Go Outside and Play - Lindy's Stamp Gang January Color Challenge

Have you seen the gorgeous purples in this month's Lindy's Stamp Gang Color Challenge? It just so happens that, as my 3 year old keeps reminding me, purple is my favourite colour (or one of them; I'm also partial to red!). So I pulled out my mists and embossing powders, combed through my wintery pictures (inspired by the gorgeous picture included in the color challenge) and set to work.

I started by using clear gesso on the background paper so that I could control where my mists ended up and blot up any mist I didn't want. Then I stencilled in some snowflakes using modelling paste, and set to work adding my colours. I outlined the snowflakes in black to help them stand out.

To bring in the coral colour from the palette, I primed the Blue Fern Studios' Lattice Fence chipboard (which I cut into three pieces) with gesso and spritzed it with Lindy's Cape Cod Coral, then sprinkled on some embossing powder (Magic Moon Pearls and Midnight Violet) while it was still wet and heat set it.

Once I got everything put together I wanted to bring in a little extra yellow in addition to the original background misting, so I added some yellow thread and glass beads.

To finish everything off, I added some chipboard snowflakes from Blue Fern Studios, primed white and sprinkled with super fine glitter for incredible shine.

Here is this month's Color Challenge if you're interested in playing along, too.

Lindy's Stamp Gang Products Used:

- Embossing Powders: Magic Moon Pearls, Midnight Violet

- Sprays: Cape Cod Coral, French Lilac Violet, Grab A Guy Gold,

Wicked Witch Purple

Other Products Used:

- Blue Fern Studios chipboard: Lattice Fence, Shabby Flakes

- 7 Dots Studio Cold Country collection: Secret Diary, As It Was Before,

Elements, Element Stickers

- 7 Dots Studio Love Is In The Air: Thunder Of The Sea

- Liquitex: Clear Gesso, Light Modeling Paste, White Gesso

- Crafter's Workshop 6x6 snowflake stencil

- Stabilo Aquarellable pencil: Black

- Georgia Heald/Scrapbook Diaries Zipper stamps

- Faber-Castell Stamper's Big Brush Pen: Black

- 13 Arts Splash! Ink: White

- Prima 3D Gloss Gel

- Prima Glass Beads: Butter

- Superfine Glitter

Beach Boys - Prima January PPP

This month's Prima PPP challenge is full of delicious blues and blue-greens, perfect for boy projects! And though it's the dead of winter, the colours suggested a beachy project to me, as well as a chance to use a Prima product I've been hoarding like a miser for the past year (pretty much to the day, as I picked it up at Prima ArtVenture last year) - the Ingvild Bolme Altered Metal Frame.

Though the frame comes gorgeously distressed, I wanted to build additional colour onto it, so I started by sponging on some heavy gesso, then applied three blue Color Bloom sprays: Soft Teal, Summer Sky and Cobalt.

The top of the frame was perfect for a Winthrop vine, with a distressed resin piece adhered to the front.

To create my beachy scene I started with a page of the aptly named Seashore paper for the background, then added some pieces of Blue Fern Studios' Country Picket Fence and some gauze sprayed with Color Bloom in Tea Stain.

To add some depth to the resin pieces, I sprayed them with Color Bloom in Worn Leather, then blotted it off the raised areas. And then finished everything off with more gorgeous Prima blooms!

Prima Products Used:

- Ingvild Bolme Altered Metal Frame

- Seashore collection: Sea Horse 12x12 paper, 3x4 ATCs

- Ingvild Bolme Shabby Chic Treasures Resins: Frames (89211),

Dell' Arte (891466), Shells (891985)

- Wintrop Vine (577704)

- Color Bloom sprays: Soft Teal, Summer Sky, Cobalt

Tea Stain, Worn Leather

- Cradle Robin nests (552879)

- Abbey flowers (571801)

- Say It In Crystals Free Spirit (573164)

Blue Fern Studios Products Used:

- Country Picket Fence

Cute Stuff - Prima January BAP

The Prima BAP is one of my favourite challenges to play along with, even more so on the months where the sketch was created by one of my best scrappy friends, the incomparable Jennifer Snyder. This month's sketch is another beauty, and I was inspired by the use of two smaller photos to sort through my photos to find two I'd like to use. Using PicMonkey I made them into a collage, and set to work. I am so happy with the way this layout turned out - it exceeds what I pictured in my mind, and then some!

And here is this month's Prima BAP sketch:

I started by adding some chevron stencilling to the Time Traveler "Tickets Only" paper using super heavy white gesso; after that dried I painted on Shabby Tote Chalk Edger with a wet paintbrush and blotted it off for a subdued aged effect.

I added strips of scrap paper from various collections, inked with chalk edgers for a bit of definition, as well as some resist canvas coloured with Gold Foil Color Bloom vertically on the page (I also splattered Color Bloom on the background).

Though there wasn't a vertical strip in the sketch, it felt right for my layout; I cut peek-holes through the Stationer's Desk "Captured Drama" paper, defining them with Dark Bark Chalk Edger. I mounted the strip on a backing of chipboard pop outs to give it more dimension.

To create a centrepiece for my photos inspired by the sketch, I used a chipboard circle painted with Color Bloom in Antique Gold, and topped it with Wire Thread in Rose Red. The bow is also Wire Thread - perfect for such a task as it keeps its shape! Prima flowers and leaves in muted colours, as well as Prima metal accents, contribute to the rustic feel of the layout.

For the cluster on the bottom right I incorporated many of the elements used in the larger cluster, adding a resin frame coloured with Color Blooms, and a chipboard title that perfectly sums up my cheeky little monkey.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Prima Products Used:

- Time Traveler collection: Tickets Only

- Stationer's Desk collection: Captured Drama

- Cigar Box Secrets: Corona & Presidente

- Chalk Edgers: Dark Bark & Shabby Tote

- 12 x 12 Mask: Chevron

- Resist Canvas Borders 4

- Color Bloom Sprays: Gold Foil, Antique Gold, Worn Leather

- Wire Thread: Rose Red

- Junkyard Findings: Industrial Lamps, Wall Lamps

- Prima Resin Frame: Baroque Frame

- Flowers: 

Capri - Cabernet

Hillsboro - Butter

Rodanthe - Seashell

Rondanthe - Sandbank

Florella - Leaves

Blue Fern Studios Chipboard:

- Graduated Circles

- Good Vibes

- Roman Clock Set - Small

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