Blogging through the month of April with the 10th Anniversary A to Z Challenge has been such fun. Even though I only had a brief idea of what I was going to blog about and having just moved all my craft supplies from inside our house to a new studio that we had built in the backyard, I managed to finish on time and I am pretty happy with the way the posts came out. I had some fun creating things along the way and even made my first YouTube Vlog!
I wrote about my cards and mini-albums and paper crafting in general, a subject that is a passion for me. In case you missed any of the posts, here are links to them.
A is for A+
B is for Backpack
C is for Castle
D is for Duckie
E is for Easel
F is for Feathers
G is for Gift Card Holders
H is for Honey Do
I is for Ideas
J is for Jar
K is for Kits
L is for Love
M is for Mini Albums
N is for Name Game
O is for Overlays and Owls
P is for Promotion
Q is for Quotes
R is for Repurpose, Recycle
S is for Special Orders
T is for Tools
U is for Unique
V is for Village
W is for Winging It
X is for Expo
Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zutter Bind It All
J. Lenni Dorner gave us a list of 10 questions since this is the 10th Anniversary...
- What did you love about the challenge this year? ---All of it.
- What would you change about it? --- Nothing that I can think of.
- What was the best moment for you during this year's challenge? --- Coming up with the topic of eXpo for "X" and Zutter instead of Zebra for "Z".
- What is the best comment your blog got during the challenge, and who left the comment? --- I was surprised by the great reception my craft work got from everyone. I can't pick one specific comment.
- Will you do the challenge again? --- Absolutely! Can't wait. Thinking of new ideas now.
- Was it well organized and were the hosts helpful? (Did you fill out the after survey?) --- Very well organized as always and yes, I did fill out the survey. I have the survivor badge to prove it!
- How did you and your blog grow, change, or improve as a result of this challenge? Did you find new blogs out there to enjoy? --- I did find several new blogs (see below) and I stretched myself to make a YouTube video which turned out better and easier than I expected so I'll bet I make more :)
- Were you on the Master List? (If you did the challenge last year, was it better this time without the daily lists?) --- I was on the Master List. I don't think it made much difference to me. I posted on the main page and on the Facebook page almost every day.
- Any suggestions for our future? --- I can't think of any right now but I'll let you know if I do.
- Any notes to the co-host team? A word of thanks to Jeremy for all his hard work on the graphics? A picture with your A to Z shirt, if you ordered one? --- See below for my co-host team thanks. I've seen the T-shirts and I may get one, just trying to decide which one. I have a mug from my first year and use it all the time.
Gigglingfattie at https://noloveforfatties.com The name of her site intrigued me from the start because, hello, fat girl here. She chose to write 500 word stories based on the pictures in a children's A to Z carpet. Her stories were so cute.
David Kravetz at http://lessbeatenpaths.com David wrote about the alphabet using signs he came across while traveling America. There are some very funny signs there and places I've never heard of.
Tamara at https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/ had a most informative series about the Justice System and used some true life stories to illustrate her words.
Mary at https://www.jinglejanglejungle.net gave us songs with a word that represented the letter of the day and asked us to think of more.
Donna at https://dbmcnicol.blogspot.com told her stories using random words and pictures.
Eschudel at https://zombieflamingoes.com used a picture story-day in the life theme and I thought it worked really well.
Crackerberries at https://crackerberries.wordpress.com used whatever came to mind for the letters. Did a great job too.
Shelley at https://www.quaintrevival.com is a blogger I've started following this year and she tried the A to Z for the first time. She caught on really quickly and had a great first year!
Dena at https://denapawling.blogspot.com gave us a quiz a day using pictures and questions with the letter of the day. Very fun.
I've seen Cherdo at http://www.cherdoontheflipside.com before with her music posts but have not been a follower. She showed us different aspects of our lives that may/or may not mean that we are geezers. I'm pretty sure I passed just about every test for inclusion in that category.
I made a copy for myself of the sign-up spreadsheet and I will be working my way around to find some more blogs that I missed during the next few months. There's never enough time to keep up with all 600+
It definitely helped me to do a draft page with each letter of the alphabet and the graphic (designed by the talented Jeremy Hawkins) that corresponds with it. Then when I was doing research I had a place to put pictures I came across that I wanted to use and could add some links (like the link to the main A to Z page) and that saved time on the posts that were due that day. Then even if I wasn't quite sure how the post was going to end up, I at least had a starting off point. I didn't make a million dollars selling things in my Etsy shop but I know my views and visits to the site increased (wait, maybe that was because I was going there to link my items? - LOL). At any rate, once again it was a very fun experience to be part of the A to Z family.
A huge thank you to our founder Arlee Bird, John Holton, J.Lennie Dorner and the rest of the A to Z team. I know there must be a lot of behind the scenes work that we are not even aware of and they certainly deserve a standing ovation. Now it's time to start thinking about next year's topic!
