It's Contest Time!!!!

I'm so excited to get my blog contest underway! I'm hoping lots of you will participate, but if you don't, my feelings won't be hurt TOO badly.....just kidding! Like I said in my post about it this past weekend, we're not making greeting cards or altering anything. What I am challenging you to do for THIS contest is design yourself a.......BUSINESS CARD! That's right. Business cards.

You might be shaking your head right now, asking yourself "what in heavens name has gotten into that blasted girl?", that she would want us to design a business card? Well, I would answer you in this way. I sell my handcrafted cards to family and friends. Almost every time I talk with someone about what I do, they ask me for my "card". Yikes. "I'm sorry, I don't have one" I say. And then they walk away and forget all about me. Not cool. And, I also share with lots and lots of people about my blog, but I am constantly having to WRITE MY BLOG ADDRESS down for them because I don't have a business card that I'm able to just hand them that already has my blog address printed on it!

Over the past year, I've looked at lots and lots of business cards online, but I wasn't impressed with any the designs I saw. None of them screamed "me"! I also felt that formal business cards, for what I do, was going a bit overboard. Not to mention the fact that I really didn't need a stash of 250 cards, which is typically the minimum order amount! It finally dawned on me early last week that I should just make my OWN business cards! For heaven's sake, I'm a creative chicky. This really shouldn't be a difficult task. I really need a card that clearly identifies who I am and what I do (I stamp, so I wanted my cards to have stamping on them). So I did it. I designed my own business cards using pre-preforated business cards from the office store (totally not necessary, but I had some in my stash so I thought I'd use them up), my computer, and last but not least, my beloved rubber stamps and designer paper!! It was SO simple! (Special Note: It seems that I wasn't very clear on one small little aspect of this contest....I would like you to use some rubber stamping on your card! Computer and printers can be used for the wording, but aside from that, add your special touch with stamps and paper. I apologize if this wasn't clear in my initial post! Hugs!)

So that, my friends, is WHY I chose to do a business card contest! Do I still sound crazy to you, now that you know a little of the story behind the story? I'm hoping you're all nodding your heads in unison now.......that's good. I'm feeling your love!

Ok, here are the juicy details. You've got until midnight Saturday night to get your business card entries in to me. The most important thing for you to make sure you do when you are designing your card is strive for FUNCTIONALITY. It's imporant that your card fit easily into someone's wallet, which is where we all typically put someone's business card. We're not looking for "which card has the most layers" or "who's card is distressed the best". What my celebrity judges (yes, celebrity!) will be looking for first and foremost, is functionality, followed then by great design elements! Don't bust your hump trying to make it stunningly gorgeous, ok?

So, want to know who'll be judging your fabulous business card entries?? I am excited to announce that Julee Tilman (Poetic Artistry & Verve Visual), Colleen Schaan (Distinctive Touches), Beate Johns (Fresh & Fun, SCS), and Alli Mills (Card Metaphors) have graciously agreed to do the hard work of picking the winning entry for the contest! Woo-hoo! These girls are ALL amazing chicky's, and I'm pleased as punch they agreed to help me. Thanks ladies!

The winning prize for the best business card entry will be an 8x8 stack of the brand new DCWV Rockstar paper line (this stuff ROCKS!!!!), and a bunch of the fun embellishments that go with it! I'm sure I'll be throwing a few more fun things in the prize package before the week is through though.

To get you started, here are a few of the business cards I designed this week.....
For this card, I can't take the credit for the design....I was blurfing one day and I saw someone had used this layout for something they had made (I don't think it was a business card though), and I loved it. If you are the genius behind this design, PLEASE let me know so I can give you proper credit! This is my favorite of the cards I've designed so far. I have a bunch made up, so I'm ready to go should someone request my card!

I really like this second card too. It was so simple. You'll all recognize Petal Prints as the stamp set I used. And I couldn't resist using my Scenic Route Laurel paper line for a little scalloped edge.


This next beauty was made by celebrity judge, Ms. Julee Tilman!!! Didn't she ROCK on the execution of her card? Julee was all over this challenge, and it shows in her rock solid design. Thanks Julee!

I'm hoping to be able to showcase a few of the other judges business card samples if they have time to get it made up this week. Keep checking back later this week to see some more cards that I made up though, ok?

One more thing....I hope none of you have looked closely enough at my business cards to notice that I made a typo in my printed information on the card.....I spelled handcrafted "hancrafted"......grrrr! I didn't notice it until all my cards were already made. Oh well, I said I was creative, not a perfect speller. Or typer in this instance.

Hugs to everyone,

Amy