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*ooooh lookit*

it's all shiny and new.... and our new home so update your linkaroonies kids!

http://www.categorystories.wordpress.com/

go lookie at who won our November "PHONE" category (soooo cute!), and check out our rad December category.

xo xo

gossip girl..

oops, I mean The Category Stories Team.

*stay tuned*

Due to a bit of a technamalogical (as Homer Simpson would say) difficulty, we'll be back on the 8th with our November winner announcement, our fabulous December challenge, and a couple of other great surprises!

Happy December everyone!!! See you on the 8th!

*WE WANT YOU*

To join the Category Stories team.

YEP, we are saying goodbye this month to Martha and Cam (so sad to see you go girls, you’ll totally be missed like crazy!)

The search is on for some new Story Tellers, to join Jodie, Karin, Lee, Mandy and our NEW NEW NEW Story Teller STEPH, who was our fabulous November guest!

And it is super simple to apply if you’d like to be considered for the team.......

1. Complete the November, plus the upcoming December and January categories - creating a LAYOUT of your favourite size based on each category. (We are only accepting layouts as part of the Story Teller search to even the playing field a bit!)
2. Link us up to your pages as per usual in the comments section for the November, December and January prompts.
3. After you make your January page, EMAIL category (dot) stories (at) ymail (dot) com with the phrase STORY TELLER SEARCH in the title bar, and answers to the following questions in your email:
Your Name & Country:
Links to your blog or online gallery/ies:
Any other design teams you belong to (includes other challenge or inspiration blogs, online stores or manufacturers):
The links to your pages for November, December and January:
Tell us why you would like to become a Story Teller in five lines or less!:
(You can also ask any questions you might have about the team).
4. APPLICATION DEADLINE: January 15th

Please feel free to ask any questions to us privately via the email address, or in the comments to this post if you wish! We will amend this post with any questions asked and the answer if we feel it necessary.

FINE PRINT:
* You need to have your email to us by January 15th with links to the Nov, Dec & Jan category pages - you don't have to have your pages for Nov & Dec completed in the normal timeframe of the end of the month if you wish to just be considered for the DT, in case you find us for the first time after that month has passed! You just won't be eligible for the monthly prize draw.
* Jan 15th is the cut off date for Story Teller applications (pages for people who aren't applying are Jan 31 as per usual) to allow time for the new Story Tellers to get their creations done to upload on Feb 1 with the new team announcement.
* All people are welcome, including digi and hybrid peeps, from any country.
* You need to be able to commit to supplying at least one original creation (which is not limited to just layouts, it can be cards or other creations) per month based on the monthly category for inclusion on the Category Stories blog, for 6 months minimum period of Feb to July 2009.
* We have on occasion in the past each been given product sponsored to work with, but it is usually we use our own stash. Sometimes a prize might be sponsored to the months participant winner. Story Tellers contribute towards a RAK for a month we don't have a sponsor, so be prepared to be able to contribute a small amount on those sponsorless months (usually no more than $2.50US each). You will need an active and useable paypal account to be able to contribute. * There will be a number of positions to be filled (exact number to be determined), so please apply! We fully encourage those of you who have never been on a team before, we’d love to see your stuff. Likewise, if you are already on another team/teams but know you can meet the commitments listed above, please apply too!

THANK YOU AND GOOD LUCK - hope you have fun making your pages!

Cheers,

The Story Tellers!

*ICK* - its a WINNER!

Congrats to....

CASS - http://scrapcass.blogspot.com/ you were the winner of the random draw for our ICK category! *and congrats on the publish Cass - I just went to get your image and it is off for publishing - YAY YOU!*

Please email us (email info in the sidebar) and we can arrange your prize which is donated by our StoryTeller Lee this month - a $20 voucher to one of these stores - either KittyRobot Etsy; OR Elle's Studio Etsy; OR Every Jot & Tittle Etsy; OR SISTV -you choose!!

HOWZAT for a wicked prize!

YAY.

OK, don't forget to play along with our awesome NOVEMBER category. See you just might NEED to make the page, if you wanna join our team...*hint hint*.....whoops, gah, I may have said too much already...........BUT stay tuned for a pretty fabulous announcement next week OK!

You'll all love it I am sure, speshly the hardcore Category Stories fans!

CHEERS!

Ring, Ring why don't you

give me a calllllllll.

Yep, you know when I do the posts because I can't help singing!

Welcome to November (well almost anyway - it is about 3 hours to go here in Australia. Happy Halloween to the rest of you!!). It is the last month our lovely lovely LOVELY Lucy will be playing with us. And we have also bid farewell to the gorgeous and amazing Deanna. We'll miss you stacks girls!

We do have a fantastic, exceptional, ace, fabulous guest Story Teller this month - STEPH PEACHEY - aka skalovingeek . We love her style, and here is a little bit about her! (Isn't that the cutest photo too!)

"my name is stephanie peachey, im a 25 year old paediatric ITU nurse and i live in the UK with my fiance and our overweight cat. i got interested in scrapbooking in 2003 but couldnt afford to do it until i left uni in 2006. i love most crafty things but have too many ideas and not enough time so i tend to stick with paper! i love instant photography and am a total sci fi nerd!"

SO onto our November category - which is "PHONE" - your phone, your love of your phone, your hatred of the phone, your landline, your mobile/cell, why you can't leave your phone alone, why you wish it would never ring again. Which ever way you wish to take it!

And remember, we accept all creations here - paper/glue layouts, digi, hybrid, cards, ATC's, projects, WHATEVER floats your boat! Just use "Phone" as your theme! And swear words are allowed *ahem* I had better just clear that up seeing as mine has an f-bomb in the journaling...

ANYWAY, here's what the story tellers did!
Steph

Karin

Lee (yep, people who text message conversations to me instead of actually calling to speak totally drive me bonkers)
Lucy
Mandy (with a rockin card)

So please, play along and share your phone stories. Link up here by November 30th.

Tahtah,

The Category Stories Team!

Ick slide show

Anniversary Winners!!!!!

the winners of our Anniversary Challenge are...........


mandy
Kristi
babehs
pigmentations

Congrats!!!!!
please email us your mailing address, so that we can notify the sponsors!! Thanks for participating!!!

Icky Sticky October Challenge and the Gutter Girlz!!

This month we decided to do something CRAZY! We the storytellers, have teamed up with the super awesome and talented Gutter Girlz .
You're probably confused by this, so I will explain.
The Gutter Girlz took our challenge and we took theirs! Clear as mud. Right?
So, if you want to see what their challenge is and what we did with it you will have to pay them a visit.
Ok, so on to what our challenge is for you...... The category is ICK. It's that time of year for all things icky and such, so share an icky project with us!


Below, you will see what the Gutter Girlz did with our challenge.


Staci

Shirley

Rachel

Leah


Kristina



Amy

Christi


Christine


Glenda


Kris

Fabulous ladies!! Thanks so much!

Ok, so don't forget to link us to your ICKY projects (cards, layouts, ATCs, altered items etc.) by midnight October 31st!
And please stop by the Gutter Girlz blog for thier challenge and check out what we did with it!

*YAY*

We have a lovely, gorgeous, talented, fabulous new member of our Category Stories team....

Introducing...


KARIN from the Netherlands. Karin has the screen name of MeXx as many of you know her! She was our guest designer a little while ago and we had such a lovely time working with her we asked Karin to join!!!

Please make her welcome.

OK on to other stuff - don't forget to link up your pages by the 30th to be in the running for the totally ace prizes we have lined up this month!!

August winner!!!

wow!!! we had so many awesome submissions for this challenge!!! a big, huge thanks to everyone who participated in our sunshine challenge.

okay, now for the winner....

drum roll please....

Congrats Trish!!!!

please email us your address, and we will get a surprise package out to you!!!

Keep the Anniversary submissions coming folks!!!! we have lots of prizes to give away!! you have til midnight September 30th to get them posted in the comments or added to the slide show!

Anniversary slide show

Hey! Hey! They say it’s your birthday….
That’s right! Can you believe we have been challenging you for a whole year??? A whole year!?!?

Well, to celebrate our birthday here at Category Stories, we are going to look back at all the challenges we’ve done so far. Each member of the team has chosen their favorite challenge from the past year. And, here they are….


Heather's Something Spooky:


Cammeron's Guilty Pleasure:
Deanna's Crush:

Jodi's Day in the life of...:

Lee's Favorite Body Part:

Lucy's Dream:

Martha's Sunshine:

Mandy's Best Day(s) Ever:


So, the challenge for you my friends is to pick a previous challenge and go to work! This is your opportunity to catch up on one or two you may have missed. We are excited to see all the different entries this month!!

Here is a list of the past categories:
Crush
Body Parts
Fabulous
Guilty pleasures
Spooky
Warmth
Toys
Bad Hair
Your play list
Dreams
Best day ever
If I had a Million Dollars
Shoes
Relax
Candy
Arm chair travels
Childhood Character
A day in the life....
Sunshine

That's a lot to choose from!

And to top it all off we have 4 special sponsors this month!!!!

Every Jot and Tittle

Elle’s Studio

Maythird

Kitty Robot

Each one will be sending out a lil something! So, there will be 4 winners this month!!!

What are you waiting for?! Get scrappin’!!

Don’t forget to link us up to your creations (here in the comments section of this post) before midnight September 30th. OR once the slide show is posted, you can post your lo right to that!

Directions on how to post to the slide show:
When the slide show has ended, the screen changes and asks you if you want to subscribe. Just above that there is a tab that reads: Add your image. Click on that, and add your image. Don’t forget to add your name too! It’s super easy!!!

JULY WINNER....

Simona, can you please email us again with your address - the new email address is in the sidebar. Sorry for the inconvenience. Lucy is waiting to send out your fantastic scrapdiary papers!

It appears our old email account has an appetite for emails and ate some of them! And if anyone else has contacted us in the last two months, can you please resend? I know it is a pain, but we want to make sure we get back to everyone who may have emailed.

Thank you!

WOW we have had some fantastic submissions for the SUNSHINE category.

There are a few more days to submit, so please keep linking them up. Also, we haven't been able to comment on some pages as some of us don't have an account with your particular gallery, but please know we do look at all entries, and comment where possible.

And finally in this little update, please note we have a new email address if you need to contact us - it is over in the sideabar!

Check back on September 1 for our big 1st anniversary Category!

JULY WINNER....

And how cool, our ever gorgeous StoryTeller LUCY, on behalf of the fantastic Brasilian online scrap store SCRAPDIARY, will be sending our lucky winner some of her gorgeous, rare and oh-so-HOT line of papers!

Now for the winner.... here it is, the gorgeous page from SIMONA of Italy - thanks so much for joining in Simona!



Please email us your details and postal address at categorystories@sbcglobal.net with the words CATEGORY STORIES JULY WINNER in the subject line.

Thanks to everyone for playing along with us. Have you checked out our August Category of SUNSHINE yet - oh my goodness the pages that have been coming in are amazing!

And we have something ace in store for you next month - September is our blogs 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY (w00t) so it shall be super fun! Stay tuned.

Sunshine Slide Show!!

if you don't see your lo in our slide show, that means i had problems copying your image (this usually occurs with flickr). i will post a link to your lo OR you could add your image to the slide show yourself. it's very easy.

Instructions on how to add your image to the slide show:
When the slide show has ended it stops and it says "enter your email and slide.com will...."
if you look just above that, there are a set of clickable tabs, you want to click on "Add Image!"
just fill out the required fields and send it in and it will add your image to the slide show (upon approval)

Thanks to everyone playing along! There are some fabulous entries so far!!

Sunshine, lollipops and Rainbows...da da, da da dum. Ok so I really can't sing.

But Category Stories for August shall be a month of happy happy joy joy and all things light and pretty.

SUNSHINE is the theme kids! I know it has been summer for you northern hemisphere dwellers, so doing a sunshiney page should be a breeze. And for us southernites, winter is upon us so dream up those pages about those lovely sunshine filled days ahead!

And, I did say this month's category. Due to team hyperbusyness (new word) we are just floating one category this month - and depending on how it goes we may just do a monthly challenge in the future - so drop us a comment in and let us know which you prefer once or twice monthly challenges!

OK on to the pages...and we have also thrown in a card and an ATC just to switch it up a bit, so please feel free to submit any of your new sunshine related projects!

Deanna





Jodie



Lucy




Mandy (with a fabulous card!)





Martha




Lee (I am on an ATC roll at the moment!)



Due date for this challenge will be August 31, so please link your pages TO THIS POST by then.

Love,

your friendly Neighbourhood Category Stories Team

its that time again.....
time for a new category...

we want to know all about your favorite character from your childhood. did you run around in a cape like superman??
jam out to Jem?
spread love like the Care Bears??
climb trees like the Munchee-chees?
we want to know.


with all that out of the way, i would now like to introduce you to our guest designer!

her name is Karin Kreijen.

and here is what she has to say about herself....

Well i am karin and i am 29 years young, live in the south of the
neterlands together with my hubby mich and son Mexx and our two cats
poekie and dipsy. I work as a hair artist and have my own traveler
haircompany and i love that very much it is so creative..
I think now for almost 6 i fel in love with my hobby scrapbooking. My
sister came back from america and infected me with the scrapvirus so ...
when i see stuff back i see that my work is change and i like it .. I am
freestyle colourful crazy girl..i try to mixx non traditional stuff with
scrapstuff and paint ooooh i love that it is so fun to work with, and
trying new things ..so this was a dream come true to make this lo for
these wonderful girls thanks that you believe in me....


and here is what she did for us...




and here is what some of the other storytellers have done....

Sarah:
Lucy:

Mandy:
Lee: (who really really was not trying to be a Mandy copy cat, but She-Ra was so freaking amazing I couldn't not do a page on her...LOL!)

don't forget to link us up to your creations by midnight, July 31st!