Here at RTB we are so excited to kick off a new year of crafting!
We encourage you to challenge yourself, raise your own level of crafting, and keep your resolution to use those new stamping items. And yes, we will even use those supplies that you just had to have in your collection. ;)

Friday, December 2, 2011

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:


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!
****


Friday, November 25, 2011

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


********



Friday, November 18, 2011

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:



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

****

Friday, November 11, 2011

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:




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:



******


Friday, November 4, 2011

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
 ******


Friday, October 28, 2011

Challenge #81

It's Friday! Yay! I hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend? It's going to be chilly here in VA so we are ready for some baking and crock-potting. Uh. That didn't sound right. At any rate, THANK YOU for your awesome orange & black creations last week! I loved how it ranged from Halloween to everyday cards. Beautiful work everyone!
Without further ado, congratulations to the following crafters:

Dragon Lady

Lea

Jennifer Scull

If your card or project was featured above, please contact me for your opportunity to debut a new challenge with us as a Guest Bar-Tender!
And now on to this week's fun challenge:
SEW WHAT?
We would like to see stitching on your cards! Whether it be faux or real, let's see your lovely handiwork. With us today are some fab-o guest designers who wow'ed me with their creations!

Jo

Mary

Jackie

Eeek! I just love it all! Thank you Guest Bar-Tenders!
And now for our full time employees:
Thanh

Wanda


Jan

Joni
Please click on the happy blue frog below to link up your work. You have until noon EST on Thursday to join in on the fun!
*****

Friday, October 21, 2011

Challenge #80

Happy beautiful Friday everyone! I hope your week went well and that you're looking forward to this weekend? It is ch-ch-chilly up here in VA, but I love the Fall weather...minus all those leaves on our ground. ;) THANK YOU for your inspirational Pink is IN cards last week, if you have time, browsing through that gallery is so wonderful. I loved all the ideas on there for October and beyond!
Congratulations to the following friends:
Mary

Lea

Susan

Such beautiful pink creations everywhere! Ladies please contact me at jonjinko@hotmail.com to debut next week's theme as a Guest Bar-Tender!
And not on to this week's challenge:

ORANGE and BLACK
Now there is NO requirement as to what holiday or non holiday this pertains to, we just thought it would be fun to celebrate this month! Here to inspire are our Guest Bar-Tenders:
Hazel

Mary
Shanna

And our amazing DT with more eye candy:
Julie


Thanh


Wanda


Jan

Joni
***