Friday, March 14, 2014

2 Cards and a Fabric Journal by Evgenia Petzer

Hello dear friends! Its Evgenia Petzer with you today, I have 2 cards to share with you today and a handmade fabric journal/notebook.
Both cards that I amde use the gorgeous Blue Fern Garden paper. I really LOVE everything about it the designs, the quality, just great!

Blue Fern Studios chipboard used: doily bunting, swirly doodle.

 The swirly doodle is painted with 2 colors of acrylic paint and then I applied glossy accent on top


and the second project is fabric-covered handmade notebook. Pretty in pink, hey?:) for a little girl.
Blue Fern Studios chipboard used: Brigitte Butterfly Set, Symphony border

and some close ups:
 the pages inside are hand-dyed in coffee

and another card
Blue Fern Studios chipboard used: bits of honey, all natural set


 microbeads on top of the chipboard leave from All natural set.

Hope you will have  a wonderful day!
Evgenia.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Three layouts with Blue Fern Garden by Marie-Josée

Hello all,

I hope you are doing fine! Today, I have three projects to show you, all using the Blue Fern Garden paper collection. Here they are.

"Memories Captured" layout:



To create the background of this layout, I used the Turkish panel. Panels sent to DT members sometimes have smaller pieces still stuck to it. I decided not to get rid of those and to use the panel as is. I glued it to a piece of 12 x 12 chipboard, applied gesso and then white acrylic paint. I altered the background with mists, stamps and ink.



I used two different Blue Fern Garden papers on this layout, Love Letters and Picnic (both sides). I used pop dots to add dimension.



I also used a phrase from the Captured Words set as a title. I decided to leave it bare to make it stand out.




"Forever" layout




For this layout, I used a Blue Fern paper as a background (In Bloom). I altered two pieces of the Chickenwire panel with gesso and glued it to my background.



I also used two pieces of the Beaded Strings set. I used one as a frame for my photo and the other one as a second frame around it. I applied gesso and three different colors of Gelatos. I used a bit of water and the tip of my finger to blend the colors. I also sprayed a touch of brown mist.



Then, I cut some words out of the Calling Cards paper and used them in the corners of my layout.


"Apprécier le quotidien" layout



For this clean and simple layout, I chose to use a color not found in the Blue Fern Garden papers, that is, red! :) Here's what I did. I chose a rather plain paper for my background (Parlour, B side). As you can see below, originally, the color blue was found on the paper:


Since I wanted it to match the rest of my layout, I used a watercolor pencil and added a touch of red to the blue flowers! :)



You also noticed that I only used a tiny picture. That is because I wanted to use a piece of chipboard from the Circle Groups set as a frame. I painted this piece of chipboard with white acrylic paint.



I used the Royal Border - Large, also painted with white acrylic paint, under the "frame" to add interest and texture to my layout.


Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Summery kids by Maja

Hi everyone. Up here in the north of Sweden where I live it´s still winter, but the sun is back and the snow is melting. Guess thats why I got in a summery mood when I made these two layouts that I will show you today.
First up is my sons swimming in the lake last summer. They were really focused on learning!


I have used the gorgeous "Blue Fern Garden" Papers for this layout and chipboards used are Swirly Doodle, Little Bird Set and Captured words.


To colors I have used on the chipboard is Distress Inks in three different colors. I covered the word with Glossy Accent.


Next layout is a bit more "messy". A messy wild son needs a messy page, right? This photo is taken a few yers ago and I so love it!



Here I have painted the chipboard word with Distress Paint in blue and yellow and let it dry. After that I used some black gesso and before it was dry I used a babywipe to dry off some of the color.


Here with the Turkish Panel I did it the opposite way... used black gesso let it dry and went over with white gesso and dried off some of the paint with babywipes.

Thanks for stopping by =)

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

A Dose of Inspiration!

Good morning, our Blue Fern friends! We thought we'd start doing something special to give you a little boost of inspiration from our beautiful design team :)

A couple times a month we are going to blast the blog with an array of projects that our designers have created outside of their DT commitments here, whether they be for fun, a challenge somewhere on the web, or another team. Whatever the case, they've been using BFS products everywhere and we would love to share some of those projects with you, just in case you didn't see them somewhere else!

So here we go 
{prepare to be inspired}

Jackie Clark

Kelly Foster

Keren Tamir

Lisa Gregory

Maja Stokk

Marie-Josee Hamel

Patter Cross

Valerie Serfozo

I hope you've enjoyed an extra dose of inspiration today!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Jackie's March Creations and Multi-Colour Embossing

Hi there! Jackie with you here today to share my March Blue Fern Studios layouts. This month I've been having a lot of fun playing with the thick, sumptuous Blue Fern Garden papers. What a fantastic accompaniment to Blue Fern Studios chippies!



I started with the Love Letters paper for my background. I wanted to add some additional details with mists and inks while preserving the lattice pattern on the paper, so I began by covering the lattice with gel medium on a paintbrush. Once dry, this allowed me to wipe away any misplaced mist.


I painted some of the grid pattern with blue mists and splattered some gold and brown mist around to further emphasize the white of the grid.


I wanted the "Natural Beauty" title from the All Natural set to have a curve to it. Because the chipboard is nice and pliable I was able to do so easily; I started by adhering the N with a bead of hot glue, then added the curve, adhering as I went. A nice easy way to add movement to your layout and to further integrate your chippy into your cluster.


For the Shabby Brick Bits, I started by inking them a dark brown, but decided it was too strong for the layout, and added some Lindy's Stamp Gang embossing powder, which is very iridescent. To tone down the green I inked over it with some brown. Don't be afraid to keep playing with your chippies until you are absolutely happy with them - they can take it!

Blue Fern Studios Products Used

Blue Fern Garden Paper:
- Love Letters (2 sheets)

Chipboard:
- Shabby Brick Bits
- All Natural Set


When the Design Team first received our Blue Fern Garden papers, we were all reluctant to add media to the papers - not because they couldn't withstand them, but because they are so gorgeous we were loathe to cover them up. I have since gotten over my fear, but you will notice on most of my projects with these gorgeous papers I have everything strategically placed so that you can still see the beautiful background detail.

For this next layout, I loaded on the wet media and water, layering the tear strips from the bottom of the papers (have you noticed each paper has a pretty little banner printed on the tear strip?) with squares and grids I had cut from the Love Letters paper on another project. Because of the thickness of the Blue Fern Garden papers, they withstand media better than most other papers I have worked with. To combat the slight warping, I gripped the background paper in between my hands after it was dry, and ran it fairly aggressively over the edge of the counter to smooth it out, leaving me with a layout that lays nearly flat at the end of the day. I love that this paper can take that kind of abuse!



Because this picture of my middle son was taken at the stable where he took horseback riding, the "Charmed" dangle from the Charmed Page Dangles set, with its upward facing horseshoe, was perfect.


I wanted the dangle to stand out from the background and for the details to stand out rather than just colouring it in a single colour. I started by painting the whole thing with a sparkly dark brown paint, then added my embossing powders for dramatic effect.


Using several different colours of embossing powder on the same piece is easier than you might think if you just have the right tools. My embossing ink comes in a dauber rather than an ink pad, so it was simply a matter of unscrewing the cap and painting it on with a paintbrush. I embossed each colour separately to avoid mixing the colours. Doesn't it make the word Charmed pop?


The Bits of Honey pieces were heat embossed with the same gold embossing powder I used on the dangle, but to roughen them up I stamped them with a texture stamp while the embossing powder was still hot. 



Blue Fern Studios Products Used

Blue Fern Garden Papers:
In Bloom
Love Letters
Calling Cards
& the tear strips from each sheet of the collection

Blue Fern Studios Chipboard:
Bits of Honey
Charmed Page Dangles




Sunday, March 9, 2014

Remember

Hi it's Valerie Serfozo today with a layout to share with you.  I have used a photo of my son and nephew on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale when they were children.  I began this layout with the Signature paper from the Blue Fern Garden paper collection


After building the background with texture paste, Distress Ink, Gelatos, and stamping, I want to add even more dimension using Blue Fern chipboard.  I love to add some green to all my flower clusters, and there are many pieces of chipboard that are perfect for this.  Here I used the Tweet Friends piece for the greenery.  I first painted the chipboard with green ink, and then applied glitter.


I really love the Checker Bits because they can be tucked in just about anywhere on a layout.   I primed this piece with gesso, painted it, then stamped on it.  I wanted it to be 'less than perfect', so I smeared the ink a little.  Then I tucked this piece behind the photo.  I also painted a piece from the Directions set and used it on my layout.


Who doesn't have problems when it comes to titles for their layouts?  I love chipboard pieces that can solve that.  After covering this chipboard frame from the Memory Frames with embossing powder, I tucked it under the photo to serve as the title of the layout.


Although it probably doesn't look like the Heart Borders were used on this layout, they were.  Don't forget about the little pieces that you punch out of the chipboard.  They are great little gems to add to your layouts.  These little pieces were heat embossed like the frame.


Thanks for stopping by today.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see what Jackie has to created!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Our Website

Technology is great!! - until it doesn't work properly.  Our website is down right now, and we apologize for any inconvenience it has caused.  Our website has been maliciously attacked and we are busy working on a fix.  We hope to have things up and running soon.  Thanks for your patience.