Studio Calico

Celine's Tips

I just love my white pen. And I love it even more when I used it on kraft cardstock.
Supplies: Paper - Elementary Atmosphere; Stickers - Elementary Alphabet, Documentary Labels; Stamp - Mass Transit Add-on; Ink - Jenni Bowlin; Pen - Gel Pen

For this layout, I wanted to play with tone-on-tone kind of background, but wanted some contrast as well with patterned paper (and I hadn't used this gorgeous SC Elementary paper yet, and it was calling my name for ages).  So I simply cut my blue SC paper onto a 8,5x11 piece, then cut a smaller piece (7x10) into a kraft cardstock.

My left over kraft piece was used to create stars with my BRAND NEW Slice machine! (Did I mention I love it?) I cut stars different sizes and mounted them using 3D foam tabs.

I also used my favorite punch ever (stars again) into my kraft piece of paper.

I then created my layout and outlined my planes.  I used the stamp set in the Mass Transit add on kit, along with Jenni Bowlin ink with my White pen.

Can you see how great the title looks now with the white outlines?  Can't wait to see what you came up with your white pen!

Insider Tips: Nicole Samuels

According to Mae West, "Too much of a good thing is....wonderful."  And in the case of certain scrapping supplies, such as SC's new wood veneer shapes, I'd have to agree with her!  I often take cool embellishments and use a whole bunch of them on one page.  It can make a strong visual statement on your layout.  So, for this page I tore open a pack of the wood veneer frames and went to town!  Did you know the packs come with two sheets?!  That wiped away any momentary guilt I felt about using more than one on a single layout.  Anyways, first I needed to come up with my overall design.  I decided to use 4 frames nested inside each other.

Then I pulled out the photos I had printed to use and realized they weren't going to work at the printed size.  Too big for the frames I selected.

So, back to photoshop to resize and reprint.  I just measured the inside opening of the frames I wanted to fill and plugged that into the width value on image size.  I should have done this before my first printing! 
 
Once I had the photos figured out and cut down to fit the right frames, I pulled out a pack of the Wood Veneer Stars and the Stars Ledger Rub-ons.  I love that the size of the star rub-ons coordinates so well with the sizes of the veneer.  Brilliant!  And they go on to the veneer like butter!

The last little tidbit I'll share is about Mister Huey's.  I won't lie... I am a little afraid of misting.  I've admitted that before.  I mean, what if I mess it up!  But one misting technique I've come to LOVE is using mist to color something like chipboard, alphas, or in this case, veneer.  I used some of the Elementary colors of Mister Huey's to create custom letters for my title.  It worked fabulously and gives the title the pop I wanted.  Here's my completed page...

Supplies:  FabRips - Elementary;  Stickers - Elementary; Paper - Anthology Periodical; Wood Veneer - Stars, Frames, Alphabet; Rub-Ons - Star Graph; Mister Huey's -  Applejack, Schoolhouse, and Atmosphere

Okay, THIS is my final insider tip.  The fabRIPS are great for doing print journaling on.  Just print out what you want on a normal piece of paper.  Adhere the fabRIP over top of the printed section.  Re-run it through your printed and viola... perfect!  And since it's not overly sticky adhesive, you can pull it right off the plain paper and stick in right on your page. 
 
Hope to see you using "too much" of something wonderful some time soon! 

Sunday Sketch

Kelly Noel here with your Sunday Sketch:
Based off of Kimberly's layout from the Napa Valley gallery:
I loved Kimberly's page and was excited to lift it. I especially love how the design is centered right down the middle, so I made sure to stick to that part of the sketch. I used three small photos sized to 3x4 in, which gave me lots of room to play up top.
I planned out where I wanted to place my title before printing the journaling, printed the journaling onto regular printer paper leaving space in between the text for the title, then I adhered the white cardstock to the printer paper and ran it back through the printer to get the journaling into the right place.
Supplies: Patterned paper - Elementary Library, Documentary Jet Set, Documentary Souvenir; Stickers - Documentary Alpha; Rub-ons - Graph Stars; Wood Veneer - Stars; Mist - Mister Huey's Schoolhouse; Other - Glossy Multi-Medium

I had a lot of fun with the new Wood Veneer Stars. I sprayed them with the Schoolhouse Mister Huey and then put a light coat of the Glossy Multi-Medium  to give them a little bit of shine. Then, I added the Graph Star Rubons and finished the larger star off with a button.

Include your link to this thread by Saturday for a chance to win one of two $5 Studio Calico gift cards.  Good luck!

Gillian's Spotlight

Good morning!  It's Kelly here with a great interview from our wonderful November Guest Designer, Gillian Nelson.  G has been one of my favorite scrappers for quite a while now.  Nobody documents life in a colorful, creative, funny, and touching way like she does.  It's an honor to have her layouts in the Design Team Gallery this month... be sure to check them out right here.

Here's a little Q+A I had with Gillian...
When did you start scrapbooking? I've kept a scrapbook since grade school, so I've always been drawn to the idea.  Keeping mementos and jotting down memories.  But I didn't discover scrapbooking as an obsession a hobby until I was pregnant with my oldest kiddo.  1998.  Holy cow.  12 years ago.  Oy.

Where do you find your inspiration?  I find inspiration literally everywhere.  From typeface styles on billboards to magazine ads to blogs to fashion...not to mention the SC gallery.  :)  Most of the time, tho', I find myself building a page around an element or story within the photo.  I don't always succeed, but I really try to keep the pages very photocentric.  (Is that a word?  Can we pretend that it is?  It kinda makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about.)

What's your favorite thing about this hobby?  The people.  No question.  Scrapbookers are a unique breed of passionate, loving people.  We love our families fiercely, we love this hobby fiercely, and its amazing to me how people who live on opposite sides of the world can come together in a virtual forum and be a source of support for others that they've never even met.  I've been fortunate enough to have personally met some very dear friends because of scrapbooking.  And I have other very dear friends that I've not yet had the fortune of actually meeting.  But we're friends, nonetheless.  That's just cool.

What do you like to focus on when you scrapbook?  I. Love. Journaling.  I've always enjoyed writing and telling stories, so I tend to focus on journaling most of the time.  It's not always a long, drawn-out amount.  Sometimes it's as short as a sentence or two.  But the journaling is the most important part to me.  I want my kids to not only see their photos, but to know what I was thinking as I saw them.  And I want to journal in a way that they can "hear" me talking to them as they read it.  I write like I speak.  Grammar and spelling be hanged.  I is what I is.  And pages where I don't have a specific thing to say about the photo tend to be the toughest for me to create.  I need to have the story in my head before the rest can fall into place.

Besides scrapbooking, what other things do you like to do in your spare time?  Spare time...what is this "spare time" of which you speak?  I keep pretty busy with the kids and volunteering at school and whatnot, so I don't have a lot of time to spare, but my friends and I try to carve out a spot now and then where we can hang out and relax...maybe watch a movie...maybe go shopping.  Just enjoy some grown-up time together.  I like to kick it with my sister, too.  She keeps me sane.  (Or does the best she can.  It's a pretty overwhelming job.)  During down times when I'm not shuttling kids here, there, and everywhere, I also enjoy knitting and reading.  I love cookbooks and thefoodnetwork.com, but hate to actually cook.  Go figure.  And I love camping with the family, though admittedly, we haven't gone nearly as much in the past couple of years as we used to.  I do miss getting my grunge on.

What are five fun facts about yourself?
1. I was once electrocuted on one of those carousel-type horse rides outside a grocery store.  You know...the kind you put a quarter in and rock back and forth for 30 seconds?  Yeah.  ZAP.  The only thing I remember about the incident is the bouncing, side-ways view of the world as my mom carried me under one of her arms as she ran frantically through the store, yelling for someone to call an ambulance.  This was before the age of cell phones.  Like 20 A.D.  Or thereabouts.

2.  I'm afraid of escalators.  I had a dream once that my shoelace got stuck, and, well...  I don't like escalators. 

3.  I attended the University of Arizona for 2 years, before transferring to ASU for a boy.  I graduated from ASU (and also the boy, thank goodness), but I left my heart at the U of A.  So I routinely and vehemently cheer against my alma mater.  BEAR DOWN, Wildcats!

4.  I have a terrible time coming up with even 3 interesting facts about me, much less five.

5.  When I was young, I wanted so badly to change my name to Debbie.  It was miserable growing up with a name like Gillian.  Do you know how many "little buddy" jokes I've heard in my lifetime?  Enough to fill a hundred 3-hour tours, I assure you.  Debbie was so pretty.  Debbie was simple.  There weren't any TV theme songs about a fictional boy character named Debbie.  I like my name now that I'm older and wiser, but man, did I envy you Debbies out there.  Lucky ducks.

I also asked Gillian to share her favorite photo of herself... she's just so darn cute!

And she also whipped up this perfect layout using the Elementary line...

Sigh.  It's just so easy to be a member of the Gillian Nelson fan club.  Thanks for being an amazing Guest Designer, G!

Elementary Fabrips

Hi all! It's Lisa here, bringing you a new product spotlight. Fabrips are one of my favorite Studio Calico products, so I'm excited to be here with two layouts featuring ways to use them.

Fabrips are one of those products you can't truly appreciate until you try them.  When we used them in a make & take at CHA this summer, it was so so fun to watch people's faces light up as they realized how fun it was to rip them into strips! Once you got a strip, the possibilities are endless.  You can fold them, pleat them, bunch them or twist them. And if you decide you don't like it, you can straighten them back out. Since they're fabric based, they won't show the creases - but on the flip side, they're adhesive backed so they WILL hold their shape once you have them just so. They're also thin enough that you can punch them, layer them, stitch through them or staple them with no problem. Kelly and I both used the Fabrips that match the new Elementary Line, but Studio Calico has also made them to coordinate with Home Front, Documentary & Anthology, and you may have gotten them in some older SC kits. These have been a favorite around SC for a long time!

Kelly Purkey made these beautiful flower accents using the Elementary Fabrips. She simply cut circles from the sheet of fabrips, and then cut them into a spiral and twisted them into flowers.  Each rosette is finished off with a button and leaves made using a heart punch. Beautiful! You'll also noticed that she added two fabrips as a border under her photo.

Supplies: Patterned paper - Elementary Penmanship, Elementary Harper's Ruler; Fabrips - Elementary; Stickers - Homefront; Punches - Fiskars In Stitches, heart; Other - buttons, gems

While you can do just about anything with Fabrips - I opted to do nothing. I love using little bits and strips of paper on my pages, and for this one, I just substituted some of those strips with Fabrips. The Fabrips come pre-notched to tear at certain widths, but you can still tear them to any width that you'd like.  I mixed narrow strips with wider ones, and added some tiny strips around my veneer pieces. They're an awesome way to add a little texture to your page, even if you aren't into techniques.

Supplies : Patterned paper - Elementary Atmosphere, Elementary, Documentary Window Seat, fabrips - Elementary; Stickers - Elementary; veneer frames; Chipboard - Maya Road, Sugar Woods add-on (8/10); Mist - Mr Huey Dark Calico, Lunch Tray, School House, Apple Jack & Atmopshere; Brads - Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye; Tape - Basic Grey, Footpath add-on (8/10); Punches - Fiskars Notebook

I'd love to hear your favorite way to use Fabrips! I'm always for looking for new techniques to try.  And if you have any questions on working with this fabulous product, please leave a comment - I'd love to help you out.

Dav's Wreath

“Everyone must make time to sit and watch the leaves turn.” - Elizabeth Lawrence


Fall has arrived.  Even if the temperatures don’t reflect it, it’s time to bring fall inside your home.

Using the Elementary Collection I grabbed the Penmanship pattern, and my Mister Huey in Classic Calico.  Standing up and away from the paper, I lightly misted.  I wanted to somewhat “age” the pattern but not take away from the print.

I then turned the paper over, and using a random template I’ve had for several years, I traced leaves all over it.  You could also use a leaf punch or find a leaf template online.

I then trimmed out all the leaves, inked their edges with antique linen ink, and on some of them, hand stitched the details.

After that, I grabbed my glue gun and a foam wreath form I picked up from Michaels, and started randomly adhering them.

Two pieces of patterned paper full of leaves later, I came up with this:


It’s a subtle yet sophisticated home décor item that will be a perfect addition to my home through the fall months.  It was also fairly inexpensive to create.

Even if the temperatures aren’t cooperating, there is still a way to bring the holiday season indoors and bring out that festive spirit.  Happy Fall!

Susan's Challenge

When it comes to my scrapbook pages, I find myself constantly incorporating circles into my projects as a key design element.  In fact, my Fiskars circle punches are a mainstay on my scrap-desk, and are never put away! 

On this page about my son, Evan, and our little toy poodle, Toby,  I used my circle punches to create little "bubbles" for my title letters.  I paired the smaller circles with a larger circle (trimmed with a circle template) that contains the second-half of the page's title.  Studio Calico's fun new line - Elementary - happened to be the perfect mix of papers and embellishments to create this layout with.
Supplies: Documentary Fabrips, Rubons - Camera Blue, Elementary Harpers Ruler, Elementary Penmanship, Elementary Nibbles, Elementary Cardstock Stickers, Elementary Die Cut Stickers, Elementary Journaling Cards, Cardstock, Buttons, Brads

For this week's challenge, I'd like to see you use circles (of some form) to "house" the title on your page with.  It could be just one - or many - circles.  And if you don't own circle punches or a circle cutter or circle templates, try creating your own template.  You can use anything circular that you might find around the house - trace it and trim it with a pair of scissors - or use a craft knife to gently trim around the perimeter of something like a plate.  I can't wait to see everyone's "circle" pages.

Insider TIps: Kelly Noel

Kelly here, with a super quick layout I created with some SC products. This one came together pretty easily. I knew I wanted to use that photo of my hubby and Jackson running (they're training for a 5k) and I knew the colors would be perfect with the Elementary papers.

Now, I'm not really a mister...I do mist, just not a whole lot and only in small doses. I couldn't resist using that new White Mister Huey though and went a little crazy here, for once. ;) It was really simple...I just punched some large and medium circles from a piece of scrap paper and placed them onto my green cardstock inside my misting box. Then I just sprayed away and although I was sort of nervous once I started spraying, I just went with it. I was happy when I pulled those circles off and the bright green was shining through. To accent them a bit more, I added smaller punched circles and adhered them in the center. I also used my AC Precision Pen (03) to add some "stitching" detail around each of the circles to give them some more detail.


Once I had the circles done, I simply built the rest of my layout from there, which was the easy part. The sticker strips from Anthology were perfect above and below my photo and I keep finding fun uses for those Sass banner border stickers from the En Plein Air add-on.
Supplies: Stickers - Elementary Alphas, Elementary Label Stickers, Anthology Label Stickers; Patterned Paper - Atmosphere Paper, Penmanship Paper, Compilation Paper, F/stop Paper; Mist - Calico White Mister Huey

Thanks for stopping by today...I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my process!