Challenge #88

Happy beautiful Friday everyone! I hope the weather is cooperating with your plans today. I know some areas are getting snowed in, but here on the East Coast, we are getting nuthin'! ;) But all is well, because any weather is good weather for crafting. Thank you all so much for joining in on our Banner challenge last week! Without further ado, here are our top picks:

Audrey

Melisa Waldorf

Katie

Thank you so much ladies! Please contact me whenever you are ready to be a Guest Bar-Tender at jonjinko@hotmail.com with the subject title Guest Bar-Tender in the subject line (just in case it goes to the spam folder).

And now on to this week's challenge, continuing on in to celebrating 2012:

"Ring" in the New Year!

We want to see CIRCLES (aka 'rings') everywhere on your cards and projects! Fun challenge right? We can't wait to see what you create! For some eye candy, here are our Guest Bar-Tenders Julie and Melissa (thanks ladies!):

Julie Elak

Melissa De Monic

And from our Design Team:

Wanda

Thanh

Julie

Joni

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Challenge #87

Happy beautiful 2o12 everyone!
We are so happy to be back, after a nice little hiatus to enjoy the holidays. I hope yours went well? We'd love to hear about it!
With a new year also comes some fun new challenges as well as some new faces on the Design Team! BUT more on that next week...
Today we wanted to let you know of a wee little change here at the Bar - our challenges will now be posted 8am EST instead of midnight. This way it will be waiting for you when you rise and shine!
On to our top 5 of last month's "It's Begining to Look a lot Like Christmas" challenge:

Julie Elak

Mary

Tanya

Sunshine Honey Bee

Janiel

Congratulations ladies! Everyone's work was SO beautiful, thank you all for making our December so full of love and inspiration! Please contact me if your card was showcased above at jonjinko@hotmail.com with RAISE THE BAR as the subject. This way if it ends up in my junk folder I can easily sift through it.

And now on to this week's challenge which is our first of the month and SPONSORED!
A big hug and thanks goes out to LORi BOYD for being our sponsor with By LORi Designs:

This week our challenge is:

A Banner of a New Year!

We want to see banners of all types on your card. Here is our wonderful Design Team:

Thanh using Ainsley's Heart

Wanda using Lollipop Saylor

Joni using Puddle Jumper Cole

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Challenge #86

Hello everyone and happy December! Just a fair warning - there are a few things that I will be covering in this blog post so get your coffee and get comfy. ;)
First off, a huge thank you for all your participation in last week's Thank You/Grateful challenge last week! It was a beautiful way to celebrate the holidays, seeing all the thankful gorgeous cards. I will be showcasing the winners in a bit...

After seeing the Bar grow, we realize that we need a few more employees to help stir up the concoctions. Yes, we are having a DESIGN TEAM call throughout the entire month of December. The requirements are simple - one card a week, and posting it to your blog on Fridays. Easy peasy, right? We will be resuming our first Friday of the month sponsorship come the new year, which means that you will be receiving some fun digis from different companies as a designer! If you are interested, please put the initials DT next to your entry for this upcoming challenge.

And speaking of challenge, we will be taking a December hiatus for all of our holiday busyness. This challenge will be the only challenge until we see you again in January, so please join in on the fun! The winners will be announced in the new year, along with our newest Bar-Tenders who will be contacted over the holidays.

Before we move on to this week's theme, congratulations to the following Thank You/Grateful participants:

Susie Little

Linda

Margie

Melissa

Congratulations, ladies! Please contact me any time this month for January's theme. Thank you!
And now on to this month's challenge:

It's Beginning To Look a lot Like Christmas!

We want to see what this month means to you, whether it be a wintry card, shopping, religious, or whimsical, share it with us!
Here are some wonderful samples by the Guest Bar-Tender Fiona and the Design Team:

Fiona

Thanh

Wanda

Joni

SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM US ALL,
we'll see you in 2012!

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Challenge #85

Happy day after Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope your holidays are off to a good start - and that if you were one of the fun and brave ones who ventured out into Black Friday, you had a great time and found all that you wanted! 

Thank you all for the beautiful food entries - after getting stuffed it was fun to visit all the yummy cards! Congratulations to the following entries:

Marilyn

Sarah

Fiona

Such a great variety, thank you all for joining in on our weekly challenges! Ladies, please email me at jonjinko@hotmail.com for your chance to debut next week's challenge with us.
And speaking of challenge, are you ready for this easy peasy theme? One that I know will come in handy this time of year, for sure:

Thank You/Grateful

All that is required that either of these words are on your card (any form is totally acceptable too!). To get you inspired, here is some inspiration from our Guest Bar-Tenders:

Sally

Naomi

Just beautiful creations ladies! Thank you Sally and Naomi!
And from our Designers:

Wanda

Thanh

Joni

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Challenge #84

Hello beautiful friends and a very happy Friday to you all! This time of year is so exciting, I just love the busyness of it all. Thank you so much for joining us every week here at Raise The Bar, we truly appreciate your participation as the holidays approach! Thank you especially to our two entries from last week, such beautiful cards that celebrated Veteran's Day:

Naomi

Sally J

Aren't these just amazing? Just beautiful! I love the poppies and color scheme of Naomi's card, what an elegant creation. Sally's gorgeous layout makes me wish I scrapbooked. The vintage colors are just stunning with her photos. Thank you ladies! Please contact me for next week's assignment, you are joining in on the fun as Guest Bar-Tenders!
Now for this week's challenge, we'd like to get a jump start on the holidays. Next week is our Thanksgiving, so our challenge is:

TIME TO FEAST

We would like to see food on your cards! Well, not literally, but you get the idea. ;) heehee! It doesn't have to be turkeys, just any type of delicacy is fine with us.

For some amazing inspiration, here are the wonderful Guest Bar-Tenders who joined in on the fun this week:

Laurel

Helen

Susie

And from the designers:

Wanda

Thanh

Joni

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Challenge #83

Hello everyone and happy Friday!
Thank you so much for joining us on this nice long weekend.
You will notice that our gallery is a bit more sparse than usual, there was a last minute change in our challenge and I didn't want our Guest Bar-Tenders to scramble at the last minute. For those of you who contacted me, I will be emailing you with next week's theme to join us! We also have our wonderful Julie on a hiatus, and our lovely Jan has stepped down from our design team. We will be doing a month long design team call in December, so please keep us in mind if you would like to be a Bar-Tender!
And now on with the show...
Congratulations to the following entries in last week's no embellishment challenge:

Nerdette

Susie

Helen

Beautiful job ladies! Please contact me at jonjinko@hotmail.com for your next assignment, joining us as a Guest Bar-Tender!

And now, since it is Veteran's Day in the US, we are dedicating the challenge to a:

MILITARY THEME

Create anything patriotic like our lovely designers did below, please click on their links to see the details of their gorgeous cards and Thanh's special post and poem:

Wanda

Thanh

Joni

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Challenge #82

It's a beautiful Friday! How wonderful is it that the weekend is upon us? We also have an extended weekend with teacher conferences happening on Monday and Tuesday - yeah! No school for the kiddos so we get to {hopefully} sleep in a bit later and enjoy the lazy time together. Thank you all so much for your beautiful entries in last week's Sew What challenge! WOWZA! You all amaze me with your incredible creations. I can sew a semi-straight line, then after that my Genome goes back on to the shelf until I am brave enough to try it again. lol!
Without further ado, congratulations to the following entries:

Laurel Seabrook's adorable wood grain sewing:

 Natascha's awesome panel stitching:

 Joanne's sewn balloons and birds:

Congratulations ladies! Please contact me for your opportunity to debut

the next Raise The Bar challenge with us!

And now on for this week's fun theme. Are you ready?

NO EMBELLISHMENTS

As in no brads, eyelets, ribbon, do hickeys, doodads, hardware, etc. BUT you are free to use paper related decor as in die cuts, paper edges (as in Martha Stewart punches), or anything paper made. I can't wait to see what you all come up with!
Here are some wonderful examples done by the Guest Bar-Tenders for this week:

Ali's {aka Dragonlady} beautiful distressed piece:

Jennifer's awesome paper pieced and gel-pen accented card:

Thank you so much Ali and Jennifer! 

I hope you had fun debuting this difficult challenge! :0)

And from our Bar-Tenders:

Thanh

Wanda

Joni

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