Seaside Cottage....Blue Fern Studios

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