March 1st Challenge - More Inspiration From Our Sponsor

Hey everyone! 

Today I wish to share with you some more examples for our current challenge, created by the Design Team of Bery71Bleu, who is not only this month's MAIN sponsor but will sponsor our challenges until the end of 2012. I wish to that the lovely Marivic Clifton, owner of Berry71Bleu, for creating all the extra handmade tags which will be given away as random prizes in our current and future challenge. Berry71Bleu also has a blog where they run challenges with some incredible prizes up for grabs and an AWESOME Design Team where you will get lots of inspiration. SO if you are looking for somewhere else to play along along too make sure you visit their blog HERE.

Also, do keep an eye out at their blog, as Marivic is soon opening an etsy shop which will sell gorgeous kits, just like the one she is giving away to the winner of this challenge. But for the time being, you can buy her tags at her current etsy shop HERE. 

SO here is our current challenge..

 March 1st Challenge

Journalling Criteria/Theme:

All About Me!

The focus of your journalling and the theme of your layout has to be based on YOU and something/s that you are really good at. Don't be shy! We are all good at something as small or as big as it might be.

Ideas for journalling: being a good mum, cooking, talking, understanding people, organising, cleaning, gardening, studying, computers, fashion, exercising, scrapbooking, good at my job, maths, languages, writing , drawing, painting, photography, running, craft, sewing. Maybe you can talk about an aspect of your personality..your sensitivity, your 6th sense, your patience, your strength or bravery, your ability to stay positive. 

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

You MUST combine our journalling criteria with this sketch..

and here is what the team from Berry71Bleu has created using Marivic's gorgeous handmade tags. Please click on their names to be directed to their blogs. 

Jing van Opstal 

Lisa Novogrodski

" I wear many hats in life but the one that I wear best is the role of "friend." Although there may be more important roles in my life I question my level of excellency in them. I never do with "friend." I'm the kind of friend I would want to have and always strive to plant my soul in the hearts of my friends where I will live forever. Friends are the family you choose. I treasure them."

Michelle Hodges

 "My Lo is about being a Mom to Ellie. That is why I titled it Blessed. Here is what the journal reads!

The journal card under the picture says: I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. By Elizabeth Browning. My journal strips on the right side says: adore on the ticket, family time, forever, best friends, quality time. The journaling I wrote says: Blessed to be your mom! Love all the times we cherish. The moments and memories we share."

Marivic Clifton 

"It is hard for me to do a page about me. So I just used Meredith Brooks song "

Ranae Harrison 

 "My quote is centered around motherhood, since what I am good at is being a mom. Here is the quote:

"A mother's love is peace, it need not be acquired, it need not be deserved. ~ Errich Fromm"

Thank you SO much girls for your wonderful inspiration. 

Prizes

How would you like to be our Guest Designer for April? 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 this GORGEOUS kit from Berry71Bleu 's etsy shop....

Papers from GCD (sweet surrender collection), Journal, Lace trims, Fab Scraps metal embellishments, vial of silver glitter, set of clear stamps from 7 gypsies, Tag from Berry71bleu, paper flowers, prima flowers, Rhinestone vintage-style pendants,sequined picks, butterfly, adhesive faux pearl, glittered skeleton key ornament

Lastly we LOVE to encourage EVERYONE here at Once Upon A..Sketch to play along with us NO MATTER your skill level or scrapbooking style. SO we have 2 prizes us for grabs for 2 RANDOMLY chosen people.

Firstly, another prize from our ongoing sponsor Berry71Bleu. One randomly chosen entry will receive this GORGEOUS handmade tag from Berry71Bleu. Here is an example of the kind of tag you could receive..

Our second prize for one RANDOMLY chosen person will be 2 paper collections from FeatureArt...

February 15th Challenge **WINNERS**

WOW...that was hard! Choosing the winners and the featured projects of our previous challenge was quite a task. Gee you girls can scrap! So many lovely projects to see,...so many interesting and exciting blogs to visit! I just love meeting all new people that join our challenges each month plus, we all love visiting the blogs of our long term followers :) 

So the votes are in. Due to our blog swap last month, it was the team from Get Creative that voted this time around and here are the winners. A HUGE thank you to all the team at Get Creative for being our guests this month ! We hope to see you around. 

Winner 

The overwhelming winner of our last challenge is...

Sarah Groen (New Zealand)

CONGRATULATIONS Sarah. The team really LOVED your layout as it was such a bright and happy one with so many details. That picture is amazing amongst all the gorgeous layering and detailing and the way you stitched the blue paper is just so lovely! Well done! 

For your efforts you have won your self a GORGEOUS kit from Swirlydoos so please contact Patti at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com with your details to claim your prize! Please also grab your winners badge from the left hand side of this blog. 

Top 5 Featured Projects 

(in winning order) 

Kelly Kapetanou (Greece) 

Erin Blegen (USA) 

Loretaart (Lithuania) 

Tone (Norway) 

Adriana Bolzon (Australia) 

AWESOME inspiration here girls and as promised we had an extra prize to give to one randomly chosen person from our Top 5 featured projects. SO the person that wins the Imaginarium Designs chipboard pack is #2 Erin Blegen. Erin, please email us your details at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com and we will get your prize out right away. 

Random Prize Winners

The person that wins the gorgeous handmade tag from Berry71Bleu is # 3 Elisabeth Bottoms

The person that wins the 2 paper collections from FeatureArt is #60 scrappekaten

Congratulations girls! Please contact Patti  with your details and the prize you won  at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com to claim your prize. 

March 1st Challenge + Meet our Guest Designer **Iris Babao Uy**

Well hello everyone! How are you all going? I hope you all enjoyed the switch up with Get Creative last month as much as we did. Thank you all for embracing the concept and our new sister blog and I am so happy to see that many of you played along with both challenges. We are back to normal this month, and this is actually our 12th month that we are posting challenges and next month it will be our one year anniversary. Unfortunately this is the last month for some Design Team members who will end their term here at the end of this month, but we will talk about all that plus some new changes on April 1st!

For the time being a new month is upon us which brings a new challenge for the next 2 weeks. 

The current challenge is one that will push you out of your comfort zone because you have to scrap a layout or create a project about YOU. Many MANY people find this daunting...I can understand that. I personally do not have a problem scrapping my self as I want my children and those I leave behind one day to know the real Nadia. But I was SO SO SO surprised to learn that my Design Team really struggled with this. This saddened me...it saddened me as I see SO many wonderful qualities in all of them, yet it astounds me how hard us women are on our selves. We truly are. I think one thing we are ALL good at for certain, is just being WOMEN in this day and age!! 

SO I am particularly keen to see you all find something that you are good at, as little or as big as that might be and be confident enough to share it with us here. I cannot wait to see your entries!! Come on ladies..its time we believed in our selves and put our selves first just this one time..!

March 1st Challenge

Journalling Criteria/Theme:

All About Me!

The focus of your journalling and the theme of your layout has to be based on YOU and something/s that you are really good at. Don't be shy! We are all good at something as small or as big as it might be.

Ideas for journalling: being a good mum, cooking, talking, understanding people, organising, cleaning, gardening, studying, computers, fashion, exercising, scrapbooking, good at my job, maths, languages, writing , drawing, painting, photography, running, craft, sewing. Maybe you can talk about an aspect of your personality..your sensitivity, your 6th sense, your patience, your strength or bravery, your ability to stay positive. 

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

You MUST combine our journalling criteria with this sketch..

Guest Designers

It gives me GREAT pleasure to have this super talented lady give us inspiration on our blog this month. Please help me to welcome the amazingly talented..

Iris Babao Uy (The Philippines) 

I am a scrapper from The Philippines, a wife and a mother to two sweet girls Nicole and Cheska. I rarely plan my pages – I let a photo or a patterned paper inspire me and I take it from there. I love the shabby chic and romantic style but I also enjoy working with bold patterns and striking colors. I’m an ink and paint type of person. I just have to get it a little messy to consider my page done. If I don’t have ink and paint on hand, then I just tear little bits of elements and stick it randomly for the sheer fun of itJ

I am fortunate to be designing for Webster’s Pages, Basic Grey, and Hambly Screen Prints. I was also named as one of the first two Prima Masters. I am also currently a designer Aussie Scrapsource and Dusty Attic and an endorsed teacher for WOW embossing powders. My work can be seen craft books as well as craft magazines such as Creating Keepsakes and the like.

I teach classes in Asia and soon in Europe. I may be reached through iris_sparkup@yahoo.com.

My blog address: My White Space

And here is Iris'take on our current challenge.

We also welcome the winner of the last challenge, who is one of Australia's nicest and most talented scrappers...

Cathy Cafun (Australia) 

Hi, my name is Cathy Cafun. I live in Brisbane, Australia with my DH of 26 years and 2 teenage children. I found my passion for scrapping 7 years ago when I was introduced to this addictive craft by a friend, and have been hooked ever since.

I’m not really sure what my style is, but I do love mixing and layering patterned papers together and playing with different mediums. Having a son and a daughter means I enjoy creating very feminine pages and also love the grungy distressed style. I find browsing blogs, online galleries & mags a great source of inspiration and really enjoy challenge sites as they are a fantastic way of getting you out of your comfort zone. There are so many amazingly talented artists on these sites and I love looking at all their gorgeous creations and finding new and inspiring ideas to get the juices flowing.

Thanks so much to all the girls at Once Upon a Sketch for the wonderful opportunity to guest design this month.

And here is Cathy's layout based on our sketch and journalling criteria.

Incredible work ladies. Thank you so much for your wonderful input!

Design Team

(please visit their blogs for close ups and to leave them some LOVE!) 

Lene Neby (Norway)

Pamela Young (USA)

Jeni O'Connor (Australia/Canada)

Patti Hamil (USA)

** Imaginarium Designs chipboard "mother" title and butterflies

Irini Liolia (Greece)

** Imaginarium Designs  chipboard butterfly

Natalie May (Australia)

**Imaginarium Designs Chipboard flourish**

Page inspired by Melinda Spinks

Mahlin Wiggur (Sweden)

** Imaginarium Designs  chipboard frames

Vicky varvadouka (Greece)

Sandi Taloumis (USA)

**Imaginarium Designs chipboard butterfly (lower right)

Nadia Cannizzo (Australia) 

**Imaginarium Designs chipboard embellishment 1 frame, butterfly, word LOVE and window with lattice 

Sponsors

"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".

*****

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

Prizes

How would you like to be our Guest Designer for April? 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 this GORGEOUS kit from Berry71Bleu 's etsy shop....

Papers from GCD (sweet surrender collection), Journal, Lace trims, Fab Scraps metal embellishments, vial of silver glitter, set of clear stamps from 7 gypsies, Tag from Berry71bleu, paper flowers, prima flowers, Rhinestone vintage-style pendants,sequined picks, butterfly, adhesive faux pearl, glittered skeleton key ornament

Lastly we LOVE to encourage EVERYONE here at Once Upon A..Sketch to play along with us NO MATTER your skill level or scrapbooking style. SO we have 2 prizes us for grabs for 2 RANDOMLY chosen people.

Firstly, another prize from our ongoing sponsor Berry71Bleu. One randomly chosen entry will receive this GORGEOUS handmade tag from Berry71Bleu. Here is an example of the kind of tag you could receive..

Our second prize for one RANDOMLY chosen person will be 2 paper collections from FeatureArt...

Good luck everyone!!

Things to consider when playing along...

**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 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 March 14th, 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

**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.

More Inspiration From Our Sponsor *SWIRLYDOOS*

Hi everyone. 

I thought I would show you today what the Design Team from Swirlydoos kit club did with our current challenge. 

February 15th Challenge

Journalling criteria/theme: HOLIDAYS/VACATION 

Have you printed out all those photos from your last holiday/vacation or most favourite holiday/vacation? We would LOVE to see them and hear all about it. With the theme of holidays/vacation for this challenge, we would love to hear about: your favourite holiday/vacation of all time or a favourite place you would LOVE to take a holiday in . Or how about the last holiday/vacation you went to?  Maybe you have not travelled yet? Then tell us about your DREAM HOLIDAY /VACATION destination. 

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

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

Swirlydoos Design Team 

Lisa Gregory

Lisa Valentine (card) 

 Paulien Van den Bosch 

 Vicky Alberto 

Sponsors

We are delighted to be sponsored once again by a friend of Once Upon A..Sketch, the gorgeous US kit club..

SWIRLYDOOS

Swirlydoos coordinated scrapbook kits are comprised of elegant papers and products that help our members create beautiful pieces of art both in their scrapbooks, and altered art projects. Swirlydoos tries to include only the newest and most innovative products on the market, as well as showcasing handmade and non-traditional products that we find within the crafting community. We encourage new growth in our members by offering monthly challenges on our forums and offering both photo and video tutorials which help them to learn new tips, tricks and techniques. We also offer a monthly technique or project kit to help further our members in their artistic ability. In addition, we offer various coordinating add ons for those ladies who can never have too many scrappy goodies!

 Come check us out at http://www.swirlydoos.com/ and see for yourself what sets Swirlydoos apart from other scrapping communities on the net!

*****

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)

******

We also welcome one more sponsor to Once Upon A..Sketch who will actually sponsor all our challenges with 1 prize all year long!! How exciting!

"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".

*****

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

Prizes

The winner of this prize will receive this gorgeous kit from Swirlydoos...

** January kit

We are SO fortunate to have so many sponsors who love our site and want to sponsor prizes so besides the main prize for the winner, we will also have a prize for one person featured in the Top 5. I will do a random draw amongst the Top 5 featured projects (sometimes depending on voting there are more) and 1 person will win this generous pack of chipboard from Imaginarium Designs

Lastly we LOVE to encourage EVERYONE here at Once Upon A..Sketch to play along with us NO MATTER your skill level or scrapbooking style. SO we have 2 prizes us for grabs for 2 RANDOMLY chosen people. 

A GORGEOUS handmade tag from Berry71Bleu. Here is an example of the kind of tag you could receive..

2 paper collections from FeatureArt...

Good luck everyone!!

Things to consider when playing along...

**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 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 February 29th, 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 

**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.