Rachel Jefferies DEC 2019 Mixed Media Challenge + Nov winners! ** CLOSED**

January 1, 2020 - This challenge is now **CLOSED**
Winners will be announced shortly. Thank you all for participating.

Happy December, everyone! I am hosting Rachel’s challenge this month.

Here are the November winners for the challenge hosted by Ferdy:

The winners drawn at random are . . . .
$10 coupon goes to @wvsandy
$6 coupon goes to @flowersgal
- Your coupons will be delivered to you ASAP! Congratulations and happy shopping!!!

I just loved seeing all of the layouts for our November challenge. I love to journal, and while I don’t do it all of the time, hidden journaling allows me to vent and not have it obvious to the reader. I also find that it adds texture to my art journal page.

And now on to our current December challenge:
December is always a colorful time of the year with holiday lights, decorations, etc. But for this challenge, I am asking you to go monochrome. While monochrome can be defined as shades of any color, I want you to produce a black/white/gray page. Remember, if you select a paper or an element that has a color or tint to it, you can desaturate it to give it that wonderful black & white effect. Your layout can include a photo or not, a photo is optional. But the papers and elements and photo(s) you chose MUST be in shades of black & white. There is one caveat. You MUST also include one element and only ONE element that is either red OR green, not both.

In my layout below, I started out with a paper from Rachel’s “My Dec Art Journal No.1” collection, https://the-lilypad.com/store/My-December-Art-Journal-No-1-Misc-Paperie.html, part of the DYD 2019 Holly Jolly designer collab. The paper was exactly what I was looking for, monochrome, with some paint and stamping on the outside edges. I did apply a levels adjustment to it to brighten some areas and darken others so as not to compete with my dear deer.

I then chose my photo, full sized, covering Rachel’s paper. I desaturated it with a black & white adjustment layer as well, but I blended my photo with DARKEN into the paper layer below so that the inks and texture of Rachel’s paper could shine through. Once I was happy with how the photo & paper looked together, I began adding my elements and marks and paints in black and white. I selected ONE element that was GREEN and added it to my cluster. I added some word art and a date, and that adorable partridge stamp from Rachel’s Wintery Stamps (also from the “My Dec Art Journal No.1 collection) https://the-lilypad.com/store/My-December-Art-Journal-No.1-Wintry-Stamps.html. And I called my page done. Full credits are in my gallery.

Rachel has a myriad of marks that are perfect for this challenge. If for some reason they are in color, you can choose to desaturate them or apply a color overlay. I have a few other hints for you.

* If you have an element that is gray or paler than what you’d like to see, duplicate the layer and change the blend mode of the top layer of the element. I find that MULTIPLY often is all I need to enhance the color. I did this with the hearts beneath my deer’s hooves.

* If you have an element that is black, yet you want it white, or vice versa, an easy approach to it is to apply an INVERT adjustment layer (non-destructive) or simply select the element in your layers panel and hit COMMAND/I (for the MAC) or CTRL/I (for the PC) to invert. To bring it back to its original state, simply hit COMMAND/I or CTRL/I again, it toggles between the two.

* Don’t be afraid to rotate or invert your paper. Sometimes just the right effect may be in transforming it vertically or horizontally or anywhere in between.

Here is my layout, click on it to see the complete credits:


and a few other layout examples from Rachel's CT:

From Carmel, aka @caapmun , a wonderful winter scene...
She used: Alpine: Inky Stencils
Alpine: Stamps, Splats & Snippets
Fa La La La La: Stamps and Brushes
Fa La La La La: Elements
Fa La La La La: Papers



Here is one from Karen aka @KarenB with her adorable pup, Poppy. I am in love with the perspective of that photo.



Lisa aka @ArmyGrl created this beauty. She used Rachel's portion of the M3 OCT 2019 Main Kit. The red flower is from Falalalala.



And here is one from Rachel @Rachel Jefferies herself. She is in love with her end result. She commented:

"I used mostly black and white items and papers but I did re-colour some elements using a colour overlay effect and also added curve adjustment. I also blended papers together to achieve clustered collage around my photo and I adjusted black and white in some parts of the paper using curve and level adjustments and also selective colour adjustments. I also separated some shadow effects onto their own layers for some elements to warp them."

Products used :
Holly Jolly Template 2
Fear Not: Collage & Gesso Paperie
Messy Marks: Date Stamps 2018
Fear Not: Collage Bits and Bobs
Mixed Media Monthly: Be(e) / Adaptable / Thrive - July '19



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Challenge Requirements:
· Where possible challenge layouts must use 100% of Rachel Jefferies Designs currently available in the TLP store (Collaborations including my Mixed Media Monthly Subscription Kits and Add Ons are also ok!). The exception to this is retired products that were previously for sale at TLP which can be used. A few elements here or there from other products that were previously available prior to Rachel's retirement or freebies may also be used.

· Upload your layout to the Rachel Jefferies Designs Gallery at TLP.

· For your challenge entry to be counted, you MUST reply to this thread with your finished layout. Please link your thread layout to your gallery.

· I'd like to see brand new pages, so no double-dipping with other challenges .

· The challenge will be open through December 31 at which time a random participant will win a $10 coupon to Rachel's shop. The winner will be announced when January’s challenge is posted.

New Release bonus entries
It feels great to scrap with fresh new releases, if you are scrapping with a product released during December 2019 (either a new release or a SOSN release) you'll get yourself a bonus entry for another chance to win a coupon should you not be the $10 coupon winner. One winner from the bonus entries will be picked from random to win a $6 coupon to Rachel's shop.

**It would be helpful when posting your page in this thread that you note you are eligible for the New Release Bonus Entry. Please post which December 2019 New Release (or December SOSN release) you used. This would make it faster for me cross checking all the entries when making the random draw for winners!

Any questions just tag @mcurtt and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I am so looking forward to seeing what you all create this month. Happy scrapping! -Marilyn

 

@SharLamb The true spirit of the challenge is to use an element. But I will allow it if you did some selective, concentrated coloring, as long as it is either RED or GREEN and not scattered throughout your photo. Thanks for asking.

 

Great pages everyone! @tammybean004 looking forward to what you create.