The Card Style Week Challenge Winners!

Nearly 800 entries. 792 to be exact.

All whittled down to just 10 moxie fab winners. Just 10!

From a pool of projects whose caliber was staggering. 2 per category? Are you kidding me?

I definitely had to make some tough choices. Agonizingly so.

But more important than that, is what we all learned. It's always about we what we all learn.


Me? By working on the Card Style special issue and these challenges, I had to delineate what distinct styles our readers love to see most in our magazines. In order to communicate that to you, I had to get down to the nitty gritty. What does it mean for a card to be defined as "fun and cute?" What elements does a "clean and graphic" card have to have? What is "shabby chic" and how does it relate to "vintage"? And how is "classy and elegant" different from "clean and graphic"? How is "clean and graphic" different from "fun and cute"? And is it OK for them to overlap?

And maybe what you learned from this exercise is the answers to all of the above: You became familiar with the necessary ingredients for each of these styles and then applied them to your projects. And that is a fine exercise in and of itself.

BUT, this is what I hope you really learned:

• Where you feel your style fits in relation to all the styles we showed.
  
• That it's OK (and even fun) to try and break out of your typical style and try something new because maybe you found something that you really like that you didn't know you liked before.
• And that yes, many of these styles do have a tendency to overlap.
  
• And most importantly, it's not so much about the style itself, but what you know about the style so you can manipulate the components so you can achieve the results you desire in the creation of a card.

Now that's what Card Style is all about, my moxie fab friends.

So even if you are not an "official" winner today (782 of you are not), I hope everyone had a good time with this challenge. I know I did! I loved seeing all the ways you thought about and interpreted "style" in your challenge entries, and I enjoyed seeing each and every one of your projects!

And now without further ado, the Card Style Week challenge winners.

Fun & Cute:

Celebrate Card by Sammye Jo

Moxie Fab Alert: This happy card has all the elements in the definition: a happy color scheme, a sweet sentiment, and an uncomplicated design. It also has whimsy, simple shapes, and friendly patterns. Fun & cute to a perfect "t"!

Hip Hip Hooray Card by Karla Kroese

Moxie Fab Alert: Now isn't this just the epitome of fun and cute, friends? And it's punny, too. You know how I love me some punny!

Clean & Graphic:

Graphic Cake Card by Cristina

Moxie Fab Alert: Let's go down our checklist for the clean and graphic style. White space? Check. Clean lines? Check. Simple treatment of text? Check. No-frills, bare-boned, modern, and hip? Check, check, check, and check!

Explore Dream Discover Card by Aga

Moxie Fab Alert: Ohmyohmyohmy. No doubt about it. This card is clean and graphic. The thrill, my friends, is in the t-y-p-o-g-r-a-p-h-y. Look at the effect Aga achieves by the placement of the words. There is encouragement and hope in the words that create waves--which represent the rough and tumble that is real life. Now that's what I call moxie fab!

Shabby Chic:

Love & Marriage Card by Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Moxie Fab Alert: Does this card have all the essentials for shabby chic or what? Layers of softness characterized by the use of ribbon and lace with a time-worn look achieved by inking. And the pearls and glitter? Oh my moxie fab!

Music to the Soul Card by Yyam

Moxie Fab Alert: Now this, my friends, is some chic shabby. I moxie love the bright yellow ink behind the soft, worn, texture-y floral and crochet elements. The torn edge juxtaposed with the scallops on the right hand side are simply delicious, and the green stick pin holding down the sweet sentiment? Pure moxie fabulousness, I tell you what.

Vintage:

Vintage Hello Card by Mary (pieces-of-home)

Moxie Fab Alert: Like shabby chic, vintage is characterized by soft, distressed elements. It's the vintage image (girl on old-fashioned telephone) and the found elements (buttons, crochet trim, flower made out of old dress patterns) that put this into the vintage category.

Friends are Special Treasures Card by mary dawn q

Moxie Fab Alert: I don't know what else to say about this card except that it is a simple and fun approach to vintage that makes my heart sing!

Classy & Elegant:

Every Day Card by Kay Demonbren

Moxie Fab Alert: Besides meeting all the essential elements of the classy and elegant style (a shiny finish, sparkling embellishments, a rich color scheme, and sophisticated sentiment treatments), this card is just dripping with gorgeousness. I know, right?

Cherish Card by Karen Dunbrook

Moxie Fab Alert: If we were to eat this card, I'm certain it would taste just like chocolate. Decadent!

A hearty congratulations to all these winners and another great big thank you to everyone who gave these Card Style Week challenges a try! I bow to your greatness!

Winners, please send me your addresses in an email to cedvalson@papercraftsmag.com with "Card Style Week Challenge Winner" in the subject line. I can't WAIT to hear from you!

Friends, I'd love to offer a comment-to-win as my thanks for all your participation in this challenge. Leave a comment by midnight MDT on Sunday, August 8 that says what you liked best about these challenges and/or which project from today's post you feel represents its style best and why and I'll draw 3 random winners to receive the Card Style magazine itself!

Keep on stylin',

~Cath

PS Going through Moxie Fab World challenge withdrawal? Don't despair! There's always this week's Tuesday Trigger and we've also got the supah fun Signs of Peace challenge in the queue!