Stretch Your Holiday Style: A Fun & Cute Challenge

Ready for more challenging fun on Day 3 of Holiday Cards & More Week, friends? I hope you are, 'cause fun is the name of the game today!

We call it "fun and cute." Is that an official "style," one that is talked about in books about design? No, not really. It's a style that we editors at Paper Crafts probably made up to help quantify many of the submissions we receive, and a style that our reader definitely loves. It's simple, it's fun, it's whimsical, and it's always, always cute. It utilizes basic patterns like polka dots and gingham, simple shapes, happy color schemes, sweet sentiments, and it may just tug at your heart strings a tad.

Take this "cute" project by Kim Hughes:

Folk Tree Card, p. 18

Moxie Fab Alert: Doesn't this tree just scream fun and cute? She's taken some polka-dot strips, sewn them to the card front, and added some basic shapes in primary colors to finish it off. Now, while vintage and shabby chic are close relations on the style scale, fun and cute is close to clean and graphic. Could this be described as clean and graphic? Absolutely, but the way the heart and star shapes are treated is more cute than graphic--it has that homespun way of making you smile. Clean and graphic looks modern. Fun and cute looks sweet.

Here's a project that just drips with fun and cute:

Gingerbread House by Cathy List, p. 137

Moxie Fab Alert: The gingham rooftop, the scalloped eaves, and the sweet background pattern on the house definitely qualify as fun and cute. And the little snowman guy who's greeting us at the door--cute, cute, cute, cute, cute!

OK. Here's a project that borders between clean and graphic and fun and cute:

Jingle All the Way Card by Rebecca Oehlers, p. 67

Moxie Fab Alert: On first glance, this card could easily be classified as clean and graphic. There's a lot of white space, a simple color scheme, and there's simple treatment of text. What put this in the fun and cute category for me was the jingle bells. When you pair the sentiment with the bells...well that's just cute--punny, even--in-n't it?

Can you cutesify your style? Shouldn't be too difficult. I know you've got some gingham or polka dot in your stash (although these aren't the only patterns you could use. Plaids and stripes would work, as well as other simple patterns.) There's not a lot of layering in fun and cute--so that takes some time out of the equation, and while embellishments and fibers are more than welcome, keep them to a minimum for OCF--Optimum Cutesy Factor. In fact, I would be willing to say that you should start with a cute chipboard embellishment, a sticker, or a stamped image; minimally embellish, and call it good.

Raise your hand if your willing to give it a try! If your hand is in the air, here's the easy peasy 411:

1. Create a fun and cute holiday card, gift wrap, ornament, home decor item, or paper crafted gift.


2. Upload a photo of your project to your blog, come back here and post the URL to your project (not your blog) in the Mr. Linky box below. Post a link to the Moxie Fab World in your blog's text to encourage your readers to see the other projects that have been linked.
   
   
3. If you don't have a blog, go to this Flickr gallery, upload your photo, and post the URL to your project (not the group) in the Mr. Linky box below.


4. Just for fun, upload your project to the World Card Making Day Website by clicking here. Your holiday card will become part of the worldwide celebration of the joy of making handmade cards just in time for the holiday card making season! Not only that, but it will also become eligible to win a few contests we've got up our sleeves!
   
   
5. Accomplish this task by midnight MDT on Monday, September 7 (that's Labor Day). 2 winning entries will be showcased on this blog on Wednesday, September 9 and will receive the Jolly by Golly collection from Cosmo Cricket:
   
   

There's a little bit of cute in all of us. I can't wait to see yours!

Bye-bye Cutie Pie,

~Cath

PS Don't forget to stop by Paper Crafts Connection today where Holiday Cards & More Week continues with the Queen of Fun and Cute herself, Paper Crafts Pro Wendy Johnson!