New Design Team Members

Hi everyone! Its time to announce to you the new people that will be joining our team here. 

Please give them a warm welcome! I am so excited to announce these ladies. I know they will be PERFECT for our diverse style here at Once Upon A..Sketch and I know they will provide a lot of inspiration for you too. 

Pamela Young  from the USA

I am SO thrilled to be a part of the Once Upon a Sketch team. My main passion is scrapbooking, although I do other projects as well.  I have been scrapbooking for about 10 years. My style can only be called the "Pamela style"...not really defined by any other so called style. You can find my work in several different magazines, including Cards, Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers, Scrapbooks and Cards Today, Scrapbooks Etc, Scrapbook Trends, and more.

  I am currently designing for BasicGrey, Fancy Pants Designs, We R Memory Keepers and The ScrapCake.  I live in the US in beautiful Colorado, and I am a stay-at-home mom to two wild boys, ages 8 and 6, and a 2 year old girl. They grow up so fast. I am enjoying life right now, even though it can get a bit chaotic. 

Here is my blog Pamela's World of Scrap

 Larissa Albernaz from Brazil

Hi, I´m Larissa Albernaz

As a paper crafter, I have been scrapbooking for six years. Along these years, scrapbooking has provided me a great sort of artistic possibilities. In fact, I love scrapbooking because it provides me to  express myself in style, mixing paper, embellishments, colors, memories and a message.

So, scrapbooking to me is not only a way to preserve my memories but, it's the way I do Art.In making Art I pursue something that has sense to me, which inspires me and that can be different, interesting, cute, creative, colorful and fun!  I adore papers and creating page layouts or 3 dimensional pieces. One of my life’s little pleasures is to cut, tear and distress them, creating anything that translates the story I want to tell. A scrap of paper is the perfect place for my dreams and impressions.My style is eclectic, crafty.

I´m on the design team at Hambly Screenprints, Basic Grey, Webster`s Pages, The Color Room, {Entreartistes} French magazine, 4 heures 37 and Yummy´s, a Brazilian online store.

You can check out my works at my blog: http://www.lariscrap.typepad.com

10 random facts about me:

I love chocolate.

I love Paris.

I love to read.

I love cutting paper.

I love taking a shower with water in abundance and burning hot.

I don´t like coffee.

I don´t watch TV.

I hate to go out on rainy days, so, I´m glad I live in Brazil!

I love laughing. Life is too short to take completely seriously.

I´m an early bird! I love to create when everybody else is sleeping and they can´t bother me! This is the perfect time to spread things on the floor all over the place until it gets completely surrounded by papers, tools, paint and pictures.

I love colors. If I were a color, I´d be turquoise... or the rainbow. I´m not sure, I´m a woman and I constantly change my opinion.

But it´s true... seeing a rainbow makes me as happy as if I had found that pot of gold! "

Lene Neby from Norway

My name is Lene Neby and I'm 37 years old. I live in Hamar / Norway with my husband Knut and our 5 children ( 3 boys and 2 girls).

When i don't drive my children to activities and practise, I love to scrapbook - that's my passion! I have always been a crafty person but I really got addicted to scrapbooking in 2007 when I was home with our youngest daughter. You will probably seen pictures of our 2 girls on my layouts, the boys in my familiy tend to flee when they see me with a camera.I love the creative prosess from taking the picture to find the right paper and embellishemt to match it ! For me this is therapeutic ! I often use a lof of embelishment and I'm totally adiccted to details.

You can see my work at: www.lenemors.blogspot.comI am a designer for Pion Design - a swedish manufacturer, and I'm in the Design Team for Manor House Creations. 

I'm so happy to be in the designteam for Once Upon A...Sketch !

Georgia Heald from Australia

Hi, I'm Georgia. I Iive in beautiful (but cold!) Tasmania, Australia. I run a small business as well as being a wife to Daron, mum to Mitchell (14) and a step mum to Jessica (19) and Tyler (21). I just discovered scrapbooking in March this year and have become instantly addicted! I love absolutely everything about this fabulous hobbie. From the creative side of playing with gorgeous papers and embellishments,  the continual reminder of the things that are most important to me, to the fabulous community of supportive, inspiring and creative women!!

It is insane for me to think that I created my very first page just over 6 months ago and now I have been invited to join what is THE best blog design team out there! If there ever was inspiration for those new to scrapbooking to keep rocking the OUAS challenges, I am it! I feel so very honoured and excited to have been asked to join the OUAS team and can't wait to start creating and viewing all of the fabulous submissions!

I would love it if you dropped by my blog, Starting to Scrap, and say hi!

Vibeke Harila from Norway 

I have been scrapping for 4 years – and I love it. Everything from taking the perfect picture – to the pleasure of making something great out of it.  I really enjoy when I have the time – and the inspiration to make layouts. Lately I have made some cards too;) I am a happy girl from Norway – crazy for scrapbooking! My favourite style is lots of layers, shabby with white and light colors. I am so lucky that I am a member of 3 other Design Teams: Mollys Scrapbooking, Pion Design and ScrappeHuset. I am so proud to be a part of this wonderful team!!:) You can visit my blog here:http://vibekescrapperogskryter.blogspot.com/

Mahlin Wiggur from Sweden 

My name is Mahlin and I live in a beautiful house here in Sweden.

I´m working as a special ed´s teacher for kids with autism and Aspergers syndrome and then I go home to my  2 year old son Vilmer and our siamese cat Andy.

´ve been scrapbooking for about 3 years now, but I´ve been crafting since the first day I got my hands on a pair of scissors.  When I create I use alot of bright vivid colors. I combine them with lots of pattern. One might say I´m somewhat addicted to color =) . I also work with a lot of detail on my layouts and you´ll often find clusters of embellies on my projects. I´m always on the look out for new exciting embellies to create with and I have a huge stash of vintage ephemera to dive in to.

I can´t create without: Color, stickles (or any kind of glitter glue), chipboard and bling.
I have a hard time with: ribbons and visible journaling.

When I scrap I do it as pure art, and mostly just for myself, as therapy. I feel good when I create. The memory keeping is a huge bonus but not my main goal, that´s why you won´t find so much journaling on my pages. I just scribble down a few words on the back. 

Here is my blog: http://mahlin.blogg.se/

 Maiko Kosugi from Japan

 Hi everyone! I live in Tokyo, Japan. Also known as mai* I'm married to a professional violinist and together we have 2 adorable sons, 4 and 8 years old. I am currently working as a piano teacher to children at home. I started SB from March, 2009, and it has become my favorite hobby ever since. I am currently on the Design Team for Prima, The Dusty Attic DT and Color Combos Galore.

Here is my blog: Happy Smile 

Welcome girls. I cant wait to see what you create starting November!

August 15th Challenge

For the winners of our last challenge, please see the post below..


Hi everyone! Time for a new challenge here at Once Upon A...Sketch..

AUGUST 15th CHALLENGE

Journalling Criteria: Write AT LEAST 2 sentences from the lyrics of your favourite song. Journalling can be in any language and can be any type i.e. handwritten, alphas, printed, rub on. 

You MUST combine our journalling criteria with the following sketch. 

GUEST DESIGNERS

Anabelle O'Malley 

and our winner from the July challenge 

Anita Stokes

Thank you SO very much to Anabelle and Anita for being our guests this month. WE LOVED having you here and hope to have you again soon. 

Now here are some examples from our Guests from Imaginarium Designs, who are our monthly sponsors. 

First up is the amazing Natalie May, our permanent guest designer from Imaginarium Designs with her take on our sketch using Imaginarium Designs chipboard 

Tomoko Takahashi , another member of the Imaginarium Designs Design Team, using Imaginarium Designs chipboard. 

Asuka Miyamoto, also using Imaginarium Designs chipboard. 

The next layout is from a guest from our other sponsor Pretty Paper Petals...

Chloe Nielsen

Thank you to all our Guest Designers from our sponsors for their outstanding work.

Design Team 

Heather Jacob

**Imaginarium designs chipboard alphas and a small flourish

Natalie Elphinstone 

Gerry Van Gent 

** Imaginarium Designs chipboard ( small butterflies and frame)

Bente Fagerberg 

**swirl and  small branch from Imaginarium Design

Helen Tilbury 

**Pretty Paper Petals flowers 

Trudi Harrison 

PRIZES and SPONSORS

Our first sponsor is the truly AMAZING...

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   www.imaginariumdesigns.blogspot.com and you can  purchase this amazing chipboard  at Seriously Scrapbooking (they ship anywhere in the world at actual postage cost)

Thank you SO much to our lovely sponsor Imaginarium Designs. We couldn't do this without your support!

Imaginarium Designs have so generously offered this prize to our  winner as chosen by our Design Team..

...a pack of their latest and most popular chipboard. The best thing about this, is that the pack will be different each month and will be customised to fit the winners needs. So if you have girls, you will be sent girly chipboard etc. And don't forget that they also sponsor our entire Design Team so please see the examples above for all the creative uses of this awesome chipboard. 

This month we will have 2 RANDOMLY CHOSEN winners who will receive the following 

  

Pretty Paper Petals is an Australian based, online blog store that started out a year ago. A simple tissue paper flower started it all off.......one was made for a layout and people kept asking where they could get it.....All of our flowers are carefully handcrafted by Vicki (the founder), and we are adding new items to the store every month

One randomly chosen winner will receive this EMBELLISHMENT KIT from Pretty Paper Petals 

The other randomly chosen winner will receive the August Kit from Tidbitz In Time

Tidbitz In Time is a US based monthly scrapbook kit club designed to bring you the latest papers and embellishments every month -- right to your mailbox.  Your pages will go together easily but your creative opportunities will be endless! Our goal is to make each and every kit an incredible value jam packed full of new products and wonderful ideas. 

Crate Paper - Potrait Collection - Papers, Alpha Labels Stickers, Border Stickers, Custom Trims, 

Prima - Flowers and Say It In Studs packs.  

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 bottom of this post  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 August 31st , Australian Eastern Standard Time . The Design Team will vote and the winner 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.

August 1st Challenge *WINNERS*

Hi everyone. Time to announce the winners of  August 1st  challenge. We had a total of 94 entries. That is just incredible to me. Thank you to each and everyone of you who take part in our challenges and provide us with such eye candy each challenge. Welcome to our new followers...we have reached over 760! 

As you all know, here at Once Upon A..Sketch, the winners are voted on by the Design Team and we also have some randomly chosen winners as well. We have 2 challenges each month, so our Design Team takes turns in voting as we truly believe in the importance of getting around and commenting on peoples work, being an active member of this team and choosing who each of us believes to be the best deserving to win not just the prize, but to be the winner of the entire challenge. If you make the effort to join in and play along with out challenges, then we will make sure that we also make the effort to let you know that your work is acknowledged. We see that most of you create amazing pages...with so much detail and so much effort that would take time to create. But not all can win. We take the voting process very seriously here at Once Upon A...Sketch so that you can be assured that all the entries are looked at before the final votes are sent in to me. 

This time around, 9 Design Team members voted, and they each email me their votes, so no one knows who has been voting on what entries!! The person that won this challenge received top marks from EACH of our Design Team members that voted. It is the first time I have seen that here and this person should be very very happy and proud, as her name was at the Top of almost each members list. 

Our winner, out of 94 entries is this stunning entry by 

Lisa Barrie of the USA

Lisa, this layout stood out amongst all the other entries, simply because the colours are stunning and compliment each other so well. Your background is just stunning and the way you framed the photo is so well done. Not only did you create such a gorgeous layout, but also did a little tutorial on how to create that little prefume bottle at the bottom right of your layout. All these details, against the white paper make for one beautiful layout. So well done to you!!

For your efforts, you win a spot in our Design Team for the month of September as well as the August kit from Tidbitz In Time. YAY! We cannot wait to see what you create for us. 

Please email Irma here irma0408@yahoo.com  for details on your Guest Designer spot and please contact Patti here  

phamil@live.com to claim your prize. 

Lisa, here is your winners badge to display on your blog

So lets announce the Top 5. These next 5 names again appeared over and over again as the votes were coming
in. These were so so close and only a few points separated these


Top 5
(in winning order) 


Romy Veul from The Netherlands







Christin Gronnslett from Sweden







Chelsea Le from the USA





Cynthia Lorens from Brazil 

Amelia Khalik from Malaysia





Well done everyone. These are simply breathtaking! So happy to see people from all over the world
participating in our challenges.


Here is your badge to display on your blogs proudly, as I think its huge to be Top 5 
out of 94 entries. 





Lastly we have 2 randomly chosen winners. 


The first person, who wins an embellishment pack from Pretty Paper Petals is..

Number 65 is Chiqui Guitierrez from The Philippines, who submitted this beautiful layout

 The other random winner, who wins the Crate Paper - Portrait collection pack is

Number 9 is Toni Cartwright from Australia who entered this gorgeous looking layout

Congratulations to both girls. Please email Patti  here phamil@live.com to claim your prize.

Amazing work from everyone. It is really so so hard to choose just a few. Keep up the good work everyone!

Just a few days left...

...to get your entries in for our current challenge. 

The August 1st challenge ends on midnight, Sunday 14th of August! Don't forget to scroll down this post to see the prizes up for grabs PLUS this is the challenge where you can win your self a Guest Designer spot for the month of September. 


Please also take a moment to view the previous post, announcing the winners as I was able to update that post with the images of the winning projects and I have also updated the banner at the top of the blog. My sincere apologies to the winners for not being able to post your projects here earlier. I am so happy to have your incredibly gorgeous projects beautify our blog! 

AUGUST 1st CHALLENGE


Journalling Criteria: Finish this line "A PERFECT DAY IS....." . Your journalling has to be at least 2 lines long, and with the theme of a whatever a perfect day for you is or a perfect day that you have had already e.g.  a birthday, a holiday, a childhood memory, a wedding day, graduation day etc. Your journalling can be ANY type : handwritten, typed, etc...

You MUST combine our journalling criteria with this sketch...

GUEST DESIGNERS

Please give a VERY warm welcome to the lovely 

Anabelle O'Malley from the USA

Hi everyone, I am Anabelle. My love for paper crafting is at the core of my desire to design scrapbook pages, cards and projects. This passion, along with my creativity and enthusiasm pushes me to learn new techniques and apply them to my work. My goal is to inspire others through my work with design teams and freelance opportunities. I am flexible, driven and professional. I work well under time constraints and as part of a team. Most importantly, I am constantly challenging myself and truly love what I do!My style has been described as 'bold', 'fun', 'glitzy' 'a bit shabby' and 'detailed'. I pay close attention to the design elements on my pages. While the photos are the main focus of my layouts, I enjoy highlighting products and telling a story though my work. I enjoy using a variety of techniques including sewing, stamping and using computer software as I create scrapbook pages, cards, mini-albums and altered items. Fashion and home accent trends definitely influence my work and I find inspiration in ads, catalogs and clothing. I am currently designing for Webster's Pages, Vintage Street Market and Emma's Paperie.

Here is my blog - Bits and Pieces...

SO happy to have this talented scrapper here. She is SUCH a sweet person!

And here is Anabelle's GORGEOUS layout based on this sketch and our journalling criteria.

Now here is a layout from our last challenge winner, who is also this month's Guest Designer..

Anita S. from Australia. 

"A perfect day for me is making sure I am around people I love. Have used Glitz Designs papers. Thanks to Nadia for a great sketch!"

DESIGN TEAM 

Sandi Taloumis (USA) 

Vicky Varvadouka (Greece)

Jenni O'Connor (Australia/ Canada) 

Patti Hamil (USA) 

Irma Peredne (USA) 

Nerrida Mitchell (Australia) 

Irini Liolia (Greece) 

Helen Tilbury (South Africa) 

SPONSORS

I am so incredibly happy to FINALLY have Tidbitz In Time sponsor one of our challenges. You might have noticed that Tidbitz In Time has been inviting 2 of our DT members each month to be Guest designers at the website and their kits have been featured here too. I am excited that one of you will get to receive the FABULOUS August kit from our good friends at ...

Tidbitz In Time is a US based monthly scrapbook kit club designed to bring you the latest papers and embellishments every month -- right to your mailbox.  Your pages will go together easily but your creative opportunities will be endless! Our goal is to make each and every kit an incredible value jam packed full of new products and wonderful ideas. 

                

Pretty Paper Petals is an Australian based, online blog store that started out a year ago. A simple tissue paper flower started it all off.......one was made for a layout and people kept asking where they could get it.....All of our flowers are carefully handcrafted by Vicki (the founder), and we are adding new items to the store every month

PRIZES

Our winner, as voted on by the Design Team, will get to come back in September as our Guest Designer and will receive the August 2011 kit from Tidbitz in Time which looks like this..

Crate Paper - Potrait Collection - Papers, Alpha Labels Stickers, Border Stickers, Custom Trims, 

Prima - Flowers and Say It In Studs packs.  

This month we will have 2 RANDOMLY CHOSEN winners who will receive the following 

One randomly chosen winner will receive this EMBELLISHMENT KIT from Pretty Paper Petals 

and one randomly chosen winner will receive another Crate Paper - Portrait Collection pack.        

..which includes Portrait Border Stickers, Portrait Layered Chipboard, Portrait Collection Kit -  16 Pattern papers, border stickers, phrase stickers and designer die cuts

So there are 3 prizes and 1 Guest Designer spot up for grabs!

Before we go I would like to show you a few layouts from the Design Team members from our sponsors. 

Wendy from Tidbitz in Time, using the August Kit from Tidbitz in Time 

Vicky from Pretty Paper Petals  using flowers from Pretty Paper Petals. 

Chloe Nielsen from Pretty Paper Petals, again using flowers from Pretty Paper Petals. 

Things to consider when playing along... 


**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ENTRIES ARE NOW TO BE LINKED ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST***

**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 to the bottom of this post 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 AUGUST 14th (AUSTRALIAN EASTERN STANDARD TIME (Sydney Time) ) . The Design Team will vote and the winner 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.