Winners, New Fun Activities & COLOR!!!

WINNERS, WOO HOO!!!

This week, I'm excited to announce 4 fabulous winners!

Who's the Cutest in the Studio?! Why, Gigi, of course! Over 450 of you voted and Gigi was the clear winner! A big congrats to Genevieve Garrett who wins a $25 gift certificate to ARTchix!

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Bruno picked the lucky winner of my charm necklace (that I made to honor International Charm Day)....Christina Jackson! Hooray! : )

ARTchix supplies used: Inchie Kit, Mini Dice Bead

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Inca picked the winner for our Altered Clothespins Art Lottery: Betsy McGeary!

Attn all altered clothespin participants: please email Gillian so that she can give you Betsy's mailing address. Betsy wins all of the gorgeous altered clothespins made by our talented artists! Fantastic!

ARTchix supplies used: ATC Inspirations

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MoMo picked the winner of my Blog Art Challenge (make a monochromatic twinchie). She gobbled down the treat with Cindy McMath's name! Congrats Cindy, you win a $25 gift certificate to ARTchix!

ARTchix supplies used: Turquoise Decorative Papers, Sea ATC Kit

A round of applause for this week's fabulous winners!

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NEW FUN ACTIVITIES, OH YEAH!

Stretch your creative wings and jump into our new, fun contests and activities!

NEW Photo Contest: What's Blooming in Your Neighborhood? Submit up to 3 photos by May 17th. Post them to the wall of our Facebook Fan Page or email them to Gillian and she will post them for you.

You could win....

WIN this gorgeous, flower-themed gift pack!!! One of my kitties will randomly pick the winner for our photo contest. Check out the gorgeous art supplies you could win: Pretty Pink Flowers, Gorgeous Green Nature, Green World, Passion for Pink, Raspberry and Green Metal Roses and Pink Symbols. Wow!

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NEW Art Lottery: Make a decorated envelope inspired by this card (randomly chosen from our new Art Bingo). Post your envelope to the wall of our Facebook Fan Page or email it to Gillian and she will post it for you. Deadline is May 17th. One of my kitties will pick the lucky winner.

Here is the envelope that I made for this art lottery. I was inspired by the beautiful colors of the Art Bingo Card. So, I made a background by painting on white gesso and adding watercolors in red, orange and yellow. Then I glued on cool matchbox labels from our Red Hot sheet in a grid-like fashion. Then I added red roses and butterflies from our Blooms and Butterflies sheet. And lastly added Handy Red Labels.

As a bonus, I'm including an Art Bingo game for the winner of this Art Lottery. PLUS, some fun stickers! Think about including some fun stickers to share in your envelope. : )

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Next Up on Our Trip Around the Color Wheel: Complimentary Colors!

Bruno hops in to show us my favorite set of complimentary colors: green and pink.

If you don't have a color wheel, I'd recommending buying one at Michaels or your local art store. They're so handy to have. You can also search for color wheels online and tons will pop up. 

This week, we're exploring complimentary colors. If you want the most pop and excitement in your artwork, complimentary colors are perfect for you. If you study a color wheel, complimentary colors are exact opposite from eachother. Here's the general list of complimentary colors:

red and green (also pink and green)

orange and blue (also brown and blue)

yellow and purple

For this online class, I'd recommend a spiral bound notebook with watercolor paper. My favorite is from Michaels (Strathmore Watercolor Cold Press, 9" x 12", 140 lb. 12 pages). It's a great size to work in. But you can use anything that you have laying around the house. : )

Ready to play?!!

First, pick 2 complimentary colors. I'm picking magenta and lime green. Go through your art supplies and pull out pens, paints, stamp pads, etc. in the 2 complimentary colors you've chosen. Be sure to dig deep and find those hidden paints that you never use. lol. Now, PLAY. Scribble. Slap that paint on. Don't worry about if you're doing it right or wrong. Just experiment and have fun.

I had a blast listening to music and playing with my different pens and paints in my favorite colors.

Now it's time to make a sample board. This will be so helpful to have on hand. Next time you're wondering what background to do or where to start, you can refer to this and let it guide your way.

You can choose to make your sample board in any way you'd like. But here's how I made mine. I traced around the monochromatic twinchie (2" collage) that I made last week. This gave me some nice squares to fill in.

Next, I looked at the 2 pages where I scribbled and threw the paint around. I picked an assortment of pens, crayons and paints that I ended up liking the best. And I made little samples using them here. I added notes on what I used too.

For my magenta samples, I've got a few new favorites: Golden Fluid Acrylics and the stars are a stamp using a dye ink pad (I dabbed a wet paintbrush on the stars and they bled to make this pattern...love it!)

For my green samples, I'm now in love with watersoluable oil pastels and Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils. Beautiful, vibrant colors!

You can see that I've also added the twinchies that I made last week and this week. Which brings me to your Art Challenge for this week....

NEW Art Challenge: Make a twinchie (2" square collage) with complimentary colors.
Post your twinchie online (your blog, website, etc), the wall of the Facebook ARTchix Studio Fan Page OR email me with your twinchie.

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: Monday, May 10, 2010

Prizes: My cute kitties will randomly pick a winner to receive a $20 gift certificate to ARTchix Studio.

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NEW CLASSES, HOORAY!

Our fabulous Tag Art Swap is in full swing! Deadline is postmark May 17th so you've still got a bit of time. Just to get you inspired...howza about a quick class on Tag Collage?!

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Happy Cinco de Mayo! In honor of this special day, we're pleased to present a fun class featuring our DreamBoxes (aka nichos) that are handmade for us in Mexico. Shannon Sawyer shows us how to art them up beautifully with alcohol inks. 

I'm working on these 2 new classes and will have them up for your viewing pleasure in a bit. : )

Comments

[francine vorbeck]

Hello Helga, I have been following you for quite some time and I love your blog. Everything is so colorful. I would love it if you would visit mine and leave a comment or follow me at
www.Exclusivelyoursdesigns.blogspot.com
Thank so much!

[Cynnie]

Winners Woo Hoo....more like Booo Hooooo....ok ok ,,,I´ve dried my eyes,,,honestly I will be ok...and besides your post has cheered me up enormously!!! Love my dose of kute kittysssss....especially Bruno posing by the pink and green....
the complimentary color exercise is fun, fun, fun....I know what I will be doing in the old studio today....also the great dose of vibrant colors and funky artwork..........always fun and excitement when I open your post!!! Thanks for the inspiration,,,,,,,,,,,even though I don´t have a funky,fun,cool charm to wear to artclass :)

[Becky Benight]

**CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS** to all the winners!!! YAY for all of you!! And, Helga, What a *DeLiGhTfUl* ****BLOG**** And YES!! THANK YOU for the *InSpIrAtIoN*!!! :-) What a JOY to check out your BLOG and FACEBOOK!!! LOVE it!!!

[Claire Selby]

Here's my Complimentary colored Twinchie Blue and Orange red

http://www.pinkdilla.com/artwork/another-twinchie-and-a-little-sketch

[Peg Englishman]

Had to join in on this fun challenge. I chose red & yellow. I posted mine to the facebook page. hugs to you Helga, Peg E.:)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=204874&id=163793896653

[Nicole Kohmescher]

Here is the link to my complimentary colors twinchie. I had a lot of fun with it!

http://nicoledara.blogspot.com/2010/05/party-on-mr-pisces.html

[Cindy McMath]

First, thanks so much MoMo (and Helga!) for picking my name for the monochromatic twinchie challenge - woo hoo!

I have uploaded my complimentary colours twinchie to my blog. I used blue & orange - thanks for another fun challenge!

Cindy :)

[Peg]

Hi Helga,
I made a new twinchie and followed your instructions this time, lol:)

here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/artchixstudio?ref=ts

[Cathy Peper]

This is fun! I'm enjoying the color challenges. I posted my twinchie to my blog here: http://corner-cathy.blogspot.com/2010/05/complementary-color-twinchie.html.

[Lenna Andrews]

Helga, I think I just made it. It is still Monday, may 10th!!
http://creativelenna.blogspot.com/2010/05/complimentary-colors-twinchie-challenge.html

: ))))))) lenna