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23 January, 2017

January 2017 Mini Challenge - ONE!

Hello and welcome to our first Mini Challenge for 2017!

The word we've chosen this month has special significance. It's 
More Than Words' first birthday so we chose the word ONE.
We've had a wonderful first year and are looking forward 
to sharing many more with you all. 

Usually you have to use the actual word on your project in the 
Mini Challenges but, just this once (because it's our birthday), 
we've decided that you can choose to use the number 1 if you prefer.

Here is our new challenge board:
Here's how it works:

The Mini Challenge runs on the last week of each month and is for
cards, tags and ATCs only. (ATCs, or Artist Trading Cards, are small works of art, about 2.5 by 3.5 inches or 64 x 89mm). This challenge requires you to use a specific word on your project. We must see the actual word (except for this month - see above). You have only one week - until the last day of the month - 
to enter, so be quick!

Entry for the Mini Challenge is only via our Facebook page 
under the relevant post. 

The winner will receive a $25 USD voucher from Dusty Attic, 
our fabulous Mini Challenge sponsor.

And just to sweeten the deal, all our prizes 
include free shipping to anywhere in the world!

You can see all our rules under the Rules tab at the top of this blog.

Has our word inspired you to create something yummy? Here's what 
our Design Team came up with:

Nicole Doiron - Card

Kareen Dion - Tag


Di Garling - Card




Valerie Ouellet - Cards


Pamela Ellis - ATC

We hope this inspires you to give the challenge a go!

You have until 11:55 pm EST on Tuesday the 31st of January to get 
your entries in right HERE so get your crafting on!











16 January, 2017

Special Guest Spotlight on
Nadia Cannizzo


We are absolutely thrilled to present to you today
our Special Guest Designer for January!


Nadia Cannizzo is a legend in the online scrapbooking community!
She is the founder of one of the all time most popular sketch challenge blogs, 
that has since been retired, called Once Upon a Sketch.
She is also an incredibly talented artist who has designed for many fabulous
manufactures and continues creating gorgeous art pieces!

Learn a bit more about Nadia as she introduces herself:

"Hi! I am Nadia from Sydney, Australia... wife, mother, primary school teacher, 
lover of movies, cooking and paper crafting. I desire nothing more in life 
than health for myself and the people I love as well as love, peace, 
tranquility and lots and lots of alone time."

You can find Nadia and see more of her art at the links below!
BLOG  -  FACEBOOK  -  INSTAGRAM  -  YOUTUBE

Here is a reminder of our January CELEBRATE & BLING challenge
that inspired Nadia's beautiful project which immediately follows immediately:





Here is how Nadia describes how she was inspired by our word:

"Being January, the obvious reason to CELEBRATE would be having 
a New Year among us.  Although this may be true, for me celebrating love 
is something that should be done daily, and this is the inspiration behind 
my 'Celebrating Love' canvas. The word 'love' is thrown around 
very casually these days, but real love is very hard to find, 
and when you do it's worthy of celebration."

And this is how Nadia incorporated our BLING creative challenge:

"I used a lot of glass glitter and shimmery paints as well 
as sequins to add some BLING to my project."

What a wonderful mixed media canvas that shows the true extent
of this wonderful artist's talent and creativity!
There are so many details to admire from the beautifully textured base
to the framed shadow box effect containing bling galore!

Here are some close-ups:

 


A huge THANK YOU to Nadia for agreeing to be our January Special Guest!

As for all of you, we thank all who have linked up already 
(so many outstanding entries already!)
and really hope that more of you will 'celebrate' with us this month.

Link up your project in our sidebar by January 31st.

08 January, 2017

Announcing our December Winners!!!


It's the 8th of the month and we all know what that means!


December is always a slower month, crafting wise, but that is to be expected
because of the holidays and quality time spent celebrating and creating memories
with family and friends!  We thank all of you who still took the time to participate
as we still had an impressive amount of entries, each and every one as beautiful
as the next and certainly all deserving of a prize!

But, as difficult as it may be, we had to choose winners
so, without further ado, here they are...



MAIN CHALLENGE WINNER

Congratulations Anastasi! 
You are the winner of our December Main Challenge!
Anastasi, please contact Tracey at tracey(at)lindystampgang(dot)com
to claim your $50 USD value prize from LINDY'S.


4 RUNNERS UP

GALINA STEPANOVA (entry #12)
Galina, please contact Anna at skelp(at)lemoncraft(dot)pl
to claim your $25 USD value prize from LEMONCRAFT.


EIRINI TSAIMA (entry 29)
Eirini, please contact Vanessa at salesat2crafty(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au
to claim your $25 USD value prize from 2CRAFTY CHIPBOARD.


FRANCE RINGUETTE (entry #11)
France, please contact Pamela at langeatheart(at)hotmail(dot)com
to claim your $25 USD value prize from MORE THAN WORDS.
(Due to unfortunate events, we had to replace the previously announced prize from 
The Flying Unicorn by a prize package donated by one of our very own Admin Pamela Ellis.)


BEATRIZ B-ARTE (entry 25)
Beatriz, please contact Aida at 13arts(at)wp(dot)pl
to claim your $25 USD value prize from 13ARTS.


RANDOM WINNER




OLGA BIELSKA (entry 5)
Olga, please contact Camilla at camilla(at)majadesign(dot)nu
to claim your $25 USD value prize from MAJA DESIGN.


MYSTERY WINNER

SHIRA MANOR (entry 6)
We had quite a few contenders this month for the Mystery prize.
A lot of you have really showed true creative genius and it was so hard to choose!
Our choice finally landed on Shira's canvas because we loved the way
that she used our word to focus on a wedding tradition rather
that the more obvious holiday inspired theme of our challenge.
We were also blown away by the handmade dress that she added to her project!

Shira, please contact Tanya at fabrikadecoru(at)gmail(dot)com
to claim your $25 USD value prize from FABRIKA DECORU.


MINI CHALLENGE WINNER

Lydia, please contact Pamela at langeatheart(at)hotmail(dot)com
to claim your $25 USD value prize from THE DUSTY ATTIC.


LUCKY COMMENTER


Helen, please contact Pamela at langeatheart(at)hotmail(dot)com
to claim your $25 USD value prize from GRAPHIC 45.


Lastly, these participants didn't quite make it into our prize winning list, 
but having received a high number of votes in our Main Challenge, 
we think that they very much deserve an HONOURABLE MENTION:

AMELIE JUTRAS (entry 22)
VASSO SOFOU (entry 8)
SCRAP BY ESZTER (entry 33)
MARIA KOZLOVA (entry 36)
ANNA ROGALSKA (entry 28)
HEATHER (entry 13)


Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to all our participants!

We encourage all our merit winners, honourable mentions and participants 
whose projects we have featured on our Facebook page throughout the month
to grab your badge from our left sidebar and proudly display it on our blog.
These badges have been made especially for you!

To learn more about all our wonderful and very generous sponsors,
please click on the SPONSORS tab above.

***

Our January CELEBRATE & BLING Main Challenge is currently underway
and we are looking forward to seeing more of your fabulous entries.
Link up your project by January 31st at 11:59 pm EST.

01 January, 2017

January 2017 Main Challenge
CELEBRATE & BLING


Happy 2017 everyone!
May the new year give you loads of reasons to celebrate 
and have wonderful days that are filled with laughter, love and creativity!

We have a whole new set of challenges ready for you this year
and we cannot wait to share them with you starting with this one for January:

Our Main Challenge is based on a word inspiration and a creative challenge.
The challenge is open to layouts, canvases and art journal pages only.
Make sure to read our instructions below carefully!

Word Inspiration - CELEBRATE
Creative Challenge - BLING

What does the word CELEBRATE inspire you to create?
You can choose to add the word somewhere on your project or simply
be inspired to create from it.  Please explain in your blog post
how the word inspired you, if not already obvious.

More Than Words is not only celebrating this month the start of a brand new year.
We are also celebrating our first anniversary in the blogosphere!
We have lots of reasons to party, and nothing screams 'Let's Party!' better
than BLING!  Whether it be sequins, gems, rhinestones, pearls, chunks of glitter glass... we want you to 'bling' it up on your project!

VERY IMPORTANT!
You have to incorporate both requirements of the challenge, the word inspiration AND the creative challenge, on your project to be eligible to win.  Just look at our designers' creations and descriptions as example.  Also, remember that you must include our board image and a link to our blog in your entry post.

Please check out our challenge rules in the RULES tab above!




 Aga: "I chose this picture for my layout since it was taken last year when my husband and I were travelling to the mountains to CELEBRATE New Year's Eve.  The same day my husband gave me my dream sunglasses so double happiness!  For the BLING creative challenge, I added shiny stars and lots of sparkly gold paint."



Anguree: "I was inspired by these photos of my cousin in law and her bridesmaids CELEBRATING her wedding day.  I incorporated BLING by die cutting the word 'celebrate' 3 times out of gold foil paper and used the same paper to mat my photos.  Gold flowers and sequins were added to mimic the festivities and capture the magic of this wonderful day."



 Caroline: "Valerie and I live a 4 hours drive from each other so whenever we meet, it's always a big CELEBRATION!  Here's a picture we took on our last scrapbook retreat.  For the BLING creative twist, I added a lot of sparkling gold 
to make this layout shine as we do!"



 Di: "I decided to use the word CELEBRATE in a slightly different way to the obvious and put a bi of a twist on it by using these pictures of my grandson and his new hat!  For the creative challenge, I have added some black BLING."



Ekaterina: "What's the best part of CELEBRATING Christmas and the New Year?   
The presents, of course!  This is the most magical time when children and adults look under the tree for boxes of cherished gifts!  I added BLING on my layout 
with glitter, rhinestones and shiny powder."



Elena M.: "I didn't use the word CELEBRATE as the title, but I used the idea and sense of the word as inspiration.  On my layout, I chose of me at 2 or 3 years of age.  I am standing near the Christmas tree with the gift that Grandpa Frost (as we call Santa Claus in Russia) gave me.  It was a very fun New Year's celebration.  The BLING on my page consist of many gold stars.  I also covered the chipboard pieces 
in red and gold glitter."

   

Elena T.: "My project is about the CELEBRATION of Christmas.  It's a relatively old photo of my children at a Christmas party.  I enjoy these sweet little moments in our life!   For the BLING effect, I added some gold glitter and crystals.  It was fun!"



Heather: "One of the biggest CELEBRATIONS I've had in my life was a week-long party on a small Greek island last year.  I used heaps of colour to represent the fun we had and added BLING in the form of sparkly alphas, stars and rhinestones.  Woohoo!"



Jennifer: "This page represents the CELEBRATION of brotherly love.  The photo depicts well the love that these brothers carry for each other.  The BLING on my layout is on my paper as well as half beads here and there."



Kareen: "I have chosen a picture of my son when he was 3 years old.  It was the New Year and we CELEBRATED with the family.  I still remember this picture as if it was yesterday!  For the BLING part of the challenge, I added sparkles and some sequins."



Kavitha: "Amidst our busy day to day life and chasing our dreams, we often forget to pause and enjoy the little things around us which gives us the real happiness.  So I made a page to remind myself to 'CELEBRATE the little things'!  For the BLING part, 
I have added lots of art ingredients and glitter."



Lilibleu: "To showcase the CELEBRATE theme, I chose to use a picture of my son taken on his 8th birthday just before he blew his candles.  For the BLING aspect of the challenge, I added sequins on chipboard stars and foliage as well as silver microspheres on the flowers.  I finally added some rhinestones stickers."

  

 Nicole: "These pictures date back a few years, but were taken at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.  We had, and still have, a lot to CELEBRATE, especially our happy life together.  The BLING creative challenge was so much fun!  As you can see, I have gone a little overboard with the rhinestones and the jewels.  
But the instructions did say to 'Bling it On!' and that's what I did!"



Pamela: "Commemorating one's birth in my eyes is always cause for a great CELEBRATION, especially when it is your oldest grandchild.  She seemed especially happy in this photo and we had such a great day!  This is BLING all over the page from a fine glimmer mist to Prima druzy stones.  I even heat embossed my alphas with glitter embossing powder.  It may be hard to see, but this page 'blings it on'!" 



Sanderijn: "When I think of this month's word, I can use a lot of different actual celebrations, but something that really makes my heart full of joy is the smile of my daughter.  So I wanted to CELEBRATE her beautiful smile!  I added lots of glitter and holographic sparkles and I also used glitter on my background, mixed with modeling paste.  I covered the doily die cuts with glitter and BLING.  I use them all the time 
on my pages so this was an easy challenge for me!"



Valerie: "The word CELEBRATE made me think right away about the few moments we celebrate at home.  My children's birthdays are some of these moments that are really important to us.  We never forget the cake, of course!  I added a bunch 
of sparkling glitter and sequins to BLING up my project."


WOW!  We couldn't be prouder of our new DT's first reveal for 2017!
We hope that all these gorgeous creations will inspire you to join in the celebration
and play along this month!  Here is what you could win...



All our prizes include free international postage!!


MAIN CHALLENGE WINNER

a $50 USD store credit from THE DUSTY ATTIC


Here is more information about our 1st place sponsor this month:

"The Dusty Attic is an Australian owned and operated laser cutting business, which designs and manufactures craft items and embellishments.  Founded in July 2009 and located in Perth, Western Australia, we are proud to be able to make our mark on the scrapbooking and craft industry with our great range of products.  We love seeing what beautiful creations our customers have made with our products."


Next, 4 runners up, in no particular order, will each be awarded a prize, as follows:

RUNNER UP 1

a $25 USD prize package from 7 DOTS STUDIO

(Image below is for illustration purposes only)

RUNNER UP 2

a $25 USD prize package from MAJA DESIGN


RUNNER UP 3

a $25 USD gift certificate from THE SCRAPBOOK DIARIES


RUNNER UP 4

a $25 USD gift certificate from MAGENTA



In addition, we will draw one random winner from all eligible entries.

RANDOM WINNER

a $25 USD prize package from LINDY'S

(Image below is for illustration purposes only)


Each month, we hand pick an entry who has not made it into our Top 5, but who has captured our attention someway, somehow. We might pick a project due to its original use of a certain product, the cleverest title, the most beautiful photo, etc.  
We call it our...

MYSTERY WINNER

a $25 USD prize package from FABRIKA DECORU

And lastly, we will randomly award a prize to one lucky blog follower 
who has commented on any of our January blog posts.

LUCKY COMMENTER

a $25 USD prize package from CUTS2LUV

(image below is for illustrations purposes only)


We are so very grateful to all our generous sponsors for these amazing prizes!
To learn more about all of them, click on the SPONSORS tab above.


We are so looking forward to see your take on our
January Main Challenge CELEBRATE & BLING!

Link up your project using the LinkyTool in the right sidebar
by January 31st at 11:50 pm EST.