Studio Calico

NSD Challenge: Triangles

First NSD Challenge of the day is brought to you by Kelly N and Davinie! Can you guess what it's going to be after this layout by Kelly?

Yep, it's using triangles as your inspiration!

Supplies: Mister Huey's Water Cooler, Lullaby Thickers, Rolodex, Spreadsheet, Noteworthy,

Think Tank, Destination, Executive, Abroad Printed Tags, Calico Borders Stamps, Ladybug Chalk Ink, Classic Calico Vol 2 Alpha Stickers, Wood Veneer Stars

 

Check out Dav's mini....I'm loving that cover!

supplies: wood veneer people, wood veneer transportation, chevron journal kit

Ok, ready?
Now go make and show us your triangle-inspired project! Post the link here to your project that has been posted in the member gallery by May 13th for you chance to win a collection pack from one of stash of prizes!

Have fun!

 

Hello SC friends!! Kelly here to share with you a week full of photo prompts. Everybody gets lazy with photos from time to time (photographers included! ;), so it's always fun to have a prompt to get the creative juices going again. :)

#1 Action...catch somebody in full on action! Action shots are always fun to see afterwards. (small tip: set your focus mode to AI Servo if you're using a DSLR...it works great at getting a sharp photo of a moving subject.)

#2 Sunshine...whether you're able to catch a little sun flare like I did here with this photo of Jackson or if it's just your kids outside enjoying the warm Spring temps, hopefully you'll be able to find some sunshine this week :) 

#3 Perspective...photos from straight in front of your subject are great, but often great photographs are when you shoot from a different perspective. Try shooting from above or below instead for an interesting composition. 

#4 Background...try using a new background of some sort. Put up a fun piece of fabric or try out a new spot you've been wanting to photograph. 

#5 No Faces...a photo can say a lot even if nobody is really "IN" the photo. For example, this shot of Brady I took at the beach a couple of weeks ago....he didn't even know I was taking the photo and his face isn't showing, but it definitely screams "fun at the beach". :)

#6 Detail...when I'm taking a series of photos, I love to take a zoomed in detail shot. For best results, use a low aperture setting to make your object really stand out against the shallow depth of field. 

#7 Silly...Take a silly shot! These are sometimes my favorites, because it's just my kids being kids. Have fun with it and they will too! :)

I hope you've enjoyed these...now go out and shoot away and have fun with it!! Oh and link me up here if you play along and post to your blog or the gallery...I would love to see!

 

MME Blog Hop

My Minds Eye is celebrating their social media launch this week along with 3 brand new lines. Studio Calico is happy to partake in the fun by giving away a set of adventure brads from the new Indie Chic line. 

This month's Studio Calico kit, City of Lights offered a mix of MME papers + embellishments. Here are few new layouts + cards our dt has put together.

-Tina Aszmus

-Kelly Noel

-Vee Jennings

Post your comment here for a chance to win the Indie Chic adventure brads! Next stop...the MME blog. 

Workspace Wednesday

Hello SC friends! Kelly here to share a few photos of my current scrap workspace. I'm lucky to have complete reign over our den, which is just off the family room in our house. I love that the room has double doors out to the family room so that I can still hear/pay attention to what everyone is doing while I'm working away in here. Having a dedicated scrap workspace is huge for me, since I tend to work on pages in spurts and don't often have big chunks of time I can dedicate to just scrapping. I love being able to leave an in-progress page on my desk if I need to. I have 2 desks in here...one I use mostly for computer work and the other for my scrapping.

My favorite part of my workspace is definitely my old school card catalog. It was my MIL's before, but when they downsized to a condo she handed it down to me. She's a quilter/sewer so she had already altered it a bit to fit her threads/tools/etc. It has some great little dividers, which is awesome for organizing small things like washi, etc.

To be honest, I didn't use the card catalog all that much until recently. But since I've started doing Project Life, it's the PERFECT organizer for all the little bits and pieces I love to add to my PL spreads. I found these little felt bins in the Target dollar spot and they fit perfectly and hold things like journaling cards, ephemera packs, badges, etc. It has really made my PL process so much easier having things organized this way. I also now keep all of my adhesives, paints and inks in this card catalog.

To organize paper, albums and other things, I have an IKEA Expedit. I've had it for years and I really can't imagine organizing these things any other way. I keep patterned paper organized by manufacturer, the baskets are filled with Thickers, larger embellishment packages and loose layouts that need to be put into albums. 

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into my workspace...if you have any questions, ask away! :)

 

Sunday Sketch

We have a brand new Sunday Sketch to share with you!  Here's Kelly Noel's gorgeous layout from her Daydream Believer gallery...

We have talented message board member Jennifer Larson (Jennifer L) joining us this week with her take on the sketch.  She turned it into a two page layout, how cool is that?

Jennifer says: "I wanted to use three photos for the layout, but with just one page, the beautiful white space disappeared, so I made a two-page layout. To do so, I stretched the left vertical strip and the title strip onto the new left-hand page. I added a set of strips similar to the right side onto the left to make bookends and unite the pages.

The confetti was gorgeous, so I spread it across the two pages moving upward like my boys. I also misted using Dewey, Custard, and Shine (sounds like a law office!) and a Crafter's Workshop chicken wire mask to add more subtle confetti-like pattern to the back."

What a gorgeous page! I love the light misting and the fun Instagram photos.  Use the sketch (and even follow Jennifer's cue to make a two pager!) and link your layout up here by Monday, February 19.  Have fun!

Weekly Challenge

Hello SC friends! Kelly here with this week's challenge! When I was trying to come up with a challenge, I was perusing Pinterest for inspiration and decided that would be the perfect challenge. Everyone is inspired by something....an ad, a pattern, a song, etc. So for this week's challenge, I want you to be inspired by something (or someone!) and make a layout based on your inspiration piece. Here's the piece I chose: http://pinterest.com/pin/155022412142998265/

Supplies:Autumn Press Tags, Flower Bed Paper, Wallpaper Paper, Memoir Chip Buttons, Kraft Border Stickers, Plano Paper, Classic Calico Chipboard Alpha

I absolutely fell in love with the graphic numbers along the left side of the card and knew immediately that's what I wanted to recreate on my layout. I used my Silhouette to cut out all the numbers in varying sizes, then arranged them randomly along the left side of my layout. I love the way it turned out and even though it doesn't look much like the inspiration piece, it was a fun way to be inspired.

I hope you'll try out my inspired challenge and link us up to your layout (and inspiration piece) here by Monday, December 18.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Sunday Sketch

Hi there,

It’s Dawn McVey here with today’s Sunday Sketch based on this lovely layout by Kelly Noel. 

Instead of using the sketch to create a layout of my own, I opted to use the sketch to create a card!  It was so fun to incorporate many elements from the sketch, but in a much smaller scale.  (The card is a standard A2 sized card measuring 4 1/4” x 5 1/2”.)
Supplies: Classic Calico patterned papers, Die Cut Stickers, Kraft 6x12 Border Sticker, Kraft Butterfly Stickers, October Afternoon Farmhouse Flower Sack die cuts, Hero Arts brown gems, Papertrey Ink kraft card stock (card base)

I opted for some Classic Calico papers to create the background and trim along the top and bottom of the card, as well as a bit of a Kraft scalloped border sticker at the top to mimic Kelly’s scallops.  I also used some pink die cut label stickers and then piled on the goodies from October Afternoon’s Farmhouse Flower Sack.  A couple of Kraft butterfly stickers finish things off.

I hope you’ll take the challenge and play along with today’s Sunday Sketch!  We’d love to see what you come up with based on this sketch.  If you play along, be sure to add your link here so we can all see your project! 

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a wonderful day,
Dawn

Silhouette Advent

Hi there, it's Kelly Noel here to share a new project I created using the Silhouette and new Studio Calico products!

I can remember, as a kid, my Mom buying store bought advent calendars every year with the perforated "doors" and chocolates inside. I loved opening them up everyday and it really added to the excitement of the season. For the past couple of years, we've been doing an advent calendar with the kids, but instead of candy, it's a Christmas activity they are treated to. Things like "go see Christmas lights", "make a Christmas craft", "drink hot chocolate", etc. The boys really look forward to seeing what holiday thing we're going to do each day! The great folks over at Silhouette asked me to help share this AMAZING new advent calendar they have. It's the perfect way to countdown to Christmas and it was a cinch to make too!

Silhouette sends the box complete and ready to go with a download card inside so that you can download the boxes/drawers to your computer super quick. I decided to use all drawers, because I was afraid what little hands would do to those gorgeous boxes. ;) To make things easier (and less expensive!), I used plain heavy weight white paper as the base for all the boxes. This saves a ton of money, because you don't need a ton of patterned paper. I just cut patterned paper (Studio Calico, of course!!;) to fit the fronts of all the boxes and used an exacto to notch out the circles. Then, I used all kinds of goodies to decorate the fronts of the boxes. I didn't want the calendar to look too busy, so I didn't add numbers to all the boxes.

All in all, a super easy project that only took an afternoon to make. The most time consuming part was cutting all the boxes, but with the perforations the Silhouette made for the folds, it made it very simple. I love the way it turned out! You can make one too AND right now Silhouette is offering this limited edition advent calendar for $29.99 (regular price is $39.99!!). Just click THIS LINK and enter promo code CALICO to receive the discount.

Sunday Sketch

It's Kelly with your new Sunday Sketch, inspired by Stephanie's layout from the Field Guide gallery!


Here's my take on the fun sketch:
Supplies: Autumn Press Scarf paper, Autumn Press Frolic paper, Autumn Press Maple Syrup paper, Autumn Press 6x6 paper pad, Classic Calico Piano paper, Chipboard Alpha Tan, 6x12 Border Stickers

Link up your layout using the sketch by Monday, October 24 for your chance to win a SC GC. I can't wait to see what you make!

Hello SC friends! Kelly here to share with you some insider tips on how I created the sun "rays" on my Pretty Great layout from the Glee Club gallery. When I saw that amazing blue SC paper from the main kit, I knew exactly how I wanted to use it. The blue in the paper matched the blues in this photo of my littlest and my Mom, so I was drawn to it right away. This story was such a happy one, I thought the sun was the perfect background for the page.

To make the center of the sun, I just punched a 3" circle with my circle punched and adhered it right to the center of the paper. I used an exacto knife to cut out the portions of the paper where I wanted the rays to be by following along the lines that were already there. Then, I pulled some of the yellow-ish papers from my kits (from Home Ec and Pep Squad) for the rays. I cut those into 1" strips and used my This to That roller to adhere them, yellow side showing through, to the back of my layout. Once I had the base of my layout finished, the rest came together super quick.

It's always amazing to me what you can do with just some strips of patterned paper. Gotta love this hobby! :)