Hello January, it's a brand new year ...

Welcome to a brand new year on ARTastic.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has celebrated, eaten and drunk themselves happily into 2015.

Just a little housekeeping before we get started on our first challenge for 2015.  

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 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.

This year we are moving our winner announcement to the 8th of the month before we introduce our monthly Creative team member hosted Tips, Tricks and Techniques.  Our second team reveal will be on the 15th and our guest designer will be introduced on the 22nd.

This year is going to be a great year, I can feel it.  

We start off with this really delightful street art by Fintan Magee.  Aren't these little guys adorable!

This is a free scrap with no set criteria so make of it as you will but don't forget to tell us what inspired you about the painting - the brickwork, the super hero costumes, the little boys, the colours ... whatever you like.

A little about Fintan Magee ...

Fintan Magee is an Australian street artist known for his murals throughout Queensland and later in New South Wales.

Magee grew up in Queensland and gained a reputation as a graffiti artist before obtaining a Fine Arts degree and moving to Sydney. He now works out of "The Tate Gallery" above the Toxteth Hotel in Glebe. He received national acclaim for his mural depicting Felix Baumgartner in Brisbane. Described as "Australia's Banksy", Magee's work is recognised for its lack of a political message, compared to other street artists, and its humour.

Along with other recognised street artists from around Australia, Magee contributed to Toowoomba's "First Coat" program.

This month I would also like to introduce you to a brand new member of our design team, Jo Tritton.  Jo guested with us in October and we are delighted to welcome her back as part of our 2015 team.

JO

My inspiration came from the brick wall & the colours. Also the touch of graffiti.

LIZZY

I’ve taken the idea of the brick background, & found this photo which I thought had a similar look to the superheroes in the inspiration piece.  Loved the natural tones with the pop of colour, so I used that idea as well.

DEB

The little super hero's sitting in a line in front of a brick wall  inspired me to use these 4 photos in a line using a brick mask as the background.

ELAINE

I have gone with the hero theme and created a page of my son, who is my hero. He has Autism and each day is a challenge for him. I have used the colours of the boys in the painting, but swapped the red for orange. I crocheted some embellishments for this page. I enjoy using other crafts on my pages; that the kids can look at their pages and see a bit of me in them :-).

HELENE

I was inspired by the masquerade theme and the brick wall.

JANE

The four little boys lined up in costume reminded so much of these three boys lined up in costume that I just had to do a page depicting a rare school dress-up moment.  

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 January 31st, 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 item 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 lovely team member, Stina Westbom.  You will love what she has to show us this month.

Our December winners will also be announced at this time.