P. Kelly Smith
Welcome to Freebie Friday! The results are in for the Open Auditions round of Gallery Idol 2011! We were blown away not only by the number of submissions, but the quality as well. We’ve never seen so many gorgeous designs laid out on our conference table! I’m predicting one nail-biting, wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-cold-sweats competition!
This year, 502 designers submitted 1,671 cards for 20 spots. It was an agonizing decision, but we’re confident we got it right with these 20 gals. Wanna meet them? Here’s they are in alphabetical order. Drum roll, please…
Finalist #1 – Lindsay Amrhein:
Finalist #5 – Debbie Carriere:
Finalist #11 – Cristina Kowalczyk:
Finalist #12 – Kristii Lockart:
Finalist #13 – Valerie Mangan:
Finalist #14 – Vanessa Menhorn:
Finalist #16 – Laura O’ Donnell:
Finalist #17 – Jennifer Rzasa:
Finalist #19 – Laurie Willison:
Congrats, Top 20! You’ve each won American Crafts’ Margarita collection and a copy of our current issue!
Top 20, we absolutely loved all of your congrats cards and can’t wait to see what you come up with for round one. We thought long and hard about a theme that would not only challenge you, but inspire you (and hopefully our voters!). So…the theme for round one is Do-It-Yourself Embellishments!
And that means we want to see your very best cards that incorporate handmade embellishments. (For inspiration, please refer to the DIY Embellishments feature in our July/August 2011 issue.) The deadline is Monday, July 11 at 9 a.m. (MDT). All cards must be posted to our gallery by this time. I’ll be e-mailing you this afternoon to go over the specifics for posting and to answer any questions you might have.
Before I go, I want to take this opportunity to thank the other 482 designers who uploaded their amazing submissions to our gallery. With over 1600 entries this year, it was not an easy decision to narrow the pool to 20 spots. We hope you’ll still support our finalists in the voting rounds…after all, it’s our online community who will decide the next Gallery Idol winner. Voting begins at noon (MDT) on Monday, July 11, so please come back to cast your vote!
Ready for today’s giveaway? Since our first round of competition is all about embellishments, I have a fun selection of chipboard, flowers, stickers, etc. from Maya Road. Leave a congratulatory comment for our Top 20 finalists and I’ll pick three winners to receive this prize package, plus a copy of our current issue. All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Sunday, July 10.
Three lucky winners will take home this fun prize package!
Happy Friday!
Kelly
P.S. It’s time to announce the winner from Julie’s A Fresh Side to Silhouettes post!
Linda (July 6, 6:14 a.m.)
Congrats, Linda! You’ve won some silhouette-themed prizes! I’ll be contacting you shortly for your mailing address. Thanks to all who left comments!
Congrats to all these talented ladies. I’m excited to see what you all come up with next.
Wow! Talk about inspiration! Thank you ladies!
Congratulations to the Top 20 winners. It was a lot of fun to enter and I can’t wait to see what these talented ladies have to offer in the upcoming rounds.
I love them all! Such a variety and all very deserving of Top 20 Honors!
I’m so inspired, and want say, “Thank You and Congratulations to YOU!”
Congrats to all the finalists! Can’t wait to see what you come up with for the next round!!!
They are all worthy finalists. Beautiful work. I was really pleased to see some ladies who I follow like Laurie and Meg make it into the finals. Looking forward to seeing what’s next.
Congrats to all the winners! All of your cards are beautiful and left me with lots of inspiration. I cannot wait to see all your handmade embellishment cards
Awesome cards from a talented Top 20 !!!
Heartiest congratulations to all the winners!!! All of you truely deserved it… Fantastic creations.. some of the creations surprised me to the core…. Just lovely… Glad I found this site for great insipration…
Priya…
Wow these cards are all so inspiring!! I just love them! Congratulations ladies! Fabulous work!!
All your cards are wonderful! Congratulations!!!
Congrats one and all. They are great. They sure get the creative juices flowing. Keep up the good work.
I am so glad to see the top 20!!! Congratulations to you all and I cannot wait to see more!!!!!
All of these cards are amazing!
Congratulations! I am looking forward to seeing what’s to come!
Congrats to the finalists!
So many amazing cards! I love Cathy Fong’s twine on the Owl Grad hats, she always creates amazing things. I love the graphic work of Christina, finalist 11, and Jennifer finalist 17. Wonderful everyone. Thank you for sharing with us!
Katie B.
Congrats ladies. Your work is fantastic:)
The giveaway is fabulous, thanks for the chance:)
My oh my, what wonderful finalists! (A special shout-out to my pal, Meg, too!!!)
Can’t wait to see the next round’s entries — have fun!
Such an amazing group of talent in the top 20! Congrats to the finalists! I can’t wait to drool over the next round of projects!
Oh my goodness! I love all of the projects- they are so pretty, so clever. Congrts girls!
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LOVE them all!!
Wow! These cards are beautiful! Congratulations to all of the designers!
beautiful cards from all 20 finalists! congrats!
Oh my…how could your pick…these are all lovely!
All of the cards are AMAZING – and SO many different styles. I can see why you had a hard time even narrowing it down to 20. THANKS for sharing!
Congrats to all of the finalists! I don’t envy the judges, having to pick out of all those fabulous submissions – I only made it about 1/2 way through the gallery before I was simply overwhelmed with ideas and inspiration.
Loved the owl congrats card! Super cute. Congrats to all the top 20 cards.
Wonderful cards and I really like number 5, amongst others. Well done and good luck…
As a card maker myself I know your job is a hard one to decide a winner and I love them all… but only one can win!!! So good luck to you all and keep those creative juices flowing.
Looking forward to seeing the next round of cards. Good luck!!!
Wow… How creative they all are. It’s hard to pick the best!
All 20 cards are amazing. Congratulations to each of you!
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to enter this contest.
You all did a “won”derful job. Thanks for sharing.
Oh My just fantastic, creative, amazing cards – all 20! It’s going to be very hard to pick a fave. Congrats to all 20 of you – you are all WINNERS!
watching this and has me on the edge of my seat ~ wow
These are such inspiration, I love them all, Great Job Ladies!
Congrats to the top 20. Looks like it will be a tough competition.
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