We welcome Desi ...

We welcome our guest designer for this month Desi Zavatta Musolino all the way from beautiful Italy.

Here is my layout called "Little Big Steps".  I used both paint (watercolors) and ink.

Hello, I'm a 33 y.o. woman living in a small city between Milan, Turin and Genoa.

I'm a full-time mother of two wonderful daughters, Maria (almost 4 y.o.) and Agata (almost 1 y.o.). I discovered the hobby of scrapbooking during summer 2006 thanks to a Dutch friend who showed me some special layouts created by foreign scrappers and it was love at first sight. Now my daughters inspire me everyday with your lives which I constantly report with photos.

I prefer to create layouts, mini albums and altered objects, but I'm getting more and more addicted also to cards and mixed-media items. My style is a mixture of influences and in some days my feelings are able to define my choice of using some scrapbooking products rather than others.

Please find me on my blog http:/italianscrapaholicgal.blogspot.it

Here are some more layouts Desi has done.

Thank you  for joining us on ARTastic this month Desi -  it's been lovely to have you with us.

You still have time until the end of the month to upload your own take on this challenge.  We'd love to see what you can do with some paint and ink or your page. Remember ink can be the spray variety, or from an ink pad - it can be dropping spots onto your page or via stamping a word here or there.

Our second reveal and January winners announced ...

Welcome to our mid month reveal and winner announcement.

We'd like to thank our main sponsors,  James from Alacraft and Julie from Time to Create for their generous support this year as well as Julie from The Scrappers Garden who was our featured sponsor for January.

ARTastic followers can enjoy 20% off at Alacraft with discount code ARTS20.

Alacraft has free product giveaways every month. Please visit the site and enter your email address on the homepage or on the page indicated in the link and you will be automatically entered into the draw for $25 of free products for that month. People are welcome to enter as many months as they like, they just need to enter their email address each time.

 Alacraft is a family business originating from an established bricks-and-mortar store and stocks a range of quality materials including lace, ribbon, yarn, scrapbooking supplies, stickers, iron-on motifs, quilting fabric, craft flowers and much more.

  Check out Alacraft today!

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.

Try us and see.

January welcomes The Scrappers Garden with the most delightful flower and handmade papercraft and resin range.  Who wouldn't love beauties like these?

Drum roll please ........

And our winners are ...

 Buffy Burnside who has won a $25 gift voucher from Alacraft.  
 

 Irit who has won a lovely prize from Time to Create.

Kathleen White who has won the flower pack from The Scrappers Garden.

Our Design Team favourite as voted on by her peers is Maja.

Could the winners please contact me at jjjustjane@bigpond.com to claim their prizes. 

and now for our second team reveal of the month ....

Remember, we are working with this delightful piece ...

Joshua Miels with Pretender

Criteria - Paint and Ink

and here is what the team made of it ...

KYLIE

I really enjoyed the inspiration for this month, but in order to use it for two comps I had to change the highlight colour from red to yellow. This is my 'little sister' Bronte - I was with her through kittenhood, and then Mum and Dad moved to the coast with her. She is a very special cat - with a special personality - so I needed a very special page. I had a lot of fun with the greys, blacks and whites and getting the textures I wanted, and used several paint splashes to help loosen it up a bit. I was really happy with the results!


LEANNE

I was inspired by the haphazard background and the splash of blue and red.

I couldn’t get my background to work and in my frustration, the paper tore and this is the result!  I thought I might as well tear the washi tape into strips too!  I have painted the bit of pizza box white and then inked the edges. I also inked the flowers and alphas to get the right colour. For that splash of bright red and blue, I popped the flowers and title against the black and white photo.

 DI
 

February's inspiration piece was very striking and I loved the way the background was made up free form, flowing lines, surrounding the image of the woman.

I've used  heavy A3 sized watercolour paper for my background and again used gesso to start building layers. I used a stencil. While it was wet it was spritzed with dylusion ink sprays. These were quite vibrant and to tone them down I re-gessoed (don't know if there is such a word) through a stencil before adding black and red inks and manipulating the paper to allow them to run freely.

The faces were stamped on tissue paper and photocopy paper and are to do with the Legend of the Three Sisters at Katoomba.


JANE

I've pulled the colours from the artwork and the random nature of the paint and ink work.  I was also inspired by the bold black and white portrait and the way the paint made it appear like light was shining onto the face.  This prompted me to use a similar image for my page.

LESLEY

I was inspired by the colour of the photo and the papers for this layout. I used the Distress Stains to enhance the colours and link the different papers together. I stamped subtle effects to create flow. 


AUBRIE


I was inspired by the black and blue in the inspiration piece this month.  The frames for the photos are the extra pieces after I popped out some Blue Fern chippies.  I covered them with foil, then painted the foil with black acrylic paint.  Once that was dry, I used Inka Gold paints for blue accents.


Wonderful work everyone !!

We'd love to see your interpretations of our inspiration this month.

 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 an original 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 second delightful guest designer of the year, Desi Zavatta Musolino.

ARTastic 3T's in February ...

Welcome to our February 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 Tone-Lill Angelskar with some wonderful techniques for creating gorgeously inky backgrounds.

Let's get started by gathering your products together.  Here is what I  used.

Products : Spray Ink and Ink pads,

Mini mister, gesso, Glue and Seal,

Black crackle paint, stencils.

My Tip before you start using the ink, is to add glue and seal in a thin layer onto the cardstock to avoid the ink "running" into the paper when using stencils. 

         Here are two of my tricks to create different patterns on the back ground cardstock ...

Dab the ink pad onto a Teflon craft sheet, spray with water using mini mister (or a regular spray bottle) until you see droplets in the ink. Carefully spread the cardstock paper you have previously coated with the glue and seal, on top to get the impression of the ink onto the card. Dry with heat tool before adding a new layer of ink. 

Before starting with a  new colour, wipe the Teflon stain resistant craft sheet clean.

Here I sprayed with black ink straight on to the stain resistant sheet and added water with the mister. I then created a spiral pattern with a craft tool like a ice lolly wood stick. 

Like above,  I spread the cardstock on top to create a new pattern on top of the blue pattern print. 

Remember to let it dry or use a heat tool.

This is what it looks like when dry.

I did the same with red, and created a squiggly pattern.

When I had dried the red pattern on the cardstock I added black crackle paint using the Prima " crackle" stencil and dried it with a heat tool.

I added, the last stencil with the leaf pattern using white gesso and blue ink spray, which gives lovely different shades of blue in the pattern.

....and here is the end result creating a background on the card stock. 

Tip: Use Glue and Seal on cardstock before you start with the ink. Remember to dry completely.

Trick: The trick is to be "light handed" when spreading the card stock onto the different patterns of wet ink on the stain resistance craft sheet. 

Techniques: I have only showed you a few ways to use ink . 

There are no limits of techniques you can use to create different patterns using spray or ink pads. Just be creative and have fun!  :)

Finally, my finished layout after adding the photo and my bits and bobs.... 

..And the last my tip, I used the red Tattered Angels Glimmermist to colour the gauze/cheesecloth, and a few light sprays with "Glacier" colour Glimmermist over the page as a finishing touch :)

We'd love to see what you can do with these techniques.  Remember you have until the end of the month to submit your entry for this challenge.

ARTastic in February ...

My goodness January has already left us and we are now in the second month of 2014.  I have a feeling this year is going to flash by us as quickly as did last year.

A small but select group of entrants last month.  Thank you to those who took time to create a page for us.  This month I would really like to see some more entries.  We offer wonderful inspiration pieces you are able to interpret in your own way with easy, straight forward criteria to follow.  Our design team is second to none in offering you amazing example layouts of their interpretations of the inspiration piece.  We have designers from all over the world on our team and we offer a variety of styles and techniques in our team pages.  We have four prizes to give away each month - one of which is entirely random so anyone has a chance of winning.  We put up our new challenge promptly on the 1st of every month and we announce our winners as promptly on the 15th of each and every month and I have to say the track record for many other challenges sites doing the same is not great.  So please support our efforts to bring you a quality challenge blog.

This month we feature ... 

Joshua Miels with Pretender

Criteria - paint and ink

Joshua Miels is a contemporary portrait artist who looks to capture the vulnerability of people and the emotions that people try to hind from others. Spending countless hours adding layer upon layer of paint Joshua produces artworks that are not only striking but deep and powerful. Painted with predominantly oil paint, each piece start off with a subject, but with a large amount of experimentation, each art piece has its own journey on how its get from start to finish. The Artworks challenges viewers to draw upon there own emotions and personal experiences. How each piece is interpreted differs from person to person, there is no right or wrong way to interprets these artworks.

http://joshuamiels.com

and the amazing work from the first half of the ARTastic team ...

DEB

I've “repainted” the brickwork on the patterned paper, stippled paint through a template on the background and painted the chipboard piece.  Also stamped randomly over the background and inked the edge of the photo and layout.

DEBI

This was a fantastic inspiration! But then again I find each months art work so exciting...fun to get stuck into!

Fantastic painting by Joshua Miels, but for some reason I don't like the name of this piece 'Pretender'...but that is art, different concepts for different people.

I choose to absolutely go to town with my mixed media background, using lots of stencils, paints & mists to work with this fantastic photo of my son.

ELAINE

I've used texture paint and ink for the love hearts and used the colours from the inspiration painting. 

JULIE

I found the inclusion of black in the inspiration piece to be interesting. I have been exploring again ways to create random coloured papers.  Of course the wonderful colour of our Frangipani was the starting point.

HELENE

 I used watercolors, Neo Color II and Ink.

Loved the challenge! :)


MAJA

Criteria this month was Ink! So for me it was splashes and drops. I have used
coffee, Distress Stains, India Ink and a couple of stamps to make my background. 

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on February 28th, 2014. We'd love to see your paper, digital, or off the page submissions.  Please no back-dated submissions.  You may combine with a sketch and/or colour/technique challenge.  

Please pop back on the 8th for The ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques brought to you this month  by the delightful Tone-Lill.  You will love what she has done to inspire you.

Introducing our new creative team members ...

Introducing our new creative team ...

Rather than do the usual bio's I gave them all a series of scrappy related questions and asked them to answer a couple for me ...


Aubrie - USA
http://www.scraphappi.blogspot.com/

Do you have a must use tool you can't get by without? Other than the basics, my absolute favorite tool is my Zutter Distrezz it All.  It makes edge distressing so much quicker.  And, it is always a head-turner when I go to crops because it sounds a bit like a table saw!

If you could ask any scrapbooking personality to a crop day at your house who would it be and why? This is a no-brainer for me.  I want to scrap with Tim Holtz.  I have a million of his products, and would love his insight on different ways to use them.  The man could market toilet paper and I'd probably buy it! 

What got you started on your memory keeping journey? I've been scrapping since I was in junior high.  It started with albums where I'd include keepsakes. I worked on the school yearbook in both highschool and college, which is basically scrapping in a different format.   I switched to 12X12 album format in early college, some 15 or so years ago.  Since then I have amassed a stash of scrapbook goodies, and it just keeps growing.  Sometimes I think I have a serious hording problem! 

Do you have a distinct style or tend to go where your creativity takes you? I'd like to think I go where my creativity takes me, but I clearly tend toward distressed and inked pages these days.  A few years baack I made a deliberate effort to do more distressed, dimentional pages.  That seemed to open my creativity up so much, and now I have a hard time doing a page that does  NOT involve some kind of distressed element.  I've tried to emulate a more "clean" style, using negative space on the page, because I adore that look.  But, that style just isn't me and it never turns out well.  So, distressed and croweded with multiple elements seems to be my style...although the degree varies from page to page.  

Leanne - Australia
 http://leanne555.blogspot.com.au/

Do you work in long sessions or snatches of time?  I am unfortunately one of those people who get an idea in my head and it has to be finished before I go to bed, or else I can’t get to sleep.  Snatches of time....what’s that? I think I have been in my room scrapping away for about an hour and then realise it has been more like 3 hours...oops!

Do you prefer recording family memories or everyday life?  A bit of both I suppose. I love to scrap about the simple everyday things that we tend to forget as the years go by. They are usually stories about what my 5 Grand Children get up to and I must admit it is fun to look at my albums with them and have a laugh!

Do you have a distinct style or go where your creativity takes you?  I wished I did have a distinct style.....life might be easier! I just go with what pops into my head and go from there. I do prefer to do bright and colourful pages.

If you could ask any scrapbooking personality to a crop day at your house who would it be and why?  I think Lizzy Hill.....just love her sense of humour! I am in awe of her ability to scrap any style with ease. She has a knack of knowing just where to put what and I would love to see her in action! I just love her work.

Deb - Australia

http://www.deefa-debz.blogspot.com.au/

What time of the day do you prefer to work? and why?  I almost always scrap during the day, particularly in the morning and very rarely do I scrap into the night.   Mostly I like to finish my project once I start (well that is always the plan) and as I’m an early riser and definitely not a night owl, I find scrapping at night doesn’t work for me.

Do you work in long sessions or snatches of time?   I normally choose to scrap on days when I don’t have much else planned so that I can sit and create for a couple of hours at a time.  Because I use paint, mists etc on the background quite a bit, the drying time is what stretches out the time I take to do a page as I normally let it dry in it’s own time.   Mostly once the wet bits are dry, I do the majority of a layout in one sitting  but do leave it on the desk to add maybe some little extras later if I think it needs it.   

What do you regard as your scrapbooking strength?  Scrapbooking strength ... hmmmm ... I think I have gained, over the years, the strength to be happy with the not-so-perfect page and the thing that helped me get to that stage quite a few years back now,  was taking the step to “doodle” on my layouts.  Until this time, I totally disliked even the small amount of hand journaling I did on my pages and the thought of doodling on the page – well that thought didn’t really enter my mind.  What if I messed it up!    Now-a-days, I rarely re-do a layout or start  again.  A lot of the pages that I am most happiest with are the ones that haven’t gone to plan and I’ve created something from the “mistake” if I can call it that.

Do you have a distinct style or tend to go where your creativity takes you?  I think I have found what I am most happiest with but always find it hard to describe.   I love “shabby” very much and I feel most of my pages end up that way.   I like getting messy mostly and just adding little bits that, to someone else, might not really fit but to me it is just what the page needs.  



Di - Australia

http://mytawnyinspirations.blogspot.com.au/

Do you have a favourite manufacturer?  papers / cardstock: Fabscraps, Graphic 45, Prima and Basic Grey. Quite often I choose to use the reverse side of these papers, because often they have very interesting designs/patterns.  Stamps; Darkroom Door and Chocolate Baroque  Ranger / Tim Holtz products (especially inks, stains and sprays)

Do you have a must use tool you can't get by without? Most used tool that I now couldn't do without is my Sizzix Big Shot (with the longer plates).

Do you work in long sessions or snatches of time? I prefer to scrapbook /craft in longer sessions, especially if things are going according to plan. If no one else is at home during the day I'll craft then, otherwise I'll do it a bit later in the evening. However, this varies depending on what I'm doing and if it needs drying time.

What do you regard as your scrapbooking strength? I feel that my strength is the ability to step outside the box, look for ways to incorporate different products and being willing to explore through experimentation and play. At the moment. I am exploring more mixed media creations, zentangle designs and canvases.

Kylie - Australia

http://kyliegwseekingrainbows.blogspot.com.au/

Which trends (past or present) have you particularly liked or loathed?  I don't know whether I loath any trend, but I think its a shame when the prettiness of the page, and dumping of tonnes of embellies takes control over the storytelling of the page. I think every page and every photo has its own story and I like to record this story. Not just by writing a few notes on the back of the layout. I loved it when paint and particularly spraying came in. It opened a whole new world to me.

What time of the day do you prefer to work? and why?  I do my best work at night or on weekends. Depending on the weather, if I can start scrapping at 11am on a Saturday and go into the afternoon I would probably turn out my best work. That said, I have been able to turn out pages at night from 7pm onwards, but rarely on week days because my full time job leaves me too tired and because I sit in front of a computer all day at work, I don't want to when I get home!

What do you regard as your scrapbooking strength?  Colours, placement, and storytelling. It took me ages to train myself on the first two. Some time, I'll tell you how I did that. I always like to be a bit different too, so I am always looking outside the square. I am also lucky to have had training on graphics applications about 15 years ago, which I still draw on today.

What got you started on your memory keeping journey?   This is a good question. I think a combination of personal tragedy and epic realisation got me started. When I realised that I was probably never going to get married and have kids and have no one to pass onto who I was and what I was like, and what I was all about, then I took to scrapbooking like a duck to water.

Welcome to all our new ARTastic teamies -  we are going to have an awesome year.

You still have time to get your layouts in for January.  We would love to see our gallery overflowing with your creations.  We also have some awesome prizes to give away and one of them could very easily be winging it's way to you. You have until 11.55pm January 31 to get those entries in.

Welcome Doreen Vasquez ...

Our very first guest designer for 2014.

Hi, my name is Doreen!

Happy New Year to you!

I’m very excited to be a Guest Designer here at ARTastic!

I just discovered this blog in October of last year (2013) and so far it has been inspiring!

A little bit about me:

I reside in Southern CA and have lived her pratically all my life.

My husband and I bought a house just down the street from our high school!  Speaking of my husband, I have been married to the most handsome, caring, fabulous man (EVER), and the love of my life, David, since July 16, 2001.

I am the mother of 2 beautiful human babies: Joseph (18) and Madison (11) and 3 super adorable fur babies: Spotty (dog), Ivanna (dog) and Panini (cat). Actually, I am Panini’s “Grammy” as Panini belongs to my daughter…and believe me, she will not let me forget it! 

I started dabbling in scrapbooking 14 years ago, however, it turned into a serious hobby for me in 2005 when I discovered a scrapbook website that opened my eyes to new, fun techniques and allowed me to interact with other scrappers. Before then I knew nobody who scrapbooked! Can you imagine?!  About 4 years ago the hobby turned into an obsession when I discovered blogs, contests, and scrapbooking kit clubs!  I don't scrap chronologically, as I would rather scrap whatever subject I am "feeling" at the moment.  Luckily I have a variety of subjects to scrap!

I would categorize my style as clean and simple with a few twists thrown in!  For the most part I like to stick to my general style, but I do get bored with it at times and that’s when I try to add new techniques or products.  My latest obsessions are: washi tape, misting, and my hexagon punch, size=XL thank you very much! Hahaha!  My signature? I like outlining, or doodling as some call it,  each layer of items on my layouts to help them stand out. I don’t consider a page complete if there isn’t at least some kind of outlining on it!  I have even tried to let a page go without it and it caused me great anxiety! No joke!!

I will never be caught up since as much as I like to scrap I also love to take pictures!

For every new layout I create there's probably a dozen new pictures I have just taken!

But for me it’s not about being caught up, it’s about capturing as many memories for my family as I can and enjoying the process while doing it!

Thanks for having me!

If you get a chance, please come visit me over at my blog, "A Day In Doreena's Life": http://madijoes.blogspot.com/.

oh and a little about the layout I have done for January ARTastic ...

I love the inspiration piece so much; so unique and beautiful! The moment I saw it I knew 2 things: 1) I would use a black BG for my layout and 2) I would scrap a "selfie"; having been inspired by the fact that a woman's face was the main focal point of the picture.  The only thing that stumped me was how to incorporate the triangle/diamond shapes? Then I realized, in my selfie I am wearing an argyle sweater. How perfect is that! So using a stencil (you remember those, right?) I traced and cut out diamond and triangle shapes from PP that matched the colors of my sweater. I then glued each shape down in a complimentary pattern... and of course I outlined everything! ;0)  I think the picture I scrapped was completely meant for this challenge!

Here are some more layouts I have done recently ...

Thank you Doreen for being part of the team this month - so lovely to have you join us.

You still have time to upload your own take on this challenge.  We'd love to see what you can do with diamonds or triangles.

December winners and new team inspiration ...

Despite it being such a busy time of the year we had some lovely Christmas entries in December so thank you everyone for taking the time to play along with us.

Congratulations go to ...

  

Chris Sexton who has won the Director's prize.

Random draw prize goes to  Wendy O'Keefe.

Congratulations - please email me at jjjustjane@bigpond.com with your postal details and I will see your prize gets out to you.

Now onto the gorgeous work of our remaining team ...

LESLEY

When I thought about triangles I decided a banner. I chose this paper line due to it's cheerful colour, which matched my girls photos. A nice clean layout to go with the clean lines of the photos.

TONE-LILL

I really liked the diamonds and almost tree like shapes on the inspiration photo and got inspired to make a Christmas LO. The photo is of my niece and nephew on Christmas eve. I used a Basic G. triangle pattern paper and cut out the shapes. A Red core paper was embossed and rubbed to show the brick pattern and covered with stencils and white acrylics before gluing everything on the page. 

KYLIE

Whilst sitting here eating my breakfast after an early morning walk, I did this page for January.  Inspired by the colours of the wall.

DI

I've called this  Diamonds in the Sky... image has been taken from an old decoupage book,  (Title is The Star Lighters) poem from an old poetry book.

LEANNE

AUBRIE

For the background layer I used some Distress Inks with a stencil and spritzed with a little Lindy's Stamp Gang color.  I was particularly inspired by the puzzle-like use of the triangles and diamonds and used that idea for the triangle cut-outs in the rays of the star burst.  Since the street art had a great deal of blue, I chose that for my predominant background color.

We'd love to see your interpretations of our inspiration this month.

 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 an original 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 very first guest designer of the year,  the lovely Doreen Vasquez and we will also be getting to know our new creative team members a little better.