30 August 2015

Heart Journal

Hello my lovelies!

Georgie here, and today I'm sharing with you a page from my Heart Journal.

Journal pages are just the most wonderful thing to do because you just let the creative juice flow and run with it, not worrying so much about the outcome. I adore hearts and have now dedicated a little art journal book to hearts and artwork. So every page I make has to include a heart somewhere lol!



A frenzy of Finn products were used, but one of the most important things is getting you base right. Slapping on some gesso and modelling paste allows the paint to move and run rather than being absorbed straight into the paper.

Next I added some texture sand. I did two layers. the first being a light coat stretching it down the page with a palette knife, and the second, I created the heart shape.

Once dry, and this takes overnight because of its thickness, I gave the heart a coat with black gesso. Then came the shimmery magical goodness from the Art Ingredients Mica Powder. I used Gold and Teal, sprinkling on the page dry and then spritzing with water to let the colours 'play', however still keeping the movement vertical.


I then hit back over around the edge of the heart in black gesso to add definition. The same time hitting some of the other raised areas.

Archival Inks teamed with 'Messy' stamp achieved some extra interest to the background and some horizontal movement.


The cherry on top was the little touches of bling that just add to the sparkle and shimmer factor. I never used to be one for 'sparkle' but over the last 6 months or so, I have to say I'm now a fan! And if you love shimmer then the Art Ingredients Mica Powder is just fabulous!

Have a lovely day my friends, and please see below my list of 'ingredients'...
Hugs
Georgie xx

Art Basics Gesso
Art Basics Modeling Paste
Art Extravagance Black Sand
Art Ingredients Black Gesso
Art Ingredients Mica Powder Gold and Teal
Finnabar Clear Stamp - Messy
Mister Spray Bottle
Prima Say It In Crystals Rounds - 551452




27 August 2015

Fabulous inspirational weekend !!


Morning everyone.... Tracy here with today's post

Just a quick one from me today, I've been lucky enough to spend a fabulous weekend in the north of England spending 3 days taking some fabulous workshops with two amazing teachers.... Birgit Koopsen and France Papillon....no I am not kidding you....how lucky am I !!!

I spent the whole weekend learning lots of new techniques and using lots of new products that took me way out of my comfort zone....but that's what it's all about isn't it ???


Playing with deli paper and liquitex paints we had a great time in Birgit's class creating canvases in the most amazing colours...


I had an amazing time learning from Birgit and then travelled across to Harrogate to take two more amazing classes with the very talented France Papillon !!!

We created a brilliant tag book with dylusions sprays and dylusions stamps  as well as France's stamps by Stampotique and then bound it all together to create our book. It was amazing to see how different everyone's was when complete....


The second lesson of the day as to make a vintage style book.....very very out of my comfort zone and certainly not in my usually colour pallet but was an amazing lesson with a very talented lady....


I loved my creative weekend away. Fabulous classes with a great bunch of ladies... What an inspiration...would definately recommend it if you get the chance !!

Thank you for stopping by

Bright and painty hugs
Tracy

26 August 2015

Just to say: Thank you ASOI!!!

Hello my sweet friends!!!
It is time to say goodbye to my design team in ASOI. It was a really incredible and very positive experience! The store is spectacular, has lots of goodies for an artist! But won't get sentimental, because some doors close and the others ones open:) and I would like to thank to everyone for the amazing instance in this DT. So my last project is this simple card with simple words but from all my heart! I leave with a very good taste, with new friends and excellent organization! Just to say you: Thank you!!!
For creating of this card I have used Prima Paper as the background of the card. Creating texture with Buckground stencils and Finnabair Art Basics: Modeling Paste. As well as adding the  Art Ingredients Micro Beads - Black.

The Finnabair Art Basics: Clear Gesso is essential in order to make Prima Color Bloom Sprays more colorful. And to get a vibrant effect, I have added the dry Finnabair Art ExtraVagance Glitter Set.


Some flowers, Chipboard and small elements complete the composition.
And this is all! :))
Thank you for being with me, for your comments and just because you are great!
See you next time!!! xx

23 August 2015

Finger painting therapy.

During a recent spell of anxiety due to a computer break down (I know, trivial), The only thing to do to relieve the feelings of negativity was to get out my journal.


I had great fun playing with Dylusions paints on the page, using my fingers and not a brush. It felt good and soothed away any anger I was feeling. It even prompted me to get out my Micron pen and hand write some journaling which I normally hate with a passion.

The number stencil is from Tim Holtz.

Jaine xx

21 August 2015

Serenity !!

Good morning beautiful people, Tracy here with today's post....

I love creating beautiful characters in my journal and this little lady is no exception (even if I do say so myself !!!)




I started by using some Finnabair modelling paste and put this on with a palette knife keeping it quite rough to add some texture to my page....


I began adding some of the golden acrylic colours to my background in Yellow Ochre, Titan Buff, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold and then stencilled using large dylusions stencils.....

I then sketched out my girl keeping the outline and shape simple and started to detail her with the paints, adding a sweet face with rosy cheeks


Then I wanted to add some shadows to my page. I used the darker paint colours to surround my figure and love how it makes her stand out from the page and gives a real 3D appearance. 





Finally I added my word with a black fine liner pen and painted up to the edges of th letters with my shadow colours to give some interest. 

I enjoyed playing with these paints and love the way the modelling paste adds so much texture to my page

Thank you for stopping by and visiting today

Bright and painty hugs
Tracy
Xxx

20 August 2015

Anything Is Possible

Hello...
Today is GCSE results day. So quite possibly by the time you read this, things will either be wonderful or horrific in my house....
So I'm just going to leave this here, for all those who may be going through the same thing today!






See you soon,
Trish xxx

Products used:
Watercolour pencils
Acrylic inks

18 August 2015

A Sprinkle Of Imagination: Our New Design Team!

Hello everyone!

The ASOI team would like to say a huge, massive THANK YOU to all those who took the time and trouble to enter our recent Design Team call.
It was so much fun, not to mention so inspiring, looking through all the applications. We had a difficult decision to make, but we are now thrilled to announce the new DT line up from September....


Trish Latimer : DT coordinator

Tracy Scott

Georgie Connelly

Clare Messenger

Shirley Bampton


Congratulations everyone!
We can't wait to get started and create some amazing projects to share!

We would also like to take this opportunity to extend a huge thank you to our departing DT members, especially our DT coordinator Jaine. We will miss all of you, and wish you every success going forward
 xxxxxxxxxxx

14 August 2015

Challenge Winner!

Hello everyone!
A big THANK YOU to all those who took part in the challenge this month! 
The DT have voted on a winner... drum roll.....




Congratulations!

Donna, please could you contact us by sending a mail to the 'posted by' link st the bottom to claim your prize!

Our challenge will be 'on holiday' this month, but will be back later in the year!

12 August 2015

Notebook "The time is over".

Hi everybody!
Today I want to share with you a male notebook. Made in style Mixed Media it speaks of time. The time is something ephemeral and very relative... The details of gears, metallic elements, colors and texture, everything is reminiscent of grunge.


The base is a gray cardboard, covered with Liquitex white Gesso and thousand layered. Also many  Buckground stencils and Finnabair Art Basics: Modeling Paste are not missed here.
I love using washi tape like in this project. I have added a little bit of Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tissue Tape - Commute It looks really nice!
The red needle of the clock and more other red elements make the meaning clearer. Art Ingredients Micro Beads - Black create an awesome texture.
The recycled details always found its site in my works, as these parts of an electrical appliance. :)

To simulate the oxidation, I have resorted some parts with  Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabber: Cheese Puff.

To bind, I used a red Prima Wire Thread - Cardinal instead of typical rings.

Hero Arts Silver Embossing Powder and background stamps provide much brightness and incredible effects.

The back cover is made with the same techniques and in accordance with all design.

Different layers of Ranger Acrylic Paint Prima Color Bloom Sprays, and Prima Chalkboard Paint - Plum also help for creating the texture.
Well, I hope you liked it :)
Many kisses and see you soon!xxx

10 August 2015

Funky Fun Daisy Card

Hiya!

Georgie here today :) and I've been playing with brights again...! So much fun!!!! Hence the title :)

I adore 'brights', the works of art that I see people create are so inspiring but I often shy away, not really knowing how to 'play' :) but I have been gaining confidence.



Using Dina Wakley's acrylic paints, I laid down the base using a brush with Sky, Tangerine and Magenta, then blending lightly together with fingers and a touch of water. I used Lapis to border the edge and draw the eye inward.



Finnabair small stamps and Black Archival ink created my funky background, I find partially stamping gives a more organic feel.


Once the background was complete, I used some White acrylic paint to draw the head of the daisy and some petals coming straight down from it. I saw a clip art picture of a daisy in this style a little while a go and made a mental not of it's structure. I like the side, half droopy look rather than a full birds eye view.



Lemon and Tangerine acrylic paint were added to create a little depth. Faber Castell Pitt pen in Black helped with shadowing, smudging it in some places so it wasn't to harsh.





After the flower was created I drew in the stem and dappled some Lime acrylic paint to the base of the stem. The the final part was adding in some wording, using Dina Wakley's Handwritten Quotes, choosing one of them to enhance by outlining with a Sakura White Gelly Roll pen.

So from me, that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed and I will catch up with you all soon.
Take care,
Georgie xx






09 August 2015

Drawing with paint!

Hello!
I do love it when a new bit of kit comes on the market!
Have you seen the fine tip applicators by Dina Wakely? Don't look like much in the packet, but they're fab!
They come in a pack of two like this:

http://www.asprinkleofimagination.com/paints-mediums/dina-wakley-media/

And you use them like this:
Take your tube of Dina paint:





Unscrew the cap from the paint:




Screw on the fine tip applicator:




The cap of the fine tip applicator then screws off, and you're ready to go:




Notice the pin in the lid? That goes down the tube where the paint comes out of, once the cap is replaced. No clogged nozzles or dried out paint!
Use the tip to draw or even write....


How cool is that?!
When you want to squeeze out colour onto a palette, all you need to do is unscrew the applicator and squeeze directly from the paint tube. Easy peasy.
So.... I made a little something!




I smeared purple paint onto a background to make circles, then used the fine tip applicators to doodle around them!




I used the black paint to draw lines as my stems. Love the random look it gives when you work quickly!




I now have the applicators on all my Dina paints, just because I'm too lazy to wash them through when I change colours!!!!

Have a good Sunday everyone,
Trish xxx

Dina Wakely fine tip applicators and paints can be found HERE.













07 August 2015

Lets face it journal page




I have to face up to the facts that I need to use glasses more often these days. Text has shrunk, the computer becomes fuzzy and late night crafting is almost impossible. It happens.

Just for fun I documented this change in my journal. For my background I stamped my own face stamp which I cut previously from Softcut. You can see my original blog post here where I cut the stamp.  I layered over that the Tim Holtz stencil Eye Chart of course. The circles were cut from a piece of paper left over from my Gelli plate printing play. I like the contrast it makes on the page. I found some glasses images and letter stickers for my title and it was finished.

Jaine xx

04 August 2015

Hang on...



This time journal talk with a title "Hang on...". This page has been created as just a random collection of collage bits but somehow gave me a great answer to the question "What to do when you have a bad day, thoughts, waiting for something that is not clear?" Simply Hang on...it will pass anyway you just have to wait...

The spread is a mixture of layers of paints and inks. My secret in that process is to start from paints, let them dry and then apply transparent inks. I used Dina Wakley white gesso and paints from her range. I also mixed some of the colours with gel medium to give it more transparency.

After application of paints I used water diluted Bombay Inks in a few gentle washes with a big and wide brush. Layering also applies here to the stamps that are all done by using Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads and again few stamps build up layers from corners onwards.

Black Distress Ink applied to a small sponge was used to give more worn out look for the edges as well.
After applying collage elements I wanted to make sure they stand out from the busy background but didn't wan to use strong definition black markers for the outlines. I decided to go with a dry Derwent Inktense pencils, blend them with a finger and if necessary a drop of water. That is how white-green-pink outlines were created. Don't forget that water soluble pencils can also be used in a dry option for stronger look.
The final touches were metal circles building the link between two pages as well as giving the arty look to woman's cut out. I also added my handwriting in black and white pen.

So hang on if you have a bad day!:)
Honorata



03 August 2015

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