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Monday 25 August 2014

Welcome to our August Guest Designer ...

Drea Slee with her wonderful take on the challenge for this month.



Hello!! My name is Drea Slee, and I'm originally from Southern CA, currently living in Reno, NV in the US with my husband and our 12 1/2 year old son. I've always had a passion for art my whole life, and studied fashion design and merchandising in Los Angeles, CA. Even though I've always kept simple scrapbooks, with ticket stubs and other memorabilia, I didn't really begin scrapbooking until my son was four years old. I love that I can combine different mediums, and use some of my past art skills, such as drawing, painting, and sewing, into my projects. My two favorite techniques are sewing and stamping, and I host challenges for those at Scrapbook.com. I also take my turn in hosting a weekly stamping challenge for the design team that I'm on for Red Rubber Designs. I'm also on the design team for FotoBella, and share a tutorial there once a month, along with projects that I create from their wonderful selection of bundles. You can find a full list of all of my tutorials on my blog  Drea's Scraps of Inspiration

My inspiration from this months beautiful work of art came from the colors and flowers. I used Bo Bunny's Serenity Collection, fussy cutting the branch, and two of the lanterns. I stamped the blue lantern, adding some machine stitching and beads. The flowers were made using my Serenity Blooms Tutorial, with the twist of fabric, which I used for the centers,  and on all of the small flowers. I used permanent ink to stamp the small flowers onto muslin fabric, and cut around the edges, leaving some of the muslin exposed. Then I shaped them with some tacky glue mixed with a little bit of water. After it dried I added beads to the centers. 



Here are a couple of samples of my work, one from each design team that I'm on.  



I'm so very honored to be guest designing here this month, and can't wait to see all of your projects!!


Thank you so much for guesting with us on ARTastic this month Drea. I just love your unique style and wonderful use of paper on your pages.  It has been delightful having you join us.


You still have until the end of the month to upload your own take on our challenge.  We'd love to see what you can do with our inspiration artwork this month and our criteria of fabric (and remember "fabric" can be as simple as adding ribbon, lace, fabric flowers or even a yoyo or two to your page).  


Friday 15 August 2014

July winners and more August inspiration ...

Welcome to our mid month reveal and the announcement of our July winners.

A hearty thank you to Debbi Tehrani for welcoming us at CSI last month.  We all had an awesome time creating up a storm for her challenges.

We'd also like to thank our sponsors for July, Flourish with a Bling  and  Time to Create

Time To Create is a family business. We share a passion to create, share and develop the best that we imagine!  We only stock products that we use and believe in. Our stock is always priced at the keenest costing we can do. We support Australian manufacturers and many Australian suppliers and try to have as wide a variety as possible.

Gorgeous bling, flowers and flourishes for your crafting needs.


We had some truly wonderful entries last month - thank you everyone for playing along with us.

Our TOP winners are ...

Shazza Bishop who has won a store voucher from Time to Create.



Rosa Daporta who has won a store voucher from Flourish with a Bling

Email entry

and our random draw prize (courtesy of past DT member Maja Stokk)  goes to Alli D.
 
                     
Congratulations ladies.

Could the winners please contact me at jjjustjane@bigpond.com with their postal details.  Don't forget to grab our winners badge from the sidebar. 


Our Creative Team favourite this month is Tone-Lill who will receive a little something from me.



And now some final inspiration from our remaining design team.   DT Aubrie Wancata leaves us this month.  We wish you well Aubrie and hope you will pop back and join in with us when you have some spare time.

WENDY

Instead of a photo, I used a postcard I bought from the National Gallery when I went to Canberra last month. I love John Brack’s art and I thought the subject of this piece suited the “fabric” theme perfectly. I often use fabric flowers and ribbons but this time I wanted to do something different.  So, in keeping with the Brack’s artwork, I did my layout in an ultra-masculine style. I kept to fairly clean lines and layered lots of mats under the picture.  I made the shirt by paper folding and the tie with fabric. I used the embellishments  (pins, threads and scissors) because  they are the items used with fabric. I enjoyed combining the art and fabric themes.
Criteria for this months challenge is to use fabric and the inspiration picture shows an old caravan, so it made me think of the old long boat at Stoke Bruerner museum where you can come along for a boat trip up Grand Union Canal to the Blisworth tunnel. So with a photo of the kids in the boat and some material from a pair of old jeans, I had what I needed to start. So if you have some old or new fabric, be creative and join in with our challenge :)
 I loved the simplicity of this painting, just having three main colours. It was that and the flowers that inspired my layout today. I have always wanted to try and make my own flowers so off I went to Pinterest and I must say I am very happy with the end result! Add some banners, stamping and bling, I love it. I hope you do too!
 
I love the colour combination in this painting and I was inspired by this when I did my layout. I have decorated with some fabric flowers, bling and chipboard.
I'm in love AGAIN! With my sewing machine that is! She has been packed away and unpacked so many times this year I had almost forgotten how wonderful Miss 1437CD is!
Check out my blog and you will understand!

I've used two strips of ribbon and felt flowers on my page.


Now we'd love to see your interpretations of our inspiration this month.  Please don't be put off by our criteria this month - "fabric" can be as simple as adding ribbon, lace, fabric flowers or even a yoyo or two to your page.

 Remember we happily accept all forms of paper crafting for your entry including digital and encourage international submissions.  All we ask is that you create a new entry for our challenge although you are most welcome to combine with a sketch and/or colour challenge if you wish.  You have until 11.55pm on the last day of the month to submit your entry.
  

Next week we will be introducing you to our lovely August guest designer, Drea Slee.
 

Friday 8 August 2014

August 3T's ...

Welcome to our August round of ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques where each month one of our creative team will show you are few quick tips and/or techniques to use on your layouts.  This month we feature team member Deb Kupfer and her lovely layout from this month.


Hi everyone, Deb here.  With the criteria, for this month, being “fabric”, I was keen to add some machine stitching to my layout as well as create some fabric embellishments. 

So being inspired by the 3 main colours in the artwork,  here is how I created my page……

Starting with a plain piece of card stock, I randomly stitched rows down and across the page, starting and stopping at different points,  to form some “squares”.   You can draw these lines in before stitching if you prefer your lines to be straight.   Then sew 2 rows  around the edge to form a border.  

I find the longest stitch on my machine works best.    


Next, rough up  the stitching by running a sanding block along it.   I sanded more lightly around my border so as not to take as much of the stitching off.  I then added some drips of ink and put it aside to dry.


and a close up…..


Using scraps of fabric and some vliesofix (this is a double sided webbing with a paper backing used in appliqué), I ironed the vliesofix onto the back of the fabric, (rough side down - paper side up.) You can now trace or draw some little embellies onto the paper side and cut them out . (I like to keep the drawings/tracings simple as you are tracing them on the paper backing which is the underside of the fabric and you need to be careful they don’t end up in reverse).  I also ran some of my fabric with the vliesofix attached, through the Big Shot.


Now it’s time to decide where your photos will go, although don’t stick them down just yet as you will need  to iron the fabric embellies on your page first.  I didn’t know what photo/s I was going to use when I started, so I changed them to black and white and printed them out in a smaller size to suit my page.
It doesn’t matter if your photo/s don't  it in a “square” - just put it over two or 3.  I marked where the photos would go with an X. 

I then peeled the backing paper off the vliesofix , positioned my fabric embellies on the page and ironed them on. 


After I had ironed them on, I stuck down my photos and then gathered up some bits and pieces that I  thought might be suitable to fill in the other squares  - stamps, flowers, rub-ons, washi, buttons, transparencies  etc (you probably won’t use them all).  Now just start filling in the “squares” - no need to fill them all in.  Don’t forget to leave room for your title and journaling. I’ve added some doodling and outlining of the embellies and I’ve inked in black around my border as well.


and my finished page ...



This is one very sweet page Deb - I love the techniques you have used.

If this has inspired you why not try it for yourself and enter this months ARTastic challenge.  All the details are in the left sidebar.  Remember you have until the end of the month to submit your entry.





Friday 1 August 2014

And then it was August ...

My goodness where has this year gone?  August already? now how did that happen?

This month we are being inspired by this wonderful piece of fabric art "Gypsy Caravan" by Kristen Doran.




Criteria is to use fabric in some way on your layout.


And remember,  adding fabric can be as simple as using ribbon, lace, fabric covered buttons or fabric flowers 


A little about Kristen Doran

Kristen produces unique screen printed textile designs on natural fabrics. With a background in fashion and graphics, Kristen has created a range of products and fabrics that are both bold and whimsical. Get crafty and buy some fabrics to whip up a simple project for your home. The aim of Kristen Doran Design is to make sewing contemporary and fun.  All Kristen Doran Design fabrics are designed and screen printed in Sydney using environmentally friendly inks.


Please visit her SHOP - you will fall in love - guaranteed!! 



This month we have two main sponsors - each offering a $15 voucher to their stores.


 Julie from Time to Create






and Donna from Mystical Scrapbooks

and of course every month we also offer a prize pack totally by random draw.




This month we bid a sad farewell to one of our design team treasures, Maja Stokk who leaves us after a lengthy stint on the team.  We will miss you Maja and your gorgeous mixed media pages.  We hope you will pop back now and again to see us.


And now some delightful fabric inspired layouts from our amazing team ....

ELAINE
I love the gypsy caravan on the inspirational piece and scrapbooked our own little camping trip we did family. I also used the colours from the painting for my page. I used fabric for my buttons and the lollipop flower at the bottom.


I love fabric  and when I can use it in a mixed media piece that's even more interesting.
On my reverse canvas I have used glorious upholstery pieces to create a rich backgrounds for "Strawberries and Cream" a reverse canvas piece that is 45cm Square.


To see more please visit my BLOG.






This month, from the inspiration picture, I have taken the house and flowers, plus the colour, blue and have made a house-shaped mini-album. The covers have been made from canvas, and each page either has die-cut denim and / or burlap flowers, ribbon or die-cut fabric leaves.

 Most of the photographs in the album were taken when or house was being built, some 36 years ago. One of the photos still holds poignant memories, as this was the last photo taken of my dad. He had cancer and wanted to see the house, even though it wasn't completed, before he grew too ill to travel. 


HELENE
 I used two fabric hearts and the colors in the inspiration piece. I have also used a photograph of a train on my page which is close to a caravan I guess!


DEB
Please pop back on the 8th to see how Deb has put this absolutely delightful page together.


Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on August 31st, 2014. We'd love to see your new paper, digital, or off the page entries.  Please no back-dated submissions.  You may combine with a sketch and/or colour/technique challenge and international entries are always welcome.   Remember we are Australian based so you need to allow for the different time zones - if in doubt check our clock.  

Please pop back on the 8th for The ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques brought to you this month by our super talented team member, Deb Kupfer.  I am sure you will love seeing her in action.