January 1st Challenge *WINNERS*

Hello to everyone! Its time to announce the winners and Top 5 featured projects for our January 1st challenge. It was once again a very difficult task to narrow it down to a few, so THANK YOU to everyone who played along and your ongoing support of our challenges. 

*please not that all prize winners have 1 week to claim their prizes. Thank you SO much*

WINNER

Here is the winner of our last challenge, as voted by out Design Team members...

Jeanette Lee (Singapore) 

Jeannete, that is one amazing cluster of embellishments and flowers. You have matched the colours of the papers and embellshiments brillinatly, and even though this is a "busy" layout, the focus is still on the gorgeous people in that photo. You did an amazing job and you have been picked as a winner by our Design Team. Well done. Please do not forget to grab your winners badge from the left hand side of this blog. 

Jeanette you have won a spot on our Design Team for the month of February so please contact Irma, our Guest Designer coordinator at irma0408@yahoo.com to get all the info for the February Challenges. You are also receiving a gorgeous stamp set of your choice from The Craft's Meow so please contact our prize coordinator Patti at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com to claim your prize too. 

Moving right along to our..

Top 5 Featured Projects

(in winning order) 

We had a tie for second place as the next 2 projects received the exact points...

Kelly Foster (USA)

Lisa Valentine (USA)

Joyce Lawrence (USA)

Jennaroo (USA)

Sarah Groen (New Zealand)  

Kay Fatula  (USA)

*journalling is hidden behind the photos

WOW! Amazing talent and so much inspiration. The girls from the USA really showed us how its done this time! Well done to everyone. Please don't forget to grab your FEATURED badge from the left hand side of this blog. 

RANDOM WINNERS

#8 is Saku (Japan)

Saku you have won 2 paper collections from FeatureArt! Please contact our prize coordinator Patti at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com, within 7 days to claim your prize. 

#47 is Sandra (Australia) 

Sandra you have won a chipboard pack from Vicky Alberto's Etsy Shop! Please contact our prize coordinator Patti at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com, within 7 days to claim your prize. 

Congratulations to ALL the winners and featured projects. Keep going everyone. You are all doing so well. Thank you for the inspiration!!

More Inspiration from Our Sponsors...

Hi there everyone. You still have a bit of time to enter our current challenge. It ends on midnight, Saturday 14th of December Australian Eastern Standard Time which is about 4 days away so plenty of time. 

Today I wanted to show you a couple of layouts created for our challenge by some of the members on the Design Team of our sponsors. 

January 1st Challenge 

Journalling Criteria/theme: New Years Eve!

Our theme this time is New year's Eve. We would like you to journal about your feelings around this time of year, or tell us about your most memorable New Year's Eve. Where were you? Who were you with? What did you do? Why is this one memorable? Note: the photo that you use for this challenge does not have to necessarily be from New Years Eve. For example, if you spent New Years Eve with your family you can have a photo of your family taken ANY time of the year.

Remember that you are allowed to also create a card or altered project based on this sketch and instead of the journalling criteria you need to use a quote.

You must combine our journalling criteria/theme with this sketch.

Vicky Alberto 

from Vicky Alberto's Etsy Shop 

Here is what Vicky says :

I was thrilled when Nadia asked if I would have the time to create a layout with her gorgeous sketch for the Jan 1st-14th challenge. The criteria along with the sketch is to share your thoughts/feelings or a memorable experience regarding New Year's Eve. For me it used to be all about the party. Now that I have kids, it is usually a night we hang out and have a lot of fun together - but this year was different. 2011 was an exhausting year for me and I wasn't feeling up to doing much celebrating. We spent a quiet evening watching a movie and after the kids went to bed I made my first New Year's resolution (first one ever!).  Here is my layout interpretation of the sketch and the journaling is on the back. I used a few Dusty Attic chipboard pieces and I made the flowers using Green Tara petals and lace. For more layout details please visithttp://simplypaperandcreativity.blogspot.com

Journaling on the back reads: "This is me 3 years ago, the last time I didn't mind being photographed. As the years go by it is inevitable that more lines start appearing on our faces. I'd like to say that I have more laugh lines now... but the truth is the frown lines seem to be more prominent. My motto for 2012 is more laugh lines, less frown lines. This means some changes in my lifestyle will need to occur. I don't do well with change - but life is too short to not have the time to truly enjoy the moments that make you smile". 

Thank you Vicky for your gorgeous work and I am right with you on the less frown lines and more laugh lines. Life is just too short not to! Thank you also for being our wonderful sponsor for this challenge and hope to see you here again. 

Don't forget to visit Vicky Alberto's Etsy Shop HERE to see all the goodies she has up for sale. 

Jean Martin

 from The Craft's Meow

Jean martin created this beautiful card based on our sketch. THANK YOU so much Jean for your amazing creation. Your cards are simply out of this world and I am incredibly honored to showcase this one here.

I hope you have been inspired a little more to create something for our current challenge. We have loved the entries so far and hope to see some more. 

Take care everyone. 

January 1st Challenge

**HAPPY NEW YEAR** everyone! May the year ahead be your best one yet. On behalf of my team and my self I wish you all a happy and healthy 2012. 

Our very first challenge for 2012 is here. 

January 1st Challenge 

Journalling Criteria/theme: New Years Eve!

Our theme this time is New year's Eve. We would like you to journal about your feelings around this time of year, or tell us about your most memorable New Year's Eve. Where were you? Who were you with? What did you do? Why is this one memorable? Note: the photo that you use for this challenge does not have to necessarily be from New Years Eve. For example, if you spent New Years Eve with your family you can have a photo of your family taken ANY time of the year.

Remember that you are allowed to also create a card or altered project based on this sketch and instead of the journalling criteria you need to use a quote.

You must combine our journalling criteria/theme with this sketch.

Guest Designer s

We welcome 2 people to our blog this month. The first is uur winner from our November challenge who could not participate in December.

Melenia Agapides (Greece)

Hello everyone! My name is Melenia Agapides and I live in Greece (yes, the country that's usually in the headlines of the news lately). I'm a mother of two, a wife to a sweet Canadian guy

and an airport authority officer. I have been scrapping layouts since August 2009. My style is constantly evolving, due to the fact that I'm the kind of person that gets bored very easily and wants to change and be renewed by trying new things often. What I always strive for when scrapping is to achieve balance and harmony in my creations both colourwise and stylewise. I'm a sucker for sketches and challenges, as they help me improve my style and scrapping skills. If you want to see more of my work you can visit my blog melenia313.blogspot.com.

The next layout comes from the winner from our previous challenge.

Erin Blegen (USA)

Hi! My name is Erin Blegen and I am 28 years old. My husband Josh and I have been together for 5 years and we have 3 beautiful children together: Wyatt (4), Gunner (17 months), and Aspen (4 months). We make our home in a small cabin in the woods in northeastern Minn

esota, USA. We love ANYTHING outdoors! But indoors, my passion is most definitely scrapbooking! I first tried it out when Wyatt was born in 2007, completed one album, and then quit until July of 2010 when Gunner was born. Since then, I've been HOOKED. I scrap daily, and get rather irritated if I do not, lol! I am passionate about documenting my family's history, taking beautiful photographs, and making sure I never forget the small things that are so special :).

Feel free to check out my blog Scrappin' Sisters, which I share with my sister and best friend, Kelly :).

Finally, a big THANK YOU to Nadia for this wonderful and fun opportunity! It's an honor being able to create alongside your incredibly talent

ed team!

Erin says - My journaling is hidden, you can see the pull tag on the right and reads:

"I used to believe that New Years Eve had a curse on me as every one of them ended badly...I grew to highly dislike the holiday. But that was in my "party

girl" days...before I was married and had children. Now the holiday is spent with family, visiting, playing games, drinking wine, and watching movies while the kids play...these are the memories I enjoy creating.

Thank you SO much to our wonderful Guest Designers for their awesome work!

Design Team

(please click on their names to be directed to their blog) 

Patti Hamil (USA)

***Imaginarium Designs chipboard clock, butterfly and title***

This page was very hard for me, last New Year's Eve we spend reflecting about my husband's Dad, and our beloved Bulldog who we lost on the 27th and 28th of December. But the page was theraputic!

Irini Liolia (Greece)

****Imaginarium Designs chipboard "Me and You" title

Gerry Van Gent (The Netherlands)

****Imaginarium Designs chipboard clock

Mahlin Wiggur (Sweden)

Translation of Journaling: Every year is the same. I feel the need to go back and see what happened the past year, what was good and what went wrong.  I make lists for the upcoming year, for what I want to accieve which goal to aim at. 

Vicky Varvadouka (Greece)

***Imaginarium Designs: Small frame, numbers, clock, frase (Moments in time), house.

Lene Neby (Norway)

***Imaginarium Designs chipboard butterflies, title and frames

Pamela Young (USA)

***Imaginarium Designs chipboard flourishes and clock piece

Natalie May (Australia)

***Imaginarium Designs chipboard leaves and title used

Vibeke Harila (Norway)

***Imaginarium Designs chipboard "Forever" title, "2006" numbers and the frame

Sponsors

We are so excited to welcome some new sponsors to our blog this month!

The Craft's Meow 

The Craft's Meow offers a variety of photopolymer clear stamps designed by some of the best artists in the paper crafting world! This means there is something for everyone! We pride ourselves on great customer service and the lowest possible shipping cost. Come see what the buzz is all about! Visit our store blog and follow us on Facebook!

Feature Art

Feature Art is an art paper designing company located in South Australia.

CREATING THE UNIQUE DESIGN is our company mission. We offer unique patterned paper that help to develop the versatile craft projects for the craft industry. All our paper product is designed and printed in Australia. We will continue to provide our customers with excellent products and best service always.

Website: http://www.featureart.net.au/store/index.php

Vicky Alberto Etsy Shop

I am thrilled to be a sponsor for Once Upon A Sketch.Not only do I love the sketchesand the incredible design team interpretations, but I am also proud to sponsor a site that my scrappy friend Nadiacreated. It is one of the top sketchchallenge sites in industry and definitely embraces the true meaning of preserving memories. You can find a selectionof chipboard in my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto. Please note that I have ordered and will bereceiving the newest released chipboard styles towards the end of January.I will also be restocking my site with the most popular pieces at thistime. They sell out very fast so be sure to check back often! Youcan follow my personal scrapbooking blog at http://simplypaperandcreativity.blogspot.com where I post updates about chipboardshipment arrivals.

Prizes

How would you like to be our Guest Designer for February? This is the challenge where you have the chance to win a spot on our design team for the whole upcoming month simply by winning this challenge. As well as being our Guest Designer, as chosen by our Design team, you will also receive.....

An in-stock stamp set from The Crafts Meow of the winners choice..

*example of stamp set the winner could choose. 

We also have 2 prizes to give away to two randomly chosen entries.

Our first RANDOMLY chosen winner will win 2 paper collections from FeatureArt.

Our second RANDOMLY chosen winner will receive this Dusty Attic chipboard pack from Vicky Alberto's Etsy Shop

Things to consider when playing along...

**This is an international blog, so anyone can enter

**You are allowed to create a card, layout or off-the-page item based on the provided sketch and additional journalling criteria. If you are creating a card or altered item you only need to include a quote.

**You are also allowed to flip or rotate the sketch or alter it to suit your needs, but please make sure its still recognisable.

**Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery and link it on the right hand side of this blog using the Link tool. Please provide a direct link to your post, not your entire blog.If the link tool is down, please leave a comment on the comments section and link your layout there.

** The deadline for this challenge is midnight January14th, Australian Eastern Standard Time . The Design Team will vote and the winners and the Top 5 project will be announced soon after the challenge has finished.

**You may enter as many times as you like and combine this with other challenges.

**Also, please consider turning off word verification for comments on your blog. 

For a complete list of the rules please see the top of this page.

December 15th challenge **WINNERS**

Hi everyone. Its time to announce the winners of our last challenge. Thank you all for playing along during the busiest and craziest time of the year. It was wonderful and nothing short of interesting reading your journalling about how you all spend Christmas time. 

We saw some stunning entries but there can only be one winner as hard as that truly is. Before I announce the winner there is something important I need to remind everyone. 

**IMPORTANT NOTE:   Remember that journalling is part of the requirements at Once Upon A..Sketch and it must be included on your layout in order for it to be a winner , random winner or a featured project. If your journalling is hidden please make sure you tell us WHERE it is hidden and that it is in fact hidden. We unfortunately had to overlook many beautiful entries because they included NO journalling. Please remember that a quote is ONLY to be used on cards or altered projects and NOT on layouts as it does not count as your own journalling ***

Now without further delay our winner from the last challenge is..

Kay Fatula 

Well done Kay. Your layout is simply stunning. The way you matted the photo and the creative way you used the corner punches, as well as the all the gorgeous pop of colour all over your page made this a winning layout!! You have won 2 paper collections from Les Papiers De Pandore. Could you please email Patti at phami@live.com to claim your prize? Don't forget to grab your winners badge from the left sidebar of the blog. 

Top 5 featured projects

(in winning order) 

Michelle Roncon ( India) 

Hilde Aaslund (Norway) 

Sarah Groen (Australia) 

Erin Blegen (USA) 

**Erin's journalling is hidden in a tag behind the photo

Assol - Olga (Lithuania) 

Well done ladies! Don't forget to grab your featured badge from the sidebar of the blog!

We also have 2 randomly chosen winners to give 2 prizes to..

Michelle Roncon you are Number 26 and and as well as being featured this time you have also won a chipboard pack from Imaginarium Designs! Well done! Please contact Patti at phamil@live.com to claim your prize. 

Number 42 is Jean Green!! CONGRATULATIONS Jean, you have won 2 embossing folders from Handmade By Suzanne. Could you also please contact Patti at phamil@live.com to claim your prize. 

Thank you all for playing along with us. We cant wait to see what you come up with this time around.