Saturday Showcase: March 9, 2013

It is time for the Saturday Showcase where I highlight other artists' work (whether it be stamps, cards or otherwise), a blog post offering a great technique, or I might even just pick a whole blog to showcase. If you are new to my blog you can find out why I created the showcase HERE.

This week we are back to the regular format of covering three different items.  I hope you enjoy meeting two new artists and learning about one interesting challenge blog.

My top picks for this week include... 

Card Choice

This incredible card was created by

FRANZ 

Her blog is called  

Franz-Blog

 I originally came across this blog over at the Fashionista Challenge Blog when looking to see what the theme of their current challenge was.  It was there that I was introduced to Franz's work.  She was being nominated for the top five.  I just had to follow the link and go get a closer look at this card.  It is from the post "Colouring Reds:  Miss Hood from Make It Crafty".  I couldn't get over the phenomenal job that Franz had done on colouring this beautiful image.  The vibrancy of the reds coupled with the softer blues makes such a powerful impact.  I also love how she has created her sky and the job she did on the bricks is amazing too.  All in all it is one incredible piece of art.  I've included a close up for you to check out:

 

I don't know about you, but I am certainly blown away by the quality of her work.  So apparently were the other voter's over at the Fashionista Challenge blog because Franz was voted by her fellow crafters as the Fashionista People's Choice WINNER!  Most definitely well deserved.  I hope you take some time and go see some of Franz's other incredible card designs.  Clicking on her blog name will take you straight to her blog.

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Unique Blog Challenge

Now this is the first time that I have showcased a challenge blog but I found some unique features to this one that I wanted to share with you guys.  

Many blogs will have a top three or a top five in order to share some of the incredible entries they receive during each challenge.  What makes the Fashionista Challenge blog different is that they take it a step further.  Rina, the challenge owner and DT coordinator, created an interesting feature whereby people get the chance to vote on their favourite creation in the top five.  As I mentioned above, this is how I came to meet Franz.  

At the end of each challenge, the DT pick their choices for the best designs.  Then a post is created letting the readers know of their choices.  Each choice is displayed in its own unique frame with the person's name on it.  I've included the one that was done up to display Franz's card.

 This is such a beautiful way to have one's card honoured.  Then, and this is the really neat part, voting is opened to any of the challenge blog's readers.  Additionally, the top five are encouraged to have their readers come over and vote too.  It is a really creative way to get more exposure to both the top five and the challenge blog.  

Once the voting is done, there is a post announcing the 'People's Choice' award and the winner gets another really neat frame along with some digis and the opportunity to be a guest designer for an upcoming challenge. 

So, if you are fortunate enough you can walk away with your card showcased in two fabulous ways.  It would certainly be an honour to have a card displayed in these frames in any sidebar.  

However, that isn't all.  Everyone who votes and leaves a comment has the opportunity to win some digis of their own.  I was the lucky recipient having voted for Franz to win in Fashionista Challenge's shades of red and won some beautiful digis courtesy of VannaBea Creations.

I thought that these unique features deserved to be shared with others and that is why I decided to dedicate a whole segment to a challenge blog.  The theme of this month's challenge is "Make It Pink".  I have a card that I am hopefully going to be able to enter, later in the week.  If any of you have cards that were created after March 4 or any upcoming that meet the requirements of the challenge, I encourage you to go over and enter.  There are so many great reasons for doing so.

Right now Rina and the gang are looking to add to their design team.  The requirements are simple, you only need to submit one project a month, comment in rotation, post to your blog the day the challenge post goes live and participate in 1 blog hop per 6 month DT committment.  If you are interested in submitting your name for application, head over to the challenge blog.  You can click HERE to go straight to the current challenge post which talks about the DT requirements too.  

And last, but not least it is Fashionista Challenge's first anniversary so I encourage all of you to join me in wishing them a very happy blogiversary.

 If you are interested Rina, I have made a special badge for your sidebar that is 220 px wide...

So my awesome readers, I hope that you will consider adding this wonderful challenge blog to your list of places to check out when entering challenges.  Clicking on the Fashionista Banner at the top of this section will take you straight to the main blog. 

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 Finally, that brings me to the...

This is a special category highlighting 
 a stamp for sale by another artist.
This week that honour goes to... 

PRIYANKA

Her store is called

My Heart Pieces

The accompanying challenge blog is called
 My Heart Pieces Digital Stamps Challenges

Beautiful Nature is available for purchase HERE

Waiting for You 4 is available for purchase HERE

I have been an admirer of Priyanka's for some time.  She is from India as is evident from the cultural influences in many of her designs.  According to Priyanka she loved art and crafts from very early childhood.  That has her fitting in with most of us around here I would imagine.  Her art is inspired by fairy tale and fantasy, but she does draw all type of images.  All drawings are created by hand and then scanned to preserve its originality.  She is one of those artists whose style is often very apparent.  I can often pick out her images when I see them on other cards before reading about the image details.  Her store was closed for a little while due to the pressures of being a student, but happily she is open once again for business which is such a blessing for any of us who like unique designs.  

There are two designs in particular that I am going to focus on today.  I am lucky enough to have each of these lovely images.

This first one is called Beautiful Nature.  I absolutely adore this image.  It is just so peaceful and would be perfect for so many different types of cards.  The first purpose that struck me was that the serene nature of this stamp would be just right for a sympathy card.  It just has this calming effect that would be perfect to use on a card sent to someone who is grieving.  However, the nice thing about this image is that it is versatile enough to be used on so many other types of cards:  birthday, thank you, thinking of you, friendship and the list goes on and on.

Next up we have Waiting for You.  This image spoke to two different sides of me and by now when I say 'spoke' you really know I mean it.  Although not in the 'she needs to be on medication or see a psychiatrist way'--at least not yet.  First of all, the fantasy side of this image appealed to me.  Many of you don't know it but I am a huge science fiction and fantasy fan.  The two beautiful fairies with their elegant little wings just called me into a place of make believe.  A place where beauty and love exist and there is never any heartache.  A place I'd like to call home during those times where it all seems a little too much to take.  It would be so nice to have a peaceful, serene place like this to visit but alas that is why they call it fantasy.  So, if I can't visit there in person, I can always take a mental holiday there and hang out with these two little lovebirds for a little while which brings me to the second reason why I like this image.  It also appeals to the romantic side of my nature and would be perfect for any love themed card.  I could easily use it on an anniversary card, a wedding card or even just share it with my own 'happily ever after', Raymond.

You can find more unique designs by Priyanka when you visit her store.  Clicking on either digital stamp image will take you directly to the place in the store where they can be found.  Alternately, clicking on the links at the top will take you to their respective location as well.

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I hope that you have enjoyed your visit and will take some time to go see each of the respective artists listed above.  They work very hard to provide us with images for our viewing pleasure so it is important that we don't take them for granted.

Thanks to all these wonderful artists for agreeing to allow me to showcase their work on my blog.  I'm sure I'll be coming back to them time and again.  Though you never know, I may be contacting YOU next to showcase something incredible you've created. 

 BUT WAIT, BEFORE YOU GO THERE IS ONE MORE THING...

 It is time to share with you the results of the draw.  

After verifying that all those who left comments were or had become a follower of both my blog and Fresh Brewed Designs I assigned each eligible commenter with a number.  I then put the numbers 1 to 7 into the random generator and pulled out three winning numbers.  I then assigned each winner a digi.  If a commenter indicated a preference for their digi and no one else indicated the same one, then I assigned that particular digi to them.  Thankfully none of the winners were interested in the same digi or that would have been a whole extra draw to fairly assign them to each winner.

Drum roll please........................

TA DA, The winner of the first prize up for grabs is...
 

 Way to go Patti from scrapclose2theheart you have just won Sweet Bunny.

  
 The winner of the next digi up for grabs is....

  Yeah Vicky F. AKA Crafting Vicky you have just won Camouflage Chick.

 Finally, the winner of the last digi is...

 

 Woo hoo Ike you have just won Chick with Bunny Ears.

 Way to go ladies, please contact me to learn how you can claim your prize.  You can find my email address by clicking on the 'email me' button towards the top of my right sidebar.  Once again thanks go out to Heather from Fresh Brewed Designs for making this draw possible.  



I hope that you will all continue to visit me throughout the upcoming week.  If things go as planned, I have something extra special to share towards the end of the week.

Until next time,

Note:   *Thanks to Nikki from Limited Runs Stamps for creating my Saturday Showcase badge.