What caught our eye ...

At the end of each month this year we are going to showcase a layout (or two) which has caught our eye over the month. This submission may not necessarily end up being one of our actual winners - just an entry we think deserves special mention.

This time around we love this bright page from Christel which really uses our inspiration photograph and criteria superbly.

as does this entry from AsaJ

You still have a few days in which to submit an entry - we'd love to see your interpretation of our challenge this month.

Team Training for January ...

Welcome to our first edition of Team Training for 2016 brought to you this month by team member, Regina Chandler.

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

CUSTOM BACKGROUND WITH GELATOS TUTORIAL by Regina Chandler

We all have gelatos, right! So here’s how to make a custom background in the colours of your choice to suit your photos.

The secret ingredient with gelatos is H2O!

This is all you need for your background. I also used a little pink gelato on this.

Using a heavy weight white cardstock, start by ‘scribbling’ with your chosen colours roughly where you want them on the page. You can use more than one tone of a  colour together.

 The next step is to blend with baby wipes using a circular motion. Use 1 wipe per colour to avoid mixing them.  Let dry a couple of minutes before moving onto the next colour.

  

You then only need minimal embellishments to complete your page!

You can use this technique over and over again using different colours.

 So try it out today.  Enjoy…

Thanks Regina, you make it look so easy - everyone should try this!

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.

Our January Guest ...

This month we welcome our guest designer Megan with her gorgeous layout based on our image for January. 

When I saw this month's inspiration, I immediately thought of the flowers that I made with my sons. They painted pictures too, and they were a mess when we were done so I added a lot of texture in the background and with the paint streaks.

Hi! I'm Megan.  I live in a small town in Iowa in the United States. My husband and I have 2 boys- 7 and 4. My aunt introduced me to scrapping when I was in high school, and I switched over to digi-scrap in 2008 when my sister bought me iscrapbook. Now I use CS6- which is a little more advanced. I don't have a single "style"- in my gallery you will find everything from shabby, art journal, pocket scrapping, minimal, artsy, and traditional styles.  

https://simplyinspiredbymegan.wordpress.com/

Some more of my work ...

Thank you so much for guesting with Pixels and Paper this month Megan - we so enjoyed seeing your lovely work.

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 photograph.  

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.

Our December winners ...

Thank you to everyone who played along with us during December.  We know it is a particularly frantic time for many people so your participation was appreciated.

We were working from this festive photograph ...

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 December is Sandy Ross and we would also like to invite her to guest with us in February.

and our random draw winner is #3 Giorgia

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 this month, Megan.

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 - no other combining will be accepted.  A full description of the Pixels and Papers rules can be found on the right side or under our Rules page at the top.

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

Hello January ...

A hearty welcome to 2016.  We hope you had a wonderful festive season and are back eager to start another brand new year with us on Pixels and Paper.  We have more wonderful inspiration, fantastic prizes and guesting opportunities for you this year.

Let's start with this delightful bright and happy photograph.  This year we are introducing a criteria to each month - don't worry they are all super simple but are designed to just give you a little more challenge in the challenge :)

CRITERIA is to use PAINT on your entry

Lets see how our design team tackled this ...

LYNNE

 I was inspired by the feeling of freedom in the photo so I decided to create an art journal page with a quote I love about being free; the butterflies echo some of the colours in the photo as well as the feeling of freedom. The background was created with sponge painting and I extended the dress and hair in the image with paint.

KAREN

 I loved the colours in this month's inspiration photo... what a wonderful way to start the year! I used watered down acrylics and a pipette to create the background for my layout.

REBECCA

I was inspired by the bright beautiful colours, and the smear across her cheek. I painted the background, then got really messy with inks and sprays over the paint.

DEB

This month's image prompted me to use a photo of my daughter and her friend with facepaint on from 5 years ago. I created my fun background using various watercolour paints and stencilling. I also wanted to show how much they have grown up, using a photo from their dancing together this year. "LUV these girls!" 

REGINA

I was certainly inspired by the colours in this image, so I created a custom made background firstly using a stencil and texture paste and then adding watered down paint. So get out your paints and experiment by mixing them and adding some H20. Looking forward to seeing your bright projects this month!

PHILLIS

I was inspired by the colors that reminded me of a rainbow. Thus there is rain. I chose my photo from a day when it was raining while we were on vacation last summer. Both my daughter and husband were using their devices when free wi-fi at a coffee shack. They were both feeling deprived since there was no wi-fi on the ship.

DI

A very special welcome to Di who rejoins Pixels and Paper after a break - so happy to have you back with us :)

I've used acrylic paints, including metallic gold and silver, to daub and swirl  the background for the layout, using some of the colours from the inspiration picture. The zingy green really appealed to me so this has been featured.

JANE

I loved the colours but was mostly drawn to the theme of being covered in paint and have done a cheeky layout about this :)

NOW IT IS UP TO YOU ...

Whatever your inspiration we would love to see your take on this photograph - please share your work with us this month.

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, 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 December.

It's coming ...

I am getting excited.  Our first challenge of 2016 will go live on the 4th.  

What could it be ????

Come back on the 4th to find out !!