Dreams of Flying - Flying Unicorn KOM

Have you had a chance to check out the April Flying Unicorn kit of the month? I have to say, hands down, this is one of my favourite kits of all time! It contains the amazing Cold Country papers from 7 Dots Studio.

My first layout for the month is based off this week's Mojo Monday sketch on the Flying Unicorn Forums. Come play along for your chance to win a gift certificate to the Flying Unicorn Store.

These papers are perfect for purple - one of my favourite, and yet underused, colours. I painted and dripped two colours of Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays, and added in a bit of pink with a Prima Chalk Edger.

I wanted a steampunk/grunge feeling to the layout, so I brought in lots of brown using instant coffee. I also used the coffee to stain the butterfly stamps and the letters in my title.

There's an old Barenaked Ladies song written as though the singer is speaking to his young son, and he asks "When you dream, what do you dream about?" I love watching my boys sleep, and the sweet picture of my youngest sleeping was just too sweet not to scrap.

The ball chain is included in the Mixed Passion kit, and I thought it would make a great frame to showcase the photo. And I couldn't resist adding the Prima goggles to his head.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the April kit, best do it quickly! I have a feeling this one really isn't going to last.

And here is the Mojo Monday sketch if you'd like to play along.

Additional Supplies

- Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays: French Lilac Violet, Wicked Witch Purple

- Stamps: Stampendous Butterflies, Prima Stitched Lines, Kaisercraft Numbers, Kaisercraft Journal, Kaisercraft True Romance

- Prima Chalk Edger: Sweet Pea

- Venice Lace

- Mesh Tape

- Krylon Gold Leafing Pen

- Flying Unicorn Metal Adornments: Garden Joy

- 13 Arts Gesso

- Tim Holtz Tissue Tape: Symphony

- Liquitex Clear Gesso 

- Gelatos: Pistachio

- Jute Twine

Flying Unicorn April KOM Reveal

We are thrilled to reveal our April 2014 Your Passion Your Art kit of the month! This kit is filled to the brim with the long awaited 7 Dots Collection Cold Country ! A vintage, artistic feel with lots of one of kind goodies and mixed media enhancements to allow you to create with passion your works of art!

Our kit is never complete without our off the page project and this month we provide an unfinished wood 3 drawer chest that stands eight inches tall !

We are so excited to share some sneak peeks and okay one amazing layout by our Guest Designer and Co-Owner of 7 Dots Studio - Tusia .... Check back tomorrow for a full reveal of her amazing creations !!

Our Small Art Big Passion add on kit is perfect for card, tag and atc makers! This add on kit is a wonderful enhancement to the main kit and all other add on kits.

Mixed Art add on kit is for beginners and enthusiasts who love mixed media and creating journal pages, layouts, with lots of textures and details! Our Mixed Art kit always come with a canvas to allow your to create works of art that can be displayed in your home. gifted or to practice your techniques. Its about finding the passion in you and creating! The colors of the Mixed Art compliment the main kit and other add ons allowing you additional items and mediums to play with.

Mixed Passion, the prettiness of it all. This add on kit is filled with additional flowers, trims and embellishments that enhance the main kit and all other add on kits. It can stand alone and be used with your stash - the possibilities are endless!

Our Educators this month our Creative Team Members Lynne and Tammy. Join Lynne this month on our You Tube Channel on April 6th 2014, as she creates an incredible layout with lots of techniques to assist your growth as an artist. Tammy has created an outstanding layout and takes us step by step On April 8th 2014, to create the same with amazing techniques.

Flying Unicorn believes that art should be a passion and not an obligation - we have no kit sign ups - they are sold on a first come first serve basis - once they are gone they are gone - so CLICK on over to the store and get your Kit and all the addons now !

Happy Creating !

Scrap Around The World Guest Spot

This month Flying Unicorn is the main sponsor at Scrap Around the World and our CT has been invited to play along with their mood board.

I created a 12x12 fairytale-inspired canvas.

As a mother of 3 little boys, I was at a bit of a loss when I saw the all pink mood board, let me tell you! Absolutely gorgeous, but very girly LOL.

Once I looked at it a bit closer an idea started to take shape. Evan and I have been watching Once Upon A Time, and the frilly pink dress reminded me of a princess, and the typewriter of a fairytale, and I was off to the races!

I wanted my princess to look like Aurora from the show, and turned to my Julie Nutting stamps to see what I could do. Believe it or not, she started out as Mindy, the bouffant-sporting 50's diner looking paper doll stamp.

And here's how she ended up.

A little bit of a transformation, wouldn't you say? The Julie Nutting stamps are very versatile this way. They are designed to be cut apart into pieces for layering. I trimmed off Mindy's bouffant and hand drew my own hair, adding some Liquid Pearls and bling to her headband to imitate Aurora's crown. I made the dress out of tissue paper (a little bolder than the pink the mood board, but it was what I had) - I first stamped the ruffle part of Mindy's dress over and over onto white cardstock and then layered on the tissue paper in a rumpled fashion to imitate the dress on the mood board. I then trimmed the skirt into the shape I wanted. Aurora's trademark shawl is also made from tissue paper.

If you remember the story of Sleeping Beauty, Aurora was imprisoned in a castle surrounded by briars. I created my briar patch using hot glue which I painted over with alcohol markers.

The stones of the castle were created using a piece of Maja Design paper from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection. To make the rocks I used a Prima 6x6 Rocks stencil and outlined the stones in pencil, then filled in the mortar lines using a Faber-Castell Stamper's Big Brush pen. To give them a mossy, aged look I added some green with Twinkling H2Os and shading with a Stabilo Aquarellable pencil.

This Prima Garden Sink seem perfect for a fairytale scene. A little bit of Distress Paint to add a patina and it was ready to add to my project.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you'll check out the March Challenge at Scrap Around the World and consider playing along for your chance to win some amazing prizes!

Charmed Life and Multi-Colour Embossing Tutorial

Hi there! I'm stopping in today to share my third Blue Fern Studios DT project for March.

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 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've also used a watermark ink pen (from Versamark) in the past. 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

Mojo Monday at the Flying Unicorn

I'm up today on the Flying Unicorn Forums with inspiration for our weekly Mojo Monday sketch challenge. This week Tammy has prepared a fantastic sketch for us, and I translated the gorgeous layered background into a fun mixed media layout full of mists, gesso, stamping and paint using the March Kit of The Month.

I sprayed each of the colours of Lindy's Stamp Gang mist onto a plastic baggie to apply to the background for a random, speckled effect. To prevent the mists bleeding together and muddying, I heat set each layer before adding the next.

Layers of washi tape and stamping with a Prima stitch stamp provide the "bones" for this layout, along with one of the Blue Fern Studios Mini Ring Things chippies cut in two and coloured with Silks in Pretty Peridot.

To coordinate the flowers and paper layers, I added touches of 13 Arts paints in Matte Turquoise and Matte Coral, along with some gesso. Ingvild Bolme Mini Junkyard Findings and a Flying Unicorn Metal Adornment provide some manly accents for the page.

Play along with us this week for your chance to win!

 The Rules :

01. You have one week to create your project using the sketch as inspiration ( it does not have to be a layout it can be a card, a tag etc )

02. You must post your creation in this thread in order to be eligible for the 10.00 GC

03. You may use your project for any other monthly forum challenges except for the Anything goes challenge

04. Your project must be posted no later than 8:00pm on 03.09.2014

05. All other standard rules apply .