And now February ...

Welcome to our February challenge.  Hopefully now the summer holidays are behind us and the kids are back to school we can knuckle down and get our own creative juices flowing and scrap up a storm.

Our inspiration for you this month comes from this quirky painting called Carousel Delight by Karen Pierce.

CRITERIA - Butterflies

So many delightful aspects to this painting - you may love the colours, the flowers, the butterflies.  You may like to run with a carnival theme or be inspired by the idea of prancing horses - you might be touched by gold or inspired by tassels.

A little about Karen Pierce ...

Karen is a freelance artist with an extensive background in art education. She uses a range of mediums with a focus on drawing, painting and mixed media. The themes in Karen’s work are diverse, however they are significantly influenced by the natural world, history and culture and the power of the imagination. Karen works from her Old Post Office Studio located in Newstead, Victoria from where she exhibits her work, presents classes and workshops and has available a range of quality cards and prints.

Originally trained as a secondary art and craft teacher in Melbourne, Karen has developed a rare ability to inspire and teach adults and children alike as an art teacher, artist in residence and practicing artist. She currently teaches art at both Maldon and Newstead Primary Schools. Karen regularly works with residents, organisations and businesses to add colour and atmosphere to the local community. Projects include banners, signage and street decorations. In 2009 Karen was awarded a nomination for Australian of the Year for her work as an artist and art teacher in the community.

Since ARTastic is all about getting creative with our supplies it can all get a little messy at times.  Our prize this month might help you with that ...

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

Donated by Tone Jensen

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

JUDY

I was drawn to the tassels and aqua colours of the saddle as well as the flowers and butterflies.The painting gave me a feeling of prettiness too which I tried to reflect in my layout.

EVELYN

 I was inspired by the soft and pastel colors and the easiness of the reference picture. I used a photo of my daughter and many flowers and stamped some butterflies.

TANYA

The butterflies really grabbed my eye when I first looked at this painting, I really liked the cream and pink colours in the painting too..

TRACEY

I love the girly feel of the painting and the colour tones. I found an old Bo Bunny paper that really suited the butterfly and flower theme.

ELAINE

When I looked at the painting I felt a sense of quiet joy. I tried to portray that in my page. I used the colours of the painting and left a lot of white inspired by the white horse.

MARIA

 Now we have winter :( so I wish for summer and the butterflies in my mini-album Castle-butterflies!

HELENE

I recently fixed our daughter's room in a jungle theme and a photo of her new wall paper was perfect for a "crazy" butterfly layout.

Over to you ......

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on February 28th, 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 our challenge with a sketch challenge only - no other combining will be accepted.  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 January winners and our ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques for February.