It's amazing looking back over the past year to see how much Blue Fern has grown, releasing not only its first paper line, but four gorgeous and unique paper lines. As soon as I saw Sanctuary, I couldn't wait to get it into my hot little hands. It is exactly what I look for in a paper line, a perfect mix of vintage and bold colors. This month I've taken Sanctuary in two different directions, preparing a layout that embraces its vintage color palette, and a second layout that embraces colorful mixed media.
For my first layout I piled on the paint and color. I started by layering strips of Sanctuary papers along with washi tape and drywall tape, then added watercolor paints in blues and pinks, stencilling with crackle paste, rub ons and splatters of white paint.
The Notebook Edges are perfect for tucking into layering. I sprayed them with two shades of gold mist, and tucked them in before adding inking to my page edges and my white splatters, helping to marry them to the rest of the page.
To offer some balance to the busy background, I kept the treatment of the Crossing the Lines, Circuitry and Arrow Words chippies simple, coloring them with chalk inks.
I wanted to make a bold statement with the Ginger's Poppies chippies; I started by coloring them with chalk ink, then added embossing powder (because the embossing powder I was using is semi-translucent, I wanted to have some color on the chippy rather than having the color come out muddied). I love the way they shimmer!
Blue Fern Studios Products
Sanctuary papers:
- Meadows of Time
- Garden Plaza
- Botanical Garden
Chipboard:
- Notebook Edges
- Crossing the Lines
- Arrow Words
- Ginger's Poppies
- Circuitry
I loved both sides of the Botanical Garden sheet, and I really wanted to combine the two sides on one layout. To create the layered effect in the center and avoid wasting paper, I tore a strip from the center of the page. I punched strips of the B side out of a second piece of paper, and layered those underneath my torn strip, and mounted the whole thing on corrugated cardboard.
I added a thin layer of modeling paste through a stencil and misted it with a blue-grey mist to complement the background, then added some patches of green mist.
To create the lacy, textured look on the Boston Lattice chippie I melted fusible webbing onto the piece, then sprinkled it with two colors of embossing powder.
The Mini Flourishes and My Bike chippies were painted with sparkling watercolor paints.
Blue Fern Studios Products
Sanctuary papers:
- Botanical Garden x2
Chipboard:
-Mini Flourishes
- Boston Lattice
- My Bike
