Studio Calico

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Please visit us at our new home at www.studiocalico.com/blog - and don't forget to update our address in your favorite blog reader! See you there!

Layout of the Week

Right Now, the layout of the week, is brought to you by Melanie, member name melanie louette. She is a master at simple layouts + photos that draw you in. Her list style journaling and the digital elements she combined with her project are simply stunning...no wonder our members fell in LOVE with this! If you would like to see more of her work, you can stop by her gallery here at Studio Calico or her blog. She is also active on Twitter: @melanielouette

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 6/16-6/22.

Congratulations Melanie!! 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!

winners

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

Tips & Tricks | Liz Kartchner

In this month's Tips and Tricks, Liz Kartchner shares some cool techniques with the Peerless watercolor papers, Neon Mister Huey's and water brushes.

(Supplies - Valley High Project Life kit, Winona add-on, Atlantic collection)

valley high reveal

Like, totally! Our VALLEY HIGH kits go live today. If you're a subscriber, you can shop the Valley High presale at noon EST, if not, the full reveal is at midnight tonight.


Be sure to stop by Paige's Scrapbook and Card galleries - we love what she's done with the kits!


You can find the digital files in our shop - they are a great way to stretch your kit contents!



Registration for INKED closes on 6.30 - are you ready for class?

we have a winner!

We have a new member of the Studio Calico family! Samantha Shepard's baby boy joined her family on June 25th. Please join me in sending congratulations to the Shepard family as they settle into sleepless nights and lots of snuggles!

Isn't he adorable? And now for the winner... out of 300 commenters, Lianne correctly guessed his arrival date and was closest on weight. Lianne - please email lisa(at)studiocalico(dot)com!

Inked | sneaks

The countdown is on - registration for INKED with Maile Belles and Nichol Magouirk closes on June 30th. On July 1st, we'll start delivering one new technique every weekday until the 26th, and you'll leave the classroom at the end of July with a full set of ideas to get more from the stamps you already love.

We've put together a video to share some peeks from the class, as well as a look at the class stamp set (it's still available!) and cut files in action.

 

If you aren't signed up for the class, you can do so here. We'll see you on July 1st - get ready to get INKED!

Handbook | Deb Duty

I'm using a handbook to document some of our unscrapped photos from pre-Project Life days. I can't get enough of the Atlantic collection so I wanted to be sure to use it on a few spreads throughout my book. I chose a couple of beach trips and some fun summery photos because I knew they would be great with the lovely colors of the Atlantic collection. There is a huge selection of fun embellishments, and I used a wide variety of them on my spreads! The darker wood veneer and cork embellishments look great paired with the soft colors of the collection. I also added in some of the digital printables and cut files that are available to coordinate with Atlantic.

(supplies - patterned paper : Studio Calico Atlantic Montauk, Atlantic City, New Haven, Seabrook, Cape Cod, Portsmouth, Scarborough, Vellum, 6x6 Paper Pad; embellishments : Studio Calico Atlantic Sequin Pack, Star Stickers, Vellum Die Cuts, Tiny Hearts Wood Veneer, Burnished Circle Wood Veneer, Glittered Star Stickers, Cork Circle Stickers, Cork Arrow and Chevron Stickers, 12x12 Sticker Sheet; digital : Studio Calico Atlantic Digital Printable Labels, Digital Printable #1, Digital Printable #2, Circle Digital Cut Designs, Sail With Me Cut Designs, Planetarium Scrapbook Stamp Brushes; staples : Tiny Attacher; Cardstock : Studio Calico More White; alphas : 12x12 Sticker Sheet, Rockabye Thickers, Roundabout Project Life Kit; chipboard sticker : Roundabout Scrapbook Kit; punch : Studio Calico Atlantic Anchor Punch; washi tape : My Mind's Eye; handbook : Here & There Chipboard Album, Page Protector #2, Page Protector #3, Page Protector #4)

Inspired | Nicole Samuels

One of my favorite places to go when I'm running low on creativity is my "scrap inspiration" board on Pinterest.  It's full of ads, graphic design images, craft techniques, and color palettes and often just what I need to jump start a layout.  Plus, it's fun to push myself creatively every once in a while and try something new.  That's exactly what I did on my page today.  I found this image on Pinterest and just loved it.

source

I decided to use it as a large frame on my layout.  Here's how I re-created the look with paper:

1.  Cut strips from a variety of coordinating patterned papers.  The strips should measure 1/4 inch x 7 1/2 inches.  I cut mine so that I had 4 strips of each pattern.  I used 8 different patterns (although some were just front and back patterns on the same paper).

2.  Use 4 matching strips to form a square as shown below.  Allow the edges to overlap about 1/2 inch.   Adhere the first completed square to your background paper (centered).

3.  Make more squares with the remaining strips of paper and adhere to the layout as shown below, turning each slightly as you go until you create a circle in the center of your page.

4.  Embellish the circle center with veneer and cork circles accents, a photo, and some stickers. 

Supplies:  patterned paper - Studio Calico Atlantic Atlantic City, Montauk, Bridgeport, New Haven and Scarborough; stickers - Studio Calico Atlantic 12x12 Sticker Sheet and Glittered Star Stickers; veneer - Studio Calico Atlantic Burnished Circle Wood Veneer; cork - Studio Calico Atlantic Cork Circle Stickers

Sometimes my Pinterest-inspired pages are direct interpretations of something I've pinned, like the example above.  Other times, I might be inspired by a technique I've pinned, the colors used, or a design/pattern.  There's really no wrong way to let inspiration strike.  :)  

If you haven't joined Pinterest yet or haven't used it for scrapbooking, give it a try!  Start an inspiration board of your own and start pinning things that catch your eye.  Also, be sure to follow Studio Calico on Pinterest for extra inspiration! 

weekly challenge | Sasha Farina

Sasha and Dani are here with a scrap recipe challenge! This week, we want you to use these 5 elements on your next project :

• vellum
• yellow (not all yellow.. just a little bit of yellow is fine -as long as we can see it!)
• frame (slide frame, polaroid frame, cameo cut frame - anything!)
• stars
• at least 2 tags

I loved Sasha's fun challenge and realized it would be fun to try it with the Valley High card kit from this month! This kit is a personal favorite of mine and will be revealed on the 27th - I can't wait! You can check out more sneak peeks from the kit here - you won't want to miss this one!

I used the patterned papers and the stamps in the kit. First, I created the card base, then I punched a bunch of vellum stars and glued them to the white cardstock background with Helmar's wet glue, which dries clear. It's a subtle look, but I love it! I cut some frames out of the patterned paper in the kit with some metal dies from my stash. The "hello" stamp is a speech bubble that I stamped and trimmed down. Then to create two "tags", I first used my printer to type out "sweet" and friend" onto patterned paper, stamped over the top with the the sunburst, and punched them out. To create hanging tags, simply punch two of the same shapes and glue them back to back with a piece of string or twine in between.

(Supplies : Valley High card kit, vellum, twine, star chipboard - Studio Calico, white cardstock, star punch - Fiskars,  dies - Papertrey Ink, scalloped circle punch - Martha Stewart, ink - Papertrey Ink)

Here is Sasha's take on the page - I love how she sprinkled the stars down her page! She used vellum as the background of her page, and stacked tags to make a fun layered photo frame.

(supplies - patterned paper : Studio Calico Atlantic Nantucket, South Hampton & Atlantic Vellum, SC Grid Paper ; Journal Cards : SC Atlantic ; Cork Circle Sticker : SC Atlantic; Cork Chevron : SC Atlantic; Vellum Die Cuts : SC Atlantic; Fabric Bow : SC Atlantic; Geotag Brad : SC Snippets; Staples : Tiny Attacher; Alphabets : SC Snippets Aqua Thickers, SC Front Row Project Life kit; Star die cuts, star sequins and buttons : SC Yearbook; other : buttons, enamel dots, kraft tag) 

Now it's your turn to take on this challenge!! Use our scrap recipe to create a new project, then share it in the Studio Calico gallery. Leave us a link to your project by July 1st in the comments here to be entered to win a $5 GC to the Studio Calico Shop.