My First Projects for Blue Fern Studios: Cathi O'Neill

Hi, I am so excited to be here today with my first projects for Blue Fern Studios!

My name is Cathi O'Neill and I am an American who wandered the world and married an Irishman. I have been living in Ireland since 1997. I live in a beautiful village on the Shannon River with my DH of 20 years (wow, that makes me feel old!) and my two beautiful daughters, Aine (onya) 13 and Aisling (ashling) 11, who are the subject of many of my projects!!

I have always loved crafting since I was a little girl. My grandmother taught me to knit and crochet and I remember sewing Barbie doll clothes with her on her front porch! I am a knitter and quilter as well, but have recently in the last few years found cardmaking and scrapbooking, and an obsession was born!! Barely a day goes by when I haven't done something crafty!!

I would say my style is a mixture of vintage, shabby chic with a hint of mixed media, you will often see me using vintage images! I hope you will come visit me at my blog at http://celticknotted.blogspot.com.

My first project uses the amazing new paper line, Blush. I have chosen a gorgeous vintage image that had just a tint of pink and blue in it...I used those to guide the layout's colors. I chose the beautiful Sweetheart paper for base of my layout.

I used many of the cut out cards and titles from the Blush Calling Card paper, layering them up! You can also see the Postal Textures stamps here in the background, I used Walnut Stain distress ink to make a weathered and distressed stamping background.

You can see two of the chipboard pieces I used, the gorgeous Floral Medley Frame and the Bits of Honey pieces. I used the Imagine Ink Sage and Bonny Blue on the frame leaving some sections plain for an overall distressed look. The Bits of Honey pieces were embossed with the Bonny Blue and I added some Walnut Stain distress ink to age them a little.

I used lots of yummy flowers from my stash in my floral cluster adding a ribbon for extra detail. I finished off the cluster with the heart lock from the Vintage Locks chipboard set.

Blue Fern Studio Supply List:

Paper:

Blush-Sweetheart and Calling Card

Chipboard:

Bits of Honey

Floral Medley Frame

Vintage Locks

Stamp:

PostalTextures

Imagine Ink Embossing Powder:

Sage, Honey, Bonny Blue

My next layout features the gorgeous new Timeless collection and a beautiful selfie my daughter took on my iPad. It is always fun to find new photos to use for my layouts taken for me on the iPad, a selfie addicted girl is great for a scrapper! I have used the Timeless Maçonnerie page for the layout base.

You can see some more layers in this page using the Timeless Calling Cards paper cut outs. Under the photo I have used the middle clock from the Roman Clock Set - Large. I used the Imagine Ink Mystic Plum embossing powder to color up the chipboard, adding some gesso for distressing.

I love the retro font used for the Timeless chipboard! This layout is called Timeless Beauty, which I happen to think my daughter is! I have used Imagine Ink Mystic Plum embossing powder and gesso again to color and distress the title.

I have added some gorgeous flowers and a nest which I think works well with the bird imagery in one of the calling cards. I have also tucked in some tags under the photo cluster. I also used Seedless Preserves distress ink and a stone wall mask to tone in with the papers. I added a bit of blue and brown splashes too.

I finished off my layout with a beautiful handcrafted butterfly by Renea.

Blue Fern Studio Supply List:

Paper:

Timeless -Maçonnerie and Calling Card

Chipboard:

Roman Clocks - Large

Timeless

Imagine Ink Embossing Powder:

Mystic Plum

You might have seen this layout in the challenge post earlier, this is my take on the January sketch challenge. I have used the Frolic Allegro paper for my base. Here is the sketch you can use to play along this month:

I have used the beautiful Royal Monarch butterfly chipboard and embossed it in Imagine Ink Honey and Cotton Candy. I have made a homemade satin and tulle flower and have used the Essential Textures and Texture Circle stamps for my background.

Here you can see lots of layers from the Montage Calling Cards paper and the Turkish Bits and Arrow Words chipboards.

Imagine Ink Honey and Cotton Candy are used here again to color the chipboard. To finish off the layout with my gorgeous vintage ballerina I simply added a little clip to the corner of the photo.

Blue Fern Studio Supply List:

Paper:

Frolic - Allegro

Montage - Calling Cards

Chipboard:

Turkish Bits

Arrow Words

Royal Monarchs
Stamps:
Essential Textures
Texture Circles

Imagine Ink Embossing Powder:

Honey

Cotton Candy

Thank you so much for having a look at my projects for this month. I am so excited to be here!

December Sketch Challenge Winner & Featured Layouts

Hello Blue Fern fans.  We're here today to announce the winner of our December sketch challenge.  

Based on a random draw, the winner is:

Entry #1 belongs to Patty - A Sassy Scrapper.  Congratulations Patty!   As the winner, you will receive a package of Blue Fern Studios chipboard.  Please send an e-mail, within the next 7 days, to {valerie(at)bluefernstudios(dot)com} to claim your prize.

Here is the beautiful layout that Patty created using the December sketch.  She used paper from our Vintage Christmas collection.   Patty was not only the first person to enter our sketch challenge last month, but this was also her first time entering our sketch challenge. 

It's our pleasure to feature the following three layouts from the December entries.  

Congratulations to each of you!

Gocchi of Japan

Kathy Bradley

Caroleanne Wright

Thanks to each of you who participated in our December challenge.  

We love seeing how you interpret our sketches and use Blue Fern products.

Our January sketch challenge has been posted on our blog, along with some gorgeous examples from our 2016 design team.  You can find a link to it in our sidebar.  We sure hope you will participate this month!  You just might be the winner of a selection of Blue Fern chipboard, or have your layout featured on our blog.  Good Luck!

Welcoming In The New Year With Blue Fern Studios~

Welcome to to the New Year and welcome to my very first Blue Fern Studios Post!!!

To kick things off, I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. 

My name is Renea Harrison aka Reneabouquets in the virtual world, a Southern Girl, born and raised in Tennessee. I have been married to my husband, David for over 25 years, and we have one son, Draven, who went off to college last year. I am the bookkeeper for our local business and owner of the Reneabouquets.com Store and Reneabouquets Etsy.

 I don't just love scrapbooking, I am passionate about it. I love every aspect of this amazing multi-media art. I love the art of the creation itself, from taking the design in my head and getting it out onto paper, to the social aspect of it. I love sharing what I know, and learning what others share. 

As a scrapbook artist, I don't really have any one set style. I tend to scrap whatever mood I happen to be in which can range, from Shabby Chic, Girly Girl, Vintage and Girlie Grunge to Masculine, Grunge, and Mixed Media. 

As an artist, I think that one of my greatest hopes is that I can inspire you to create and can teach you something new that you can take and use in your own work, so let's get started!!

Boots, Beauty & Blue Fern:

I love sliding into a comfortable pair of boots, and for this Design Team layout, I couldn't help, but get inspired by the Swirly Circle Chipboard Frame to create something rustic meets beautiful!!

I started with a layer of Blue Fern Studios Autumn Anthology-Newsworthy Paper, I then took another piece of the same paper and used the backside, tearing and inking the edges to fit my design. Next, I added a layer of corrugated board that I heavily inked and added my photo to.

I took the Blue Fern Swirly Circle Chipboard Frame, inked it up and then randomly heat embossed it with some Imagine Ink Oatmeal Embossing Powder to get a wonderful, rustic look, and layered it over my photo.

I added some lace to add a feminine touch, and then took some branches with moss, made a little stack and wrapped and tied it with twine, added some mini pine cones and popped some of my handcrafted butterflies.

I added some cheesecloth, burlap leaf picks, a large chiffon flower and some more flowers to round out my feminine meets rustic look. 

I then crackle painted some areas around the frame, and inked them, then took a Blue Fern Essential Textures Stamp and did some stamping. Stamping can add a lot of texture and dimension on your layouts and the Essential Textures Stamps are so perfect for adding background noise. 

Here is some more detail of the Yumminess of the stamping. 

In the top corner of my layout, I inked a "Natural Beauty" chipboard piece from the Blue Fern, All Natural Set. I inked in a way that let some of the natural kraft color of the chipboard show through to get a variegated color effect. I then added some more twigs wrapped with twine and pine cones. I took some of the paper pieces left over from the tearing I did and rolled and inked them, then tied more twine around them. I fussy cut out a little bird from the paper and glitter painted him up and then popped him on with foam tape for dimension.

And here you can see all the dimension and texture that you can create using  Blue Fern Products.

Blue Fern Studio Supply List:

Paper:

Autumn Anthology~Newsworthy

Chipboard:

All Natural Set (Natural Beauty)

Swirly Circle

Stamp:

Essential Textures

Imagine Ink Embossing Powder:

Oatmeal

Getting Winterlicious With The Blue Fern Sketch:

Each month Blue Fern Studios has a sketch challenge that you can take part in. Here is this month's January Sketch:

And here is my Design Team take on the sketch:

I decided to work with some papers from the Blue Fern Deja Vu line to get a Winterlicious, frosty look!! I started with a piece of Lustre Paper and then used another piece of the same paper, this time using the backside. I distressed the edges heavily and did some grunge punching. I used a stencil and texture paste to create the snowflakes on the background paper, and  I then added in 2 more layers of Tresors paper, adding sand paste and Glitter Glass to create a Snowy~frosty look.

Next, I took a Blue Fern Chipboard French Ironwork, painted it with crackle paint and then clear emboss inked randomly and heat embossed using the Imagine Ink Mystic Plum Embossing Powder, and added a crystal for a little bling.

The snowflakes were created by taking Blue Fern Chipboard Winter Flakes,  painting them with white gesso, and then heat embossing them with Imagine Ink Icicle Embossing Powder.

To add a little more texture and bling, I then added Silver Microbeads to the tips of the flakes and overlaid them with Snowflake Buttons. 

I created a flower layer at the bottom corner of my photo.

I also popped on some of my handcrafted butterflies for some extra sparkle!!

I love that Blue Fern papers are so high quality and thick that they can handle all of my mediums, textures and layering! Just look at all the dimension that they allow you to achieve.

Blue Fern Studio Supply List:

Paper:

Deja Vu-Lustre
Deja Vu-Tresors

Chipboard:

French Ironwork

Winter Flakes

Imagine Ink Embossing Powder:

Mystic Plum

Icicle

I love creating off the page projects, and one of my FAV things is mini albums. I love creating pages that have little tuck ins for storing memories, and all kinds of unexpected treasures!!

 For this mini album, I used the Blue Fern Frolic Paper Collection,  starting with a layer of Friendship as the base layer and then adding a layer of  Petits Moments. 

I then added a layer of corrugated board that I added some beads, Imagine Ink Embossing Powder In Cerulean and cheesecloth to grunge it up a bit. I took some pieces of  the Blue Fern Shabby Brick Pieces Chipboard, textured them and added them to my cover design.

Next, I fussy cut out one of the birds from the Friendship Paper and glitter painted him up, then cut out the rest of the bird design and added it to a Blue Fern Majestic Chipboard Frame.

I painted the frame with a coat of gesso and then heat embossed it with the Cerulean Embossing Powder.

Here is a look at all the layering.

Here I created pocket pages with tags using the following Blue Fern Papers:

Frolic Petits Moments
Frolic Veranda

For these pages, I used:

Frolic Friendship and Frolic Petits Moments Papers

there is a pocket that I created using a cut out of the birds design and then created,

a sweet, little sewn booklet from the Calling Cards Paper, 

and a tag that tucks in at the top from the Dans Le Jardin paper.

These pocket pages were created with the Frolic Adorn Paper.

And all the tuck in and tags were created with the Frolic Calling Card Paper.

The last set of pages were created with the Frolic Dans Le Jardin Papers and feature a pocket,

With Frolic Calling Card tags as well as a large tag, tuck in created with Frolic Friendship Paper.

The back side was created using Frolic Friendship Paper.

Thank you so much for joining me for my first Blue Fern Studios Reveal! I hope that you have enjoyed getting to know a little bit about me and also that you have enjoyed my projects. Here is to a New Year full of Creativity, Inspiration and Fun!! Hugs ~Renea

Blue Fern Studio Supply List:

Paper:

Frolic Friendship
Frolic Calling Cards
Frolic Dans Le Jardin
Frolic Petits Moments
Frolic Veranda
Frolic Adorn

Chipboard:

Majestic Frame

Shabby Brick Pieces

Imagine Ink Embossing Powder:

Cerulean