November Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone!  Welcome to the weekend, and another sketch challenge here at Blue Fern Studios.  Our sketch designer, Michele Singh, has once again created a lovely sketch, with loads of possibilities.

Want to see how some of our Creative Team used the sketch?  We have some gorgeous examples for you.

Keren Tamir

Debbie Burns

Jelissa Mei

Bente Fagerberg

Wilma Voermans

Zaneta Glowa

We hope these layouts from our Creative Team have given you some inspiration.
Now it's your turn to show us how you will interpret the sketch.

One lucky winner, selected by a random draw, will receive a prize package 

of Blue Fern Studios chipboard!

In addition, we will also select 3 (or more) layouts to feature.

We have just a few simple rules to follow if you would like to participate in our sketch challenge:

1.) Feel free to interpret the sketch as you please by means of taking it as-is or 

flipping/turning/mirroring it to suit your needs, but please make sure your layout resembles the sketch.

2). Please note that you can do whatever type of project you please - a layout, card, 

  canvas, altered item- whatever suits your mood and style! 

We would love to see the different ways our sketch can be used.

3.) You must use at least one piece of Blue Fern Studios chipboard OR use Blue Fern Studios paper on your project. Please note that you do not need to use the pieces featured in the sketch

- use whatever suits your fancy! You can find the store nearest you HERE.
 {Do not use any other brand of chipboard on your project, please!}

4.) Upload your project using the Inlinkz tool below by midnight EST on November 30, 2015

We look forward to seeing how you use our sketch and Blue Fern products!

Enter Here:

An InLinkz Link-up

It's Time for our October Sketch Challenge

Hello everyone and welcome to a new month.  Our tradition is to begin each month with a fresh dose of inspiration in the form of sketch challenge.  Not only do we give you a new sketch to work with, we also show you how some of our talented Creative Team have used the sketch.  Here is this month's sketch, designed by the very talented Michele Singh.

Marie Josee Hamel

Yuko Tanaka

Keren Tamir

Marilyn Rivera

Debbie Burns

Sandi Clarkson

Wow, our design team outdid themselves this month.  Excellent job, ladies!
Now it's your turn to show us how you will interpret the sketch.

One lucky winner, selected by a random draw, will receive a prize package 

of Blue Fern Studios chipboard!

In addition, we will also select 3 (or more) layouts to feature.

 

We have just a few simple rules to follow if you would like to participate in our sketch challenge:

1.) Feel free to interpret the sketch as you please by means of taking it as-is or 

flipping/turning/mirroring it to suit your needs, but please make sure your layout resembles the sketch.

2). Please note that you can do whatever type of project you please - a layout, card, 

  canvas, altered item- whatever suits your mood and style! 

We would love to see the different ways our sketch can be used.

3.) You must use at least one piece of Blue Fern Studios chipboard OR use Blue Fern Studios paper on your project. Please note that you do not need to use the pieces featured in the sketch

- use whatever suits your fancy! You can find the store nearest you HERE.
 {Do not use any other brand of chipboard on your project, please!}

4.) Upload your project using the Inlinkz tool below by midnight EST on October 31, 2015

We look forward to seeing how you use our sketch and Blue Fern products!

 

Enter Here:

An InLinkz Link-up

Autumn Anthology with Bente.

Hi, it's Bente here with a couple of layouts to share using the latest gorgeous 

paper collection Autumn Anthology. 

It is simply a mixture of stunning designs and some of my most favourite colours.

Here is my first page with the collection:

Did you know that Blue Fern Studios now even carry mists? There will be new mists with each collection and I used two of the new colours here; Imagine Inks Leaf and Sky.

I painted the chipboard title-words a neutral beige colour and decorated with some micro beads.

I used  the stunning  Jackie's Window to ground my design and this one is also painted with a mix of acrylic paint and some green mist. After it dried I went over the edges with a small chalk ink pad.

As you can see I  used some of the new stamps on my page. 

I used all three designs from the Essential Textures set. 

I cut out the banner that you can see under the chipboard from one of the calling cards.

The title is made of a couple of words from the  Chunky Words set.

To make my flower cluster complete I added a few small chipboard twigs called Berry Stems. 

I love the brown colour they were painted and the delicate look of them. 

Ok, now for my second page for today:

 Another beautiful sheet from the Autumn Anthology collection. 

I actually fussy cut a part of one paper and added it on top of this blue one, (in case you go looking for a paper that looks like this :-D)

I used the Royal Heart Frame to surround the photo on top of the layers of paper and calling cards.

After I painted the heart frame a suitable colour I heat-embossed it with gold using one of the same textured stamps as above. I think the look is really neat!! 

I added a few bits and pieces from the inside of larger chipboard pieces. 

I find these are good to hold on to as they can be really useful.

 As you see from the shot here I have added quite a lot of media to my layered papers. 

I added different beads as well as glitter gel, paint, gesso, and ink. 

There is a certain shimmer to the page that does not come through in the pictures.

Finally a little reminder that there's still ample time to join in our sketch challenge for September.

Below is a picture of the sketch and a page I made as an example.

You can read ALL bout the challenge HERE.

Thanks for looking!

Our August Sketch Challenge

Are you ready to get the month started with a new sketch?  Our sketch designer, Michele Singh, has another great sketch for us.  This one could so easily be rotated to give it an entirely new look.  I'm sure we can count on you, our fabulous readers, to come up with something amazing!

Here is how some members of our Creative Team used the sketch as inspiration:

 

Keren Tamir (Ombre Dreams Collection)

Jelissa Mei (Paisley & Vine Collection)

Marie Josée Hamel (Paisley and Vine Collection)

Debbie Burns (Frolic Collection)

Kim Price (Ombre Dreams Collection)

Wilma Voermans (Paisley and Vine Collection)

Now it is YOUR turn to show us how you used the August sketch.

One lucky winner, selected by a random draw, will receive a prize package of Blue Fern Studios chipboard!

In addition, we will also select 3 (or more) layouts to feature.

We have just a few simple rules to follow if you would like to participate in our sketch challenge:

1.) Feel free to interpret the sketch as you please by means of taking it as-is or 

flipping/turning/mirroring it to suit your needs! 

2). Please note that you can do whatever type of project you please - a layout, card, 

  canvas, altered item- whatever suits your mood and style! 

We would love to see the different ways our sketch can be used.

3.) You must use at least one piece of Blue Fern Studios chipboard OR use Blue Fern Studios paper on your project. Please note that you do not need to use the pieces featured in the sketch

- use whatever suits your fancy! You can find the store nearest you HERE.
 {Do not use any other brand of chipboard on your project please!}

4.) Upload your project using the Inlinkz tool below by midnight EST on August 31, 2015

We look forward to seeing how you use our sketch and Blue Fern products!

Enter Here:

An InLinkz Link-up

Sketch Challenge Winner & Featured Layouts

Let's start off this post by announcing the winner of our June Sketch Challenge.  The winner is entry #16, which belongs to Jessika of Sweden, who has won an assortment of Blue Fern Studios chipboard!  Jessika, please send me an e-mail, within the next 7 days, to {valerie(at)bluefernstudios(dot)com} to claim your prize.

 Take a look at this happy layout Jessika created using pieces of the Waterworks Frame chipboard piece.

The sketch challenge entries this month were outstanding!  There were so many awesome projects to choose from to feature this month, but we have narrowed it down to the following.  We hope you enjoy them!

The first featured project was created by Elena Lishchenko of Russia.  Elena entered a hand-made album cover in our sketch challenge, and it sure is beautiful!  The chipboard piece used on the cover is from the Deja Vu Dangles Chippies set, and the paper is from our Deja Vu collection.

In her blog post, Elena shows the inside of her album, which was also created using the Deja Vu collection.  She has several videos on her blog where she shows exactly how she stacked layer after layer of gorgeous paper from the Deja Vu collection to create each page inside the album.  Here's a peek inside:

Our second feature this month is from Pascale who lives in France.  We love that the pieces from the Turkish Bits, which she has painted black, provide the perfect background and texture for this elegant photo.

And our third feature this month is by Elena Volchkova of Ukraine. We fell in love with the softness Elena created using paper from the very first Blue Fern collection, Blue Fern Garden.  Elena used the Dresden Corsage, which she cut into several pieces, and sprinkled some of the Broken Rings around her layout. 

We couldn't stop at just 3 features this month, so we will continue!  This one uses

paper from the Deja Vu collection, and was created by Karine Gagnon of Canada.  Karine has added the Dresden Corsage chipboard piece to her layout, and used a piece from the Love, Happy, Smile set for the title.

The final feature from our June Sketch Challenge is from Yasmins of Norway.  Yasmins has a YouTube video on her blog where you can watch her process as she created this layout.  She used the Jeweled Page Dangles and Majestic Frame chipboard pieces.  We love how she altered the frame by adding some tiny beads.  

That's it for this month.  Congratulations to our winner, and the awesome women who created the five layouts/album we are featuring this month.  It was such a difficult choice, as always.  Thanks to ALL of you who took the time to enter our sketch challenge in June.

Our July sketch has been posted, and a link to it can be found in our right sidebar.  We hope you will join us once again in July. 

July Inspiration with Jelissa

Hello Blue Fern fans! How has your month of July been? The weather has been blazing hot and we're doing whatever we can to cool down.

It's my turn on the Blue Fern blog today and I have two creations to share with you. The first is based on the fabulous July sketch. Here is what it looks like:

I've kept the orientation of the sketch, as well as the dark background and my papers came from a mix of Sanctuary and Love Story to create my layout.

My mixed media background was created Birdsong Melody from Sanctuary, with a lot of paint dabbing and layering with watercolors, as well as textural details using microspheres, dew drops and microbeads, as well as some string and stamping. I love it that Blue Fern tries in sneak in a few dark colored patterned papers into their collections for us to create our very own backgrounds.

Some close-ups:

The La Plume chipboard which I first painted with a light brown, followed by UTEE embossing for resist and layering with more browns. Beneath are paper layers made from scraps I had left over from Love Story collection.

The Notebook Edges chipboard, which I first heat embossed and then colored with different shades of blue. To add texture to my layers, I mixed chipboard, paper, lace and trims.

A close-up of some of the textural details I have in my background.

I hope my sample has inspired you to create a project of your own to participate in our monthly sketch challenge!

Blue Fern Studios products used:

Sanctuary collection - Melody Birdsong

Love Story collection - Concerto, Sweet Song, True Harmony

Notebook Edges

La Plume

And now for my video tutorial. For this project, I revisited one of my all time favourites from Blue Fern Studios, the Ombre Dreams collection. 

I used only "Susan's Dream" because the images on the paper fit my composition perfectly and had the exact type of watercolor imagery I had in mind to create for my background. I also used scraps from Dream Cards and Charlotte's Dream to build up my layers.

Some close-ups:

A die cut from Dream Cards which I used as my title, and a Bohemian flower piece tucked into my cluster. You can also see the half-tone stamp which I used to add minute details to my background.

I love the big chipboard pieces because they are simply value for money and so fun to play with. Here, you see Medley Border which I have cut up into four pieces and tucked them everywhere to maintain the flow of my composition, as well as to break up the monotony of paper layering.

Interspersed in the layers is also the Notebook frame which I had added some texture to.

Here is the start-to-finish video. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I have creating the project.

Blue Fern Studios products used:

Ombre Dreams - Charlotte's Dream, Susan's Dream, Dream Cards

Notebook Frame

Bohemian Flowers

Medley Border

Halftone stamps

love,

Jelissa