Team Training for January ...

Welcome to our very first edition of Team Training brought to you this month by delightful team member Heidi Williams.

Each month one of our team will inspire you with a little tutorial, tip or trick to help you in your scrapbooking pursuits. This month is all about handmade flowers.


Heidi's flower tutorial

Step 1:  punch out 3 flowers from cardstock and you will need 3 stamens and a lace die as your base.

Step 2: water spray your flowers lightly so they are easy to mould.

Step 3: use a quilling tool on a mat to mould the petals.

 

 

Step 4:  turn over and mould the centre section.

 Step 5:  pierce a hole in the middle of all the 3 flowers.

Step 6:  twist stamens and put through one of the petals.

 

Step 7:  glue each layer of the three layers in a staggered fashion and then finally glue the lace flower onto the bottom.

Hey presto - one sweet flower.

Don't forget to have your entry in for our challenge this month.  Some lovely prizes on offer - one prize by vote, another completely by random draw and a guest designer spot with RAK to offer one lucky entrant.  You have until 11.55 on 31st January to have your submission linked.

Hello to our January guest designer ...

This month we welcome Rebecca Daly from Alberta provence in Canada as our guest designer with her take on our challenge image.

In fact Rebecca made two layouts and then couldn't decide which one she liked the best and since I can't decide either we have them both for you :)

My name is Rebecca Daly, a 34 year old stay at home mom of a 3 year old boy Kyle who is the inspiration for 90% of my scrapbooking creations. I have been scrapping for about 10 years but it has only been over the last two years that I have been focused on learning new techniques and experimenting with new mediums. My (usual) style is clean and cute but more often than not I am mixing it up with girly and fun. I live with my husband (shane) and cat (suzie) in rural north east Alberta Canada near the town of Bonnyville. The most unique thing about my scrapbooking life is that I scrapbook on my kitchen counter (as I don't have a craft room in our current house). Scrapbooking things I cannot live without are: 1) my cutting mat; 2) my silhouette, and 3) my crockpot!!!

my blog: Crafting in the Sticks

Here are several more layouts from Rebecca ... hmm do I see a theme at work here!

Thank you so much for joining in with us this month Rebecca and sharing your work.

You have until the end off the month to play along with us with our January challenge.  We'd love to see how you are inspired by our photograph this month.  Thank you for your continued support.

Next week we have something new to share with you, something special from a member of our design team.  Please call past on the 22nd for some Team Training.

Congratulations to our December winners ...

Some lovely Christmas and "not so" Christmas layouts for December and selecting our winners was extremely difficult - some very close voting by the team. While two of our monthly prizes are made by creative team vote, one of our monthly prizes is completely done via random draw so anyone, regardless of style or years of experience can be a winner here on Pixels and Paper - you just need to have an entry in :)

I'd just like to remind players that while we are more than happy for you to combine your entries with other online challenges we can only accept you doing this with two additional challenges (so P&P plus 2 others = 3 challenges total) if you wish to be considered for our monthly prizes.  If in doubt please check out our rules.

Last month we were working from this photograph ...

Our MAIN winner for December is Lizzy Crust with this truly lovely art journal page.

 

We would like to send Sherri a small prize and ask her to guest with us for February.


and our random draw is #3 -  Heather Robinson

Ladies, please email me at jjjustjane@bigpond.com with your address and I will make sure your prize gets away to you.

Please pop back on the 15th when we introduce you to Rebecca Daly as our guest designer for January with her take on our challenge image.

Hello 2015, nice of you to pop by ...

Welcome to a brand new year - may it be a brilliant one for everyone, no matter who or where you are in this wide, wonderful world of ours.

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

This year we will have two main prize packs - one will be selected by Creative Team vote and the other 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.  We will also offer one entrant a chance to guest with us for the following month and they will also receive a small prize.

This year our winners will be announced on the 8th of the month, our guest designer will be introduced on the  15th and then on the 22nd of the month one of our Creative Team will showcase for you some of their crafty know how - it may be a step by step layout, or a stamping technique or perhaps a quick and easy layout background - you will need to pop in on the 22nd of each month to see what we have to show you.

And now our very first challenge for 2015 ...

January is vacation month in Australia, the kids are out of school, many families take time out to spend with family and friends and a very many of us head to the beach or spend lots of time in our backyard swimming pools.  It is a time of shorts and thongs (flip flops), sea and sand.

What inspires you from our photograph?  It is the ocean waves, the silica sand, those arty looking thongs or the bright happy colours of pink, lime and purple?  Are you more drawn to the blue of the sky or the sea blue/green?  Does this image remind you of sun filled vacations or time spend at the beach?

Here is what our team found in the image ...

We also welcome a brand new team member this month, Karen Bierley.  Welcome Karen, we hope you enjoy being part of this lovely team.

KAREN

I was inspired by the beach theme, the bright colours, and the relaxed, carefree vibe of the photograph. I decided to just have a play around and see where it ended up!

TONE-LILL

 

This bright fun and colourful picture of Flip flops on the beach inspiration was a feast for the eyes when there is winter and snow( at the moment) far up north on the northern hemisphere. 

Love to scrap beach photos when it is winter outside. Although the photo is from the October holiday last year, it was nice and warm weather far south in Cornwall.  Flip flops or not, find the inspiration and join in on the fun :)

HEIDI

The picture this month I was inspired by the beach colours and added a touch of purple I had a fun time with this one, hope you can join us this month ...

REGINA

Well summer is well and truly upon us now, so it was great to start the new year off with a fresh and bright beach theme. Most of us spend some time at the beach over Xmas/New Year, so this is a good motivation to get those pictures printed and on the page! Looking forward to your entries.

PHILLIS

 I was inspired by the water and the colors in the flip flops. I used these photos of our water ride. I loved this blue background paper that matched the water. Then I used some red and green. Then I added yellow to add a pop of color. My kids and I always go on this ride when we go to the adventure park. My husband stays back and watches and actually sprays us when we get near the end. We got soaking wet this time.

LYNNE

January page-inspired by the beach theme and flip-flops; the page is a little bluer IRL (gray and rainy here!)

DI

The beach photo this month has prompted the inner child in me. For this I have taken the sense of the beach and the colours from the photo and have created an under- the - sea fantasy on a 40cm x 50cm canvas. I've stamped on paper, sprayed with inks, added texture paints, beads and chipboard to help create my mermaid's grotto.

JANE

On hot summer nights my kids spend a lot of time in the pool - they have had so much fun in here over the years.  I was inspired by the summer aspect of the photograph and the colour combination of pink, purple and green although I have toned this down to more muted shades.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN ...

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry to the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on January 31st.

You are welcome to submit traditional paper layouts, art journals, divided page protectors, smash books (etc). Digital entries are welcomed and encouraged.  All entries must be new for this challenge and no back-linking please.

  I am happy for you to combine with two other challenges but the essence of the Pixels and Paper inspiration must be clear in your work. Combining with a sketch and technique/product challenge would be preferred. Please include our inspirational picture as well as provide a link back to Pixels and Paper on your blog post and don't forget to tell us how you were inspired. International submissions are welcome.

Please come back on the 8th when we will announce the winners for December.