Wednesday, January 8, 2025

The Card Concept #213 {Winter Solace}

           Welcome to The Card Concept !

For those of you who are new to our challenge, every month we will post our inspiration photo challenge and hope that you will join us by creating a card for our challenge gallery. 

Also, if you post on social media, please tag @thecardconceptchallenges2 and use the hashtag #tccxxx (xxx=challenge # for ex: this challenge would be #tcc213).

Just a reminder, an inspiration photo is exactly that- a starting point for inspiration. Will it be the colors, the overall theme, the texture, the actual items and/or something else that will inspire your card? 




Create a card, and in your blog post, let us know what inspired you from the photo, what style and/or styles you chose and don't forget to display our inspiration photo and link back to our challenge :-)


At the end of the challenge, our Design Team will choose one Main Winner and at least three Honorable Mentions.  We will announce the winners here on our challenge blog, as well as our Facebook page and our new Pinterest board.  

Again, as we mentioned above, please feel free to use any of the styles we have defined or create your own with a combination of styles.  We want you to have fun with our inspiration!

So come and join us!  We'd love for you to try your hand at a brand new style of card making or feel free to work in your comfort zone.  It is totally up to you!

In case you missed the link above, the styles are explained HERE.

Now for our Design Team's inspiration: 

Esther's Inspiration: I was inspired by the pine trees
 and deer when I created my Mixed Media card.

Julie's Inspiration: I was inspired by the deer, 
textures, and colors for my Clean and Layered/
 Elegant Mixed Media card! 


Michele's Inspiration:I was inspired by the monochromatic
 color and the snowy trees and featured them in 
my simple Clean and Layered card.

Jolanda's Inspiration: I was inspired by the color selection 
and the elements in the inspiration photo to create a 
monochromatic Clean and Layered card.


Karen's Inspiration:  I was inspired by the 
sparkling trees in the photo along with the deer
 for my Clean and Layered card.


Karen's Inspiration: I was inspired by the deer,
the sparkly trees, colors and rich textures when
creating my Clean and Layered card.


Jenny's Inspiration: I was inspired by the monochrome
 scene  in the photo to make a Clean and Layered/ 
Shabby and Vintage style card.


Tenia's Inspiration: I was inspired by the reindeer and 
the colors for my Clean and Simple card.



The deadline to participate will be  
Monday, February 10th at 12:00 pm EST.

We look forward to seeing your artwork in our gallery!
---------------------------------------------------------

If you would like to be included in our entries for possible Winner or Honorable Mention, please make sure you include our inspiration photo in your blog post, and, if possible, explain how you were inspired by our challenge.  Also, please make sure that we are the only inspiration challenge and direct link to our challenge site.  
Thanks again for playing along with us!


Winners #212 {Christmas Wreath}

 Happy Wednesday! Julie, here with the Winners and Honorable Mentions for our  

                       #212 {Christmas Wreath} Challenge!

 
What a gorgeous gallery!  All of your beautiful cards make it very difficult narrowing down winners each month.  We are so thankful that you took the time to play along with us! 
 
Our Design Team has voted and we have a tie for our Main Winner..

 

listed in order that they appeared in our gallery...




     




   And our three Honorable Mentions ...



again, listed in order that they appeared in our gallery...






Congratulations to all of our winners!!
We hope that you will take the time to visit each of the Winner/HM 
blogs to see how they created their cards, and, if you have time, leave a comment and show them some "love" :-) 

Also, if you have a chance, check out our Facebook page as well as on our Pinterest board to see all of our Challenge and Honorable Mention winners!  

Please join us in an hour for our January 2025 Challenge!  

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Introducing Our 2025 January-June Design Team!

           Happy New Year and Welcome Back to
                          The Card Concept!  

  We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We are excited to be back with our monthly inspiration challenges starting tomorrow, Wednesday, January 8th at 8 am EDT.

In the meantime, please help us say goodbye to one of our beloved teammates and a warm welcome to two brand new Designers (in addition to our returning Design Team members)!

We are sad to announce that Kerry Parkinson has stepped down from our Design Team to pursue other artistic endeavors.  We fully understand and will miss your beautiful inspiration, Kerry! We wish you all the best and hope you can join us in our gallery in the future! 

We are thrilled to welcome Jolanda Johnstone and Tenia Nelson to our Design Team!  Both ladies are very talented and we are so excited to have them on the DT!

Now, please welcome our 
2025 January-June Design Team :


Hello, my name is Esther, and I live in the beautiful state of Virginia with my husband. My mom encouraged me to take up cardmaking in 2005, and I've been hooked ever since. I’ve made some wonderful friends through this hobby, and love that I can use my creations to brighten someone’s day with a bit of handmade kindness in their mailbox! It's a pleasure to be a part of The Card Concept team. 

Hi Everyone!  My name is Julie and I live in Maryland.   As a fairly new widow, I am fully relying on the Lord to give me strength to take of all of the chores that my beloved hubby used to do for me.  I am also, slowly, continuing to remodel my home and create cards in my spare time, lol!  I have been artistic all of my life, and in addition to creating cards, I enjoying sewing/quilting, drawing/painting, and vintage junk journaling!  Since I enjoy experimenting with different styles and mediums, my overall style tends to be a bit eclectic. Hopefully I will inspire you to create a card and join us!


Hi! My name is Michele. My husband and I, along with our feline fur babies live here in tropical Florida where we love the beautiful beaches and the year-round golf! When I'm not crafting, I work as an Employment Consultant for people with intellectual disabilities. I love working with layers of paper and color and am thrilled to be a part of The Card Concept!


Hi, I'm Jolanda.  I currently live in Greenville, South Carolina, originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  I am now retired and very happy to have the time to pursue my hobbies and principally my cardmaking every day.  I have been stamping for most of my adult life.  Along the way, I discovered card challenges and set up my blog site The Inque Spot Studio in 2020 to better participate and share my creativity.  I just love combining challenges.  A layout from here, colors from there, and a theme from yonder. It is exciting to see what develops.  I am such a fan!  What fun to be asked to join the talented group of Designers of The Card Concept as a Designer.  I am delighted!  The Card Concept has been a favorite of mine ever since I discovered them.  Such great inspiration and I am looking forward to what is to come.  Cheers.

Hello stampers!  My name is Karen Ksenzakovic and I am so excited to be a part of this creative team.  I live in central New Jersey with my husband of 36 years.  I have 2 adult children a 2-year-old puppy and 7-month-old puppy.  My son is a soccer coach, and my daughter just graduated with a degree in Forensic Chemistry.  I've worked in accounting for over 40 years and also work for a Dog Bakery Boutique for the past 7 years.  I love to cook & bake, garden and I've always done some kind of crafting. I've sewed, crocheted, knitted, cross stitched and have been doing paper crafting for over 16yrs when I was introduced to Stampin' Up!  I decided to become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator 6 years ago and love it.  I love designing all styles of cards from clean and simple to collage and I've also done some scrap booking.  I love layering and especially love water coloring and coloring with alcohol markers.

Hey there, crafty friends!  I'm Karen Letchworth of My Cup Runneth Over.  First and foremost, I love the Lord Jesus Christ; and I live for Him.  I've been crafting most of my life...cross stitch, scrapbooking, card-making and now even doing fun arts & crafts projects with my (6) beautiful grandbabies.  I'm a retired, married (39yrs), wife and mother (3 grown kids) who spends the vast majority of my free time either in my craft room, watching my favorite shows or being the FUN Grandma.  I'm excited to be part of The Card Concept Design Team, and I hope that some of my cards/designs will inspire you.

Hi there! My name is Jenny and I’m from Melbourne Australia. I began sporadically card-making 25 years ago, but many years later, when I discovered the wonderful online community and challenges, I became hooked!  Do I have have a style? I think it changes constantly. I guess you would call it ‘Clean and Layered’ these days. However, as a Designer for The Card Concept, I look forward challenging myself to try new styles.


Hello all my name is Tenia Nelson and I am a 43 year old jazz pianist, music teacher and paper crafter that lives in Denver, Colorado. I am married to a great guy named Tim, I am momma to my awesome son Thelonious(Theo) and I have a wonderful doggie "kid" Snowball. Super excited to be joining the Card Concept Design Team!

We are looking forward to inspiring you to join us for our new monthly 2025 Challenges! 

Our January Challenge starts tomorrow, Wednesday January 8th at 8 am EDT.