January Design Team Projects by Melinda Thompson

Hello!

I am so excited to share with you my very first projects as a designer for Blue Fern Studios.

My name is Melinda Thompson and I am from Australia and live in a growing country town called Emerald right in the heart of Central Queensland.  Its dry and its hot and our summers last for around 8-9 months of the year and we only have an odd week or two where we experience cold weather. And even then its not cold compared to what others experience...we may only need to pull out the ugg boots and jumpers!

I am married to my best friend for nearly 15 years and have 3 adorable, but full of life, boys who are the centre of my life and who I mainly scrap about.

I started scrapbooking when I took maternity leave from my job to have my first baby and it just grew from there.

A bit about my scrapbooking style:

- Even though I have 3 boys which means I am constantly surrounded by cars, trucks and lego and all things noisy and dirty, my pages are super girly and feminine.  I will nearly always use flowers and usually alot!

- I am inspired by colour and will even scrap using pink on a boys page...after all its my art :)

- I love texture so my pages are very dimensional they never fit into albums.

- The backgrounds to my layouts are always created using lots of mixed media techniques and products.

Looking forward to joining the Blue Fern Studios team for 2015!

You can find more of my work and follow me on my blog:
www.minseverydaymoments.blogspot.com

My 1st project was using the January sketch.  For the background of this layout I have used the paper Garden Plaza from the Sanctuary Collection and created some layers behind my photo using the Calling Cards also from the Sanctuary Collection.

I have used a stunning Tattered Butterfly, the Notebook Edges and the word Laughter from the Laughter Happy Smile pack.  With each of my chipboard pieces I coat them with Gesso first and then in this instance I have given them a light covering with some paint and mist.

Paper: Sanctuary Collection: Garden Plaza & Calling Cards

Chipboard:  Notebook Edges, Tattered Butterfly, Laughter

My 2nd project I used the Ombre Dreams: Gingers Dreams paper for my background.

I have used a couple of pieces of Graduated Circles...love these! I have tucked them in an around my layers behind my photo and covered them with mist and paint. The stunning La Plum chipboard piece was lightly painted and then dipped in glitter.

I have also used a piece from the Nested Circle pack, cut it in half and placed at the top and bottom sides of my layout.

Paper: Ombre Dreams: Ginger Dreams & Dream Cards

Chipboard: Graduated Circles, Nested Circle, La Plume

For my 3rd project I was drawn to the gorgeous vintage background of the Meadows of Time paper in the Sanctuary Collection.  But in my usual style I brightened things up!

I cut the bottom section off and turned it over to reveal the beautiful flower pattern that was on the reverse side.  I have used the Small Circle Flower Flourish as well as one of the Corner Flourish.  Down the bottom edge of my layout I have included one of the Arrow Words "Love This".

Paper: Sanctuary Collection - Meadows of Time, Bountiful

Chipboard: Arrow Word, Small Circle Flower Flourish, Corner Flourish

Thank you so much for visiting, I hope you enjoyed my projects...see you next month!

Melinda

January Projects by Ulrika Blomfelt

Hello!

I´m so happy to share my first work as a Blue Fern Studios designer with you all!

My name is Ulrika Blomfelt aka LillBlomman and I´m a swedish girl who loves all about scrapbooking! I started scrapbooking in April 2006. I live in a cute yellow house next to the woods and still close to our capital Stockholm. Here I live with my very loved hubbie our for a long time longed for son Viggo and a very cute but a bit crazy dog. I became a mother late in life and after that my scrapbooking ment even more for me! You will see lot of Viggo in my work because he´s the one I scrap most about. 

I love to create in all scrapbooking gengres! It´s too fun to just choose one of them. I love to pick out just the right color combination for a project and then continue my work. My style is a romantic mixed-media style but it can change from one project to another. I love to try new techniques and try to develop in my art all the time. I´m so proud to been asked to design for this company and thrilled to work with all amazing supplies. I´m looking forward to design with all the amazing and talented girls and spread the joy of crafting during 2015!

You are also very welcome to my personal blog at: www.lillblommanskapar.blogspot.com

I love making cards so I have two cards and two layouts to show you today.

For my card I used Sanctuary Bountiful and Sanctuary Calling Cards.

I painted the Natural Sprigs first in one shade of green and then I added a thin coat paint with glitter in it.

I used a lovely quote from Sanctuary Calling Cards paper inside of the Roman Clock set.

My next card looks totally different from the first but I actually used the same papers.

To create my sign I used the Damask Panel. First I painted it with Gesso. Then I added a rub-on sentiment. I also gave it a coat with Crackle Paint and light blue fluid chalk.

I painted Mini Flourishes with black acrylic paint and then I added a coat of Glossy accent.

For my layout about my boy and all his Christmas presents I used Sanctuary Botanical Garden and Meadows of Time.

For my Graduated Squares I wanted lots of texture. After Modeling Paste and Acrylic Paint I added some glass glitter.

This is my take on January sketch. I love to add gold to my work and here I mixed the gold with black and lilac.

As background I used Sanctuary Birdsong Melody. First I gave all my Chipboard pieces a coat of Gesso. On my Fancy Signage I used Gold Acrylic Paint and then I sprinkled over with Gold Rush Glass Glitter. On my Happy word Chipboard besides black Acrylic Paint I added Charcoal Art Sugar.

On my beautiful Butterflies I wanted lots of Gold flakes!

Hugs from Ulrika!

Sketch Challenger Winner & Featured Layouts

We are thrilled with the excitement over our new paper collection, Love Story.  In case you didn't see the sneak peek yesterday, scroll down and have a look. 

But now, it's time to announce the winner of our December sketch challenge.  We are happy that so many of you found time in the busy month of December to create a project using our sketch.

The winner of the prize for our December sketch challenge is........................

Entry #12 belongs to Sonja of Sweden!  Congratulations, Sonja. 

You have won an awesome prize package from Blue Fern Studios!  

Please send me an e-mail, within the next 7 days, 

at {valerie(at)bluefernstudios(dot)com} to claim your prize.

Here is Sonja's layout created using our Brick Bits chipboard piece:

Now we would like to feature a few entries in the sketch challenge.  This is just a sampling of the many beautiful projects created!

Sonia Thomason used paper from our Sanctuary collection, along with Broken Rings and the Happy title from our Love, Happy, Smile chipboard set to create this sweet layout with an artsy background.

Marina Gridasova of Russia created this layout titled "Time Has Flown", which seems very appropriate at the end of the year.  Both the paper and chipboard is from Blue Fern Studios.

Mabel Sim of Singapore used our sketch as inspiration for this beautiful canvas.  Be sure to check out her blog where she details exactly how she created this.  The beautiful chipboard piece was cut in half to extend from the picture.  

Congratulations to our prize winner and those who were featured this month.  

Thank you also, to everyone who entered our sketch challenge.  

The January sketch has been posted (see link in right sidebar). 

We hope you will all participate!

Coming Soon........Love Story

We are excited to give you a sneak peek of our upcoming paper collection, Love Story.  Created by Michele Singh, this collection is for anyone who is a romantic at heart or has a cherished love story to tell.  Various shades of pink, rose, and soft green are complimented by warm neutrals and rich blacks.  This collection brings beautifully framed pages, calling cards, love notes, images of nature and so much more!   

Two Layouts & A Canvas Creation by Kim Price

Hello everyone. My name is Kim Price and I live with my husband and two grown up daughters on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia - which is about an hours drive north of Sydney.

I've always had an interest in the arts, but I began my scrapbook journey around 12 years ago when I accidentally stumbled upon a scrapbooking shop and I was completely drawn in. I love to combine art mediums into my projects and I'm probably mostly known for my customised backgrounds and mixed media style. I'm really excited to be joining Blue Fern Studios in 2015!

Today I wanted to share a few of the projects I've been working on featuring lots of chipboard and stunning patterned paper collections. I've created two 12"x12" scrapbook layouts, one is based on this month's Sketch Challenge and a sweet little baby themed canvas.

My first layout is based on the January sketch challenge. I've used Blue Fern Studios Montage Now & Then patterned paper, fussy cutting some of the images from the paper layering them together with torn strips of paper from the leftover as shown in the photograph below. 

I've used "Crossing The Lines" chipboard element behind my photograph for a lattice effect, adding my title "adorable" from the "Good Vibes" pack and finishing the whole thing off with a sweet little flying bird shape from "Little Birds"

Paper - Blue Fern Studios Montage collection Now & Then 

Blue Fern Studios Chipboard - Crossing The Lines, Little Birds Set, Good Vibes

My second project is another 12"x12" layout - this time featuring the brand new collection, Sanctuary for a completely different look and style.

For my second layout I've kept embellishments to a minimum to really make the new Sanctuary papers shine. I've hand painted some plain cardstock using shades of beige and soft aqua then torn a sheet of Meadows Of Time patterned paper across the bottom edge and laid it over my cardstock. 

I've taken a second sheet of Meadows Of Time paper and trimmed all of the flower elements along with the bird image, arranging the flowers between the papers as show above for a layered look.

The "Twiggy Branch" chipboard was first given a coat of gesso, allowed to dry then I've painted it with a layer or two of watercolor, adhering tiny flowers and leaves along the branches.

I've painted the Small Garden Daisy chipboard element and the "All Natural" title in an antique white acrylic paint - tucking the flower stem behind the bird element and layering my title on top.

Papers: Blue Fern Studios Sanctuary collection Meadows Of Time
Blue Fern Studios chipboard: Twiggy Branch, All Natural Set, Small Garden Daisy

And my final project for today is a small canvas with a baby theme featuring a photograph of one of my precious angels when she was just newborn.

I first added some color and texture to my canvas background, allowed it to dry then layered elements from Montage Calling Cards patterned paper, including the sweet little fussy cut cherub image and tiny butterfly.

I've then added color to one of the Romantic Page Dangles, trimming into three pieces and layering two of the smaller pieces across the top of the canvas and placing the larger heart shape dangle along the right side tucked beneath my photograph. My Perfect title from the "Chunky Words" pack was again simply painted with acrylic paint in a shade of aqua to coordinate the design.

Papers: Blue Fern Studios Montage collection Calling Cards
Blue Fern Studios chipboard: Romantic Page Dangles, Chunky Words



Thanks for dropping in today, I hope you've enjoyed my projects and I look forward to sharing more soon. 

-Kim

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

Happy New Year and our First Sketch Challenge of 2015

Welcome to January and a brand new year!  We are going to start the year with a new sketch challenge.  Each month we bring you a new sketch, designed for Blue Fern Studios by Michele Singh.  You have the entire month to create and upload a project using the sketch.

Here is this month's sketch:

Some members of our Creative Team have used the sketch as inspiration to create these layouts.  They have used Blue Fern Studios paper and chipboard.  

Kim Price

Zaneta Glowa

Melinda Thompson

Keren Tamir

Karita Vainio

Ulrika Blomfelt

Galina Sazonova

Patter Cross

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 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 January 31, 2015

We look forward to your entries!

An InLinkz Link-up