August Inspiration with Blue Fern Studios

Happy Sunday friends!

We had a very enjoyable evening by the Bay on Saturday watching the aerial and fireworks display for our 50th National Day celebrations rehearsal with friends. It's actually our first time going all the way out for National Day festivities and the kids were just having a blast. Now, taking a break on Sunday and popping in to share my creations for Blue Fern Studios, using the new Paisley and Vine collection. I've kept my layouts and clusters to a minimum because of the strong lines and patterns in the papers. This collection is quite different from the others in terms of color and design and I had to approach it with a slightly different style, but that's all what is so fun about playing with different papers!

First up, here is Michele's sketch for the August challenge:



And my take on it:



Keeping things really simple here because there are lots of gorgeous images on the paper itself that I didn't want to cover.

Close-ups:

Title using a piece from "Playing Cards".

Mod Squares chipboard pieces which I coloured with gelatos.

Lots of stamping and heat embossing to create a textured background with the Journey Stamp set.

Next I have my Educator video, made also with the Paisley and Vine collection. 

I layered both papers and chipboards, and made my own rosettes as well from different sheets in the collection. The papers themselves were so detailed and colorful that I didn't feel the need for additional embellishments other than the chippies and rosettes.

Some close-ups:

Using the centre negative piece as a pop up.

Keeping themes consistent with sun bursts in the background under my Radiant Burst chippies and black microspheres on both chipboard and background.

A title piece from "Playing Cards".

And here is the start to finish video:



I hope you have enjoyed what I shared here. Have a great week ahead!

love,

Smile! with Maja Design

Hello friends!

Popping in today to share a layout I made for Maja Design using their Vintage Summer Basics, working with turquoise, blue and grey.

Here is the layout:



You can see where the idea for the color palette came from; sometimes when I'm need of inspiration the photo helps a lot and I managed to match the papers from the Summer Vintage collection perfectly.

Some close-ups:

My Blue Fern Studios chipboards (Notebook Edges and XOXO) which I altered. For Notebook edges I blended different gelato colors and did some script stamping. For the heart it was also gelato but a generous coat of crackle paint. My background was a lot of sponge dabbing with Ayeeda paints.

My title piece, layered on top of a Graduated Square frame, on top of the many layers of Vintage Summer papers I have layered. The idea is to create a triangular visual flow that accents the photo itself, so I arranged the papers and chipboards (right down to the size) used to achieve that. Lots of textural details in the background too using microbeads and distress glitter, as well as more intense color to contrast against the simplicity and slightly desaturated colors of the photo.

Simple heat embossing and paint splattering.

And that's all I have for today. Thanks for dropping by!

love,

Priceless Moment with Blue Fern Studios

Hello friends, can you imagine it's already October and the last quarter of the year?! Oh my gosh, time has really past hasn't it?

Today I'm up on the Blue Fern Studios blog with an education video and I'm squealing with excitement because it features the gorgeous Montage collection that Michele Singh has designed. I basically just swooned over it - too pretty!

Here's the mixed media layout I created:

I've used "Now and Then" as my background paper, together with layering pieces from "Society" and "Calling Cards". Tucked between the papers are the new Poppies and Jasmine collages. These are my favourite at the moment and they are actually a combination of flowers with existing chipboard designs already available (Poppies is mixed with Bits of Honey, and Jasmine is mixed with Checkered Bits).

Some close-ups:

My page title from "Bouquet".

The Poppies collage. Love the effect you get when layering shades of colors.

This is the Jasmine collage and you can see the gradients in the colors giving an ombre effect. 

This is a close-up of the previous photo (!!) as I wanted to show the effect of using Ayeeda liquid medium with any type of pigment, ink, paint, glaze ... basically whatever you can think of. Yes, even gelato (I've used that for my splatters). It's my Magic Medium and it magically extends the amount of color you can work with and gives so much extra body to the color. Instead of a flat glaze effect with my Silk Acrylic, I got a shimmery dimensional paint. In all my favourite colors!

So here's the video I've made, do enjoy the process!

And lastly, a new month means a new challenge over at Blue Fern Studios and this month's sketch is so adorable. Check it out below:

And don't forget to drop by the BFS blog to see what the fabulous team has done with the sketch. If you own any pieces of BFS chipboard or papers, whip up a creative storm with them based on this sketch and enter for a chance to win some lovely goodies too.

That's all I have for today. I'll be back over the next couple of days to show you more projects, so see you soon!

love,

OTRS August Challenge

Hello friends! It's the weekend again! If you have some time, why not give it a shot at this month's challenge over at Off the Rails Scrapbooking? 

This month's challenge is created by the talented Fiona Paltridge, and she has both a sketch and a mood board for you:

And here's my take on it: 

Rarely do I follow sketches to the letter but this is one of them. Lots of Blue Fern Studios goodies here - the papers are from Ombre Dreams and the chipboards used are Chunky Hearts Panel and Lace Rounds.

some closeups:

Lovely Prima blooms and embellishments. Also, tucked in amongst the flowers are leaves I had cut out using Lawn Fawn dies. A little bit of painting and staining and they fit in perfectly. 

Another cluster here where you can see more of the background.

That's all I have for you this week. Remember to link up your entry when you're finished with it, and all the best!

until then, happy scrapping!

love,

OUAS July Challenge

Hello there friends!

Today I'm in to share my DT reveal for Once Upon a Sketch July Challenge. Nadia has come up with a wonderful sketch and theme again.

Journalling Theme: "Numbers.." 

 Pick a number and center your journalling around it. (i.e. FIVE men in my life, TEN quirky traits, THREE long term goals, or 2014--the date I will do ___)

You are free to interpret our theme ANY WAY you like. It is for your inspiration and this theme word DOES NOT need to be part of your title or journalling. But please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes journalling (hidden journalling is fine). Acceptable journalling is MORE than just a sentence, or generic writing such as date/place etc. It needs to be present and at least 3 lines long. Remember, hidden journalling (under a photo/tag or behind your page) is perfectly fine but please DO let us know in your post where your journalling is! 

And my take on it:

Every year around September I will create a layout just to mark our wedding anniversary. This year's a bit earlier because I really love this photo of us taken when we were holidaying in Perth. Hubby and I hardly take photos of ourselves together (we're not much of those couple photos people) so one as nice as this (LOL) is hard to come by.

I've kept quite close to the sketch and included my journaling at the side. There are a lot of Blue Fern Studios products on this layout, and I really love their new collection Ombre Dreams. Think I've used it on just about every other DT project for the past two months as much as I could. The beautiful watercolor backgrounds are just perfect for my mixed media style and I love the pastel tones it carries.

So, on to some close-ups:

Yummy Prima goodies

6 - for our 6th year of being man and wife. 

And here's a video to show how I put together this layout. Sit back and enjoy the process!

BFS July Sketch Challenge

Hello friends!

We are officially in the second half of 2014! And what an exciting half a year it has been.
Anyway, I'm glad to be back on the first day of July to share my take on another gorgeous sketch by Michelle Singh for Blue Fern Studios. Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on it:

I flipped the sketch horizontally as you can see, and used lots of Gelatos for my background. 

Some close-ups:

The mixed chains chipboard, together with a transparent title from Heidi Swapp.

The Checker Bits chipboard which I used for layering my photo.

Some Prima floral goodies from the Flying Unicorn April KOM.

And as I promised the last time, I have a tutorial on how to use Faber Castell gelatos to create your background. If you've been stashing them somewhere wondering how you can play with them, then I hope you find the video useful. Sit back and enjoy the show!

Don't forget, the sketch challenge runs till the end of July. All you need to do is use any Blue Fern products (chipboard or paper) and link up your project here on our blog. A random winner will be picked to win an awesome pack of BFS goodies. 

I will be back tomorrow to share another wonderful project. Meanwhile, happy creating!

love,

Blue Fern Studios DT - Count the Ways and a Colourful Card

Hello friends!

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

"Count the Ways"

The first is a layout I made of my big boy, with papers from Ombre Dreams collection. The background was created with gelatos and lots of random stamping. 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:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

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 from Lindy's Stamp Gang.

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. These little wooden birds came from Studio Calico and they are absolutely adorable. 

My floral cluster full of Prima prettiness.

"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 13 @rts 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 Lindy's bronze EP.

And that's all I have to share for now. I'll be back in a few days' time with more crafty goodies!

love,