My ARTistic Life

Art Challenge #8: Scraps!, Specials & The Fab ARTchix Xmas Art Party

If you're looking for holiday inspiration and creative ideas, now is the perfect time to jump into my free online class! Come join the fun! : )

Art Challenge #8 (of 9): Get Inspired by Your Scraps!

For this week, dig out your scraps that you have leftover from our previous art challenges, or leftovers from a recent art project, or if you have a bin or drawer of scraps...bring it out. Dig in, it's time to make something using just your scraps! You can use scissors, glue, paints, etc...but all collage papers and decorative elements used in your piece must be scraps. 

At our recent ARTchix Xmas Art Party (see lots more photos below), I made this cute ornament using only my scraps from that day. I didn't have much to work with so I had to get real creative. I used the hole punch to make the dotted border along the top and the white snowballs too. Fun!

.....

I challenged the girls at the ARTchix Xmas Party to make an ornament using just their scraps from the day too. Look at all of these lovely ornaments that they made using only their scraps and our DreamBox Pendants! Fantastic! They made these in less than 30 minutes, go girls!

.....

 

My art desk includes this drawer that I keep all of my scraps in. Whenever I'm done with a project, I look through my scraps and pull out the ones that I can't throw away...and into this drawer they go. Sometimes when I'm having an artist block, I dig into my scraps drawer and make a collage using only these scraps + paint, glue, scissors. Some of my favorite collages are ones that I've made using only scraps. Limiting yourself and your supplies can bring out great creativity. : )

Art Challenge #8 (or 9) SUMMARY: Get Inspired by Your Scraps! Make an ornament, tag or anything you'd like (try to make something for the holidays so that you can cross something off your list at the same time)...but use only your scraps + glue, scissors, paint, etc.

How To Play in This Art Challenge: Scan your artwork and post it online to your blog, flickr account, website or our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #8 Weekly Art Challenge").

Next, click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

Deadline: Tuesday morning, December 15, 2009 

Prizes: My cute kitties will randomly pick 3 participants and they will each get to pick 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice! Hooray!

Winners & Next Art Challenge To Be Announced: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

.....

Winners from Last Week's Art Challenge!

We had 9 wonderful artists create art inspired by projects online and in books and magazines. Bruno volunteered to pick the winners this week:

Congrats Cathy, Laury55 and Sabine! : )

...........................................................................................................................

Dress Up Your Holiday Ornaments and Gift Wrap!

 

Get these gorgeous Gold Trees and add them to your holiday gift wrap, ornaments and more! Love how the ARTchix girls used them to beautify their ornaments and pillow boxes at our recent ARTchix Art Party. Get them here at half price for this week only: Special of the Week.

.....

 

When you purchase our Special of the Week, we'll also add this wonderful Gold Sampler of German Scrap. Or simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we'll be sure to tuck them into your order. 

This lovely Gold Sampler includes: Gold Stars and Antlers along with Small Renaissance, Large Renaissance and Medieval Borders. 

........................................................................................................................

The ARTchix Xmas Art Party!!!!!

Last Saturday, I hosted a fun, inspiring, delightful art party in my studio for all of the wonderful women that work here in ARTchix-land. I'm so thankful for all of their help in making ARTchix such a special place. I wanted to give them a no-stress, relaxing art day that would give them a head start on all of their holiday projects.

.....

I set up tables in my studio with glues and scissors and covered them all with newsprint so we wouldn't have to worry about messes.

.....

Inca helped me pull all of the supplies together! I filled trays and buckets with ARTchix images, German Scrap, beads, ribbons, DreamBoxes, paper gift bags and boxes and more.

.....

I bought beautiful blooming amaryllis', orchids, rosemary topiaries and more. We played ARTchix trivia and whenever someone got the right answer, they got to pick one of the potted plants as their prize. ARTchix trivia included questions like: How long has ARTchix been in business? Answer: 8 years! : )

I also made pretty gift tags for everyone (you can see them up close in Art Challenge #7) and attached them to bags of delicious lavender shortbread cookies that I bought at a craft fair. They're heavenly!

.....

I had so much fun putting pretty decorative touches throughout my studio. Love these pink roses and little cardboard houses.

.....

And here we all are: the ARTchix! From left to right: Jackie, Cynthia, Marguerite, Cindy (in the back), Kathy, Me and Gillian. Hooray!

.....

I was tickled pink to see everyone dive right into making holiday artwork! Wow, did we ever have fun! We laughed and arted away the day together!

On the left, Gillian shows off a cute pillow box and tags. And on the right, Cindy shows us the 2 awesome gift bags that she made in minutes by gluing on magazine images and Handmade with Love ATCs.

.....

On the left, Kathy shows us the gorgeous pillow box that she made and on the right, Cynthia shows us the beautiful pillow box and tag that she made.

.....

The ARTchix are a super creative, talented bunch! Check out all that we made:

First up: Cindy! She made fabulous gift bags with magazine images and Handmade with Love ATCs and Angel Tags. She also made gift tags with Holly and Chixies Numbers and Red Borders. Plus, a pillow box with stamped trees and Turquoise Stars. And she even made 2 dreambox ornaments using just her scraps from the day! Go Cindy!

.....

Next up: Cynthia! She made charming painted clothespins, a beautiful tag with Christmas Greetings and Red Baroque Borders, a pillow box with our Special of the Week: Gold Trees, Holly and Red Red Baroque Borders. Plus, a collaged gift bag and 2 ornaments using just her scraps from the day! Fantastic! : )

......

Next up: Gillian! Look at these lovely tags, pillow box and ornaments that Gillian made using Holiday Angels, Christmas Greetings and more! Way to go Gillian!

.....

Next up: Jackie! Look at all of these gorgeous pieces! Pillow boxes with Inchie Celebration, twigs, pinecones and tags with initals! A gift bag with magazine images, Holiday Bird Tags in circles and clothes pins galore! And check out the dreambox ornament that she made using just her scraps from the day. Wow, Jackie rocks!

......

Next up: Kathy! Wow, look at the lovely ornaments and pillow boxes that she made! Love how she painted her pillow boxes with acrylic paint and then went in with a brown watercolor crayon around the edges to give them an aged look. Just lovely! Her ornaments across the top are images from our Chixies True Colors (love them!) with Memory Frames and Glass.

.....

Next up: Marguerite! Love her delightful pillow box and ornament! High five Marguerite!

.....

And last up: Me! I made these cute tags with photos of my animals + Decorative Papers and White Scallopped Lace Borders. And the ornament was made using just my scraps and Memory Frame and Glass and Watercolor Square.

What a magical, fun, uplifting day! I love ARTchix! : )

Art Challenge #7, Specials & Cuteness

If you're looking for holiday inspiration and creative ideas, now is the perfect time to jump into my free online class! Come join the fun! : )

Art Challenge #7 (of 9): Get Inspired by a Project!

For this week, search for a project to do and do it! Look online, in your favorite art books, craft magazines or try your hand at Martha's fun project below. Try to find one that you can make for the holidays to cross something off your holiday list. : )

I recently purchased Martha Stewart Living's December issue. What fun! When I saw this little project on making tags with a touch of nature, I was so excited! I love simple, easy, fun projects like this.

.....

So, to get started, I pulled out all of the supplies I thought I'd need. I pulled together mini pine cones, branches and heart rocks from my nature walks along with tags, glues, pens and ARTchix images.

In the project, Martha says to spray paint the pine cones and adhere them to store bought tags with glue. Well, I didn't have any regular spray paint but I did have some glitter spray paint. So, I put a box together (it's best to spray paint into a box to avoid spray painting everywhere, lol) and stuck my pine cones inside and took them down to the basement to spray away. What a disaster! The spray can wouldn't stop spraying and you couldn't really see the glitter spray on them. Oh well!

.....

Playtime! I pulled out my tags and started adding images and bits of nature. At this point, nothing is glued down or held into place. I've just set things where I think I want them. I tried to keep them really simple: one image + something from nature on a tag.

.....

Once I had everything in place, it was time to attach everything. On this Bird Tag, I wanted to adhere a bit of greenery, so I sewed it on with waxed linen thread. But before I did, I made the holes with an awl. It's so much easier this way.

.....

Ta da! Here is my first set of completed tags! Take that Martha! : ) I made all of these tags for the wonderful chix that work here in ARTchix-land.

On the far left, Kathy's Bird Tag has a Handy Red Label, sewn on greenery and is topped with Red Peace Ribbon.

In the middle, Gillian's Angel Tag has a heart rock that I painted with polka dots using acrylic paint from Michaels. It's held onto the card with a Glue Dot (my favorite way to adhere bulky items). It's topped with lovely Nest Ribbon.

On the far right, Marguerite's Bird Tag has a Handy Red Label and mini pine cones adhered with Glue Dots. It's also topped with Red Peace Ribbon.

.....

Yay, more finished tags! On the far left, Cindy's tag includes an ATC from the Handmade with Love sheet that says "Eat, drink and make art!" (this sheet was on sticker paper so I just stick it into place, easy peasy!) Along with a Handy Red Label (also on sticker paper so no glue involved) and mini pine cone adhered with a Glue Dot. It's topped with cute Owl Ribbon.

Jackie's tag in the middle includes an ATC from the Handmade with Love sheet along with a heart rock that I stuck on with a Glue Dot and a pretty twig that I sewed into place with waxed linen thread. Her tag is also topped with Red Peace Ribbon. Can you tell I love this ribbon? It's unbelievably soft!

Cynthia's tag on the far right includes an ATC from the Handmade with Love, cute mossy twigs that I sewed into place and Nest Ribbon.

This was a really fun, easy project to do! And now Martha has been officially ARTchix-isized! 

Art Challenge #7 (or 9) SUMMARY: Get Inspired by a Project! Find a project that you'd like to do and do it! Look through your magazines, art books, online OR simply make a few tags with a touch of nature as inspired by Martha's project above.

****SAVE YOUR SCRAPS*****

How To Play in This Art Challenge: Scan your artwork and post it online to your blog, flickr account, website or our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #7 Weekly Art Challenge"). If possible, show us the project you were inspired by as well as your finished piece.

Next, click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

Deadline: Tuesday morning, December 8, 2009 

Prizes: My cute kitties will randomly pick 3 participants and they will each get to pick 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice! Hooray!

Winners & Next Art Challenge To Be Announced: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

......................................................................................................................

Brighten Up Your Holiday Tags & Gifts with our Special of the Week!

After playing with this sheet to make my tags above, I just had to make it the Special of the Week so that you can enjoy it too! Consider getting it on the sticker sheet so that you can just cut and stick! Follow this special link to purchase some!

.....

GREAT NEWS! If you get our Special of the Week, we'll include this delightful little ATC kit celebrating the color red! Or simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we'll be sure to tuck one into your order. 

This mini kit includes samples of the following: Holly, Decorative Paper, ATC, Red Flowers and Borders.

...........................................................................................................................

Announcing the Winners of Last Week's Art Challenge!

We had 10 wonderful artists make holiday collages and cards in last week's art challenge. My, we sure are a creative and lovely bunch! Inca was happy to pick the 3 winners:

Congrats Linda, Buddhini and Becky! : )
..........................................................................................................................

Weekly Dose of Cutness: Bruno Hops In

While I was pulling out my supplies for the art challenge this week, Bruno couldn't resist the box that I put together to spray paint my pine cones. Aww, my fuzzy love!

Holiday Cards & More

If you're looking for holiday inspiration and creative ideas, now is the perfect time to jump into my free online class! Come join the fun! : )

Art Challenge #6 (of 9): Get Inspired by Your Loved Ones! (continues this week)

Last week, I made a collage featuring my husband and I and our beloved pets in holiday colors. This week, I'm going to turn that collage into my holiday cards. I'm hoping this will inspire you when you're ready to start making your holiday cards.

Here we go:

First, pull out all of the supplies you think you'll need for making your cards. You can see here that I've got my collage printed out onto sheets of paper, some blank white cards and envelopes from Michaels, scissors, double stick tape, glitter and ARTchix stickers and sheets.

.....

 

I find that when you're making lots of cards, it's easiest to make one collage, photocopy it a bunch of times and then add some little touches of creativity. So, for my cards, I decided to attach my collage with double stick tape and add some Gold Decorative Corners (our Blog Special of the Week) to give them an elegant feel.

I found the gold on these corners a bit bright for my collage so I wanted to tone them down a bit. First, I tried a bit of alcohol ink, then walnut ink and finally Golden's Fluid Acrylic. For each one, I dabbed a tiny amount and then rubbed them into the nice details with my finger. My favorite look was the Golden's Fluid Acrylic in Raw Umber. Little bits of paint settled into the nooks and crannies and gave them a nice, old world feel. Perfect!

.....

Ta da! Here is my first completed holiday card! First, I scanned and printed my collage so that it was roughly 1" smaller than the actual card. Then, I tacked it down with strips of double stick tape. Next, I painted the Gold Corners with a bit of paint and adhered them with a thin layer of Tacky Glue. For a little pizzazz, I added some dots of red glitter with a glitter glue pen from Michaels. And lastly, I signed my name and the year with a Micron pen in the lower right.

For the envelope, I wrote the address with a Micron pen onto one of our Glamorous Labels and stuck it on. Then I rubber stamped a few red stars with an Ancient Page inkpad (water-resistant ink - good for mailing).

.....

When you open my card, this is what you see! I made and printed a sheet of these labels that show my kitty MoMo with our holiday greetings. And I rubber stamped the same star that is on my envelope all around the inside of the card.

AND for some of my special art friends, I made a pretty paper doll that's also a Christmas ornament. I used double stick tape to attach a Glassine Envelope to the card (which I cut with decorative scissors across the top to turn it into a pocket).

.....

Here she is when you pull her out of the pocket! I put a bit of our Peace Ribbon around her waist. And I punched a hole at the top and added a bit of sparkly pipe cleaner to turn her into an ornament. And see how she's holding a pretty ticket for "One Art Play Day." For Christmas this year, I wanted to give some of my friends something meaningful, fun and not too expensive. I thought hosting an Art Play Day for them next year would be a fantastic gift.

.....

For some of my other friends that are not into art, I thought a pretty tag with a certificate for a treat or lunch together would be great! Here I made a tag with our Decorative Papers, Fun Certificates, Crown Ribbon and pink glitter from Martha Stewart.

.....

For some of my other friends, I thought a pretty tag with a cute button would be nice! It can double as a pretty ornament! Here I made a tag with our new Buttons, Decorative Papers, Gift Tags and Nest Ribbon.

.....

Art Challenge #6 (or 9) SUMMARY: Get Inspired by Your Loved Ones! Find or take photos of you and your loved ones and make a holiday collage with them in any way you'd like. OPTIONAL: add polka dots and/or add something from nature. OPTIONAL: show us how you turn your collage into your holiday cards like I did above.

How To Play in This Art Challenge: Scan your collage and post it online to your blog, flickr account, website or our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #6 Weekly Art Challenge").

Next, click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your collage so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

Deadline: Tuesday morning, December 1, 2009 (you have 1 more week for this challenge)

Prizes: My cute kitties will randomly pick 3 participants and they will each get to pick 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice! Hooray!

Winners & Next Art Challenge To Be Announced: Wednesday, December 2, 2009

.........................................................................................................................

Cuten Up Your Holiday Cards & More!

Brighten up your holiday cards and more with these adorable inchie stickers of my kitties and doggie! Get them by ordering our Special of the Week OR simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we'll be sure to tuck them into your order.

.......................................................................................................................

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: I'm so Thankful for My Beloved Pets!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

.....................................................................................................................

Quick, Easy and Awesome Holiday Ornaments by Jenny Doh!

Check out these delightful, easy-to-make ornaments on Jenny Doh's blog! Love seeing our Glamorous Tags as fun ornaments! One of these would be so cute tucked into your holiday cards for a special loved one!

Get Inspired & Creative with Art Challenges! (free online class - #6 of 9)

Let's continue expanding our creativity together with a new art challenge! If you want to get a jump start on the holidays this year, now is the perfect time to jump into my free online class! Come join the fun! : )

Art Challenge #6 (of 9): Get Inspired by Your Loved Ones!

The holidays are just around the corner...it's time to start thinking about holiday cards! I find that when making cards, it's easiest to make one collage that you can copy and use as the main image for all of your holiday cards. So, that's what we're going to do for this week and next week. 

First, take or find photos of all of your loved ones that live in your house. I find it difficult to take one good photo with all of my pets so instead, I found a good, digital photo of each of us, made them all approx. the same size in Photoshop and then printed them out.

Next, decide on the colors you think you'd like to use in your holiday collage and pull out papers, ribbons, images, etc. in those colors. I picked red, green, brown and gold. 

.....

Next, think about how you're going to bring all of your photos together. I decided that I wanted to make a house shape out of our new Red and White Decorative Papers, our new Red and Brown Decorative Papers and our new Red Peace Ribbon.

Then, I decided to turn all of our photos into twinchies (2" square collages)....so I adhered them with a UHU gluestick to watercolor twinchies.

.....

Play, play, play! Keep in mind that you can add your own personal touch to decorative papers and wrapping papers. Here I added gold polka dots with a DecoColor Liquid Gold Marker to our brown chandelier paper.

.....

Since I love adding natural elements to my artwork, I added tiny pine branches. I sewed them into place by first marking the holes with an awl and matt, then sewing them on with a needle and waxed red thread.

.....

Ta da! My holiday collage! It shows all of the loved ones in my household (me, James, Bruno, Stella, Momo and Inca) displaying various wishes that I cut from our Tell Me a Story collage sheets. At the top, you'll find "wishing you" in one of our Handy Red Labels (our Blog Special this week). And here's what we wish for all of you: art bliss, brilliant ideas, abundant love, glorious walks, happy peace and good health.

Next week, I'm going to play with this collage and see how I can turn it into my holiday cards for this year.

Art Challenge #6 (or 9) SUMMARY: Get Inspired by Your Loved Ones! Find or take photos of you and your loved ones and make a holiday collage with them in any way you'd like. OPTIONAL: add polka dots and/or add something from nature. OPTIONAL: show us how you turn your collage into your holiday cards.

How To Play in This Art Challenge: Scan your collage and post it online to your blog, flickr account, website or our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #6 Weekly Art Challenge").

Next, click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your collage so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

Deadline: Tuesday morning, December 1, 2009 (you have 2 weeks for this challenge)

Prizes: My cute kitties will randomly pick 3 participants and they will each get to pick 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice! Hooray!

Winners & Next Art Challenge To Be Announced: Wednesday, December 2, 2009

.....

WINNERS from Last Week's Art Challenge

Hooray for the wonderful, creative 10 artists that played in the fifth part of our online class: Get Inspired by Things that You Enjoy! So many creative ways to play with packaging! You can see most of them in our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #5 Weekly Art Challenge").   My kitty, Inca, picked 3 winners which will each get 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice. Hooray! Here's who she picked:

I printed all of the artists' names, cut them out, spread them out on a table and put a treat next to each name. Then Inca got to pick 3 treats to gobble down! The name that was attached to that treat won! What fun! Congrats to Bonnie, Sabine and Laury! 

.....

Here's your Weekly Dose of Cuteness! Little Inca loves it when I make a big mess on my art table (which I most certainly did while I was making my fun holiday collage for this week).

Get Inspired & Creative with Art Challenges! (free online class - #5 of 9)

Hooray for the 13 of you that played in the fourth part of our online class: Get Inspired by Texture! So many cool textures created by leaves and more! You can see most of them in our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #4 Weekly Art Challenge").   My kitty, Inca, volunteered to pick all 3 winners this week (scroll down a bit). Each of the winners get to pick 3 ARTchix sheets of their choice. Hooray!

And now, let's continue expanding our creativity together with a new art challenge! Now is the perfect time to jump into my free online class! Come join the fun! : )

Art Challenge #5 (of 9): Get Inspired by The Things You Enjoy!

For this week, save all of the cool packaging from the things that you enjoy. Here's what I saved: paper bags from my favorite bakery, tags from shopping at Old Navy, boxes of my favorite tea: Bengal Spice, a paper envelope that held nice bath salts, the cork from a nice bottle of wine and more. Warning: once you start looking at packaging, you'll won't want to throw anything away! : )

.....

Now, before we jump into playing with all of the fun packaging we've collected, let's make a background in our art journals. Last week, we made a simple background my gluing down vintage papers and painting white gesso on top. Let's continue from that point to make this new background. Once you've got your vintage papers with painted white gesso on top (and it's dry), scribble watercolor crayons on top of it (#1). Then dip your brush into water and blend all of the watercolor crayon around (#2). If you want, you can stop there and you've got a nice background to play with. Or, you can take a paper towel and rub the wet watercolor crayon around with a circular motion. It will blend the watercolor crayon into all of the knooks and crannies and you'll get the look of #3.

.....

Now, it's playtime! I wanted to find a pleasing way to make sense of all of the packaging that I had collected. So, I came up with the idea of turning them into tags. I cut, ripped and glued them onto tags and then started moving them around on the page, trying to see what looked nice.

I also knew that I wanted to bring back two of the challenges that we had in the past and incorporate them into this challenge. So, in addition to making something out of cool packaging...think about adding polka dots (in any way you want to) AND add something from nature. 

.....

So, with my collage, I decided to add this twig (as my something from nature). I first tacked it into place with one Glue Dot. Then, I put the cutting matt beneath the page and poked holes with my awl. Next, with a needle and waxed linen thread (it's nice and strong), I sewed the twig into place.

.....

I kept playing and having fun with this collage and here it is! Ta da! Note that I used our Handy Red Labels to label everything. I love these labels...and they're our special of the week, hooray!

Okay, so, there are 3 parts of this one art challenge and here they are:
1. Make a collage using packaging from goodies that you like (I've got my fave tea, bakery, shopping at Old Navy, bath salts and I stamped with my wine cork.)
2. Add polka dots (I've got polka dots that I made with a red Sharpie on my tag on the far right). (OPTIONAL)
3. Add something from nature (I've got my twig) OR a print (I stamped my wine cork onto a red rubber stamp pad to make the little tag above). (OPTIONAL)

Wow, so are you ready?!

Art Challenge #5 (or 9) SUMMARY: Get Inspired by The Things You Enjoy! Collect packaging from items that you enjoy and make a collage with them in any way you'd like. OPTIONAL: add polka dots, add something from nature and/or add texture by using one of your items dipped in acrylic paint, ink pads, etc.

How To Play in This Art Challenge: Scan your collage and post it online to your blog, flickr account, website or our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #5 Weekly Art Challenge").

Next, click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your gred so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

Deadline: Tuesday morning, November 17, 2009

Prizes: My cute kitties will randomly pick 3 participants and they will each get to pick 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice! Hooray!

Winners & Next Art Challenge To Be Announced: Wednesday, November 18

.....

WINNERS from Last Week's Art Challenge: Get Inspired by Texture!

Hooray for the wonderful, creative 13 artists that had fun playing with gifts from nature! Inca picked 3 winners which will each get 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice. Here's who she picked:

I printed all of the artists' names, cut them out, spread them out on a table and put a treat next to each name. Then Inca got to pick 3 treats to gobble down! The name that was attached to that treat won! What fun! Congrats to Peggy, Marion and Marina!

See you next Wednesday with the next art challenge! I am hoping to make it related to the holidays in some way so that we can all get a jump start on them! : )

New Goodies, Gifts, Swaps & More!

It's Bonus Gift Time!!!

We have a gorgeous assortment of new sheets, stickers, papers, charms and PLAYING CARDS! And as you know, whenever we introduct new goodies, we love to spoil you with extra fabulous gifts! 

If you place an order that's over $25 (before shipping), we will automatically include this delightful bonus gift! You'll receive this fantastic sheet of paper doll tags, a cute button with stylish boots and yummy chocolate!

.....

If your order is over $100 (before shipping), we will automatically include all of the above PLUS a little container filled with vintage sequins that have a turquoise and lime green patina. Love them!!!

.....

See the cool sequins on this paper doll that I made?! I sewed them onto my paper doll with a needle and thread and orange seed beads. These are the sequins that you'll receive in the big bonus gift. Woohoo!!!

.....

Check out this fun ATC that Jackie made using one of the tags in the bonus gifts. It features a paper doll that was originally made by Shannon Sawyer. Love how Jackie added the little peace charm and how it says "Peace, Love and ARTchix." Fantastic!

.....

But wait, there's more!!! Everyone will receive one of these lovely stickers in their orders! It's made by our talented, new, featured artist: Jill Noblitt. Hooray!

.......................................................................................................................

Spice Up Your Holiday Cards This Year!

Here are a few fun ideas:

Decorate your envelopes with our new Glamorous and Lovely Labels! Each label features a handmade paper doll from our recent swap and they look marvelous!

.....

Make a matching card with our coordinating Glamorous and Lovely Gift Tags! And tuck some fun goodies inside! How about a paper doll? A fun gift ticket? Or festive buttons?
.....

I must say that I fell in love with paper dolls after making them for our recent swap! You can add beads, buttons, charms and just about anything to personalize them. I'm planning on making a few for my special loved ones and tucking them into their cards along with some fun gift tickets and certificates. Will be so nice!

........................................................................................................................

New Swaps!!!

We've got 2 new, fun swaps for you to jump into in the new year!

"I love animals" Artist Trading Cards due in February 2010! Here's a swap where you can show off your cute pets! Please see our website for details.

.....

"I Love..." Twinchie Lotto Game Swap due in March 2010! We'll be creating twinchies in pink, red and/or green that I'll turn into a game for all of us! This was inspired by Jill Noblitt's Lotto Game Online Class!

.........................................................................................................................

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: Kitten Bruno

Just couldn't resist showing this adorable photo of Bruno when he was a kitten! You'll find him appearing on our new Alphabets, Lovely Gift Tags and Labels sheets.

Get Inspired & Creative with Art Challenges! (free online class - #4 of 9)

Hooray for the 14 of you that played in the third part of our online class: Get Inspired by Color! So many vibrant, colorful collages to enjoy! You can see most of them in our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #3 Weekly Art Challenge").   My kitty, MoMo, volunteered to pick all 3 winners this week (scroll down a bit). Each of the winners get to pick 3 ARTchix sheets of their choice. Hooray!

And now, let's continue expanding our creativity together with a new art challenge! Now is the perfect time to jump into my free online class! Come join the fun! : )

Art Challenge #4 (of 9): Get Inspired by Texture!

Ahhh, it's a wonderful time to take a break and treat yourself to a breathe of fresh air and a nice walk. While you're out for your stroll, gather gifts from nature. Look for unusual textures. I collected leaves, seed pods, berries, branches, feathers and more.

.....

Before we play with all of our collected items, let's make a simple background in our art journals. I glued down some vintage papers and adhered them to the page with a UHU gluestick. Then, I dipped my paint brush in a bit of white gesso and painted the page randomly. I focused on putting a thin layer of gesso here and there so that you could still see the vintage papers peeking out from the background.

.....

Now, get out some acrylic paints. I'm feeling a bit Christmas-y these days, so I picked these colors: chocolate brown, red, green and ochre. These are just inexpensive acrylic paints from Michaels. You can use whatever acrylic paints you have on hand.

.....

Now, make a grid using one of your found items. I drew my grid lines by dipping a leaf stem into brown paint. Fun! Now, play! Try dipping your items into acrylic paint and make imprints of them. See what happens when you dip your items into a few colors and press them on the page. Try painting your leaves and pieces with a foam brush first and then imprint them on the page. Have fun and play, play, play!

You can see above that I placed the item that I made the imprint from next to each section. For example, on the top left, I used that pine needle branch to make the red imprints. Below that is a leaf that I painted with a foam brush and then pressed onto the page at various angles. On the top right, I dipped that green moss into green paint and sponged it on.  Below that is a twig with dried pods...I painted it with green and red and then pressed it around on the page. I had a blast doing this!

.....

More imprints! It's amazing the variety of textures you can find just outside your door. If you live in the city, I bet you could make an awesome grid filled with imprints of bottlecaps and modern found objects.

Same as above, you can see the item that I made the imprint from next to each section. On the top left is a neat seed pod, love the wing like shapes that it makes. Next to that are some rosehips that I dipped in paint. They sure make a fantastic polka dot background! On the bottom right is a twig covered in moss, I painted it with a foam brush in ochre and red and then pressed them onto the page. Love this repeated shape.

I'm thinking that these imprints would make gorgeous backgrounds for collages and maybe even my Christmas cards this year. We shall see. : )

Art Challenge #4 (or 9) SUMMARY: Get Inspired by Texture! Take a walk and collect leaves, twigs, rocks, berries, etc. (anything that has a neat texture that you want to play with). Then make a grid in your art journal (or on a piece of paper) and make imprints of your found objects.

How To Play in This Art Challenge: Scan your grid that shows all of your imprints and post it online to your blog, flickr account, website or our YahooGroup (Photos section: "Helga's Blog: #4 Weekly Art Challenge").

Next, click on "Comments" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your gred so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

Deadline: Wednesday morning, November 11, 2009. (Note, you've got an extra day for this art challenge!)

Prizes: My cute kitties will randomly pick 3 participants and they will each get to pick 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice! Hooray!

Winners & Next Art Challenge To Be Announced: Thursday, November 12 (special day next week)

.....

WINNERS from Last Week's Art Challenge: Get Inspired by Color!

Hooray for the wonderful, creative 14 artists that made great color collages! MoMo picked 3 winners which will each get 3 free ARTchix sheets of their choice. Here's who she picked:

I printed all of the artists' names, cut them out, spread them out on a table and put a treat next to each name. Then MoMo got to pick 3 treats to gobble down! The name that was attached to that treat won! What fun! Congrats to Cheryl, Michele and Gena!

See you next Thursday with the next art challenge and a whole lot more!!! : )

 

 

Paper Doll Winners, Specials and Cuteness

The WINNER of our Paper Doll Swap: Shannon Sawyer!

I loved hosting our Paper Doll Art Swap! I am now officially in love with paper dolls thanks to all of our wonderful swap artists that inspired me beyond belief! I had such a hard time picking the winners but in the end, I picked Shannon Sawyer as our big winner. She wins a $100 shopping spree at ARTchix. Hooray!

Shannon made 12 unique, incredible paper dolls. Each one was in a beautifully decorated pocket. Lovely presentation and the dolls were so cool!

Shannon says: Well first of all I want to say that I thought they would be a breeze to make and I learned very quickly that they are a lot more complicated than I thought.  That is why I have a new found respect for all the artists who make them all the time and make them so well.  The one thing I didn't want for my Art Dolls was for them to be flimsy.  So I decided to trace them on black cardstock and use that as the backing. For some of them I decided to use real looking limbs, so I searched for the appropriate arms and legs in my fashion magazines and then I copied them and reduced them to the appropriate size.  That seemed to work well for me.  For some of the dresses I just took the pre-made dresses from the collage sheets and I then either sprayed them with a color wash and embellished further from there.  Each Art Doll had a theme, like there was the "Crazy Bingo Lady" and there was the "Alternative" ArtDoll and so on.  When mailing them I decided to make little pockets for them so they wouldn't get all bent during the mailing process.

Shannon's fave ARTchix product at the moment: DreamBoxes. I haven't done a whole lot with them up until now, but I have purchased several knowing that I would eventually get to them.  Well I finally am getting to them and what fun they are to alter and dress up.  I'm thinking that I will be giving them out as Christmas gifts. I've made a couple Christmas ones already using the Snowflake Kisses collage sheets and they turned out so great if I do say so myself.  They will make  a great tree ornament (because they are light enough for that).  Or they could be set on a mantle or tabletop during the holidays.  I'm just all about the DreamBoxes right now.

Get Shannon's Paper Doll Stickers!

Order this week and we'll include this awesome sheet of stickers featuring some of Shannon Sawyer's awesome paper dolls! Get them by ordering our Special of the Week OR simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we'll be sure to tuck them into your order.

.....

Make Your Own Paper Dolls!

Get this charming paper doll sheet at half price for this week only! Make paper dolls this year and tuck them into your holiday cards...such a nice touch! Go to this special link to purchase them.

.....

The Fabulous Six Honorable Mentions of our Paper Doll Swap!

PATRICIA CLARKSON! Oh my gosh, how I LOVE Patricia's fun paper dolls! The bunny ears are the BEST!

.....

BARB DELISLE! Fantastic dancing paper dolls!

.....

NORMA SKOGLUND! Norma turned her fantastic paper dolls into ornaments by adding a decorative wire loop at the top. Great idea! Love how she added my kitty Bruno to one of her paper dolls (I will treasure this one!)

.....

GENA BOONE-CURTIS! Love the stylish clothing that she decked her dolls out in!

Gena says: These were very time consuming for me because I really wanted each doll to be a completely different character.  I also wanted to make them with a little fun twist.

Gena's fave ARTchix product at the moment: Hands down it is your wonderful collage sheets.  I have ordered collage sheets from other sites but I am always disappointed in the quality compared to the ARTCHIX sheets.  I really love the new doll heads collage sheet.  I like how ARTCHIX stays up with the trends and always has new products to share!

.....

NANCY TERRELL! I'm in love with this teapot paper doll and who can resist Mickey Mouse ears?!

Nancy says: My inspiration is my sister, Cindy Rafael. Every time I visit her house, she is working on something fun & artsy. Her paper dolls were amazing and I thought I would give it a try. She hooked me up with ARTchix Studio.

Nancy's fave ARTchix product at the moment: Ruby Red Collage Sheet, Red Swan Wings and anything Christmas

.....

GERRI HERBST! Gerri made 6 mermaid paper dolls with extra outfits and accessories! Fantastic!

Gerri says: As a child  when asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?", I would  sincerely remark, "A mermaid ". To be able to travel between these two spheres of land  and sea (while fashionably dressed), by interchanging  legs or tails would be the best of both worlds and a dream come true.

Gerri's fave ARTchix product at the moment: German Scrap ..... very ornate and shiny, gotta have shine.

.....

Paper Doll Art Swap is Being Mailed This Friday!

For all of the participants in our fabulous Paper Doll Art Swap, you are in for a real treat! 4 fantastic chixies sheets are coming your way along with gorgeous paper dolls and my favorite m&m's. You can expect yours to arrive in a week or two. Enjoy!

......................................................................................................................

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: Bruno's Got It in the Bag!

Put a paper bag on the floor in our house and within seconds, you'll find a kitty inside. : )