Guest Designer: Ashli Oliver

Hi there! Ashli Oliver here (aka soapHOUSEmama) from purplemailbox.com and I am excited to join you today. I was beyond thrilled to work with the ever-gorgeous Sweetness collection and share my creations with you today!

My projects are usually not called complete unless I have some sort of ink, paint or mist under my fingernails at the end. Hi, I am Ashli Oliver, a recovering graphic designer, a homeschooling mother, wife, daughter, coffee addict, knitter and gardener with an extreme passion for mixed media paper crafting and memory keeping. I find great joy in both the creative process and the final piece. Most of my craft time is in the wee hours of the evening when all of the kiddos are in dream land. Although, I am certainly known to grab every snippet available during the day to shuffle some paper around or glue a bit here and there.

I have been an artist my entire life. I followed my dreams and attended art school here in my home state of Georgia. While I mostly wanted to play with paint and glue, I chose a more sensible major of Digital Multi-Media and Photography. After working in that industry on and off, I put my computer and brushes aside to start my family. Never in a million years did I think that scrapbooking and the paper craft industry would re-awaken the artist in me that I had put away so many years ago. Thanks to a good friend who showed me the ropes just two short years ago, I have jumped into a pile of pretty paper and I am never looking back.

I am not afraid to play, experiment, and make mistakes. Today’s mistake might just be tomorrow’s masterpiece. Armed with my beloved pens, mists and patterned paper, I anxiously await my next crafty adventure!

My first project to share with you today is a layout. I began with my favorite paper from the line, "Novelty," and layered that up with some white cardstock, along with plenty of painty misty fun. And what' better than sprinkles on an ice cream cone? Confetti! Well - perhaps it runs a close second :) At any rate, I just had to add some to this playful page. To finish things off, I simply added some fussy cut elements from the "Novelty" paper, my title, and my journaling. It was so fun to scrap this sweet moment with this sweet collection!

For my next project, I changed gears a bit and decided to do a fun little Birthday card. Who doesn't need a collection of Birthday cards laying around, right?

I used some elements from the "Enhancements" cut apart sheet and added some white acrylic paint to give the look of "ice cream." And, of course, some sparkly glitter doesn't hurt either!

And for my last project, we are back to a layout! I love the little lines of ice cream cones on the "Premium" paper. I had more fun cutting that down into strips and sewing them onto my cardstock base. This ended up being the perfect design element for this page all about how my little one lines things up. A few of the punch out shapes from the "Components" sheet made for the perfect layering embellishments! 

Be sure to stop by Ashli's personal blog and say hello, and please let her know we sent you! 

Also, check out our "We Spy..." board on Pinterest; and don't forget to share your projects with us on Facebook!  If we spy fabulous projects using Authentique products, we might just feature you in a future blog post!