August highlights ...

Time to highlight a layout (or two) which has caught our eye over the month. We have loved everyone's bright and colourful creations this month.

Gocchi

Lizzy Hill

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 August ...

Welcome to our August edition of  Team Training brought to you this month by team member, Rebecca Daly.

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

Hello everyone, today i'm sharing a tutorial on a baby gift using distress ink blending, a vinyl cut (from my silhouette) and a frame:

 To start, I found 5 co-ordinating distress inks (since I'm making a baby gift, I chose blues and greens), and an 8x10 white paper (as that is the size of my frame), distress pads (one for each colour), and newspaper (so I'm not inking my workspace):

close ups of the inks:

I'm starting with the lightest blue to the darkest blue then to green so i'm starting with iced spruce:

using a different ink pad for every colour (so not to mix colours any more), I put the pad on my blending tool and in a circular motion swiped over the ink pad:

then using a circular motion, I went slowly across the top of my paper:

next up I used weathered wood (using another pad), used the same circular motion I blended under the top colour and into the top colour:

then used salty ocean, and used a circular motion under weathered wood and into weathered wood:

Next I used peacock feathers, again used circular motion to blend into the colour above:

and finally evergreen bough:

I held the bottom of the page (although you could tape the back of your paper to your surface so it won't move) as I blended and thus my fingers were dirty by the time I held it while blending evergreen bough:

Next up the supplies for the frame:

take frame apart:

I weeded the vinyl (cut file from silhouette) and using a lint roller I worked one section at a time taking it off the paper:

and put it on the frame:

when all the vinyl was on the glass, I put it back together, using my blended paper as the background. Here is the finished project:

Here are a  couple of layouts I have done using blending distress inks:

thank you for stopping by and for your wonderful comments, I hope I have inspired you to use your distress inks in a new way :)

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.

Please welcome our August guest ...

This month we welcome Jannike Garci from Sweden with her take on our inspiration image for August. 

"The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this month’s inspiration was the beautiful colors. My inspiration was the colors, the daisy but also the sprinkles. I made a layout with strong colors and a daisy using coffee filter. I have chosen a photo of my daughter when she was 1 year old"

Hi! My name is Jannike and I live in Sweden together with my husband, our two kids, our two dogs and our two cats. I always loved crafting, since I was a child but wasn’t really dedicated to it until 1 year ago. My son started to get invites to birthday parties and I made one Happy Birthday card and after that, I was hooked. I also started to make layouts from the time my son was born until present time and love to challenge myself by testing different techniques. For example, I discovered mixed media for some weeks ago so my latest work are all mixed media inspired. I also feel that is so peaceful to sit down behind my desk and create after a stressful day at work.

Thank you Pixel and Paper for chosen me as a guest designer, it’s such an honor!!

My blog can be found at:

http://jannikeskortopyssel.blogspot.se/

Here is two of my latest layouts:

Thank you for joining the team during August Jannike.  We have loved having you with us :).

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 bright and colourful cupcakes and the criteria of using tiny embellishments.

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.

July winners ...

Thank you for playing along with us during July.

We were working from this photograph ...

CRITERIA - A winter theme

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 July is The Happy Scrapper (aka Kim).  As Kim is a digital scrapper I am happy to swap out the physical prize to a voucher from a digital store of her choice.

We would like to invite Chid Kids (aka Elaine) to guest with us in September and will send her a small prize for her efforts.

and our random draw winner is #12 Dolly Bee

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 !! 

Hi there August ...

Welcome to August at Pixels and Paper.  

I thought we could all do with a little bit of bright and happy this month and nothing makes me happier than yummy little cupcakes!

CRITERIA - The use of tiny embellishments

As always please find inspiration from our image as you would like - you might like to focus on the cake theme or take an element such as the hearts or flowers and run with those.  Perhaps the colour combination calls to you or you love the use of circles - whatever inspires you about our image, please share with us.

Our team have some fantastic layouts to inspire you ...

DI

This month I have done a double page layout. The beach has been a common theme in my photography, layouts and off-the-page projects I've been doing lately. With this one I decided that I wanted the photo to look as though it had been enclosed within a shell. I added a number of different embellishments, heat embossed chippies and the title and foiled the music staff. I also used jewellery backings, charms, rhinestones and beads. To complete the pages I added a swoosh of seed pearls and  punched and glittered edges.

KAREN

I took inspiration from the circles and the bright colours. I used gold sequins as my tiny embellishments.

LYNNE

I was inspired by the cupcakes and the baking theme; here's my son at 2 1/2 "helping" me make chocolate cake batter! I used tiny brads on the yellow paper and microbeads for sprinkles on the cupcakes.

REBECCA

 I was inspired by the cupcakes, the colours and the sprinkles.

PHILLIS

The circles and the pastel colors were what inspired me to create this layout. I used a photo from Easter so the pastel colors were perfect. I fussy cut the Easter bunnies out of some patterned paper.

REGINA
This is our last month with Regina who has stepped down from the team and will be greatly missed.  Thank you inspiring us with your wonderful work and we wish you all the very best in whatever the future brings for you.

The criteria of tiny embellishment suited my photo of ice cream with sprinkles well. I have used glitter and a handmade heart of tiny beads for my embellishments. Looking forward to seeing all your entries.

DEB

I took the use of small embellishments very seriously, and thought that a Finnabair-inspired piece would take that to the nth degree! I also wanted to incorporate the bright colours from the inspiration picture in my canvas panel. My canvas panel in the middle is the equivalent to a photo on any other layout - it is the 'hero' and contains the requisite small embellies.

JANE

I took inspiration from a few of the decorations -  the flowers and the butterflies in particular and used a patterned paper that contained a number of the main colours - bold pink, blue, green and yellow.

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 August 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 July.