Welcome to our September guest ...

Please welcome our wonderful guest designer this month,  Michelle Van Oudtshoorn from New Zealand with her delightful take on our challenge this month.

The colours in Peter Graham's "Monaco Coast" are quite vibrant - so I decided to use the bright colours as my inspiration in my layout. I used red, yellow and dark blue water paint, using a toothbrush to spray and make droplets for the background. Then sprayed a little bit of gold over the paint. I then used a combination of papers, flowers and embellishments to compliment the yellow, blues and reds.

I am very honoured to be asked to be guest designer for ARTastic. And here is a little about me……

I started scrapbooking in 2001.My neighbour started her own business from home and invited a few of us to come over and give it a try – I was hooked. I scrapped at every opportunity – even in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep. I used to wake up with these ideas running around in my head – and then had to go and scrap them (perhaps having a note book and writing these down and scrapping them in the more sane hours of the day would have been more advantageous in the sleep department). It was really handy having a scrapbooking business three houses away from my house (not handy on the budget though) …. I was fortunate enough to have my own craft room, so when I was not able to sleep I would go down to my craft room and scrap – and didn’t disturb the rest of the sleeping members of the house. Ideal to close the door whenever I was in the middle of a project – so the organised chaos on my desk was out of eye sight ;)

My husband, two kids (son, who is now 24 and my daughter, now 21) immigrated to NZ in September 2010. The 7 years have gone very quickly – and we love our new life here in NZ. It’s been the best blessing for our whole family. And we have met some amazing people, and some of my closest friends I have met through scrapbooking.

My style of scrapping has changed over the years. And these days, my pages wouldn’t be without flowers – I have a container with 12 levels and have sorted my flowers into colours. My friends call it my flower tower! I am very much a girly scrapper – besides flowers, I love bling too. I am also a great chippie fan.

I take great inspiration from the talents like Di Garling, Gabrielle Pollaco and Frank Garcia. And I would love to put mixed media projects together like Anna Dabrowska (aka Finnabair) and Natalie May.

I am a great Prima Marketing fan and love the graphics and detail of Graphic 45 – great for fussy cutting. I sometimes amaze myself that I have enough patience to sit and cut out minute pieces of paper – yet have no patience sitting in traffic or waiting for things to happen. And now I am loving the 49 Market range – their papers and flowers are just beautiful.

I mostly create layouts, and have done a few cards and have also created a few mini albums. Here are a few examples of my work.

My Blog: http://queenm1809.blogspot.com.au

Remember ....

You still have plenty of 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.

Our September mid month reveal ...

Welcome to our mid month reveal.

This month our inspiration comes to you from Peter Graham with this bright and vibrant painting called Monaco Coast.

CRITERIA - Use paint on your work

This month we are going to relax our rules so you may combine your entry with other challenges.

And some lovely inspiration from our second team ...

TONE

I have used different mediums on the background....among them paint.  The photos are from one of our trips to a little zoo one hour drive from home. The animals are fenced, but you can buy food and feed them. An amazing place to visit with small kids!

ANGELIKA

I was inspired to use watercolours to paint my background. I was also inspired by the beach theme to do a mermaid themed layout. The super saturated colourful scheme also made it to my layout.

KRIPA

My canvas is inspired by the summer / beach theme in the painting. I've used Twinkling H2Os to paint the background and chipboard pieces.

ANNA

I was totally inspired by the gorgeous colors in the painting. I've used inks on my background and to color my BIG title.

KAT

I was inspired by the beach scene to scrap a photo of my boys at the beach. I've used watercolour paint splatters in the background and have chosen colours that match the colours in the painting.

KAREN

Inspired by the orange ...

JANE

I was inspired by the orange and yellow and touches of purple in the painting and used these as the basis of my background and in the patterned paper for this layout.

Now it is your turn, we'd love to see your own interpretation. You have until 11.55pm on the last day of the month to submit your entry.

August winners and September tutorial ...

I will be announcing our August winners shortly but first I would like to introduce you to our Tips, Tricks and Techniques for September brought to you by team member,  Evelyn Walter.


Hello dear ARTastic followers, nice to have you here today!

Today I want to show you some ways to use acrylic paints in your artwork.  Maybe you are npt familar with one of these techniques and will want to try it out on your next project!

 I used for my art journal page heavy body acrylic paints but you can also use more fluid ones.

 You don´t need to use a paintbrush, you also can use a brayer to spread your paint around the page. it will create a totally different look.

If you want a more transparent look, take a babywipe to take off some of the paint.

Create texture! Take some texture tools and go through the wet paint. Of course you can make them by yourself, just take some sturdy cardboard and cut the edges or use a fork, the handle of a brush, ...... there are endless possibilities, just try them out!

Why not take your fingers for painting? Dab dots, smear the paint around, make texture by dabbing into the wet paint and so on. It´s fun, try it!

Create small strokes or wider areas with an edge of some cardstock. For this you can use an old credit card too.

Well, of course you can simply paint 😉. Take more or less water, mix the paints, use them as they are, just have fun!

I took acrylic fluid medium to make some glaze. This is a great way to change opaque paint into translucent paint..So you can slightly change the color of your work without covering the underneath pattern! For this you can use matte medium too.

Use a brayer to create a thin layer of paint and dab in your stamp carefully. Then use your stamp as usual. But it is important to clean your stamp immediately after use!

Well, these are some ways to use your paint! I hope you feel inspired to try out one.

~ Evelyn ~

now onto our August winners .....  thank you to everyone who took the time to join in with us last month.

Our main winner is #1 Louise Turner

Our random draw winner is #8 Hannah Zheng.

Prize donated by Maria Shakhova

Our Creative Team highlight from last month is Anna with this amazing layout. 

Please 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.

This month we are going to relax our rules so you may combine your entry with other challenges.

Hi there September ...

This month our inspiration comes to you from Peter Graham with this bright and vibrant painting called Monaco Coast.

CRITERIA - Use paint on your work

This month we are going to relax our rules so you may combine your entry with other challenges.

A little about Peter Graham ...

Peter Graham was born in Sydney, but lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. From a very young age he decided on becoming an artist.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) from Victoria College, Melbourne. He has had 13 solo exhibitions with Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, and Kaliman galleries, Sydney.

He has participated in numerous group exhibitions across Australia and internationally at the British Museum, London. Peter Graham's artworks are included in the Australian National Gallery, the British Museum, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Sydney, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and several regional and university collections.

This year we are putting the ART back into ARTastic and our main prize each month will reflect that - this month featuring amazing products from Kaisercraft.

And as always a lovely prize pack for our random draw winner ...

Donated by Evelyn Walter

And now some beautiful inspiration from the first of our team ...

TANYA

I thought I should scrapbook this recent photo of my daughter. This photo was taken on the Monaco Coast. I have used water paint on my layout.

HELENE

I have used acrylic paint at the background to give an illusion of brush marks.

TRACEY

I have used Ken Oliver Colour burst pigment powders and Dylusions sprays for this back ground. I also used some gel prints to stamp on and make the feathers. Memory Maze chipboard for the frame and title.

ELAINE

I have gone with the beach theme. For my background, I used water paint which I first painted on clear acetate and then rubbed on to my page. I have also used texture paint with a cross stencil and lastly misted some yellow on top.

JUDY

I was inspired by the theme of the water and the bright oranges and yellows in the foreground and have used acrylic paints speed with a palette knife and then through a stencil.

EVELYN

Oh, what a wonderful summer scene! I wanted to make a summery project too and made these art journal pages in my "faces" journal. I used acrylic paint in the colors of the reference picture. I´ll show you some ways to use acrylic paint at the 8th, so come back to see more!

MARIA

I was inspired by the theme of the sea! I used watercolor paints to create a background.

Over to you ......

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on September 30th, 2017.  We'd love to see your new paper, digital, mixed media or off the page entries. Why not try doing a pocket page spread?  Please no back-dated submissions.  

 Please note:- You may combine with other 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 call past on the 8th for our announcement of the August winners and our ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques for September. 

August highlights ...

We'd love to see some more entries this month and there is still time to play along with us if you can.  Black and white plus one other colour (of your choice) - as simple as that!

Here are just a couple of layouts that have caught our eye during August ...

Sue Smith
with this adorable page ...

Chilli Pip
following the black, white and blue from our inspiration artwork ...

Come and play along with us !!

Welcome to our August guest ...

Please welcome our delightful guest designer this month, Jodie King with her wonderful take on our challenge for August.

I really love the inspiration artwork this month by Joshua Miels.    Even though it has a definite mixed media feel to it, I’ve interpreted this into my clean style by including lots of layers.  The challenge this month is black and white plus one, and I’ve followed the artwork closely by using blue.  A monochromatic layout isn’t something you usually see in project life spreads, and I was lucky this week that my photos worked with this colour palette really well.  I’ve also interpreted the visual string elements in the inspiration piece to include stitching and some twine in my layout.

Hi, I’m Jodie King and I live on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland.  Our kids have grown up and left home in the past couple of years, but we see them as often as we can.  I’ve been paper crafting in various forms for around nine years, starting with card making and moving into 12x12 layouts and project life, and more recently into planners and travellers notebooks.  My current favourite format and “must do” each week is my 6x8 project life album, I adore all the little stories and memories that PL allows you to record before they fade with time.

Blog:  http://jodiemking.blogspot.com.au

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jodie.king.779

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/heartpeonies/

Here are a few more examples of my project life spreads ...

Remember ....

You still have plenty of 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.

Our August mid month reveal ...

Welcome to our mid month reveal.

This month we feature this striking artwork by Joshua Miels called Illustrations.  

CRITERIA - Black and White PLUS One (any colour)

And some lovely inspiration from our second team ...

KAT

I was inspired by the faces to make a pocket page about my children.

KAREN

My inspiration came from the face within the painting.

TONE

The title is: Big catch. The photo is of my son with his big catch of fish, the first time he is fishing

KRIPA

I imagined the girl in the painting talking to herself and decided to make an art journal page with a message for myself - 'I am Enough'

ANNA

I was inspired of the design and as you see I went for the turquoise + b&w colors.

JANE

As you can see I loved the use of blue with the black and white.

Now it is your turn, we'd love to see your own interpretation. You have until 11.55pm on the last day of the month to submit your entry.