February highlights ...

Time again to highlight a layout (or two) from amongst our February entries and aren't they are all fantastic! We hope you will find time to join in with us in our heart challenge.

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

Judy W

Gocchi

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 February ...

Welcome to our latest edition of Team Training brought to you this month by Di Hasthorpe.

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

Using alcohol inks and modelling cream by Di Hasthorpe

I'm sure most of you have used alcohol inks at some stage, probably on acetate, foil or glossy paper. Lately, I've been experimenting on other surfaces:- altering cardstock, upcycling CDs, 'oops' photos and cake boards.

Often I have the need to change cardstock because I either have several pieces of it, or I no longer like it (the 'why did I buy it' syndrome!).

  Alcohol inks don't react well with non-glossy surfaces, so to add them to cardstock successfully you need to use another product. In this case I've used a modelling cream applied through a stencil.

Gesso or texture paste also work but will give a different look. 

Once the modelling cream dries, alcohol inks can be smooshed over the stencilled surface. It gives a jewel-like effect. I also lightly sprayed over the whole piece of cardstock with ink sprays. I used Lindy Stampgang Sprays for this.

Don't throw away those 'oops' photos. Being glossy makes them perfect to use for the alcohol ink treatment.

The photos can also be stencilled with modelling cream as a first step before adding alcohol inks. As this is a glossy surface, the inks will colour up the whole photo.

When you have prepared your photos they can be used for card backgrounds or embellishments for whatever purpose you desire.

Once diecut, the embellishments can also be put through an embossing folder and further decorated. On this Christmas card, I've used a glitter glue (Kindy Glitz) to highlight raised sections of the baubles. 

Old CDs or DVDs can have a new lease of life. They take alcohol inks really well and look great. 

These I've used for cards, decorating them with embellishments and beads. They do need a strong glue to adhere them to the card surface. 

Recently I discovered that modelling cream can also be stencilled onto CDs. These look effective just as is ...

 but the addition of alcohol inks give that extra interest.

This photo shows the not - quite completed CD. Again these could be used for cards or layouts, but I'm planning to use mine for mobiles..... a work in progress!

The last items I've experimented with recently are cakeboards. As these are covered with a metallic card, they are also perfect for accepting alcohol inks. This one, turned into a motivational wall plaque, has had the ink and some of the thinner dropped onto the surface and allowed to pool and dry as it fell. 

I hope that some of these ideas spark your interest and you have fun experimenting with alcohol inks and / or modelling cream.

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.

A February guest ...

Please welcome our guest designer for this month, Donna Broussard from the US with her wonderful take on our inspiration image for February.

Hello!

My name is Donna Broussard and I am from Louisiana.  I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 41 years. We have one son and he has blessed us with 3 grandsons. These boys are the focus of most of my scrapbooking pages. I have been scrapbooking for 11 years and I am very passionate about it.   Some of my favorite things to do are attend crops, do challenges, make mini albums,  and making various paper crafts. Doing various challenges has forced me to think out of the box and to try techniques and products that I would never do on my own. 

Please stop by my blog (http://retiree3.blogspot.com/ ) and see more of my work. I would like to thank Pixels and Paper for featuring me this month.

Here are some more lovely pages designed by Donna.

Thank you so much for guesting with us Donna. So pleased you could join us this month. 

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

January winners ...

Thank you for joining in with us in January with all your summer themed pages.

We were working from this photograph ...

Our MAIN winner for January is #3 MARY (aka Dolly Bee)

We would like to invite #6 TARU to guest with us in March.

and our random draw winner is #2 NATSUKO

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

Hello February ...

And suddenly it is February - the month of love, so what better way is there to celebrate than to do it with hearts with this delicious challenge.  

CRITERIA - Use Hearts in some way on your work

There is lots to inspire you from our photograph.  You might like the colours - such a pretty pastel mix.  Or perhaps you like the little sayings - so many to choose from (First kiss, Marry me, Sweet talk, Only you .....).  You might like the use of crayons or coloured pencil.  Perhaps you want to carry forward that theme of confectionery and then again you might just like hearts :)

Team inspiration ...

SHAZZA

ELAINE

Hearts and pastel colours..with a bit of gold thrown in..just because I can! Lol

PHILLIS

I was inspired by the hearts. I wanted to create a page that showed love. I used a photo of my daughter doing of of her something she loves: cheering. I used my heart stencils to add texture and color to my background. Then I added more hearts and some love sayings.

REBECCA

I hand-stitched the hearts and literally threw sequins on the layout and glued them where they landed. the title I created using a stencil and metallic modelling paste.

KAREN

The first thing I thought when I saw the photograph was, SWEET ~ so I chose a sweet theme for my project. This double-page spread is another addition to the mini-album recording my trip to Rockhampton in 2016. I used some paper-punched hearts and also doodled lots of hearts around my journalling.

LYNNE

I was inspired by the pastel colours and the soft feeling of the photo; the baby in my photo is the granddaughter of a good friend of my late mother's, and she was named after my mom.

DI

Apart from the hearts theme, I have taken pastel colours from some of the conversation lollies to make a gift card/container. This has been made from vellum which I have dry embossed with an embossing tool and decorated with lace (heart design) and liquid pearls. The heart is in three sections, each section open at the top to form a pouch. The largest heart has one folded the side and could be left open on the cut side to form a card if desired. For this particular one, I have taped the cut edge. The card I have also made has diecut butterflies, again in a heart shape.

JANE

I have used most of the colours but in a more vibrant tone and added in stitched hearts as a border.

Hope you can come and join in with our challenge this month, we need more of you playing along with us and winning some great prizes ...

Please upload your entry to the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on February 28th.

We can't wait to see your pages.

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