More April Challenge Inspiration + the prizes for April

Hey everyone. I just wanted to show you today some more examples for our current challenge and to introduce our main sponsor and other sponsors for April. 

The main sponsor for April is none other than the super amazing kit club (that I happen to be on  the design team) C'est Magnifique kit club. 

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. 

And what do you ask is the prize they are offering to the winner of our April challenge???

Besides WELL you will love this one, because it has been one of the most POPULAR kits so far...Its the APRIL kit which looks like this..

A Bouquet of Happiness

Contents:  papers from The ScrapCake (My Private Happiness) , Dusty Attic - Corner Flourish #1, Kaisercraft - Chipboard Alpha, Divine Twine - Yellow, Prima - Large Bird Houses, Kaisercraft - Hanging, Plaques Wood Flourishes, Americana - Lemon Yellow Paint, Melissa Frances - Attic Treasure Bags, Wild Orchid - White Gypsophelia, Wild Orchid - Pink/Cream Roses, Green Tara - Acrylic Butterfly, Green Tara - Wide Lace, Green Tara -  Turquoise Mini Rosebuds, Wrights -Hot Pink Ruffled Grosgrain

Our design team has just finished creating their work with this kit and its just so so gorgeous. 

So, I decided to invite the rest of my fellow Design Team members to play along with our current challenge and how about we have a look at what they have come up with? 

April Challenge

 The theme of this challenge is HOME. 

We would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "HOME" 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 this sketch. 

C'est Magnifique Design Team Inspiration

The Design Team have used past C'est Magnifique kits for this challenge so that you can 

get an idea of what the kits looks like. 

Fi Kenward

**using the April kit

Camilla Ekman 

**Using the March kit

Erin Blegen 

**using the March kit

Valerie Serfozo 

**using the December kit

and here are my 2 layouts using the January kit. I created 2 because the first one you might have seen at the 

blog hop earlier in the week and the other one is a new one

Nadia Cannizzo

**hidden journalling behind the layout

**hidden journalling behind the photo

Beverly Sams

Thank YOU so much to my fellow Design Team members at C'est Magnifique for playing along with this challenge and providing more inspiration for us!! Thank you also to Leslie, the awesome boss of C'est Magnifique for sponsoring our challenge this month AND in the following months :)

Now here are the other sponsors and prizes up for grabs in April...

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 (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

PRIZES

Our FANTASTIC sponsor, Imaginarium Designs, is giving away this BEAUTIFUL pack of chipboard to one randomly chosen entry..

**example of chipboard you could receive

Our sponso0 Berry71Bleu is also giving away a gorgeous handmade tag to a randomly chosen entry

**example of the tag you could win

We also have a paper and fabric collection from Oh girl! collection from Julia Cotrim Scrapbooking to giveaway to the one more randomly chosen entry. 

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 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 April 30th, 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

**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.

Blog Hop **WINNER WINNER WINNER*

Well everyone, we were all incredibly overwhelmed with the amount of love you left us on our blogs during the blog hop! Thank you all SO very much for taking the time to express your love and thoughts about our challenge blog! You have given me at least, a boost of confidence to keep going :) 

I also want to take this chance to wish everyone celebrating Easter this weekend a HAPPY and JOYOUS time with your family and loved ones. 

OK..I know you all just really want to know the winner so..here they are

CONGRATULATIONS goes to....

HILDE/SCOOBIE from Norway

who wins the main prize of Imaginarium Designs chipboard plus a few more goodies from them. 

Hilde, please email me at nadiac78@hotmail.com to claim your prize!! Lucky YOU just before Easter too :) 

THANK YOU again to everyone. Very soon all 20 Design Team members will be posting on their blogs their individual winners so please keep an eye out for that on their blog :) 

Bye for now everyone.  

March 15th Challenge **WINNERS**

Hey everyone. I am here today to announce the winners of our last challenge. I will not even begin to talk about the blog hop which ends tomorrow night. The entire team and I are just blown away with the support and response there so keep an eye out on Friday when I announce the winner of the MAIN prize. 

We saw some heart warming, sometimes sad and touching journalling in our last challenge. You were asked to create a layout about someone/something that you are missing right now. Many Design Team members expressed the way they were incredibly moved by some of your journalling. I am so happy journalling has stayed and will be present here at OUAS! You are just blowing us away. 

Without further delay let me announce the winner of our March 15th challenge. 

Huge congratulations goes to...

Jennifer Snyder 

**Jennifer has hidden journalling

Jennifer..your layout stood out to us because the picture is so uncommon yet so so serene. What could this layout be about? Well it is about missing someone that many women know all too well about..missing a lost child. I am so honoured that you chose our challenge to express your feelings about the loss as it is such a hard thing to have to do. Your background, and the colours you have used here are so fitting for your subject. Thank you SO much for sharing some of your self with us.

Jennifer for your efforts you have won a gorgeous chipboard pack from Imaginarium Designs and a winners badge to display on your blog, which you will find on the left hand side of this blog. Congratulations and please email me at nadiac78@hotmail.com to claim your prize. 

Top 5 Featured Projects

(in winning order) 

Lisa Gregory

*8Lisa has hidden journalling in a letter at the back of her layout. 

Lisa, your detailed work and soft feel to this layout speaks volume of the wonderful woman in the photo. We were moved by your tribute to your mother in law and loves the gorgeous embellishments and details you added here. Well done!

Erin Blegen

**Erin has hidden journalling in the tags behind the photo 

Erin, this is such a sweet and well composed layout. We love how you have SO much to say on your layouts and you always put some meaning into them. This gorgeous picture of your in your childhood is a priceless one and we are so glad you chose to scrap such an unforgettable time. We love the splatters of paint and the gorgeous flowers amongst that distressing! Well done to you too. 

Stephanie Schutze 

WOW Stephanie. How stunning is this? We REALLY loved your unique interpretation of the sketch here and your use of negative space. The way you have incorporated your journalling here is AWESOME..You have included SO much information in such a small amount of space and w just loved the arty feel to this layout!

Eila Sandberg 

How sweet! It just melts your heart to look at that gorgeous picture. Eila..this is a gorgeous layout with stunning colours and a very cute subject. REALLY love your use of sporadic flowers and that splash of red everywhere. Gorgeous work Eila. 

Debbie Burns 

Debbie your gorgeous picture is what caught our eye here as it is so sweet sitting on top of those flowers and framed so beautifully! Your journalling is just so true and heartfelt and we love the way you placed it there for everyone to see. Gorgeous work , with all that layering and fussy cutting. Beautiful!!

Congratulations to all the Top 5 Featured artists. Your work was exceptional and we loved the different styles and also themes and subjects of your layout. Well done. Please make sure to grab your Featured badge from the left hand side of this blog. 

Random Winners

(just letting you know that I will not be displaying the Random.org image of the randomly chosen winners anymore, as we have more prizes to giveaway these days and it can be very visually confusing for people. Thanks for your understanding) 

The winner of the gorgeous handmade tag from Berry71Bleu is  Tanya B. 

The winner of the buttons and keys set from Zeus and Zoe is Dorcia

The winner of the 2 paper collections from FeatureARt is Lauren Tomecek

The winner of the paper collection from Julia Cotrim Scrapbooking is Lizzy Crust 

Could the winners PLEASE email me , Nadia, at nadiac78@hotmail.com with their address and the prize they won as soon as possible so all these goodies can be sent out to you. 

Thank you SO much everyone for sharing your stories with us so far. WE cannot wait to read more about you in our current challenge! Bye for now. 

One more day

You have 1 more day to enter our blog hop and give your self a chance to win some amazing prizes. Please see the post BELOW

1st Anniversary BLOG HOP!!

Welcome to Once Upon A..Sketch' s first birthday blog hop! It is so exciting to have you here and we hope you are inspired along the way to join in the fun and get creative!!

It was 1 year ago today that our first challenge went live and since then we have grown more and more each month! THANK YOU all for your constant support and love. 

SO we want to do something to show our appreciation! We hope you play along and visit our Design Team and give your self a chance to win some prizes along the way. 

This is the blog hop list you need to follow to see what each Design Team member has created with this month's sketch and journalling criteria and to see what prizes they are offering on their blogs. 

(please note that due to time differences there could be some broken links..please check back later as the blogs will be updated asap) 

Once Upon A..Sketch blog 

Nadia Cannizzo 

Patti Hamil 

Irini Liolia 

Gerry Van Gent 

Mahlin Wiggur

Vicky Varvadouka 

Sandi Taloumis

Jeni O' Connor

Lene Neby 

Pamela Young

Larissa Albernaz

LG Belarmino 

Bente Fagerberg 

Natalie Elphinstone

Georgia Heald 

Jasmine Shea

Mai Kosugi 

Natalie May 

Heather Jacob 

and then back to Once Upon A...Sketch blog to leave your name on the list. 

Here is this month's challenge....

April Challenge

 The theme of this challenge is HOME. 

We would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "HOME" 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 this sketch. 

Our main sponsor of this blog hop is ....

 

Imaginarium Designs chipboard is donating this prize to one lucky winner of the blog hop.

This prize pack includes AUS$70.00 worth of chipboard PLUS inks PLUS Spray Mists PLUS free postage to anyone in the world. 

DETAILS

 ***In order to be entered for the main prize,you must be or become a follower AND comment on ALL blogs along the way and finally back at the Once Upon A...Sketch blog to leave your name on the list below. 

**This prize is open to EVERYONE no matter where you live. 

***There will also be some other prizes along the way which our Design Team have kindly donated.  To win these, you need only comment on and follow the blog which is giving the prize. The randomly chosen winners for these prizes will be announced at that Design Team member's blog.

** The blog hop starts today , April 1st and finishes midnight (Australian Eastern Standard Time) 5th April with the MAIN PRIZE winner to be announced soon after the blog hop ends at the Once Upon A....Sketch blog and the other winners announced at the Design Team member blogs soon after the blog hop ends also.

** You do NOT need to participate in the blog hop in order to enter this month's challenge. You can start creating as soon as you like, and link your layout on the right hand side of this blog.  

Your next stop is my blog, Nadia Cannizzo HERE

2 more days!

Just reminding you all that you have a 2 more days before the current challenge ends to enter! This challenge ends midnight, Saturday March 31st (Australian Eastern Standard Time) . Check the clock on your left :) Cannot wait to see more beautiful creations. We are all loving reading your beautiful journalling . Keep it coming!

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

Some inspiration from our 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)

And some inspiration from our super talented Design Team ...

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

Here is what you could win for entering this challenge..

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.

Some Changes...+ something exciting coming on April 1st!

Hey everyone. How are you all going with the current challenge? We have seen some great entries so far...lots of deep and meaningful journalling and you still have 4 more days to enter. 

OK..I need to tell you all of some changes that are taking place. Nothing too major, but you all need to be aware. 

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, the MAJOR change is that we will now have just 1 challenge per month. This means that a new challenge will go live on the 1st of the month and you will have the entire month to complete the challenge. I hope to one day go back to fortnightly or even weekly challenges, but right now life is too busy and I love OUAS too much to let it go completely or to keep going as I was and burn out. SO I hope you understand my decision. This will start on April 1st. 

We will still have a pretty big Design Team who will provide you with inspiration on the 1st and 15th of the month, with a layout based on the 1 sketch and journalling criteria. 

Also, I have decided that from April 1st we will have just LAYOUTS permitted and our challenges will no longer be open to card makers, digital layouts or altered projects. This is due to the overwhelming support we have had in the last year for layouts. 

We had some very deep discussions behind the scenes about whether we should keep the journalling criteria here at OUAS or not. Some of us felt that people like JUST the sketch and that they find the journalling criteria too hard. Other Design Team members felt that the heart and soul of OUAS IS journalling and taking the journalling criteria away would take away everything OUAS stands for and also my INITIAL idea for this challenge blog. I agree. I was debating with my self for a while about this, but my ever professional and deep thinking Design Team made me realise that the one comment we ALWAYS get here at OUAS is that people were pushed out of their comfort zone and expressed themselves in ways they never thought they would on a layout.

We have seen some AMAZING journalling here over the last year, and we always look for deep and meaningful journalling when picking our winners. SO the journalling will stay and we hope to see more and more of you journal on your pages and express your thoughts. What will change, is that we will no longer call it Journalling "CRITERIA" but rather a Journalling "PROMPT" and you can interpret it ANY way you like. We will also not necessarily request any particular length of journalling. You will be able to write as much or as little as you like, as long as you have somehow expressed your self and not just used the sketch alone. 

Lastly, we have a very exciting event happening here this Sunday..April 1st, which is our 1 year anniversary! It is a blog hop to celebrate our 1 year birthday :) and there will be lots of prizes coming your way from a major sponsor PLUS from the Design Team members blogs. Be sure to stay tuned. 

See you then everyone!