Studio Calico

Tutorial

Hi Everyone - Susan here today with a tutorial on embossing chipboard.  I've gotten a few questions about how I embossed the chipboard pieces on my "Singing in the Rain" April gallery layouts - and wanted to show you all how easy the process is, here.

You'll need chipboard shapes, embossing ink, embossing powder, two sheets of scrap paper, and a heat tool to start.

Press the front side of your chipboard shape directly into your embossing ink pad at an even angle, making sure to cover the entire front side with ink.

Next place your inked chipboard piece on a scrap sheet of paper (i just use printer paper for this) and shake embossing powder all over to cover.



Gently grab the sides of your chipboard shape and shake off excess powder - then transfer to a second sheet of scrap paper.  Use your heat tool to apply even heat directly above your shape, pointing down at it so that the chipboard doesn't move around the surface area that you are working on.

Embossing powder will transform with heat and your chipboard shape will now have a glossy coating of color.

I hope that you've enjoyed this tutorial and try some embossing techniques if you haven't already!

Challenge

Hi there! I am excited to issue the challenge for the week! But first I want to give you a little background about how I came up with it.....

Last month the design team all chose a member to scraplift and I chose Jaime Warren (http://www.studiocalico.com/forums/user/galleries/1790). As I was going through her gallery I noticed that a recurring theme is that she uses lots of CIRCLES! For some reason it was so inspiring to me! I know that circles are not a new thing - they are a basic concept that has been around forever so you may be wondering why I find that so inspiring. I think it is because I have such a linear eye for design and so I often forget about using circles. All of Jaime's pages with circles feel so fresh and fun to me and I also think the circles create a nice path for your eye to flow around the page and take everything in.

Anyway, she sparked a renewed interest in using circles for me and so I decided to use this as my challenge:

Create a layout that uses CIRCLES in some way!

You can crop your photos into circles, you can use patterned paper that has circles or you can cut circles out of different patterned papers, etc. Use your imagination and have fun!!

Here's my take.... I still had all of my May Kits (http://www.studiocalico.com/kits/current) out on my desk so I used scraps of what was left over and came up with this:
Supplies: May Main Kit Lawn Party, Rope Swing, Pink Lemonade, Paper Lanterns, More Color, AC Slick Writer Fine

Link your layouts here by Monday ...... for a chance to win a Studio Calico gift card!!! Have fun!

Sunday Sketch

When I first saw Sasha's layout, I was immediately drawn to her clever use of white space.  I determined it a great opportunity to create a layout with a lot of journaling on it, and decided to tell a story I needed to document about a balloon that got away and "miraculously" returned to our house on Payton's 5th birthday.

 I used the Partly Sunny kit for this layout.  The theme was appropriate, and I really wanted to use that cloud paper.  This kit is in bits now, so for my title I trimmed a "K" to make an "l" and used a button for an extra "O".  The tiny Basic Grey alphas make a great addition to the title and work well against the sketch.

I challenge you to go after this sketch and do something that needs a lot of journaling to tell the story. Leave a link to your layout in the SC gallery here by Monday, June 6th for your chance to win a SC gift card!

LOTW

The layout of the week is brought to you by Jill Sprout (Jill S).  You can check out more of Geralyn's beautiful layouts on her blog or in her gallery at Studio Calico.

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 5/22 - 5/28.

Congratulations Jill! Because of this 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!

PAPER MOON giveaway

If you follow us on twitter or facebook, you know that we were over the moon about Smash at CHA back in January. (can you spot us in this post?? ;)We shared some photos and thoughts on it, and you all loved it, too! We're excited to be featuring this new line from EK Success in our June kits, and wanted to give all the Smash fans out there a chance to WIN our PAPER MOON kit!

To be entered to win, just leave a comment here telling us your favorite item in the kit. We'll draw a winner on Wednesday, June 1st. GOOD LUCK!

Product Spotlight

Right now I'm in the process of preparing decorations for Harper's fifth birthday party. The theme of her party is "May Flowers".  I've been searching for cute cupcake toppers/picks to no avail, so I figured I'd just make my own. Notions fit the bill perfectly!

I simply slid the notions onto toothpicks (adhering them with a glue dot) and then topped each notion with a different embellishment. Voila! Simple, easy, classic. Doesn't get much sweeter than that!
Supplies: Notions-Studio Calico, Crepe paper embellishments-Girls Paperie,Resin Bows-Jenni Bowlin Studio,Accordian Flowers-American Crafts,Button-Making Memories,Toothpicks-grocery store.

Reveal Night Giveaway

Here's your chance to win one of two Confetti Collection Packs from American Crafts! Leave a comment sharing what you'd wish for on your birthday and we'll announce winners soon.

Good luck everyone!

Insider Tips:

Hello SC friends! Kelly here to share with you some insider tips on my "Noon Obsession" layout from my Lawn Party gallery. To be honest with you, this page was a struggle. I knew as soon as I saw that cute little OA chipboard bear, I wanted to do a page about Brady's obsession with the show Little Bear. But, my original design didn't pan out. I thought circles might be fun, so I punched some papers and arranged them on the page, but I wanted to make things a little more interesting which is where the idea for the paint circles came from. This is a super simple technique that took only minutes and added a fun detail to my page. You only need a few things...some acrylic paint, a plate to pour the paint onto and a small votive holder (or some other round thing you could use).



Dip the votive holder (or whatever you're using) in the paint and then use it as a "stamp" on your page. I didn't really have a plan for where my circles would go...I went for a random look, which was really easy to do.

After I "stamped" the circles all over the page, I added back in my punched circles and started working on the rest of the page design.

Once I had the base design, adding the details was super simple and the rest of the page fell together pretty easily. The paint circles added just the detail I was looking for. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little about my process for this page.

One of the embellishments in the recent Lawn Party kit were flag picks which were a fun alternative to the usual options. As I used them on my layout, I’d run out of my favorite style or color and have to be selective in how I utilized them in my work.  In doing so I thought it would be fun to simply make my own, so I wanted to share how easy that is to do with a quick tutorial.

Supplies:
1 x 3.5” pieces of patterned paper
Toothpicks

Start by trimming your favorite patterned papers to approximately 1 x 3.5 inches.  After that, simply fold that piece of paper in half.

After doing that it’s time to have fun with your flag’s shape.  With a large scallop punch, I was able to create two different types of flags, one with a large rounded shape, and the other with a pendant shape.

After you have trimmed your shape, it’s a matter of inserting the toothpick.  Because these picks were going to be adhered to a layout, I just ran my tape runner on the inside of the paper, stick my toothpick in the center at the crease, and fold the paper over.

To make the traditional flag shape, make a mark at ½ inches and then trim from that point to the top corner, and bottom corner of your flag, at the crease.

The other flag shapes were made by trimming in a diagonal.  I created flags trimming from the upper left to the lower right, and the opposite, from the lower left to the upper right side of my folded shape. There are a lot of different border punches out there for a lot of different flag ideas.

Below is a simple card with these flags using the current kit, Paper Moon, which will be perfect for Father’s Day.

I hope you’ll give handmade flag picks a try.  I can’t wait to see what you create! 

Laura's Challenge

Hi everyone! This layout from May’s Lawn Party Kit was one of my favorites in a long time (thanks so much to Gracie for the inspiration!) I love using a grid on layouts, I find it’s such a good, simple way to organize lots of fun little elements.

For this page, I used the grid paper on the back of October Afternoon’s Rock Candy paper to create my grid, and then used lots of goodies from the rest of the kit (the Studio Calico exclusive number stamp, the American Crafts Doll Thickers, the 5 & Dime Label Stickers from October Afternoon, and the Spring Fever patterned paper from Fancy Pants) to add elements to the grid. I then finished off the layout with a strip of the October Afternoon Wax Bottles patterned paper.
Supplies: Patterned Paper - October Afternoon Rock Candy, Fancy Pants Spring Fever; Label Stickers - October Afternoon; Number Stamp - Studio Calico; Alphabet stickers - American Crafts.

Need some other ideas for how to use a grid on your page? Here are some other layouts I used grids on: C, Little Bird, and Busy Morning.

Your challenge this week is to make a layout using any kind of grid… post your layout by May 30 for your chance to win an SC gift card. Can’t wait to see what you create!