crate special feature

We're excited to be partnering with Crate Paper again - they designed two fabulous papers that are exclusive to our Boardwalk kit. In honor of this collaboration, we've asked two designers from Crate's team - Lexi Bridges and Amy Heller - to work with the kit.

First up is Amy Heller :

I was introduced to scrapping in 2004, like many scrappers, from an in-home party. But I didn't scrap with real consistency until 2008, once my kids were a bit older and out of their infancy stages. :) As a graphic designer by trade, this hobby has brought me back to the fundamental reasons why I fell in love with design in the first place : paper, color, letter form and layout. My style has of course evolved from those early days. Now I would definitely say that I have a fun, cheerful, colorful and whimsical style. I LOVE to layer pattern, color and texture (especially with buttons, ribbon and sewing). I think it's safe to say that I love to embellish on my work. :)I currently design for Crate Paper and October Afternoon, and have been fortunate to have had my work published in several magazines from Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbook Trends, CARDS, Paper Crafts and Scrapbooks and Cards Today. I am from the beautiful state of Washington, but I currently live in a small town in Connecticut with my awesome husband of 11 years, our daughter, who is nearly 9 and son who is 5.

One of the things I love doing when creating my pages, is trying new ways of folding patterned paper. I took the awesome hexagon SC paper in the Boardwalk kit and cut out individual hexagons to create the windmill-like flowers down the center of the page. Once I cut the perimeter of the hexagons, I cut a slit down from each of the corners in towards the center, though not all the way. Then I gently folded each of the corners towards the center of the hexagon, and tucked the tips underneath one of the glazed Brads from Basic Grey. I used both the a & b wides of the hexagon paper alternating the outside pattern of my 3 Windmill flowers to add interest and depth to the page.

 

We recently took our kids to the coast for a couple days of beach fun. When I received the beautiful Boardwalk kit, I knew it would be perfectly suited for the whispy ease captured in my photos. I especially love the beautifully watercolored sassafras paper and exclusive Crate paper patterned paper in the kit for these photos. To accentuate the windblown feel from the pictures, I decided to use the Pink Paislee mistables scallop borders in their natural form, cutting and pulling out random strands of fabric, then sewing them down with stands exposed. It really adds to the texture and movement that is always present at the beach.

Next we have projects from Lexi Bridges :

Hello there! My name is Lexi Bridges. I am blessed to be married to my high school sweetheart and be a stay at home momma to two very sweet and active boys. After trying out several different crafty avenues (rug hooking, feather tree making--I kid you not!, cross stitching) I found scrapbooking and LOVE it. There is just something about playing with pretty paper and glue :) I am currently on the design teams for Crate Paper and October Afternoon, as well as a cameo designer for May Arts. I feel lucky that my work has been featured in Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbook Trends, Simply Handmade and CARDS magazines. When I am not chasing after the kiddos, and seriously when am I not?, you can find me scouring thrift stores, drinking something Starbucks related and, in the wee hours, crafting in my scrap room cave. But really it's probably more like cleaning dirty dishes and folding laundry. Hey, a girl can dream, right? ;)

This kid is all kinds of goofy :) I think my favorite piece of SC/CP exclusive paper was the green with the tiny dots. I just had to use it as the background on this "10 things" layout. I sprayed it all over with white Mister Huey, and as you can see, typed up 10 things I love about my littlest and hung them from the My Mind's Eye twine. The scalloped trim was stamped and then bunched up while sewing it down. I tried to use an all over punch, but because my layers of paper were so thick it wouldn't go all the way through!  I thought the layout was pretty much ruined and then realized if I pulled on the the partially punched shape from the backside it gave it a kinda neat look. Adding the numbers along the bottom were a last minute thing, but I wanted to use more of the SC exclusive alpha! The font and color are too perfect.

 

Every year we take the kiddos to a fun, 16 and under, fishing spot. And every year I play photographer :) The camera is an Amy Tangerine design cut with my Silhouette from the exclusive SC/CP paper. I have a thing for triangles lately so once I cut this photo mat out I chose to leave most of them intact and only pull put a few, which I then backed with several different pieces of kit paper. The trim is sprayed with Clover Mister Huey. The misting job on the sides of the layout were another scrapping accident, I tend to have a lot of those ;), but I tried to incorporate some stars to make it not quite so obvious.

Please join me in saying THANK YOU to these two talented designers -we're so glad you were able to take time from your busy schedules to share some Studio Calico inspiration with us! Be sure to stop by both Lexi's and Amy's blogs - they have a special SC giveaway to share with you!

Comments

[MaryAnn N]

I love the She is growing page and 10things page. Wonderful pages and stories. Thanks Amy and Lexi for your great post. Will check out your blog's now.

[Rebecca]

Thank you ladies for sharing these! They are lovely!!

[jennifer]

Fabulous! I love all the extra ideas and beautiful inspiration!

[Suz]

:) :) :) Thanks for sharing ladies!

[Denise]

All of these pages are so creative and make me want to pull my supplies out and do the same. I really need some time to get my pages done. CKC was a breath of fresh air and I miss it! Thank you for the continued inspiration online.

[Jill]

Agree on the great colors. Always love your layouts and these are no exception.

[Alexa]

Love Amy's use of the cloud Sass paper for a beach page, I am so trying that! And Lexi's cut out triangles are awesome so is the stamping on the mistables!