Artful Pages - August Submissions

 Artful Pages is currently published monthly and is open to submissions from all our members who wish to share their artwork/photos with our magazine readers.

For our forthcoming August issue we are particularly interested in seeing photos of the following :

OUTDOOR CRAFTING - art journalling outside, art journals in the wild, in nature etc, other crafts that you may be doing outside this month (deadline 23 July 2022)

STUDIO SPACES - photos of your own studio, craft room, art space, dining table, wherever you create. Summer in the northern hemisphere might also mean you are crafting outside! (deadline 23 July 2022)

All photos must be your own and be free to use in our magazine with credit given. No need to create a new project for this, just take photos of existing projects and/or your studio setup.

If your photo is chosen it may appear in the August issue or we may use it in a future issue if it is more suited or due to large volume of submissions on one theme.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Send your photos with descriptions, your name, and instagram handle (if you have one) to mtwchallenge [at]hotmail [dot] com

Photos should be square and smaller than 2048 x 2048px.

Hotmail has attachment limits and your email may not be received if you add too many attachments or exceed the file size limit. The magazine is digital only so hi-res print quality is not necessary at this time.

We will contact you to let you know if your photo is going to be published in the magazine.

We cant wait to see what you create!

Special Guest Spotlight on SUNILA MAHAJAN

This Hello everyone! Hope you are having a fabulous weekend doing something arty!

This month, we are very pleased to feature Sunila Mahajan as our second Guest Designer for July.  Sunila was one of our February 2022 winners and is also now one of our new Design Team! 

We invite you to get to know Sunila a little better through her interview below.  Please also visit her social links which are listed in her Artist Bio.

Artist Bio 

Hello everyone, my name is Sunila Mahajan, and I live in Bangalore, India. I was born and brought up in Nairobi Kenya, and moved to India after I got married. This has given me the opportunity to have experienced two different worlds, cultures and though process, and unite them in one.  Alongside Painting, I developed a liking to Mixed Media, and have been doing that for about 9 years.  I am an artist who paints from the heart and this is conveyed in my work. Texture and rich colour are my style.

 I enjoy using mixed media mediums- inks, pigments, stencils, stamps and textures creating one cohesive whole. I now enjoy creating art journal pages because they give me the freedom to play with colours, try out techniques, and still piece it all together as a single story. Apart from that, I enjoy creating cards, tags, scrapbook layouts, home décor, altered art and paper crafting.   I enjoy creating and inspiring those around me and I hope I’m able to do the same here too.

  

FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM

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Q & A with Sunila

How long have you been art journalling?

I’ve been art journaling ever since I began my mixed media journey. So that would be 8-9 Years.


Are you inspired by a particular artist or artists, if so, who?

I would say my fellow artists always inspire me. People here on the team, and other mixed media artists like Nuneka, Tracy Hickman, Natalie Horlacher, Natasha Pfiffner Vacca, Asia Marquet are some of my favourites.

What is your favourite type of art supply or product?  

My favourite art journaling products would be Lindy’s Magicals and Sprays.

What's your favourite colour palette to use? 

It’s hard to pick a favourite colour palette, it depends on my mood and if I have a challenge in mind I create for. So I pick my colours according to that.

And finally, why do you enter art challenges?

Oh I love entering set challenges! They always inspire me and give me a starting point to creating. They help me churn my juices and play on the pages experimenting and exploring. I also feel they help me evolve as an artist in my journey.

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Sunila's Interpretation of our July Main Challenge

'Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters', this quote inspired me to create this page. I was inspired by the idea of time and the time it takes for a butterfly to become one.

The whole process is so wonderful, isn't it? 

I've used watercolour technique on my page, to colours the page and the elements with my favourite Lindy's.

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Thank you Sunila for sharing this beautifully watercoloured art journal page with us!  We hope that Sunila's take on the Main Challenge inspires you to enter this month.

Here's a reminder of our current Main Challenge which you can enter here on the blog, in our Facebook group or on Instagram:

Don't forget that you can find all of our challenge details and extra information, as well as Sunila's published interview in our new magazine Artful Pages.

Special Guest Spotlight on RACHEL MARTIN

Hello everyone! Hope you are having a fabulous weekend doing something arty!

This month, we are very pleased to feature Rachel Martin as our first Guest Designer for July.  Rachel was one of our March 2022 winners and is also now one of our new Design Team! 

We invite you to get to know Rachel a little better through her interview below.  Please also visit her social links which are listed in her Artist Bio.

Artist Bio 

Hi, my name is Rachel, but I am also known by the artist name of "La p'tite Barbouilleuse".  I am an artist who is passionate about art journals. However, I also do cards and scrapbooking.  I work as a teacher of disabled children, I love playing with words in my creations. I’m part of Scrapbook Art et Passion DT also.   

INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE

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Q & A with Rachel

How long have you been art journalling?

I've been doing Art journaling since January 2021. I've been doing it almost every day since I got into it!

Are you inspired by a particular artist or artists, if so who?

One of my favorite artists is definitely Dina Wakley. I admire not only her art but also her philosophy of life. She inspired me with the pages of Art journal of which I am very proud.

What is your favourite type of art supply or product?  

I really use a lot of varied material, but I admit that I can't do without my stencil collection! I have all kinds, and I like to mix them to produce surprising effects.

What's your favourite colour palette to use? 

I can't live without turquoise. I find it to be a go-anywhere color that blends easily and blends into different palettes.

And finally, why do you enter art challenges?

I find that creative challenges are a way of surpassing myself and taking me elsewhere. they allow me to explore different emotional avenues within me.

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Rachel's Interpretation of our July Main Challenge

When I think of "Watercolor" I automatically think of Lindy's magical powders. So I used them to highlight the background texture of the page made with structure paste through a stencil.

I had this inspiring phrase that told me that life was wonderful even if it was imperfect. It inspired me that you can't quantify happiness. So I used numbers all over the place to play with the concept. 

Life is represented by the funny, rather serious gentleman. The imperfection is represented by the foliage which goes in all directions.

Finally, I added the small acetate butterflies to represent the wonderful aspect of life. The result makes me laugh and smile!

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Thank you Rachel for sharing this wonderfully textured art journal page with us!  We hope that Rachel's take on the Main Challenge inspires you to enter this month.

Here's a reminder of our current Main Challenge which you can enter here on the blog, in our Facebook group or on Instagram:

Don't forget that you can find all of our challenge details and extra information, as well as Rachel's published interview in our new magazine Artful Pages.

Announcing Our June 2022 Winners

 Hello everyone and a big thank you to all who entered our June challenges to celebrate 150 challenges with us!

There were so many wonderful entries and we enjoyed seeing them all and of course we also enjoyed creating projects for our special 150th challenge!  Thank you also to the Design Team for all of your amazing inspiration.  And now let's take a look at our winners for June...  

 

>>MAIN CHALLENGE WINNERS<<

We have THREE winners for the Main Challenge.  In addition, we would like to invite our Main challenge winners to be Guest Designers in a future challenge.  Please see the end of the post for more details.

Thank you all for entering your wonderful projects!

Regional Challenge Winner 

Marina Smn - Argentina

Congratulations Marina, you have won one of our special 150th Challenge Prize Packs.  To receive your prize pack, please contact us before 15th July 2022, by sending us a message via More Than Words Facebook Page or by leaving a comment with your contact details below and we will get back to you (your details are safe as the comment will not be published and will be deleted after we have read it)

Regional Challenge Winner

 

Marjut - Finland

Congratulations Marjut, you have won one of our special 150th Challenge Prize Packs.  To receive your prize pack, please contact us before 15th July 2022, by sending us a message via More Than Words Facebook Page or by leaving a comment with your contact details below and we will get back to you (your details are safe as the comment will not be published and will be deleted after we have read it)

Regional Challenge Winner

Senna - Germany

Congratulations Senna, you have won one of our special 150th Challenge Prize Packs.  To receive your prize pack, please contact us before 15th July 2022, by sending us a message via More Than Words Facebook Page or by leaving a comment with your contact details below and we will get back to you (your details are safe as the comment will not be published and will be deleted after we have read it)

>>MINI CHALLENGE WINNERS<<

As this challenge is now held in our Facebook Group, the links below will take you to the group, if you wish to view more photos.

Thank you for entering your wonderful mini projects this month!

Mini Challenge Winner

Amy Voorthuis - Netherlands

Congratulations Amy, you have won one of our special 150th Challenge Prize Packs.  To receive your prize pack, please contact us before 15th July 2022, by sending us a message via More Than Words Facebook Page or by leaving a comment with your contact details below and we will get back to you (your details are safe as the comment will not be published and will be deleted after we have read it.)

Congratulations to all our winners

Congrats once again to all our winners and thank you to everyone who entered the challenge. We encourage all merit winners and runners-up to grab your badges from this post and proudly display it on your blog or social media. 

*** Be Our Special Guest Designer ***

We would like to invite all of this month's winners to be Guest Designers in a future challenge.  If you are interested, please leave a comment below with your contact details and we will get in touch (your details are safe as the comment will not be published and will be deleted after we have read it).  Alternately, send us a message us via More Than Words Facebook Page

July 2022 Mini Challenge - JOY

 

Hi Mini Challenge lovers! Welcome to this month's Mini Challenge in its new earlier spot! We want to give more love to the Mini Challenge as it was feeling a little sidelined by the Main Challenge. So from now on the Mini will run for three weeks which will give you even more time to enter!

Here are the challenge details!

Word inspiration: Add the word JOY on your mini projects. We need to see the actual word JOY on your postcards, cards, tags and ATCs.

 HOW TO ENTER:  You can enter our Mini Challenge in our private  Art Cafe Facebook Group where you can now enter your project in the relevant album. Please make sure to add your project to the album so that we don't miss it when it comes to picking our winners!  

Or starting from this month, you can enter on Instagram by tagging us and using the hashtags: #mtwminijoy and #mtwminichallenge.  

Also please remember to add your country to your entry!  

As mentioned at the beginning of the month, we are excited to announce our new 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 very first issue which is available to flick through online just like a real magazine.  The magazine contains more about our challenges this month, more info about our new Design Team - plus DT inspiration, Guest Designer interviews, and more!  Check it out and see for yourself - we would love your feedback!

Let's see what our lovely new Design Team have created this month...

ANN CHUANG

Ann says:  Joy reminds me of Christmas. I really like the atmosphere of Christmas, full of warmth and gratitude.


Visit Ann:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - PINTEREST - INSTAGRAM

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ELLE - EOTC

Elle says:  I've been thinking a lot about joy lately.  Joy can be found in ordinary things but sometimes we forget this.  My tag is watercoloured uisng QOR watercolours which are super bright and happy colours.

Visit Elle:  BLOG - FACEBOOK -  INSTAGRAM

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HEATHER MCMAHON

Visit Heather:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - PINTEREST - INSTAGRAM

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HELEN HOLLINGER

Visit Helen:  BLOG - FACEBOOK -  INSTAGRAM 

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MATILDE FAB

Matilde says:  "Joy is not in things, it's in us" - the best definition of joy in my opinion. 

Visit Matilde:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE

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RACHEL MARTIN

Rachel says:  The word JOY for me represents a state of calm, zen and abundance. So I played around with these A.B. Studio cutouts to make this cute tag.

Visit Rachel:  INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE

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ROX BOYCE

Rox says:  Joy for me is in the creating and spending time in creative play. I painted a watercolour background used some of Lisa Oxley fabulous paper as well as ArtStacks tissue paper hand and some vintage sheet music which I typed a quote on.

Visit Rox: INSTAGRAM

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SHARON FRITCHMAN

Sharon says:  When I think of JOY, I think of art. For me that can be enjoying someone else's art or creating it myself. I used Deb Weiers' Wonky Faces and Wonky Backgrounds packs from ArtStacks to make my tag. I LOVE her quote!

Visit Sharon:  BLOG - FACEBOOK - PINTEREST - INSTAGRAM

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SUNILA MAHAJAN

Sunila says:  Galaxies always bring me joy, being lost in time and space has a way of bringing out the inner joy! For the mini challenge I decided to create a set of 2 ATC coins inspired by the galaxies.

Visit Sunila:  FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM

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How to enter

The Mini Challenge runs in our Facebook group from today until the end of the month.

Or starting from this month, you can enter on Instagram by tagging us and using the hashtags: #mtwminijoy and #mtwminichallenge.  

Enter your cards, tags, ATCs and postcards ONLY!

You MUST include the challenge word on your project! 

*ATCs. or Artist Trading Cards, are small works of art,

about 2.5 by 3.5 inches or 64 x 89 mm.

Please remember to add your country to your entry!

You have until the last day of the month - to enter, so be quick!

Please read the rules before entering.

As previously mentioned in the Art Café Facebook Group, we have suspended all prizes until further notice due to the current world situation.

Special Guest Designer

One participant, handpicked by our Admin team, may be invited to be our Special Guest Designer.

Join our Facebook Group

Our Facebook group is now open!  Just click here to join our Facebook group! or visit our Facebook page to join.

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Google has made the decision to retire this feature, and so the Feedburner subscribe by email option is going away.  If you are already subscribing to our blog updates by email, don't worry as we have moved everything to a new service, so you won't miss any updates!  If you are not currently receiving our blog updates by email and you would like to, please click on the link below, to make that happen.   

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Engage with us!

Tell us what you think in the comments below!  Are you entering the challenge?