December 2017 Mini Challenge - US

It's almost the 25th, and before we go on to reveal our brand 

new Mini Challenge, all the team at More Than Words 

would like to wish you all the happiest of Holiday seasons

filled with love, joy and peace and LOTS of crafty time!

2018 is approaching fast and have we got some fabulous challenges

lined up for you along with amazing design and sponsor teams.

We cannot wait to start the new year crafting alongside you all!

But before we ring in the new year, we have a brand new 

Mini Challenge to share with you for which you'll have until the end of 

this month to enter! We know that this is a busy period for everyone,

but we hope that you will still find some time to play along with us!

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 heart, about 2.5 by 3.5 inches or 64 x 89 mm). This challenge requires you to use a specific word on your project. We must see the actual word. 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, as voted by our DT, will receive a $25 USD value prize

from THE DUSTY ATTIC, our fabulous Mini Challenge sponsor!

You can see all our rules under the RULES tab above.

Is this word inspiring you to make a mini creation? We sure hope so!

CAROLINE ELLIAM - tag

DI GARLING - card

ELENA MARTYNOVA - tag

HEATHER MCMAHON - card

HEIKE'S AUGENBLICK - tag

JANICE NICHOLLS - tag

NICOLE DOIRON - card

PAMELA ELLIS - tag

TORSA SAHA - tag

VALERIE OUELLET - tag

Now that you've seen this fabulous inspiration from our DT,

we hope that you will join US during this last week of 2017

and scrap with us a little something for our mini challenge!

We are looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

You have until 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, December 31st

to share your entry right HERE on our Facebook page.

Special Guest Spotlight on LISA GRIFFITH

We are ending this year's list of fabulous Guest Designers

with a very special lady that we know you will all love.

Her style is absolutely gorgeous and never ceases to inspire!

Lisa Griffith is well known among the scrapbooking community,

and we are thrilled to have her as our December Special Guest!

Let's learn a little more about Lisa through her own words:

Hi! My name is Lisa Griffith and I live in Georgia, USA. I am Canadian 

by birth and American by marriage and I love creating colourful layouts, 

tags and art journals.

I started out in scrapping, as so many of us do, making albums of my son's baby

photos, but over the years and as I discovered the world of mixed media,

it has grown into a passion. I have my own little studio at home, and I love to scrap

as a way to wind down, relax and lose myself in something creative. 

I really admire so many styles, but the one I come back to the most is a little bit vintage, very nature-inspired, with lots of flowers, inks and paints, and always leaning to the messy and chaotic side of things. I always try to include some unique finds on my pages such as wool, lace, fabric, pine cones, twigs, twine, beads or vintage buttons... anything to give my project a little unique twist!

I hope that my page inspires you to join in the challenge this month.

Thank you to More Than Words for the invitation to be a Guest Designer!

You can visit Lisa at the following links:

BLOG  -  INSTAGRAM

Here is a reminder of our December Main Challenge

FAMILY & NUMBERS

 followed by Lisa's beautiful layout which was inspired by it.

Read below as Lisa describes in her own words how she was inspired

by our word and how she chose to incorporate our creative challenge:

When I saw that this month's theme was FAMILY, I knew I was going to make 

a page featuring my boy, Liam. He appears in lots of my layouts... His sweet happy

 smile just lights up my world, and I love being a mom and a wife. 

My guy means everything to me!

I used some Kaisercraft papers and stickers all about Winter and used 

some NUMBERS to remind us how we're counting down the days 

until Christmas! I hope that everyone has a wonderful 

holiday season with family and friends! xo

Lisa's layout is just stunning with is rustic woodgrain background and layers upon layers of flowers, chipboard, twine, and mixed media goodness. It is such a special and beautiful homage to the pivotal person in her family, her son, and the chipboard numbers that she used illustrate the creative challenge perfectly! 

We are totally blown away by it all!

Let's take a look at some details:

A big THANK YOU to Lisa for joining us 

as our December Special Guest!

We hope that you will take inspiration from Lisa's creation

and that you will play along with our December Main Challenge.

You have until December 31st to link up! 

Announcing Our November Winners!

It's WINNING time once again on the More Than Words blog!

November has come and gone and with that another set of fabulous 

challenges on this blog and just as fabulous entries from so many followers!

We thank each one of you who have played along to either

our Main or Mini challenge, and after another difficult vote,

we are happy to share with you the lucky and talented winners!

MAIN CHALLENGE WINNER

(as voted by our DT)

MAGDALENA (entry 55)

Congratulations Magdalena, 

you are the winner of our November Main Challenge!

Magdalena, please contact Tracey at tracey(at)lindysgang(dot)com

to claim your $50 USD value prize from LINDY'S.

RUNNERS UP

(as voted by our DT, in no particular order)

SCRAP BY ESZTER (entry 52)

Eszter, please contact us at mtwchallenge(at)hotmail(dot)com

to claim your $25 USD value prize from THE DUSTY ATTIC.

ANNIE SAMSON (entry 43)

Annie, please contact Nick at nick(at)7dotsstudio(dot)com

to claim your $25 USD value prize from 7 DOTS STUDIO.

HINA MIRZA (entry 25)

Hina, please contact Camilla at camilla(at)majadesign(dot)nu

to claim your $25 USD value prize from MAJA DESIGN.

MAANIDOU (entry 2)

Maanidou, please contact Janene at janene(at)thescrapbookdiaries(dot)com

to claim your $25 USD value prize from THE SCRAPBOOK DIARIES.

RANDOM WINNERS

(selected via Random.org)

MERKKU (entry 31)

Merkku, please contact Helene at helene(dot)magenta(at)gmail(dot)com

to claim your $25 USD value prize from MAGENTA.

MARIETTE VAN LEEUWEN (entry 7)

Mariette, please contact Sue at marketing(at)cocoavanilla(dot)com(dot)au

to claim your $25 USD value prize from COCOA VANILLA STUDIO.

MYSTERY WINNER

(hand picked by our Admin team)

LAUREN TOMECEK (entry 4)

We instantly fell in love with this layout! The balance in the design, the colours, that vellum detail, present and beautiful but still not forcing your attention, all compliment the sweetest photo and make it the star of the layout, exactly as any scrapbook page should be! It's the kind of layout that makes your heart melt.

Lauren, please contact Tanya at fabrikadecoru(at)gmail(dot)com

to claim your $25 USD value prize from FABRIKA DECORU.

MINI CHALLENGE WINNER

OLGA KULAVSKAYA

Olga, please contact us at mtwchallenge(at)hotmail(dot)com

to claim your $25 USD value prize from THE DUSTY ATTIC.

Lastly, here are a few HONOURABLE MENTIONS who have not made it 

into our Top 5, but who received a high number of votes from our DT:

SARA K (entry 24)

VERA SHELEMEKH (entry 39)

BEC GENET (entry 34)

MINA JUVELER (entry 54)

ALEKSANDRA MIHELIC (entry 45)

OF DREAMS AND SPILLED COFFEE (entry 38)

VEANA R (entry 44)

Congratulations to all our winners

and again a huge THANK YOU to all our participants!

We encourage all you merit winners, honourable mentions and participants

whose project was featured on our Facebook page throughout the month

to grab your badge from our left sidebar and proudly display it on your blog.

To learn more about all our wonderful and generous sponsors,

click on the SPONSORS tab above.

***

Our December Main Challenge FAMILY & NUMBERS

is currently underway and we hope that you will join in!

Link up your project by December 31st at 11:55 pm EST.

December 2017 Main Challenge FAMILY & NUMBERS

Happy December everyone!!!

It's the last month of yet another fabulous year here at More Than Words!

We know that December is a very busy time for all of us, so we want

to thank you in advance for participating in this very special

challenge that we have designed especially for you.

Let's not waste any time and check out this brand new challenge!

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 carefully read our instructions below.

Word Inspiration - FAMILY

Creative Challenge - NUMBERS

What does the word FAMILY inspire you to create?

You can choose to use the actual word somewhere on your project 

or simply be inspired by it.  Since words are an integral part of our challenges, we want to know how this month's word stimulated your creative process, so please do explain in your blog post how it inspired you!

December is a month when most families count down the days until they can unite in big NUMBERS to celebrate a very special time of year! And speaking of numbers, we all love to use them on our projects, whether it is to document a special year, single out the age of someone dear or use them in a title.  We can add them using patterned paper, stamps, stencils, chipboard, etc.  We want to see how you will use them, 
so come on and show us your numbers!

VERY IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT MTW RULES!

To be eligible to win, you have to incorporate both requirements of the challenge, 

the word inspiration and the creative challenge.

Just look at our designers' projects and descriptions as examples.

You must also include our board image as well as a link to our blog in your entry post.  AND you may combine our challenge with no more than 2 other challenges.

Please check out all our challenge rules in the RULES tab above.

Now let's see what our amazing DT have come up with

to showcase this month's word and incorporate the creative challenge!

KAVITHA

 Kavitha: The word FAMILY inspired me to create a journal page about cousins and the moments we share during the family get-togethers.  The fun, the laughter, the fights between cousins... it can all be explained by one word, 'crazy'! For the creative challenge, I used some NUMBER stickers on my page.


LILIBLEU

 Lilibleu: This photo speaks a lot to me because for me Christmas goes with FAMILY. Good moments spent with family, the smile of children discovering their presents... all this is priceless! I used NUMBERS on my page by dropping them here and there, just like with an advent calendar.


CAROLINE ELLIAM

Caroline: The picture represents FAMILY to me because it's our first baby's first Christmas. Our hearts were full of joy to see this little guy with magic in his eyes for the very first time. It's been 13 years, but it's like it was yesterday. We are now 5 in our family, but this little moment is engraved in our hearts forever. For the NUMBERS creative challenge, I used a numbers stencil on 
my background and a tag with 25 on it.


ELENA MARTYNOVA

Elena: FAMILY is very important in the life of every person. I am often inspired by photos of my family to create my work. However, in this project, I used pictures depicting a family at Christmas in the beginning of the last century. For the NUMBERS challenge, I used stickers with numbers on my background.

HEATHER MCMAHON

Heather: The topic for this one was easy for me. My FAMILY has reduced to just the two of us this year after our youngest one left home. Being childless at home is a very strange thing after so many years. I added the NUMBER two

 in bold for a fun creative effect.

VALERIE OUELLET

Valerie: My little FAMILY is the most important for me. I used a family photo that I love and the word family as a title. I used a NUMBERS stencil on my background and added the number 5 beside my title to represent the 5 of us.

TORSA SAHA

Torsa: To me, my FAMILY means my daughter. She is everything to us! 

I have used her picture on my layout. As for NUMBERS, I have used 

the quote 'Being with you is like being on cloud nine.'

AGA BARANIAK

Aga: My inspiration is very simple and comes straight from the heart. I used the motif of the NUMBERS (several different numbers) to represent that my FAMILY is number one in my life. They are a priority for me. Whatever a mother 

does in her life is always related to her family.

NICOLE DOIRON

Nicole: When I saw this month's word, it was very obvious which photos I would be scrapping. These have been taken last year when we celebrated my mom's 65th birthday. All those lovely smiling faces are my FAMILY, the most important people in my life! I loved the NUMBERS creative challenge and had so many ideas in my head that I didn't know where to start. I finally decided to use some patterned paper with numbers on it for part of my background as well as some number grid and page pebble chippies (all from Dusty Attic) to represent me 'counting my blessings'.

DI GARLING

Di: The word FAMILY made me think of what a special time Christmas is, especially as new babies are born into a family.  I thought I would document a baby's first Christmas as that is probably the most special Christmas of all. The NUMBERS part of the challenge was so much fun and I decided to incorporate 

a number into my title as well as the date.

HEIKE'S AUGENBLICK

Heike: One of my favorite quotes is this one from Desmond Tutu: 'You don't choose your FAMILY. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.' I was inspired by that quote when creating this mini 15 cm x 20 cm canvas. For the creative challenge, I used black painted wood NUMBERS behind my photos.

ANGUREE VAN RENSBURG

Anguree: I was inspired by this photo of my mom and I. I try to go and visit my FAMILY every year just after Christmas and this photo was taken during one of those holiday visits. I wanted to add NUMBERS to my page in a meaningful way and incorporate this creative challenge into my journaling by replacing 

some words with numbers.

PAMELA ELLIS

Pamela: There is a saying... 'Just when you think you know what love is, grandchildren come into your life'. I have known no greater joy than being a grandma! This is a photo of my grandchildren and I taken a while back - they make my FAMILY complete. The title speaks for itself and 

covers the NUMBER criteria of the creative challenge.

JANICE NICHOLLS

Janice: Their FAMILY Of 2 has grown to 3 with the addition of this beautiful little puppy, Tess. They got her as a 6 week old puppy; she was the runt of the litter and they fell in love with her as soon as they saw her. She is known as our grand fur baby. She is adorable, gorgeous, lots of fun, great company and she is my little walking companion when we puppy sit. She is loved ever so much and fits perfectly into their family. My title is family of 3 and I have used 
the NUMBER 3 three times on my page.

MARY CATT

Mary: In my mind, FAMILY and Christmas are tightly connected, so when I saw that word, I decided to create a Christmasy layout. I used a photo of a baby to represent my three kids when they were so little on their first Christmas. I added the NUMBER 5 for the creative challenge as we are 5 in our family.

We are thrilled at this fabulous reveal from our DT!
We are able to see what the word FAMILY represents to them
as well as how NUMBERS inspired their creativity.
We hope that they will inspire you to play along!

Now, let's take a look at the prizes up for grab this month!

All our prizes include free international postage!

MAIN CHALLENGE WINNER

(as voted by our DT)

$50 USD value prize from SCRAP & CRAFT

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

Scrap and Craft specializes in scrapbooking products made in Poland.  Our mission is to provide worldwide scrapbookers with unique items and make you happy with crafting.  Keep calm and craft on!  We also stock some leading brands

 like Studio75, Anemone and many others.

4 RUNNERS UP

(as voted by our DT, in no particular order)

$25 USD value prize from LEMONCRAFT

(image below is for illustration purposes only)

$25 USD prize package from 2CRAFTY CHIPBOARD

(image below is for illustration purposes only)

$25 USD value prize from 49 AND MARKET

(image below is for illustration purposes only)

$25 USD value prize from 13ARTS

(image below is for illustration purposes only)

3 RANDOM WINNERS

(picked at random from all eligible entries)

$25 USD value prize from PION DESIGN

$25 USD value prize from CUTS2LUV

(image below is for illustration purposes only)

$25 USD value prize from CANVAS CORP BRANDS

(image below is for illustration purposes only)

MYSTERY WINNER

(hand picked by our Admin team - an entry not in our Top 5, 

but that has that special something that captured our attention)

$25 USD value prize from FABRIKA DECORU

We are very grateful to all our generous sponsors for these fabulous prizes!

To learn about any of them, click on the SPONSORS tab above.

We are looking forward to seeing your entries into our

December Main Challenge FAMILY & NUMBERS!

Link up your projects using our LinkyTool in the right sidebar

by December 31st at 11:55 pm EST.