WINNERS - Challenge #8 - You've Got Happy Mail

Hi, Niki here,

2015 is done and gone but not forgotten. We are so thankful here at Anything But Cute to continue our creative journey and share with all of you lovelies. I am tickled pink with all the entries into our  #8 You've Got Happy Mail challenge. I bet the Post Office was overflowing with wonderful designs and perhaps a few (okay, more than a few) smiles for the Happy Mail. After a long and arduous decision making process I have chosen the winner of my challenge:

WINNER -#30-Elli

This card is luscious with the metallics and grunge! Elli used a lot of leftovers from previous designs and you would never know it because everything flows together so smoothly. I love that grunge and delicate are in this design. The elegant filigree and the soft polka dot paper=awesome sauce! Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous! I bet the recipient of this Happy Mail was ecstatic!

Congratulations Elli! Pamellia will be in touch by email to send you a personalized winner's badge and to provide details about being our Guest Designer for the next challenge.

RUNNER-UP -#20 Max

I chose this lovely Nativity Scene because it captures the spirit of the season and showcases the meaning of the holiday. I love how dimensional this card is but at the same time it is flat for easy mailing. Did you see it has 4 layers? Say what? Yeppers, wowzers! There are so many wondrous techniques used on this card and that punch star is the perfect finishing touch!

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Now let's have a look at our DT favourites:




Anne's Favourite - #37 - LISA F

Lisa's shabby chic Christmas card is so elegant in the white and gold, I love all the layering of the die cuts, the gorgeous lace and the shabby bow.  The handmade shabby poinsettias really do steal centre stage, they are so incredibly beautiful.

Branka's Favourite - #4 MARCH/CORINNE DE FRANCE

This wintery mixed media piece of art is absolutely stunning with fantastic textures and beautiful colours! I especially love those touches of gold and silver and such awesome use of pearls and beads! The center piece is so elegant and vintage looking! Simply brilliant! 

Cec's Favourite - # 9 Silje Kristin

This card made with Maja papers is stunning with all the layers and the unique shape.  I love how the frosting has been added to everything and that the back of the card has a special place to add a personal note to the recipient.

Pamellia's Favourites :

As an extreme card lover, I found it especially difficult to narrow down my favourites this month. I usually choose two that stand out to me, but I just couldn't get there...so this month, I have three!

12. Coldwaters2

I am completely drawn in by the traditional reds and greens on Lorraine's card! There are so many wonderful details included, like pom pom trim, snowflakes, poinsettias, and even a glittery Christmas tree!! What an amazing festive creation!

36. Sanderijn de Bruin

There's no escaping my affinity for blues this year and I just melted the minute I saw Sanderijn's stunning tag! Layer upon layer of shimmering blue tones with splashes of metallic blue for that extra pop! The silver accents are just icing on the cake, and that deer atop the big shabby bow...WOWZERS!!

48. Jacquie's Jewels

There's just no escapin the fact that if I was a 2D, 3 inch tall person, this is where I would want to live! Jacquie has created a winter scene that is so realistic, at first I thought it was a digital printout!! So much atmosphere and it was done by hand, WHAT!!! Now that's amazing talent!

Samra's Favourite - #31 Julie Lavalette

I have "a thing" for Christmas Wreaths: love to see them hanging on the homes' front doors, inside the home, on the cards, you name it! Julie captured the spirit of the season so perfectly with this gorgeous card and the vintage feel to it makes it even more beautiful.

Sara Emily's Favourite -# 24 Strangly Creative

As usual there were so many wonderful creations, but I just had to choose Cathryn's sensory card as my favorite.  Not only is it beautiful in it's color and design, it was made with the recipient in mind, who is partially sighted.  Cathryn's thought was to make her card larger and include many tactile elements so her friend could "see" it! She even included the sense of smell on her card! Be sure to visit her blog to see how she did that!  Bravo, Cathryn!

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We have a special award to give out this month to one of our favourite artists. She has been with us since we started and never misses a challenge. Her work is just beyond amazing and the entire team loves her creativity and her style.  

Last month her entry was one of our favourites, but unfortunately, it didn't follow our challenge theme. To read her post about WHY it doesn't follow the theme, will leave you in stitches! What an amazing sense of humour and ability to laugh when things go wrong. We have all been there and completely understand, so to the very amazing...

Joi - Joi at the Ranch
...congratulations, you had the best Non-Themed Project!

Here is some of Joi's previous works - if you're looking for inspiration, here it is!!

    

Joi - may you always keep your sense of humour and the entire team sends a thank you for being so loyal and for lighting up our challenges with your art and your spirit!!

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Honourable Mentions

10. Sew Paper Paint     14. Jane's Journal      15. pearshapedchris      17. Lee-Anne

      

21. Liz        28. Paper Profusion       29. Sathya Kala        34. Alison/Craftytrog

      

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A huge congratulation everyone! Thank you so much to everyone who played along with us last month and don't forget to grab your badges! You earned them!!

There is still plenty of time to enter Anne's current challenge "Ring Out the Old - Bring in the New"! We can't wait to see what you come up with this time!

Hugs to all, from the 'Anything But Cute' Design Team

Challenge #9 - Ring out the Old, Bring in the New

Hello Everyone!

Anne here and I am your hostess this for this month's challenge here at Anything But Cute. Thank you so much for all your fantastic entries to our December challenge, it was wonderful to see how the challenge inspired you! There must be some delighted recipients of happy mail out there! Don't forget to check back with us next Tuesday, the 12th, when Niki and the team announce the winners of the 'You've Got Happy Mail' challenge. Now on to this month's theme.

If you are anything like me, you will will no doubt receive crafty gifts for Christmas and Birthdays each year, some of which may remain unused for many months or even years.... I think a few of you might be nodding yes!   I felt inspired to create a challenge to deal with that very issue, and I hope the challenge will inspire you to use some of that new stash too!

RING OUT THE OLD, BRING IN THE NEW

To celebrate the New Year, we would like you to create a mixed media card or project using something 'new', perhaps you got some fabulous new craft item for Christmas or you have something new that you have not used yet - just remember to tell us what the new item is! 

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And now for some inspiration from the talented Anything But Cute design team!

Anne - Redanne

For my birthday and Christmas this year I received some beautiful Sandra Evertson Archival Casts, by Prima and I really wanted to use this beautiful Archangel.  It just seemed right to create a shrine for the Archangel . I used Andy Skinner's mega crackle technique to create the shrine and I also used my new Tim Holtz flower punch to create some flowers to decorate the shrine.  You can find more detail on my blog.

Branka - Vintage Handmade

Happy New Year! I have used some of my new Amsterdam acrylic paints in creating this vintage art journal page. I have also used my fluorescent oil pastels, Distress stains, Inktense pencils, Dylusions sprays, some stamps and embellishments. 

Cec - CW Card Creations

I have used new tags that my husband brought home when he cleared out his desk last week and retired :).  The tags are all inked with some new distress inks, stenciled and stamped.  I have also added some altered metal, painted cardboard and dyed fibres.

Niki - Pawsitively Creative Crafts

All of the art supplies I used are NEW. This is also a new look for me, as I have never made a "white space" design that actually turned out okay. I have used my new LSG Magicals, new modeling paste, new rope, new micro beads and so much more! Such a fun nautical tag all designed around the heart knot. Just learned how to tie the heart rope knot today. Carpe Diem to 2016! Hugz!

Pamellia - My Little Craft Things

For my something new, I have made this New Years canvas with some products I had on hand that I have never used, as well as some new products that I got for Christmas. For the tutorial portion of my project this month, I have put together a video of how I made my canvas. I do hope you enjoy.

Canvas Series 101 - New Years Fireworks 

Samra - Paper Talk with Samra

I used a Spellbinders Sentiment 5 die I got for Christmas from my son :) Of course, I added lots of texture paste, paint and clay mold embellishments to fit into our challenge mixed media style, but still kept it quite Shabby Chic.

Sara Emily - sarascloset

Happy New Year! To make a monetary gift wallet I used my never-before-used-by-me but not so new deer dies, inks, paints, Crackle paint, embossing powders, and glitter. Please stop by my blog for details on how I made this snowy scene and how I kept the "bucks" from falling out.

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In the short time I have been a member of this team I have seen some truly inspirational work by my talented team-mates and this month is no exception. Please hop over to the team blogs to see more photos and get some details on how these projects were made. And don't forget to leave some bloggy love while you're there.

I hope that we have inspired you to get out some of that new stash, or stash you have squirreled away and forgotten about and create a project for this challenge... please do remember to tell us what that new item is.

The winner will receive the honour of being our Guest Designer for an upcoming challenge!

Here at Anything But Cute we just love to see all the seasoned and expert mixed media artists, but we also want to encourage those who are just getting their feet wet. Our design team will always be on the lookout for these exceptional projects and artists. You just never know when we might be giving out something special to a lucky mixed media newcomer. We all have to start somewhere, right?

Challenge runs until February 4th - we can't wait to see what you come up with! Happy Crafting from the entire team and thanks for visiting Anything But Cute!

Don't forget - We are looking for a 'new' PRODUCT.
not a 'new' technique, products only please.

An InLinkz Link-up

WINNERS - Challenge #7 - It's Ornamental

Hello Everyone, Pamellia here,

I can't believe 2015 has come to a close, wow!! Thank you so much to everyone for all of your support and for all of the amazing art you enter into our challenges every month!! With the holidays just around the corner, I am giving my lovely ladies a break until the New Year, so we won't be having a Feature Artist Post this month or a Spotlight Post this month. Our current challenge "You've Got Happy Mail" will remain open until January 4th, and the Design Team will be back to visit all of your wonderful projects first thing in the New Year.

From the entire team, we wish everyone a 

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

source

Take it away Cec!

Cec here to bring you the winners from our It's Ornamental challenge in November. As always, we had a lot of fantastic entries and when you see such wonderful eye candy it sure is difficult to choose just one winner.  However, I stuck with it and after much back and forth, I made my selection for winner and runner-up, so without further ado:

WINNER - #10 - Lisa F

I chose this entry because Lisa gave us not one but two wonderful ornaments that are chock full of mixed media loveliness and just scream Christmas.   I just love all the crackle, the poinsettias, ribbon and frosted greenery.  Even though they are both unique, they have elements that tie them together so they will look fabulous together on the tree.

Congratulations Lisa!  Pamellia will be in touch by email to send you a personalized winner's badge and to provide details about being our Guest Designer for the next challenge.

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RUNNER - UP



#6 - Mona Pendelton

This ornament and all the others that Mona made in this collection are stunning.  I love the use of  vintage tart tins with the added sparkle and the dyed trees and coordinating ribbon.  The baubles added to the bottom of each ornament are also so vintage looking and a perfect additional embellishment.

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We have a special award to give out this month to a very talented artist who wowed us with her incredible snowy 3D scenes. She entered three projects and every one of them was just as magical as the next!! Turning paper into a winter wonderland isn't easy, and making it so beautiful that we wish we could shrink ourselves down to a few inches tall just so we can live there...well, that's incredible!! KRISTIN, you have...

OUTSTANDING TECHNIQUE

Silje Kristin

If you haven't been to visit Kristin, I highly recommend you go and soak in some of the magical creations she puts together!!

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Now let's have a look at our DT favourites:

 #16 Paper Profusion

Branka's Favourite - This 3D outstanding piece of art has stolen my heart! Fantastic detailed crafting gem with so many amazingly arranged elements! Absolutely brilliant design!

Anne's Favourite - It was an incredibly difficult job to select just one from all the gorgeous entries we had!  I am totally in love with Nicola's beautiful little Christmas house with all the vintage details and wonderful textures.  It is a beautiful piece of home décor.

Sara Emily's Favourite - I have never seen such an amazing collection of ornaments in one place! I wish I could have picked them all as my favorite!  But in the end, I chose Nicola's 3D Christmas wonderland!  Every inch of this amazing creation is so carefully thought out and executed!  I fell in love with her layered Christmas tree around the side!  Please pop over to her blog to see all the amazing details, as one photo just isn't enough!

Niki's Favourite - #36 IrinaR

This design captured my heart! I love the textures, the pop of color and the images. That wolf is gorgeous and oh so like my dear Nanook! All of these animals are integrated into this design flawlessly. The real kicker is when you see the full design and the reds! Swoon!

Pamellia's Favourites

#32 - Kathy

There are so many things about this sleigh that I love, it's hard to narrow it down to a favourite!! I love the refurbishing of something that otherwise might end up in the bin. I love the colours, the white just pops and the red explodes against those rich grey tones! And wow, that texture is just incredible! Those little red pom poms and big glittery snowflakes are so festive...SQUEAL!! 

38. Liz's creative corner

It is hard to resist this luscious wreath!! All the earthy tones and bits of real nature just drew me right in, and then I melted over those fuzzy white poinsettias and big burlap bows!! The only thing missing is some reindeer...NO, WAIT...it has that too! Just love it! It's worth noting that I was vry torn between this wreath and Liz's other entry, a stunning 3D treeline. You can find it HERE...totally worth checking out!

Samra's Favourite -Lisa #10

Gorgeous textures, airy look, festive and heartwarming!

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Honourable Mentions

There were so many amazing Christmas ornaments and decorations this month, I just couldn't keep it to just four! 

4. Chrissy            18. Nicole Wright           26. Cathryn             27. Lydia x

      

28. Corinne R.             31. IrinaR                41. Sharon             44. Ink-A-Pink

      

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We would like to take a minute to send out a warm welcome to a new mixed media artist on the scene. From the entire team at Anything But Cute...we welcome

Donna - Room in a Cupboard

Donna entered this gorgeous ornament, a wonderful mixed media piece!! Way to get messy with it Donna!! We hope to see much more of your gorgeous work in the future!

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A huge congratulation everyone! Thank you so much to everyone who played along with us last month and don't forget to grab your badges! You earned them!!

Merry Christmas to all, from the 'Anything But Cute' Design Team!