Welcome to 52 Sketches 52 Weeks!!  We are here to provide scrappers with weekly inspiration, ALL YEAR LONG!! Each Sunday a new sketch will be provided & readers will have one week to submit their layouts based on the sketch.  All entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. EST time Sunday. In order to submit you must become a member of our Ning online community. To do so please check out the link under the Gallery tab. Oh, and yes - there are prizes!!!  One winner will be randomly drawn each week to receive some scrapbook goodies!!  Can’t wait to see your layouts!

Our Designers:

Hello, my name is Julie Bonner & I am the site coordinater for 52 Sketches 52 Weeks.  I am a SAHM to my adorable 2 year old son, Ryan, and have been married to my husband, Justin, for 5 wonderful years! I have always enjoyed preserving pictures, cards, newspaper clippings, and mementos in albums but it wasn’t until the birth of my son that I threw myself completely into all the wonderful products & techniques the industry has to offer. I love to use hand-sewing, inking, pen detail, stamping, and distressing techniques to add that perfect touch to my projects - while still maintaining a focus on photos. Scrapbooking has been a gift that allows me to preserve my family’s precious memories while providing me with a satisfying, creative outlet. In January 2008 I began playing around with creating sketches while beginning a weekly challenge site.  The site has grown TREMENDOUSLY in the past year and we were able to expand to a full online community - a site filled with wonderful members & tons of inspiration.  I am so happy & honored to be part of this wonderful 52 Sketches 52 Weeks family!

Julie’s Blog:  Starting Now

Hi, I’m Jenn and I call Michigan home. I am 29 years old and have been scrapping for the past four years and am totally hooked. I love felt, chipboard, ribbon, and patterned paper to name a few. I am a middle school English teacher and love working with kids. I have been teaching for the past four years but have been in education in some form for seven years. It is often a thankless job but I really believe that God has put each child in my life and I in theirs for a reason. When I am not at school I am scrapping, reading about scrapping, shopping for scrap supplies, or talking about scrapping. I love everything about it. And when I am not scrapping I like to read, watch scary movies, reality tv, and spend time with family and friends.  I am very excited to be a part of the 52 Sketches team!

Jennifer’s Blog:  Pictures & Words

I’m Amy Harle from Jamesville, NY (just outside of Syracuse) and I’ve been scrapping for about seven years.  I’ve been married to Fred, a custom cabinet and furniture maker, for 11 years and we have two beautiful girls - Olivia (7) and Ava (4).  I work full-time for a small financial services company (although I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!!).  My job revolves around rules and regulations so scrapbooking is definitely a much-needed creative outlet.  My style tends to be on the simple side but sometimes I like to shake it up and get shabby.  My biggest love right now is ruffles; whether it’s paper or ribbon, I can’t seem to get enough ruffles!!  I’m honored to be a part of the 52 Sketches…52 Weeks team and look forward to a fantastic term. 

Hi, I’m Tanya. I live in British Columbia, Canada with my husband Shawn and our three boys, Brandon who is 7, Connor who is 5, and Logan who is almost 3. I started scrapbooking in 2003 as a way to preserve and record my family’s genealogy. My original intention was to only create a family history album and be done with it. As you can see, that plan went out the window fairly quickly! Now, I like to scrapbook the details of our everyday lives. I am one of those people with a terrible memory for details, and scrapbooking is my way of making sure I don’t forget the stories of us. My scrapping style is clean and linear, and I try to keep the focus on the photos. My favourite tool is my ruler, and although my scrappy friends always give me a hard time, I love using my laser level to keep my titles straight. Sketches are a staple for me, and they are the first thing I reach for when starting a layout. I love that they open up so many possibilities, while also giving me a guide and taking some of the time-consuming design process off my shoulders. I am thrilled to be a part of the design team here at 52 sketches…52 weeks!

Tanya’s Blog:  Moment Captured

I come from a family of crafters.  My mother, grandmother and aunts tried for years to get me to join them in their projects.  I never enjoyed sewing or the other things they did.  My mother begged me to attend a crop with her in December 2005 so that we could “spend some quality time together”.  It was a trap and I felt straight into it.  One single crop and I went crazy!  It was so much fun and I found that I was pretty good at it as well.  My mother bought my supplies for Christmas, I gathered my holiday photos and away I went.  I’m not sure what I did before all  these life changing moments.  I think I used to read and watch movies.  My full time job is mother to three amazing, energetic boys and wife to a very generous man.  My part-time job is a freelance designer for 3Birds papercrafting products.  You should probably know that I went to design school at the University of Cincinnati and got a degree in Interior Design.  Before I “retired” to become a full-time mother I used to design retail stores, malls and really big signs.  I like this job but it was very demanding.  I decided that the biggest thing I want to design from now on has to fit on a 12 x 12 piece of paper.  I am very familiar with Photoshop and know how to do digital scrapbooking but prefer not to.  The process of making something with my hands is very rewarding.

Laina’s Blog:  Life on the Lamb

I’m Pearl , from Sunny  Singapore, and SAHM to two wonderful kids . I first started scrapbooking after my wedding in 1993, without using any acid-free products.  There were very few acid-free products available then here.  Needless to say, that album is now yellow with age!  After the birth of my daughter in 1995, I started cardmaking via punchart and acquired the tools, punches, and papers in hopes that they would be useful for my kids at the right age.  Well, I’m still the main user of all that product and tools!  From 2006, onwards, there was a shift in products available in the papercraft industry and I started using more scrapbooking products in my cardmaking.  Magazines and online galleries were full of inspiration, so by October 2006 I started scrapbooking again and have never looked back since.  I’m quite the sketch-o-holic too, so I’m abslutely thrilled and honored to be part of the 52 Sketches 52 Weeks Design Team and community.  

Pearl’s Blog:  Each Day 

Hi-ya!  My name is Amy, although most people call me Ames.  I am currently a SAHM to 3 absolutely beautiful children; Kayla (9), Kyrsten (5), and Koen (2), and the wifey of 9 years to my high school sweetheart, Travis.  We are the typical Military family and absolutely love the lifestyle it has provided us. We take the good with the bad!  Being a mother of 3 active and rapidly growing children has definitely given me the boost I needed to get in gear with my scrapbooking!  I just love capturing moments on a page so later in life my family can look back and just remember the little things!  That’s what really matters to me….and hey; I get to have a blast doing it!  It can’t get much better that that!  I am just so excited to be a part of the 52 Sketches 52 Weeks design team and I look forward to scrapping it up with you all each week!

Amy’s Blog:  Pieces of Me

Sherry Steveson has been passionate about scrapbooking for over ten years. Finding a hobby that merged her love for photography with her gift of writing, all wrapped up in a creative outlet was the catalyst for a life long devotion. Her work has been published in many of the major scrapbook magazines and idea books and always brings a thrill to her family when they see their faces on the pages of those publications, and she is the author of When Life Gives You Lemons and the soon to be released The Scrapbook Embellishment Handbook  (Memory Makers Books). She has also found her calling in the world of teaching scrapbooking to others.  When she isn’t writing, scrapbooking or teaching, she has a very full schedule with her three children and husband’s landscape business and training to run a marathon.

Sherry’s Blog:  Sassy Schtuff