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12 June, 2023

Special Guest Spotlight on JO - LET'S ART JOURNAL June 2023

 Hello everyone!


This month, we are very pleased to welcome Jo - Let's Art Journal, who was one of our fabulous February 2023
 winners

We hope you enjoy her take on our June Challenge and do please visit her Blog which is linked below, and also our social media channels to watch the Guest Designer video! 


My name is Jo and I live by the sea in the North West of England with my hubby. I started Art Journaling in 2015 as a way of expressing my life through words and pictures and I’m captivated by the variety of techniques and materials that can be used to create so many different styles of art. My pages are inspired by what I see, do, feel and hear so it’s personal to me and allows me to express myself, it’s a fun way to record life events and memories too. Over the years my passion for art has expanded to making cards and tags, especially for my family and friends as well as decorations and items for around the house. I love nothing better than to experiment with different techniques and products, get creative, put my ideas into practice and have lots of fun doing so! This has now become a passion of mine and I’d like to share it with you.

Social Media links:



Q & A with Jo

How long have you been art journalling?

I started Art Journaling in 2015 as a way of expressing my life through words and pictures and I’m captivated by the variety of techniques and materials that can be used to create so many different styles of art. My pages are inspired by what I see, do, feel and hear so it’s personal to me and allows me to express myself, it’s a fun way to record life events and memories too.

What's your favourite colour palette to use?

My favourite colour palette is aqua and blues; ranging from light blue to turquoise to midnight blue. I find this palette calming and relaxing, and I’m drawn to it because they are colours from nature, being found in the sky and sea.

What is your favourite supply or product?

For me there are no rules to art journalling, so anything goes and my supplies are quite eclectic as I love everything Mixed Media. It's hard to choose a favourite product, but it would probably be white gesso because it’s great for pristine white backgrounds, to prime the page for paints/inks so making the page bleed-proof, it can be also used as a resist and possibly my favourite use is to just cover up any mistakes that I make (so it’s my “best friend” too – smile!).

Why do you enter art challenges?

I love entering art challenges because they provide inspiration for my pages, they are a great way to meet and chat to like minded-people, they help me learn new techniques and products, they are a wonderful way to make and also stay in touch with crafty friends, and of course they are great fun!



Jo's Interpretation of our June Challenge



Jo says:  I found it hard to get started with the subject matter of Art Supplies. Of course, they are the materials and products used to create an art journal page, but there is also something that the artist brings, so for my Art Supply list I included:

1. Inspiration that sparks your imagination to create the page in the first place.
2. Materials used for art journalling.
3. Creativity by being open-minded, experimenting and trying new things.
4. Bravery, especially when things go wrong. I’ve learnt that my pages are never perfect and I often have “happy accidents” and that's ok (smile!).


Inspiration also came from an old magazine image of a lady in a yoga pose holding art supplies (such a happy coincidence – yay!); it features as part of my design because art journalling is my happy place helping me to relax and find balance. This image then influenced the colour palette for my page.

To create my page, I covered the background using Villainous Potion and Salvage Patina Distress Paints and some Pébéo white gesso and then I used a brayer to disperse the paint colours. I splattered Distress paints over the top and left it to dry. The central image was fussy cut from an old magazine and I die cut the scalloped circle from some paper scraps and like all the paper pieces were stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. The gold lettering was die cut from some gold foiled cardstock using an Alphanumeric Script Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. 
Once arranged on the page, I added shadows using a Violet Derwent Inktense pencil and a gold Uniball gel pen to make them stand out more. I arranged lots of motivational wording, which were from a Small Talk sticker book by Tim Holtz, in a sunburst pattern around the central image and I edged them with the gold gel pen. Then to finish, I splattered the whole page with black DecoArt acrylic paint.


Thank you Jo for sharing your beautiful journal page with us. We really loved seeing your take on the challenge this month.  

 We hope Jo's fantastic take on our challenge theme inspires you to enter the June challenge!

Here's a reminder of our current Challenge:


Don't forget that you can find all of our challenge details and extra information, as well as Jo's published interview in our magazine Artful Pages.  Enter the challenge on the blog, Instagram or our Facebook group.  All links are on the sidebar!

10 June, 2023

ARTFUL PAGES MAGAZINE - June 2023 Issue

 The June issue of our magazine has been published and is now available to read online. (Apologies for the delay, we are having some on-going technical problems!)  Just click on the large cover below to reveal the navigation panel, and use it to move back and forth through the magazine.



ARTFUL PAGES JUNE 2023 by EOTC

01 June, 2023

ART SUPPLIES June 2023 Art Journal Challenge

 


Hello everyone, and welcome to our June challenge! This month, our challenge is all about something that is very dear to all of us - ART SUPPLIES! There can never been too many art supplies - right? Choose some of your favourite art supplies to create your page/s and don't forget to tell us what you used. You can find our challenge details below as well as links to the latest issue of our digital magazine - Artful Pages - more details below.

Art Supplies

Let's take a look at this month's art journal challenge! We have simplified the challenges this year and the challenge no longer has two parts. Instead we have one main theme to inspire you and this month it's all about ART SUPPLIES. Feel free to interpret the theme in any way that speaks to you!
#MTWartjournalchallenge



Artful Pages June 2023


As mentioned at the top of the post, we are excited to share the latest issue of our new digital magazine - Artful Pages - which is a new way of looking at our challenges and inspiration, as well as being able to add more value for our readers which we are not able to do in our current formats.  So here's a look at our latest issue which is available to flick through online just like a real magazine.  The magazine contains more about our challenge this month, our Design Team inspiration,Guest Designer interviews, and more!  Check it out and see for yourself - we would love your feedback! 


Design Team Inspiration

Let's see what our lovely Design Team have created this month. If you love their projects, please visit their social links, like or follow them on your favourite social media.

ANN CHUANG

I used Palette Collage Paper by Tim and Brushes and Carte Postale stamp sets by AALL & CREATE to make this Art Journal page. I always think there is no right or wrong in art, just "Express yourself with art".


Visit Ann:  
BLOG - FACEBOOK - PINTEREST - INSTAGRAM



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ELLE - EOTC


Oh art supplies how do I love thee!  This was a tricky challenge for me simply because I couldn't decide what art supplies to use for it haha.  In the end I chose my beloved Neocolour IIs to create a colourful swatch background around a drawing of a whimsical girl inspired by those in Jane Davenport's drawing books.  Jane herself is a huge lover of art supplies and often claims to have "rainbow-itis" and has to have one in every colour.  So in honour of Jane, I used lots of colour and also one of her stickers which reads "there is no such thing as too many supplies". This is such a fun challenge for playing with and experimenting with some of your own art supplies. I'm already itching to pull out more supplies and make more pages!
Visit Elle:  BLOG - FACEBOOK -  INSTAGRAM



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HEATHER MCMAHON


This challenge was a no-brainer for me! "I love ArtStacks" (Eye heart ArtStacks) pulls together multiple ArtStacks images and papers from a range of packs. 
The translucent paper on the background is a fave!

Visit Heather:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - PINTEREST - INSTAGRAM



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HEIDI MATTESSICH


Hello, my name is Heidi and I'm addicted to art supplies...
This was a fun page to make. I collaged some papers for the background and then added some pink distress inks and stenciling. I glued the girl image, shopping bag and title, then finished with some doodles. I created the art supplies out of toothpicks and rolled paper 


Visit Heidi:  BLOG - INSTAGRAM -  YOUTUBE 



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KAT PALECZNY
Visit Kat:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE



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KOUNELI


Seeing the theme of this month it was obvious for me to present to you "my essentials".
I made my background with spray inks and created my montage with the masking technique to avoid having too much thickness on my page.  I coloured in with my alcohol inks.

Visit Kouneli:   FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM



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LENA BLANKENSTEIN HOLMSTROM

Art for me is not a hobby it's a way of life. I love to paint with my fingers and thats why i need more paint all the time. 

Visit Lena:   BLOG - FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM - PINTEREST - YOUTUBE




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LISA OXLEY



Visit Lisa:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE



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MATILDE FAB


My favourite art supplies are first of all stamps and stencils. I love using distress inks, sprays and texture paste as well. They always look great together. And I agree with the statement - "the world of imagination is boundless". You could have only a few art supplies and create something really beautiful. 

Visit Matilde:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE



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RACHEL MARTIN

This month, I wanted to bring together my favorite arts supplies. So I used my favorite brayer, distress oxides, stencils and stamps. Choosing was not easy! When you are a real art lover, all your art supplies are essential!

Visit Rachel:  INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE



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SHARON FRITCHMAN
I loved creating this art journal page about color because without it, there would be no art! I loved using my favorite art supplies: stencils, inks, stamps, stickers and die cut ephemera! And I especially liked creating with my favorite ArtStacks images from Tamara Laporte's Artist Series packs.

Visit Sharon:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - PINTEREST - INSTAGRAM



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SUNILA MAHAJAN



For this challenge I was inspired to use my happy colours and my favourite art supplies. I’ve poured love for mixed media art journaling on this page! With rich layers, textures and vibrant colours, this sure shouts my happy place.

Visit Sunila:  FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM


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Prizes & Special Guest Designers


This year we are very happy to welcome ArtStacks Designs as our prize sponsor. 


 ArtStacks will be donating one of their fabulous DigiStacks to the overall winner of each of our challenges this year.  This will be a digital prize of one DigiStack to be downloaded from their online shop. 
(This prize is not transferable or exchangeable for non-digital products.)  

In addition, one or more participants, handpicked by our team, may be invited to be our Special Guest Designers, to be featured on our blog and promoted in our magazine and social media.


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Engage with us!

Tell us what you think in the comments below!  Please leave your comments at the end of this post.  
Are you entering the challenge?  
Do you feel inspired by our fabulous DT this month?
Did you enjoy our new magazine?


Challenge closes on the last day of the month at 11:59 pm EST.  


Enter in our Facebook Group, using this month's Challenge Album!  

Enter on Instagram by tagging us and using the hashtag: #MTWartjournalchallenge


 Or enter below...