Once Upon A Sketch March 15th. "Miss You" "Perfume de Camélias".

Due to a business trip to Milan I am a bit late in posting about our latest challenge over at OUAS.

I cannot believe it has been a week since my last post!!

I just sent my layout to Nadia and will do a quick share here of the challenge and my new page.

 I used the shabby collection from Les Papiers de Pandore and it is called "Perfume de Camélias"

The journalling criteria was to do a page about someone you miss. In our family we miss Alexandra, who is away abroad to attend university.

My journaling is simple and says;
It has now been six months since you went away to start university in the UK.
Here at home we all miss you a lot,but we are lucky that you are not too far away for us to be able to go and visit you!

The photos were taken in France on holiday a couple of years ago.

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..

To read all the fine print and to see the examples of the designers and guests  please head over to OUAS HERE.

As I promised; just a short post.
Enjoy the rest of your week end!!

March 1st challenge at Once Upon A...Sketch. Meet our guest designers.

March 1st Challenge + Meet our Guest Designer **Iris Babao Uy**

Well hello everyone! How are you all going? I hope you all enjoyed the switch up with Get Creative last month as much as we did. Thank you all for embracing the concept and our new sister blog and I am so happy to see that many of you played along with both challenges. We are back to normal this month, and this is actually our 12th month that we are posting challenges and next month it will be our one year anniversary. Unfortunately this is the last month for some Design Team members who will end their term here at the end of this month, but we will talk about all that plus some new changes on April 1st!

For the time being a new month is upon us which brings a new challenge for the next 2 weeks. 

The current challenge is one that will push you out of your comfort zone because you have to scrap a layout or create a project about YOU. Many MANY people find this daunting...I can understand that. I personally do not have a problem scrapping my self as I want my children and those I leave behind one day to know the real Nadia. But I was SO SO SO surprised to learn that my Design Team really struggled with this. This saddened me...it saddened me as I see SO many wonderful qualities in all of them, yet it astounds me how hard us women are on our selves. We truly are. I think one thing we are ALL good at for certain, is just being WOMEN in this day and age!! 

SO I am particularly keen to see you all find something that you are good at, as little or as big as that might be and be confident enough to share it with us here. I cannot wait to see your entries!! Come on ladies..its time we believed in our selves and put our selves first just this one time..!

March 1st Challenge

Journalling Criteria/Theme:

All About Me!

The focus of your journalling and the theme of your layout has to be based on YOU and something/s that you are really good at. Don't be shy! We are all good at something as small or as big as it might be.

Ideas for journalling: being a good mum, cooking, talking, understanding people, organising, cleaning, gardening, studying, computers, fashion, exercising, scrapbooking, good at my job, maths, languages, writing , drawing, painting, photography, running, craft, sewing. Maybe you can talk about an aspect of your personality..your sensitivity, your 6th sense, your patience, your strength or bravery, your ability to stay positive. 

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..

We have two wonderful guest designers this month. 

Iris Babao Uy has made this gorgeous page for us:

And Cathy Cafun who won the previous challenge made this stunning  page:

I recommend you visit the Once Upon A...Sketch blog to have a look at all the ten lovely pages made by the wonderful design team mambers. 

As always the work is outstanding!!

Thanks for dropping by!!

Get Creative - Once Upon A...Sketch mix it up for the second time! New "Les Papiers de Pandore"

Hi friends!

How are you? -Ready for a new challenge yet?

Today the second half of the designers at OUAS get a chance to play along at Get Creative , 

the awesome Greek challenge blog and brainchild of Irini Liolia !

This is the beautiful sketch created by the talented Elina.

Normally if you joined in one of the challenges over at OUAS we'd have a journaling prompt for you.
Get Creative doesn't have taht but hey,...why not keep up the good work? I have gotten so used to doing journaling now, so this time I put plenty,- on the back of my layout.

This is the layout I made. I tried to keep faithful to the sketch,but will admit to having executed a bit of artistic freedom,...lol.
I used the gorgeous new collection from "Les Papiers de Pandore" for this.
It's called 'Perfume de Camélias' and as you can see (and as I have said many times already,...)
it is beautiful!!

To create the 'brick' background I used the Crafter's Companion 12x12 mask. It is just great to work with, but it does feel like it 'swallowing half a bottle of mist every time I use it! 

It is great to use with paints too, by the way.

After spraying the mist and letting it dry, I traced the bricks with a pencil, and then painted with gesso in between each brick. I find that creates the impression of mortar.

I embellished mostly with Prima blooms and some others from my stash. I used two different punches from Martha Stewart to make up  the large cross element in the sketch. I added some lace to to soften it up.

Lately I seem to have a fanfold flower on most of my los...

.... -And a banner,too...lol!

To create a space for my title I cut off a piece of corrugated cardboard from a box laying around as evidence of  a recent shopping spree. I painted this too, with gesso and inked the edges. 

A gorgeous piece of lace then serves as a mat for some of my favourite alphas at the moment. 

These are also from Prima Marketing.

The pretty little chipboard butterfly in th lower left corner is by Imaginarium Designs.

You can find it HERE.  

They have some gorgeous product.  And they have started a new Ning site too.

I had another welcome surprise these last few days,too.

Sweet  Laurence  from France decided she wanted to award me this:

It was such a sweet and unexpected pleasure. 

The award is for blogs that have less than 200 followers  and the giver thinks that maybe they deserve to have more,.... :-) Thank you so much Laurence.

Now I have to decide who I want to give it to. There are so many great blogs around. 

I will be back with that news soon!

I hope I have not forgotten anything.

I am writing this I between running the kids to all the different activities.

I hope you have a lovely evening and a sweet Valentines Day, even if you are not celebrating with that special someone. 

My hubby went to China last Friday and will not be back for another couple of weeks.

But I am enjoying having at least two of my girls at home with me!

.

Time again for OUAS!! "Crate Paper" " Peppermint"

Have you seen the new sketch over at OUAS?

It is a beauty!  Have a look here:

January 15th Challenge

Journalling Criteria: 

HELLO 2012 or GOODBYE 2011? 

 For this challenge, the journalling theme is new beginnings, upcoming adventures but also saying goodbye to yet another year.. Are you glad 2011 is over? Are you looking forward to starting fresh in 2012? What are your goals or resolutions for the year ahead? What are you most looking forward to? Or maybe you can journal about your thoughts for the new year. You must combine the sketch and the journaling criteria.

Things that you can journal about: a new job, house, baby or new scrapping adventures or Design Teams. Are you taking time off work? Are you planning a holiday somewhere? Maybe your children are starting school or you are getting a new pet. Or you could tell us why you are glad 2011 is over or why you will miss it. Anything goes really!

Remember that you are allowed to also create a card or altered project based on this sketch and instead of the journalling criteria you need to use a quote. 

This is my take on the sketch:

I used the new collection from "Crate Paper" for this. It is called "Peppermint" I seem to love all things Crate, and this is no exception!

At first I was going to use a diecut piece of paper for the round shape in the sketch.  Instead  I decided to punch small rounds from the different patterned papers and sew them to form a circle. That way I could avoid covering up a large part of the woodgrain paper.

I think the diecut pieces in the collections are so cute. I find they add a homely feel to the layout.

In the same way a log cabin would... :-)

I used a Martha Stewart border punch and papers from the collection to make the mat/strip for the title. The red letter stickers from American Craft, Thickers have little hearts on a red bottom. I found them in a small scrapbooking shop in France last Summer

My journaling is about how much fun we have when we go away and do things as a family and that I am hoping for more time like that in the coming year!

How about you? I would love to hear yout thoughts on this topic and to see some stunning layouts of yours over at OUAS!!

Nice to see you, hope too see you again soon!!

Joy,.Les Papiers de Pandore and OUAS

I am a bit behind with my blogging lately!

Those of you who are frequent visitors here will know that it is due to my PC acting up on a regular basis.

Last period I was not required to make a lo for Once Upon A Sketch,

but I loved the sketch so much I had to give it a go anyway.

There is a new sketch up as of today and I will get back to that one in my next post,but decided that first things come  first and I will start with  my lo for Dec 1st. I already shared the sketc in a previous post.

Yesterday I could only share a sneak and this is what the whole page looks like:

 Don't you just love the beautiful new collection from "Les Papiers de Pandore"?

It is called "En Attendent" ( Waiting ).

For those of you who live far away from France and don't know how to get hold of it I have some news.

Julie is sponsoring the current challenge over at OUAS.

Go over there and check out what you have to do to be eligible to win no less than TWO whole  collections from "Les Papiers dePandore"!! 

We were supposed to journal about what we love and look forward to in December. 

I chose to write about spending time with family and seeing the happiness shared by my children

 enjoing time together.

This holiday will be precious as Alexandra is coming home for the first time since going away 

to University in the UK.

 The cute flowers I made using a die from Marianne Design, a Dutch manufacturer. And the doilies were made with a die from Cheery Lynn Designs.

I love the little cut-outs and journalling spots from "En Attendent".

Together with the gauze and felt snowflakes they add a lot of dimension to my lo.

I chose to only add glue to the center and thus have the possibility to keep sticking things underneath  

(and on top...) as my lo evolved.

I hope you enjoyed a little Christmas Joy here and that you also will experience a lot of that in your lives!

Thanks for dropping by!

Time for a new challenge at OUAS!!!

What do you think?....-Don't you just love this sketch...?

I think it is supernice, and although it is not my fortnight to contribute to the blog I think I

shall have to give it a go .

December 1st Challenge

Journalling Criteria/theme: The thing I look most forward to in December.

Write at least 2 sentences on what you look forward to in the next month. December is a festive month so your journalling could be about the Christmas season, the holidays, the presents or if you do not celebrate Christmas what does December bring for you that you look most forward to? Note:You layout DOES NOT have to be about Christmas! It can be about anything December brings.

Other ideas for journalling: an annual holiday or celebration, a specific event such as putting up the Christmas tree or pre Christmas traditions you might have leading up to Christmas, family time, snow covered fields or warmer weather, time off work, school holidays, change of weather, new season fruit.

We have  Ivana Camdzic as a sponsor guest and Rachael Funnell as the winner of GDT position this time, They do beautiful work as does the team!

Hope you can find some time to join in the fun!

A very embarrasing moment, new sketch and journaling challenge up at OUAS.

We have already reached the middle of October and it is time or the Oct 15th journalling criteria and sketch at Once Upon A...Sketch.

I returned from my trip to Milan late last  night and had lost track of the deadline to be honest.... I know,..that's bad...Well at least I did not miss it completely..

I have been thinking what embarrasing moment to scrap,but could not make up my mind.
I am sure I have made my share of bloopers and like, but I do not embarras easily. I try not to take myself  too seriously, and most things I will just laugh off or if that is not possible; shrug it off.

Once I decided this morning what moment I would go with, it was time to gather my stuff.
First problem,...I did not have a picture of myself and I could not print one as I have been without a printer and a computer for ages.
As my embarrasing moment took place at IKEA I had an idea to  rip out a page from their catalogue and use as my main photo. I coverd up some text on the pic with a rough application of gesso and some paper.
I then followed the sketch, more or less. I did put my title at the  bottom.

I did this page in about half an hour which has to be a record time for me. I might as well confess that when I took the photo I had not even glued down mu embellies. I thought I would take some time to see if I would  change things around a bit.

Most of my supplies here are from Pink Paislee.
The papers belong to the  "Soiree" collection and the black rosette with the green spool button on top are from the new collection "Vintage Vogue".
The journaling spot underneath my title is from "Old School" as are the letter stickers.
The small black letter stickers are from "Rose Mocha".

My embarrassing moment:
"I was standing in a long queue for the till at our local IKEA warehouse. It was winter and  I was in my warm fur coat. I was getting very impatient as I am not very good at waiting and I was sighing very loudly and rolling my eyes,... behaving very much like a child! I was thinking there must be something wrong with people who had to take that much time.
Finally it was my turn. I quickly placed my things on the counter and entered my card to pay.
Imagine my embarrasment when I did not have any money left on my card.....!
I smiled my sweetest smile and tried to pretend like nothing had happened, but it was SOOOO embarrasing!!!"

Have any of you experienced something similar or anything else that you think is embarrasing?
Why don't  you take this chance to document it....


Below you will find more information about the challenge.

October 15th Challenge

Journalling criteria: A most embarrassing/awkward/uncomfortable moment. Journal at least 2 SENTENCES on a moment that you will remember for all the wrong reasons. Examples: something you said/did, something your child said, something your pet did etc. 

You must combine our journalling criteria with this sketch. 

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)

Bibbys One of a Kind was established in 2011 out of my passion to create. I am a SAHM and spend each day creating something new, I have a facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/Bibbysoneofakind where I do a lot of my advertising and updates ,and a small blog page which I am trying to grow. I make embellishment packs, crochet items, party favours and invitations to name a few. New ideas are born regularly. 

Prizes

The winner of this challenge, as chosen by the Design Team, will receive this from 

Imaginarium Designs...

...a pack of their latest and most popular chipboard. The best thing about this, is that the pack will be different each month and will be customised to fit the winners needs. So if you have girls, you will be sent girly chipboard etc. And don't forget that they also sponsor our entire Design Team so please see the examples above for all the creative uses of this awesome chipboard.  

One RANDOMLY chosen winner will receive this gorgeous embellishment pack from 
Bibbys One Of A Kind

I am is sending the winner of the prize two of my previous embellishment packs and a 3rd mystery pack with a theme of your choice. This pack will be a 'one off' handmade pack created especially for you! Good luck everyone, Bibby.

Thank you SO much to our lovely sponsors . We couldn't do this without your support!

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 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 October31st, 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 and combine this with other challenges.

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