Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop

Welcome to the January Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop! This January we're celebrating more than a new Design Team - there's also the small matter of having moved away from Ning to our very own site. This makes for easier interaction between us all, which means more inspiration for members!

If you're on the Hop, you should have joined me from the talented Anna's blog. Before moving on to the Blog Hop sketch, I'll tell you a little bit about me. I'm a recently married freelance editor living in the inspiring and interesting city of Brussels, Belgium with my dog and my husband. I'm a little bit punk, a little bit rock n roll, and I like to push myself to achieve new techniques and methods. I've been scrapbooking for about five years, but it's only really in the last couple of years that I would venture to call myself an artist. It can take a while to get started and then to keep up with the online community, but I've found that eventually you find your rhythm.

Anyway, onto the customary sketch. SC challenges you to make a layout based on this sketch and upload it to the Forum for the chance to win a prize:

Or the double-page version:

For my take on this sketch, I squished up the two pages into one:

capturing our arrival in London this Christmas

yes - that is a cell phone circuit board under the title!

And now the moment you've been waiting for: the prizes!

1. For completing a layout based on the above sketch and uploading it to the Hop On section in the Forum, you stand to win this pretty prize:

2. For leaving a comment on every blog of the DT, including the start and the end points, you could win this following amazing prize:

3. One new member who joins between 13 and 15 January will be selected at random to win the following sweet prize:

4. Finally, I have a RAK to offer to two lucky readers:

a whole bunch of interesting bits and pieces

To be selected at random for the RAK, you'll have to tell me in your comment on which date I got married. You'll find it here on my blog. Hint: it wasn't this year :-)

So, leave me a comment and then move on to the next blog on the Hop: the amazingly gifted new DT member Livy!

XOXO Blog Hop!

Hey there hopping XOXO Girls! (And hey to everyone else who ain't hopping!)

The True XOXO Girls blog has been going through some changes lately, so to round them all off we've decided to have a blog hop.

First, a little bit about me. I'm a very recently married, lindy-hopping, vintage-loving, dog-owning, punky but shy scrapper. I live in Brussels, Belgium, and am lucky enough to work from home so whenever the need takes me I can just pop into my craft room and get scrapping. At the moment I am loving stars, paint, texturiser, circles and ink.

If you've just come to visit me but would like to start the blog hop, begin here. As ever, there is a prize! And this time, it is immense!

The overall prize for the person who completes the blog hop: a Guest Design Team spot for True XOXO for December! Completing the blog hop means commenting on every single member of the team's blog. There are also RAKs along the way, depending on how generous or organised people are, and whether they suffer from stash overflow or not (me, I'm in the Not Organised category this time. I am, however, planning to sort through my stash and offer a RAK when my follower numbers reach 100... not far to go!).

Now, there was a twist to the challenges for this blog hop. Each member challenged another member, so all the challenges are different - and I can tell you, we are a diverse bunch! I was challenged by Ana Oxendale-White (who you should have come to me from if you're hopping right) to make a layout inspired by a road sign.

All I could think about for a long time was how I didn't have my own version of that classic photo: the American desert, a lone roadsign, a deep blue sky, sand and dust, nothing else around, inevitably hipstamaticised or instagramised. I didn't have my own version of that photo. But oh, how I wanted it.

After a couple of weeks I fished around in my brain and caught all the swirling ideas. I dipped into our hard drive of pictures and emerged with one that was just right for me to mess around with in Paint.net:

this is it post-production

Then I set to work with my haul of ideas. I wanted to get that feel of brightness the classic road sign photo evokes in me, so setting it all against a dark background was important for me. I also added some shapes that were reminiscent of signs, and a couple of casino-inspired embellishments to point at the desert part of my vision. The electric blue and purple paint splotches are almost hidden by the clusters of paper but I wouldn't be without them.

So there you go. I in turn challenged Emma Ruth Cruz-Fronda to make me smile with some awesome nu-school/old-school tattoo-inspired work - I mean anchors, nautical stars, swallows, hearts and barbed wire, bright colours and thick black outlines. Go check out what Emma did - you won't be disappointed. I wasn't!

Oh My Stars! It's Another Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop!

 

It's Scrapbook Challenges blog hop time again. If you've just stopped by and want to join in, start at Brynn's blog. If you don't want to join in, that's OK - but have a look at my red, white and blue page below before you go! Finally, if you're on the hop, you should have arrived here from talented new DT member Anna's blog.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Cheryl, a returning DT member. I'm a lindy-hopping, rockabilly-loving, soon-to-be-married twenty-something living in Brussels, Belgium. I share my time between walking our dog, scrapping, and freelance editing. I'm an increasingly punky scrapper with a penchant for clouds and hot air balloons. Oh, and bunting and stars... so this sketch was right up my street:

Here is my response to this sketch:

The colours actually came about because of my dress in the photo, not because of Independence Day (being as I'm not an American), but it fits well, I think!

Now onto the juicy stuff: blog hop RAKs.

1.  For one person who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop, they will get the Salt Air Collection from Cosmo Cricket.

2.  For one person who does a layout based on the sketch and posts in the HOP ON section, will receive a $20.00 USD Gift Certificate to Scrapbook.com. 

3.  For inviting people to join the group one person will receive a mix of alcohol ink goodies from Ranger.

** Colors may vary

4.  One new member over the weekend will also receive a mix of alcohol ink goodies from Ranger.

** Colors may vary

Thanks for stopping in!

To continue hopping now, get on over to talented new DT member Milagros's blog. Happy weekend everyone!

Rebelationary

Well, welcome to the Punky Scraps blog hop! If you're just popping in, the Punky Scraps challenge site is having a blog hop to welcome in the new DT... of which I am now a part :-). If you're on the hop, you should've arrived here from the blog of Sarah Hurley. And if you want to join the hop, start here.

For the next year I'll be a Punky Rebel, putting out layouts, techniques, challenges and inspiration on the Punky Scraps blog along with my Punky DT mates. I'm totally rockin' out now I'm officially a Punky Rebel - there's maybe a bit of a swagger to my crafting, a bit more bristle to my brush. Being a Punky Rebel helps me feel like I fit in somewhere - and since fitting in is something that's always been an issue for me, I'm super happy right now!

Confession time. In the scrapbooking world, I've often struggled with the pink, sparkly side of things: too many flowers, too much glitter for me. It's taken me a while to find my scrapbooking identity, and I know each day will add a little more to it, but even so, I know what is not me. So, to me, the Punky style means being brave enough to go against the grain - and no one should take offence or exception to that. Whether it's the techniques on the page, or the subject, it's about not being afraid to scrap how, and what, you feel. Being a Punky Rebel will help me shake off the last rags of fear I might have about going against the grain, having as I will a support network of like-minded Rebels happy to challenge the norm.


With this in mind, let me show you the blog hop sketch we've layed out to:

What I layed out looks like this:

Punky Nat, the brains behind this whole operation, has a tasty RAK to give away to someone who comments on all the blogs in the hop.

A few close ups of my page:

Now, to continue hopping, head on over to the talented Elin's blog. Thanks for stopping by!

National Scrapbooking Day: Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop

Welcome to the Scrapbook Challenges National Scrapbooking Day blog hop! If you're on the hop, you should be joining me from the very talented Marilyn's blog. If you have just stopped in and want to join in the hop, please start at Brynn's blog. There will be RAKs!

I'm Cheryl, Scrapbook Challenges DT member since January this year, lover of all things paper, and staver off of all things Hallmark. I found Scrapbook Challenges about two years ago, when I was still fairly new to the whole online scrapbooking community thing, and I found it such a friendly, lively forum that I stuck around. When the DT call came up I thought I'd go for it, since the team all seemed so nice and so creative. Their encouraging feedback made me feel I could contribute to the community and so I applied. Pamela certainly did a fantastic job of coming up with the idea of Scrapbook Challenges and taking it and turning it into a community - her time, effort, creativity and hard work shows, and will be missed.

Being part of the Scrapbook Challenges DT has made me scrap more than ever before - which I'm thankful for, because often it's all too easy to get distracted by other things in life. It has enabled me to expand my style - purely because of the huge amount of inspiration both the DT and the community have to offer - and it has made me think more deeply about how to construct a page. Especially when interpreting sketches...

...for this NSD/Thank You Pamela blog hop, the DT all chose one of Pamela's old sketches to make another page from. This is the sketch I chose (number 176):

As there always should be a twist, this time, the twist was to make a page along the theme of gratitude, friendship and hope. My take on this sketch looks like this:

The text reads: 'Have faith. The miracle of hope will prevail'. I used some DCWV cardstock and some 7Gypsies masking tape, and just love those Jenni Bowlin bingo cards and the Melody Ross inspiration cards.

Now, I did mention RAKs, so here are the RAKs (they're very good!) and the ways of winning them:

1.  One member who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop will get Chipboard Borders, 12x12 Collection Kit and a 6x6 Paper Pad from To The Moon by Fancy Pants.

2.  One member who post a NEW a layout based on one of Pam’s sketches and posts it in the HOP ON section of the Scrapbook Challenges forum will receive a package of Tim Holtz goodies.

3. One new member over the weekend will get the We R Memory Keepers’ Sew Easy Piercer, 4 Piercers, a mixed assortment of Divine Twine and 15 colors of DMC Embroidery Floss.

Well, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Now, hop on over to Ana's inspirational blog to continue your NSD/Thank You Pamela SC blog hop participation!

Some News...and my first Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop

Welcome to the first Scrapbook Challenges blog hop of 2011 - if you're here for that, you should've reached me after visiting Natalie's blog. If you are just stopping by but want to join in with the hop, you'll need to start at Pamela's blog. There are prizes to be won...!

OK - now for the news! I am proud to announce that I have been selected for the Scrapbook Challenges DT for the first term of 2011. So, I'm a newbie. For the benefit of other newbies, Scrapbook Challenges is a group positively bursting with sketches, challenges and inspiration, not to mention fantastic members, as well as monthly prizes from sponsors! I'm really happy to be part of this DT and can't wait to get started.

A little bit about me: I'm a freelance editor with a fiance, pink in my hair, a dog and fingers that won't keep still. I try to keep them occupied with scrapping, baking, dog training and learning to play the piano.

I might have mentioned prizes a little earlier. This is the sketch challenge in which you must participate to stand a chance of winning some goodies:

And here's my take on the sketch:

The paper I used was Bazzill Swiss Dots (Rope Swing), MME Quite Contrary Jack & Jill (Favourite Things "Colourful Umbrellas"), MME Quite Contrary Jack & Jill (Life is Good "Hanging Around") and Basic Grey Basics (Ledger).

And now for the juicy bits. The RAKS involved in this blog hop:

1. One person who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop will get the new Spring Market collection from Webster's Pages, including chipboard buttons and twine:

2. One person who does a layout based on the sketch will get the Be Mine collection from Echo Park:

3. For inviting people to join the group, one person will get a collection of adhesives from Helmar:

4. One new member over the weekend will get some new stamps from Unity and Webster's Pages. These are top secret and only just about to be released so there is no picture yet - but they will coordinate with the new Spring Market line from Webster's.


Now, hop on over to Mary Ann's blog to continue the hop. Thanks for stopping by and good luck with the sketch challenge!