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 * Designer 3* Gez Butterworth

Here we are at Day 5 and today we're showcasing the massively talented Gez Butterworth otherwise known as Gezzy B. Gez was a member of the Sprinkle team right at the beginning and is hugely multi talented. She has a great eye for detail and I love what she does.

For our 12 Designers inspiration piece she's sent us this gorgeous plant stick which would look so cute in a plant pot by the front door. I want one :)

She's given me detailed instructions how to make it so if you fancy making your own here they are;

Apply white gesso to a Tando chipboard plaque, dry thoroughly.

Apply Distress inks

Stamp Stampotique snowflakes using Distress ink onto plaque for the background

Adhere Jenni Bowlin skinny alphas to the plaque

Colour Prima wooden tree with Inktense pencils, when dry apply Ranger silver dabber

Colour sleigh with Inktense pencils, Sakura pens

Add embellishments to the plaque

Write (please stop...) using Inktense pencil

Edge the plaque with gold Ranger dabber

Adhere silver tinsel.

 So here it is, it's so cute. 

If you want to see more of Gez's work her blog is here at Three Little Birds.

I hope you've been inspired here. Don't forget to leave a comment on this and all of the Designers posts to be in with the chance to win the big prize at the end.

Call back tomorrow for more inspiration.

Jaine x

12 Brands of Christmas: *Brand 2* Finnabair

Hello!
Our second featured brand this Christmas is...

The imagination, inspiration and art shared by the very talented Ania Dabrowska (http://tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk/) has been much admired by an awful lot of people, so I'm sure you were all as thrilled as I was when it was announced she would have her own signature range of products, produced by Prima!

So many fabulous papers,metal embellishments, stencils and stamps, and now a large range of mediums, glitters, glass beads and mica flakes have been added! 

To see the whole range of Finnabair product carried by ASOI, please click HERE.

I particularly adore the metal embellishments, and I must have got through rather a lot of flower shaped pendant bases this year! I used them here...

And as a base for an Art Doll here...

I think the Finnabair range is definitely one of my 'go to' ranges whenever I feel I need a stash boost!

A product from the Finnabair range has now gone into the box of fabulousness! This box will eventually be filled with a product from all 12 of our showcased brands this Christmas, and then the whole box will be won by one lucky reader! All you need to do is leave a comment on EVERY Guest Designers blog post between now and December 23rd. Once you have left your 12 comments, your name will be put into a hat and a random winner drawn out. This will be announced on 12th Night.... (6th January!)

 Have you forgotten to comment on the first two Designers posts? No worries, just scroll back through the blog and leave your comment whenever you have time, commenting on all 12 Guest Designer posts will remain open until the end of December! 

Can't wait to see who our guest is tomorrow ...can you?!

12 Designers of Christmas *Designer 2* Jaine Drake

That's me - ha ha. I'm so happy and proud to be a part of this amazing line up, I can promise the rest of the time between now and Christmas day is a true feast. 

Anyway, for my post I thought I'd share a spread in my Christmas journal. Whether I'm doing a December Daily or not I still have a special Christmas journal which I've had on the go for a couple of years now. It has Kraft pages which is perfect for a Christmas feel and I like to keep some parts of the page free from colour and embellishment just so I can still see the Kraft paper beneath.

I started with a base layer of Picket Fence Distress paint and Dylusions White Linen ink spray. Then I added some Golden Crackle paste through a Crafters Workshop stencil called Punchinella and threw on some glitter before it dried.

I layered up a few paper off cuts, used a bit of scrap paper which had been used for spraying on to create a tree and brought in some details like the number 3 stenciled with a Tim Holtzs layering stencil called Numbered.

Here's a closer look at the details.

 I think the splash of red thread brings the page to life.

I emphasized the number with a white journaling pen. 

I hope you liked my inspirational pages. Stick around for the rest of our Designers who'll be bringing you some gorgeous projects. Leave a comment here and on the other Designers projects to win a prize.

Jaine x

12 Brands of Christmas:* Brand 1* Hero Arts

Hello!

Welcome to Day One of our 12 Brands of Christmas, part of our spectacular Christmas blogging extravaganza!

Our first showcased brand is...

Hero Arts have long been associated with superb quality rubber stamps, in fact some of the very first stamps I bought back in the day were from Hero Arts, and I still love them and use them today! More recently, Hero Arts have extended their product lines, and now the brand encompasses ink pads, ink daubers, ink sprays, steel dies and even stencils. With such a huge variety, you can't fail to find something you will love!

One of the latest releases is the Christmas stencil range...

Looks fabulous when you scrape paste through it, and add a little Christmas sparkle!

The full range of Hero Arts products carried by ASOI can be found HERE.

A product from the Hero Arts range is the first to go into the box of fabulousness! This box will eventually be filled with a product from all 12 of our showcased brands this Christmas, and then the whole box will be won by one lucky reader! All you need to do is leave a comment on EVERY Guest Designers blog post between now and December 23rd. Once you have left your 12 comments, your name will be put into a hat and a random winner drawn out. This will be announced on 12th Night.... (6th January!)

 Forgot to comment on the first Designer post yesterday? No worries, just scroll back through the blog and leave your comment whenever you have time, commenting on all 12 Guest Designer posts will remain open until the end of December! 

Can't wait to see who our guest is tomorrow ...can you?!

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

Snowflakes and Stars....

Hello!

I'm still in 'creating with a Christmas theme' mode, but wanted to change things up a little and be a bit more subtle! For my project today I've created a very Dina Wakley inspired panel....

This is postcard sized, so nice and quick to do!

As it's Dina inspired, of course I've used some Dina Wakley paints in there!

Sky, Lapis and Blackberry, to be precise!

My cardstock was primed first with white gesso, as well as giving a great base for the acrylic paint , adding gesso first means you can scratch patterns into it that show though once the colour is on top. You can see the swirly design in the above pic!

I used a bit of waste card, leftover from something else as a focal point...

I was going to stitch everything with white thread...but my white bobbin appears to have gone AWOL, so I used the red that was already threaded into the machine!

I actually think I like it better than white!

I used white paint flicked on to give splatters, then printed on to give the larger snowflakes. A smidge of outlining, and a few chit chat stickers to finish!

Hope you like it!

See you soon.......

Trish xxxx

pssst..... have you heard? We are having a SPECTACULAR Christmas event over here on the ASOI blog!

There will be something wonderful on the blog EVERY SINGLE DAY... be it a fabulous Christmas project from one of our talented guests, or a spotlight on a product. A little bird tells me there will be a rather large prize up for grabs concerning those 12 products, so make sure you bookmark us and pop back on December the 1st!

An event not to be missed.

We are very happy and excited to announce our big Christmas extravaganza called

The Twelve Projects of Christmas.

I cannot believe what an amazing line up we've got for you with twelve crafters and twelve products to tempt you as we go into Christmas. Each day we'll be bringing you inspiration and  gorgeous projects to look at.

So make a date in your diary starting on the 1st December to stop by.

Where's the snow?

I love the snow but right now we're experiencing nothing like it as we're still having to put up with mild seasonal temperatures. That might not sound like much of a pain but when the plants in the garden are growing and flowering and spring bulbs are coming out, that's bad news. Wasps and flies are still annoying us in the house and I just want the season back.

With what was still on my work table I thought I'd create my own snowy project.

For a change I've gone for a candy pink background and added some snowy texture with Golden texture paste. If you want to add some snow to cards or tags Golden is perfect as it's so light and adds no weight at all.

I used the good old sketchy Snowman from mr T Holtz which is actually on promotion at the moment.

Off doing the snow dance, Jaine x

Let It Snow...

Or, bring on the weird Christmas assemblages!
Hello!
Remember back in the summer when I created an Art Doll with a glass vial for a body? No? THIS one....
Whilst I was creating her, I had an idea for something else..but I've had to wait until it was the appropriate time of the year to show you!
My snowmen......

I used the smallest three vials in the Craft Medley set to create my snowy scene...
Filled with 'snowballs' (i.e the filling from a beanbag!), with tiny dotty buttons and some printed out words..

I wrapped some red cord around the neck of the bottle to resemble a scarf..

The heads are felt balls that I created months and months ago to use as beads for another project. Felting your own beads/balls is a palaver and a half, involving lots of soapy hot water and squeezing and rolling. I would recommend doing an online search for white felt beads!!!!!
The eyes are tiny seed beads, and the nose is the pointy end of a bamboo skewer, painted orange..

I had fun with these, and they have now been kidnapped by my youngest daughter who thinks they're very cute! Which is odd...'cute' wouldn't be my number one aim when creating anything! *note to self* must be weirder......
See you soon!
Trish xxxx

September layout

Well here we are in November already and the Christmas crafting is going up a gear, but before all that here's a layout from my Project Life album for September.

I looked in my stash for a suitable background paper to start from and found this beautiful Jenni Bowlin paper called Modern Mercantile. It fitted the mood perfectly.

For the rest of the layout I've used off cuts of other Jenni Bowlin and Glitz papers.

Jaine x

BasicGrey....

You may have guessed it that the new BasicGrey collection, Aurora is safely arrived with us today and is already up on the website!

This is a fabulous collection with 12 double sided 12x12 papers, 6x6 paper pad, 

embellishments and sticker sheets

There's also a coordinating set of clear stamps, rubber background stamps

and stencils from Hero Arts.

You can find the full collection here, with a 10% discount if you purchase all 12 papers. 

Happy Pumpkins !

I've got a quick and easy card to share with you this week. I love Autumn/Fall and all the beautiful colours. Inspired by the abundance of pumpkins around at the moment I made a card for a special someone. I just know it'll make him smile!

I stamped two of the pumpkins from Stampotique Originals directly onto my card. The middle one was stamped using Archival Ink onto some cardstock that was painted with acrylic paints. His googly eyes were made by drawing onto a couple of tiny circles with a Micron pen and covering them with Glossy Accents.

Thank you for calling. Happy Halloween if you are celebrating. Gez

schools out!