Sandi's April Inspiration!

 "Brown Eyed Girl"

Hello there, everyone! Sandi here with you today!
I am going back a bit and creating a couple of projects with our Serendipity collection.

It's wonderful mix of rich earth tones and grunge widen it's appeal to more paper crafters.

The background paper on the first project is Chronicle and then I've added torn Glee, Contemplation and Calling Cards.

Hiding on the left is a Butterfly Grid remnant from a previous month. But the main focus here is the Berry Stem embossed with Verdant And Grassy Knoll. You can see a bit of the Brocade Texture stamp which I adore! 

Brown-Eyed Girl was simply inked with brown and then given a dose of random glitter. 

I had fun with the Techno-scape chippy using Ginger Embossing Powder and then sprinkling on Mermaid Glitter! I cut it in half so that it could peek out under my layers. 

Great close-up of the Brocade stamping. 

Blue Fern Studios Products used:

Paper:

Serendipity Glee, Chronicle, Contemplation, Calling Cards

Chipboard:

Butterfly grid remnant, Brown Eyed Girl, Techno-scape, Berry Stem

Stamp:

Brocade Texture

Embossing Powder:

Ginger, Verdant, Grassy Knoll

Glitter:

Mermaid

***

"And so … "

There is nothing I enjoy more than creating a canvas project! It feels so liberating to know that if I mess it up, I can just cover it with gesso and try again. And sometimes, you just get stuck in a rut when you do layouts consistently. So, the other day, I let loose and allowed the inner artist to have some expression.

I started with an 8x8 canvas and decided that I wanted to use this inspirational quote from the Serendipity Calling Cards sheet as my focal point.  I also tore some scraps from the Merriment sheet to place in the center and in the corners.

Before adding my papers, I prepared the background with gesso and then had fun with my Imagine Ink mists, Fern, Cotton Candy and Winter Mint .. drying between colors.  More dimension was created with some stamping utilizing the Brocade Texture, Textures 1 and Photography stamps.  Of course, I did some stenciling and created texture with super heavy gesso. 

The Twilight Garden Frame frames my primary focal point. I first painted it black and then used  Oatmeal, Peacock and 14K Embossing Powders to give it character! Great combination, by the way. I love how rustic it looks! 

Then I added some embellishments that were laying on my desk, some flowers, a junkyard light bulb, ribbon and a couple of stick pins. I fussy cut some of the Merriment butterflies and worked them in as well. 

Of course, I had to use one of my new Courtship Blooms because I adore their size and shape. 

My finishing touch was to apply some mircro-beads with clear gel medium. 

Blue Fern Studios Products used:

Paper: Serendipity Merriment and Calling Cards

Chipboard: Twilight Garden Frame

Stamps: Brocade Texture, Textures 1, Photography

Imagine Ink Mists: Cotton Candy, Fern, Winter Mint

Embossing Powder: Oatmeal, Peacock, 14K       

Flowers: Courtship Lane Blooms

***

Since I felt that I hadn't really got to dig into my Timeless papers, that's where I went next.

"The Perfect Moment"

I prepared my background with gel medium and black gesso pushed through a stencil. Then I  used some gold mist to bring out the yellow tones in the paper. I finished with the Postal Texures stamp to remind myself of my Grandma's faithful correspondence.

The photo of my brother and me with our Grandma Key was taken on her small farm in Indiana. She was such a special lady, always had a kind word, worked hard, raised 10 kids and loved her flower garden. She was so faithful to write me and there was always a mention of how her flowers were doing ... or that she couldn't wait for Winter to be over so that she could get outside. So, I had to pull out my fave BFS chipboard, Ginger's Poppies and put them on her layout!

I prepared the Poppies, as well as the Paisley and Vine Flowers with white gesso, the used gelato for color and went back with my embossing powder in Garnet.  Before I went to heat the powder, I sprinkled in some Pyrite Glitter, just to give the flowers a hint of shine like dewdrops. 

Just a close-up.

Additionally on the Paisley and Vine leaves, I did some stamping with Postal Texture stamps, always a nice touch!

Lastly I added some dimensional flowers and berries and a random key laying on my desk. Nothing is complete these days without some added glitter or microbeads, so I've added some black chunky glitter.

Just a couple of dimensional shots!

Blue Fern Studios Products used:

Paper: Timeless Artistique. Abode and Calling Cards

Chipboard: Ginger's Poppies, Paisley ands Vine Flowers

Stamps: Postal Textures

Embossing Powder: Garnet

Glitter: Pyrite

Thanks for coming by today!

Remember to tag Blue Fern on your social media uploads. 
I'll be back on the 17th with some social media Features! 

It could be yours! 

A Layout & Mixed Media Canvas Featuring NEW Blue Fern Studios Deja Vu Collection by Kim Price

Hello everyone, it's Kim here today and I'm really excited to be sharing more projects featuring the brand new Deja Vu collection along with some amazing new chipboard from Blue Fern Studios.

My first project today is a layout featuring a much loved photograph of my eldest daughter taken recently. This dramatic black and white photo of her coordinates perfectly with the Twilight Garden Frame fitting snugly inside, and I've teamed this piece with a sheet of Deja Vu La Plume patterned paper as my background.

I've given my chipboard a coat of gesso and when it had dried added a lovely splash of color with watercolor paint. I've also gone ahead and added some finer detail with colored pencil for some added definition. Using a second sheet of La Plume patterned paper I've cut out some of the flower images and layered them between my photo and chipboard frame for a layered effect. I just love how the flowers and leaves look on my daughter's hair.

I've also added some paper layers from Deja Vu Petites Cartes patterned paper, cutting around a few selected journaling cards and adhering them in place along with my title "Believe" from the Spiritually Speaking set. When the watercolor had dried on my title I've simply added some doodling using an archival quality permanent fine black marker.

Patterned papers: Deja Vu La Plume and Petites Cartes 

Chipboard: Twilight Garden Frame and Spiritually Speaking

For my second project today I've chosen to create a small canvas measuring 8 inches x 8 inches, which is the perfect size to fit the Winter Flake Frame comfortably. I added some brickwork texture using impasto, gesso and then painted the whole background in a washy shade of olive green.

Next I painted my Winter Flake chipboard frame with gesso, adding watercolor paint for a variegated effect and mounted the frame on my canvas with some dimensional tape.

I've fussy cut the teacup image from Deja Vu Petites Cartes patterned paper as well as some of the flower images from my leftover pieces of La Plume patterned paper, and layered them over the top of my frame with dimensional tape for a great 3d effect.

Here's a closer look at some of the fussy cut detail and dimension.

Patterned paper: Deja Vu Petites Cartes and La Plume

Chipboard: Winter Flake Frame

Thanks for calling in today, I hope you have enjoyed my projects!

-Kimx

Album inspiration by Evgenia Petzer

Hello dear friends! Its Evgenia Petzer with you today and its a bittersweet post for me as its my last post over BFS blog, I had such a great time this year and am very thankful for this opportunity.
 I have the new album, that I have prepared for you, I used three collections of Blue Fern Studios papers and lots of chipboard pieces in it.

I used lots of layers, fussy cutting from gorgeous papers that are just perfect for this and am very happy with teh result.

Blue Fern Studios chipboard used on the cover: Twillight Garden Frame

Blue Fern Studios chipboard used here: Spring trinkets,

Blue Fern Studios chipboard used on this spread: Mini flourishes, Charmed Page Dangles,

Blue Fern Studios chipboard used on this spread: Rose collage, Symphony border

Blue Fern Studios chipboard used on this spread: doily bunting, butterfly grid, garden gate,

Have  a great relaxing Sunday and hope that you can find some time for scrapping!

Evgenia

More Montage Layouts with Rae

Hello everyone! Today I'm sharing three layouts I have made with the Montage paper collection.

"Sweet as Honey" Layout

I used a handful of papers from the Montage paper collection to create this layout, and ripped the papers to create dimension. I had fun playing with these light colors, adding a lot of white with the ripped edges, doily, frame, and bunting!

Here is a close up of the Twilight Garden Frame. I primed it with a heavy layer of gesso, then sprinkled glass filler over it to give it a sugared look. I use the same technique on pieces of the Organic Vine that I cut up and tucked under the flower cluster.

The title is from The Latest Buzz set. I treated it with multiple colors of embossing powder to get this look.

I used the same technique on this small piece of doily bunting.

"Happy Memories" Layout

I just adore this piece of Montage paper, Mercantile. It's a very busy pattern, so I tried to keep my design simple by adding black accents and also choosing a black and white picture that wasn't too busy.

Here is a closeup that captures both pieces of chipboard I used.

For the Large Circle Frame, I simply painted it with one coat of black chalkboard paint, allowing hints of the natural color of the chipboard show through the paint. I added some pearls to the circles in the design, and some flowers over the flower silhouettes on the frame.

The title is two pieces from the Chunky Word Set that I treated using some multicolored embossing powder.

Untitled Fall Layout

Again, I used Montage paper, but added a piece from the Ombre Dreams collection for the layers under the picture. I found this picture on Pinterest. 

Here are two closeups of the Floral Wreath that show the distressing of the piece. I sprayed the chipboard with water, and separated the edges to create a level of dimension and "realness" of the leaves and flowers. Once it was curly, I dried it with a heat gun, then added some green and brown mists.

I cut a piece of the Country Picket Fence to add to the bottom corner, and scraped it with a distress ink pad to get that finish.

Lastly, I added a bird from the Little Birds Set. I used brown and gold embossing powders.

Thanks for checking out my projects! Have a great day!

June colours with Jelissa

Hello friends! Thank you for dropping by :)

Today I'm in to share three projects I created for Blue Fern Studios, featuring the new paper collection Ombre Dreams and some fantastic chipboard pieces.

"Count the Ways"

The first is a layout I made of my big boy, with papers from Ombre Dreams collection.  The title came from one of the most popular love poems around - Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Browning but I used it here to describe my love for my sweet and wonderful child.

Some close ups:

A frame from the Memory Frame set which I misted green. 

Counting the ways with the number grid chipboard panel, which I covered with black EP.

A piece of Layering Stem. Gosh, I love these! Just perfect for tucking into any little corner of my floral cluster.

A piece from Fall Foliage, also misted with green and gesso brushed on randomly. 

Blue Fern products used:

Ginger's Dream

Shannon's Dream

Number Grid - Large

Memory Frame Set

Layering Stems

Fall Foliage

"Follow Your Bliss"

My second project is a simple little card. In fact, I made a card instead of my usual LO because I wanted to use the chipboards as the main features. I layered sheets from the Ombre Dreams collection and layered water colours in pastel tones, careful not to hide the lovely details the papers have.

Some close-ups:

The Twilight Garden Frame. What a lovely piece! I used gold paint on the lamp and added a layer of crackle. For the rest of the frame, I coloured with gelatos.

I used "Follow your Bliss" word as my card sentiment, which I covered with some bronze embossing powder.

Blue Fern products used:

Leslie's Dream

Twilight Garden Frame

Follow Your Bliss

"Blue Skies"

My third project is a layout I created for this month's sketch challenge. If you havn't seen it, do take a look because Michelle has come up with another fabulous sketch. And to win a pack of gorgeous Blue Fern products, just create a project based on the sketch and link it up. It's that easy!

Here is the sketch again:

And my take on it:

I used "Susan's Dream" for my background. It has the most calming tones of blues and greens, with a tinge of orange which I have used to highlight certain elements of the page. I like to use a lot of mediums and thinner papers tend to warp with so much fluid sitting on it. But the BFS papers are so much heavier (and sturdier), my LO remained pretty much the same shape even when I was adding quite a fair bit of water to bleed the colours. If you love playing with mediums like me, you'll find the quality of BFS papers just perfect. 

A cut-out phrase from "Dream Cards". There are several elements that you can fussy cut out from this page and layer them on your project. I also used a gear and bird chipboards. 

Another phrase from "Dream Cards" layered on top of the Mini Ring Things chippie.

The Treasured floral frame chippie. Love the delicate vines and flowers on this piece!

Blue Fern products used:

Susan's Dream

Treasure Floral Frame

Mini Ring Things

Widget Works
Descano Gardens (bird)
Layering Stems

And here's a start to finish video I put together to show you how I did the background, as well as the various techniques I used to alter the chipboards. Sit back and enjoy the show, and do remember to play along with our sketch challenge this month!

That's all for today. Do check back at our blog again for more inspiration from the rest of the fabulous Blue Fern girls!

love,

Jelissa