Sponsor Spotlight and More Inspiration for May's Challenge

Hey everyone! How are you going with this months challenge? You still have about 10 days to enter our challenge but today I thought I would offer you some more inspiration. 

One of our awesome sponsors for the month of May, who has also agreed to sponsor us for the rest of the year is a wonderful online store called Scrapbook Fantasies run by a very nice and professional lady called Alicia. Alicia has a small Design Team who I invited to be our sponsor Guest Designers here this month. They have created some lovely work for you to use as inspiration for the May challenge. 

Here is a little bit about Scrapbook Fantasies. 

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

 Theme: Mum

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

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

Alicia Redshaw

Hi my name is Alicia Redshaw and I live in Gladstone, Queensland. I am married to the most amazing man, and later this year we will celebrate 20 years together. We share three beautiful and talented children, who are our reason for living the life we live. I own Scrapbook Fantasies and love that my life is full of creativity and I get the opportunity to meet new people every day.  I have been creating all of my life, as I come from a long line of creative women.  I couldn’t imagine life without creativity.

My blog can be found at: www.aliciaredshaw.com.au

Candy Chelepy 

Hi my name is Candy and I am Married to Laurie with two grown up children, Tracy and Michael. I work in my dream job in our local Scrapbooking shop in Gladstone where I teach card classes to our lovely lady customers.  My favourite product to create with is of course, flowers.

My blog can be found at: www.cchelepy.blogspot.com

Margaret Walz

Hello my name is Margaret, but everyone calls me Mar. I wasn't going to Scrapbook, but fell victim to the addiction when my daughter opened Scrapbook Fantasies in 2003. I am a widow with two children and five grandchildren, all of whom feature in my creations.  My must use on every creation is my distressing tool.

My  blog can be found at: www.messymarmar.blogspot.com

Thank you SO much to these lovely ladies for their wonderful inspiration. Don't forget to drop by their blogs to leave them some love :)

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

Thanks so much to Scrapbooking Fantasies for their wonderful support of our blog :) I look forward to working with you the rest of this year!

Now here are the rest of the prizes from our other sponsors for May. 

We are SO lucky to have so many people wanting to support our site and our challenges! 

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

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

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

Be You Combo Kit

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

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

An Echo Park mini kit from Enjoy Scrapping .

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

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

*example

A chipboard pack from Imaginarium Designs.

*example

A handmade tag from Berry71Bleu.

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

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

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

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

**You are also allowed to flip or rotate the sketch or alter it to suit your needs, but please make sure its still recognisable.

**Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery and link it on the right hand side of this blog using the Link tool. Please provide a direct link to your post, not your entire blog.If the link tool is down, please leave a comment on the comments section and link your layout there.

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

**You may enter as many times as you like

**Also, please consider turning off word verification for comments on your blog.

For a complete list of the rules please see the top of this page.

May Challenge - Team B Reveal

For our DESIGN TEAM CALL please see HERE 

**************************

Hey there everyone! How do you like the new look of our blog? I decided to clean things up a little and I would love for you to look to the left hand side of this blog to see just how many wonderful permanent sponsors we have for the rest of 2012. That means that they will donate a prize each month for each of our challenges ! Truth is, without them we could not offer you so many prizes and although I know that many of you do not enter challenges for the prizes, I am sure everyone gets a thrill from winning something. I am so happy to be able to offer you all more prizes..in an imaginary world every entry would receive something but at least I am happy that more people than ever have a chance of winning a prize this year. Just a little thank you for your support. 

So since we have gone to monthly challenges, we will still have the 1 challenge per month and still  have 2 reveal dates. The Design Team has been split in 2 groups and Team A's layout examples will be shown on the 1st of the month, while Team B's layout examples will be shown on the 15th of every month. That is double the inspiration for the one challenge :)

So today, I am showing you the other super incredible half of our team! 

 Theme: Mum

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

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

Please help me welcome our winner from March, the outstanding..

Melenia Agapides (Greece)

Hello everyone! My name is Melenia Agapides and I live in Greece (yes, the country that's usually in the headlines of the news lately). I'm a mother of two, a wife to a sweet Canadian guy and an airport authority officer. I have been scrapping layouts since August 2009. My style is constantly evolving, due to the fact that I'm the kind of person that gets bored very easily and wants to change and be renewed by trying new things often. What I always strive for when scrapping is to achieve balance and harmony in my creations both colourwise and stylewise. I'm a sucker for sketches and challenges, as they help me improve my style and scrapping skills. If you want to see more of my work you can visit my blog melenia313.blogspot.com.

Here is Melenia's layout based on our theme and sketch..

THANK you so much to Melenia, who has been very patient the last 2 months while we changed things around here . It was a pleasure having you Melenia and we hope to see you play along with our challenges again!

Please click on their name to be directed to their blog for more details. I am sure they would appreciate some love too :)

Larissa Albernaz (Brazil)  

**Imaginarium Designs - butterfly, bird cage, clock face, flourishes

LG Belarmino (The Philippines) 

**Imaginarium Designs  chipboard 

Trudi Harrison (Australia)

Bente Fagerberg (Sweden)

**Imaginarium Designs  Ornament used in title. 

(Hidden journalling in the paper roll)

Natalie Elphinstone (Australia) 

  **Imaginarium Designs  butterflies

Georgia Heald (Australia) 

* Imaginarium Designs chipboard- Butterfly, Corners & Flourish

Jasmine Shea (Australia)

Maiko Kosugi (Japan) 

Natalie May (Australia) 

* Imaginarium Designs chipboard title and flourish

Heather Jacob (Australia) 

* Imaginarium Designs chipboard-Title and flourish .

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

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

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

Scrapbooking is so much fun!! Enjoy Scrapping!!

You will find our online store HERE  and our blog HERE 

******

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

******

Now here are our permanent ongoing sponsors for 2012. 

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

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

*****

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/

We are SO lucky to have so many people wanting to support our site and our challenges! 

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

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

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

Be You Combo Kit

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

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

An Echo Park mini kit from Enjoy Scrapping .

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

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

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

*example

A chipboard pack from Imaginarium Designs.

*example

A handmade tag from Berry71Bleu.

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

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

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

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

**You are also allowed to flip or rotate the sketch or alter it to suit your needs, but please make sure its still recognisable.

**Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery and link it on the right hand side of this blog using the Link tool. Please provide a direct link to your post, not your entire blog.If the link tool is down, please leave a comment on the comments section and link your layout there.

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

**You may enter as many times as you like

**Also, please consider turning off word verification for comments on your blog.

For a complete list of the rules please see the top of this page.

**DESIGN TEAM CALL**

For April's winners please click HERE

*****

Well this is an exciting time for me! It is finally time to announce our first EVER Design Team call. 

How would you like to be part of our family here at Once Upon A..Sketch? I say family, because this is how I feel about people who are working with me on this little project of mine called Once Upon A...Sketch. Dedicated and professional individuals, whose talents go over and beyond their craft. People as passionate about my ideas as I am. Strong women with strong opinions! People like my current team whose term ends on June 30th :( . Women of character and integrity. 

This makes me so sad because let's just say they have been through thick and thin through the last year and half with me and yes, in many ways we became family! They listened to my anxieties about what will work and what won't, they held my hand during the biggest loss of my life, they created a book of hope with pages sent from all over the world, they advised, and listened and didn't panic during blog hops, and laughed and giggled and debated over "stuff". One thing is clear..the next lot of people who will be in this family have HUGE shoes to fill. 

So we are not saying goodbye yet, but getting excited with this announcement as I know many of you have been patiently waiting. I receive a question about when the next call will be, nearly every week from people eager to join this team. 

So what am I looking for? 

* style - I am looking to mix up the styles from clean and simple to layered to romantic and shabby to a non style.Thats people like me, who do not have a particular style LOL! .  So please do not think I am looking for 1 particular style. I urge you to give it a go. Also high on the list is a clean and professional presentation of your layouts in the way they are photographed. 

* commitment - I am after people that can commit to 1 layout PER month and comment and vote on all entries every SECOND month. I want to believe that I am very flexible and easy going. I can almost always work with my Design Team if they need time off!

* personality - yes this is important to me as you will be the face of Once Upon A..Sketch. I like friendly and warm people that are willing to work in a team and adapt to unforeseen changes, speak their minds when something is not right, give ideas and opinions etc etc.  

*organisation - this is imperative to me. I like working with organised people because it is the only way I know how to work. You will be given a deadline for when your layout is due so I really admire people that can work with deadlines. The challenges are created by me well in advance and will be easily accessible in our private Design Team blog for you to see so there are no excuses for being late UNLESS otherwise organised with me. :) Gosh that sounds harsh..LOL!  

* BLOG and FACEBOOK - you need to have an active blog and a Facebook account. The only reason you need a Facebook account is because we have a private page there where we chat so if you are not crazy about using Facebook you do not have to worry about posting anything there publicly. It will only be in our private page. In addition, you will need to post about our challenge on your blogs. 

* Term - the term of this Design Team is for 1 year. It will start on July 1st 2012 and finish June 30th 2013. 

* Other Design Teams - no problem for me at all. I do not mind if you design for other sketch challenge blogs or any sort of Design Team :)

 (UPDATED) * Internationals - yes this is open internationally to anyone anywhere

* Journalling - I know this is something people worry about as many people do not like journalling at the front of their layouts. However, journalling of some sort is required as it is our main focus on this challenge blog. But of course, we always allow for hidden journalling or for journalling to be written on the back of the layout. 

I think I have covered everything! 

If this sounds like something you would be interested in then send me an email here 

dtcall2012@hotmail.com 

together with your blog address and any online gallery links. Please include on the subject line *DESIGN TEAM CALL* and please just include a simple message expressing your interest in joining my team . 

The Design Team call is open right now until midnight 31st of May 2012 Australian Eastern Standard Time. 

Please remember to just go for it! You just never know what it is I am looking for. 

I wish you luck :)