Studio Calico

Hello everyone!

Here's a video I made to show you how to make fun and textured background using your Silhouette and gesso!

All you'll need is patterned paper, white cardstock to use in your Cameo, gesso and Mr Huey!

Now watch the video and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

 

tutorial

Hi there, Studio Calico fans!  Dawn McVey here to share a bit with you using Studio Calico's new border stamps.  Of course these stamps are ideal for adding the perfect stamped border to your layout or card, but they’re also great for stamping your own background patterns.  Not only do they make quick work of the task because of their size, but they also give you the flexibility of stamping the pattern for your project in any color you need!


As you can see here, I used the large numbers border stamp from the Please Note stamp set (part of the new Take Note line) to create a really fun background pattern. These numbers make the perfect addition to a birthday card (which I’ll show you in a bit!) or a birthday themed layout.  I simply stamped the pattern over and over using one color of ink, covering the entire surface of the card stock.


Next is a pattern I stamped using 3 different colors of pink and red inks and the airmail stamp from the Calico Borders stamp set (part of the new Classic Calico Vol 2 line).

Keep in mind that after you stamp these fun patterns, you can use them as backgrounds on your projects or you could die cut them to create your own patterned shapes!


This pattern uses the abc stamp, also from the Calico Borders set.  This time, I stamped the pattern in 4 different inks.  I love how just by changing up your ink color(s), you could totally change the look of these patterns to make them work for whatever project you need.


On this last pattern (also from Calico Borders), I stamped the butterflies with Versamark ink and then heat embossed them with Zing embossing powder in Chestnut.  That embossing made it super easy to color (and stay inside the lines!) the butterflies with Copic markers.


Here’s a little birthday card I put together using the numbers background pattern.


For an added bit of detail on the background, I spritzed on some Mister Huey’s Calico Shine spray and then added some splatters of Mister Huey’s spray in Custard.


For the focal point, I stamped the ‘date’ image from the new Hey Y’All stamp set (Take Note collection) and trimmed off the right side.  I also stamped the “HEY” from the same set, by only inking up part of the “Hey Y’All” sentiment.  I then used that same trick with the birthday sentiment, by only inking the “happy birthday” from the long “happy birthday to you” border stamp.  

A couple of new woodgrain butterfly stickers were added (with foam adhesive) and were layered on a doily die cut (Doily Details Die from Papertrey Ink) as well as a punched out circle of patterned paper from the Take Note collection.

I hope I’ve encouraged you to pull out those border stamps and put them to work creating background patterns!  And perhaps you’ve got a few new stamps to add to your wish list now too!  *wink*

Hope you have a great day!

Tina's Tutorial

Hey Guys! Tina here with a quick tutorial using the brand spanking new Studio Calico stamps from their recent release of the Take Note line.

I was immediatly drawn to the speech bubble stamp and found that a repetive pattern would make a great statement to this layout. I gathered my supplies, which included my black Staz On ink pad, an acrylic mounting block, my Honey Bee scissors & the ProArts Glue Gun. I also printed off some wallet sized photos as well as a collage of some Instagrams which you can do easisly in Picnik. 


Start by stamping the speech bubble on several different patterned papers & cut out. I also wanted to use some of the other stamps in these sets like the PRINT & Approval.

Next, I stamped the image over several smaller sized photos & cut those out. (please excuse my unkept acrylic block...it's in dire need of a cleaning)

To assemple the layout, I knew I wanted some of the images to pop off the page so I adhered them with foam tabs. I left a blank spot at the bottom right corner to work in my title. This is where you can make these stamps work for you. I often cut up wording because they don't always fit & I'm not not going to use an image I love just because of that. The quote was very fitting for me right now & I wanted to emphasize the word BELIEVED. I used the Amy Tan thickers from the Handmade kit for the title & worked the stamp around the word by cutting "she".


I added a few speckles of Atmosphere mist at the bottom to finish it off. 

Thanks for joining me today! Hope this inspires you to think outside the box with your stamps as far as using photographs and cutting up phrases. 

 

Vee's Tutorial

Hello there SC'ers, It's Vee here with a quick tutorial for you today, that I hope you will enjoy. It has become a favorite technique of mine as of late. I love embossing onto acrylic overlays, it is super easy and I am going to show you how to add these glossy accents to your projects!


Gather your supplies, embossing powder(s), watermark stamp pad, overlay, stamp(s), heating tool and scissors. If you do not have clear overlays, you can use the protective sheets that come with your acrylic stamps or rubons. 


Select the stamp(s) you would like to use on your project,stamp the image onto the overlay using a watermark ink pad. Make sure you press firmly but not to hard (do not want the image to slide) in order to get a clear image.  Sprinkle embossing powder over the stamped image.  Shake the extra powder back into the jar. If you have extra powder on around your image you can turn over the overlay and pluck the back so the extra embossing powder will drop off.  I usually do this step over my trash can.


To seal the embossing powder use a heating tool to melt the embossing powder. Hold the tool about five- six inches above the image moving the tool back and forth to avoid burning the acrylic and powder.  Heat the image for about 10-12 seconds or until you see the image raise up and becomes shiny. Let the image cool for a few seconds then cut out your stamped image and adhere it to your project.  I LOVE the added texture of this technique! This to That glue dot adhesive is a great way to adhere this clear embellishment, I like to add it to portions of the image that is opaque so it doesn't show once adhered to the project.

Supplies:  Classic Calico Folio; VersaMark Stamp Pad; Zing-mustard; Zing-aqua;  This to That Glue Dot Adhesive; Mister Huey's Ink-Pickle; StazOn Ink-jetblack;American Crafts Pro Pen; Kraft Star Stickers;JBS Ink

I love this embossing technique because it is a fun way to add texture without embossing directly to the project and possibly making a mistake. Have fun and have a great year!!
xo

Tina's Tutorial

Hi guys! It's Tina, and I've got a quick tutorial for ya. Just a simple approach to creating some of your own personal fillers and journaling cards for your 2012 Project Life. I made several batches using neutral colors so they will be easy to incorporate with my other PL paper items and everyday ephemera.

I first gathered my supplies which included my favorite Mister Huey's, Clay, Calico White and Atmosphere. I used More Gray and More Kraft and several patterned papers from the Classic Calico Collection. I also gathered some stamps and a few embellishments.

I created some simple backgrounds using different stencils, like my favorite SC Ampersand along with the Misters.

After drying, I cut them down to size according to my own PL page protectors. I did a little stamping and added a few stickers. Now I have my own personal journaling cards ready to use!

Thanks for hanging with me today!

Jen's Tutorial

Hi guys! It's Jen here with a super quick and easy tutorial on creating the flower I used on my 1 Year layout from this months Brooklyn Flea Gallery. 

I love to use large embellishments on my page, and this is an easy way to create your own. The fun part is that you can use whatever paper you want and embellish it any way you want for endless possibilities. 

To begin, you'll need to cut about 6 or 7 strips of 12x12 paper, more or less depending on how large you want your flower to be. I like to have varying widths, so I cut my strips anywhere from 1/4 inch to 1 inch wide. 

Next, you'll take each strip and fold the ends in to the center so that they overlap a tiny bit. Do not crease the ends, just just gently fold. Then staple or adhere it in the center. I like to staple with my Tiny Attacher just because it's a little quicker. 

Now I just layer one by one. I start by layering 2 at a right angle, staple those together. Then you just add them as you go, layering them at different intervals. Staple each one a few times just to be sure it's sturdy. Once you get to the last few strips it can be a little difficult to staple, just work with it and you'll get it. 

Finally, I punch a circle and place 2 stacked American Crafts foam adhesive circles underneath and then place in the center of my flower. I then adhere the entire piece to the page with more foam adhesive.
Supplies: Memoir Collection Linen Paper, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, American Crafts Foam Adhesive, American Crafts Slick Writer, Brooklyn Flea Kit, Snow Cone Kit, More Kraft Kit, More Vanilla Kit

Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial!

Tutorial

Hey y'all! It's Stephanie here with my very first tutorial! I am so excited to share something I'm very passionate about...doilies. Yes, you heard me right. Doilies. I am doily obsessed and have a huge collection! I have paper doilies, plastic doilies, and crocheted doilies. I am always adding to my collection too. I am clearly a granny in a 34 year old's body.

Today I'm going to talk about something I love to use my doilies for...misting with Mister Huey's.

A wide selection of doilies work well as masks, and here are a few of my favorites. The plastic (aqua and cream) doilies are vintage and can be found in junk/antique type shops. The white paper doilies were found in the baking sections of grocery stores and craft supply stores.   The yellow and pink doilies were Easter themed doilies that I found at the Dollar General.

Today I want to share my favorite ways to use doilies and Mister Huey's together. It's a match made in heaven! And this is coming from a girl that not too long ago had NEVER had any desire to try misting.

I have doilies as masks on many layouts, but the most recent is my glorious layout from my field guide gallery. Field Guide is still for sale here!

I think the reason I like this layout so much is that the Calico Shine Mister Huey's on the dark cardstock is just so subtle, shimmery, and pretty.

For this layout I placed a large circular paper doily on cardstock and misted it with Calico Shine. I misted pretty freely here, not caring that there were larger splotches and uneven spots.

The final result is hard to relate in photos, but it is shimmery and elegant. There is plenty of room on the design to add photos and embellishments in the center of the doily. Voilà!

For this next misted background, I used my vintage plastic doilies and a bright white background. Please note that I placed them a bit off of the sides of the page. I chose to use the Cameo Mister Huey's here.

I decided to mist the center of the doilies a bit heavier so that they would pop more than the rest of the design.

The final result is, honestly, my favorite of the three designs I did for this tutorial. I can't wait to use it! I love the Cameo on the background. So pretty.

For this last background, take medium sized circle shaped paper doilies and cut them in half.

I chose to use Dewey Mister Huey's on a cream/light brown background. Take three of the half doilies and place them around the perimeter of the cardstock. One to the bottom left, One to the upper right, and one in the upper left corner.

I lightly misted the doilies with the Dewey mist. On this page, I decided to lightly mist the doilies only, not extending the mist to the middle of the page, except for a few splatters here and there.

The final result is soft and feminine and subtle. You could certainly mist heavier here, but I wanted a light effect.

So there you have it! Three different ways to use doilies as masks on your layouts. I honestly could have shared a million more ways, but I had to stop myself. :)

I really hope you are inspired to try this technique soon. And if you do try, please share your links here. I would LOVE to see!

Have a beautiful,blessed day!
xoxo

Tutorial

Hey everyone! Kinsey here with my first ever SC tutorial and it's all about making your own ink pads with Mister Hueys. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at those pretty little bottles of spray mist and longed for stamp ink in the exact same colors. I love that the mists coordinate perfectly with the papers and embellishments, so it's really handy to have an ink pad version on hand when you need that perfect shade of bonny blue, right?! For my example project, I used the Boardwalk kit because I love the variations of greens, aquas, and blues- and the exclusive stamp is perfect for showing off how well the Mister Huey's work as an ink. Here's a close up of the finished product...

So let's talk methods...the first is definitely the fastest and easiest- it's the Cut-n-Dry stamp pad foam or felt by Inkssentials.

It comes in an 8 x 10 inch sheet in either foam or felt. For my demo I used the foam version and loved that after each use, I could rinse it out, let it dry and reuse it; or just put it in a ziploc baggie for later use. Another cool factor- you can make a 4 x 6 ink pad for your SC background stamps and ink the entire stamp in one step without running the risk of missing a spot and ending up with a blotchy image.

To use the Cut-n-Dry stamp pad, just use a pair of scissors, cut a stamp pad to size, spray 2 pumps of mist onto the pad and stamp like usual...easy right?!

The second method I used is a little bit more time intensive but the idea is pretty similar...for this approach, I raided my daughter's craft felt supply and cut it up into smaller pieces and then spray with a few pumps of Mister Huey's and stamp...

I did notice that because the craft foam is so light, it would stick to the stamp as I was inking it so I made a make-shift stamp pad base for the felt pads (see photo above). I just cut a piece of acrylic to about 2.5 x 3.5 inches and then added the 'crunchy' side of a piece of self-adhesive velcro that the felt sticks to during stamping.

I keep all of the pads stored by color in 4 x 6 inch ziploc bags on a binder ring and love that they don't take up a bunch of space.

One last method that I recently saw on the SC message board, uses the Tim Holtz Ink Blending tool in lieu of a stamp pad...you can read more about Joanne's (aka spagirl) awesome approach here.

Here's one last look at the full finished layout:

Can you tell that I used both of the stamp pad methods here? (I used the foam pad with the lunchtray, pickle, bonny blue, and barnwood Mister Huey's and the felt pad with the clover, warm calico, and gable green)

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out with me today! Happy mist-stamping!

Tutorial

Hey guys! Here's a quick tutorial on how to add a graphic element to your layout by using the stamp from the fabulous Mind the Gap kit.

 

Stamp the circle image onto your chosen paper. Stamp the image again being careful to line the images up. This is where having an acrylic block comes in handy. As you can see, I wasn't so careful to line my images up but I still like the way it turned out.

To further enhance your stamped image and make it pop, add bits of patterned paper. To do this, stamp your image on your chosen paper and cut out the petals of the circle as shown in the image below. Keep in mind to cut just inside the stamped outline so your petals fit into your flat stamped image. The middle part is kind of cool too but I ended up not using it on this layout.

I used my trusty little Xyron to adhere the tiny pieces onto the stamped image. Love how it brings that added dimension to my layout.
I finished it off by adding a title, some images and a little journaling. I also added a few sprinkles of punched out dots.



Love seeing everyone's Mind the Gap creations in the gallery! Hopefully this will inspire you to pull that stamp out and create some more!

Tutorial

It's Emily with a quick tutorial for you today. And by quick, I honestly mean quick. It took me longer to upload the video than it does to do this misting technique. I've found that with mists you just have to play around and see what works. Use scratch paper if you're really nervous, but playing is essential to coming up with any technique, so I'm giving you permission, play away! It doesn't have to be perfect!
 
I was looking for artsy book covers and found this one from the author Bjorn Lomborg on pinterest.com and figured I could probably recreate something similar. I explain the rest in the tutorial, so I'll stop writing now.

I strongly encourage you to try this technique. There are so many possibilities!