Quotes

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." -Thomas Merton

Friday, April 18, 2014

Artist Trading Cards

Welcome back!

Today, I'm sharing a collection of artist trading cards inspired by the colors of roses and greens found on the Signature page from the Blue Fern Garden paper collection.  The base of cards are parts of the Signature page, then applications of strips of layered papers from the same paper collection were glued down, and layers of gesso, stamping and mists were applied on top of that. The layering of strips of paper were applied so that they would not over up the pretty rose and leaf patterns on the paper.  There's some tattered lacy bits too. The little paper flowers were punched from the Signature page also.  The sweet petite window frames are from Blue Fern Studios.

Here are some close ups of the layering details on the paper and the mist application on the chipboard frames.




   
Treatment of the Petite Windows:  Each petite window was treated with a coat of white dauber, one light sporadic application of a light green colored chalk ink, one light sporadic application of a medium green colored chalk ink, and a light spray of a darker green glimmer mist in which I let the liquid of the mist run in various places making sure not to let it cover the entire frame. Applying the inks and mist sporadically over the frames creates interest and depth.     Some gold pen, black and white markers were used to highlight certain areas on the frame too.

Here's a picture of the Blue Fern Garden Signature page so that you can see the pretty paper I was working with.


Stop by Blue Fern Studios and checkout the paper collection, chipboard inventory, and some inspiration from the design team too.

Thank you for stopping by.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Blue Fern Studios Design Team Work


I used the pretty rose pattern from the Blue Fern Garden "Signature" paper to create the basis of the composition of the layout.  No, your monitor is not blurry, that photo of the kids is blurry, a defect from the camera or the photographer in those days.  Sadly, the shoes are more in focus, and unfortunately, a lot of these old pics I inherited are blurry.   But on to the best part… those Blue Fern Studios chipboard dangles! This one is the Flutter Page Dangle.  I cut off the butterfly portion of the dangle and placed it on the other side of the layout on top of the rose pattern paper.  It looks more like a “flutter fly” than a “butterfly” because I applied mists of water to separate the cardboard to make the wings look like they are in motion. I love the dangle chipboard pieces because they are so versatile and you can cut them up too.




 
Treatment of the Dangle: The dangle was created by first applying white dauber, light green mist, and a darker mist.  To add depth, you sporadically cover the chipboard with the two mists (allow to dry between applications) and carefully allow some overlapping but not too much or you’ll only create one color. After the applications of mists dry, add some detail with a black marker, or water color pencil around various areas.  Try to create larger sweeps of the application of the marker, or watercolor pencil, in some areas and go over them with a white gel pen to add little dots to create further detail.  A simple treatment with lovely results.

Thank you for stopping by and allowing me to share my design team work with you.  Check in a few days from now, and I'll share my latest artist trading card collection.  You'll also want to stop by Blue Fern Studios to see all the new chipboard pieces too.

Keep creating...


Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Blue Fern Studios April Sketch Challenge

 
Hello everyone, today I’m sharing the second card I created for my “Women of Substance” card series using the Blue Fern Studios (“BFS”) April Sketch found here (see copy of sketch below).  As explained on a previous blog entry, I’m creating cards of the women on my maternal line of the family to introduce those women to my 20 year old niece and future generations.  The cards are 6x6 in size, and each one will have a picture of the woman, and inside the card I will write a biography for those I knew. For those that I didn’t know, I’ll incorporate some historical events of what it must have been like living during those times so that my niece will know what it was like living before the Smartphone and her Twitter account.  Each card will be mailed to my niece, and I hope she thinks of them as gifts when she receives them.
Here’s Ginger from the 1950’s, I’m certain her hairstyle gave that a way.  All the papers on this card are from the Blue Fern Garden paper collection, including the fussy cutting papers.  Some of the papers were stamped, gesso’d, torn, and stamped some more to add texture and interest to the front of the card.  I have used the “Ever After” frame, and Turkish bit chipboard pieces from BFS. The size of the chipboard frame is just perfect for the 6 x 6 card.  The card was pasted on another piece of Blue Fern Garden paper and a biography written on vellum is attached to the photo corners inside the card.  


Close up of the Ever After frame chippie:


Close up of the Turkish Bits chippie:


Stop by Blue Fern Studios to check out the rules for the April Sketch Challenge and view the prizes too.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope I have inspired you to use your BFS chipboard and do something similar for those women who came before you and to share some of your family history with your future family.

Blue Fern Garden Papers I used to create the card.