Tons of Juicy Challenge Details for Bloggers AND Non-Bloggers

Guess what? We now have about 50 people who want in on the Random Acts of Craftiness. This is awesome! But it also means that many of the details given in this original post are no longer true OR relevant—so dash them from your memory. Especially the part about toothbrushes being one of the items.

Read on for updated details that Kelly, Michelle, and I have finally pinned down some about how this whole thing will go down. It’s sort of a lot of information, but it’s all important, so you better read it. ;) There might even be a quiz at the end. But you’ll have to read it to find out. No skipping to the back of the book.

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Information Distribution: All information for the challenge (including the challenge item details!) will be posted here on my blog, so make sure you check back or are connected in some way so you don’t miss anything!

Timeframe: This whole thing is being cut from 12 to 6 months. The first link party will be in September and the the last one will be in March. We will be taking December off so you have plenty of time for all of the other obligations and activities that December brings.

Sharing Projects for Bloggers: Bloggers will share projects via a link party. This will usually be the last Wednesday of each month, and will be hosted here. Link up early to get the most out of sharing your project!

Sharing Projects for Non-Bloggers: We are working on a way to let non-bloggers get involved, too. We have some ideas, but nothing is finalized yet. If you don’t have a blog and are interested in participating OR have an idea about how you could participate, please let me know!

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Monthly Challenge Items: All items are as inexpensive as you want them to be. You might already have them around the house, or you can find them secondhand. We don’t want you to spend much money. Also, I will announce each month’s challenge item right after the previous month’s link party. There will be just about 4 weeks between the announcement and link party for that item. That should be enough time if you don’t wait until the last minute. ;) But if for any reason you will want to participate but need more advance notice because of other obligations, please just email me. September’s challenge item will be announced here next Wednesday, August 15th. The link party will then be on Wednesday, September 26th, so for this first challenge, you’ll have a full 6 weeks of knowing that the item is.

Project Rules: Your project CANNOT be the copy of something that has already been done, to the best of your knowledge. This is a celebration of the new and original! For this reason, copycat projects will not be featured (see details further down). To help avoid the temptation to “get inspiration” from the Internet, I encourage you to not do a search for the item when you receive the challenge. Let your brain do its own thinking so that you aren’t confined by what has already been done. Furthermore, if you receive the challenge item and can think of something that you have seen done, force yourself to do something else. Be original! Stretch yourself! I promise it won’t kill you. Remember: Rick could do it. Which means you can, too.

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In the event of a fail: To encourage you to link up even if your project isn’t as fabulous as you’d like, I’ve made a “What the $*%#@ is That?!” ribbon that you can award yourself.

<center><a href="”http://his-and-hers-blog.blogspot.com/" “><img border="”0″" src="”http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l519/emufford/RandomActsFailRibbon.png" “ /></a></center>

 

Blog Feature Opportunities: We are excited to share with you that we have six guest cheerleaders lined up who will be visiting your links each month and then choosing their favorite projects to feature on their blogs. Since this is really a game, not a contest, they aren’t judges so much as encouragers who are there to provide extra motivation! Winners will receive a button that they can place on their project post. (Our 6 cheerleaders are Karah from The Space Between, Karianne from Thistlewood Farms, Kim from Newly Woodwards, Rachel from Maybe Matilda, Ange from The Blooming Hydrangea, and Cassie from Primitive & Proper. We’re honored that these lovely ladies agreed to help us out!)

Husband’s Choice Awards: In an effort to keep things non-threatening and non-serious, Michelle, Kelly, and I have recruited our husbands. Each month, one of our husbands (Nate, Andy, and Rick, respectively) will be selecting a few of their favorites that receive the “Husband’s Stamp of Approval.” Winners will receive a button that they can place on their project post and forever have bragging rights that someone’s husband wanted their project in his man cave.

Monthly Giveaways: Each month that you participate in the challenge, you will be eligible to enter a giveaway for that month! We’ve lined up some awesome Etsy sellers who feature unique, upcycled merchandise—which only seemed appropriate given the fact that you all are going to be upcycling toothbrushes. (There I go lying again. Must. stop. with. the. toothbrushes.)

“My Favorite Project” Link Party & Contest: After the final link party in March, I will host one more link party, the theme of which will be “My Favorite Challenge Project.” The creative Sarah of Thrifty Décor Chick has agreed to be the guest judge for that party, and she will be selecting 8-10 of HER favorite projects from that “best of” party! Those 8-10 will then be voted on by YOU, and the top project overall will win our final prize package, which contains exciting stuff from Krylon and gift certificates to Fabric.com and Cutting Edge Stencils! Woo hoo!

Perfect Attendance: We really want you to push yourself to try each month’s challenge, but we understand that such a commitment isn’t always possible. However, participants who complete all 6 challenges will receive a special little button. You know you will force yourself to craft with weird stuff if it means a super cute blog button, right? (Just go with it.)

Challenge Promotion: If each of the ~50 who have expressed interested were to recruit even just one more person, we could have ourselves a pretty cool blogging movement! So please, please, please share Random Acts of Craftiness with your friends! If you’re up for it, we’d so appreciate it if you could write a post about it at any time, or just include a link or short blurb in a post, or share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (And thank you to those who have already done this!) If you’re not up for any of that, no problem—but we do ask that you place the button below somewhere on your blog for the duration of the challenge AND include it (or a link to the party) in each of your project posts. (Not sure how to do that? Visit this tutorial for how to add the button to your blog post and this tutorial for how to add the button to your sidebar.)

<a border="0" href="http://his-and-hers-blog.blogspot.com/2012/08/tons-of-juicy-challenge-details-for.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l519/emufford/randomactssmallbutton-1.png" /></a>

(If the size isn’t working, please let me know. I don’t actually know what I am doing.)

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Phew. This takes the award for the most word-heavy, bra-lacking post I’ve ever done. Do I still detect a pulse, dear readers? Or has your heart rate just increased dramatically? (Read this post to help calm your fears.)

Oh, but I did promise a quiz. So here you go.

What questions do you still have? Concerns? Suggestions for how to let people without blogs participate? I will answer all questions in the comments below.

Go here for answers to frequently asked questions!