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Wednesday 22 April 2015

We welcome our April guest designer ...

Michelle Lark, with her lovely take on our challenge this month.  Aren't the colours in this just lovely?

I was inspired to create my own painted background for this layout from the artwork, rather than use any patterned paper.


Hi! I'm Michelle! I have been scrapbooking with passion about for 15 years! I love bringing precious memories to life with my own creative style. I have been on a few Design Teams over the years including Scrapbook Supplies Online, Artastic, Tattered Inspirations and Black With 2. I've also had my work published in Scrapbooking Memories and received an Honourable Mention in this year's Masters competition. I am a full-time primary school teacher by day and I do love my job because it is a rich and rewarding experience!

Blog:

Here are some more examples of my work ...



Thank you so much for guesting with us on ARTastic this month Michelle. It has been really lovely having you join us.

Remember ....

You still have time until the end of the month to upload your own take on this challenge.  All details are on the blog sidebar. We'd love to see what you can do with our inspiration this month.



Wednesday 15 April 2015

Our second reveal for April ...

Welcome to our mid month reveal.  We are working with this wonderful work by Roy de Maistre called Frozen Music.

CRITERIA is to use swirls on your submission.

Swirls can be created using flourishes, in paint, with string, using stamps, as doodles, from embellishments or in your patterned paper ...


STINA
For this challenge I chose to do a card inspired by the purple and the green in the painting. It made me think of spring. I also had to use my new swirl die for the card, I´m so in love with it.

TONE-LILL



 A fantastic and colourful artwork as inspiration this month, I just love the colours..... so as you can see both the swirls and colours inspired me making this page. I have used some of the flowers I showed you how to make earlier this month.   I hope you find some inspiration too and want to join us here at ARTastic at our April challenge :)

WENDY
I used layers of swirls for the background.  My aim was to  create the illusion of the universe and reinforce the idea that, as young graduates, my sons have the world at their feet. 

MARY

I was inspired by the colours and the swirls. The photo of the grass in front of the colourful houses in Ireland remind me of the swirls, like the weather, if that makes sense :)

DI
This month I have taken advantage of our added requirement of swirls to complete my layout with  doodled flourishes and swirls using a silver Sharpie. The photos are of the Natural Bridge at Numinbah,on the rim of the Mt Warning crater, about 30 minutes from the small township of Murwillumbah on the far North Coast of NSW. My layout is reflecting the photos showing a flow of water from a creek and its progression, tumbling down a steep rocky outcrop into a cavern where it cascades  into a pool before once again splashing out into a small creek.

The background is on a pearlised cardstock and water drops have been cut from glitter cardstock. I've added strands of glitter yarn, fabric and paper orchids in the colours taken from our inspirational painting, acetate butterflies and dragonflies and painted chipboard mushrooms. The edges have a drawn border of water droplets, again using a silver Sharpie.

LESLEY
I loved the soft texture of the swirls in this piece of art and wanted to reflect this is my layout. When I found these watercolour flowers I knew I needed to use them. I added more swirls with chalkboard arrows and gem.


Now it is your turn, we'd love to see what you can do ...

 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 and you are most welcome to combine with a maximum of two additional challenges.  We offer two prizes determined by team vote and one other prize purely chosen by random draw - so anyone can be a winner regardless of style or level of experience.  You have until 11.55pm on the last day of the month to submit your entry.

Please pop back on the 22nd when we introduce you to our April guest designer, Michelle Lark.


      

Wednesday 8 April 2015

April 3T's and some March winners ...

I will be announcing our March winners shortly but first I would like to introduce you to the 4th edition of Tips, Tricks and Techniques for 2015 presented by our wonderful team member, Tone-Lill Angelskar.


Hello everyone it is Tone-Lill here today with a flower tutorial for our  3T's for April. 

1. Cut several circles in different colours and/or pattern paper matching the project for the flowers.  My tip here is to use edging scissors to create a nice texture to the finished flowers. 
 
  2. Cut the circles in spirals. The wider the spirals the taller the flowers get. I keep my flowers to about 5-7 mm wide, but with an uneven cutting for uneven look. My 2nd tip here is to use the same edging scissors For the spiral cutting. Remember to leave a small circle in the middle of the circle. This is to glue the flower down and keep it together. 

3. Here is a photo of what it looks like when starting the rolling process. You start with a tight roll from the outside of the spiral and keep rolling to you reach the little circle in the middle.

4. When finished rolling, you can let go of the spiral a bit to get a looser look to the flower, but keep pressing the middle of the flower back in to the middle for a nicer look.  The trick here is to keep it tight to the base from where the spiral finish when you glut it down, and  my last tip here is to use hot glue as it will stay in shape as soon as the glue is cold( so within only a few seconds) 

 
This is what it looks like when finished with the rolling and gluing. I have added 3 flowers at the back here, where I have only used normal straight edge scissors, so you can compare the difference in texture. The one at the top left has been loosened a bit more as well for a wider look. Now they are ready to be used on a paper project the way they are or you can add spray ink of different colours.







Aren't they just fabulous!  In fact I think you might see these in use on Tone-Lill's layout revealed next week (and they look amazing!!).

and now onto our March winners .....
Some fantastic work submitted last month - thank you everyone for playing along with us, you always seem to make finding our voted upon winners extremely difficult.

Could I also just remind you that you need to include our inspirational picture as well as provide a link back to ARTastic on your blog post.  We'd also love to see your explanation of how you were inspired by our challenge included.

In March we were working from this fun a d quirky painting by Barbara Hanrahan with a criteria of adding a quote or saying to your work.


Christel is our winner of the prize pack from Mystical Scrapbooks 

Amanda is our winner of the prize pack from Flourish with a Bling.

Our random draw winner of a lovely prize donated by Mary Bennetts is Karen B.

Congratulations ladies.

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

Our Creative Team highlight from last month is Mary Bennetts with this beautiful page.  She will receive a little surprise something from me.


Don't forget to enter this month's ARTastic challenge.  All the details are in the left sidebar. Remember you have until the end of the month to submit your entry.

Please pop back on the 15th when we will have more delightful team inspiration to show you.

                                               

Wednesday 1 April 2015

Welcome to April ...

This month we feature this delightful work by Roy de Maistre called Frozen Music.

CRITERIA is to use swirls on your submission.

Swirls can be created using flourishes, in paint, with string, using stamps, as doodles, from embellishments or in your patterned paper ...


A little about Roy de Maistre ...

Roy de Maistre CBE was an Australian artist of international fame. He is renowned in Australian art for his early experimentation with "colour-music", and is recognised as the first Australian artist to use pure abstraction. 

This year we will have two main prize packs, one from Mystical Scrapbooks and the other from Flourish with a Bling - these winners will be selected by Creative Team vote and by myself.  Each month we will also have another prize pack donated by one of our team where the winner is selected purely by random draw - so anyone could be a winner, no matter your style or your level of experience.  All these prizes will be available to anyone, no matter your country of residence.
And now how the first of our team was inspired ...

LIZZY
 I took the swirls and created a mixed media background with some of the colours in the art piece to show that you can use the same paper to create 4 very different cards. Gelatos and lots of stamps came out to play this month!

JO
This artwork inspired me to use water colours as well as some of my flourishes that I've had in my stash for ages. I used the emboss-resist technique on this paper which already had some lovely swirls printed on it.

DEB
I’ve used some of the colours in the artwork as inspiration to alter my photo.  For the added criteria of “swirls” I’ve added masking and rub ons to the page.

ELAINE
I love the different look of this painting and chose a background paper with the same looking effect and colours.  My swirls are in the embellishments and the twine at the end of the banner.

HELENE

Sometimes our daughter make a kind of drawing that looks a bit like the inspirational piece. I asked her to draw one in the same colors as the inspiration picture and used it as a patterned papers. So there you will find my swirls.

JANE

I used the colours from the inspiration painting to help create my layout.  I really liked the almost cosmic feel this painting evokes and went with the same feeling for my own page.

And now it is your turn ......

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on April 30th, 2015.  We'd love to see your new paper, digital, mixed media or off the page entries.  Please no back-dated submissions.  

 You may combine our challenge with a sketch and a product/technique challenge (so two additional challenges).  Please include our inspirational picture and challenge details on your blog post as well as provide a link back to us at ARTastic  ... and don't forget to tell us how you were inspired by our challenge.  

You may enter more than once in any month as long as each submission is with a different creation.  International entries are very welcome. 


Please pop back on the 8th for The ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques brought to you this month by our wonderfully creative team member, Tone-Lill Angelskar

Our March winners will also be announced at this time and with so many totally gorgeous layouts and cards in the link-up it is going to be very difficult to select our winners - thank goodness for random draw :)