become friends with would always give us a countdown of how many sleeps were left before the next LOAD started… so as Alison would say… we have six more sleeps before all the fun starts! Join us! You really will not regret it. And who knows, you might just make some new crafty besties! We’re a friendly, fun and fabulous (if I do say so myself!) group of gals and there’s room at the crafting table for you to join us 🙂

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day! Make sure not to miss any future posts by signing up for the Clicky Chick Creates email list here! You’ll get a great little freebie download as my thank you!

Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

Now head off to read some more LOAD goodness from my scrappy friends! You’ll recognize some of these gals from our regular Make It Monday posts, and I’m eager to read all these posts! Hope you are too! Make sure you leave them some comment love if you do hop on over! xoxo

Kristie Sloan at Artful Adventures

Kelli Panique at Use It Scrapbooking

Lain Ehmann at Layout A Day

Christy Stickler at My Scrapbook Evolution

Lynnette Nagle at Sassy Scrapper

Dani Leonetti at Scrapper on the Street

Danielle Hunter at Eco Scrapbook

Leslie Smith at Out of the Mire

Heather Dubarry at No Excuse Scrapbooking

Melissa Pearson at A Day in the Life Of

Valerie Smith at From Valerie’s Heart

Marcia Fortunato at Musings and Memories

Karen Fitting at Photos Kept Alive

Nicole Gray at Nicole’s Scrapbook

Alice Boll at Scrapbook Wonderland

Lisa Hausmann at Recklinghausen Musings

Wendy Aebi at Life in the Button Factory