Studio Calico

Start to Finish | Gillian Nelson

Hi, guys!  It's Gillian here to share a video with you showing you how I scraplifted one of our Studio Calico members from start to finish!  One of my favorite challenges in which to participate on the message boards is the "Lift the Person Above You" challenge.  Recently, I took part in one of these challenges and got the great pleasure of lifting our very own "goldenblind221" (Jackie Rodriguez)!  Jackie has so much inspiration in her gallery, but the page I finally settled on lifting was her "Floating On Cloud Nine" layout.  (You can find this gorgeous page of hers right here:  Floating On Cloud Nine by goldenblind221.) 

Here is the page that I created, drawing inspiration from Jackie's theme and overall design:

And to see exactly how I put this together, you can check out this video:

 

Jackie, I loved being inspired by your beautiful page!  Thank you so much!

Supplies used:  patterned paper--Studio Calico Atlantic line: Atlantic City, Montauk, Portsmouth, and Bridgeport; vellum--Studio Calico Atlantic 12x12 printed vellum and More Vellum Add-On Kit; wood veneer embellishments--Studio Calico Atlantic Burnished Circle Wood Veneer; chipboard star stickers--Studio Calico Atlantic Glittered Star Stickers; vellum arrow--Studio Calico Atlantic Vellum Die Cut Shapes; chipboard alphabets--Studio Calico Here & There Notebook Thickers,  Studio Calico Sundrifter Ombre Aqua Thickers, and Studio Calico Atlantic Rockabye Thickers; pen--Precision Pen .03 Black; adhesive--This to That Solid Glue Runner and Martha Stewart Glue Pen; ink--StazOn Ink Pad Jet Black; mist--Studio Calico Mister Huey Opaque White; sealant--Super Surface Sealer; other--cardstock, staples, permanent marker

-Gillian Nelson

weekly challenge | Gayatri Murali & Gillian Nelson

This week, Gayatri and Gillian are teaming up to challenge you to break out your watercolors and use them in your paper crafting!

From Gillian Nelson : While I've always considered myself a "crafty" person, I am not confident whatsoever with the "artsy" stuff.  Drawing, painting...stuff like that.  I'm so much more comfortable with paper and scissors than I am with paper and paintbrushes.  But I looooove the look of watercolors and how it's been making such a beautiful splash in the world of scrapbooking.  I wanted to experiment with using water colors on a layout, but I wasn't willing to ruin an entire sheet of paper by painting directly on the background.  The compromise I came up with was to paint smaller portions of paper that I would then add to my layout afterwards.  I started by cutting watercolor paper into strips that were 1.75 inches wide, and then hand cut triangles from the strips.  I painted each individual triangle with a wash of color (most of them pink, with a few yellow triangles thrown in for visual interest).  Once the paint dried, I outlined each triangle with a thin black line and also inked the edges.  Then I adhered the triangles onto another block of watercolor paper, so that the painted color could really pop against more white.  I used adhesive foam under the yellow triangles for more...say it with me...visual interest.

Then I layered the remaining patterned papers, found places to live for the assorted embellishments, and stuck the photo up there at the top.  Done!  

(Supplies -- patterned papers, acetate diecuts: Roundabout Scrapbook Kit; gold washi tape, "enjoy" banner sticker, gold triangle sequins: Coconut Grove Add-On Kit; letter stickers: Outer Banks Add-On Kit; Studio Calico Hello Today Banner; pen: Precision Pen 0.3-Black; ink: StazOn Ink Pad-Jet Black; foam adhesive: This to That Foam Tab Squares; glue: Martha Stewart Glue Pen; other: sequins, staples)

The watercolors were truly a lot of fun, and while I'm not brave enough yet to paint myself a background like some of the gals on our SC team are so adept at doing, I'm really happy with how my watercolor baby steps turned out.  :)

From Gayatri :  Watercolour background is currently trendy. I love the soft blend of colour using the water colours. They make great background and easy to stamp on it. For my project which is a card, I have decided to use this technique both in the background as free flowing colours as well as in a defined space. 

I have used two water colour techniques on this card. For the background, I have used dry on wet technique. I diluted few drops of each of the neon Mr. Huey on an acrylic block and brushed each colour from the top of the card front using a rounded brush. I let it dry. Then I brushed some water on the pink layer and added few drops of pink neon Mr. Huey and let the colour spread and dry on its own.Then I did the same with the yellow followed by the orange. You can see how the colours have blended and beautifully flowed as well. This adds layer of colours.

While the card front is drying, I masked and stamped the balloons from Coconut Grove June Add-On Card Kit stamp set. There is well defined space in each of the balloons to paint the colours. For this I used wet on wet technique here. For each of the balloon, I first wet the area and while still wet, I added colours from one end to give the gradation of colours. I let it dry on its own. This give beautiful shading to the balloons.

While the balloons are drying, I stamped the large sentiment also from the Coconut Grove June Add-on Card kit stamp set on the bottom of the card front. I then cut of the balloons and adhere them to the card front using foam adhesive. 

The neon colours are intense and bright which is perfect for birthday celebrations.

(Supplies: Mister Huey's Neon My Little Pony, Trapper Keeper & Windbreak, Seafoam and Ocean; Coconut Grove June Add-on Card Kit; Archival Jet Black Ink and Stampers Select White from Papertrey Ink; watercolour brush)

We can't wait to see you give watercolors a try!! Make a project for this challenge, then share it in the Studio Calico gallery. Leave us a link to your project by June 3rd in the comments here to be entered to win a $5 GC to the Studio Calico Shop.

Sunday Sketch

We know that our members love sketches, so this week we are again offering you TWO...one for cards and one for layouts!! The card sketch is from Stephanie Washburn's Planetarium gallery:

And the layout is from Gillian Nelson's Planetarium Gallery:

We invited member Nicole (justnick) to choose one of these to use as a starting point this week, and she opted for a twist on the 2-page sketch. :)

Supply list:

Cardstock (American Crafts), Patterned paper (Elle’s Studio),Die Cuts & Tags (Elle’s Studio), Washi Tape (Freckled Fawn), Wood Veneers (Studio Calico), Clip (K&Co), Enamel Dots (My Mind’s Eye)

When I saw the sketches, I knew right away I wanted to use the 2nd page of the 2-pager. I was drawn towards the basic grid shape, that allowed lots of flexibility in my design. I started with the basic 9 squares from the sketch and then went crazy with layering and adding lots of wood veneers! I loved the left handed part of the sketch too, so I used it as inspiration for all the layering on the page. In the end, I ended up using the sketch almost exactly – I didn’t plan on it that way, but my journaling just fell into place in the same spot as the sketch.

We loved seeing Nicole take on this project! She is a master at pairing patterned papers and embellishments together for BIG impact...thank you for joining us this week, Nicole! You can see more inspiration from her in her SC Gallery or on her blog.

Nicole is also active in the Twitter community:
@justnick_

How will YOU use this sketch? Whether it's a layout, a card or something else, link us up to your project in the SC Gallery by May 20th 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 it back to the SC Gallery)

  

 

NSD at SC | 2013 | card team challenge 3

Do you like to mix and match? We want to see five different patterned papers on your project! Go BOLD with bright colors and big patterns, or go with a more toned down combination. Dig into your paper, pull together a fun mix of papers and put them to work!

Ashley Cannon Newell | Adding multiple patterned papers all at once is a big challenge to take on for a card because of the small canvas size, but I was ready to create something clean and simple. So, I trimmed five sheets of different patterned papers to about 1/2" wide. Next, I stared at them forever trying to figure out how I wanted to add them to my card. Finally, I stacked them together at an angle and the rest was history! All those patterns on a clean and simple card design...who knew it could be done! Try it out!

Gillian Nelson | I love the look of combining several patterns and colors on a page, but I tend to get easily overwhelmed if I try to use them in large blocks.  So the answer for me is to incorporate all the different colors and patterns, but do so with small shapes.  I love that I can still get the visual interest from the multiple patterns, but it doesn't make the design too busy for me to work with.  For this page, I used 5 different patterned papers from the Studio Calico Sundrifter, Snippets, and Here & There lines to cut out Mickey Mouse shapes and give my title a colorful border.  Lots of color and pattern going on here, but there's still plenty of white space to let my eyes rest.  And they need to rest.  They're old.  

Maggie Holmes | I have to admit that this one wasn't super tough for me because I do love to use a lot of different papers on my layouts. BUT you will notice that I typically do it in a subtle way so that it doesn't get too overwhelming or busy. Here I used all of the different papers (except for the background paper) in small doses. In case you get nervous to mix this many papers together, take my lead and keep the amount of each one to a minimum! 

Deb Duty | Since I used mostly smaller photos in my 4x6 pockets on this Project Life spread, I used patterned paper to back them. I didn't have a lot of extra photos and I loved the beautiful floral pattern on the Cosmo Cricket paper from the Planetarium Big Dipper add on so I used it as a filler in one of the 4x6 pockets. I also made some of my own 3x4 cards out of patterned paper from the same Cosmo Cricket floral paper and the Amy Tangerine paper from the Planetarium main scrapbook kit.

To be entered to win a prize from the fabulous Studio Calico prize stash, leave a comment here with a link to your new layout, card or PL spread/cards in the Studio Calico gallery by May 13th. We can't wait to see what you make!

Atlantic is here

Set sail with Atlantic! Our mid-release has hit the Studio Calico shelves a bit earlier than expected and you can find everything but the wood handled stamps in the store NOW! If you want one stop shopping, check out the Atlantic bundle - you can pick up most of the line with one "add to cart" click. 

Once you're doing shopping (we'll wait!), we have some inspiration for you. We've fallen even more in love with Atlantic after seeing our Creative Team work with it, and we think you will too!

Nicole Samuels used the sequins underneath a diecut word for an eye catching title - isn't the effect brilliant?

Atlantic's soft colors work beautifully on this sweet page from Kelly Noel - we love how she used one of the fabric bows as a flag!

Lisa Truesdell started with the Rockport paper as a background, and then pulled together lots of different star embellishments (stickers, glittered chipboard & veneer) to finish off her carefree vacation layout.

Gillian Nelson combined the Atlantic printed vellum with patterned paper waves into an awesome custom accent. Check out how she added her title with the Rockabye Thickers right along the ways - it adds so much energy to her layout! 

Our gold foil kraft paper lets Jen Jockisch's photo shine on her gorgeous layered layout. She pulled the pinks and yellows from the line for a perfectly sunkissed page, and the tiny navy anchors punched with our new mini punch accent it so well.

Kinsey Wilson knew Atlantic would be a perfect way to capture a roadtrip. The cork circles make perfect accents for a Project Life spread - they add so much texture with but fit perfectly in the pockets. Using a collection to complete a PL week is a great way to add a lot of details like Kinsey has here - while still keeping your spread looking cohesive

Lisa Spanger went to work and created three gorgeous cards using Atlantic - the stamp sets from our upcoming Planetarium Card Kit release were perfect for adding sentiments.

Now that you've seen Atlantic in action, what's your favorite piece?? We'd love to hear!!

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

product spotlight

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

 

Natalia Bun - Deja Vu

Deb Duty - #DUDE

Julie Campbell - just a note to say thanks

Lisa Truesdell - The Bean

Allison Waken - First Ride

Gillian Nelson - Self Talk

creative team inspiration

Our Creative Team has been busy working with Here+There, Snippets and Sundrifter. We've got five projects to share today, and we'll be back every Thursday with even more wholesale inspiration. Click on the name of any layout to view it in the SC member gallery - from there you'll be able to check out what products they used and how they made it, as well as add it to your favorites.

Up - Marcy Penner

Merci - Lucy Abrams

Love Them - Gillian Nelson

Thinking of You - Gayatri Murali

Best Friends - Anna-Maria Wolniak

tutorial - origami stars

We fell in love with this layout by Creative Team Member Gillian Nelson and just had to know how she made those awesome dimensional stars. Lucky for us (and you!) she's sharing how she made them in a video tutorial.


Supplies used:  yellow grid ("Crush) & orange numbers ("Pop") patterned papers from the Studio Calico Heyday line; orange polka dot paper ("Textbook") from the Studio Calico Yearbook line; wood veneer heart & arrows from Studio Calico Classic Calico line; wood veneer alphabet from Studio Calico Darling Dear
 

If you give this technique a try, link us up - we'd love to see what you make! Happy star folding!

from start to finish with gillian nelson

Hi, gang!  Today I’m going to take you through my process of creating my “Make You a Deal” layout from the Block Party gallery.  Warts and all.  :) Click here to download this start to finish tutorial as a printable PDF.

First, I gathered up supplies from the Block Party Kit and add-ons that I thought I’d like to use.  Aren’t they pretty?

I chose the Block Party Numbers Cut Design from the SC Digital Shop, and resized the file to 7.475 inches wide and 9.9 inches tall.  I then cut the design from white cardstock.  I chose the yellow diagonal stripe and the notebook-lined patterned papers as the backgrounds for my 2-page layout, and trimmed them each down to 8.5x11 inches.  I decided to use the numbers diecut over the diagonal stripe to help tone down the stripe pattern and to balance the white from the opposite page.

I decided to add a little dimension to the diecut, so I used number stickers from the Jenni Bowlin alpha sheet in the Woodbrooke Road add-on as masks.  I sprayed Mister Huey Calico Shine and gave the die cut an even coat.  Calico Shine gives a subtle, but very pretty effect and just a little bit of depth.  (My son would like it on the record that he makes an excellent and cooperative hand model.  So noted.  Thank you, son.)

While waiting for the mist to dry, I cut strips of varying widths from the cloud and chevron patterned papers, plus a strip of the yellow diagonal stripe.  I then inked the edges of the strips of paper and my photo.  I always ink the edges.  It can’t be helped.   Here’s where I need to confess that while inking the edges, i dropped my StazOn pad onto the photo and the notebook background paper.  Awesome.  And while I’m confessing, I should also admit that I may have used an expletive or two when this happened.  There.  I feel much better getting that off my chest.  What do they say?  Mistakes are merely an opportunity for creativity?  Something like that.  So, my next step was to reprint my photo (it couldn’t be saved), and I decided to cover the ink on the background paper with the Thickers from the main Block Party kit.  Problem solved.  I put the Thickers on a scrap of wax paper, coated them with VersaMark, and embossed them with some Powder Zing (such a pretty blue).

Once the mist dried, I removed the number stickers from the numbers die cut, and adhered the diecut to the striped paper.  Then I stuck down the strips of paper to each side of the layout, trimmed the ends that hung over the edges, adhered my photo, and penciled in my journaling.  (Note the remnants of black ink pad on the right side, there.  Do you blame me for the expletive?  Really?)

Next, I started placing the chipboard hearts and the wood veneer arrows from the Wildberry Court add-on across the strips of patterned paper on the right side of the page and also to the left of the photo.  I stamped the index tag with the “You” stamp, also from the Wildberry Court add-on.  I added the OA badge from the Pollard Avenue add-on, as well as some of the delicious silver washi tape.  De-Li-Cious.  I stuck down the chipboard letters over the aforementioned ink spots.  And no expletives this time, because I actually liked it better this way.  See?  It all works out in the end.

I wrote over the journaling in ink, erased the pencil lines, added a title using the itty bitty pink BG letter stickers from the Wildberry Court add-on, threw some of the little silver stars on there, and finished off with some pops of red (OA index tag, enamel dots and BG number stickers).

Voila.  Done.  :)