19th Jan - Sketch

Today we have another lovely sketch for you! Valerie was inspired this month by Jinny's Christmas tag layout.

Hilde

The first weekend in January, I took the family, and two of the kids' friends, up in the snowy mountains here in Norway. We have had a grey, wet winter so far where we live, so we had a blast with all the snow.

And of course the kids had to try snow bathing one of the nights (Me? No! I'm done with that).

Details (papers: Lemon Owl, buttons &snow flake brads: Freckled fawn):

Usually when I scrap snow photos I go for bright colors, but I love how this color scheme emphasize the night photos!

Jinny
I was so excited to see the sketch Valerie put together from my original, Christmas Snackin' layout!  There's something about a trio of photos that really helps tell a story, and this is my go-to design for just such.  But since you've already seen what I can do with it just as it is, I decided to rotate the sketch and use vertical, rather than horizontal, photos for this month's take.  Plus, I simply didn't get enough of my fall pics turned into pages last year and had lots of little, Basic Grey, Persimmon Collection, die-cut bits just calling my name.

Kat
I loved Jinny's original layout and had such a fun time adopting Valerie's sketch to my own style.

Katherine

A lovely sketch with loads of layers and photos - I rotated it and piled up layers of paper, and embellishments from a mixture of different collections.  

Petra
I do not often use more than one photo on my pages but I do like the result.

The page is from our 3 week long trip to Thailand this Christmas. Loved every day of boat trips, snorkling, swimming, massage and just relaxing reading lots of books. It feels very different from today when we have snow outside in a cold Malmö.

On this page I used FabScraps new collection Beachcomber debuting at CHA last week. 

Stephanie
When I first began pulling together supplies to use on this layout, I printed 3 photos of my husband and I from a photo shoot we did two years ago. However, once I started playing around with the layout I realized that I liked the design best with just one photo in the middle. So I altered the design slightly to accommodate one 4x6 photo instead of the original 3 smaller photos.

Our sponsor this month is Wear Crafts:

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wear-Crafts/  

 It would be lovely if you would pop over and follow the

shop blog http://www.wearcrafts.co.uk/blog/ 

If you join in with us this month you could win this great kit of Basic Grey Hipster papers! It has 13 papers and alphas to match!

Please link up your entries to the side bar for a chance to win. You have until 2nd February to enter this month challenges.

December's Winner

Thanks to everyone that entered our December challenges -  we loved seeing your creations!

Picking the winner is always hard!
Here are some favorites :

Lynnda:

 Xara Fluoraki:

Kat:

And the Winner is.......










Anya

 Congrats!!! We love your layout!
Please send an e-mail to thestudiochallenges@gmail.com and you will receive your prize from FabScraps

5th Jan - Review

Happy New Year and welcome to our first challenge of the new year!

 Instead of looking forward and new year resolutions, I want you to look back! How was your 2013? Review your year and create a layout about it, whether it was something you achieved or proud of doing in the year or just a general round up of it!

Anna

My best bit of 2013 was meeting these two little chaps! My two new nephews, they have bought a lot of joy into our lives!

Cari

I think this is the first time I've done a Lo thinking of what the past year has taught me, but at the end it was a easy decision. 2013 main characteristic was the changes I made to my life, now I'm more independent in many ways than in 2012 and by the end I can say it was a good year. So that is what I wrote on the layout and also the title I gave to my layout.
Now in 2014 I have lots of new plans and I'm full of energy to receive the new year!

Hilde

I admit I was quite pessimistic when we entered 2013, and I hate to see I was right - life has hit my family quite hard this year, just as expected. I'm not going to bore you with the details, and as I usually am a very happy, optimistic person, I'm just saying Welcome 2014!

I'm really optimistic about the new year - doors have closed but new will open! Sure, there will be challenges, but hopefully not more than we can handle. We have lots of fun to look forward to, and I can't wait to start a new year.

This photo of our beach, and how it looks like after a winter storm, pretty sums up our life in 2013: forces beyond our control messes up, but we tidy up while waiting for the sunny days to come. 2014 will bring NOTHING but sunny days!


 
Hidden journaling inside the brown envelope - you can see it peaking out on the right side.

 
Jinny
I have to admit that 2013 truly was one of the most difficult years of me and my husband's married life, but we made it through all the junk together, and that's what I tried to capture and write about in my year in review.  I had fun playing on the fact that he was my "anchor" through it all to pull in a trendy, nautical theme.

Kat
For a large portion of 2013 I was out of the country for work, so my husband and I didn't get to see each other for half of the year.  It was still a great year for us and I expect that it will only be better this year!

Katherine

I took a photo from each month, and there were more photos I could have included!  I used a grid pattern to display them all and then lots of wood veneers.

Petra
2013 was the year when we made our first long trip with our kids. We started planning in January and buying the flight tickets and then all along the year we have booked different accomodation. It was a fantastic family adventure. Therefore when we had a challenge here at The Studio Challenges to make a page reflecting back on 2013 it had to be all about Thailand.

This is my first page scrapping those photos of chrystal clear water, snorkeling, riding elephants and taking Thai Massage but not the last. 

Using Teresa Collins Family Stories for my page ♥

Stephanie
I've decided to try my hand at a Project Life format this year, combining both layouts and smaller cards and tags into my albums. Since I didn't document 2013 this way, I figured a quick review of the past year was the perfect way to begin my 2014 album. I'll be using a Studio Calico handbook for this particular album. 

2013 was a year of transition and growth for my husband and I - a year of "growing pains", if you will. We learned a lot and grew closer and more united as a couple, but I'm glad the year is over and am definitely ready for a fresh start! I want my review to capture both the good and the bad ... the good/general things are highlighted on the "hello life" tag and the not-so-good stuff is hidden away in a pocket behind the tag in the top left-hand corner. On the "you are here" tag I summed up the year gone by and expressed optimism at the year to come. 

Ours sponsor this month is Wear Crafts:

 We are based in County Durham, UK, we run workshops and a weekly Friday crop and we attend Ross Papercraft Shows and Initial J Promotions Shows.

I was a full time teacher, but am now a very part time teacher after setting up Wear Crafts. I have two gorgeous boys. The lovely Lesley Graffham and the divine Virginia Hoskings are on our Scrapbook Design Team and we sponsor on UKScrappers. We have a lively Facebook community if people want to join in.

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wear-Crafts/  

it would be lovely if you would pop over and like too!

scrappyjens blog (me) http://scrappyjens.blogspot.co.uk/  

It would be lovely if you would pop over and follow too

shop blog http://www.wearcrafts.co.uk/blog/ 

If you join in with us this month you could win this great kit of Basic Grey Hipster papers! It has 13 papers and alphas to match!

Please link up your entries to the side bar!

Happy scrapping!

November Winner and Favourites

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the new year!
Thought we should sort out another winner before the year is out!

Thanks to everyone that entered our November challenges -  we loved seeing your creations! 

Picking the winner is always hard!
Here are the runners up:

Scrappacrolles:

Irit Shalom

Taniko:

And the winner is......


Vita Tulpanen:

We just love her interpretion of the sketch and the colors she picked for her photos:

Congrtas to all the featured scrappers! Vita Tulpanen, please contact Anna at thestudiochallenges@gmail.com, and she will arrange for you to be our guest designer!

22nd Dec - Tags

For our last challenge of 2013, we challenge you to create a Christmas layout with a tag on it. It could be one of the tags you made for your presents or a tag you received on a gift, up to you!

Here's what the design team created;

Cari
This is the first time I'm doing a December Daily and I really have enjoyed the process! It's so fast to fill the pages so you can do one week in a day. This is the day number six, I bought some presents and in my way home I found the nutcracker's chocolate and I needed to photograph.

I use a tag behind the Christmas tree's picture and I wrote some memories about that day almost in backgroud of the page.



Daphne

For this year's Christmas presents I made a bunch of small kraft tags, embossed and layered with snowflakes. Luckily I had just three left to go with my layout with pictures from last year's Christmas Eve.

My nieces were so exhausted from unpacking their presents, they fell asleep around 11pm already!

This page is a bit different from my normal ones. I started with a 6 x 12 divided page protector in which I placed the photos. Then I used some tape to attach a piece of 6 x 12 patterned paper to it. It is OK for me that the left part of the layout will be "unprotected" in my album - the harder part will be to find some coordinating for the back of this layout!

Hilde
What is it with cats and boxes/baskets? Mercedes can spot an empty one as soon as it's in the house!
This particular day I was wrapping gifts in some baskets:

My tag

Jinny

I created my Christmas tag special with this page in mind.  Although, I have to admit that I had a completely different idea in mind until my Jenni Bowlin Papercrafting Kit arrived.  The Echo Park papers and Studio Calico bits inspired me so much, that I scrapped my original plan and went with this.

The base of my tag is a fun BINGO card, and I just couldn't love that little, vintage, Santa stamp, that tops it, any more.  Lots of vellum bits and textural trims add interest and round out the whole design.

All my elements were grounded on a yummy, green, chevron, patterned paper, which I smudged with Candy Apple Red Glimmer Mist and stamped with my favorite grid stamp.  And a few, gold bits, along with Santa's glittered hat, add just the right amount of shimmer and shine.  Merry Christmas!

Katherine

I started off this page thinking I would use loads of tags…then after I had made my tag and shifted pieces of paper about I decided that I needed some mess too.  So inking, stamping and layering, with a tag in a pocked and this is what I came up with!

Wishing you all a super Christmas.

Petra

I desided to put the photo on a tag to meet this challenge. Also on this page I am using paper from this month's sponsor FabScraps . The collection is called Angelic Christmas. 

The Chipboard three is from A2Z Scraplets and the rest is FabScraps.

Stephanie

Our family name is "Ho" so during the holidays I am always on the lookout for tags and cards that say Ho Ho Ho on them. When we were given the challenge of incorporating a tag onto a holiday layout, I knew exactly which one to reach for.

Here is the layout I made, documenting the first Christmas my husband and I celebrated together while we were dating -

Here's a close-up shot of the little gift tag ...

Don't forget our sponsor this month is fabscraps, if you get any creative time during the holidays to join in with us you could win a great prize from them.

I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Thank you to everyone for joining in with our challenges over the past year, we love seeing what you create! We will be back in the new year with more new challenges to inspire you!