Organising How I Enter Challenges and Submissions - plus a challenge for you!

The Challenge is now CLOSED! Thanks to everyone who entered. The winner will be announced on Thursday 5^th July!

I like to enter scrapbooking challenges, and occasionally submit layouts or cards to magazine calls for submissions, or submitting an application to be on a design team. It's a nice way to share my work with more people that may not normally see it, and even if I don't get accepted for the magazines or design teams, I still get a sense of satisfaction from submitting instead of just reading about it - at least I'm trying, right?!

The only trouble is there are so many challenge sites that I love, and not as many, but still quite a few, ways to submit to magazines and apply for design teams. I've had to get organised about how I enter them, so I don't feel overwhelmed!

These are some of the layouts I've submitted to challenges so far this year... 'Adorable Birthday Girl' was for a sketch challenge at the Sketchbook365 blog, 'Every Excursion' was for a National Scrapbooking Day challenge at Big Picture Classes, 'Baby Boy' was based on a challenge at www.shimelle.com, and 'My Best Friend's Wedding' was based on this colour challenge at the Crate Paper blog.

To organise the way I enter challenges and submissions I've had to do two things: 

1. Limit the amount that I enter 
2. Keep track of what deadlines are approaching

To limit the amount I enter, I decided that I should only submit to a maximum of two challenges, and one design team or magazine submission per month (on top of my regular design team work for SJ Crafts, and writing for the Popular Crafts magazine). Any more than that isn't practical for me. If I ever find that I have some spare time I could always enter more, but limiting myself at the start of the month means I don't feel pressured to enter every interesting looking thing that pops up! 

I also try to alternate which sites I'm entering at - one month I'll enter a challenge at the Crate Paper blog, and enter a submission to the Scrap 365 magazine; the next month I'll enter a challenge at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, and submit to a design team call that I've spotted at the Design Team Calls website.

And to keep track of what deadlines are approaching, I use this Day-A-Page diary, that I picked up cheaply in the supermarket:

I jot down all the details on the deadline date, so when I have some time to enter something I can flick forwards to see what is coming up. I even inlude a little sketch if it's a sketch challenge. It means I don't have to keep checking the internet (and therfore get distracted by social media!) every time I think I'd like to make something to submit.

Do you submit to magazines or design team calls? How about entering challenges?

Here's your chance to do the latter - I challenge you to enter a challenge! 

At some point between now and Monday night at 11.59pm GMT, you need to enter an online challenge, one that requires you to either blog about it or post it to an online gallery. Then come back here and link it below. One randomly chosen participant (if I have any!) will be chosen to win this Bazzill Basics Paper 'Avalon' kit:

Including a 12x12" collection pack of papers, a set of pretty buttons, and some brad jackets.

Do you need to find a challenge to enter? Here's some links to current challenges:

A Challenge to use 'Negatives' from The Studio Challenges

The June Sketch Challenge at Sketchbook365

The 'Celebrating Groups' Challenge on the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog

A Cardmaking Challenge to use 6 Different Patterned Papers on the Daring Cardmakers blog

And another card making challenge to use blue skies and clouds on the Do You Stack Up blog

There's a few ideas to get you started, but you can enter any online challenge that you like. Do you have a favourite challenge site? 

Just make sure that when you've entered the challenge at the host site, you come back and link it here too.

But hurry, you need to enter by 11.59pm GMT on Monday 2nd July! {NOW CLOSED}

And don't forget, that commenting on this post, or any post from this weekend, will enter you into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED} - but only if you've registered your interest in winning it here.

I'll see you again in an hour's time! x

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Organising Blog Reading

Well this post flows on nicely from the last one, as it's about another way to fritter away my time online! 

I LOVE reading blogs. It's so brilliant to see what people are up to, and I especially like the fact that I can hear from people all across the world. Visiting a blog is almost like visiting a friend, do you agree?

The trouble is, reading blogs also takes a lot of time, something which I'm very aware of when I'm trying to organise my life. Up until this year I always read blogs via my reading list in my blogger dashboard. This wasn't really working though, as I often missed posts, and I couldn't work out how to follow non-blogger blogs via this feature (is there a way?). I could never get on with the actual 'Google Reader' either, I just found it really hard to look at!

But it's all okay now, because I discovered Bloglovin':

I find it so much easier to follow blogs here! I still sign up to follow blogs via Google Friend Connect, because I know that the follower count means a lot to some people (yes, including me!), but then I try to remember to follow them on Bloglovin' too, as I like using this for my reader. It's so much easier to keep up with manufacturer blogs here, I used to have problems via my google reading list because they were all Typepad rather than Blogger accounts. 

I like how easy it is to sort blogs into categories, and to 'mark as read' within the feed. The only problem I have with it, is that when you click through to a post via Bloglovin', you can't 'pin' from the page. It's a bit frustrating sometimes to have to navigate myself to that blog post, so that I can pin something from there to Pinterest. I'll put up with it for now though because I find it so much easier to read blogs in general from here.

Sian at From High in the Sky recently posted a question about how people follow blogs, and what amount they follow. Here was my answer:

On following blogs... I follow lots! Too many. I don't get enough time to visit them all. I have a core list of about 20 that I visit as much as possible, and comment on almost every visit. The others I tend to just visit once in a while, when a post title catches my eye, or when they've commented on my blog a lot. I like to support new blogs by following, but I can't follow every single one I pop to or it would get silly! It still gives me a thrill each time I see I have a new follower though, so I try to follow someone if they have a few posts at least that interest me. I think some people are thrown by the fact that blogger says 'join this site' rather than 'follow'.

We can go back to the Know What You Love mantra posted last night, to remind ourselves to only visit the blogs we love. I follow all kinds of manufacturer blogs, but I only regularly read the blogs of my favourte brands. 

It's harder to miss out or not comment on a crafter's blog though, as it feels a bit like you're letting a friend down. I combat this by waiting until I have a more time to spare, and then reading and commenting on a whole batch of one person's blog posts all in a row. It means I'm not wasting time by zipping all around the internet, and I can give them my full attention, just like I would to a friend!

Do you feel overwhelmed by blog reading sometimes?

Remember that commenting on this post, or any post from this weekend, will enter you into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}- but only if you've registered your interest in winning it here (it closes Monday 2nd July at 11.59pm).

I'll be back in 60 minutes, start counting! x

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Organising Social Media - and a Giveaway!

The Giveaway is now CLOSED! Thanks to everyone who entered. The winner will be announced on Thursday 5^th July!

Hello and welcome to Day 2 of my Organisation Celebration! Did you catch all last night's posts? Head back to the start here and work your way through them if not, and keep reading this post for another giveaway!

I've been embracing more and more social media this year. When I first started hearing about Twitter and Instagram, I wondered if I really needed something else to be doing. But I've learned a few ways to keep it all organised, and not let it take over my life!

The social media I currently use are Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

I've been using Facebook personally for years, but I've only just this week created a fan page for Jennifer's Jumbles. I was worried before that I'd have to keep signing out of my personal account, and into my fan page, and vice versa. But I'm happy to discover it doesn't work like that - you can easily toggle between the personas you're publishing as at the top of your fan page, and your fans can't see your personal page. Clever!

Though I've only been on it a few days, I've already learned the way to keep organised with it is to use the Networked Blogs App to help publish my blog posts to my page. I used this tutorial to help me learn more about it. So far I've been using the 'Quick Publisher' option to publish my blog posts to my page, but I might syndicate them at some point, I'll see how much time it takes up! 

I started using Twitter after reading Julie Kirk's 'Tips for the Twitter Curious' series. I've found it to be a really useful tool for making connections and for hearing about the latest news / deals / opportunities. To organise the way I use it, I've been careful to only follow people I really want to hear from. Some people I started to follow because they followed me, or because they were funny, but I realised this just clogged up my Twitter feed and gave me too much to read all the time, so I cut back.

I don't tend to write many tweets myself, but I do have a set up via Twitterfeed, for my blog posts to automatically publish to Twitter and my Jennifer Grace Facebook Wall. It means I don't have to worry about announcing my latest blog post in these places, as it's all done automatically. Then I have more time to devote to writing interesting tweets when I can think of them!

Another way I use Twitter is to utilise the 'favourite' button. When I read a tweet that I want to follow up on, eg. if it's about a giveaway I want to enter, or a blog post I want to read in more depth, then I click to 'favourite' it, and I go back to it when I have more time. Sometimes I miss a deadline if I do this, but I try not to get upset about that, after all, I can't do everything! Hitting the favourite button means I have the option there though, so I don't have to spend ages on twitter at the time I see the tweet - I can come back to it later if I'm able to. It keeps me relaxed about it all!

I haven't used Google Plus or Instagram that much, I only joined these recently. So far for Google Plus I just 'share' my blog post when I'm prompted too (when I manually publish a post), and then browse it now and then. I feel like it's something I will use more as I get used to it, and find my way around! I was convinced to at least try it out after reading this post on CrafterMinds. 

I tried Instagram a little, last year, and decided I didn't need it right then. But I discovered that you could put a gadget in you blog sidebar via Snap Widget, showing your latest Instagram pics, and I thought it would be a cool way to keep the blog looking fresh, without me having to spend extra time loading photos. This was a great plan, until my baby boy dropped my Ipod Touch down the toilet this week. I'm now trying to convince hubby to let me download Instagram to his Ipod Touch!

The social media I use more than is probably good for me is Pinterest. I love browsing on here:

I think the best organisational tip for Pinterest is to make sure pins actually work when you are re-pinning them. It's so annoying and time consuming to try and find the correct link when you realise a pin doesn't work, or just sends you to an image instead of a blog post or website. 

And, though I think the boards are very organised on the computer, the only way I've taken them off into the real world is to print them onto random bits of paper, which get lost or stuck haphazardly on my study wall. But now I'm totally going to try this idea by Christina, to make an actual pin-board display from printed-out pins. So simple but so effective!

Now, do you want a giveaway to start the day? Okay!

One randomly selected winner will receive this Simple Stories 'Mix and Match' 6x8" album:

To enter this giveaway you need to follow me on Twitter, or 'like' my Facebook Fan page, and say 'Hi!' to me on either, so I know you're interested in winning! You can do both to get 2 entries into the draw. The giveaway is open to new and old Facebook or Twitter followers. 

Tweeters could copy this: '@_jennifergrace_ thanks for the chance to win a Simple Stories album! You could enter to win it too here: http://bit.ly/La3kVe'

A similar message on my Facebook Fan page would be fine!

The giveaway will close at 11.59pm on Monday 2nd of July {NOW CLOSED}, and it's open internationally. The winner will be announced on Thursday the 5th of July.

Also, don't forget that commenting on this post, or any post from this weekend, will enter you into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}- but only if you've registered your interest in winning it here. 

See you in an hour! x

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