Challenge # 4 - Mother's Day

Hello everyone!

How are you doing? We hope that everything is well with you and your loved ones.
Today we prepared a new challenge for you. Are you ready?
Here it goes. Enjoy!

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In May we celebrate Mother's Day (May 13) in South Africa.
This is a wonderful opportunity for us at Scrap Africa to celebrate motherhood
with our love and creativity.

Create any scrap object, which  in some way related to a mother. 
There is a catch though!
In your projects, you will need to use a phrase, a poem or a special message dedicated to a mother - be it yourself, your own mother or anyone else you would want to say something nice about as a mother.


Here is some inspiration for your from our designers.

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Please welcome our special guest designer - very talented and creative

 Amelia Breytenbach.

Here is what Amelia has to say:
"Hello, I am Amelia Breytenbach. I am delighted to be guest designer for The Scrap
Africa challenge blog – it is such an honour.
I am married for 28 years to my loving and supportive husband and we live in Pretoria, South Africa with our two dogs.
I am a librarian at a large residential university but when I am at home I keep myself
busy with card making – I love to create detailed cards, and stamping is my passion. I
have been stamping for 8 years now and started my blog, Stamped for the Occasion,
in February 2010. Since blogging I met many new and wonderful friends from around
the world sharing my passion. I was on an amazing design team and along with
talented card makers I did some guest designing for a few inspirational challenge
blogs. I have a variety of stamps from several companies, local and abroad but am
totally addicted to Penny Black stamps. I am also passionate about creating with die
cuts and vintage scraps. My favourite colouring technique is watercolour pencils and
I love to add detail to my cards, especially flowers and lace. My style has developed
over time seeing all the beautiful cards from so many talented card makers and I
would describe it as a mixture of shabby, vintage and cute elements. My biggest
dream is to turn my love for crafting into my job. Thank you Evgenia and Svetlana
for the opportunity to share my passion on the Scrap Africa challenge blog."

Make sure you visit Amelia's blog - Stamped for the Occasion and say "hi!" to her.

Mother's Day Card by Amelia Breytenbach


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Our next guest designer is  Patricia Basson .
Patricia was among the winners of the FabScraps challenge.
We are very honored that she joined us today at Scrap Africa.


"Motherhood" Card by Patricia Basson

Patricia made a Step Card using Pion Papers and Dusty Attic Chipboard pieces.
The sentiment reads as follows "Motherhood - all love starts and ends there".


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And now it is turn for our design team to share with you some fabulous Mother's Day projects.

"Being Your Mother" by Svetlana Austin

For her layout Svetlana used paper from December kit from Le Shabby Cafe'.
As you can see, Christmas theme papers from this kit can be used all year round.


"Being a Mother" by Cathy Lane

The journaling reads: "Being a mother is learning about the strengths you didn't know you had, and dealing with fears you didn't know existed." ~ Linda Wooten.


"A Mother's Love" Card by Jeaunes Viljoen

Jeaunes made a card, which she wants to give to her mom on Mother's day. 

On the inside it reads: "A MOTHER is she who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take".  

Decorated Gift Box by Jowilna Nolte

Jowilna says: "For my mothers' day project I was actually inspired by Easter. I had bought this hexagon shaped box filled with Easter eggs from Woollies knowing that it would be great for a project and can be turned into something. Having stared at it for a while it kept on 'screaming' house to me, and so it came to be a house. Originally the roof was meant to be covered in moss but since I had used all my moss for a birthday party weeks before I made another plan...and found this grey/silver thread used in flower arranging from my days as window dresser. The rest as they say is history! My favourite quote added to this project reads: "If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been" - Robert Brault. For more detailed photos and information you can visit my blog. Hope you feel inspired to treat your mom this mothers day."


"Mommy is Another Word for Love" by Lynette Jacobs

Lynette made this lovely layout about her daughter-in-law and her new born son.

Mother's Day Card by Lynette Jacobs

"When all else fails, I can always count on my mom."

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So, what are you going to make?
You have until 17th of May to submit your projects for this challenge.
Please make yourself familiar with the rules and do follow the requirements of the challenge

Each of your entries will give you a chance of winning a great gift pack from
La Shabby Cafe'

So, make sure you play along!

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You have 1 week to enter your layouts based on our Sketch # 4

Thank you for visiting Scrap Africa today!

Keep well! ♥

Challenge # 3 - Rainbow - Winners

Hello dear friends!

It is time to announce the winners of the Rainbow challenge.

We are very happy to see that the number of the entries is growing with every new challenge. 

Thank you all for playing along!

Here are the projects we liked the most.

Roulien Stahnke

(South Africa)

Valerie Thorpe

(South Africa)

Olga Ryzhkova (mamaLeka)

(Russia)

Alyona

(Russia)

Patricia Basson

(South Africa)

Congratulations, ladies! Wonderful projects!

We would like to invite Valerie Thorpe and Roulien Stahnke to join us as guest designers for one of the future challenges.

Please contact us at saustin "@" yandex.ru

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Now let's see who is the lucky winner of the gift pack from our sponsor -
Scrap & Card Boutique 

(all the projects from the Sketch # 3 and the challenge # 3 are taking part in the lucky draw)

Congratulation, Margaret! We hope you will have a lot of fun playing with your prize!

Please send us your postal address at saustin"@"yandex.ru

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Don't forget to enter your layouts into our current Sketch # 4 to stand a chance of winning
a gift pack from Le Shabby Cafe kit-club. 

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Make sure to come back on Thursday. We have a new challenge for you with hips of great inspiration.

Till then. Have a fantastic week!

Reminder

Greetings to all dear friends of Scrap Africa!

We hope you are all doing fine!

We want to remind you that tomorrow is the last day to enter your projects for our rainbow challenge.

Don't miss on your chance of winning this wonderful gift pack from Scrap & Card Boutique!

We will announce the results of this challenge on Tuesday, 24th of April.

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Have you start working on your layouts for the sketch # 4?

We can spot some gorgeous entries already!

We are very glad that our sketch inspired you.

Thank you for paying us a visit today!

Have a fabulous day! ♥

Sketch # 4

Hello to all friends of Scrap Africa!

Can you believe it? - today we have our sketch # 4! Already! 

Time really flies. It feels like it was just a couple of weeks ago when we published our first challenge. 

We want to thank you for all great support and encouragement we received form you in these months! 

Today we have a new sketch for you, a lot of amazing projects to kick off your creativity and inspiration and a new sponsor who provided us with a fantastic gift-pack.

Enjoy!

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Here is the brand new sketch for you to use this month!

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Our sponsor for the following two challenges (Sketch # 4 and challenge # 4) is La Shabby Cafe'

Ladies from Le Shabby Cafe' provide their customers with exclusive scrapbooking kits. These kits are filled with wonderfully coordinated scrapbooking products, which will allow you to create those beautiful projects with ease. 

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Our special guest designer for this challenge is amazingly talented and creative Iris Babao Uy

Please welcome her!

Here is what Iris has to say about herself:

"I am a scrapper from The Philippines, a wife and a mother to two sweet girls Nicole and Cheska. I rarely plan my pages – I let a photo or a patterned paper inspire me and I take it from there. I love the shabby chic and romantic style but I also enjoy working with bold patterns and striking colors. I’m an ink and paint type of person. I just have to get it a little messy to consider my page done. If I don’t have ink and paint on hand, then I just tear little bits of elements and stick it randomly for the sheer fun of it :-)

I am fortunate to be designing for Webster’s Pages, Basic Grey, and Hambly Screen Prints. I was also named as one of the first two Prima Masters. I am also currently a designer Aussie Scrapsource and Dusty Attic and an endorsed teacher for WOW embossing powders. My work can be seen in craft books as well as craft magazines such as Creating Keepsakes and the like.

I teach classes in Asia and soon in Europe. I may be reached through iris_sparkup@yahoo.com."

Make sure to visit her blog - My White Space to say "hi!" You will fine tones of inspiration there!

"Wonderful Day" by  Iris Babao Uy

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Our next guest designers are Roulien and Elizna were among the winners of the Sketch # 2

We are very happy that they joined us today to inspire you with their beautiful creations.

"I Love You" by Roulien Stahnke

"I Know You Will Fly" by Roulien Stahnke

Roulien  was very much inspired by the sketch and created two layouts for us!

"Lovely. Beautiful. Darling" by Elizna Parsons

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Now it is our designers' turn to share their layouts with you.

"Sleepy Head" by Evgenia Petzer

"Ocean Breath" by Svetlana Austin

"My Girl" by Cathy Lane

"Spotty Dog" by Jowilna Nolte

"Listen to Your Heart" by Lynette Jacobs

"Picture Perfect" by Jeaunes Viljoen

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Please don't forget to visit our designer's blogs to view more details on these projects.

We can't wait to see what you will create using our sketch!

You have 3 weeks to enter your layouts (until May, 3)

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Each of your entries will give you a chance of winning a great gift pack from La Shabby Cafe'

So, make sure you play along!

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You still have plenty of time to enter your rainbow projects for our current challenge

Please make yourself familiar with the rules and do follow the requirements of the challenge to avoid disappointment!

Thank you for visiting Scrap Africa today!

Keep well! ♥

Sketch # 3 - Winners

Hello everyone!

It is time to announce the winners of the sketch # 3.

It wasn't easy for us because there was so many really beautiful layouts that caught our attention.

Here are the winning projects:

Sarah Groen

(New Zealand)

Leila Cassimira 

(Brazil)

Canica Van Loggerenberg

(South Africa)

Denise van Deventer

(South Africa)

Denise Price

(USA)

Elizna Parsons

(South Africa)

Congratulations, ladies! And thank you very much to all of you who took part in this challenge!

We would like to ask Sarah Groen and Leila Cassimira to be our guest designers.

Please contact us at saustin "@" yandex.ru that we can provide you with the details.

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Don't forget to enter your rainbow projects for our current challenge.

Please make sure you follow the rules and the requirements of the challenge. If you are not sure of something, you can always ask us. It will be sad if you make a beautiful project but it doesn't fit for the challenge and therefore we can't feature it on the blog or invite you as a guest designer.

Good luck on this!

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Remember, our next sketch will be revealed this Thursday (April, 12).

Don't miss it!

Thank you for visiting Scrap Africa today!

Keep well! ♥ 

Reminder

Hello everyone! 

We just want to remind you that tomorrow is the last day to submit your layouts for our Sketch # 3.

Don't miss your chance of winning this great gift pack from Scrap and Card Boutique

The results will be announced on Tuesday,  April 10.

Keep well and good luck! ♥

Scrap Lifting

Hello everyone!

We hope that you enjoyed your weekends by doing something nice and relaxing.

Today we want to share with you on the topic of scrap lifting, as it seems to us that it was discussed lately a lot in certain scrapbooking circles. 

We hope that this article will answer some questions and help you to enjoy scrapbooking even more once you will learn a few simple rules of scrap lifting.

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This article is translation from Russian of an article, which was publishes in “Scrap Info” 2-2009. 

The Russian text of this article is available at the portal of "Scrap Info”.

Author: Anastasia Tsigankova

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Scrapbooking is a hobby that has no limits or rules. It is available and open for anyone. 

Nevertheless, scrapbooking has its own terminology and ethics, especially in such a sensitive area as 

scrap lifting.

So, what is this thing after all? We think that any scrapbooker, especially someone who is new with this hobby, should know a few simple rules concerning scrap lifting. 

It surely will make the whole experience more exciting and joyful.

Scrap lifting is a partial or complete copy of an idea or design of a layout, 

card or any scrapbooking project made by another designer.

The first thing that almost every scrap beginner does is browsing through online galleries, blogs and magazines. Many start their own blogs to share with others their creations and ideas, to receive some feedback or advice.  Blogging is a very nice tradition of scrapping world. It allows other people from all over the world to see your work, be inspired by it and to get some new ideas.  Once people start noticing your creations, they start following your blog showing interest in what you do. Sometimes we visit our favourite blogs and galleries in search of fresh ideas for new techniques and inspiration a few times a day. Sometimes we go numerous times through the pages of our favourite scrapbooking magazines.  Off course, there are many wonderful ideas that we want to try for ourselves. We want to copy the work of our favourite designers. 

And this is where the delicate topic of author’s rights kicks in – ethics of scrap lifting.

It is agreed that 

you scrap lifted someone’s project if you repeated at least 70% of the original work that inspired you.

You scrap lifted when you copied:

design of the title;

color combination;

theme of the original work;

the placement of the elements;

combination of the materials (embellishments + paper/ combination of paper);

idea for the journaling;

ideas for the photographs and/or special combination of photographs;

all the elements of the original project, including materials and placement of the details;

original idea of the author.

The complete copy of someone’s work is called casing (from CASE – Copy And Steal Everything).

If you copy only some of the elements from the project that inspired you, and you use less that 3 of such elements, then it is not scrap lifting – you were only inspired.

For example, if you looked at a layout with pink and grey color combination in it, and then you created a project in the same color combination, it is not scrap lifting. Off course you shouldn’t think every time you are busy with a project: “Am I not lifting somebody?” No one can guaranty that someone else, long before you, did not use the same idea. After all, there are not that many different techniques and combinations, as one would think. Even if the design of your layout was completely yours – you made a choice of materials and the way you placed all the elements, there is no 100% guaranty that someone else didn’t already publish a layout with exactly the same placement of the elements. There is always a chance that your idea came to you after it visited a couple of other people :-))) 

It is a very different story if you deliberately use another designer’s idea even if you don’t follow it completely. In this case, you scrap lift anyway.

If some of the points can be argued upon, as using of the same embellishments, papers, color combination or same wording for the title, we can say for certain that the following three points are crucial to evaluate 

scrap lifting:

if you use a sketch (outline) of someone’s layout;

if you use a unique author’s technique;

if you copy an overall design idea.

Why do we scrap lift then, if each one of us has a different style and ideas?

Even some of very experienced scrap ladies sometimes use scrap lifting for these purposes:

to save  time, especially when working on a big project as an album;

to get rid of scrap blues (when experiencing luck of desire to create);

to try some new techniques or materials, which normally wouldn’t be used;

to copy an interesting idea.

Scrap lifting is especially important for beginners. In this way,those who just make their first steps in scrapbooking, can learn from very good examples and set higher standards for themselves. In this case, there are no questions as “what?” and “how?” – everything is in front of them to try. Many designers in some case encourage scrap lifting of their work when they give a list of materials and techniques used in their projects, sometimes even outlining tutorials for their readers to follow.

Scrap lifting is very useful as it allows us to practice difficult techniques and reach perfection in it. 

When we copy creations of famous designers, we are learning how to create stylish and well-composed projects. Very often, we perceive some techniques as difficult. But once we scrap lift one or two projects using these techniques, we add some useful “gadget” to our arsenal that we can adapt for own projects in future.

Now, let us look at scrap lifting through eyes of a designer who accidentally stumbled upon a project, which is a copy or almost a copy of her or his work. May be someone will be very excited that her or his work was liked so much by another person that it was used as a source of inspiration. However, some designers think that in this way, their author’s rights were violated and it is unethical. One person invested her or his time and imagination to create some new original technique or idea but somebody just took it over, may be adding something to it and perfecting it. 

To make both parties happy and satisfied, it is a good idea to show respect to the author who inspired you.

Every day we copy other people in many ways without realising it. We use what was thought of, or made by others: we try new recipes, buy new cosmetics, search shops for some specific shoes, clothes or bags. We want to look like our favourite actresses or TV personalities. No one will ever think of blaming us for wanting to prepare something new and tasty or for wanting to look stylish. On the other hand, we wouldn’t forget to mention that the same pair of shoes was spotted on “the red carpet”, or the same salad you ate in that cool trendy restaurant. If it happened that scrapbooking came into your life and fill in every free moment of it, then surely you will have no problem to follow the simple rules of ethics of scrap lifting: always give credit where it is due and thank the author for the wonderful idea that inspired your creation!

Scrap lifting without giving the credit to the author is acceptable only if you store your album at home, share it only with your family and friends, and never upload your projects online. If you want to upload your creations on your blog or in online gallery, then you must always mention the name of the author 

whose project you scrap lifted!

The most important point is to never send scrap lifted projects to a competition or publication in a magazine. Even if the publishers or the organisers of the competition will not pick it up, you will not have peace with your consciousness. Because if you win and people will write comments telling you all the nice things about your project, all the praise to your talent and creativity actually doesn’t belong to you but to the author of the original project whom you copied! 

We hope that such situations, if happened before, happened only because you didn’t know the rules of scrap lifting. 

No one must use scrap lifting for entering competitions, publications or preparing classes or kits. 

There is only one exception to this: you can scrap lift your own projects as much as you wish. 

Nevertheless, you must not scrap lift your own project for entering online competition if you already showed the original project on your blog or in an online gallery.

Scrap lifting is a very exciting and wonderful way of scrapbooking that inspires and helps us to reach perfection. But before you decide to copy someone’s work, it could be wise to ask yourself a simple question: “What exactly do I like the most in this project?” If you can point out the specific elements that attracted you in the first place, after a little while of analysing the project you will realise that you don’t want to scrap lift it. Most likely, you will get your own ideas on how you can use the details or techniques that you liked so much in this project. 

You will get a lot of satisfaction from creating your own unique layout and later showing it to the world to see.

The rules of the correct scrap lifting are:

-         When you publish your project on your blog or in an online gallery, always give credit to the author of the original project, which you scrap lifted. Give link to the author’s blog or give the name of the magazine and the number of the volume where you got inspirational from.

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If you save projects from internet for the future inspiration, always make a note of where you got it.

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Even if you can’t remember the name of the author or the source of the original project you scrap lifted, then simply mention that you copied the idea but can’t remember the name of the author. Very possible that soon someone will be able to tell you the name of the author.

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NEVER send scrap lifted projects for publications in magazines or books and for competitions. 

Also, you must never make kits for sale or teach classes based on a project that you scrap lifted.

Internet and magazines are wonderful way of finding inspiration but certainly not the only way. Just look around and you will see that the world is full of inspiration; one only needs to learn to notice it!

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Here are a few examples of scrap lifting taken form the challenge blog Scrap Lifting

The original work by Gerry van Gent...

... and scrap lifting of it by Svetlana Austin

The original project by Lene Neby...

... and scrap lifting of it by Victoria Freze

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We would like to hear from you what are your thought on this topic.

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Make sure to enter your project for our Sketch # 3 and Challenge # 3 (Rainbow) - there is a wonderful prize at stake!

Thank you for visiting Scrap Africa today! Have a wonderful week!