More reasons to get crafty...

Good morning all

Just a quick post to let you know that there are even more products in our HUGE sale section

and a few special offers too!

10% off selected GOLDEN fluid acrylics

Some of the Distress family of products are either at a new lower price, or reduced to clear! 

Distress Stickles

Distress Ink Pads

Distress Paints

Distress Stains

&

 Distress Glitter

If that's not even Tim Holtz goodness

we have also got a clearance event on selected

Idea-ology!  and Tim Holtz Stamps

DYLUSIONS NEWS

yep, we have reduced to clear our remaining selection of

Dylusions Stamps AND Stencils!

Not only that but we have 10% off Dylusions Ink Sprays too! 

So, plenty of sunshine crafting in the garden this summer.

You could even start planning your Christmas projects! 

Happy Creating!

Vicki 

Art Doll : Freedom

Hello!
Oh look...I've made an Art Doll! Never saw that coming did you lol!
Even if the theme is a bit 'same old, same old', I've used a few brand new products , just to freshen things up a little!
Here she is...

She's not small, around about 30cm in height!
Her body is thick card, with a smeared paint background (for those who may have missed it, I shared a video tutorial on how I create my smeary backgrounds HERE)
I added some stamping and stencilling...

The stamps are from a Natalie Kalbach set , and the large white stencilled dots were created with the free stencil that comes with the stamps!
The detail on the body is created with 4 Finnabair bottle caps...

I covered them in gesso, then coloured them with the same paints used for the body. The circles inside the caps, and the quote are all from the brand new Finnabair stamp range, these are from the 'don't forget to fly' set.
I also used the plain butterfly from the same set as the wings for my Art Doll. Simply stamped onto painted cardstock, cut out and adhered behind the shoulders...

My Doll face is an image from Vera Lane Studios, coloured with pencils. I glued it to some card, then extended the hair a little!

The face plus all that hair was then glued to a painted 'pendant' (looks like a large bottle cap to me!) from the 961091 set from Prima Mechanicals , and then added to the body.

 I was aiming for a halo type effect behind the head, and the large bottle cap/pendant was the perfect size. Using a digital image for the face means you can manipulate it to be the perfect size for whatever your project needs!
I hope you like her, I had great fun making her!
See you soon,
Trish xxxxxxx

12 Brands of Christmas *Brand 3* Golden.

Here we are at day 6 and today I'm bringing you a little inspiration from Golden. 

GOLDEN Fluid Acrylics are highly intense, permanent acrylic colors with a consistency similar to heavy cream. Produced from lightfast pigments, not dyes, they offer very strong colours with very thin consistencies. No fillers or extenders are added and the pigment load is comparable to GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylics.

Unlike mixtures of heavy-bodied paints and water which produce weak color and films by dilution, Fluid Acrylics contain high pigment levels suspended in an acrylic polymer vehicle. The result offers fine dispersion, high tinting strength, durability, flexibility and good adhesion. GOLDEN Fluid Acrylics are ideal for spraying, brushing, staining, and can be mixed with other GOLDEN Products. Blend with Airbrush Medium for spray application. Excellent for fabric application.

I am a huge lover of texture,  especially paste and when I tried Golden Crackle Paste for the first time I was in love. It's so light and adding it to projects is no problem at all. 

Come back tomorrow for more fabulous inspiration.

Jaine x

12 Designers of Christmas : Day One: WELCOME!

HELLO!

It's December 1st...so that means.....drum roll...... the start of our 

HUGE,

 MASSIVE, 

GINORMOUS,

 12 Designers at Christmas blog extravaganza!

Right up until Christmas Eve, we will be featuring a fabulous project by a guest designer, or showcasing an exciting big Brand every single day! Yep, you read that right.. 

Every. Single. Day!

So, bookmark the blog and check back often, we have loads to share in the run up to Christmas 2014!

Right..best get on with it then.....

I've drawn the short straw (!!) and I'm up first! Now, I need you to be gentle with me today, this is the first time I've shared one of my 'people' with the world. Up until now they have been creations for my eyes only, but I thought I should get a grip and show you lot as well! Here is my Sprinkle Fairy...

 My background is a simple painty creation. I gessoed my cardboard base, then whilst it was still wet, smeared on some blue and green. More gesso stencilling, and printed on gesso dots for snowflakes. I used a Posca paint pen to draw on some flakes too!

Then, on to the figure. Sketched out roughly, then coloured with a mixture of Neocolours, paint and watercolour pencils. A little fineliner black pen to highlight a few details, and my Sprinkle fairy was born....

ASOI products used:

Gesso

Paint

Neocolour 2

Watercolour pencils

Fineliner pen

Posca pen

And now the exciting bit! As well as our 12 designers, we will be showcasing 12 brands this December too. We have a large prize box all ready and waiting, containing one product from EACH of those 12 showcased brands! To win this box of fabulousness, all you need to do is leave a comment on EACH of the blog posts of our 12 designers. My blog post today is the first, you'll need to comment on the post of each of the eleven designers that will be coming along every other day until the 23rd. The posts will be open for comments right until the end of the month, then a name will be randomly chosen and announced as the winner on 12th Night (6th January)

So.....we're up and running! Don't forget to check back tomorrow to see which big brand is being showcased!

Have a fabulous week!

Love, Trish

 xxxxxxxx

Butterfly Doll

Hello!

When is an Art Doll not an Art Doll?..... um.... when it's a butterfly attached to a canvas on legs?!

My project today is a variation on a theme...yes it's a doll, but this one isn't a free standing piece by itself, it's an embellishment..

I'll show you how I made her...

The three main bits are made from clay. As I wanted holes through them, I poked a bit of wire through in the appropriate places! 

The clay then got painted and stamped a little...

The easiest way to get a detailed design on a curved surface is to use stamped tissue paper. I stamped everything, then made sure the ink was dry...

(I stamped two faces as I wasn't sure at this point which one I was going to use!)

The stamped images were then cut out and glued onto the clay using Mod Podge..

It's really useful having holes in the clay, as the wire can be pushed through again and rested on something whilst the Mod Podge dries!

Once the Mod Podge has dried, we can start to assemble the doll.

You'll need lots of craft wire for this! Cut two pieces, then thread both through the horizontal hole...

Make spirals at the ends of the wire (you can always fiddle about at the end and make these smaller or larger if you need to)

 Next, make a loop at one end of a long strand...

Thread on the large 'body'..

Thread on the 'head'

Tightly coil the remaining wire around and around the top of the head, both creating a design feature and securing the head and body of your doll...

I wrapped more wire around her neck...

Now, adding on the 'bead' at the bottom requires a bit of jewellery making technique... but really, just practice making loops and wrapping wire around things. We're not making jewellery, so it doesn't matter if it's not perfect!

Thread a bit of wire through the hole in the bead, and bend like so...

Make sure one 'tail' is a lot longer than the other at this point. Make a loop with the shorter tail, and join it onto the loop under the body...

Wrap both ends loads of times around the wire and the top of the bead. Messy is good!

Now for the wings! Stamp the Stampotique wings twice, once onto acetate, and once onto painted cardstock...

Cut out, bend the acetate then glue together....

Once the glue is dry, glue on the clay body...

Now the butterfly doll is finished, it can be attached to whatever you fancy!

I painted a canvas, stamped it with dots (Darkroom Door) and glued the doll to the front..

The doll gives a fabulous 3D look to your work..

I used painted spools as legs..

and added thick wire as a hanger. More thin craft wire was wrapped around to echo the wire elsewhere on the piece, and a cut out word added...

Phew...! Hope you like her!

Trish xxxx

Art Doll part 3 (only 3?!!)

Hello!
This is kind of a follow on project to the first Art Doll tutorial I shared this summer (THIS one!)
Todays Art Doll looks like this....

Oh yes...getting weirder..... :)
One of my step by step pictures for the first doll looked like this:

Which gave me an idea for a shape.....and todays doll was born!
My 'peculiar genius' doll is much smaller than the hanging doll of a few weeks ago, I wanted the face to fill the entire head part this time....

The shape is basically the same though, with the crown part included in the initial chipboard piece. As before, I painted the chipboard, stuck book pages to it, then added the face by gluing on stamped tissue. Doodled lines and painty dots to finish it off.
The body is also roughly the same shape as before...

Again, covered  with book pages and stamped tissue. This time, I stamped this fab dotty image by Stampotique onto the tissue to give the body a nice design. Painty dots and doodled lines again, then the body was finished off by the heart embellishment...

This is the smallest pendant from the Prima Mechanicals range, turned over, painted white with a punched out heart stuck to it!
Adding the head to the body requires a neck, of course! This neck will be visible, so I painted stripes on it....

No legs this time, I've used chipboard circles. I think they look a little wheel like....

I edged them with blue paint, and carried on with the dots/doodling theme! I always add a phrase or title to my work, this time I've added it to one of the 'wheels'....

The Art Doll is basically a flat item, so if we want it to stand up, we need to add things to the back! Even if you have no intention of ever making jewellery, I would thoroughly recommend large cube beads as a stash essential.... they are brilliant for jobs like this!

Apologies for the unsightly glue picture!!
So.... Art Doll part three!

Hope you like her!
See you soon,
Trish xxxxxx