Beach Walk by Pam Ellis

It has been such a joy to have Pam Ellis as our Blue Fern Fan of the Month.  Each and every project has been unique.  This week, she has added some awesome texture to her layout.  It's so realistic you will feel like you are taking a walk along the beach,

 Now we will turn it over to Pam so she can tell you about her creative process:

This is my dog Bruiser and I strolling the gorgeous beach in Caribou Monroe Nova Scotia. It was our first holiday in 15 years!  My husband and I had recently bought a fifth wheel and decided to travel the East Coat of Canada.  I have never known such peace. I can't wait to return this summer.

I applied a coat of clear gesso to my background and let dry. I then went over the area that would be surrounding my photo with clear crackle paste.  

I added some dimension with a stencil and some molding paste.  I mixed some art stones large and small in some matte Gel and applied around the "beach" area or lower half of the layout to imitate sand.  I then added some shells I picked up while on holidays in the East Coast (Nova Scotia)

I misted the layout with blue and several browns to try and match the paper.  I added paper layers behind my photo and popped it up from the page.  I embossed the Seashell frame with a variety of colors and attached it to my photo.  After I glued everything down, I then added a small vial of sand from the beach in Nova Scotia. 

I finished the layout by adding some blooms and my title. 

Paper (Seaside Cottage Collection):

Embark

Whitewash

Calling Cards

Voyage

Chipboard:

A Walk on the Beach

Seashell Frame

Nautical pieces

Embossing Powder:

Honey

Ginger

Sage

Coral

Seven Seas

Glistening Sand

Flowers:

Seaside Lillies

Harvest Lilies

I would like to thank Blue Fern Studios for the opportunity to be the Fan of the Month.  It meant the world to me.

August inspiration by Vera Shelemekh

Hello Blue Fern Studios fans.
It's Vera Shelemekh here and I'm happy to share with you some fresh and bright summer inspiration.  I've made a botanic layout with Wanderlust paper and mixed two summer collections in a seaside layout. And for the dessert today are Happy accident chocolate boxes with lace and flowers.

The summer here in Moscow is a bit cold this year, but we had a couple of warm weeks to enjoy the Nature, to wonder with a butterfly net and breathe wonderful floral smells.
For this layout I used Wanderlust - Lakeside as background.

The photo is framed in a frame from Ever After Frame Set covered with avocado embossing powder.

 I decorated the layout with many stamped flowers, Damask Flourishes chipboard covered with lime embossing powder, stamped bugs and butterflies and a sweet owl.

 
"Discover" is the header taken from Wanderlust Words set

Blue Fern Studios products used:

Papers:

Wanderlust - Lakeside 

 

Chipboards:

Ever After Frame Set

 Damask Flourishes

Wanderlust Words 

 

Embossing powder:

 Avocado

Lime

Stamps:

Stamp - Garden Frolic 

Stamp - Owls and Birds

 

Flowers

  Fresh Florals

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The other layout is combination of Wanderlust and Seaside cottage collections. The background is Ocean Voyage from Wanderlust. And the composition is the mixture of Seaside Cottage - Splendor and elements cut from the paper with cards.

 I also used the octopus and sea stars from Nautical Set and framed the photo in Wanderlust - Printed Chipboard frame.

The mixed media background includes stamping with Stamp - Essential Textures and waves colored with embossing powders Summer breeze and Stormy seas

Blue Fern Studios products used:

Papers:

Wanderlust - Ocean Voyage

 Seaside Cottage - Splendor

 

Chipboards:

Wanderlust - Printed Chipboard

Nautical Set

 

Embossing powder:

 Summer breeze 

Stormy seas

Icicle

Stamps:

Stamp - Essential Textures

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The chocolate boxes are made of Happy Accident - Blessing and Quirk papers and decorated with Lace 5 and wonderful Blue Fern Studios Fern leaves covered with Iridescent Grey embossing powder and flowers.

 You can put chocolates or money inside.

 

Blue Fern Studios products used:

Papers:

Happy Accident - Blessing 

Happy Acciden - Quirk

 

Chipboards:

Fern leaves

 

Embossing powder:

Iridescent Grey

Laces:

Lace 5 

Flowers:

Courtship Roses

 

Wish you to spend the rest of Summer with use and see you in September ;)

September Inspirations with Jelissa

Hello friends, how are you?

September is now upon us, and the weather here is becoming a little cooler with more rain. But I'm still very much in a summer mood because of the Seaside Cottages collection. Today I'm here to share two more creations with you. 

This has to be one of the simplest layout I have made in a long time with just splashes of paint in the background because the paper is too pretty to cover up. The photo is one of my boys on the day we landed in Okinawa after a really long flight. We had made our way to a sea salt factory and the view out is just amazing, with the sun starting to set.

Some details:

The Seaside Charms chipboard, which I had painted with gold acrylic paint and covered with a layer of crackle paint. 

My title piece which I had embossed with Breeze and Sky Blue embossing powders.

The top half of the Seaside Charms chipboard which I had snipped off.

Blue Fern Studios products used:

paper: Seaside Cottages - Calling Cards, Regalia, Gala, Embark
chipboard: End of a Perfect Day, Seaside Charms

embossing powders: Breeze, Blue Sky

My second share is another layout of my second boy when he was a baby. I love how the colors of the photo matched the background paper Embark so perfectly that I built the whole layout around this.

Details here:

Altered seashell and anchors matched with the seaside lilies.

My title piece

Fussy cut details

Mesh bits chipboard tucked behind my photo

More chipboard goodies!

And here is the start to finish video of how I put this layout together:

Blue Fern Studios products used:

paper: Seaside Cottage - Calling Cards, Embark, Mermaid

chipboard: Anchors Away, Nautical Set, Mesh Bits, Beach Babe
embossing powders: Breeze, Sky Blue Oatmeal, Mushroom
glitter: Watermelon

August Inspirations with Jelissa

Hello friends, how have you been? 

July has been very exciting and now that August is here, I'm looking to better times ahead! Today I'm so glad to be sharing with you two creations using the fabulous new collection Seaside Cottages. This set of papers speak right to my heart and to say it was love at first sight is a great understatement. Michele has outdone herself yet again with this gorgeous beach-themed collection filled with soft colours and stunning images.

My first layout is of my eldest having some fun with his feet in the sand. Woodgrain is really my thing and I had to use it for the background. Seeing that the paper is so full of details, I toned down my background work and used to it accent the colors on the page. 

Details in the close-ups:

An anchor from part of the Seaside Flourish chippie which I had embossed with Copper EP from Imagine Ink and painted some turquoise acrylic paint over for a tarnished look. The petals were sprinkled with Dusty Pink glitter.

Layer, layer, layer! That's what you do when you have so many pretty papers at hand! Here, I built up lots of dimension with scraps from Calling Cards, Voyage and Splendour. 

Using a Calling Card sentiment as my title. The little stars on the flourish chipboard were also given a nice coat of Sunshine glitter.

Blue Fern Studios products used:

papers: Seaside Cottages - Calling Cards, Voyage, Splendour, Gala

chipboard: Seaside Flourish

EPs: Copper

Glitter, Dusty Pink, Sunshine

My second share is a mixed media canvas and I had used so many fun stuff on it! The starfish and shells that you see are actually from a potpourri set and they smell amazing!

This is the Seashell Frame which I had a lot of fun altering with EP and duo-toned acrylic paint.

A little sailboat from Nautical Set. Check out the background - it's one of the patterned papers from Seaside collection and I didn't have to do much to make it look so grungy and vintage all at the same time!

Who doesn't love a dolphin? I have one here with some seaweed chippies. Check out the Seaside Lilies that come as part of the coordinating flowers - they are so perfectly distressed that I didn't have to fiddle with them at all. 

Mr Octopus saying hi.

I seem to have a thing for anchors again! This one is embossed and wrapped with a piece of twine.

A title piece from Calling Cards, matched by the Seaside Roses.

And here is the video of how I put everything together. Sit back and enjoy!

Blue Fern Studios supplies used:

paper: Seaside Cottages - Calling Card

chipboard: Nautical Set, By the Sea, Seashell Frame, Seaweed chippies

EPs: Ebony, Clover, Fern, Grassy Knoll, Verdant, Sea Breeze, Blue Sky, 14 Karat

Glitter: Mermaid

Tranquility in May

Hello Blue Fern friends!

I'm up on the blog today to share with you my creations for May. I had other projects planned for this post but this collection was too beautiful for me to put down. As usual, I like to play with light and dark background papers and this post is no different.

For my first project, I based it on the May sketch challenge although it didn't make it in time for the sketch reveal a few days ago. Below is the sketch again:

I just had to make a big deal of the blues here because of the boys' t-shirts. It also matches the color scheme of the paper perfectly. Lots of subtle details in the background as I wanted it to merge with the paper itself.

Some details in the close-ups:

Tranquillity flowers. I'm so glad BFS has released coordinating flower packs! No more hunting high and low for blooms that match. 

Altering one of the roses a bit with some watercolor paint to create an ombre effect.

A chippie which I altered by first painting with green watercolor, followed by layering the embossing powders Lilac, Amethyst and with a sprinkle of glitter in Sunshine. 

For my title piece "Blissful", I layered the embossing powders In The Navy, Seven Seas, Cerulean and Breeze.

Blue Fern Studios products used:

paper: Tranquility collection - Calm, Calling Cards, Jubilation, Peaceful

chipboard: "Blissful, Jubilation, Patience", "Tranquil Foliage"

embossing powder: In The Navy, Seven Seas, Cerulean, Breeze, Lilac, Amethyst

Glitter: SunshineFlowers: Tranquil Blooms, Tranquil Roses and Lilies 

My second share is a video tutorial, of a layout of the boys at Rockingham Beach. Granted it was close to winter and chilly, we were hoping to make a day trip to Penguin Island just across the shore and check out the wildlife. Unfortunately the ferry trips were all canceled but we had a lot of fun picking up shells and watching the sea birds play in the distance. 

I love how the whole project turned out, although there were a few bits which I thought I could have added more details - some of you may know what I'm talking about when I say I wanted to do something this minute and the next minute I've clean forgotten it! Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for woodgrain patterns and this sheet of Calm (I've used the reverse side for the first layout, that's how much I like it) really got my groove going. 

Some details in the close-ups:

A cute little anchor amidst the waves. Matched with Tranquility flowers. 

More altered blooms, shells and seaweed chippies.

Love how the glitter sparkles in the sunlight, much like seaspray on a summer day.

Lapping waves and foam

The title piece - Fascination. Love the duo-toned effect in the sun!

And here is the start to finish video tutorial. I have noted the feedback from the previous video and slowed things down here so that you don't miss out on the action. Sit back and have fun!

Blue Fern Studios products used:

paper: Tranquility collection - Calm, Jubilation, Peaceful

chipboard: By the Sea, Nautical Set, Seaside Seashells, Seaweed, Serendipity - Fascination
embossing powder: In The Navy, Seven Seas, Cerulean, Bonny Blue, Ebony, Mushroom, Clover, Fern, Verdant
Glitter: Blue Diamond, Carribean, Autumn
Flowers: Tranquil Blooms, Tranquil Roses and Lilies