Studio Calico

Layout of the Week

23, the layout of the week, is brought to you by Michelle, member name portablemichelle. Michelle knocked it out of the park with this mini album she assembled using the Neverland, Wendy and Tink kits...we love how it all came together. Make sure you click on the link to see the beautiful inside pages! If you want to see more of her work, you can stop by her gallery here at Studio Calico or her blog.

Each week, the layout in the gallery is linked, so you can add it to your favorites easily. This layout has been added to your favorites more than any other layout in the SC community gallery for the week of 3/24-3/30.

Congratulations Michelle!! Because your work has caught our member's eyes you have won a $10 gift card to be used on any new purchase at Studio Calico.  Want a chance to win next week? Be sure to upload your projects to the SC gallery, and support your community by adding special projects that catch your eye into your favorites! It could be YOU next week!

tutorial - Sundrifter circles mask

I absolutely love the Sundrifters Circles mask - the smaller interchangeable icon masks mean that there are so many ways to use it! 

I've put together a tutorial video to show how you can use this mask with two layers of color. If you give this technique a try, link me up in the comments - I'd love to see it!

 

Supply list : patterned paper - Here + There San Diego & 6x6 pad, Sundrifter TeePee, Snippets Hey; die cuts - Here+There, Sundrifter; Sundrifter Circles Mask; mist - Mister Huey's Splash, Ocean, Desert & Hot Diggity; veneer - Snippets Punctuation & Chevrons, Sundrifter Word Veneer Phrases; chipboard - Snippets arrows and stars; stamps - Snippets Miss You So Much stamp set; other - shipping tag, enamel dots, Tiny Attacher, sequins

-Lisa Truesdell

wholesale spotlight

Here's a peek at how our Creative Team has been using our Here+There, Snippets and Sundrifter lines :

Nicole Samuels - Fort Sumter : 

Maile Belles - Just Be Cool : 

Natalia Bun - Project Life March : 

Jennifer Picard - Adventure : 

Allison Waken - Waimea Canyon :

winners

We a new set of challenge winners - CONGRATS to all of you!! If your name is on this list, ou'll be getting an email from us with info about your prize. Thank you again to all who take part in our challenges!

workspace wednesday

Hi everyone!  Amanda here sharing some pictures of my workspace that hopefully will help you in organizing your workspace.  My workspace is a shared toy/computer/project room that fortunately gets plenty of light and has a good amount of space for me to work with.  Here's how I organize my supplies:


I use this container to house my current kits or any journal cards, pens, envelopes, or alphas that I know that I want to use in the layout I am working on.  I also store my scissors, my piercer, and my bone folder here.


The small kraft drawers hold paper die cuts, organized largely by shape as well as a drawer full of labels.  The acrylic organizers on top hold miscellaneous embellishments.

These acrylic organizers are great for storing sequins, veneer, clips, clothespins, and other small embellishments.


I use this basket to hold my thickers and other large-scale alphas.  


And this basket holds my washi tape collection which seems to grow by leaps and bounds as the days go on.  Who doesn't love washi tape?


I use these wood containers to hold miscellaneous envelopes, tags, and baggies.  They containers came with some silverware I purchased a few years back.  They work out well to hold small things in plain site.  Plus, they were essentially free. Can't beat that.

This tower holds stamps in the basket up top and the plastic drawers contain more die cuts, paper scraps, and chipboard embellishments.


I got the acrylic organizer to the left in the housewares aisle at Publix. It works great to separate enamel dots, journal cards, and other tags and ephemera.   The wooden box holds more labels, smaller alphas, and smaller sticker sheets.

When I am working with a kit or a specific line of products, I separate the embellishments into smaller containers so that I can access them easily.

And what would a scrapbook room be without an Ikea Raskog cart?  I stalked Ikea for weeks before I finally found one available for purchase online.


I use the top shelf to hold envelopes, tags, labels, miscellaneous embellishments, twine, ribbon, flair, and buttons.


The middle shelf holds stamp pads, Mr. Hueys, and miscellaneous tools including punches, adhesives, and staplers. Not pictured is the bottom shelf which I use to hold 6x6 paper pads.

Thanks for taking a peek at my craft space. I hope that you found some great ideas to incorporate into your space!

-Amanda Caves

make it work

The Basic Grey Frames included in the April Scrapbook Kit have so many possible uses! Lots of different shapes with varied sized openings to use for bits of pattern paper, photos, journaling or titlework. I chose to use the round viewfinder style frame as an accent tucked under my layered photo.

I simply cut scraps of some of the pattern papers included in the main kit, as well as a few from the add-ons Front Porch Blend and Daily Grind. Couldn't be more simple! I also used one of the negative strip frames tucked under the top of the layered photo. For this one I used some of the lovely wide chevron washi tape from the Main Kit mounted on white cardstock. I really like the extra bit of detail and unique texture and depth these frames add. 

Hope you enjoy using these frames in unique ways! Here are some more ways the Creative Team used these frames - each one is linked so you can check out the whole project.

Gillian Nelson : 

Robyn Werlich : 

Kelly Noel :

Kinsey Wilson : 

We can't wait to see how you use these frames once the Spencer's Scrapbook kit finds it's way to your house!

-Becky Novacek

weekly challenge

From Gillian : I don't frequently put a lot of shiny or blingy things on my pages.  It's not that I'm not a fan of shiny and blingy things...I just don't often think to do it.  So when I saw that the Studio Calico shop had started carrying the Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive paper and the WOW! Super Fine Glitter, I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to play a little.  And can I just say?  I'm such a fan.  For this page, I wanted to use the glitter to add some sparkle to my "sun rays" that are warming my critters so nicely.  

I traced the ray designs from the Spencer's Card Kit Digital Stamps using my Silhouette program, enlarged them, and then cut the ray design out of the special adhesive paper.  I adhered the paper to my page by removing one side of the protective layer.  Then once it was stuck down, I removed the other side of protective layer, exposing the adhesive.  Then I just went to town, dumping the WOW! glitter over the exposed areas of adhesive and shaking off the excess.  It worked like a charm and was so easy.  I love how the super-fine glitter adds sparkle without the chunky texture of standard glitter.  And the white glitter was still translucent, so the pretty honeycomb pattern of the background vellum could still show through.  The whole glitter effect may be subtle to see in the main image, but it's more apparent in the detail shot.  And certainly in person, it's crazy sparkly.  I dig it.

Supplies Used: Spencer's Scrapbook Kit, Front Porch Blend Add-On, Daily Grind Add-On, Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive, WOW! Iridescent Glitter, White, Spencer's Card Kit Digital Stamps, Spencer's Quote Digital Template, Staz-On Ink Pad, Jet Black, Silhouette Cameo Machine, Precision Pen 01, Black

From Joy : If you are like me, I love to make most of my projects shine, I have a healthy yet obessive addiction to bling and like to add it to almost anything I create.  I find that sometimes you have space on your creation that is a space that needs a little something and sometimes the products that you are creating with are just a little big for that area..so that is why reaching for something smaller like sequins as you see on my project helps fill the void and well makes it shine.  Having a little shiny aspect to a project always makes me smile.

Supplies Used : 

Spencer's Project Life Kit, Daily Grind, Onyx Black Versafine Ink Pad, Foam Circle Tabs

Make a project for this challenge, then share it in the Studio Calico gallery. Leave us a link to your project by April 8th in the comments here to be entered to win a $5 GC to the Studio Calico Shop.

-Gillian Nelson & Joy Taylor

Sunday Sketch

This week we are once again offering you TWO sketches...one for cards and one for layouts!! The card sketch is from Jennifer Picard's Spencer's gallery:



And the layout sketch is from Becky Novacek's Spencer's gallery:

We invited member Jennifer (starxlr8) to choose one of these to use as a starting point this week, and she was drawn to the layout sketch!! Check out the fun details on her layout...

Supplies: Front Row Card Kit, February Grab Bag (BasicGrey tape stickers, transparent alphabet, Yearbook pocket), Kraft Woodgrain cardstock, Sundrifter Thickers, Studio Calico grid cards, My Mind's Eye Sweetest Thing word stickers, Crate Paper border sticker, Stamp from Block Party Project Life Kit, Brilliance galaxy gold ink, Hero Arts black dye ink.

Here, Jennifer shares her thoughts on using this sketch:

I began knowing I wanted to tell the story of my daughter Emily's first steps and her journey as a beginning walker. I had several photos to choose from, but decided on two to best fit on an 8.5x11 canvas. I often crop my photos square with a white border, but left them Polaroid-style to elongate their space on the page. With just 6x6 papers in front of me, I first wanted to tackle the banner across the top in a clever way. Two uneven strips layered with a transparent tape sticker and a border sticker allowed me to re-create that look. Next, I knew I wanted to use a journaling card in the stitched pocket. I added the journaling and embellished this first (using my go-to Tiny Attacher), before adding the photos, paper layers and titles. I don't do a lot of embellishment on my pages and like to add small bits and stamped images as finishing touches.

We love the Polaroid style photos, the kraft woodgrain cardstock as a base and the pocket to hold her journaling. Thanks for joining us this week, Jennifer! You can see more inspiration from her in her SC Gallery, and on her blog.Jennifer is also active in the Twitter community: @jenniferswilson

How will YOU use this sketch? Whether it's a layout, a card or something else, link us up to your project by April 8th for a chance to win a $5 gift card to the Studio Calico shop. (Please remember, your project must be loaded into our gallery to qualify...and your comment has to link back to it in the SC Gallery)

Layout of the Week

Two Best Friends, the layout of the week, is brought to you by Cindy, member name cindylee. Cindy kept the tones neutral and added pops of color here and there, allowing her photo to stand out...we love how it all came together. If you want to see more of her work, you can stop by her gallery here at Studio Calico or her blog. Cindy is also active on Twitter: @cindy_lee12.

Each week, the layout in the gallery is linked, so you can add it to your favorites easily. This layout has been added to your favorites more than any other layout in the SC community gallery for the week of 3/10-3/16.

Congratulations Cindy!! Because your work has caught our member's eyes you have won a $10 gift card to be used on any new purchase at Studio Calico.  Want a chance to win next week? Be sure to upload your projects to the SC gallery, and support your community by adding special projects that catch your eye into your favorites! It could be YOU next week!

this is me sneaks

Registration for This is Me with Lexi Bridges closes on 3.31.2013, and class begins 4.1. Lexi and each of her contributors have all tacked the task of recording themselves, and each album does a wonderful job reflecting it's creator, both in content and in style.

Lexi's handbook is bright and eclectic. She's put together 12 spreads, ranging from lighthearted likes and hopes to deeper and more reflective topics. Every page in this book captures something that is intrinsically her, and her tips and tricks will help you do the same for yourself. 

We wanted to give you even more ideas to bring into your own album, so Lexi has been joined by an amazing group of contributors.

Rachel Denbow's background as a craft enthusiast comes into play in her album - she's even included a weaving tutorial : 

Laura Kurz's classic style translates to an album she's planning to add to in the coming months : 

Nicole Harper's brilliant journaling skills come through as she pours her heart into her layered mini album : 

Leena Loh's colorful and graphic style is represented in her handbook - her attention to detail is amazing and you'll love her clever embellishing ideas : 

In addition to the class content and videos, you'll also have access to a private class messageboard where Lexi will keep you challenged and on track as you complete your album. There are also digital stamps, printables and diecut files for the class - you can see all of those here. 

This is a class you won't want to miss - sign up NOW and we'll see you in the classroom on Monday!