A Couple Christmas Ornaments to Close Out The Year

Well, it's here, the last day of 2014. As you look back, how was your year? As I look back I feel peaceful, so I guess all in all ours was good - I certainly don't have that "Thank God that year's behind us!" feeling I've had a couple of other years (2009 being one of the worst offenders). 2015 is so far shaping up to be an exciting year, with a big extended family trip to Greece in the works, so I'm also looking forward with a happy heart.

December 31st marks my last official day on the Blue Fern Studios Design Team, and my last day with Flying Unicorn was December 15th, and I haven't pursued any design teams for 2015 (yet?!?), so I'm feeling a little adrift right now, though having the opportunity to recharge my scrappy batteries over the past month has been refreshing. I'm incredibly thankful for my time on both of these wonderful teams, and look forward to watching each company continue to grow.

Today I'm sharing my last couple of Christmas projects, some wooden Christmas ornaments by Julie Nutting for Prima (available in the Flying Unicorn Store in case you want to stock up for next year now). I mounted each of the ornaments with repositionable adhesive Glue Dots on gift tags, so they can be removed and hung on the tree.

The first ornament, Santa's Helper, was coloured with Copic Sketch markers, with details added with a black journalling pen and white Stamper's Big Brush Pen. The background of the tag is Cigar Box Secrets from Prima, which surprisingly was my go-to Christmas line this year, even though they aren't Christmas papers.

I was surprised by how well alcohol markers worked on this wood surface - because it is a manufactured wood the grain goes in every direction as you can see in the photo below, so the colour does not get wicked into other areas of the design.

The second ornament is Starr. For this ornament I played around with different media - Prima Crackle Paste for the star, embossing powder for the jacket and holly, puff paint for the collar and headband, Prima Chalk Edgers for the skin, Liquid Pearls for the buttons, metallic Distress Paint overlaid by crackle medium and white acrylic paint for the wings, with an Aquarellable pencil for the details.

As you can see, the different media add a lot more dimension to this tag.

My last ornament is another Starr, this one done more simply. I used Krylon Gold leafing pen for the star, with a black Copic maker on the interior to add contrast. She was coloured with Copics and a journaling pen, and her wings were done simply with white paint outlined with an Aquarellable pencil in black.

Thank you so much for stopping in today. My best wishes for a healthy, happy, productive 2015 to you and yours!

Bloom Girl Gift Bag

I'm stopping in tonight to share another Bloom Girl project I coloured while on vacation, this time a gift bag I gave out at Christmas. This time I used the Summer stamp, colouring in the scroll in her hair with a gold leafing pen, and covering the summery flowers, bees and berries with poinsettias.

The poinsettias are cut from Prima Cigar Box Secrets paper and edged in gold leafing pen, with Prima Glass Beads as centres. The greenery (which in this case is blue hehe) is also cut from Cigar Box Secrets.

A little closeup of the colouring, using Copic markers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies used:

- Prima Bloom Girl stamp: Summer

- Prima Cigar Box Secrets paper: Robusto, Corona, Panatela

- Copic Sketch markers

- Kroma 18 Karat Gold Leafing Pen

- Prima Glass Beads: Butter

- Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia die

Sparkle - Happy New Year Bloom Girl Tag

I'm back today to share another Christmasy (well, maybe more New Yearsy, but I used it for a tag on a Christmas card, so we'll say Christmasy) Bloom girl tag. She's coloured with Prima markers and all done up with Prima Glass Glitter and Glass Beads for a whole lot of sparkle.

To add some additional dimension to the background, I filled a Prima Vintage Vanity bottle cap with glass beads, and added red heat embossing to some Prima chalkboard flowers.

Another closeup:

 Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies Used:

- Prima Cigar Box Secrets paper: Robusto, Presidente
- Prima Bloom Girl stamp
- Copic Markers
- Prima Glass Glitter: Sterling
- Prima Glass Beads: Licorice
- Prima Finnabair Mechanicals: Pendants
- Prima Chalk Edger: Rose Bud
- Ranger Antiquities Embossing Powder: Cinnabar

"Feliz Navidad - I Want To Wish You A Merry Christmas" - Bloom Girl card

Hello, fellow Bloggers! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Now that ours is done, I can start sharing the cards and tags I made and gifted this year, without spoiling the surprise for the family members who received them.

Today's card is a step card featuring Bloom Girl "Summer", who has gotten a bit of sun! I missed our annual extended family Christmas gathering earlier this month because of a last minute trip to Mexico with my sister and stepmom, so this seemed like the perfect card to send along. I don't know if you've ever been to Mexico during Christmas season, but there isn't all the pomp and production of a Canadian/US Christmas.

I hand-drew the palm trees for the background with alcohol makers, then sketched in some rough outlines with a Faber-Castell Pitt Pen.

A closeup of the colouring on Summer. I love this stamp!

Here's glimpse into my beach-front scrappy space at the resort in Mexico, complete with a Bloom Girl to be used on an upcoming project. I stamped a bunch out before leaving home, and packed those, along with Copic Markers, Faber-Castell Aquarelles and my art journal for an easily portable crafty beach bag.

Thanks for stopping in today!

Supplies Used:

- Prima Bloom Girl stamp: Summer
- Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad
- Copic Sketch makers
- Prima Lifetime Canvas Alphabet stickers

Blue Fern Studios - Vintage Side of Sanctuary

Hello Bloggers! It's hard to believe a year has gone by, but today I'm posting my last layout as part of Blue Fern Studios' design team. I have had a wonderful year, and though this is my last design team post, it certainly isn't the last time you'll see me using Blue Fern products in my crafting.

Blue Fern's Sanctuary, like the 3 paper lines that came before it, is incredibly versatile. Yesterday I shared a bright layout created with the collection; today I'm shifting gear and bringing you a vintage layout.

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

I have greatly enjoyed my time with Blue Fern Studios, and I thank Leslie for having me on the team. I look forward to seeing Blue Fern's continued success!

Blue Fern Studios - The Bright Side Of Sanctuary

It's hard to believe I've reached the end of my design team term with Blue Fern Studios. It has been an amazing year, and I have been very honoured to be a part of this team and to experience Blue Fern's incredible growth over the past year.

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 this month 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

Thank you for stopping by today!

Christmas Cards and Tags for Prima's 12 Days of Christmas Cards

I've been playing along with Prima's 12 Days of Christmas Cards as time has allowed, but the weather and a dead camera battery I kept neglecting to charge has conspired against me so that here it is, the last day of the challenge, and I have a couple of cards yet to share.

The first card is for Day 11 - Julie Nutting Holiday Stamp Sets. I used an old metal frame from my stash to frame the doll from the Warm Wishes stamp set, coloured with Copic markers. The background papers are Prima Vintage Vanity.

The second is for Day 11 - Julie Nutting Wooden Dolls. I used the "Holly" ornament, Prima Glass Glitter, Cigar Box Secrets papers, Prima Time Travelers Memories flower and a crown from a Vintage Trinkets strand.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Build A Tag - Flying Unicorn December Kit

It's my turn to host the Build A Page tutorial at Flying Unicorn this month, and this month I created a tag with the wooden Julie Nutting Doll included in the Small Art, Big Passion kit. The wooden dolls can be a bit more daunting to customize than the stamps or the dies, so I wanted to give you some tips on ways to make it your own (and pitfalls to avoid).

To start, I custom blended a skin tone using several 13 Arts Matte Paints: Sand, White, Cocoa and Pink (not pictured), and painted it on with a fine-tipped paintbrush.

To create body in the dress I used Shimmerz Dazzlerz, which because of its thickness allowed me to create ridges and valleys.

I applied the Dazzlerz following the sections of the skirt, keeping application over the laser cuts to a minimum so they remained visible. In the photo below you can see the gorgeous texture.

Pictured below is one of the potential pitfalls I mentioned. When using inks (such as markers or mists), this type of wood is susceptible to bleeding, as you can see in the photo. Because the dolls are etched, this is not a problem as long as you only want to use one colour, but if you try to combine colours they will bleed into one another.

 Once the shoes and handbag were coloured with alcohol markers, I painted on embossing ink and heat embossed the pieces with clear embossing powder to give them a glossy finish.

For the hair, I carefully painted on the Chalk Woodbine mist from the Mixed Art Add-On.

Isn't her hair colour stunning?

I added touches of white using a Sharpie Paint Pen, colouring the buttons, her leggings, highlights in her hair and the collar of her dress.

The packaging from the wooden doll makes an ideal backing to build a tag upon.

I trimmed some of the 6x6 papers from the Small Art, Big Passion add-on to fit the tag, and added some  of the 13 Arts Cosy Evening stickers.

The 13 Arts mask and some modeling paste added some perfect raised snowflakes to the background.

I die cut two snowflakes using the Prima Doily die from a 6x6 sheet of 13 Arts Cosy Evening paper - the first the entire snowflake, the second just the interior portion from a leftover corner of the paper.

One of the fussy-curable images from the 6x6 pad is perfect as a centre for the snowflake.

 A little inking to tie all the elements together, using a Prima Chalk Edger...

And here is the finished tag, trimmed with the red grosgrain ribbon from the Mixed Passion add-on, Prima and Petaloo flowers and cork embellishments and an Ingvild Bolme Lamppost.

Supplies Used

From the Kit:

Julie Nutting Wooden Doll and packaging

13 Arts Cosy Evening 6x6 papers

13 Arts Cosy Evening stickers

Red grossgrain ribbon

13 Arts Mask

Prima Shabby Chic Treasures Victorian Lamp

Prima Epiphany flowers: Manifest (578817)

Petaloo Textured Elements Burlap Blossoms Black

13 Arts Mist: Chalk Woodbine

Prima Epiphany Cork Stickers

From my Stash:

Prima die: Doily (572792)

Prima Chalk Edger: Dark Bark

13 Arts Modeling Paste

13 Arts Matte Paints: White, Sand, Cocoa, Pink

Copic markers: C9 & 100

Stampendous Embossing Enamel: Clear

Shimmerz Dazzlerz: Red-iculous

Ranger Embossing Ink Dabber

Sharpie Fine Point Poster Pen - White

Christmas Lanterns - Flying Unicorn December KOM

The Flying Unicorn December Kit of the Month has beautiful colours and embellishments perfect for Christmas. I used two sheets of 12x12 Cosy Evening paper from 13 Arts to make two Christmas lanterns using the Tim Holtz Luminary die.

I trimmed the lanterns out with flowers, ribbon and wooden elements from the kit and add-ons. Each one holds an electric tea light, and is topped with a Memo Pin to double as a placeholder on a holiday table.

Supplies Used:

From The Kit and Add-Ons:

- 13 Arts Cosy Evening: Winter Letters x 2 (one for each lantern)

- Red Grossgrain Ribbon

- Prima Epiphany Wooden Icons In A Box

- White Holly Leaves

- Petaloo Spring Darjeeling Mini Mix: Teastain Red

- Family St and 1 St Metal Adornments

From My Stash:

- Tim Holtz Luminary die

- Tim Holtz Frosted Film

- Tim Holtz Memo Pins

- Faber-Castell Stamper's Big Brush Pen: Cold Grey III

Blue Fern Studios December Sketch Challenge

Hey Bloggers, it's that time again - time for Blue Fern Studios' last sketch challenge of the year! And who cares that winter has well and truly started, with an early cold snap and even snow on the ground (gasp!), I chose to go with a bright summer theme this month.

Here is the gorgeous sketch prepared by Michele Singh:

I treated the Circle Code chippy to a coat of light beige paint, then applied various colours of chalk ink in the same hues as on the Calling Card paper.

I applied the same colours of chalk ink onto my background, and splattered on watercolour paints to complete the background.

Thank you for stopping in today!

Blue Fern Studios Products

Montage Papers:

- Calling Cards

- Now and Then

- Society

- Fairyland

Chipboard: 

- Circle Code

Flying Unicorn December - Daddy's Hockey Star

Do you sometimes have a project that comes together around one embellishment, one spark of inspiration? That was the case with this layout, and the inspiration came from some wooden ATCs from Prima included in the Flying Unicorn December Your Passion, Your Art Mixed Passion kit. While turning the piece with the triangles (cut in two as a photo mount) in my hands one night and wondering what to do with it, I decided to try to colour it with my Copic markers to see how it would look.

I loved the effect when I had finished colouring, but wanted to add a shiny finish, and some contrast. I rubbed an embossing ink pad over the raised areas (the triangles) then coated the ATC with clear embossing powder, being sure to knock off the loose granules. Once it had cooled I sprayed on some black mist, letting it pool in the recessed areas.

The flowered ATC was a little more difficult to work with; I cut vertical lines into it using a craft knife, to prevent bleeding between colours, and after I had finished embossing and misting I emphasized these lines with a white poster pen.

I then set out to create a vibrant layout with the ATCs as a centrepiece. I layered bits of paper on the page, then scraped over heavy black gesso. I outlined the original strips with a white pencil crayon, then added some of the grey weave from the kit, and some masking with molding paste topped off with the sprays from the kit and a blue Gelato. Some additional stenciling with gesso, splatters of the awesome 13 Arts Splatter Ink in white and black (it doesn't soak into the paper but sits on top of it!), and I was ready to embellish.

Thank you so much for stopping in today. If you haven't had a chance to get your kit yet, stop by the Flying Unicorn Store to see if there are any left. Don't forget our handy preorder option, so you can order the kits and add-ons you want on a month to month basis without the commitment of being locked into a kit club - you can find the information on that handy option here.

Supplies Used:

From the Kit:

- Prima Wooden ATCs - Lovely Prints
- 13 Arts Cosy Evening - Tender Morning, Winter Letters
- Trims: Grey webbing, red grosgrain, black lace
- Lindy's Stamp Gang - I'm Late, I'm Late Slate
- 13 Arts Mists: Chalk Woodbine and Pastel Antique Cream
- 13 Arts Stencil: Shapes - Flying
- Prima Epiphany Flowers: Bombshell (578831), Realization (578879)
- Prima Cigar Box Secrets Cork Stickers
- Prima Epiphany Cork Stickers
- Prima Epiphany Wood Icons In A Box
- 13 Arts Splash Ink: Black

From My Stash:

- Copic Markers
- Stampendous Embossing Powder - Clear
- Versamark Watermark Ink Pad
- 13 Arts Mist - Pastel Black
- Sharpie Poster Pen - Fine White
- 13 Arts Gel Medium
- Prima Heavy Gesso - Black
- Liquitex Light Modeling Paste
- Liquitex Gesso: Clear, Super Heavy White
- Prima 12x12 Stencil
- Prima Color Bloom: Summer Sky
- Faber-Castell Gelatos: Blueberry
- 13 Arts Splash Ink: White