Grand Prize Winner

Artist: Cathy Ryan
Title: Prancing With The Stars

Stamps used: Hedgehog, Chicks, Rat, Guinea Pig, Gerbil, Reindeer, Horse, Firefly, You Light Up My Life, Shark, Big Foot, Krampus.

It is obvious that a lot of time and ingenuity went into creating this wonderful production of "Prancing with the Stars." Our crew was amazed and delighted by how much it felt like a real show and not just a card. We could imagine the show unfolding as we read through the card.

I personally was most excited to know we were going to get to "Time Warp again" with Sir Chompsalot and The Disco Dental Nightmare."

So, thank you to Cathy Ryan for all her hard work and creativity. We truly appreciate it.

The artist's instructions are available as a PDF.

 3 First Place Winners:
(in no particular order)

Artist: Shellie Nelson
Title: Pooped Pup

Stamps used: Sleeping Dog, Feeling Pawly Saying.

We absolutely loved Shellie's colorful get well card. Though she is relatively new to papercrafting, Shellie is a published and accomplished card artist. Her coloring is vibrant and beautiful. And her composition and use of repetition make wonderful use of this particular stamp. Shellie is a talented crafter and we always appreciate the opportunity to see her art and to share it with our customers.

Artist's Instructions:

For this card I used stamp number 31818 The Sleeping Dog. The sentiment was, "sorry you’re feeling pawly." This is the cutest sleeping dog stamp I’ve ever seen! I stamped it 7 times in a circle using memento ink (black), and I masked with a post-it note after each stamping.

I used all 7 rainbow colors in copics to color pillows. The dogs were colored in copics E00, E21, and E33. The background is colored in C3. I added droplets of colorless blender to make bokeh design. I added a little gel pen and Nuvo drops to the center. I textured the edges with an MFT die cut, popped it up with a layer of foam and placed on a black piece of card stock. Front quote done on computer before images were stamped.

Artist: Roxanne Marker
Title: Someday My Prince Will Come

Stamp used: Castle Princess.

Roxanne's princess themed card was an early favorite. Our crew loved the seamless way she coordinated stone embossed card stock with our castle princess image.

And, we loved the lovely layered flourishes she added for dimensionality and to keep with the castle tower theme. They made the stamp come alive in a really nice way.

Roxanne is a recently published card artist and a wonderful poet. We always love seeing her work.

Artist's instructions:

I used purple card stock to make the card. I then cut 2 pieces of Sierra Sand (Stampin’ Up). Then, using the brick embossing folder by Tim Holtz, I embossed both pieces. I stamp adhere to purple card stock, front and back of card. Next, I stamped the maiden in the tower with black ink, and colored and cut out the image. Using dimensional adhere to front of card. The border on the top is spellbinders dimensional set. To make the vines, I used the Stampin’ Up Bird punch that’s has the branch on it. I cut those out of different green card stock. The flowers I used were from Studio eight.

Artist: Sherry Morley
Title: Dog Days of Fall

Stamps used: Fall Leaves, German Shepherd in Leaf Pile, Dachshund in Leaf Pile, Beagle in Leaf Pile.

Sherry's accordion style autumn card was one of our favorites this year. It was beautifully executed with color coordinated papers and embellished with stamped leaves featuring a lovely shimmer. Her attention to detail and composition was evident. The overall result was a lovely fall card suitable for display. Thank you so much for entering our contest this year, Sherry. We really appreciate the opportunity to see your art and to share it with our customers.

Artist's instruction:

Accordion Flip 3-D dies from Sizzix and Frame and lable. Bracket Bigz Die. Memento ink for stamping; all coloring done with copic markers; wink of Stella brush for shimmer on the leaves.

 2017 Honorable Mentions

Several cards were selected to appear in our honorable mentions gallery located here. You can also view all of this year's entries by clicking here.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our 2017 Greeting Card Contest - receiving all your cards was great fun!

As always, our choice was very difficult. There were many creative, clever, and polished entries and only four prizes available for this round.

We also chose 11 entries for honorable mention - though we would have liked to have chosen many more for recognition.

All card entries have been resized to fit this page; a few have also been cropped or digitally enhanced in other ways - to better suit this page and our purposes. Our judges made their choice based on the original entries as submitted; many factors were considered.

All decisions are final. Prize packages (store credits) will be sent to Grand Prize and First Prize winners by email. Honorable mention card crafters will receive a small gift in the mail from our crew for their amazing contributions to this year's contest. If you are a winner and have not been contacted by September 15th, 2017, please email us using our contact form.