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!