SkADaMo Last Day!!!

Wooo hooooo! We did it, y’all!

First of all I want to give a hearty thanks to all the folks who visited my blog, Facebook, or Twitter to support and root me on. Your comments, retweets, shares and ‘likes’ were encouraging, often funny and clever and always more than welcome. Thanks also for doing the same for my fellow SkADaMoers. You guys made the journey all the sweeter and kept me going when I was tempted to just sit and eat a whole bag of chips while watching goofy, but time wasting kitty antics on YouTube.

I may have only completed 25 sketches in 30 days, but that’s 25 more sketches than I would have done otherwise.

In fact, to all my fellow SkADaMoers:

You decided to step a bit out of your comfort zone this November, dip your toe into a challenge. Maybe you did one sketch, or 5, 10 or all 30. Whatever number you managed to do… You. Are. A. Winner!

Why? “Why am I a winner no matter how many sketches I finished”, you may ask? Well, because you took a positive, productive step toward revving up your creative engines this month. Perhaps your sketchbook is a little fuller, your blog has a few more posts. Maybe you killed it and did 30 sketches or more! Maybe for those who participated in PiBoIdMo or even if you didn’t, you have some great picture book ideas percolating  now or some great new ideas for a painting or some other type of super cool project. Maybe because you dipped your toe into this challenge you’ll be more toned up to jump into something even more challenging with both feet! Whatever the case may be, you did it and that is fantastic! Good for all of you!

You rock. Take a winner badge!

Now go on and enjoy the rest of your holiday season, feeling a bit more energized. Maybe you’ll take a rest from sketching every single day, maybe you’ll continue do a wee bit every day…

OR…

Maybe you’re a masochist like myself and you’ll join the HoHoDooDa (Holiday Doodle a Day) fun that December brings (starts tomorrow, or any day you can join. Of course the sooner the merrier.)

More about the third annual HoHoDooDa later today. For now congratulations SkADaMoers! You kicked November’s butt!

And thanks again to everyone who supported us and rooted us on. You guys are winners as well. Take a badge!

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I did it!

I’m a bit behind on everything theses days. Can’t believe I forgot to brag that I finished the PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) challenge, which makes me a winner!!

Winners get this cute-as-a-lightening-bug’s-ear winner’s badge, created by Bonnie Adamson and also a notebook full of at least 30 picture book ideas!

Myself, I have exactly 30, no more and no less and I am thrilled! This is the biggest cache of ideas I’ve had in… well… ever! Thanks to Tara Lazar, creator and host of PiBoIdMo and all the participants who became quite the community of cheerleaders for each other.

Due in large part to all these terrific folks I now have at least 5 ideas that I am pretty excited about, another 5 or 6 nuggets that have potential. The rest I consider “seedlings” or “meh” ideas that might possibly turn into or perhaps lead to “aha!”  ideas somewhere down the line.

So now, just to keep the ball rolling, myself and several others will be participating in 12×12 in 2012, clever brainchild of Julie Hedlund. We’ll be taking our 12 favorite picture book ideas from the 30 and drafting them out through the year. One a month is the goal.

Can I do it?

That remains to be seen. But my guess is, I’ll have a lot more done by the end of this year than I would have without these challenges and the wonderful support of the kid lit community participating.

Weeeee! It’s going to be a productive year, I can feel it!