My First "Official" Blue Fern Studios Project~!

Good morning! I'm super excited today because I'm making my debut on the Blue Fern Studios blog, and I'm able to share with you my very first project for them! As you know, I took a Design Team/Marketing position with this brand new papercrafting company and I'm thoroughly enjoying my new endeavor. :) It's exciting to watch something bloom and grow and I'm so happy to be a part of it all!

Today I'm going to share with you how to get the most out of your chipboard- AND its packaging. So let's get started~!

"Stay This Way"

My heart swells when I look at this- my gorgeous baby boy! I wish I could freeze him just as he is now- sweet, beautiful, innocent. I cannot imagine him any different- and I don't want to :(. He is so precious to me.

Now, before I start to cry- let's take a look at the first piece we will be focusing on:

Organic Vine Corner- Large {074622}

I began with a very routine step of priming the piece first with gesso. I then took a flourish stamp and stamped randomly with red ink before covering with Glossy Accents and sprinkling with various beads.

The piece was then split in half and placed to the upper-right and lower-left of my photos.

Brigitte Butterfly Set {074387}

I've taken the large butterfly from this set and again started by priming it with gesso. I then covered it with Glossy Accents before dusting with clear glitter and just a smattering of light blue microbeads.

This piece was also split in half and then placed on opposing sides of the canvas, accenting my flower clusters.

Next, let's focus on the packaging! Blue Fern Studios products are beautiful in themselves, but with them comes a beautiful insert that is equally as pretty and meant to be used in any of your papercrafting projects. It is from this beautiful packaging that my color scheme was inspired.

 I hand cut the clock/floral images from two different packages.

One of them I placed to the right of my photos...

 The other I split in half and placed beneath and to the left of my photos.

I've provided links to the C'est Magnifique store where you can purchase Blue Fern Studios products. If you are a retailer, you can contact me at erin@bluefernstudios.com with any questions you might have about how to get these beautiful products into your own store!

I'd love it if you would drop by the Blue Fern Studios blog HERE and become a follower. There are giveaways and other fun things going on, as well as future challenges. Don't miss out on any of it~!

And speaking of giveaways, I'm feeling one coming on...I am thinking I might need to send out a little RAK to a lucky commenter from either here or my post over at the Blue Fern blog HERE ;)...

Thanks for stopping by :)

C'est Magnifique Bits & Pieces Giveaway~!

It's time again for the Bits & Pieces Giveaway at C'est Magnifique~! Every month, Leslie (owner of C'est Magnifique Kits) offers up what she has remaining from her kit the month before- and lucky for you, she doesn't get to scrap much and always has plenty of leftovers! Just take a look at what she has left of her January Kit (which is SOLD OUT):

Here's what you need to do to enter our Giveaway: 

1.  You must be a follower of the C'est Magnifique blog.  If you do not already follow us, just click on the 

"Join this site" button on the left sidebar and you'll be all set.  

The winner of this challenge must be a follower.

2.  Use the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of the post HERE.

3.  We are giving you a chance to enter our giveaway twice!  Share this post on your blog (in a blog post, not your sidebar) and you can enter your name again using the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of the post HERE (just be sure to add the link to your blog post).   

The contest will close at midnight, January 12.  

The winner, selected by a random draw, will be announced January 13.  

Good luck to all of you!

More "New Beginnings" from Webster's Pages~!

Hello everybody :)~ I'm so glad you stopped in today because I've had a bit more play with the adorable (and gorgeous!) "New Beginnings" collection from Webster's Pages- and I need someone to share it with :)! I would never claim to do "whimsy" well, but I will claim to try it out from time to time and that is what I experimented with a bit here on this layout. I knew that I wanted to focus on the precious magical time of childhood and what better collection to do that with than "New Beginnings"? As I watch my children grow with every day that passes, I love to see their imaginations unfold and it takes me back to when I had such an imagination that I could only dream of having today. I just wish I could bottle it up for them so that they could have it always! Of course I cannot- but I can try to remind myself to encourage the exploration of this magic as much as possible...

...and that was the inspiration behind this project:

"Celebrate Life's Magic"

My sweet, sweet baby boy Gunner :). Such a playful spirit- I hope he never changes!

The quote reads "The real magic wand is the child's own mind." ~Jose Ortega y Gasset

Let's take a walk through this layout, shall we?

 The "Charmed Perfect Pack" has an assortment of sweet little charms suitable for any project! I've used the sweet little envelope to accent my title piece here.

This adorable giraffe, as well as the elephants on the left of my photo were cut from the motifs paper:

An easy way to add color, texture, and layers to any project- alternate punched paper strips with some of the fabulous trims available in the "New Beginnings" trim pack:

I'm a bit of a nut for bows~ I've used the pale yellow trim from the collection to tie my bow on the left, and on the right I've used a bow from the fun & new "Quick Picks" products (each set priced at just $1~!):

Products Used:

"New Beginnings" Paper Collection

"New Beginnings" Designer Trim Collection

Charmed Perfect Pack

"Modern Romance" Quick Picks

"Everyday Poetry" Alpha Stickers

"Winter Fairy Tales" Bling

"Botanical Christmas" Alpha Stickers

I hope you have a wonderful day :)~!

Selected Scrapper @ Skissedilla~!

Good morning everyone and happy Sunday to you~! I hope the weekend has been great- it's been pretty quiet and normal here :). Finally completely wound down from the holidays- and planning to take down the tree today if all goes well. Sad to see it go- but I'll be glad to have back the room it takes up!

Today I'm here because I'm the Selected Scrapper this month @ Skissedilla~! If you love funky, fun sketches, then you definitely need to head on over there and play along. They have a totally amazing design team with tons of inspiration to get you going, AND there's always great prizes to be won- weekly RAKS and a monthly RAK too- provided by me~! :D

Here's my "cheeky" layout based on this weeks' sketch:

"No Pants, No Problem"

Ahh...to be a kid again~! Ha! Here's Wyatt and his cousin Bear (yes, his real name- not a nickname) wanted so badly to go swimming at Grandma's...but they had not brought their swim shorts. But who needs 'em anyway?!

Here's this week's sketch, #192 designed by my sweet friend Brit Sviggum:

I've stuck pretty closely to the sketch this time around :)

Here's a closer look:

 Modeling Paste & Micro Beads= Delicious~!

 Under my photo you can see some layers of tissue paper and a plastic foam material. This was from a padded envelope protecting a picture frame I received as a gift. I thought it was a nice way to add some neutral texture, and then I discovered- much to my delight- that it melts/shrinks under a heat gun!

My new La Blanche stamp...I foresee many future uses out of this one!

Blue Fern Studios Products Used:

Brigitte Butterfly Set

I've combined gesso, glossy accents, micro beads, & seed beads to decorate this little beauty. I am just in love with the delicate design of this butterfly- I'm sure you will agree~!

Ornate Medallions Set

This medallion piece was tucked in to the left of my flower cluster and treated the same as the butterfly. The mini rose got in on the action too~ micro beads galore~!

So now that you've seen the sketch, how about you have a play? Here's the RAK I'm offering this month for playing along...

...at the end of the month I will go through all of the entries (for the entire month!) and choose a winner to receive my RAK :)

So go get started! You have one week to fuss with this sketch and link up your entry. Can't wait to check in and see what you've all created~!

Take care :),

Blue Fern Studios Design Team~!

It's time for an announcement:

I'm so excited to share with you that I've taken a Design Team/Marketing Director position at Blue Fern Studios~! Blue Fern Studios is a brand new papercrafting manufacturer located in the United States, currently specializing in original & sophisticated chipboard designs, designed by the very talented Michele Singh. Not only does Blue Fern Studios have one amazing premiere design team, but an impressive collection of designs already available. Just take a look HERE~!

I'm thrilled to take on this new role and look forward to being a part of what is certain to become a fierce competitor in the papercrafting industry~! 

Here is the incredible Design Team lineup:

Camilla Ekman

Eila Sandberg

Erin Blegen (Marketing)

Irene Tan

Irina Gerschuk

Iris Babao Uy

Jennifer Snyder

Joyce Lawrence

Kelly Foster

Lisa Gregory

Mona Pendleton

Patter Cross

Svetlana Austin

Vibeke Harila

Valerie Serfozo (Design Team Coordinator) 

 

If you want to get some Blue Fern Studios product for yourself, you need to get your local scrapbook store on board- send them HERE to sign up and place an order (or they can contact me at: erin@bluefernstudios.com). You can also check HERE for retailers currently carrying Blue Fern Studios designs, and HERE these products are already being sold~!

 

Have a fabulous night/day and thanks for stopping by~!!

January Sketch Challenge @ C'est Magnifique~!

It's that time again, to reveal a new sketch challenge for C'est Magnifique! The January sketch is created by the incredibly talented Michele Singh, and she's got another beauty to spark your creativity- and get you in the running for some goodies too~!! (P.S. Michele is having a GIVEAWAY on her blog until January 6th- so make sure you head on over to her blog HERE to enter!)...

Our Beautiful January Sketch

The sketch challenge is open to anyone and you may use any scrappy supplies that you have on hand.  No restrictions, no themes, just a sketch to follow.  You can rotate it, or use it as is.  

We will have a prize package to award the winner, selected by a random draw.  Here is the prize package Leslie has put together for this month.  The winner of this prize will also be able to shop in the C'est Magnifique Store and their purchase will be shipped for free along with the prize - and who doesn't love free shipping?

Our second prize, a $10 gift certificate to the C'est Magnifique Store, will be randomly be awarded to one of the sketch participants who obviously creates their sketch layout using a C'est Magnifique Kit.

Lastly, we will be choosing 5 (or more) layouts to feature on our Blog when we announce the winners.

What do you have to do to enter our sketch challenge?

1.  You must become a follower of our blog.  It's easy to become follower -see the left sidebar.

2.  Create a layout using the sketch, and add it to our blog using the Inlinkz tool below.  Please link to the blog post where you have uploaded your layout  (not your general blog address). If you do not have a blog, you may link to an online gallery.

 Deadline for entering the sketch challenge is midnight, January 31 (US time).

We can't wait to see what YOU create using the January sketch!

Hope to see you there- and have a great day~!

Guest Designing @ Scrap Friends: Sketch #9

Hi! I'm excited to share with you today a layout I created as a Guest Designer for Scrap Friends, for Sketch Challenge #9. If you're looking for some fun, inspiring sketches- I encourage you to play along with those offered at Scrap Friends~! I've admired them for some time now and had a great time using the current sketch and making it my own :)...

"Little Pal"

I took this photo this past fall when I had all the kids playing outside. It was just after Halloween and we had our pumpkins laying out for the deer. My daughter found the half-frozen pumpkin intriguing- as did her little friend, our Red Pyle Old English Game Bantam hen- a big breed name for what happens to be the smallest bird in our flock. This little sweetie is very friendly, and if you're sitting out on the porch with something to eat, she doesn't hesitate to jump up on your lap and grab a bite!

I've again used the Kaisercraft "Secret Admirer" collection, which can be found HERE in the C'est Magnifique store. And for plenty of other *NEW* Kaisercraft goodies, see HERE~!

Here is Sketch #9, which I've rotated one turn to the right, to suit my photos:

A closer look, too!

I did something I have not done in a while, and that was using my mask with an ink pad- rather than with modeling paste or mist. After I was finished masking, I flipped the ink-ridden mask over and used it as a stamp as well.

 Using my punches on the edges of my cardboard strips is new to me too. I love it when you can add texture of any kind!

 This heart paper clip is really old. I have no idea where I even got it, but I know it's been sitting in my little box forever. The color was right and I just added some glossy accents w/micro & seed beads to dress it up a little bit :).

So what do you say? Will you be adding this sketch to your to-do list this month? You have until the end of the month to have it in by- and there are some Top 5 spots to be won, as well as a random winner for a fabulous prize! PLUS, they have a brand new design team with one incredible reveal, so head on over for a look HERE.

Have a wonderful day and take care of you~!

Happy New Year~! January Challenge @ OUAS~!

Good morning and Happy New Year~! 2013 has officially begun and I look forward to many more blessings in the coming year- and wish you all the same :)~!!

And what better way to start off a new month and new year than with a challenge from Once Upon A...Sketch that focuses on "The Start of Something New"! Yep, as always we're motivating you to look a little deeper and get you thinking...what does "the start of something new" mean to you? Are you looking forward to a new baby? Marriage? Home? Career? Or perhaps a whole new you, with a whole new outlook on life? I have a lot of plans ready and written down, which I've recorded on some hidden journaling below my lower photo:

"New Year, New Plan"

I've used the beautiful *NEW* "Secret Admirer" collection from KaiserCraft for this layout. You can find it HERE at the C'est Magnifique store, as well as lots of other new goodies from KaiserCraft HERE~!

**Pink ribbon from Scrapbook Fantasies**

 Here is this month's sketch, created by my dear friend Nadia Cannizzo:

I've rotated the sketch to the left to fit my photos- otherwise followed it very closely!

Here's a closer look:

 My hidden journaling :)

I have an obsession with stamping and using tissue paper...I'm finding I have lots of obsessions...;)

And as always, there are a BOAT LOAD of prizes to be won this month over at Once Upon A...Sketch, with tons of new sponsors and ways to win- so go and see this month's post HERE for full details~!!

Have a wonderful day and Happy New Year to you all~!!