Team Training for January ...

Welcome to our first edition of Team Training brought to you this month by myself.

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

Embellishing with buttons by Jane Howden.

Buttons used to be a staple in our scrapbooking stash but have fallen a little out of favour these last couple of years due to the rise in popularity of enamel dots and puffy stickers, however we shouldn’t overlook these wonderful little additions because buttons can be very versatile.   I am sure the vast majority of us have containers full of buttons in our over flowing supplies just begging to be put to good use - you can embellish your layouts in many different ways with the use of just a few buttons. 

Make a button border for your photo or your paper panel.  This can look very effective and has the ability to use up quite a number of buttons in one use.

 Use buttons to become the center of your flowers.  They can certainly add a visual impact.

Use them in your clusters along with your smaller stickers and other embellishments.

 Use them either in place of or alongside of wood veneer, brads, enamel dots and rhinestones that you might scatter across your page.  Sometimes a few small buttons will work just as well.

 Of course buttons don’t just come as a round plastic variety.  You can get the most gorgeous novelty buttons in all shapes and sizes and made from many other products.  I love them in hearts, butterflies, smiley faces and all manner of cute animals shapes.  And they are invariably far cheaper than the scrapbooking branded variety.  Try using some of these for your layouts.

And then you can pop a button onto your handmade cards for just that extra little touch. So quick and easy.

 I hope you can rediscover your love of buttons - pull them out and give them a try!

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 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 January guest ...

Our first guest for 2017 is Laura Mora from Italy with her delightful take on our inspiration image for January.

Looking at the picture inspiration for this month, I immediately thought of having to enter the real sand in my layout. I sewed a simple transparent plastic bag with fuse tool and I have placed the sand inside. Lined paper with the tracing paper rays is very 'summer'.

Hi! I'm Laura. I live in Italy, I'm 24, I discovered scrapbooking at eighteen, although I always messed around with the paper since childhood.

My element is the paper, I like to collect all kinds of paper that has paper for scrapbooking or gift bags if it has a beautiful design or texture I have to buy it!

Here is my blog - http://unraccontofattoamano.blogspot.it/


Here are a few of my favourite pages:

Thank you so much for guesting with us this month Laura. It has been such a pleasure having you join us. 

Everyone has until the end off the month to play along with our Pixels and Paper challenge. We'd love to see your Summer theme entries based on this image.

December winners ...

Thank you to those who joined in with us during December and our final challenge for 2016.

We were working from this photograph for our Christmas, Pets or Christmas Pets challenge.

Unfortunately we had a number of entries in December who did not qualify for inclusion in our prizes - please remember we only accept combining our challenge with a sketch challenge.  Please check out our RULES if in doubt.

Our MAIN winner for December is #11 Jannike

We would like to invite #7 Nana (aka Donna) to guest with us in February.

Ladies, please email me @ jjjustjane@bigpond.com with your details

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

Welcome to 2017 ...

Welcome to 2017 - may this year be wonderful, filled with fun, family, good health and lots and lots of crafting !

Just a little housekeeping before we get started with our first challenge and some general information for those who aren't familiar with how things work around here.  

This year we will have two main prize packs - one will be selected by Creative Team vote but due to the high cost of international postage it will only be available to Australian/NZ entrants.  The other prize is purely by random draw and available to everyone regardless of country of residence - so anyone could be a winner, no matter your style or your level of experience.  We will also offer one lucky entrant a chance to guest with us for the following month.

Our monthly inspiration will normally go up on the 1st of the month and winners will be announced on the 8th of the month so please if you entered in the previous month do check and see if you are a winner - so many prizes were forfeit last year purely because they remained unclaimed.  Our guest designer will be introduced on the 15th and then on the 22nd of the month we introduce "Focus On' where one of our Creative Team will highlight a product, technique or tool they particularly like to use - you will need to pop in on the 22nd of each month to see what we have to show you.

We accept any form of papercrafting and 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. Please read our RULES for further information.

And now our very first challenge for 2017 ...

January is our middle month of Summer and traditionally vacation time here in Australia.  The kids are out of school and very many of us head to the coast for family holidays or visit our local beach for days of sun, surf and sand.

CRITERIA - A SUMMER theme

What inspires you from our photograph?  It is the ocean waves, the sand, children playing contentedly or the bright happy colours of summer in their clothing?  Are you more drawn to the blue of the ocean or the gold of the sand?  Does this image remind you of sun filled vacations or time spend at the beach or in your own backyard pool?

Team inspiration ...

ELAINE

 My summer themed layout features my Granddaughter Amber enjoying the beach.

SHAZZA

Drawn to the ocean colours ..

KAREN

I took inspiration from the beach scene. For me, summer and the beach go hand in hand! I'm making a mini album about my recent trip to Rockhampton and this page features some photographs of the main beach at Yeppoon.

PHILLIS

I was inspired by the girls and the flowers. So I used an old photo of my daughter and used flowers for my embellishments.

REBECCA

I made my own stencil to make the clouds.

DI

The crashing waves, vivid colours and the pose of one of the children drew me towards my photo selection this month. An idyll hour at one of my local beaches was spent taking shots of a couple of pelicans as they continually flew and landed oblivious to everything else that was going on. One of the landing poses reminded me of Tai Chi movements. To the background papers, I added stamping, alcohol inked strips of paper and diecuts. 

LYNNE

The inspiration photo made me think of the peaceful feeling I get being near water; I used a photo I took of a heron at our local park late this past summer.

JANE

Inspired by the basic colour scheme and the idea of summer in a waterside location.

Hope you can come and join in with us this month ...

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

We can't wait to see your summer themed pages.

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