Lucky Decor Panel

Hello everyone, welcome to the Blue Fern Studios Blog, I am Aida from @aidaville back again with another canvas panel. What inspires you ? There are times when I have no idea what to make and going through beautiful papers or embellishments always helps. As I picked up the Happy Accident printed chipboard, immediately the pretty Blue flower leapt out at me and together with the work Lucky left over from the Wanderlust Chipboard, inspiration sparked and this was the result.

Blue Fern Studios supplies used are :

Lace no.1  |  Natural Cotton Twine

Papers : Happy Accident #2 - Faux   |   Remnants - Devonshire

Printed Chipboard : Wanderlust  |  Happy Accident

Chipboard : Fall Foliage  |  Blossom Branches
Others :

7 x 9 Flat Back Canvas Panel

Acrylic paints  |  Crayons | Matte Multi Medium  | Texture Crackle Paste | Grit Paste  |  Shimmer Glaze
Fern die-cuts  |  Thin strip of Glitter paper  |  Phrases Sticker.

Here's how to begin :

Start by painting and texturing the canvas panel. The center was finished darker blue/green to create a shadow for the focal elements and edges were left much lighter for contrast.

Paint the chipboard leaves with a pale blue acrylic paint and add a thin layer of Grit Paste. Once dry, paint a thin coat of shimmer glaze.

Die-cut a few fern fronds as fillers using a light paper.

I trimmed the base paper 4 x 6" and distressed the edges. This was popped up on a large foam sheet square 1/4" thickness and adhered to the center of the panel.

Smaller strips of paper were layered, and on top of that, to the right and left, the scallop printed chipboard from the Wanderlust collection was stuck down.

Adhere the painted chipboard leaves securely to the base, and then  Lace no.1.

Position the Blue Flower printed chipboard over the lace, use a bit of strong glue to make sure it's adhered well.

Here you can see how the pretty Lace is layered under the focal chipboard.

Choose your sticker or a stamped phrase and add it to the lower half of the Blue Flower chipboard. A narrow strip of pale gold glitter paper ensures the phrase is highlighted and not get lost in the overall design.

The word Lucky was adhered to a folded piece of paper tied with natural twine.

The delicate Fern fronds fill out the edges of the panel for a light, airy dimension.

This was a lovely piece to work on with the pretty colours and the wonderful texture of the canvas. It makes you want to touch and feel the layers !

Thank you for coming by and I hope this panel will jumpstart your own creative process.

See you soon !! Aida  @aidaville

A Trio of November Inspiration by Nicole Doiron

Hello all my dear friends at Blue Fern Studios!

Nicole here today to share with you my November projects.

Let's start with this teal shabby chic layout of my niece Ella with her violin.

I used papers from the Serendipity collection to create a grid pattern collage on my page.  The brick design was made using the Essential Textures stamp and Snow Imagine Ink embossing powder.  

I combined 2 chipboard pieces to create my title, one from the Sweet & Lucky set on which I created an ombre effect with the Sea Mist, Snow and Caribbean powders, and the other from the French Words set covered with Ebony.

Obviously, most of the pretty flowers found on my page are from Blue Fern Studios!  The bigger teal flower with the fuzzy center is from the brand new Memoires Blooms set - it's gorgeous! 

Below you see the very elegant Gatsby Collage that I divided into 2 pieces to slide at either end of my photo.

The chipboard piece that inspired this whole concept is the Courtship Violin that you see peaking out from the bottom corner of the photo of my pretty and gifted niece, Ella!

Blue Fern Studios Products

Patterned Paper: Serendipity (Imagination, Fascination, Chronicle)

Chipboard: Courtship Violin, Gatsby Collage, Sweet & Lucky set, French Words 

Flowers: Memoires Blooms, Spring Lilies, Tranquil Blooms, Courtship Blooms

Stamps: Essential Textures

Imagine Ink: Embossing Powders (Caribbean, Sea Mist, Ebony, Snow)

My 2nd page is as boyish as the first one was feminine.

I started off with some vintage Paisley & Vine papers to go along with this more masculine theme.

The title was taken from the Wish Wonder Dream set which I covered with Blue Sky embossing powder.  I added some fabulous Lightbulbs covered with Sand & Sea.

Again, I divided a longer piece of chipboard into 2 pieces, this time a piece of the Printer's Bits to fit vertically above and below my photo. On this piece is the Ruby embossing powder which I dabbed with a little bit of brighter red acrylic paint.

Some more of the Printer's Bits layered over the Triangle Eclipse covered in Stellar Night and dabbed with brown paint. On the background paper, I stamped the netting design from the Essential Textures stamp set.

You've seen this little cutie before... he is  my friend's son.

Blue Fern Studios Products

Patterned Paper: Paisley & Vine (Whimsy, Pathway)

Chipboard: Wish Wonder Dream set, Triangle Eclipse, Printer's Bits, Lightbulbs

Stamps: Essential Textures

Imagine Ink: Embossing Powders (Ruby, Blue Sky, Stellar Night, Sand & Sea)

Last but certainly not least, I share with you a closer look at my layout

that was part of the November challenge reveal, featuring the latest collection, Memoires.

The November challenge is simply to use a Blue Fern Studios chipboard title on your project, ANY title so hopefully you will play along!

I had the perfect title in my BFS chipboard stash for this Autumn layout... An Autumn Story. 

 I simply covered it with a new favorite shade of Imagine Ink embossing powder called Golden Brick.

On my background, I sprayed different Autumn shades of mists plus used the new Crackled Textures stamps with brown ink and added some stenciling with modeling paste.

After treating it with a mix of Golden Bricks and Chili Powder powders, I cut the Treasured Floral Frame into several pieces to adorn my page with it here and there, combining it with the Fall Foliage set.  On the leaves, I mixed some Chili Powder, Tangerine and Nutmeg.

Another chipboard set that I am totally in love with is the Pretty Pumpkins set and here you see the smaller version. Totally gorgeous!

Finally, here is a closer look at the 'Autumn story' that I chose to document on this layout, a very beautiful shot of a splendid Fall day spent with my man, and framed with beautiful earthy tone flowers, including BFS Tranquil blooms.

Blue Fern Studios Products

Patterned Paper: Memoires (Songbird's Drama, Grand Sequel, Chronicles)

Chipboard: An Autumn Story, Treasured Floral Frame, Pretty Pumpkins, Fall Foliage

Flowers: Tranquil Blooms

Stamps: Crackled Textures

Imagine Ink: Embossing Powders (Golden Bricks, Chili Powder, Tangerine, Nutmeg)

See you back next month for a very special December reveal!

- Nicole

New Beginnings with Jelissa

Hello Blue Fern Studios fans, and welcome to the new year!

I'm up on the blog today with a video tutorial of how I put together a mixed media journal cover, using nothing more than Blue Fern Studios chipboards, some metal bits and flowers. I was very inspired by one of our former creative team member Joyce Kers who kept a journal on inspirational women in her family, and I wanted to make a similar journal for myself but of my family tree which I hope to fill up in the year 2015.

This is the project:

and close-ups (warning: graphic-intensive!)

I have always used papers, cloth or canvas to create my layers but for this journal cover I decided to create my layers with the chipboards from Blue Fern Studios instead. The intricate laser-cut designs are perfect as every layer they form has lots of interesting details to catch the eye.  

I wanted a blank white base to start with so that I can get to play with the new mediums I got for Christmas, but didn't want my chipboards to feel boring. So all the chipboard pieces were covered with different texture mediums. 

My title piece which I kept simple.

Here is the video of how I put everything together:

Blue Fern Studios products used:

Floral Clock

Fall Foliage

Little Birds Set

Leafy Page Accents

Notebook Edges

"Family" word 

Thank you for dropping by the blog!

love,
Jelissa

June colours with Jelissa

Hello friends! Thank you for dropping by :)

Today I'm in to share three projects I created for Blue Fern Studios, featuring the new paper collection Ombre Dreams and some fantastic chipboard pieces.

"Count the Ways"

The first is a layout I made of my big boy, with papers from Ombre Dreams collection.  The title came from one of the most popular love poems around - Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Browning but I used it here to describe my love for my sweet and wonderful child.

Some close ups:

A frame from the Memory Frame set which I misted green. 

Counting the ways with the number grid chipboard panel, which I covered with black EP.

A piece of Layering Stem. Gosh, I love these! Just perfect for tucking into any little corner of my floral cluster.

A piece from Fall Foliage, also misted with green and gesso brushed on randomly. 

Blue Fern products used:

Ginger's Dream

Shannon's Dream

Number Grid - Large

Memory Frame Set

Layering Stems

Fall Foliage

"Follow Your Bliss"

My second project is a simple little card. In fact, I made a card instead of my usual LO because I wanted to use the chipboards as the main features. I layered sheets from the Ombre Dreams collection and layered water colours in pastel tones, careful not to hide the lovely details the papers have.

Some close-ups:

The Twilight Garden Frame. What a lovely piece! I used gold paint on the lamp and added a layer of crackle. For the rest of the frame, I coloured with gelatos.

I used "Follow your Bliss" word as my card sentiment, which I covered with some bronze embossing powder.

Blue Fern products used:

Leslie's Dream

Twilight Garden Frame

Follow Your Bliss

"Blue Skies"

My third project is a layout I created for this month's sketch challenge. If you havn't seen it, do take a look because Michelle has come up with another fabulous sketch. And to win a pack of gorgeous Blue Fern products, just create a project based on the sketch and link it up. It's that easy!

Here is the sketch again:

And my take on it:

I used "Susan's Dream" for my background. It has the most calming tones of blues and greens, with a tinge of orange which I have used to highlight certain elements of the page. I like to use a lot of mediums and thinner papers tend to warp with so much fluid sitting on it. But the BFS papers are so much heavier (and sturdier), my LO remained pretty much the same shape even when I was adding quite a fair bit of water to bleed the colours. If you love playing with mediums like me, you'll find the quality of BFS papers just perfect. 

A cut-out phrase from "Dream Cards". There are several elements that you can fussy cut out from this page and layer them on your project. I also used a gear and bird chipboards. 

Another phrase from "Dream Cards" layered on top of the Mini Ring Things chippie.

The Treasured floral frame chippie. Love the delicate vines and flowers on this piece!

Blue Fern products used:

Susan's Dream

Treasure Floral Frame

Mini Ring Things

Widget Works
Descano Gardens (bird)
Layering Stems

And here's a start to finish video I put together to show you how I did the background, as well as the various techniques I used to alter the chipboards. Sit back and enjoy the show, and do remember to play along with our sketch challenge this month!

That's all for today. Do check back at our blog again for more inspiration from the rest of the fabulous Blue Fern girls!

love,

Jelissa