New quarterly blog hop for SG sketch fans!

Today, we're turning the blog over to Ruth Bonser from Australia. Ruth is a long-time SG fan/customer/friend, and she's also an extremely accomplished and talented scrapbooker and blogger. Recently, she had three beautiful layouts published in the first issue of a new Australian online magazine: "Life. Paper. Scrapbook."

Ruth has come up with an exciting way to motivate all of us to scrapbook more, and share more. We'll let her explain what she has planned...

Ruth Bonser:

Come and join the party!

Who wants to see a whole lot more layouts using the amazing sketches by those talented girls from Scrapbook Generation?

Hi SG Fans, it's Ruth here and I am planning a party with you all to encourage everyone to get out their sketches and scrapbook. There were so many amazing layouts submitted in the NSD challenges and I can't wait to see some of them showing up here on the blog. After all, one of the best things about SG sketches is that they are great for beginners or for someone who has been scrapbooking since the sticker sneeze was cool, they are universally useful.

So we're having a Super-fun Sketchy Soiree every three months on the blog for all you sketch lovers out there. On the first Monday in June, September, December and March, we will have the SG Sketch Lovers blog hop starting here on the Scrapbook Generation blog and blog hopping to everyone who would like to share a layout using one of the Scrapbook Generation sketches. You may use your SG monthly kits, your printed books and e-books, Sketch Support sketches, or the downloadable products form the SG online store.

If you want to join in you have two options:

1) If you own a blog then you need to email me (ruth.bonser@gmail.com) by the 1st of June with your blog address to let me know that you will have a blog post up and ready on the following Monday. I will reply to you by email  confirming your involvement. I will supply you with some text to include in your blog post closer to the time and will also let you know the time to have it posted at, so that they are all there at the same time.

2) If you do NOT own a blog but want to share a layout, please email me (ruth.bonser@gmail.com) a link to your layout in an online gallery (e.g. 2peas or  flickr), along with a couple of words about you, which sketch you used and anything you want to add about your layout. I will then include those in a blog post specially created for those without a blog, so that everyone is able to be involved.

PRIZES!

It's always more fun with prizes involved, so there will be two prizes at each blog hop party, one will be randomly given to one of the participants and one will be randomly chosen from all the comments left by the readers. Those who are part of the blog hop can also leave comments, so they get twice as many chances to win. Comments will be able to be left at every hop, so there are lots of chances to comment to win while getting inspiration to use your sketches and see what your fellow SG fans are doing with their kits and sketch books.

I want everyone to know that this is a very welcoming party. Please don't feel shy if you are a beginner or have a new blog, everyone is welcome and we would love to see what you are working on! It encourages others to get out their kits and create with you. In a scrappy world where many of us live far away from those we love to chat with about scrapbooking, this is the next best thing to having a scrapbook get-together!

I hope you will join in the party and get creating, please leave any questions in the comments below and I will answer them. I am really excited to see what you create!