May Challenge + Meet Our Guest Designer **LUZMA BRUNA**

Well hello everyone! Its just past midnight and it is now officially MAY! I am not sure where the last 4 months went, but it is simply scary how fast time is passing. So there is just one thing to keep in mind...we must keep on doing the things that make us happy and let go of the ones that are not, because its all going past way so quickly and we don't want to be in the sidelines watching pass do we? 

Now, back to business as usual here after an exciting month of blog hops, goodbyes, hellos, giveaways just to name a few of the happenings in April. 

The Design Team will get onto voting in the next couple of days and we shall have the April winners announced asap. Also..a little heads up..look out for a **SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT** in about 1 weeks time..

But today, we are revealing our May challenge and also half the Design Team's interpretation of the challenge. The other half will be shown on May 15th. 

There is also a new way of announcing the winners here. Just scroll down past the layouts and see just how many prizes we have up for grabs so with so many people wanting to sponsor our site AND the huge amount of entries we have continue to receive, it is almost impossible if not unfair to choose just 1 winner out of so many wonderful entries. SO from May onward, we will have 5 winners who will receive a prize including the first placed winner who will be our Guest Designer for the next month. On top of that, we will also have a further Top 5 featured layouts each month. 

Hope all this makes sense. Can't wait to see what you all come up with for this VERY special challenge that is near and dear to all our hearts! 

 Theme: Mum

We would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "Mum" however you like based on the following sketch. You can journal as little or as much as you like, but your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch.

Ideas for journalling: you as a mother, your role as a working/stay-at-home mum, sacrifices/benefits of being a mum, one day in your life as a mum, how your life has changed since being a mum, a tribute to your own mum, grandmother, guardian or someone you consider as close as your mum, your relationship with your mum or your daughter, one trait you have take from your mum, your desire to be a mum, your feelings on motherhood, what does it mean to be a mum?, what kind of mum do you want to be? , Mother's Day celebrations/traditions, your favourite Mother's Day gift given/receive etc..

Please help me welcome our invited Guest Designer for May,  the very talented..

Luzma Bruna (Chile) 

First of all I want to say thank you so so much to Nadia for inviting me to be guest designer this month.I feel so honored and I love her sketches.I usually play with her fabulous sketches. Hi! My name is Luz Maria but everybody calls me Luzma.  I`m 46 years old. I`ve been married for 17 years to Rodrigo.We have a girl of 15 call Bernardita (Nini) and a boy of 13 call Rodrigo (Yoyo).I began to scrap in March 2007 and now  I`m addicted!!! I also love everything crafty.I love cross stitch and knitting.For me it was hard to make a layout about my mom.She suffers from dementia so I used this photo I took about a year ago,she´s been deteriorating so much but I feel that now she´s more happy and quiet.I want to remember her how she looks in this photo,happy,pretty and smiling.

I'd love to see you over at my blog Luzma's Scrap Place

Here is Luzma's layout based on our theme and sketch

"This layout is like a tribute to my mother.She suffer from dementia so this photo is from March 2011.Now she´s so much deteriorated,she never smile any more,so I want to remember here like this when she was better than now"

Just look at the amazing layouts our super talented Design Team have created. Please click on their names to be directed to their blogs for further details. 

Nadia Cannizzo (Australia) 

* Imaginarium Designs flourish, border, photo corner alphabet

Patti Hamil (USA) 

 * Imaginarium Designs chipboard  title & clock

Irini Liolia (Greece) 

Vicky Varvadouka (Greece) 

* Imaginarium Designs Flourish & title

Hidden journaling on the tag behind the photo!

Sandi Taloumis (USA)

* Imaginarium Designs chipboard butterfly 

Jeni O'Connor (Canada/Australia)

**Imaginarium Designs chipboard butterflies and shape.

Lene Neby (Norway)

Pamela Young (USA)

For the month of May , we welcome 2 new sponsors who have kindly donated some gorgeous prizes for our winners. 

"Enjoy Scrapping" is a Scrapbooking and Papercrafts Store in Greece that has a great variety of exceptional products for everyone who wants to make something unique! 

What makes our day is to bring a smile on someone's face through the work of an inspirational Guest Designer or through giveaways!

Scrapbooking is so much fun!! Enjoy Scrapping!!

You will find our online store HERE  and our blog HERE 

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Scrapbook Fantasies is a Scrapbooking, Papercrafts and Mixed Media store opened in March 2003 in Gladstone, Queensland.  The well stocked store receives new stock daily, and supports a boutique style online store HERE.  The owner Alicia runs Weekly Challanges and many other competitions giving away over $250 dollars in store vouchers every month.  The GALLERY  hosts thousands of customer creations, and is available for viewing without login. Parcels are posted within Australia at a flat $8.50 or the actual postage rate (whichever is the lesser), or FREE for orders over $65.  International parcels are posted at the actual postage rate.

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Now here are our permanent ongoing sponsors for 2012. 

C'est Magnifique Kits is a US based company whose kits predominantly feature 'hard to find' international papers from Denmark, Poland, France and many other countries. We have also featured embellishments from Australia, the UK, Poland and more.  We strive to always be 'different' than other kit clubs and feel you will love our elegant and sophisticated touch.

You can find out website HERE and our forums HERE . To find out how you can join our club click HERE. 

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Imaginarium designs,  is a new chipboard company founded in 2010. It is the combined collaboration of  a Mother and Son team who both work in the paper craft industry.

Please visit the blog for inspiration and to see what the design team has been up to   http://www.imaginariumdesigns.blogspot.com/ and you can  purchase this amazing chipboard  at Seriously Scrapbooking (they ship anywhere in the world at actual postage cost)

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"Berry71bleu is an Etsy shop owned by Marivic Clifton. We specialize in custom and premade embellished hang tags, scrapbook pages, and altered gift ideas with a vintage flair. Each handmade item is unique and embellished with vintage or modern replica findings that goes perfectly with what we sell. We also accept custom orders. Pls visit our etsy shop,http://www.etsy.com/shop/berry71bleu/ or email berry71bleu@gmail.com for more information. Check out our blog, http://berry71bleu.blogspot.com/ for inspiration from our Design Team".

And the owner, Marivic Clifton is opening up a brand new etsy shop called Zeus and Zoe at the end of the month. Check out the blog HERE 

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Julia Cotrim's hand made papers and fabrics (12"x12") are unique and very special.

The patterned papers are texturized and printed on a very thick cardstock.

The patterned fabrics look like canvas and coordinate with the papers.

Our studio is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Our website: http://juliacotrimscrapbooking.com.br/

We are SO lucky to have so many people wanting to support our site and our challenges, and this makes me so happy to be able to offer more prizes to our winners. 

Due to this, we will change the way we give out prizes from here on. I am happy to announce that we will have more than one winner here at Once Upon A..Sketch depending on how many prizes we have to give away. SO from this month onward our Top 5 layouts will include the winner and they will all receive a prize. 

Then we will also have more featured layout on top of our Top 5. There are just TOO many gorgeous layouts to limit them to just a few. 

So the winner of this challenge with the most points, as voted by the Design Team will be invited to be our GUEST DESIGNER in July and create along side our Design Team. This person will also win this fabulous prize from Enjoy Scrapping ...

Be You Combo Kit

(album kit 18x23 cm. Includes 50 blank pages, 15 pockets for photo keeping, an extra 15 pockets for memory keeping. Embellishments include, 12 pages of patterned paper, 10 cards, cover pages, 1 sticker sheet and 1 alphabet sticker sheet)

The following prizes will be given to the next 4 winning layouts. 

An Echo Park mini kit from Enjoy Scrapping .

TWO ribbon packs (for 2 winners) from Scrapbooking Fantasies . Each prize is valued at over $40AUS each and contains 71 half metre lengths of ribbons, trims and lace in shades of pink, brown, cream and gold from quality brands such as Prima, Maya Road, Websters Pages, May Arts, Vandoros, Green Tara and Birch Australia, including international postage!! 

A US$20.00 store gift card from C'est Magnifique Kit Club + FREE postage to anywhere in the world + add any other item in the store at NO extra postage cost from C'est Magnifique kit club. 

Of course we do not forget our random winners. These are the prizes up for grabs for our RANDOMLY drawn entries..

*example

A chipboard pack from Imaginarium Designs.

*example

A handmade tag from Berry71Bleu.

A fabric and paper set from the Oh girl! collection from Julia Cotrim Scrapbooking PLUS a decorated canvas collection.

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

**You are free to combine Once Upon A..Sketch challenges with other challenges. We don't mind at all!!!

**You are allowed to enter only layouts  for our challenges

**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 May 31st, Australian Eastern Standard Time . The Design Team will vote and the Top 5 layouts PLUS Top 5 featured layouts will be announced soon after the challenge has finished.

**You may enter as many times as you like

**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.