smART Card Stamping Contest 2007 - Quarter #4

Another quarter of the smART Card Stamping Contest came to a close yesterday, Dec. 31. Sadly, this round had very few entries, so although first and second place winners have been announced, no third place prize will be awarded.

The names of the two winning stampers, Sarah Stainback and Ann Caldon, may sound familiar. That's because these two gals were also winners in Quarter # 3... This time, however, they swap places -- Sarah's card is in first place, and Ann's in second...

Oddly enough, each card used CMS-01 Sledding as it's focal image, and each combined this image, in one way or another, with trees and snow... But that's pretty much where the similarities ended.

For Sarah's - Boy on Sled -the color scheme is mostly blues and whites, with a bit of red thrown in for contrast. The tree images are in an actual photograph (used as the background), and the snow can be found, not only in the photo itself, but also by way of white, embossed snowflakes with opal glitter glue accents. All coloring was done with colored pencils, and a holiday sentiment was stamped on the card front. Snowflake and saying are from CMS-12 Reindeer.

Ann's - New England Winter - on the other hand, is done in earth tones (red, olive, brown). The trees are stamped in dye ink, and the snowy effects have been produced using a Snow Writer, and Dazzle Dust. Coloring was done with markers, and there are no words. Tree images are from WD-188 Snowy Pines.

The two cards, similar yet very different, were equally matched in originality, difficulty level of techniques used, and skill of execution, so believe me, choosing first and second places was very difficult.

"Boy on Sled" edged out "New England Winter," however, for two reasons --

1. It's images"carry" -- when viewed from across the room, they remain crisp, clear, and easily  distinguished.
2. Incorporating not just a photo, but such a well-suited photo for the background layer, then embossing the snowflakes over it, really is super clever... Every person who has looked at it so far says exactly the same thing, "Hey, it's a real picture...That's cool!" 

Congratulations, Ladies!  And thank you very much for participating.

Comments

[Trish D]

The "photographic" card really is lovely. Congratulations, Sarah!

[Sarosa]

That's funny - I was hoping to send in a couple of cards for that, and one of them would also have been the sled! I had made a background panel stamped all over with the mitten from that set, and covered the images with red flocking, then stamped the sled on a circle card. But the flocking just did not adhere uniformally to the panel, and so I ended up abandoning the project.