Challenge 141

edited: My email ate Norma's layout but she graciously sent it again...see it below!

Dude, how do these Fridays get here so effin' fast?! I gotta tell ya, I've been LOVING back-to-school. Having BOTH the boy-o's in school full time all week long is such a gift! I have big exciting plans in the works to help me fill the time, just hold on and wait for the announcements as everything unfolds!

As for this scrapbookin' stuff, well, it's a great as ever and I'm happy to have more time & mojo to devote to this lovely passtime (okay, obsession! LOL). We accidentally did a re-run of a previous challenge from July (oops!) but being as amazing as always, the DT rocked it (was there ever any doubt!)

We'll be announcing the finalists for August's challenges posted to the Flickr group on Monday so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, make sure to check out THIS post where we first met Norma and where you can find some inspo for your next pages...who knows, you could end up winning free scrap stuff if you show us your work. Read more about how to do that HERE.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to join our Network - that is if you haven't already done it!- There's a wicked gallery of everyone's work and you can get to know some incredible scrappers from all over the globe. Wow.

Don't forget to join our FB Page too!!!

Alright, no more waiting...this week's challenge ::

handcut the pattern from printed scrapbooking paper and use as embellishments.

Vanessa

Tania L

Marit

Keely

Keandra

Gudrun

Carol

Norma

Meet Norma!

Wow, what an amazing month! Bree shared some fantastic layouts with us and we are so glad to have had her with us! Here's the link to the winning layout from Bree's scraplift challenge! Thanks for playing along :) If you are the artist who created this winning layout, please email me (info at lotuspaperie dot com) and we'll get your shipping info so we can send you your prize! YAY!

This month we're welcoming Norma Kennedy. Norma's style is lively and colorful and we can't wait to see how she uses our challengs to whip up some killer pages. Check out her interview below to get to know her a little and don't miss out on the scraplift contest! All you have to do is create a layout by using one of her 3 favorites (shown at the bottom of the post) and post the link to your page in the comments section of this post. A winner will be selected after the end of this month!

Crazy thing that Norma and I have in common...we both have sons named Seth (which isn't a very common name). Very cool!


Q:Tell us a bit about you and your family.

A: Married to Damien for 15yrs............a very understanding and loving husband. He understands my need to document my life and my loved ones. He is very artistic and on occasion can be spotted in my Art Room creating a layout or two himself. I have three bambinos.... Cade is 10, Seth is 6 and Isabella just turned 2.

Q: How long have you been scrapbooking and where did you get your start in this craft?

A: I have scrapping for about 5 years. I was encouraged by a friend to attend a Stampin Up party..... I was hooked !

Q:What inspires your creativity when you are scrapbooking?

A: I love fabrics.....colors, patterns, textures......oh my !

Q:Describe your creative style

A: Im not sure I really have one. If I had to give myself a label it would probably be.... eclectic in a romantic way. Since I like trying new technique and products & mediums , my style is constantly changing.

Q:What are your three favorite products/techniques right now?

A: I am loving anything sparkly or shiny. Glitter, embossing, metallics, Tattered Angels glimmer mist & Shimmerz.....YUMMY
I also luv using all and any Tim Holtz/Rangers product.
I have also been sewing quite a bit on my layouts and just recently incorporated crocheting on a scalloped circle layout.

Q:What project(s) are you currently working on?

A: Currently I am working on layouts/projects where "My Little Shoebox" meets "Hero Arts". I am also working on cards with product from www.cutcardstock.com & projects from kits from www.akissonthechic.typepad.com

Q:Describe your perfect day

A: Ohhhh a day at the Beach with my wee ones and hubs.

Q:What are your three favorite layouts of all time that you’ve created (published or not)?

1.)I would probably have to say this layout "Each New Day" using Websters Pages.
The day I took these pictures of my DD was a special day. She said "Mom" for the first time. Up untill than she had only said "Dad" but never mom. The journaling reads: Each new day I wake up and wonder how I ever lived without you.


2.) The journaling on this one is very sincere "No One Told Me" and thus became a fav.
Journaling reads: No one told me my life would completely change. No one told me that I would never own my Heart again. No one told me that I would be willing to die for them. No one told me that my love for them would run so deep it could never me measured and no one told me there could be so much strength within this weakness.




3.) This one "The Story of Forever Love" is special and one of my faves because it is the cover to a documentation of my Journey/Love for my husband. The album started as a way to document dates/moments for my kids but in the process it became a way to express my Love to my husband. The album/journaling I have never shared with any one.

and the winner is...

So the results are in! Check it out for yourself -------> The poll says that LGLadygrace is the winner of our June Flickr Challenge! Hooray! LGLadygrace, congratulations on your win. Please email me at (info at lotuspaperie dot com) with your mailing information and we'll get your lovely prize into the mail.

Also, we missed announcing another winner from the previous month's scraplift challenge! (huge suprise there hey? I never forget stuff!) The winner of Bethany's scraplift (see it all here) challenge is NERLLYBIRD! YEAH! Email me with your mailing information and let me know where to send your goodies!

The scraplift challenge of Gretchen's smokin' layouts is Michelle LaPoint Rydell (aka ravenea)!!! Jump for joy:) Email me with your mailing info and we'll put something special in the mail for ya!

Please remember when you are creating your scraplift pages that you need to post the link in the comments section of each designer's introduction post by the last day of the month to ensure that your layout is included in the contest! If you post it to the Flickr group, it could get missed if you haven't included the link in the Guest Designer's intro post.

We love seeing all the fantastic artwork that you all share...DON'T STOP! lol Bring it on, show us what you're made of! I'll be posting the next introduction post for our August Guest Designer later this morning...stick around!

Meet Gretchen!

I love the beginning of a new month...while we're sad to see our previous Guest Designer; Bethany Kartchner go, we're so very excited to welcome a new one. This month we are privileged to have Gretchen McElveen join us for the month of July. This is one creative gal, let me tell you! If you spend any time at all on SisTv, then you are familiar with her amazing, vibrant style. She has answered a few fun questions and has shared a few of her favorite layouts below. Check it out! And if you are feeling inspired by her pages, just scraplift one (or all three!) of her pages and upload the link in the comments section below. We'll check them all out at the end of the month and choose a winner from the comments. The winner will receive an exclusive Lotus Paperie Couture Collection and 15 minutes of fame! YAY!

***Bethany, thanks for creating such amazing and inspiring pages with us! It was a pleasure to have you on our team for the month of June! ****

Stay tuned for a few announcements later this week!

And now, meet Gretchen!



Q:Tell us a bit about you and your family.

A: My family consists of my husband Lee and our dog Shada. We do have many, many children they just happen to call some of our friends “Mom and Dad” instead of us.

Q: How long have you been scrapbooking and where did you get your start in this craft?

A: I have been scrapbooking for about 7 years. My aunt introduced me to scrapbooking by way of Creative Memories during college but I did not really get into it until after I got married in 2002. I still have the corner rounder that I bought during my first CM party!!

Q:What inspires your creativity when you are scrapbooking?

A: I am inspired by a variety of things: great pictures, new products, bold colors, and other scrapbookers!

Q:Describe your creative style

A: I am soooo bad at answering this question. I think my style is fun and evolving! I like trying new products and experimenting with different techniques. When it comes down to it, though, I tend not to be a very technique-y scrapbooker. I stick with the basics: paper, pictures, journaling, and whatever embellishments strike my fancy!

Q:What are your three favorite products/techniques right now?

A: I am addicted to brads. I love hand-stitching. And I cannot get enough patterned paper with a subtle print.

Q:What project(s) are you currently working on?

A: I am working on some layouts with all new product for the My Little Shoebox booth at CHA!

Q:Describe your perfect day

A: My perfect day would require about 36 hours rather than just 24. I would not be working (I work full-time as a physical therapist). And I would not have to be anywhere too early in the morning. It would be sunny and pleasant so I could spend some time outside. I would get together with friends to scrapbook for awhile. The evening would have to involve a date with my husband (probably dinner, Barnes & Noble, a movie, and dessert). Then I would scrapbook some more until I could just not stay awake any longer.

Q:What are your three favorite layouts of all time that you’ve created (published or not)?



So remember to upload the links to your layouts in the comments section below. We wanna see how these fabulous pages get your mojo going!

Announcing the New Design Team!!

Oh man, it was soooo hard to narrow down all those applications to just this small group of amazing, talented designers for our upcoming team but we managed to choose six incredible women who will bring us creative, exciting new layouts for the June-November term! Hooray!

We will be introducing each of these amazing ladies over the coming weeks so be sure to come back and get to know each of them a little as we introduce them one by one. In the meantime, I'd like to introduce you to ::

Tania Davey

Marit Barentsen

Keely Yowler

Keandra Willis

Gudrun Loennecken

and we're thrilled to bring back for one more session,

Carol Yeo

Of course, Tania Lennox & I will still be here bringing you weekly creative genius (dontcha love my modesty here?! LOL) and we are really REALLY stoked to see what these incredible artists have to share with us over the coming months. Now, keep in mind that our current team will still be working hard to create killer LO's for the remainder of May and these new gals will be rockin' out the scrappy goodness beginning in June.

Welcome to the team ladies and a massive, industrial-sized thank you to each and every one of you who applied to the team. We had a really hard time narrowing it down to just these six gals and we hope that everyone still participates in the challenges & scraplift contests!

Don't forget, the next challenge is up tomorrow. See you then!

Meet Amy!

Dude. Vee Jennings was such an amazing contributor as our Guest Designer for April. We're sad to see her go (don't be a stranger, Vee!) Now, I just re-read my last 2 posts and realized that I kinda forgot to remind you guys to scraplift one of the LO's Vee shared with us when we introduced here HERE. Please note that I've extended the window within which to upload the link to you scraplift by one week (that means by May 7). I want to see what you can do with Vee's incredibly inspiring pages and show us your stuff! Post the link to your page in the comments section of the post hotlinked above :) We'll pick a favorite layout and give ya some killer scrap stuff, okie doke?

Vee, thanks so much for sharing your wicked layouts with us. I for one had my mojo super-invigorated every time I saw your layouts (and my mojo has been on a bit of a hiatus lately) so YAY to that! Hope you visit us from time to time :)

And so having said that, it's now time for me to introduce you to another wicked-awesome scrapper whom you may or may not know (that is, if you've been living under a rock you may not know who she is!)

Now, if you've been following our modest little blog - which started in 2006 (holy crap, has it really been that long?!) you would know that many moons ago like, sometime in January of last year we sponsored OLW with our killer scrap kits...Amy Tangerine was the winner. Read that post here. I love it when stuff like this happens, when life comes full-circle!

Amy answered a few questions for us so we could get to know her a bit better. She also shared her 3 favorite layouts of all time too! You get to scraplift them and share the link in the comments section of this post. Go on. You know you wanna! We'll choose a favorite at the end of May and tell you who gets the goodies for playin' along.

Here's Amy ::


Q:Tell us a bit about you and your family.

A: I am an only child. My parents were both born in India and lived there until they moved to the States in 1970. I was born in the suburbs of Chicago in 1978. I grew up with my grandparents close by and moved down to Atlanta, GA in 1992 to attend high school and live with my father. After 25 years of marriage, my parents got divorced and I love them both very much.

Q: How long have you been scrapbooking and where did you get your start in this craft?

A: I have been scrapbooking since 2007 and got my start after taking a class from Emily Falconbridge. We became friends and she would come over and sew stuff and I would work with paper. I was immediately addicted, and still am.

Q:What inspires your creativity when you are scrapbooking?

A: The products really inspire me to create something fun, but the memory is really what I try to savor. Because there are so many great products out there, I think it helps fuel creativity when I am in a slump. I also enjoy looking through challenge sites for different prompts. I used to just scrapbook events and things in my life, but I think I am now looking at things in a different way thanks to this hobby.

Q:Describe your creative style

A: Colorful, a bit quirky, with a twist.

Q:What are your three favorite products/techniques right now?

A: I love embellishments of all kinds, Thickers, and sewing on layouts

Q:What project(s) are you currently working on?

A: All kinds of good stuff! Working on several baby albums for a client, some home projects for a class I am currently co-teaching on ScrapinStyletv.com, preparing for a class In am teaching in Tennessee in June, and enjoying life.

Q:Describe your perfect day

A: A beautiful sunny day where I had nothing on my to-do list besides whatever I felt like doing... which would likely include eating some delicious meals, playing with the dogs on the beach, being a little silly, being a little creative and productive, and then cuddling up with a good read and a good man at night.

Meet Vee!

As always, the close of the month means that we have to say goodbye to our current Guest Designer but it does also mean that we welcome a new one. March's designer, Glenda brought with her a remarkable sense of who she is as an artist in every one of her pages. I for one thoroughly enjoyed seeing her layouts every Friday and feel privileged to have had her with us for Birthday Month.

For April, we bring you Vee Jennings. If you've read a single copy of Memory Makers this year, you've likely seen her amazing artwork somewhere in the pages of the magazine. She's one of the Memory Makers Masters for 2009. I am super thrilled to have her as our Guest Designer this month and know you'll love her layouts as much as I do!

You can read below a bit about Vee in the interview below. Also, you'll find a few of her most favorite layouts in the whole wide world. You are invited to scraplift those pages and upload the link to them in the comments section of this post. This is a contest! A winner will be randomly chosen from the shared links at the end of the month so don't delay!



Q:Tell us a bit about you and your family.

A: I am a mother of two,love to spend time with family, love to travel and just enjoy life as much as I can. I live in the burbs of DC which inspires me daily.

Q: How long have you been scrapbooking and where did you get your start in this craft?

A: I started scrap-booking eight years ago after the birth of my son. The rest is history. I've been busy documenting life big and small ever since.

Q:What inspires your creativity when you are scrapbooking?

A: Life, fashion, family, friends and the Internet are all avenues of inspiration. But mainly I love creating for the "art" of creating. For me its all about getting my ideas and thoughts about life on paper. It's both therapeutic and fulfilling. My main motivator in the beginning was to document my children's life, but then I realized that my life in essence is theirs as well so I now create for me but with them in mind. I want my children to know who I am as a woman when they are grown.

Q:Describe your creative style

A: I guess my creative style would be a mix of simple and grunge.

Q:What are your three favorite products/techniques right now?

A: My three favorite products always are paint, cardstock and my pro pen.

Q:What project(s) are you currently working on?

A: It seems I am always working on something at the moment and I love it! If you were to see my desk right now, you would see projects for a GDT, dares, scrapjack and Polkadot Whismy.

Q:Describe your perfect day

A: My perfect day would be a day on the beach reading, enjoying the sun and watching my children play in the sand.

Q:What are your three favorite layouts of all time that you’ve created (published or not)?

A: A layout of my son that I made for my MMM submission last year, can't share it but it is one of my favorites.

Challenge 116

Happy Birthday Vanessa!!!

Today is one of my best buddies (Vanessa's) birthday. Go make her day and give her some birthday love. :)

We have been having a fairly relaxed spring break, probably something we needed to do. Spending time together and actually having dinner together every night has been wonderful! :)

There is still a challenge up to scraplift one of Glenda's fabulous layouts. You can find the layouts here, that is also where you should link up your scraplift.


On with the challenge. This week it's a sketch. I absolutely love the girls layouts this week, aren't they beautiful? If you'd like to play along load up your layout to our flickr group so we can pick a favourite and send out some scrap goodies. Please make sure that you include the challenge number in your title.


Enjoy...

Tania

Vanessa

Christi

Kirsten

Carol

Zoe

Glenda

Challenge 115

I don't know about you, but we have been fighting colds and flus back to back at our house. I'm starting to think that spring break is meant to give everyone a break from all the germs, yuck! We are definitely looking forward to that break. :)

Another Friday the 13Th! The challenge to you this week is to

Use 6 or more photos!

I know you can do it, lets see what ya got!

Show us your stuff by loading up your page on flickr and adding it to our flickr group, please remember to add the challenge number to your title so we know which one it's for.
Also, please help us decide who gets the RAK and vote on your favourite layout from last month, you don't need a blogger account to vote.

Our guest designer this month is the talented Glenda Tkalac. To win some extra scrap goodies just scraplift one of Glenda's favourite layouts and link it to this post.

Here's what the design team gave us...

Tania

Vanessa

Christi
Kirsten

Carol

ETA... sorry Carol, I missed your close-up :p
Zoe

Glenda

Challenge 114

This week is really exciting...a bunch of stuff is going on. Today marks the beginning of a new month of challenges - which means that all your layouts for February need to be uploaded to Flickr by now and you can start sharing your layouts from the March challenges anytime- and we have a brand new Guest Designer joining us this month, Glenda Tkalac (read about and participate in the scraplift contest...upload the link to your page here).

Also, March is Birthday Month!! Hooray! That means that my annual Birthday Week package from my good pal Karen should be here soon. Can't wait to see the treasures in that box!

Oh, and if you live in the Whitehorse area or neighboring communities, please join our new Facebook Group where you can be kept in the loop about upcoming scrap-related events...I'll tell ya now, there's one in the works for May!

So here ya go, this week's challenge is a fun, easy sketch. Remember, if you're not feelin' it positioned this way, you can always rotate it 90, 180, or 270 degrees and you'll get a completely different layout!

Vanessa

Tania

Zoe

Kirsten

Christi

Carol

Glenda