Gotta Lotta Bottle .......with Blue Fern Studio's Seaside Cottage.

Hello There,long time no see LOL but here I am over on the Papermaze blog and it's my last post for November.

Today I am using my left over bits and peices of beautiful Seaside Cottage from Blue Fern Studios. This is such a lovely manufacturer and their collections are second to none, combining the beauty of shabby chic with various themes and all such wonderful quality! There is a lovely choice to pick from in the shop HERE

I had a couple of glass bottles at home in my window sill that I had some small bunches of gypsophelia in and thought they could do with 'prettying' up a bit. So I combined them with the papers, acrylic paint and items from a little glass jar that we have popped small shells and sea glass in over the years whilst on holiday when our girls were small.

I painted each bottle a different colour ( one blue, one rose pink) then when that layer was dry, I dry brushed over the top with white paint to give the shabby effect.

Starting with the pink bottle, I added  a wrap using some of the Glory sheet, I inked the edges and stuck it round the centre of the bottle, then popped on some hessian ribbon and some lace around the top of the bottle. I made a tiny tag using a clipping from the Calling Cards sheet and then finished the bottle off adding various blossoms, crystals, frills and shells and a sprinkling of Icicle Stickles.

I decorated the blue bottle in pretty much the same way, using the reverse side of the Glory sheet and a couple more items from the Calling Cards Sheet. I also made some rolled paper roses to add to the neck of the bottle with other little bits and bobs and then made a seed bead, pearl and crystal bead dangler to drape around the neck.

I hope you like my bottles I have *prettified* and if you have a go yourself I would love to see them, so please leave a comment with either a photo of them or a link so I can come and have a look.
Wishing you a wonderful and creative weekend...
Warmest Wishes
Anita xx

Seaside Cottage by Blue Fern Studios

I am over on the Scrap,Paper Scissors blog today with my newest layout using Blue Fern Studios
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Hello to you all, it's Anita here with my first offering using some items from the lush Seaside Cottage Collection by Blue Fern Studios. The soft vintage summer colours and sun bleached wood patterns make this such a pretty set....with a little extra distressing I achieved a look that I am happy with.

Our family holiday this year was based in Somerset, one day we drove down to Briport in Dorset and onto West Bay. It was such a pretty little place and we very much enjoyed seeing some of the places that were used in the making of the series Broadchurch. I took this selfie of us when we were out on the harbour wall (after we had all been crabbing) and when I saw this range of papers I just knew they would be a perfect pairing.

The layout is based on a sheet of Gala. I cut a few slices in random places on the wooden slats, rolled back gently and inked to distress the edges and make them stand out. I then cut the large ships wheel from the sheet of Mermaid and popped lots of foam pads underneath, raising it up to give some dimension to the layout.

Over the years unfortunately I seem to have acquired a rather large obsession with using blossoms.....everywhere and anywhere on my layouts, whatever the theme may be (nothing is safe!!) So I rummaged about and picked some that I liked and then layered some of them together. My photo seemed to be a bit stark against the softness of the papers so I softened the edge by gently sponging with light brown, then white acrylic paint and finishing by gently rubbing some gold gilding wax along the edges. I popped a couple of gold doilies under the photo for a partial mat.

I cut out a few elements from the Calling Cards sheet, inked the edges and added them to the page. I also had some wavy shaped die cuts to play with. I painted them white and then dragged wisps of pale turquoise across them and then finished them off with a gentle rub of more gilding wax. I also rubbed some gold wax onto the edges of the ships wheel, each of the blossoms and all around the edges of the layout, giving a soft metallic sheen which gently compliments the gold in the doilies.

Once again Blue Fern Studios have produced another beautiful collection of papers that are lovely to work with and this and several other collections from them are available in the shop...... I hope you liked my layout, I will be back early next month with another project using some more of these gorgeous papers.

TTFN, Anita xx

Oh Baby! ........Prima 'Heaven Sent'

Hello There,
Anita here today with my final post for September using the adorable Prima Heaven Sent collection.
If you haven't already seen this collection then I can highly recommend it with its delicate pastel shades, vintage playful bunny, teddies and lambs and stunning soft rose gold foiling. I worked originally with it creating a gift basket and card for a new baby HERE
And now I have used it for a layout to showcase that beautiful new arrival.

I based the layout on a sheet of Welcome Baby  which I handcut wavy edges randomly around the entire edge of the page and gently inked with an old brown inkpad. I then stuck this onto a sheet of Heaven Sent and again gently inked the edges.

Around the edge of the photograph I gently ruffled some organza ribbon to make a soft frame and then placed it onto a frilly doily.

 I had a lovely chipboard butterfly by Scrap FX, which I sprinkled with large flake irridescant glitter and although it was pretty it wasn't quite right, so I sprayed over it with a pearlescant spray which also worked as a seal to stop the glitter from migrating.

I cut various bits and peices from the sheets of Sweet Lullaby and Special Delivery and used around the page and used various blossoms and bling.

I then finished the page by adding lots and lots of sprinklings of crystals to the hot air balloon and more crystals and teeny baby blossoms from the Prima Planner flowers Lola and Lucy around the wavy edge of the page.

This is a truly beautiful range of papers and has been a real delight to work with, hopefully you will decide you would like to try some too.

oh Baby
Warmest wishes
Anita xx

Prima - Heaven Sent - .... A New Baby gift basket and card.

Hello There, I am up on the Papermaze Blog  with the scrumptiously adorable new 'Heaven Sent' papers from Prima.
 They really are absolutely charming with lovely pastel shades and exquisite, but delicate foil highlights in a soft rose gold.
 I thought I would start off this month with a gift basket and card to welcome a new born.

 

The basket itself is made very easily from a single piece of 12 x 12 ( I used a sheet of Heaven Sent 'Joyful Arrival' ) and simply creased into 9 sections, each one being 4 x 4. I decorated the 4 mid panels with off cuts from 'Special Delivery' and also 'Sweet Lullaby'.

After distressing all of the edges with a dark brown ink pad, I punched twin holes in each of the 4 corners and when folded up, I gently threaded 2 lengths of lace through and tied up in double bows on the top of the basket.

So then all that is left to do is fill the four sections with goodies of some sort. These baskets are great for all sorts of occasions and can be themed in any way you wish. They can also be made in all sizes, as long as you start off with a perfect square. For Christmas a few years ago I made some teeny tiny ones to hang on our Christmas tree!
Here is a view of the basket from above.

Next I made the card, making a card blank from a sheet of dusty blue Bazill and layering using pieces from both sides of a sheet of 'Sweet Angel' and a baby pink Bazill. I also added some Prima leaves, baby blossoms, a couple of sparkly heart cabouchons and some lace.

I absolutely adore the foiling on these papers, it really is the perfect finishing touch to an already beautiful design and without being over the top.

Keep your eye out on the shop site for these papers over the next day or so.....I have a feeling they won't hang about for very long!

Warmest wishes
Anita x

Marvellous Metallics

I am up on the Scrap, Paper, Scissors blog today with this new layout of mine using Blue Fern Studios paper and various acrylic paints xx

I am a great fan of patterned papers, infact, if I am honest, I really struggle to use plain cardstock full stop. And even with pattern papers I often find it hard to keep them *clean* by not inking, spraying or painting them somewhere! I really like using acrylic paints on my pages and often just use standard matt colours.....so i thought I would break out my metallics this time and jazz up a sheet of Blue Fern Studios paper from the Tranquility Range.....I didn't manage to stop at just using metallic paints though as you will see!


This photo was taken on a holiday to the beautiful Camber Sands a couple of years ago and was on our last evening there. The sunset was very pretty and I wanted to try out the self timer on my new camera..... and i really liked how the photo turned out so thought I would scrap it.

I created the background by sponging acrylic paint in various metallic shades onto some bubble wrap and stamping it onto the page....I then repeated this, but used the gilding flakes glue instead and then added the flakes to the page and to some strips of paper.

The title was created by using letter stickers, which I sponged paint over and then when dry I peeled up the letters and threw them away( this is a good way to use old stash and also doesn't matter if they are from different sheets in different colours)  and using a fine marker pen, I edged the letters to make them stand out a bit more. It was great to actually use up some old stash that I have coveted for soooo long!!

I also used some Distress Stain dabbers in various places and added several mixed pearls, gems, metal photo corners and other bits and bobs to complete the page.

Do you use acrylic paint very often? And if so, do you tend to use standard colours or do you like metallics too?

Thanks for looking.
Warmest Wishes
Anita xx

Daddy's Girl- Blue Fern Studios and Kaisercraft

 Hello again, today I am featured Papermaze blog.
Do you have certain photo's that you are happy to scrap more than once? I do ....and this is one of them. Me with my Daddy, when I was just a toddler and my parents had a photographer come to our home for a little photo shoot.
(Apologies for the poor quality and slightly off set photo of the layout, I am having a few technical problems at the moment)
I decided I would mix up a couple of manufacturer's papers for this layout and I have used both Blue Fern Studios (Tranquility) and also a little bit of Kaisercraft (Cottage Rose).

I took a sheet of Tranquility - Hushed  and used a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set and some scalloped edge scissors all around the edge of the sheet, I then stuck it to a sheet of Juneberry cardstock  so that there is a little frame of deep, dusty pink. I also used the same card to die cut some branches with leaves and I dry brushed then with white acrylic paint....I also dry brushed the photo edges to give a softer feel to it.

I wanted to add lots of texture and dimension to my page so created a fabric photo mat using cheesecloth, layered up and mixed with texture paste. I then spread some texture paste onto a square of bubble wrap and stamped it onto the page. Before the cheesecloth and stamped area dried, I drizzled some Microbeads in various colours on and they set as it dried.

I had some flowers to use but felt that the black one was too harsh for the page....this was soon remedied by spritzing it liberally with a Cosmic Shimmer spray mist  
....end result much prettier and co-ordinates much better with the page I thought.

I made some bunting using various frames cut from a sheet of Kaisercraft Cottage Rose - Framed and tied them together using lace which was then knotted at each end. The little girl on the bottom left of the photo was cut from a sheet of Tranquility - Calling Cards and I also printed out some various butterflies to use on the page, to which I added some pretty crystal swirls, leaving delicate trails behind them..
Once again it's been a pleasure scrapping with Blue Fern Studios.....and you can find all their products and many others besides all over at Papermaze.

Wishing you all a super, summery August.
Anita xx

Tranquility ...... Blue Fern Studios

 I am starting July off with some beautiful papers once again from Blue Fern Studios. If you haven't already had a play with these then I highly recommend them, they are really fabulous quality, nice and thick, double sided and beautiful designs throughout each range.

This time I am working with the Tranquility collection which will be in the shop soon and I thought this photo of my 2 girls, taken a few years ago now, at Virginia Water in Windsor Great park , would work well with it.

I used 2 sheets of Tranquility *Calm*, one to base the layout on and the other to cut a circle from and use the reverse side. I gently sponged some white acrylic paint through a script stencil that I have and also sponged around the outside of the photo and edge of the layout too.

I can never resist a bit of bling, so I stuck tiny crystals all around the circle and then used Stickles to add sparkle to some butterflies that I printed out at home .

In a couple of places i rolled some of the edge of the layout inwards and popped some fine mesh behind, leaving some poking out to soften the edge.I then added a few hand sewn stitches in various places about the page, including over a chipboard title that I had sponged white first. I added a section from the Calling Cards sheet of paper and gently inked and Stickled the edges.

I was given a couple of heart embellishments that were made of bark of some sort and whilst very pretty left natural, I decided to spray mist with some Cosmic Shimmer Spray in blue to work better on the page.

I really like making flowers in different ways and one of my favourites is to cut circles in various sizes out of voile or satin fabrics and melting the edges over a flame ( tea lights I find are best) to seal the edge and stop it fraying.  When they are all done you simply layer them up and hold together either with a stitch or a brad.
 

I used some voile for these ones and cut some fine white mesh for a couple of layers too, then used a large Kaisercraft brad to hold the layers together. Here is a quick step by step to make this type of flower ( image taken from Pinterest)

Would love to hear if you have a go at making some of the singed edge flowers. They are very versatile and could also be added to head bands, made into brooches or bracelets or added to the outside of a present to 'pretty' it up xxx

Photo Bunting and a simple Layout using Sea Breeze from Kaisercraft

Hi There....
I decided I would try my hand at making some photo bunting and as these papers from the Kaiserdraft Sea Breeze are in my fave colours I just knew I had found the perfect ones to use and combined them with some family photo's.

I made a heart shaped template and then cut out 11 heart shapes on nice sturdy chipboard. I covered 6 with some of my favourite black and white photos, I then sponged around the edges with some white acrylic paint and the remaining 5 hearts were covered in scraps of paper including Refresh Splash and Swirl

I then added paper blossoms, sequins and butterflies that were given some *bling* using some Mercury Glass Stickles Each heart had 2 holes punched into them and I threaded them all up with some garden twine. I am really pleased with the final product and see a few more in the pipeline in different colours. I think they would be wonderful for a wedding decoration, using photo's of both the bride and groom, maybe as they grew up and decorated in the wedding colours or for a special anniversary.....or imagine for a child's first birthday with some of their 1st year milestones....the list could be endless

I also made a very quick, simple layout. I based it on a sheet of Sea . I stuck a 5" wide band of  Refresh down the centre with a thin scalloped band of  Waterlily down each side.
I misted various patches with some Turquoise spray and added a sprinkling of turq and silver sequins and a selection of die cuts from the matching Collectables range.

I don't know about you, but I LOVE using my sewing machine to stitch sections on layouts if I get the chance. However......there is a brand new range of gorgeous stamps in the shop by a new manufacturer called 49 and Market
And in the range is a gorgeous set called Gabi's Line Stitch .....I fell in love with these and they sell out so quickly everywhere that I have seen them.....so I managed to grab a set.....and they ARE AWESOME!!! I used them around the edges of my layout....and I can see they will be appearing in LOTS of places from now on. ;)

Have you played with Sea Breeze yet?  If so, it would be lovely to see what you have created with it.
Happy Scrapping.
Anita xx

...and so the Adventure Begins...'Blush' from Blue Fern Studios

Having had the enjoyment of playing with papers from the 'Serendipity' Range from Blue Fern Studios earlier on in the month, I have also been lucky enough to play with some of the 'Blush' papers too. I thought they were perfect for scrapping one of our wedding photo's, taken back in Sept, 1992.

  I always find it hard to photograph layouts to capture the true colours, sparkles and shimmers on the page and this is very true for this layout, such a shame. It started off as a shabby pink, but actually ended up in varying shimmering shades of copper, rose pink and stone white.

I used a sheet of Blush 'Celebration'
for the base of the layout and then I used a Harelquin mask and some texture paste to create the dimentional background.  I gave it a few squirts with some Rose spray and then a generous squirting of Copper Shimmer mist ( you can NEVER have too much shimmer and shine!!)
I had some harlequin chipboard to work with and I coated this with white acryic paint and lots of Copper shimmer mist, then scattered the peices about across the layout in various places. I wanted the photo to stand out, but without a mat to sit it on, so i sponged all round the edge with some more white paint just for some gentle definition.

I also had some black lace that I wanted to add, but it was way to harsh in black. So I sponged it with white paint and then added some Stickles.  I laid the lace just under the edge of the photo ( which I had raised up on foam pads for a little more dimension) I also added a couple of Prima Blossoms ( also gently sponged with white paint to tone the colours down a bit) And I made a couple of rolly roses and added a pearl in the centres. ( tutorial for roses here )

The sheet of Valentine Cards is covered with some lovely bits and peices, but I only cut out a couple of sections and added to the page. The bottom quote was taken from a sheet of Serendipity Calling Cards and I just popped on another rolly rose and a vintage cabouchon.

 

To finish the layout I just needed a bit more sparkle, but didn't know quite what.

I am really enjoying using sequins on my layouts at the moment. Normally I would just gently sprinkle a few around, but I went a bit wild! I started with just a few little odd sprinkles, but then decided I wanted some large clusters.....so i pooled some glue under the quote and built up a nice thick cluster of sequins in various golds, coppers and bronzes .... and then I thought I should stop!

I really have enjoyed creating with these Blue Fern Studios Papers and if you pop over to the shop you will find there are several designs available.
Thanks for looking, see you again soon.
Anita xx

Sea Breeze from Kaisercraft

Sea Breeze ......from Kaisercraft

Hi There,
Anita here, kicking June off over on the Papermaze blog with a layout I have made using some of the beautiful papers from the 'Sea Breeze' Collection from Kaisercraft....and they are in my favourite colourway too!!

Kaisercraft quality is absolutely superb and each of the papers in all collections are double sided. There are several collections available over at Papermaze
I scrapped this 7 x 5 family selfie, taken on a trip on the Thames at Windsor about 4 or 5 years ago, we certainly had a chuckle that day.
I based the page on a sheet of Bazill Aqua cardstock and a sheet of Sea Breeze Refresh 
I inked around the entire edge of each using a Dew Drop Brilliance Pad in Pearlescent Chocolate , this gave a lovely shimmering tint to it all. I cut a sheet of Sea Breeze Swirl into 4 strips approx 1" wide, inked the edges and then created a rustic frame for the photo, adding brads in the corners.

I love using chipboard, sometimes I leave it naked as it is, but more often than not I like to paint it, glitter it or foil it. I had a lovely Blue Fern Studios Flourish and this time I used Glimmer Glam in Expresso Bean and sprinkled some brown glitter onto whilst still wet. I also had some lovely wood effect sequins to play with....and these were sprinkled in various places across the page.

One of the sheets in the Sea Breeze collection, Lake , is covered on one side with some lovely black blossoms. I cut a few out, layering some up and also some leaves and arranged them down the side of the frame along with some mixed blue blossoms.

I finished the page off by adding a few elements from the Sea Breeze Collectables and some printed butterflies.

 

Thank you for looking.

Warmest Wishes

Anita xxx

Puppy Love .. 'Bringing Chewie Home' .... Teresa Collins 'Life Emporium'

Check out this little poppet, cutie or what??
This is Chewie.....the newest member of our extended family.......he is 7/8Wolf Sable Pomeranian and 1/8 Bichon Frise......and 100% adorable. Lauren and Jack collected him on Saturday and bought him home and they are settling down to life as *new parents*

So I just had to scrap the occasion didn't I??

I used some lovely papers from the Teresa Collins 'Life Emporium' collection to which I added blossoms, glitter card, charms, butterflies and various Alphabet stickers amongst other things.
Watch this space as I do believe there will be more of this little fella xxx

'Uniquely You'......... Serendipity by Blue Fern Studios

 I have been playing with some fabulous papers from Blue Fern Studios. This is the first time I have worked with these papers and I just cannot get over the wonderful quality of each sheet and the stunning designs on them, what a pleasure it's been ( I can see a new obsession brewing here!)

The photo's of our youngest were taken on a sports award night that she attended and was awarded Sportswoman of the Year. The photos were taken before the ceremony and so I will now also be having to scrap the photos of her with the awards too!

I started off with a sheet of Serendipity - Chronicle as the background and took a sheet of Serendipity - Imagination which I cut a random wavy edge around and also inked up the entire edge with a dark brown ink pad.
 On the right hand side I tore a line in towards the centre of the page and then rolled the edges back.  I chopped up the sheet of  Serendipity Calling Cards, chose the ones I wanted for this page and gently inked the edges. These were then used up for layering around the photos

In my kit I had a sheet of Bazill Cardstock called Lagoon and because of the small tints of blue in the actual papers, I thought I would use the cardstock to create some flowers to adorn the page. I punched out several flowers, spray misted the die cuts with water and allowed them to soak in for a while, before then scrunching each one up and putting to one side to dry for using later.

Once they had dried out I layered them up and stuck a nice big flat backed gem in the centre ( I LOVE a bit of bling!)

I don't know about you but I really love using chipboard embellishments on my pages, they are so versatile and can be left plain as they come or can be inked, painted, glittered etc to dress them up. I took these Blue Fern Studio Berry Stems dabbed them with an Aqua Acrylic Dabber and then gently sponged some tiny patches with some gold acrylic paint. I also added some little crystal bling on some of the berries.

I quite often like to add butterflies to my pages, so I printed out some onto white card and then coated with Sprinkled Sugar Stickles. 
I also used a beautiful chipboard Romantic Page Dangle which I painted in brown and over dabbed with some gold acrylic paint. Using some jute twine I criss crossed stitched across the torn section on the right hand side of the page and layered the chipboard dangle over the top, adding crystals, a butterfly and also another handmade blossom.

 I finished the page off by adding a few crystals here and there and also using a bottle of Mercury Glass Stickles , I used various round items as a stencil and dotted the Stickles in blobs around them.

I enjoyed using these products so much and cannot wait to play with them some more, if you pop over to Papermaze you can see all the products I have used , especially the beautiful papers in the Blue Fern Studios ranges.

Thanks so much for looking at this post, I hope you have a super scrappy week.
Warmest wishes
Anita x