Merry Christmas ...

A very Merry Christmas to everyone who played along with us here on Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog during 2016. We hope you have a wonderful festive season - please stay safe, recharge those batteries and come join us again in 2017 for more fantastic inspiration and challenge fun.  

Shazza Bishop - Australia

Rebecca Daly - Canada

Lynne Joncas - Canada

Phillis Walrath - USA

Di Hasthorpe - Australia

Jane Howden - Australia

Elaine King -  UK

Karen Brierley - Australia

Say Hi to our December guest ...

This month we welcome Gocchi from Japan with her take on our inspiration image for December.

I imagined it from a warm and happy photograph spent with Santa and used a photo of smiling face of a son who brings happiness like Santa. Red, green, white, gold ... I made interlaced with the classic colors of Christmas that is also used in the inspiration photo. Santa is coming to my son on riding reindeer's sled ….

 Hi! I’m Gocchi. I live in Japan together with my husband, our son. About three and a half ago, I was introduced to my friends and encountered scrapbooking. So, I was crazy about it. I love to make works with pictures of my son and family. And I love the time to see my work with my family and talk about the day the photo together. I’m honoured to be chosen me as a guest designer for Pixels and Paper. Thank you!

My blog is here. → http://chocolog-gocchi.blogspot.jp/

And here are two of my favorite works. 

Thank you so much for guesting with us this month Gocchi. Your work is just delightful - I especially love how bright and cheerful your pages are. 

Everyone has until the end off the month to play along with our Pixels and Paper challenge. We'd love to see you Christmas, Pets or Christmas Pets challenge.

November winners ...

Thank you for joining in with us in November with all your touches of gold.

We were working from this photograph ...

Our criteria is GOLD - use it a lot, use it sparingly ... just so long as you have some on your entry.

While our main monthly prize is selected 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 :)

Our MAIN winner for November is #8 Helene

We would like to invite #4 Laura to guest with us in January and will send her a small prize for her efforts.

and our random draw winner is #2 Mandy

Ladies, please email me @ 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 our guest designer for this month.

And don't forget you have until the end off the month to play along with us with our  Christmas / Pets challenge. We'd love to see how you are inspired by our photograph this month !! 

It's December ....

and it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas and you guessed it - that's our theme this month with a difference, you can also include your furry and feathered friends.

CRITERIA - Christmas and/or Pets and if you are extra clever  ... Christmas Pets 

SHAZZA

Our naughty dog Duke, is definitely on Santa's naughty list this year!!

LYNNE

I was inspired by the warm Christmas colours and the sweet pets; this is my Zoe having a nap in the middle of my Christmas village!

PHILLIS

I liked the red poinsettias and the red bulbs on the tree. I used red flowers on my page also, plus some red, white and green buttons

ELAINE

For me my immediate inspiration was the gorgeous dogs all looking hopeful. I am the owner of three dogs so I knew straight away that I would be using a picture of one of them in front of the fire. It is there favourite place during the winter months. Living in a character cottage, it inspires you to go mad with the Christmas decor and our house usually resembles Santa's grotto! Lol. I used paper from the new Kaisercraft Silent Night collection.

KAREN

I decided to make some Christmas cards. I jumped into my (very small) stash of Christmas-themed products, and came up with... reindeer! Santa's pets, yeah?

DI

 liked the pet/traditional Christmas theme and decided to do a spin on these two subjects. We don't actually have any pets, but our semi-permanent resident tawny frogmouths disappear from about late July and often reappear during the Christmas season. When they come back, there are often youngsters in tow. This is a photo of two of the bubs who were a welcome Christmas surprise.

I've used traditional colours of reds and greens with a smattering of gold and silver. The black background was stencilled with gold ink before I attached the tree shapes and silk ribbons.

REBECCA

JANE

Inspired by the colours and the theme ...

Christmas - it isn't always about the presents, sometimes it is just about the boxes they come in !

NOW IT IS UP TO YOU ...

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

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

  You may combine with a sketch challenge only - no other combining will be accepted. 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.

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.

Due to a family vacation our November winners will not be announced until the 11th of December.

November highlights ...

Time again to highlight a layout (or two) from amongst our November entries and they are all fantastic. We hope you will find time over the weekend to join in with us in our gold challenge.

Here are a couple of entries which have caught our eye ...

 

Helene

Gocchi

Mandy

You still have a couple of days in which to submit an entry and be in the running for some great prizes - we'd love to see your interpretation of our challenge this month.

Team Training for November ...

Welcome to our  November edition of  Team Training brought to you this month by team member Shazza Bishop.

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

Distressed Machine Sewing with Shazza Bishop

Hi, Shazza here this month with a great grungy sewing technique you can add to your photos or pages.

Start by sewing around the edge of your page. I used black thread as it shows up really well, but you can use any color that suits the color palette of your page. Before you sew right to the corner, stop about an inch, release the machine foot and pull the cotton out a little way. Place foot on adjacent edge (down from the top and continueto sew.

Repeat the same step (pulling cotton out before getting to the corner), on all edges. You can even do a few rounds (I did three on this particular page), verying the length of cotton and starting and stopping at different spots.

Here is the page once I had completed the distressed machine sewing around the edges

You can even do the same technique around your photos. You can trim cotton if it covers a face or is too long.

Here is my completed page 'Hungry Hungry Kid-a-Pillar'

Hope you give this technique a go and Enjoy this technique as much as I did!

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 the final day of the month to have your submission linked.

Welcome to our November guest ...

This month we welcome Cathy Lu with her take on our inspiration image for November.

I was inspired by the photo like home, and used big and golden title to complete the layout.

Hi, My name is Cathy and I live in Keelung City of Taiwan with my husband and our 18 year old daughter  who is going to the college this year. I have always loved playing with handmaking, which has resulted in hobbies like baking, sewing and decorating my house. I started with crafting when my daughter became interested in making cards. When I found out about scrapbooking 3 years ago that quickly became my new passion!  I always want to spent more time scrapbooking -  I think it’s the perfect way to save memories from our daily life.

Here is my Blog: http://cat677c.pixnet.net/blog

Here are two more of my pages ...

Thank you so much for guesting with us this month Cathy.  

Everyone has until the end off the month to play along with our Pixels and Paper challenge. We'd love to see how you are inspired by our gold challenge.

 

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

October winners ...

Thank you for playing along with us during October.

We were working from this photograph ...

CRITERIA - The use of frames on your entry

While our main monthly prize is selected 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 :)

Our MAIN winner for October is #12 Taru

We would like to invite #14 Gocchi to guest with us in December and will send her a small prize for her efforts.

and our random draw winner is #13 Rainny

Ladies, please email me @ 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 our guest designer for this month.

And don't forget you have until the end off the month to play along with us with our challenge.  You may combine with a sketch challenge only.

We'd love to see how you are inspired by our photograph this month !! 

Welcome to November ...

 Ahh November how on earth did you get here so fast ?

This month we are going a little bit regal and enticing you with some a rather elegant scene.  I hope you like it!  You might love the white, gold and pink colours or be inspired by the use of the three squares.  You might be drawn to the chair or the columns or particularly like the floral paintings.  Whatever draws you we'd love to know what has inspired you.

Our criteria is GOLD - use it a lot, use it sparingly ... just so long as you have some on your entry.

This month we bid farewell to team member Deb McLeary.  Deb has been a wonderful part of the Pixels and Paper team and we are sad to see her go and wish her all the very best in whatever the future holds for her.

We welcome a new team member to our family, Elaine King from England (UK) who guested with us in September.  I am sure you will all love her work as much as we do.

ELAINE

 I was inspired by the cream and the gold so I added lots of water colour splatters and added the richness of gold in the washi. 

SHAZZA

I used gold and also found a lovely photo of Hasan sitting on a chase lounge...perfect for the challenge!

REBECCA

 I was inspired by the chair and the idea of relaxing (hence why i scrapped a sunset photo). I was also inspired by the flowers.

PHILLIS

 I was inspired by the white and gold and I loved the pink in the flowers. Those are the colors I used on my page.

LYNNE

I was inspired by the series of 3 images so I divided my photo into 3 parts; the red envelopes with the gold on them are used in China for gifts of money on holidays and special occasions.

DI

 I was inspired to do something a little different this month by creating a 20 x 25cm canvas board wallhanging. I kept the white that featured in the inspiration photo as well as adding touches ofother colours including the pink and tan and of course, gold. I wanted something quite textural on the canvas and have used beads and embossing powders to edge the canvas. To this I added a wooden starfish, which was also embossed and randomly beaded.

KAREN

I followed the floral theme. I used the image as a sketch and kept the design very clean and simple. I used a piece of glitter cardstock as the matte for my photographs.

JANE

I was inspired by the white, gold and pink colour scheme and the idea of the chair.

NOW IT IS UP TO YOU ...

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry to the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on November 30th.

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

  You may combine with a sketch challenge only - no other combining will be accepted. 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.

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.

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