December Challenge Winner and Highlights

December was such a hectic month for all of us and yet the mixed media cards in the gallery were nothing short of fabulous! Thank you so much to everyone who played along!

Here's the mixed media card that the design team voted as the winner:

#5 Mona Pendleton

Congratulations, Mona! Please grab your winner badge below to display proudly on your blog.

And now here are the highlights. The girls in the design team picked an entry to highlight. It's the entry that uniquely impacted us in some way -- a specific technique that was used, the colors, the creativity, or something in it that touched or impacted us.

Lyndal's and Julia's Hightlight: #11 Lula

Lyndal says, "Lula's fabulous white on white mixed media card features amazing depth and texture, all contained within this gorgeous house shaped card!"

Julia says, "I love the layers, the brick paste stenciling and beautiful layers of snowflakes - and the shape of her card!"

Loll's Highlight: #24 Ann Chuang

Lolls says,"Ann’s shaker card is an amazing example of CAS mixed media. Her fun and colourful snowy winter scene is adorable and made even better with the texture, depth and fun interactive element of the shaker card design."

Jan's Highlight: #10 Donna of Inky and Quirky

Jan says, "Donna's card showcases the use of her homemade stamps, a wonderful gelliplate print and fabulous use of color."

Sanna's Highlight: #4 Rahmat

Sanna says, "I love how beautifully this CAS card is done. The little white stitched pearls around the edge made me admire her patience. And the little house on the vellum piece is just too cute! Lovely card!"

Deepti's and Char's Highlight: #5 Mona Pendleton

Deepti says, "The details, colors and texturing on Mona's card are simply incredible. Congrats!"

Char says, "Love the details and beautiful texture!"

Maria F.'s Highlight: #26 Tenia

Maria says, "Cuz I just love that sentiment in the funky house."

Elina's Highlight: #9 Maura

Elina says, "Gorgeous CAS card with beautiful, soft colors."

Congratulations, ladies! Grab your badge below to display proudly on your blog.

Get your artsy supplies together and check back in tomorrow, Thursday, 6 a.m. PST (GMT -800) to see the first challenge we've got for the new year!

Be artsy. Be messy. Be creative! :o)

Challenge #6 One more dose of inspiration cards

Hello! The December Challenge ends in a little under 4 days so here's one last dose of mixed media goodness to inspire. Check them out and then link up your mixed media cards here! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

SHIRLEY

Silver embossing, die cuts, Stickles, Wink of Stella pen

*****

DEEPTI

Distress inks, embossing paste for snow, some die cuts trees and cork house makes for a CAS Mixed media card

*****

LYNDAL

Heart shaker card

*****

MARIA F.

Heat embossing, dry embossing, Glossy Accents, glitter, stitching and die cuts.

*****

JAN

Water stamping, distress ink watercoloring, acrylic paint and gold lame splatters, dimension-pearl paint and distressed edges.

Challenge #6 {More Cards to Inspire}

Hello! Here's a friendly reminder that the December Challenge is still running! A little over 10 days left, so I hope you'll play along :o)

Here are mixed media cards made by the fab ladies in the design team to inspire. Check them out and then link up your mixed media cards here!

SANNA

*****

JENNY

Watercolour, Distress ,arkers, Twinkling H2Os, and glitter

*****

JULIA

Layered die cuts, dry embossed background, Frantage Embossing Powders, sponged edges, Mirrored Stars inked with blue, die cut sentiment.

Challenge #6 Inspiration Cards

Have you played in this month's challenge? We've got a few mixed media cards below to inspire. Check them out and then link up your mixed media cards here!

JENNY

Dry embossing, heat embossing, distress markers, Wink of Stella, Colour Shine, Pan Pastel, Oil Pastel chipboard embellishments and die cutting

*****

JAN
Ornament-frayed cardboard box painted with white acrylic paint and mica flakes; water color focal background and stamped sentiments, sprayed perfect pearls, gold lame spray, distress edge with ink and with distressing tool, pipe cleaner ornament hanger, snowflake die cut from acrylic skin, water colored die cut bird; left border is jute ribbon with open weave; main background is distress stained with water stamping.

*****

SHERY

Background created by stamping, inking an embossing folder with Distress inks, sponging, and adding stickers; panel stamped with sentiment ("doors" and "walls" are words associated with "home"), distressed, then inked.

The Mixed Media Card Challenge #6 {Home}

We have a brand new challenge here at The Mixed Media Card Challenge! This month, our theme is "HOME". That's a pretty wide open theme. Our optional element: lace. Are you game?

HOW TO PLAY
1. Create a mixed media CARD based on the theme, with or without the optional element.
2. Display the challenge graphic on your blog post and link back to this challenge post.
3. You may enter as many times as you want, as long as each entry is different.
4. You may combine a maximum of 7 challenges (6 other challenges plus ours).
5. Submit your projects by December 25, 11:55 p.m. PST (GMT -800).
6. We'll announce the winner and highlights on December 31.

How did we interpret the theme? Take a look below. We hope our mixed media cards inspire you to play along with us! We look forward to seeing your beautiful cards!

 JENNY

Distress inks and pens, stamping and sponging. Color Shine spray, die cuts, wooden window coloured with paint, Wink of Stella for shimmer, twine, lace and wooden berries.

*****

LOLL

Falling snow background made with sparkle texture effect over polka-dot stencil. Houses stamped, coloured with copics, fussy-cut and popped up for added dimension. Ripped card stock for snow bank with glitter glue along top to add more sparkle.

*****

SANNA

Background made using a piece of lace as a stencil, then misted over it. Chipboard houses colored with markers, then added a layer of crackle accents. Wax crayon golden droplets, stamped sentiment and glitter glue covered chipboard hearts. Doodled faux stitching frame.

*****

JULIA

Mirrored stars layered onto snowy stamped sky, snowflake tinsel embossed roof tops, sponged edges on moon and die cut townscape, dimension added using foam dots under house panel, moon and sentiment strip. (I used lace on the inside of my card!)

*****

DEEPTI

Watercoloring a dry embossed panel with some die cut elements and cork embellishments makes for my mixed media card.

*****

CHAR

Watercoloring, embossing paste with stencil, glitter

*****

LYNDAL

Shaker box card, gold spray splatter base, clear "snow" glitter and red hearts inside the shaker, stamped in gold embossing powder with Countryside and stitched circle die-cut details.

*****

JAN

Background-flourish stamp in archival ink, colored wave stencil with distress stain and baby wipes, added texture paste to dotted circle stencil; Large Snowflake is a die cut acrylic skin (photo tutorial on blog); Snow Scene is stamped in archival ink; snow-white charcoal pencil, white acrylic paint and stardust pen accents. 

*****

MARIA F.

Dry-embossed and inked cardbase. Watercolored and stencilled main panel. Die cut images edged with artificial snow.

*****

KRIPA

Clear gesso on pattern paper followed by stamping and free hand watercolour and India ink painting

*****

ELINA

Background heavy aquarelle paper. Masked gel medium flowers, covered with several shades of green inks. Bottom part of card front decorated with small leaf stamps. Upper part inked with blue inks, splashed with water. Tree stems stamped on brown paper, cut out. Glued on green die-cut flowers. Little chipboard house colored with several layers of brown paint, parts of paint removed with a toothpick.

*****

SHERY

Background created with a thin layer of gesso, Distress paints, stamps, Distress inks, whipped spackle with Gelatos applied over a stencil, and Japanese watercolor brush pen for the distressed border; collage house and stamped trees using patterned paper; sentiment stamped on scrap paper and swiped with Distress ink.

November Challenge Winner and Highlights

Last month's gallery has got to be one of the most beautiful Christmas-themed galleries around! So many beautiful Christmas-themed mixed media cards were entered -- thank you, everyone, for playing!

Here's the mixed media card that the design team voted as the winner:

#54 Julie B

Congratulations, Julie! Your mixed media card is a work of art! Grab your winner badge below to display proudly on your blog.

Before we show the highlight entries, here are the winners of the random drawing sponsored by STAMPlorations. We used Random.org to draw the winners.

Randomly drawn from all the entries:

#29 Nikki Acton

Prize: choice of 3" by 5" stamp set available here

Randomly drawn from the entries with the optional element (bells):

#15 Paper Talk With Samra

Prize: $15 gift certificate to the STAMPlorations shop

Congratulations, Nikki and Samra. Please send an email to sheryruss@gmail.com to claim your prize.

And now here are the highlights. Each of us in the design team picked an entry to highlight. It's the entry that uniquely impacted us in some way -- a specific technique that was used, the colors, the creativity, or something in it that touched or impacted us.

Loll's Highlight: #54 Julie B

Loll says, "Julie's watercolored card is elegant and sophisticated. Her masking and layering of the poinsettias creates such depth, even though it is one layer. The raised design of the white embossed word background adds more visual interest and depth. Amazing card, Jules!"

Sanna's Highlight: #50 WeiWei

Sanna says, "I really liked this card alot. The stamped background is cheerful and happy and the stenciled bells match the challenge theme perfectly. The idea of adding a shaker inside the wreath makes the card extra interesting. Such lovely work and a beautiful outcome, Wei Wei!"

Kripa's and Shery's Highlight: #49 Samra

Kripa says, "Samra had two very beautiful entries this month and I had a tough time picking one to highlight. Entry #49 felt like the prefect Christmas card. Rustic and traditional yet interesting with many textures and details - combination of red and green against a woodgrain background, the wreath and bow and the beautiful glittery bells. Beautiful work Samra!"

Shery says, "Samra's card is stunning -- the layers, texture, and traditional Christmas colors. I fell in love with its rustic/shabby feel!"

Jenny's Highlight: #23 Karen D

Jenny says, "Karen had lots of gorgeous entries of various colours. I loved them all, but I've chosen this one because I love the technique and the amazing pop of the white snowflake on the bright Copic background!"

Lyndal's Highlight: #42 Pamellia

Lyndal says, "The mixed media detail in this just takes my breath away - right down to those gorgeous bells as the centre of the poinsettia - just FABULOUS!"

Deepti's Highlight: #3 Maura

Deepti says, "The inking in Maura's card is flawless and silhouette adds a perfect touch of elegance."

Jan's Highlight: #39 Karen D

Jan says, "Karen used 3 non-traditional colors and several techniques to create a beautiful holiday card with lots of depth. Awesome use of the salt technique!"

Elina's and Maria F.'s Highlight: #43 Yvonne Yam

Elina says, "Love the simplicity of the design. Carefully selected elements on a gorgeous background. Less is more!"

Maria F. says, "What can I say, I'm a CAS-loving gal and this card has so much dimension and texture but still so much wonderful white space."

Maria L.'s Highlight: #25 Barb Housner

Maria L. says, "I just love all the layers and texture she used on this amazing snowman card! LOVE LOVE IT!"

Congratulations, ladies! Grab your badge below to display proudly on your blog.

Get ready because tomorrow, we've got a brand new challenge for December! Get your artsy supplies together and check back in at 6 a.m. PST (GMT -800) to see what we've cooked up for the December challenge!

Be artsy. Be messy. Be creative! :o)