Happy New Year!
Hi! I’m here with a card for The Mixed Media Card Challenge for January:
Here’s my card:
I suppose that this is a very nontraditional card for the month of January in the Northern Hemisphere, but I tried to illustrate our challenge’s theme and the verse I used at the same time.
The blooms gradually change from a frosty, frozen white to a golden, glowing yellow. Moving from the frosty Winter to the warm Summer. This is something to celebrate in my book! I really love how this card turned out. It was one of those rare times when I had a picture of a finished card in my head and I was able to exactly execute what I had seen. 🙂 Yay!
I used the ARTplorations stencils Retro Circles and Bloom Silhouettes.
I also have a discount code for you!
Shery, of STAMPlorations, has generously given me a code to share with you.
Use COUPON code STAMPGIRLMELISSA and receive 20% OFF at STAMPlorations!
I started by stenciling a rainbow onto the white background panel with the ARTplorations Retro Circles stencil.
Then I stenciled white, silver, blue, green and yellow embossing paste through ARTplorations Bloom Silhouettes stencil. 
I printed out my own sentiment onto vellum and added a narrow blue foil mat to the stenciled panel.
I assembled the pieces by folding the vellum around the matted panel and then mounting it on a white card base. 
This will be the first and last challenge for 2017 at The Mixed Media Card Challenge blog. After 2 1/2 years, it’s time to say goodbye. Make sure you stop by The MMCC blog and check out my teammates’ superb creations! We hope that you play along and enjoy this final challenge.
Thanks for stopping by!
Grace, Peace & Happy New Year,
Melissa
FOLLOW ME ON BLOGLOVIN’Here’s that coupon code again:
P.S. Here’s a fun video for your encouragement. Happy New Year!
HOW TO PLAY
1. Create a mixed media CARD based on the theme, with or without the optional element.
2. Display the challenge graphic on your blog post and link back to this challenge post.
3. You may enter as many times as you want, as long as each entry is different.
4. You may combine a maximum of 7 challenges (6 other challenges plus ours).
5. Submit your projects by January 25, 11:55 p.m. Pacific (GMT-8).
6. We’ll announce the winner and highlights on January 3o.
Places I’m Playing my card:
Time Out Challenge #73 Inspired by Words
To make this canvas, I used a variety of ARTplorations stencils and a wide variety of techniques and mediums too. This is a photo of my friend, Cindy, and I last Spring when she came to visit me.
Originally, I had used blues and greens and lots of white and had stamped a sentiment and some butterflies and stenciled some hearts too. The cool colors did not make me happy. Also, I had used a smaller version of the photo and had adhered it directly onto the canvas. I had stamped a sentiment over the edge of the photo and, anyhow, I did not like the results. So I picked it up again recently and reworked the colors to compliment the tulips in the photograph. 
I added some more texture with heat embossing and embossing paste.
The ARTplorations stencils, Retro Circles, Dots All Over, which I used on this are all beautiful and fun to play with. I also used some STAMPlorations stamps (Framed Tea Cups and Big Bloom Factory(fussy cut the flowers)) and the CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies.
Honey Bee Lane 