spead the joy and craft happy!

hello everyone!

How's your summer going?  Soggy toes or sunshine where you are? 

Over the next few weeks we're going to be having some "craft happy!" moments here at ASOI HQ. Which basically means HUGE...   hang on... i meant 

HUGE!

reductions in prices on selected products. 

So keep an eye out! 

Our first range selected for Craft Happy... *drumroll*  .... 

This is collection is a personal favourite of mine,  I love all those fab colours! remind me of my Grandma's old curtains (that's a good thing I should add!) 

So with papers 50% off its well worth a look!

Be back soon with some more Craft Happy Moments...  

keep an eye on our Facebook page too for news of new offers. 

We have lots in the pipeline!

Happy Creating !

Vicki 

12 Brands of Christmas *Brand 12* Glitz Design

Day 24 and and we're coming to the end of our Designers and Brands. On this Christmas Eve I'm bringing you the fantastic Glitz Design.

I am a huge fan of the Glitz collections. They're amazing value for money with papers, stickers, alphabet sheets all co-ordinating, then there's the washi tape, the embellishments and vintage papers too so there's something for every taste.

One of my favourite collections is the Finnley collection

I used it here to create the cover for a Christmas journal but of course the beauty of this collection is that it can be used for so much more than just Christmas.

 I also loved working with the Yours Truly collection which has a gorgeous vintage feel to it,

and the Uncharted Waters collection is so fresh and summery,

Thank you for joining us on this amazing collection of inspiring blog posts. I hope you've enjoyed it. Don't forget that if you leave a comment on all of the Designers blogs you have the chance to win an amazing package of goodies, just perfect for after Christmas crafting. The winner will be announced on 12th Night (6th January) to keep up the 12 theme.

Have a fabulous Christmas Eve and don't forget to leave a mince pie and a little drink for Santa.

Jaine x

Ti Amo!!

Don't you just love a short cut!! I'm back with another quick card this week altho, at first glance it probably doesn't look like a quick card!!

I love creating my own backgrounds, getting out the gesso, paints, spray inks, texture paste, the lot!

Sometimes however, it's nice to get a little help to acheive that look you might have planned in your head.. especially if time is short! Want to know how?

For the background of this card I have used an already inky piece of patterned scrapbook paper from Glitz Design. I used a 6x6 sheet from the Wild & Free pad. These papers are scaled down versions of the larger 12x12 size and are perfect for card making.

I used a selection of my favourite stamps from Stampotique Originals and some of my favourite ink pads. The choice is yours for the taking...

Here is my quick background...

Next, I stamped my main images and sentiment onto watercolour cardstock. I decided to colour the images this week using Distress Inks and a fine paint brush.

All that was left then was to add some finishing touches using a white Sakura Gelly Roll Pen.

My finished card...

Thank you for calling. Wishing you a lovely weekend. Gez

Summer in the City.

I love love love the colours in this months challenge, see them here.

When I was going through my stash to see what I had to match the colours I was pleasantly surprised to find this sheet of paper from Echo Park in my collection called Bokeh Blur. It's part of the Capture Life range and as soon as I saw it I had the perfect photo to create a layout with.

The stickers all come from the Finnley collection from Glitz and blended in wonderfully.

 There's plenty of time to enter the challenge which closes on the 12th October.

Jaine x

A little inspiration.

I've been having a bit of a tidy and thinning out of my work room and after taking down a couple of mini canvases from above my desk which to put it frankly, were so old they bored me silly, I had a gap to fill.

I had the quote going around in my head and after going through some of my papers, I found a sheet of Glitz Design, "Sunshine In My Soul" paper with the cute bird on it and that became my starting point.

It went really well with some of the  Glitz Finnley papers which I also pulled out and used as a mat and for the bird house. The letter stickers were also from the Finnley collection tying in the colours perfectly.

When it came to the canvas itself I just sprayed over some collaged text pages, with a couple of ink spray colours and thinking I'd like to add a leaf stamp to the background I literally spotted a small piece of Softcut (the last little bit I had left) and within a couple of minutes I'd cut myself a leaf stamp.   

The finished canvas is now hanging above my desk as my new point of inspiration and a reminder that I need to buy more Softcut - LOL!

Have a good weekend

Jaine x

LO: love who you are...

Hi dear crafters!
My new LO is with foto from my university years :)I had a long hair and even one white strand))))
As background I made few daubs with pink paint and a bank card))) Than took few pages from old book and doily. As a last accents made black spatters.

I used papers Glitz Design (Carpe Diem), glimmer mist Tattered Angels Chalkboard - Seven Seas, washi tapes MME, paints, bradses, dots MME and little chipie Wycinanka

As mask I used the pieces from chipboard))

Threads are also very nice detail :)

hope you liked it

Have a nice day!

Tanya Privalova

Yet more texture paste.

Yes I know, yet more texture paste! I can't help it, I'm obsessed with the stuff. The Golden Crackle paste to be exact over a sprayed background and sprayed on top of when dry.

I wanted to add some machine stitching to it just to test the paste really and I'm happy to report it didn't flake, woo hooo! Happy day.

The stickers and washi tape are all from Glitz Design, the Finnley collection.

See you soon with something which isn't texture paste, maybe :)

Jaine x

LO by Tanya Privalova

Hi dear crafters!
My name is Tanya :)

Few words about me: My name is Tanya. I live in Ukraine. In scrapbooking I came 3 years ago.My favourite style..my real passion and inspiration is american, shabby and free style. I love create cards (especially mini-cards), layouts and mini-albums . Many details in work and layers...working with paper.. to do something very sweet and pretty ar very very unusual for me personally. there is the things what make me a real happy scrapper)))

I created the LO))))One sweet day on the one of the favourite places in my city.
I used very tender paper by Glitz Design (Carpe Diem collection), Glitz Roller stamp , Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Seven Seas, mask Tando Creative - Sequin Waste, flowers by Prima, ribbon and chipboards.

I added some doodles near the chipboards. 

Have a nice day!

Tanya :)

Moleskine pages

Hello!
Today I have for you art journal pages in my Moleskine!
Still experimenting...

I used:
- Moleskine 
-  Dylusions Ink Spray Fresh Lime
- Tim Holtz Distress Paint Picked Raspberry
- Claudine Hellmuth Studio Black Gesso
- Glitz Design Raven

- Stampotique Originals stamps

Magda x

Love my Vizsla

Hello,

Today I have for you a very easy and quick notebook made from Glitz Design Raven collection.

The Vizsla image is my own linocut print.

Magda x

Strange city

Hello!

Today I have for you a very colourful project. I used No.12 Giant Tag as a background.

On a plain tag I sprayed some Dylusions Ink Sprays. Than I glued a pieces of Glitz Design Your Truly paper (hurry it's on sale now!!!) and Claudine Hellmuth Sticky-Back Canvas.

For more texture I used gel medium and The Crafter Workshop Template. When I was sure that the background is dry I sprayed Dylusions Inks once again.

I used my sewing machine for ''building'' houses. Than stamped Stampotique Originals stamps (you can buy some of them in really good prices!!!)  using Ranger Archival Ink. For last touches I used Crackle Accents, white acrylic paint and staples.

Magda x

Recycled and reused art.

 I was preparing a piece for this blog post and for one of those annoying reasons it just wasn't going to happen, I was having one of those days and no matter what I tried to do to rescue the situation, I just seemed to make it worse! 

I think everyone can identify with me here but the thing is don't give up and things will come good eventually.

I kept the offending work and came back to it a day later, cutting it up into chunks to try and amputate the worst parts. I actually ended up cutting the whole thing up to rescue and reuse the bits I really did like.

I made myself a totally new background, well actually, I recycled that too! I used one of my stencil  clean off sheets and covered it in clear gesso. The background had been sprayed with waterbased inks and if I wanted to work over this I was going to have to protect it from the mediums I would use over the top. I then drew circles with my Neo-Color crayons and painted over them with a damp paintbrush. I also used Bombay ink in yellow around the circles, letting it drip down the page.

 

The background done I added the figure and title which I'd cut from the earlier piece of work. The figure itself is texture paste through an Andy Skinner stencil, I'm loving this one can you tell?   The stencil was put back over the texture paste and I stamped a script stamp through the shape, all over. 

I turned to the Glitz Finnley alphabet and word sticker sheet for the titles and I also added a few stars in chipboard covered with stickles.

Don't give up on your disasters  it may surprise you to find that you'll see them in a new and unexpected way, you just have to know when to walk away.

Jaine x

Two paths

Hello

Today I would like to show you my layout. I haven't made a lot of layouts in my life. Only a few.
I used Glitz Raven collection for my background. I like these collection for its great designs.

For the first two layers I used a stripes of masking tape and gesso.

I mixed gesso with orange ink and it gives me more fluid gesso. I applied it using the other end of the brush.

The last thing was to stick everything to my background. It's a little messy there but it seems that everything works.

I used:
- Darkroom Door Carved Birds Vol 1
- Glitz Design Raven
- Claudine Hellmuth Sticky-Back Canvas
- Bombay India Ink - Orange
- Sakura Micron Pen
- Prima Writers Tape
- gesso

Magda x

Live.Dream.Love

Hello!

One more time something challenging for me. I made a project like this for the first time. I use a box from Prima Wood Icons in a Box. I painted the box using Claudine Hellmuth black gesso. Inside a small windows you can find pieces of Glitz Design Raven collection. 

I cut circles from Claudine Hellmuth Sticky-Back Canvas and used Hero Arts Ink Dauber and Ranger Archival Ink to colour them. 

Small clear drops are made from Ranger Crackle Accents and the dark ones from Ranger Liquid Pearls.

It was a great fun, I need more boxed like this!

I used:
- Prima Wood Icons In a Box
- Hero Arts Ink Dauber
- Glitz Design Raven
- Claudine Helmuth Sticky-Back canvas
- Claudine Hellmuth Black Gesso
- Finnabair stamp - Doily
- Ranger Archival Ink
- Ranger Crackle Accents
- Ranger Liquid Pearls

Magda x

Be brave - mini album part 2

Hello

Today I would like to show you how I have made a front cover of my mini album and tags which I will  put to the mini album pockets.

The most important thing in this album is a texture of background. I love textures and colours that's why I always try to put this two things at the centre of attention. This story should be longer but maybe another time...

I applied some Liquitex gesso and put a tag on it.

I push a tag because I wanted gesso to stamp on my tag.

It's very easy technique but gives a fab results.

The same thing I did with a black gesso.

When the background dried I splashed orange ink which gives me contrasting colour on my background.

Than I stamped Prima stitch stamp using Rangel Archival Ink.

On a wood piece - Joy - I applied some colour using Hero Arts Ink Dauber. The first letters of the word and an arrow are stickers from Glitz Design Raven collection.

I use the same stuff on my tags.

I really enjoyed making my mini album, maybe it's the first one but for sure not the last one!

I used:
- Glitz Designs Raven collection
- Dr.Ph.Martin's Bombay India Ink
- Prima Stitch stamps - Lines
- Prima Wood Icons in a box
- Hero Arts Ink Dauber
- Ranger Archival Ink
- Liquitex gesso
- Claudine Hellmuth Studio Black Gesso
- masking tape

Magda x