July 1st Challenge + meet our July Guest Designer Karola Witczak

*apologies for this being a day early! I have major blogger issues and JUST got the chance to post this. You still have some time to enter the last challenge**

Hi there everyone!

THANKS so much for your continued support and the absolutely wonderful talent you all displayed in the last challenge. The Design team is busy voting and I will have the winners soon.

Moving on to our...

JULY 1st CHALLENGE
Journalling Criteria: Who is in the photo? Name the person in the photo and at least 1 fact about them. This can be personality, character, talent , achievement etc. but it must be at least 2 sentences long. 

GUEST DESIGNERS


It gives me great pleasure to announce this very talented person to our blog. PLEASE give a warm welcome to the one and only....


KAROLA WITCZAK 

Hi everyone, My name is Karola Witczak. I am an absolutely addicted scrapbooking Mommy to Rose, wife to Martin, friend of our furry babies - Miki and Chili (cat & the dog). I'm a little crazy woman, who is dedicated to my scrapbooking passion almost every day, for a few years now.  I am constantly trying to develop my passion - in different ways and stepping on different paths - from digital scrapbooking 6 years ago, to an intensive exploration of the intricacies of traditional scrapbooking, constant learning and teaching others as a scrapbooking instructor. Currently I am working as a freelance designer for a large group of scrapbooking companies, shops, projects, challenge blogs and I'm proud ambassador of many top brands and initiatives in my country of Poland and abroad. Sometimes I design products for scrapbooking - it gives me lots of joy and satisfaction. I am proud and honored to being Creative Director and Product Designer in The ScrapCake company. In everyday life I create a LO's, cards, albums, and other things not directly related to scrapbooking - such as notebooks, home decors. 

It is hard to define my style, mostly my friends call it "Karola's style," and often hear that this is a soft, romantic, feminine, eclectic. I love shabby chic but with something modern. In most of my work you can usually see portraits of my daughter - I am absolutely in love with her face, and such pictures usually go to my Lo's and albums. Definitely I like all feminine, romantic themes, delicate, soft colors, I'm also dependent on the sewing machine, especially when I make cards. I love to add new things to my projects, but usually I have a big inspirations from patterned papers, flowers and interesting color palettes - I believe when I have a piece of paper I can create anything!

I am so happy and honoured to be a Guest Designer in Once Upon A Sketch blog! Thank you so much for inviting me to this wonderful creative adventure!

Karola 

And here is Karola's gorgeous layout.

" I made this Lo using my collection The Bright Side of Life, Prima flowers, Prima mask, gesso, and glimmer mists (for splashing).  On the photo is my friend Paulina" 

I have been emailing Karola the last few days and everyone let me just tell you how incredibly sweet she is. She is so warm and friendly and just an awesome person. 

Now we welcome the winners from our last challenge who are our Guest Designers this month too..

Sandi Taloumis

Cathy Cafun  

Jeni O'Connor

WOW! Absolutely gorgeous work!

DESIGN TEAM 

Starting with our  Design Team member that was sponsored by Tidbitz In Time kit club this month, Natalie Elphinstone. Natalie had the chance to work with this amazing July kit from Tidbitz In Time and is Guest Designers there this month. Check out the rest of her projects at the Tidbitz In Time gallery and the Tidbitz In Time blog

**July Kit from Tidbitz In Time

NATALIE ELPHINSTONE

Now the rest of our Design Team..

Gerry Van Gent

 Irini Liolia

Irma Peredne

Helen Tilbury 

and lastly me, Nadia Cannizzo

SPONSOR

You might have read in Karola's biography something about The ScrapCake? Well..our very own Nerrida Mitchell and Gerry Van Gent are on the Design Team and I can confess that its one place I get lots of  inspiration from. 

The ScrapCake is a polish manufacturer of scrapbooking papers and paper accessories. We deliver designer collections produced with the smallest detail in mind to present you with the highest possible quality. Currently we released collections by Kinga Spiczko (aka Pasiakowa) and Karola Witczak. From the very beginning we are operating as an international brand distributing our products in many countries in Europe and other continents. We are cooperating with designers located in different countries and our international Design Team delivers lots of inspirations, challenges and contests on our blog.

PRIZES

The winner of this challenge will get the chance to come back in August as our Guest Designer and will also walk away with this COMPLETE collection from Karola Witzak..

The Bright Side Of Life 

Including: 6 12 x 12 doublesided papers, 5 7 x 12 doublesided papers, 13 tags and labels and 6 x 6 paper pad (24 doublesided sheets)

Our RANDOMLY drawn winner will receive this COMPLETE collection designed by amazing polish cartoonist - Kinga Spiczko. 

Summer At The Seaside 

Including: 6 12 x 12 doublesided papers, 5 7 x 12 doublesided papers, 13 tags and labels and 6 x 6 paper pad (24 doublesided sheets). 

These are simply amazing and JUST RELEASED! Lucky you! These will be sent directly to you from The ScrapCake.  

How would you like the chance to win one of these or to be our Guest next month? Take part in our challenge and you never know! It could be YOU!

Things to consider when playing along... 

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

**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 our right sidebar 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 July 14th. 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 and combine this with other challenges. 

**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.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL and hope you have lots of fun. 

Just 3 days left...

..to complete our ...

June 15th Challenge

Journalling Criteria: The theme 'A Moment In Time'. You can interpret this any way you like, but you must journal at least 4 sentences on why your pictures are memorable. 

Things to consider when playing along...

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

*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 our right sidebar 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 June 30th. 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 and combine this with other challenges. 

**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 Sponsors..

So how are you all going with the June 15th challenge?

June 15th Challenge

Journalling Criteria: The theme 'A Moment In Time'. You can interpret this any way you like, but you must journal at least 4 sentences on why your pictures are memorable. 

How would you like some more inspiration from some team members from our Sponsors? 

First up some super talented girls from one of our June sponsors Webster's Pages..

Anabelle O'Malley 

Jaz Lee Soo Hui 

Julie Walton 

FANTASTIC work girls. THANKS so very very much for creating for us this month. Have you seen the new  collection from Webster's Pages called Let's Celebrate? They are revealing a little of it each day at InspireMe and there are many chances to win some of the goodies from this collection with their I Spy game...

Now here is one amazing layout by the equally talented Natalie May, from Imaginarium Designs, our other sponsor in June..

and some close ups

**Imaginarium Designs chipboard 

Amazing work Natalie. Thank you once again for your wonderful contribution to our blog. 

MANY MANY thanks to both our sponsors again! Thank you for your generous prizes and support. 

Don't forget the prizes up for grabs this time ...

For this challenge there will be 3 prizes, which means 3 winners..!

 One lucky person, whose project will be voted on by the Design Team will win this gorgeous pack full of amazing chipboard from Imaginarium Designs which you can purchase at Seriously Scrapbooking (they ship anywhere in the world at actual postage cost)

The other lucky person , also voted by the Design Team will win this collection of....

EK Success Zig Writer Pens

Let's not forget that we like to encourage EVERYONE to play along here, no matter what your skill level. So our lucky 3rd winner will be chosen RANDOMLY to win this beautiful set of postcards from Webster's Pages.....

Things to consider when playing along... 

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

**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 our right sidebar 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 June 30th. 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 and combine this with other challenges. 

**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.

Bye everyone!

June 1st Challenge **WINNERS**

Hi there everyone! I hope you are well. 

I know I always say this, but boy oh boy is it SOOOO hard to choose the winners each fortnight. The level of work is amazing. It is near impossible to pick just a few entries as winners. All of us find it VERY VERY hard and hope that you do not get discouraged and continue to join us in future challenges! 

All of us at Once Upon A..Sketch are just so happy with the amount of people we meet through the challenges,  the new blogs we discover and the inspiration we gather from all of you. We hope you are all having a fun time, just as we all are.

So...who is our winner this time? 

Guess what? THERE ARE 3! YES!! The votes from the Design Team came back and there were 3 people on the same points...So what to do? Well I think they are all deserving and I cannot take away the win from anyone. SO all you 3 are invited back in July as our Guest Designers. You all deserve this as I do not think its fair to choose just one of when you were all on the same points...

So without further delay lets all congratulate these 3 amazing artists..

Sandi Taloumis

 Jeni O'Connor

Cathy Cafun

CONGRATULATIONS girls. Your work is incredible and we are so pleased you shared your talents here with us. As you know there was only 1 prize this month, so I randomly chose 1 winner amongst you 3 to receive ..

from Webster's Pages, and the winner of this prize is Cathy! So could you Cathy please email me, Nadia, HERE so you can claim your prize and Sandi, Jeni and Cathy please email Irma HERE to get all the info about your Guest Designer spot next month!

Here is your winners badge to display proudly on your blog

So now that is sorted, lets move on to our Top 5 featured projects.

TOP 5 featured projects

(in winning order)

MAIKO MIWA

 Nadhrah Maidin

Jolaine Frias

Romy Veul

Helena Virpi 

Well done everyone! We loved your work. Here is your featured badge to post on your blog

We also have a random winner. The person chosen to win ..

from Webster's Pages is

Bec Young

CONGRATULATIONS Bec! So happy for you..please email me HERE to claim your prize. 

Do you see what I mean when I say that we have a VERY tough job of working out the winners? 

But before I go today I would love to say a HUGE HELLO to the AMAZING and SUPER TALENTED girls of Japan, who really displayed some incredible work in the last challenge. We ALL know the devastation that Japan and its people suffered and continue to suffer on a daily basis. I dont know if any of these girls were affected by the natural disasters not long ago, but to have to live every day knowing your people are suffering is just terrible for your spirit. To see you all active in the scrapping world and taking part in challenges is just so inspiring! Please click on their names to be directed to their blogs. I am certain you will be inspired by their work and they would love to hear from you!

Welcome to our blog...

Maiko Kosugi 

Yumi Takasaki

Yuko Taguchi

Kanako Hajiri

Michiko Kato

MAIKO MIWA (our Top 5 winner)

Rikkarin

(sorry I could not get to your blog to get your photo)

Just stunning work! Very detailed and very soft. Well done girls...!

Thank you everyone. Keep up the good work. 

Bye for now!