May's winner and favourite

Hey, everyone!  Thanks so much for playing along with all our challenges.  You all make it so difficult to pick a winner.  Here are the results from May:

First up is this gorgeous layout from Jessie Grey.  We love her take on the sketch challenge and really adore the colors she chose to work with:

And our winner for the month of May is Kerry Bruce.  We really loved her fabulous take on our sketch and all those amazing summer details!

Congrats ladies! Kerry, please email Anna at thestudiochallenges gmail.com to arrange to become our guest designer for a month.

Watch out for a DT call coming up this week!

22nd June - Triangles

Todays challenge is all about one little shape with three sides, yes if you havent guessed already its Triangles! What creative ways can you come up with to use triangles in your layouts?

Here's what the design team came up with:

Cari
I really like triangles and I use them a lot, so this time I tried something different and used only triangle stamps. I'm not very mixed media and I feel this page look like a lot of mixed media and I love it!

I love this tiny butterfly which also has tiny triangles inside.

Hilde

I have a crush on creating with busy background papers ATM and by using large triangels as mats, the layout looks less busy.

 Using repetitive patters always work when it comes to pagedesigns, so I have triangels other places too to get the more uniform look: inked with a stencil and some larger pink paper ones.

The journaling tells about our cat mercedes who was completly gone for ten days earlier this summer. We finally found her trapped in our neighbours greenery...


Jinny
Triangles are my second favorite geometric shape to scrap with, next to circles.  I've managed to tie both into my page, which was inspired by a single sheet of patterned paper from Crate Paper's Open Road Collection.

Kat

Is it weird that I am terrified by a shape?  I didn't even realize my fear of triangles until I tried to scrap with them...and I found it to be quite a difficult challenge!!

Katarina
Triangles is a huge pain in my creative process... I really struggle to use them.... and I rarely get them to fit in.. not even when I have the intention to add them.
This time I managed to incorporate triangles as banners... and it actually worked well. Its one of few times I actually has been satisfied with the triangles in my work.

Petra

I have 3 kids and one is looking just like I did when I was a child. He is a MiniMe.

I used the triangles to frame the photo but also to create balance in the page.

I used FabScraps new collection The Gentlemen's Club on this page as I thought the colors matched the jungle in which this picture was taken.  

Didn't they do a great job! We look forward to seeing what you create, please link them up to the side bar for a chance of becoming our guest designer. 

You have until 6th July to enter this months challenges.

Also watch out for a design team call it will be here soon!

8th June - Project life

Something a bit different for you today!

Today challenge is Project life style - create a layout inspired by Project life but without using the pockets!

Anna

I haven't ever done anything Project life before but I quite like it so this was good to try it out for a bit. It just so happened I got some PL cards for  normal scrapping recently which were perfect for this, I didn't stretch to a whole page though, I had to have a bit of 'white space'!

Cari

I really like project life! I started my first PL album this year (even though I haven't taken many photos of it yet) so make this page was super easy. It was just as making a new week. I used some photos of my nieces and, as in my PL, most of the writing is in Spanish.

Hilde

I don't take photos on regular bases (like every day), so "Project Life (PL)" has never been my cup of tea. I also enjoy the process of designing single pages, so that's a second reason for not jumping on the pocket scrapping train. But I admit the design/style was perfect when I wanted to use multiple photos on one page, like on this one, and I know I will do it again!

Title: Snapshots of a Sheep Farmers Life

These photos were takn when we payed a visit to friends who have had their first lambs ever.

Jinny

I'll admit that I'm not a fan of Project Life.  The thought of documenting so many photos overwhelms me.  Plus, I think the grid design gets a little dry from page to page to page, but it's not very often that I use such for my own layouts.  So, despite my hesitation and after a little jumpstart from our fearless leader Anna, as well as inspiration from a couple of challenge sites, I'm pleased with what transpired.

 
 Kat

I love Project Life, but I've rarely translated the concept into a layout.  For this one, I decided to scrap a bunch of photos from a recent vacation my husband and I took to Hawaii.  We went to Pearl Harbor one day and visited the USS Arizona Memorial and took a tour of the USS Missouri.  I had a lot of pics from the day and wasn't sure what to do with all of them.  I figured this challenge was perfect for finally getting them on a page!

Katarina

I like project life cards, and I often incorporate them in my LOs as journaling cards, but when I made this LO, I wanted to use the display of the pouches as the base of my LO. So I used the same way of showing off my cards and photos as if I had used a PL album. And it turned out quite clean and simple, but I love it!

I used PL cards from becky Higgins and Studio Calico. 

Petra

I decided to use Project Life kit cards for my project and just add a series of Photos that I love. This is the result:

 I used Becky Higgins PL kit Flea market by Maggie Holmes and correlating decorations.

The design team did a great job, how will you get on? Please link up your layouts to the side bar so we can find out!

Happy Scrapping!

25th May- Selfie

As it seems to be such a craze at the moment, create a layout using a selfie picture! (A photo you took of yourself - there may be other people in it you but you must have taken it and be in it!)

Anna

When my sister and I went to Spain recently I got her into taking selfies, this was my attempt to show her how!

Cari

I hardly ever take selfies, but this time I wanted to have a photo of me and my girlfriends because we never take photos when we are together (which has no sense because we are all into scrapbooking!) So some weeks ago I took this photo for my project life and match perfect for the challenge!

Hilde

Over the past two years, I have been through to so much - excuse my French here - shit:  issues caused by others but which I have had to deal with, if not both my family life, my finances and my sanity would be endangered.  I have been asked why I just haven't crawled into bed and pulled the blanket over my head, refusing to get up, or how it comes I haven't braken down.  I guess it is becuase I'm mentally strong - or is there another explanation?

The very long title is printed on a A4 transparancy and the edges covered with paper strips to make them less visible. The ledger pattern on the background paper also helps out.

Jinny
I had so much fun with this challenge!  I don't think I've taken a selfie of just myself but one time, and that was in a mirror just to show off my new camera ;), but I love taking selfies of me with loved ones.  Today's page boasts my newest cutie pie and I, as well as lots of inking and stamping and My Mind's Eye goodies from a number of different collections.

Kat
I take a lot of selfies for Project Life, but I rarely scrap them on their own, so it was sort of fun to do so with this challenge.  As a side note, I am totally in love with this patterned paper from Maggie Holmes' Style Board collection (Crate Paper).  I definitely *NEED* more of it!

Katarina

This challenge fitted me, as I try to do more ego pages. This last year have been turbulent, and I need to learn to focus more on myself

Petra

When we go on a family vacation, none takes photos of me... so I have to take selfies to make sure it is documented that I was also on that trip LOL. Sometimes my family members wants to join in on my selfie. 

I used Heidi Swapp Dreamy collection on this page, together with a stencil from The Crafter's workshop and Heidi Swapp Color Magic banners, Gelatos and mist.

Guest Designer Lesley G 

The feet were from the inside of a shoebox that I knew would come in handy for something scrapbook related.

I have used a dictionary definition of the word "walk" as my layout is all about wondering how far our feet take us in our lifetime!

Hope that's inspired you to have a go, if so we would love to see what you created, please link them up in the side bar.

April's Favourites and Winner

Thank you to all our great entries for April it was hard to pick our favourites and there were lots of great ones to choose from! Here are the ones we picked out...

Rita

Julie J

Kicka

Lesley G

And the winner is ....

Yvonne Yam with this gorgeous layout!

Congratulations Yvonne please contact me Anna at thestudiochallenges@gmail.com to arrange to be our guest designer for a month!

11th May - Sketch

We have another great sketch to inspire you today, Valerie has created this sketch inspired by Jinny's April challenge layout.

Here are the DTs takes on it:

Cari

I love this sketch is simple and easy to follow, It didn't take me much on finish my Lo. Last month I went to Brazil to meet some friends, the picture is me, walking for one amazing street in Sao Paulo.

I recently bought some neocolor II crayons, It's extremely easy to make this watercolor clouds with them I do recommend them!

Hilde

My neighbour has a pond with koi fish. Luckily he has lots, and they breed naturally so quickly that he need to sell 50-60 each summer. If not, I think my cat Ponky would have been in big trouble if he discovered this:

I streched the design a bit to fit landscape oriented photos, and I used the same one twice. Who says you can't *lol*?

Here is a trick for you when using busy background papers: go with a completely different color in the title -  it takes the focus away from the busy paper and lead your eyes to the photos. Imagine the tiltle in brown - your eyes would immidiately be drawn to the busy, right hand side.

Jinny

Seeing as it's Mother's Day here in the U.S., I thought it only fitting to scrap a couple of pics from one year ago today.  I've combined a number of amazing manufacturers, including Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, and Elle's Studio, to create my take on the sketch, which I've rotated 90 degrees to the left to better accommodate my horizontal pics.

Kat

I loved the sketch and I adored Jinny's original layout.  When it came time to do my own layout, I didn't follow the sketch that closely.  However, I did pull in elements that I loved and stuck to the sketch closely enough that you can tell (sort of) where my layout came from.

Katarina

This was such a great sketch, and I actually used my project life cards to make a LO without photos, about my biggest change in life right now, being divorced. 

Guest Designer - Lesley

I don't normally "follow" sketches as I'ma  bit of a rule breaker but this sketch worked perfectly for me on the Ruby Rock It Banner background. The additional banners etc are from the now defunct Kanban collection but work well with my "SmilERs" layout.

Please link up your takes to the side bar, we would love to see what you do with this lovely sketch, you have until June 8th to enter!

27 April Challenge - Epic Fail!

Epic Fail - has something happened lately that you would rather forget, if so now is the time to create a layout about it! We all learn something from going through tough times, what did you learn?

Hilde
If it's on film or tape, I have scrapped it - good or bad - happy days, epic stunt fails etc etc. This time I want to say something about an object I consider an epic failure: the pocket bike (aka mini moto).  DS11 has one, and he loves it, but it is the most stupid gadged invented ever, in my opinion: it's limited where you can ride, it's really small, and it brakes down or runs out of gas all the time.

Jinny
I guess that I'm not big into photographing failures, because this was an uber difficult challenge for me to find a single picture that would fit the theme.  However, I did discover the below photograph of my oldest's 9th birthday cake.  The air conditioning went out in our car on the trip to Grandpa and Grandma's to celebrate, and unfortunately, the cake couldn't contend with the 100 degree temperatures that day.  I did attempt to rescue it and tucked the after picture into the pocket behind the one below.  It wasn't perfect, but it sure tasted delicious ;)!

Kat
At first glance my "epic fail" doesn't really look that epic. I chose to scrap before and after photos of when I got my hair done.  I paid almost $100 to get my hair cut and colored...and my before and after photos were almost identical.  The real epic fail is not the hair cut or the wasted money, but is actually my inability to take big chances.  I'm working on it, though.  I may not be getting pink hair anytime soon...but maybe I'll look into becoming a redhead!  :-)

Petra
I have an epic fail for you all. I have had a drivers license for many many years and I am pretty good at parking... or well I am OK anyway, and I have never hit anything while parking really. This day I was going to collect my son and was a bit stressed, not only for collecting him and getting to my next appointment on time, but also because I had this major delivery at work which had taken a lot of my time and energy lately. So I wasn't really in balance. When making this easy parking I suddenly noticed I was stuck - WHAT... what happened.... I had hit a car parked on the street. Really embarrassing and an epic fail for me. So what can you do but make a page about it....

Stephanie
If you read my blog, then you probably know that my husband and I recently purchased our first home. What you don't know is that before there was the *dream* house there was an epic house hunting fail. We found a condo right by the beach that we thought was perfect for us and we put in an offer. Unfortunately, the thorough home inspection we did revealed problem after problem after problem. We ended up withdrawing our offer … I was so disappointed, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise since we wound up finding and buying our perfect townhouse about a month later.

I didn't have a photo of the "epic fail" condo but I did have a photo of the view we would have had if we had gone ahead with the purchase, so that's what I used here. The journaling is on the back.

You have until 11th May to upload your layouts from this month in the sidebar.

Happy scrapping!