Wednesday, January 27, 2016

WWC52 - Anything Goes and Design Team Call

Before we introduce our new challenge, we wish to bring this to your attention:

As you've noticed, over the past few weeks our Design Team of Watercooler Artists has been reduced with three of our founding members leaving.  Two others are posting infrequently because of personal or health reasons.  While those will clear up and they will be returning, the fact is that we are still down three permanent members.  After much deliberation, we will be having a Design Team call to add two Watercooler Artists to our core group.

Everyone is invited to participate in our Anything Goes Challenge, of course, but those who are interested in joining our team must indicate this by putting the letters "DT" in their link-up this week.  For those applying for the team, please create two cards which must be part of your post.  Only one needs to be linked up to our challenge but your post should have two creations, both different, showing a sample of your styles and creativity.



 What is Anything Goes?  It is simply a project which you have created and wish to share.  There are no restrictions or rules.  That's what this week's challenge is all about.  Enjoy sharing your wonderful creations.  We look forward to the surprises.  Here are a few projects created by the Watercooler Artists in the order in which they were submitted:





And now it's your turn.  You can join us by linking up your creation with the InLinkz at the bottom of this challenge.  Please note that this challenge will extend over two weeks to allow time to enjoy the holidays.

Remember:
          1.  This must be a new project---no back-linking to a previous post.
          2.  You must link your project back to our challenge (details at top of page).
          3.  You must link directly to your post, not simply your general blog.
          4.  Please link to no more than 4 challenges, including ours.
          5.  Have fun!

Please use the link-up below to share your project.  This Linky will close on Monday, February 1st at noon Mountain Standard Time.


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

WWC51 - The Winners!

It's that time again.  Today we pick our winners.  It's good to see some familiar names among the link-ups as well as some new ones.  Bev's CAS challenge certainly was fun and attracted good participation.  We had some fabulous cards from which to choose.

With such talented participants, it's never an easy task to pick our winners.  In the end, however, it was Betty Lee's wonderful shooting star which stole the show.  Keeping it clean and simple and to a single layer took a great deal of planning.  Congratulations for "rocking the Watercooler" this week, Betty Lee.

Betty Lee

Betty, we hope you'll display your winnter's badge, shown below, proudly on your blog.


It was a close run between our next two choices, Leanne Johnson's and Lee Murphy's cards.  Both were great examples of clean and simple cards and beautifully crafted.


Lee Murphy

Leanne and Lee, we hope you'll each proudly display the badge, shown below, on your blog.


A warm thank you as well to Sheri, Kathe, Louise, Jennifer and Susie for linking your wonderful cards.  

Please remember to come back tomorrow (January 27th) for the new Watercooler Wednesday challenge and the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

WWC51 - Bev's Clean and Simple challenge (with a Star)

Before we get into our new challenge, it's time to say good-bye to another of our talented Watercooler Artists.  We will miss Jackie Susnik's wonderful projects and inspirational challenges.  Her life has, however, become so busy that she feels it's time to take a step back.  We all know how that can be.

Jackie Susnik
Jackie Susnik

Jackie has  been with us since the beginning of our challenge.  She will be missed. 

And now to Challenge WWC51

This time we're having a CAS (clean and simple) challenge with Bev challenging us to include a star or stars in a clean and simple project.  What is clean and simple?  According to the challenges which host only CAS (clean and simple), this is what one aims to do:  CAS (acronym for "clean and simple":  A design of card with clean lines, minimal elements, areas of white space and few or no embellishments, most often single layered or minimal layers.


As usual, you can click on the name under the card to go to the blog post and discover all the details about the products and creation of the card.  Let's begin with Bev's elegant "Friend" card.







And now it's your turn.  You can join us by linking up your creation with the InLinkz at the bottom of this challenge.  Please note that this challenge will extend over two weeks to allow time to enjoy the holidays.

Remember:
          1.  This must be a new project---no back-linking to a previous post.
          2.  You must link your project back to our challenge (details at top of page).
          3.  You must link directly to your post, not simply your general blog.
          4.  Please link to no more than 4 challenges, including ours.
          5.  Have fun!

Please use the link-up below to share your project.  This Linky will close on Monday, January 25th, at noon Mountain Standard Time.


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

WWC50 - The Winners!

It's that time again.  Today we pick our winners.  It's good to see that a number of people are embracing our challenges and coming back frequently.  Thank you.  Jean's paper-piecing quilt technique certainly was a fun challenge and attracted good participation.  We had some fabulous cards from which to choose.

With such talented participants, it's never an easy task to pick our winners.  In the end, however, it was Louise Cyr's valentine which stole the show.  Somehow Louise managed to make her paper-piecing appear both classic and vintage.  Congratulations for "rocking the Watercooler" this week, Louise.


Louise, we hope that you will display your winner's badge, shown below, proudly on your blog.


We did have some fabulous paper-piecing cards among the participants.  It made choosing our runner-up a very difficult task.  This week the choice was Susie Nelson whose wonderful quilting background really made the little lamb "pop".


 Susie, we hope that you will proudly display the badge, shown below, on your blog.


A warm thank you as well to Heather, Kathe, and Sherifor linking your wonderful cards.  

Please remember to come back tomorrow (January 20th) for the new Watercooler Wednesday challenge and the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

WWC50 - Jean's Technique Challenge

Welcome to this week's Watercooler Wednesday challenge.  Jean Fitch has provided us with a terrific technique for this challenge.  Many of you will have heard of paper piecing but Jean has taken that up a notch.  Instead of simply paper piecing, this challenge is all about creating a quilt-style project using the paper piecing technique.

Intrigued?  Wondering what can be done with this technique.  Well, the Watercooler Artists have all created some wonderful samples for you to enjoy.  You'll see from the variety of styles just how different their inspirations have been.  Can't you imagine how gorgeous they would all be if they were actual quilts?  As usual, you can click on the name under the card to go to the blog post and discover all the details about the products and creation of the card.  Let's begin with Jean's hexagonal "hello" card.  (By the way, it's Jean's birthday today so you may wish to leave her a greeting when you check out her post).






And now it's your turn.  You can join us by linking up your creation with the InLinkz at the bottom of this challenge.

Remember:
          1.  This must be a new project---no back-linking to a previous post.
          2.  You must link your project back to our challenge (details at top of page).
          3.  You must link directly to your post, not simply your general blog.
          4.  Please link to no more than 4 challenges, including ours.
          5.  Have fun!

Please use the link-up below to share your project.  This Linky will close on Monday, January 18th, at noon Mountain Standard Time.


Tuesday, January 12, 2016

WWC49 - The Winners!

It's that time again.  Today we pick our winners.  It's good to see some familiar names among the link-ups.  Jackie's sketch certainly was a fun challenge and attracted good participation.  We had some fabulous cards from which to choose.

With such talented participants, it's never an easy task to pick our winners.  In the end, however, it was Leanne Johnson's monochromatic blue and white card which stole the show.  Using the World Traveler embossing folder in the background really added a lot of texture and additional interest.  And the two contrasting layers of clouds were perfect along with the bi-plane.  Congratulations for "rocking the Watercooler" this week, Leanne.


Leanne, we hope you'll display your winner's badge, shown below, proudly on your blog.


We did have some fabulous cards among the participants.  It makes choosing our runner-up a very difficult task.  This week the choice was Deborah Smart with her joyful bundle of balloons.  Congratulations, Deb, for your great card and your cute story.


Deb, we hope you'll proudly display the badge, shown below, on your blog.


A warm thank you as well to Buffy, Sheri, Heather and Susie for linking your wonderful cards.  

Please remember to come back tomorrow (January 13th) for the new Watercooler Wednesday challenge and the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

WWC49 - Jackie's Sketch Challenge

Welcome to our very first challenge of 2016!  We have a great challenge to launch the New Year.  Jackie Susnik has provided us with a wonderful sketch.


You will see that every card created by the Watercooler Artists is different.  It's not just the colours and stamps that are different but even the shapes have their own interpretations.  You don't have to use that flower shape or even keep the sketch horizontal as it's shown.  As long as your interpretation is recognizably this sketch, we encourage you to link it up.  For details on how Jackie and the other Watercooler Artists created their projects, just click on the name underneath and you will be taken to that blog post.





And now it's your turn.  You can join us by linking up your creation with the InLinkz at the bottom of this challenge.

Remember:
          1.  This must be a new project---no back-linking to a previous post.
          2.  You must link your project back to our challenge (details at top of page).
          3.  You must link directly to your post, not simply your general blog.
          4.  Please link to no more than 4 challenges, including ours.
          5.  Have fun!

Please use the link-up below to share your project.  This Linky will close on Monday, January 11th at noon, Mountain Standard Time.


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

WWC48 -- The Winners!

It's that time again.  Today we pick our winners.  It's good to see some steady participants, some new ones, and some that have come back.  Anything goes is always a fun challenge and this one, with its focus on snow, is no exception.  We had some fabulous cards in the link-ups.

With such talented participants, it's never an easy task to pick our winners.  In the end, however, it was Sheri's gorgeous pink, white and silver Christmas card, which stole the show.  Using the elegant dots embossing folder on that background snowflake really added a lot of texture and additional interest.  And that pink!  What a strikingly different look for a Christmas card!  Congratulations for "rocking the Watercooler" this week, Sheri.

This is a poor copy but the card is copyright protected on Sheri's blog.


Sheri, we hope you'll display your winner's badge, shown below, proudly on your blog.


Since our team was down in numbers this week because of a reduction in Artists and also a medical situation with one of the team, it was difficult to make one clear choice and so this week we will have two honourable mentions.  First up, congratulations to Heather Hopson for your beautiful work with the acetate paper and the snowflakes.


And congratulations as well to Vikki for your wonderful card.  The swirls of blues and the white dots give it a look of a real snowstorm.



Heather and Vikki, we hope you'll proudly display the badge, shown below, on your blogs.


A warm thank you as well to Shawna, Kathe and Susie for your wonderful cards.  

Please remember to come back tomorrow (January 6th) for the new Watercooler Wednesday challenge and the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists.