Welcome to September and a new month of Challenges at Artfull Crafts. My nose is running today with hayfever ... and so we also welcome SPRING! That's the chosen theme this month (sorry to the Northern Hemisphere who are heading into Autumn!). We have some great new changes on how to enter the challenges too - so keep reading right to the bottom!

THEME IS SPRING FLING!!
Perhaps Spring reminds you of daffodils, gardening, lambs, bright, cherry colours or sneezing! Whatever springs to mind, make sure you capture it on paper and enter our challenge!

We've also received another fabulous sketch from Sketches in Thyme to help inspire us, and there are plenty of chances to win.

We offer prizes for these categories:
1) Overall Challenge Winner
2) Sketch Challenge
3) First Time Entrant
4) Commenting Prize (leave a comment on any of the Competition Gallery projects through the month and we'll choose a lucky winner!)

This month the prizes have been donated by Kaisercraft and will come from their new October Collection called Butterfly Kisses.

SKETCH
Get inspired by the sketch this month from Sketches in Thyme. Create layouts or cards and feel free to be creative in your interpretation.



NEW WAY TO ENTER THE CHALLENGE

We have set up a new Competition Gallery and you can upload your projects directly into the Gallery without having to email them to us! YAY!

With this new system you'll also be able to see what others have entered and comment on projects throughout the month. The Administrator will have to process your request (so don't stress if your project doesn't show up in the Gallery for a day or so!). Please submit a maximum of 3 projects per month.

Click this link to go to September then click on "Entry Form" and fill in the simple details.
1) Enter your name
2) Write a description (tell us if this is your first time entering, if it's based on the sketch and if your project has a special story behind it - we'd love to hear it!)
3) A blog link/url (if you have one)
4) Browse for your image (notes below on size)
5) Click Create Post

IMAGES
PLEASE don't upload images straight from your camera. They are too large and will slow down the viewing pleasure for everyone. Resize them first to anywhere between 500KB (or 600px wide). It's easy to do and we've even provided a link to a resizing tool on the entry form for you to do this AND a tutorial for those who want some more guidance.

HAVING PROBLEMS?
It's impossible to fail using the new system and it only takes 30 seconds! Please do give it a try. We think it's EASY!! If for some reason you are having difficulties, you could email us the entry at entries@artfullcrafts.co.nz  - but we probably won't put them up into the Gallery until the end of the month. By using this new form you will be saving us about 5 hours a month of work. That's 5 more hours of crafting!!

DEADLINE
All Artfull Crafts Challenges finish a couple of days before the end of the month. This gives us time to announce the winners on the last day of the month. This month, please submit your projects by Saturday 29th September. 

THANKS!
We look forward to seeing your projects and reading the comments as others are inspired by your work.

Here's a layout that reminds me of Spring 2009. We were lucky enough to go to Thailand to celebrate my brothers' wedding and enjoy the warmer climate for a few weeks!
Enjoy your crafting!
:-) Liz