December Challenge + Meet our Guest designer **TARA ORR**

Hi everyone and welcome too the VERY last challenge for 2012!!! This time next month it will be 2013...WOW I am not ready for that.

Well anyway, even though it is still a busy time of the year some of us , I hope you will still find some time to scrap and  I hope you have fun with this one. 

Thank you VERY much to everyone who entered our last challenge. The Design Team is busy voting and we will have the winners very soon. 

So I hope you all stay sane during this busy month LOL! Can't wait to see your interpretations of our December challenge:)

Theme:  It's December...

We would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "'It's December.. " 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 below. Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is . Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

Ideas for Journalling: We know that not everyone celebrates Christmas in December, but if you do we would love to hear all about it. If not, then tell us anything that you like about December..celebratory on not! 

Tara Orr

I live in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada with my gorgeous husband of 12 years and our three amazing kids who are the heart and soul of my projects. I am now a SAHM to my precious little kiddos but before that, I worked as a webmaster in the Technology industry for many years and loved it. I think I will return to the ‘work’ force one day but for now, my job is at home, raising my kids (and squeezing in a little scrapping on the side).

Random Facts about Me: I have a degree in Psychology, a green belt in karate, love horseback riding (although its been way too long since I last rode), I order a grande dark from Starbucks almost every day, prefer chocolate to any other sweet – although I’ll eat any other sweet over chips/salty stuff any day, I’m the oldest of 3 siblings, gave up hope of maintaining my ‘Monica from Friends’ (as my husband would describe) cleaning habit once I had kids of my own, have earned more grey hairs and wrinkes in the past 8 years than I could have imagined and love my family more than anything else on the face of this earth!

I love papercrafting – LOVE it. It challenges me, it relaxes me and it lets me escape into a world of creativity that I adore.

I want to thank Nadia and OUAS so very much for giving me the pleasure of working with such amazing sketches and allowing me to create with so much inspiration.  If you want to take a peek at some of my work, please stop by my blog   Each Moment Only Once  for a visit – I’d love to have you!

"Our family tradition is to put up our trees together while listening to Christmas tunes and sipping eggnog, hot chocolate and eating cookies! There is a hidden journaling tag to the right of the page which reads: What a difference from last year! So glad we are all healthy and really able to enjoy Christmas in 2012! So excited in fact, that our tree was up the weekend of Remembrance Day!!! Guess we have to make up for lost time!!

The papers are from Graphic 45's Nutcracker Sweet Collection and the bling and flowers are from ZVA Creative "

Now here is what our Design Team created. To see further details of their work please click on their name to be directed to their blog. 

Svetlana Austin (South Africa)

** Imaginarium Designs Chipboard (the title, corner and hearts)**

Tina Walker (USA)

**Imaganarium Designs Chipboard (leaves, alphas)

**Journaling on tag, hidden behind paper**

Florence Teixeira - France 

Vicky Alberto (Canada)

*Imaganarium Designs Chipboard (corners, title and fence)

*Hidden journaling about winter escapes*

Georgia Heald - (Australia)

Cathy Cafun (Australia) 

 **Hidden journaling on the tag to the right of photo** 

Chantalle McDaniel (Australia)

(Sketch rotated 90 degrees clockwise)

**Main image is a booklet - additional photos and journalling inside **

Kelly Foster (USA)

* Imaginarium Designs Chipboard flourishes

Romy Veul (The Netherlands) 

*Imaginarium Design chipboard frames 

Mona Pendleton (USA)

Anna Zaprzelska (Poland)

** Journaling on tag, hidden behind a paper napkin

Renata Moni (Brazil)

**Hidden Journaling on a tag behind photos.

Erin Blegen (USA)

**Hidden journaling on the tag to the right of photos

Our main sponsor for December is the gorgeous Swedish manufacturer Maja Design 

MajaDesign Corp is situated in Uddevalla, Sweden. We are dedicated to create unique and high quality vintage inspired patterned paper for scrapbooking and crafts. Majadesign was founded in November 2007, and since then been growing over 70 retailers in Sweden and 80 in Europe. Founder Marie Jansson says :  "In the fall of 2004, a dear friend asked me to join her to a scrapbooking course. from that moment, i became totally amazed and thrilled by all the beautiful papers and decorations in the art of scrapbooking. After some time as a captivated scrapper, I got curious to create my own patterns. I have always have had a devotion for color and form, as well as I had great printing facilities close, as I worked at a printers office. Since 2007, I have been blessed to be able to work with my great passion - to design and create colored coordinated paper". 

Here is the link to Maja Design's website - Maja Design 

 Our other sponsor for December is once again the beautiful online store called The Trinket Track..

Welcome to The Trinket Track. The home of the cutest little trinkets around!

Here at The Trinket Track we aim to provide a variety of crafters with a wide selection of embellishments for scrapbooking and cardmaking. Love to make your own accesories? No problem, we have you covered too with a selection of beads, links, ribbon and other little trinkets.

We hope you have an enjoyable shopping experience down the track!

For ideas on how to use our embellishments visit the blog http://www.thetrinkettrack.blogspot.com.au/

 and our store address is http://www.thetrinkettrack.com/

Now here are our permanent sponsors for 2012. For more information please see our sidebar. 

How would you like to be our Guest Designer for the month of February?  The winner of this challenge with the most points, as voted by the Design Team will be invited to be our Guest Designer in January and create along side our Design Team. This person will also win a $25.00 store voucher from ...

The next four winning entries will win the following prizes

Paper collection from Maja Design - Vintage Summer Basics 

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. 

.

There will also be 4 randomly picked winners who will receive the following..

2 ribbon packs for 2 winners from Scrapbooking Fantasies. Each pack includes 29 x ½ mt lengths.

**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 December 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.

NEW Design Team Members!

Hi everyone!! I am so excited to introduce you to 3 new Design Team members that will join us until the middle of next year. 

Unfortunately we lost the very talented Tina Walker, who had to step down due to time constraints etc so I wish you all the very best Tina!! I have LOVED having you here as part of our little family and although our time together has come to an end prematurely I do understand your reasons :) Good luck with all you do!

So to replace Tina's style, as well as Kim's and Luzma's who left us a little while ago, I was on the hunt for some fresh faces to add to my already amazing Design Team. So after some recommendations, some research and thought into exactly what I wanted to balance out the styles we a;ready represent at OUAS I have come up with some incredible people ! People whose work I am a big fan of, and I am pretty sure you will like to. They all kind of share a similar style...one that I simply cannot ever achieve and not for lack of trying LOL! I am still amazed at how some people can work the "simple" style and make it look incredible..yet when I try it looks like my 4 year old put it together LOL! So yes, I am in awe of people who can create magic with minimal resources. 

SO without further delay, here are the 3 new people who join us for the next few months...Please visit their blogs to get to know these people a little more. You will be inspired :)

Athanasia Papantoniou (Greece) 

Hi ! My name is Athanasia. I was born in Larisa, Greece and for the past few years I live in Chalkida with my husband and my precious 3 years old daughter. I am teaching music in elementary school and in my spare time, when I am not playing the piano, I love making handicrafts, felting, altering things and scrapbooking.

My love for Arts and my cultural worries pushes me constantly into researching and producing new ways of expression and creativeness. My first steps into scrapbooking began with some videos in Youtube. I can't remember exactly what I was looking for, but out of nowhere I run into a 'how-to' video for making a mini album. And that was it! I started searching for more related tutorials (I love watching and learning new techniques) and on the very next day I found myself surrounded by papers and scissors making my first mini album. For the last 6 months I regularly get involved with creating layouts and I think I have found the best way to express myself and exploit my spare time in the best way.

I love scrapbooking because it combines such a vast deposit of media types with memories of my life and my family. Inspiration always derives from the photograph I use and the open choice of combination of mixed media techniques. My favourite style is influenced by Finnabair - she's my muse. I love to use gesso, mists and stamps and I love tearing papers!

Nadia thank you so much for the honor of choosing me to be part of OUAS design team! I' m so happy to be here!!!

 You can find more information and close-ups in my blog Me and Myself 

Here are some examples of Athanasia's work..

Chantalle McDaniel (Australia) 

Hi, I'm Chantalle

With a background in Graphic Design, I recently discovered the world 

of Scrapbooking.

I am inspired by the everyday antics of my little ratbags and I try to 

convey a sense of fun in my layouts.

A technique I'm really enjoying at the moment is hidden journalling.

I am so excited to be joining my first DT and I look forward to seeing 

your interpretations of the 'challenges' ahead!




You can find me on my blog The Anticlockwise Fish

Here are some examples of Chantalle's work..

This one she did for our challenge here in October..

Kim Price (Australia) 

My name is Kim Price, married to Simon and we live on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia with our two almost grown up teenaged daughters. Having discovered a love for scrapbooking in 2002 during a fabulous trip around Australia for 7 months I have been scrapbooking ever since. I have been lucky enough to have worked in the industry and taught including scrapbooking, card making, mixed media and technique style classes. I have recently returned to blogging earlier this year, and with that I have enjoyed being a part of some great creative and design teams including Green Tara, The Scrapbook Store, Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge, Kraft It Up!, Our Creative Corner, Scrap The Girls and The Studio. I am so excited to be joining Once Upon A Sketch and look forward to getting to know everyone and enjoy this wonderful community.

You can find me on my blog Inkognito

Here are some examples of Kim's work...

and this one she did for Once Upon A..Sketch for August which just blew me away as soon as I saw it..

So please help me welcome these amazing artists :))

See you all tomorrow with December's challenge! Our last for 2012!!

SPONSORS NEEDED!!!

Hey everyone. We are reaching the end of 2012 and I am finalising our sponsors for 2013. We already have a number of committed permanent and casual sponsors for next year and now is the time to email me if you would like to be on board with us for 2013. 

We have openings for our permanent sponsors which means that you will sponsors our challenges (1 per month) for 12 months next year with a prize of your choosing. In return, you have your logo and store store blurb and link permanently advertised on the left hand side of your blog (see to your left for our current permanent sponsors) which provides exposure to over 1500 followers that we currently have. You will also have your store logo included in our list of sponsors with each reveal that we make. The best part is that I do not charge anything for this. I have been asked MANY times over the last 2 years if there is a cost to advertise our permanent sponsors on our blog but for me, it isn't about making money. It is about securing as many sponsors as possible for our wonderful followers who come here and play along each month. We have a high number of entries and I love to give out as many prizes as possible. 

Now, if you did not wish to be a permanent sponsor for 2013, we also have openings for monthly sponsors. This means that you choose a month of your liking to sponsor a challenge and in return you will be the newly introduced sponsor for that month. You will get your store logo,blurb and link on our reveals and if you have a Design Team they can be invited to be our Guest Designers that month using your products (where available) so your exposure is even greater. 

I look for a variety of sponsors of any kind...manufacturers, online stores, etsy stores from anywhere in the world!

So if you are interested in securing a spot for 2013, please email me , Nadia, directly at nadiac78@hotmail.com. 

Look forward to hearing from you :)

C'est Magnifique December Kit Reveal

The time has come to reveal the beautiful December kit from C'est Magnifique kit club and to see what the C'est Magnifique Design Team did with this kit and our challenge.

Here is the December kit.

"Silent Night"

The December kit includes the entire collection of the Pion Designs "Silent Night", a Kaisercraft alphabet, chipboard pieces from My Mind's Eye, some Pink Paislee snowflakes, Glitz Design paper layers, a resin piece from Melissa Frances, flowers from Green Tara and Manor House, some cream pleated ribbon, and a bottle of silver Stickles to add a little sparkle to your projects.

Theme: Anything Goes..

Yep! You read right.. No theme this month. You are free to create a layout based on whatever theme you like.  You can journal as little or as much as you like, but your layout must include SOME journalling AND the sketch below. 

Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is . Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

Here is what the team from C'est Magnifique created for our November challenge using their December kits!!

Erin Blegen

Camilla Ekman 

Valerie Serfozo

Beverly Sams

You can purchase this kit right now at the C'est Magnifique store HERE. 

Our main sponsor for November is a beautiful online store called The Trinket Track..

Welcome to The Trinket Track. The home of the cutest little trinkets around!

Here at The Trinket Track we aim to provide a variety of crafters with a wide selection of embellishments for scrapbooking and cardmaking. Love to make your own accesories? No problem, we have you covered too with a selection of beads, links, ribbon and other little trinkets.

We hope you have an enjoyable shopping experience down the track!

For ideas on how to use our embellishments visit the blog http://www.thetrinkettrack.blogspot.com.au/

 and our store address is http://www.thetrinkettrack.com/

Now here are our permanent sponsors for 2012. For more information please see our sidebar. 

How would you like to be our Guest Designer for the month of January?  The winner of this challenge with the most points, as voted by the Design Team will be invited to be our Guest Designer in January and create along side our Design Team. This person will also win a $25.00 store voucher from ...

The next four winning entries will win the following prizes

A kit 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.

There will also be 3 randomly picked winners who will receive the following..

2 ribbon packs for 2 winners from Scrapbooking Fantasies. Each pack includes 29 x ½ mt lengths.

**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 November 30th,  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.