Just letting you know..

I have decided to put the Link tool back to the right hand side of the blog after much confusion from entrants and Design Team members alike! LOL! Sorry for the confusion everyone, but the after posting last week that you need to link your pages at the bottom of the post, I am just asking you to ignore that link your work on the right hand side of the blog as usual! Thank You :) 

And here is the current challenge once more..

March 15th Challenge

Journalling Criteria:   Finish this line "I miss...". 

 Tell us about someone you are missing right now and why. Your journalling can be as long or as little as you like, but we want to hear all about someone you are missing!

Ideas for journalling: missing time alone with your partner, missing your old self, missing your children because they are off to school, university or living away from you, missing your children being young, missing a friend you have not seen in a while, someone in another country, someone that has passed away, a mentor whose advice you could use, a relative you wish you lived closer to, someone you regret having an argument with, missing a pet

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

Our invited Guest Designer Iris Babo Uy

"This art journal is inspired by my memories of my grandma. She is still alive and well but because of her old age she is no longer the same. She can't remember a lot of things and I miss the way she were. The picture is a collage item but the lady there looks so much like her in her youth. Thanks! I enjoyed these two challenges"

And here is the winner from last month Cathy Cafun

 " It was so difficult to create this page of my Mother, but I'm really glad I did.  I have hidden my journaling and have attached a pic of this also.  Thanks for the wonderful challenge and for having me as a Guest DT member this month" 

( Cathy has hidden journalling which is tucked in under the flowers on the left had side of the picture) 

I wish to thank both of these talented ladies for joining us this month. What a wonderful contribution you both made to our team and we hope to see you back here again :)

Design Team

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

Nadia Cannizzo (Australia) 

Natalie May (Australia) 

**Imaginarium Designs chipboard clock, letter

Heather Jacob (Australia) 

** Imaginarium designs - alphas and cogs

 Heather has hidden journaling in a pull out section under the picture to the left. This is a layout about her precious son 'Mark' who was killed 2 weeks after this photo was taken.

Natalie Elphinstone (Australia)

**Imaginarium Designs: Alphas, clouds and hearts

"I know it seems like I haven't fulfilled the journaling criteria. But I've done my page from someone else's perspective (which just so happens to be Janet Jackson!) I saw her in concert the same day the verdict was read in Michael Jackson's manslaughter trial. At one point in the concert she had a very moving montage of photos of her and Michael as she sang the song "Together Again" and it was so very obvious that she was at the moment just an 'ordinary' person mourning the loss of her brother"

Georgia Heald (Australia) 

*Hidden Journalling

Helen Tilbury (South Africa)

Larissa Albernaz (Brazil)

Imaginarium Designs - Girl Silhouette and border 

Jasmine Shea (Australia)

Imaginarium Designs Butterfly 

Mai Kosugi (Japan) 

Bente Faberberg (Sweden) 

Sponsors

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)

****

"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 

*****

Julia Cotrim's hand made papers and fabrics are unique and very special. The patterned papers are texturized and printed on a very thick cardstock. Our studio is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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

****

 Feature Artis 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

WE are SOOOOOO lucky to have so many sponsors approach us here at Once Upon A..Sketch and so many people wanting to sponsor challenges. We love it because it means we get to send out many more prizes to more of you :) 

This month we have a lot of stuff to giveaway form our sponsors. 

 The winner of this challenge,  as chosen by our Design team, will receive this GORGEOUS  pack of chipboard from Imaginarium Designs..

**example of chipboard you could receive

Our sponsor  Berry71Bleu is giving away a gorgeous handmade tag to a RANDOMLY chosen entry

**example of the tag you could win

A set of keys and buttons from Marivic's new etsy shop, Zeus and Zoe (opening end of March) will also go to 1 RANDOMLY chosen entry as well. 

 

Two more RANDOMLY chosen entries will win ..

 .2 paper collections from FeatureArt. 

A  paper and fabric collection from Julia Cotrim Scrapbooking

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 31st, 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.

March 15th Challenge

Hi everyone! Today brings us a new challenge here at Once Upon A..Sketch but it is also a day to say goodbye to some of our Designers. April 1st will be 1 year since I decided to start this challenge blog, and most of our Designers have been here all this time. Originally, this would have been the time to have a Design Team changeover, DT calls, etc etc but due to some personal issues, I asked this wonderful team some time last year if they would all stay on past the first year as this was supposed to have been a difficult time for me to start a new term with a new Design Team. They all agreed of course, to stay as long as I would have needed them, but ...things did not go to plan for me and so I asked the Design Team members to feel free to move on from Once Upon A..sketch. The majority has decided to stay but for 3 members, their time at Once Upon A..Sketch ends this month. 

I wish to thank Irma Peredne, Helen Tilbury and Vibeke Harila for their outstanding contribution to Once Upon A...Sketch, for their dedication to me and this challenge blog, for their commenting and voting and overall "behind the scenes" stuff that goes on and takes lots and lots of time. I thank Irma for her Guest Designer Coordinator role , which helped me immensely this past year. I thank Helen for her wisdom ,  professionalism,  encouragement and support of me and Once Upon A..Sketch. Lastly I thank Vibeke, who was not with us for very long but in her short time provided much inspiration to all. I wish all 3 of you the very best and you will always be part of the Once Upon A...Sketch family. :)

For those that have been asking for a while..I will let you in on some thinking I have been doing regarding a new Design Team. At this point, there will be a Design Team call in May some time and the new Design Team will start in July 1st. :)

With all that said..I quickly want to tell you of 1 more change that will take place. This is the last time we have a challenge in the middle of the month. From April 1st, our challenges will be monthly. That means only 1 challenge at month, which will be revealed on the 1st of each month. This saddens me as I know lots of you look forward to our challenges, but it is simply a time issue. Life for me has changes somewhat this year and I am guessing it will only get busier so instead of driving my self mad and giving all this up for good I am slowing down a little bit and I do indeed plan to one day soon have fortnightly or even weekly sketches up again, but right now 1 challenge a month is what I can manage. There is a LOT of stuff that needs to be done to run this blog properly and how I want to, so I really do not want to let any of you down by doing half hearted work here. 

Lastly..one other little change is that you need to link up your entries to the BOTTOM of the post now and not the right hand side of the blog. It was getting a little crowded there and this way we can view the links bigger and better :)

So, lets have a look at the new challenge. 

March 15th Challenge

Journalling Criteria:   Finish this line "I miss...". 

 Tell us about someone you are missing right now and why. Your journalling can be as long or as little as you like, but we want to hear all about someone you are missing!

Ideas for journalling: missing time alone with your partner, missing your old self, missing your children because they are off to school, university or living away from you, missing your children being young, missing a friend you have not seen in a while, someone in another country, someone that has passed away, a mentor whose advice you could use, a relative you wish you lived closer to, someone you regret having an argument with, missing a pet

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

Our invited Guest Designer Iris Babo Uy

"This art journal is inspired by my memories of my grandma. She is still alive and well but because of her old age she is no longer the same. She can't remember a lot of things and I miss the way she were. The picture is a collage item but the lady there looks so much like her in her youth. Thanks! I enjoyed these two challenges"

And here is the winner from last month Cathy Cafun

 " It was so difficult to create this page of my Mother, but I'm really glad I did.  I have hidden my journaling and have attached a pic of this also.  Thanks for the wonderful challenge and for having me as a Guest DT member this month" 

( Cathy has hidden journalling which is tucked in under the flowers on the left had side of the picture) 

I wish to thank both of these talented ladies for joining us this month. What a wonderful contribution you both made to our team and we hope to see you back here again :)

Design Team

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

Nadia Cannizzo (Australia) 

Natalie May (Australia) 

**Imaginarium Designs chipboard clock, letter

Heather Jacob (Australia) 

** Imaginarium designs - alphas and cogs

 Heather has hidden journaling in a pull out section under the picture to the left. This is a layout about her precious son 'Mark' who was killed 2 weeks after this photo was taken.

Natalie Elphinstone (Australia)

**Imaginarium Designs: Alphas, clouds and hearts

"I know it seems like I haven't fulfilled the journaling criteria. But I've done my page from someone else's perspective (which just so happens to be Janet Jackson!) I saw her in concert the same day the verdict was read in Michael Jackson's manslaughter trial. At one point in the concert she had a very moving montage of photos of her and Michael as she sang the song "Together Again" and it was so very obvious that she was at the moment just an 'ordinary' person mourning the loss of her brother"

Georgia Heald (Australia) 

*Hidden Journalling

Helen Tilbury (South Africa)

Larissa Albernaz (Brazil)

Imaginarium Designs - Girl Silhouette and border 

Jasmine Shea (Australia)

Imaginarium Designs Butterfly 

Mai Kosugi (Japan) 

Sponsors

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)

****

"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 

*****

Julia Cotrim's hand made papers and fabrics are unique and very special. The patterned papers are texturized and printed on a very thick cardstock. Our studio is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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

****

 Feature Artis 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

WE are SOOOOOO lucky to have so many sponsors approach us here at Once Upon A..Sketch and so many people wanting to sponsor challenges. We love it because it means we get to send out many more prizes to more of you :) 

This month we have a lot of stuff to giveaway form our sponsors. 

 The winner of this challenge,  as chosen by our Design team, will receive this GORGEOUS  pack of chipboard from Imaginarium Designs..

**example of chipboard you could receive

Our sponsor  Berry71Bleu is giving away a gorgeous handmade tag to a RANDOMLY chosen entry

**example of the tag you could win

A set of keys and buttons from Marivic's new etsy shop, Zeus and Zoe (opening end of March) will also go to 1 RANDOMLY chosen entry as well. 

 

Two more RANDOMLY chosen entries will win ..

 .2 paper collections from FeatureArt. 

A  paper and fabric collection from Julia Cotrim Scrapbooking

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 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 March 31st, 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.

March 1st Challenge **WINNERS**

The team was super quick to vote this time due to a new format in voting, so I am here today to announce the winners of our last challenge :)

I should start by saying CONGRATULATIONS to all you for going right ahead and creating layouts about YOU! It wasn't that hard after all was it? :)

Before I announce the winners, I would kindly ask..ok..maybe I will BEG you all to consider turning off the new double word verification that blogger has introduced. Its such a painful and time consuming thing, and I am sure most of you probably do not know you have it turned off. But because we take our commenting seriously here at Once Upon A..Sketch and we love to visit your blogs, WE definitely know you have it on LOL! SO please go to your blogger settings and turn off comment moderation. 

I had a great tutorial on how to turn it off, but I have lost it! But here is how Blogger says to turn it off!

Thanks girls :)

Ok..on to the results! The very clear winner of this challenge is...

Melenia (Greece)

 

Melenia, you might be too modest to admit that you are good at something, but all of us here at Once Upon A..Sketch were overwhelmingly impressed with your layout. Your open hearted journalling, the way you positioned your pictures and the clever use of the sketch make this one a winner. I think the next time you do a layout about something you are good at, you must definitely document about your impressive scrapping style. Well done!

For your efforts you have won a spot on our Design Team for April. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, we are changing our format to monthly challenges from April, so your Guest Designer spot will extend to May as well, until we get things rolling normally from April on! 

You have also won a GORGEOUS kit from Berry71Bleu and your winners badge from the left hand side of this blog. Please email Patti, at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com to claim your prize and please contact me, Nadia, at nadiac78@hotmail.com to get all the info on your Guest Designer spot. Well done Melenia :)

Top 5 Featured Projects 

(in winning order) 

Maja Stokk (Sweden) 

 

Maja, this is a gorgeous picture of you and the fabulous colours you have used here bring out a soft and feminine side to your layout The way your journalling peeks out, and what looks like gorgeous handwriting just makes me feel like looking into this layout a lot more, as there seems to be a story behind it. I also like the way you used the sketch.

Helena Virpi (Italy) 

 

WOW! Talk about bright and eye catching. Helena, this layout was the very first layout out of 70 and I have been eyeing this all this time. It truly is a standout as you have such contrasting colours and a nice title. The way you positioned your journalling is magnificent, and the story behind you and the camera was such a nice read. Lovely work. 

Kay Fatula (USA) 

 

Well Kay, besides the obvious beauty of this layout, the Design Team was drawn to the "puzzle" of you! How clever to create a puzzle image on your photo and to title this "Pieces of Me" . As we know that you always have really creative ways of adding your journalling to your pages, I was trying to figure out where you hid it this time before spotting it rolled up on the right hand side of the layout in a scroll. Reading your jounralling on your blog was wonderful and it was a pleasure to know you just a little bit more. Inspiring work indeed. 

Hilde Aaslund (Norway) 

 

Hilde, this one was also an eye catching layout amongst all the other entries. Your simple style, up against the GORGEOUS orange background is just stunning. The way you blended in your journalling using a white pen is marvelous. Awesome work!

Cristin Gronnslett (Sweden) 

 

Christin, your beautiful picture and the simple and stunning take on the sketch is beautiful. I LOVE how it is your picture and the journalling that stand out in all that negative space and how I would have loved to be able to read Swedish to know where your nickname came from! I have often wondered about that :) 

Congratulations ladies. You were our Top 5 out of 70 layouts created. Well done, Please feel free to grab your Featured badge from the left hand side of this blog. 

We also have the winners of our 2 random prizes. 

The person that wins the gorgeous handmade tag by Berry71Bleu is Leanne Nankervis..

The person that wins the 2 paper collections from FeatureArt is Jeanette Lee. 

Congratulations to both our random winners. Please contact Patti at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com with your details to claim your prize. 

Thank you so much for your time everyone :) Look forward to many more creations from you.