My Story, My Thank's and, My Gift

Last Year in September, I was searching for a good quality stamp store when I came across a catalog with a Hero Arts advertisement, I immediately went online here and joined the club, not really knowing what it really was, and one day I found out that there were weekly challenges which led me Here to Flickr. Once there I made two cards and uploaded them, only to see that my new found talent was really nothing, but I soon made friends from all over the world and as I watched I got better. Well since that time much has happened, I have conversed with several talented Ladies. One lady by the name of Paula from the country of Australia had kindly offered to send me some pre stamped images to see if I liked them. Not 2 days later I received an email from another lady by the name of Kathy offering what I thought the same as Paula, but she sent me stamps, paper, glitter, and ribbon's. When I received their generous gifts, I posted a Public Thanks and someone suggested we challenge each other, Both of us(Paula and I) liked the idea and I was asked to set it up, so I created a sketch and chose the stamp we would use, then I secured 2 judges Linda, also known as Oz, and Deborah. The Challenge is now over and Gifts were donated By Judy from Alabama, of which I just received. So with all that I would like to Thank the following in no particular order :

Paula for sending me the pre stamped images,accepting the challenge and giving nice comments on my cards before, after, and between the challenge.

Kathy, for sending me her generous gift, of various stamping materials.

Linda aka Oz for being the judge for my challenge, and sharing her thoughts about my cards and giving me tips on how to better myself, as well as also sending me a box of paper and ink so I could do a scrap page of my little sister.

Deborah for giving her comments as a judge and giving me a blog award.(which I have not put up yet)

Judy for donating the prizes and giving supporting comments.

Having said all that, I have created an award that I want to give, blog or not: ) its not made real good but it's the best I could do.

Here is how it works, if you do not have a blog just post this in your photo stream on flickr, you do not have to pass this on unless you want to. But when this is passed on please link back to the person who gave it to you and link to each person to whom you give this award.

I would now like to award:

Paula you can also see her photostream here http://www.flickr.com/photos/pajalucrafts/

Kathy

Judy

Linda

Deborah you can also see her photostream here http://www.flickr.com/photos/gigi_001/

Thank You Ladies!

Hannah

Winners of the Hannah and Paula Skill Challenge

Winners of the Hannah and Paula Skill Challenge
By Judge Linda aka Oz

As most of you may know, this started when Pajalu (Paula) stamped a few images for her friend named Hannah. How could she have known that such a simple act of kindness would result in the "STAMP HEARD ROUND THE WORLD"! Soon millions had gathered to witness the now infamous Hannah vs. Paula battle of skills. Well maybe not millions but a darn lot of us did. Every day for two weeks Hannah and Paula toiled, fussed and fumed over their designs. Not since Michalenglo got stuck with the ceiling has so many onlookers’ oohhhed and awwwed over the results. Ok, again, maybe not but you get the drift.

But there was alot of Hulabaloo going on and I get to try and sort it all out.

You may all recall that the challenge was to use the Nesting Doll stamp from Hero Arts with Hannah’s sketch. In the time frame that was allowed, Hannah submitted 3 cards to Paula’s 2. All 5 entries were true to the nature of the sketch, although I believe Hannah’s second entry was the best interpretation of the original sketch. Therefore I deem Hannah the winner of the sketch portion.
For the coloring part of the challenge, I had a much harder time deciding. While Hannah’s first submission was so attractive with the monochromatic color scheme of rosy pink, both of Paula’s cards seemed to be almost saved by her use of the blue. I felt that the background on Paula’s cards were so very busy that the use of the blue helped to bring the dolls forward. Hannah’s third submission has her coloring every doll with a different color. I usually feel that this distracts from a group, but because they were all dolls, it pulled them back together. Both ladies used nice shading and shadowing techniques and both stayed “within” the lines, I claim this part of the challenge a tie.

Ok, now time for the big tote board in the sky to tell us the current standings. With Hannah winning the sketch part, and a point for the tie in coloring, she now stands at 2 points. Paula has a point for the coloring tie and 1 point for the original gift of sending stamps to Hannah that lead to this whole challenge..Paula also has 2 points.

You know what the means ladies… It’s official…. It’s a TIE….. !!! As I grab one hand on each of these amazing people and raise them in the air, the room goes WILD! Happy happy joy joy dancing is going on across the universe! I can hardly hear myself proclaiming the results of this once-in-a-lifetime event…. (it is only once, right?...ladies?)

Judy has offered up some absolutely marvelous prizes that are in the mail as we speak. I can’t wait to hear from our TIE WINNERS when they receive them. Thank you so very much Judy for your gifts and encouragement during this journey.

Deborah aka Gigi helped judge this wonderful contest of skills and will be submitting her views and results here also.

To Hannah and Paula, Congratulations and I just would like to add my thanks for letting me play along, trusting me to critique and for letting me become a friend to you both. I truly can’t think of a higher honor than that.

Linda K Metteer

the Renee Award

I got up very sleepily this morning and checked flickr to see what's new, when I received a flickr mail from Arlene, saying she gave me this award.

This is the first blog award I have ever gotten and I am very Honored to have it .

Thank You Arlene!

Now to pass it on....The Renee Award was created by Bella and Ces in honor of their friend Renee. In Bella's own words: "this is a brand new award and I have the pleasure and honor of spreading the seed, watching it grow. I hope it finds it's way to those who are like Renee: the acorn, a small package becoming a tall and sturdy oak, giving more acorns, becoming tall and sturdy oaks, giving acorns..."There are no "rules" for claiming this award, but I would suggest the following:

Thank the person who nominated you for the Renee Award.Click on the picture above to see it larger, then download it and post it on your blog.Mention the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.Nominate others to receive the award.Comment on their blogs to let them know you nominated them.Visit Bella, Ces, and Renee and let them know you received the award and passed it on. Consider linking your blog post to them, too.

Now I am supposed to share in the fun by nominating others....I would like to nominate

Paula

and... I dont know many others so I randomly picked (or at least any who hasn't recieved one) one on flickr, that I thought might not have one, I give you

Lucille

she has a beautiful Blog,

Thank You Ladies

Hannah