Studio Calico

NSD at SC | 2013 | SB team challenge 2

Button, button, who's got the button? We're guessing YOU do, and we want to see them on your next project!!

Kelly Noel | As soon as I saw the button challenge, I knew for sure this was the one I wanted to participate in. I have a TON of buttons. More than I could ever use in a lifetime for sure. I love how using a small item, like a button, in excess can make a big statement on my projects. For this layout, just grouping together several colors of buttons with the new Atlantic Cork Stickers and some enamel dots really adds something interesting to my layout. 

Celeste Vermeend | Button on layouts is almost essential for my style! You will find buttons scattered on almost all my layouts. Any type of button looks effective on a scrapbooking page. My preference is too essentially create a scattered look with my button placement. 

But each button is decisively placed on my page before I stick them down permanently. In this way, I can achieve the messy but balanced look I am after. Buttons of various colours and size work well - especially when paired with circles.

 I find a button placed inside circles  pleasing to my eye. The addition of buttons to my work is often one of the last steps. I find placing them in the white space helps balance and complete my page. I also like to have them in a row at times. You will often find buttons along an edge of my photo. The line of them will help the eye travel to the image. 

Dana Fleckenstein | Let's face it, my buttons stash will last me forever and a day. While they still look cute, sequins and enamel dots have pushed them down on my list of favorite embellishments. I usually used single buttons on my projects, e.g. as flower centers on my cards but wanted to try something different for this challenge. So what I did here was to treat them as a regular layer on my card, just like I would use a strip of paper or washi tape. 

Lisa Truesdell | Once upon a time, I couldn't finish ANY project without buttons. Time went on, and decorative brads, enamel dots and sequins came into my life, and my poor button stash has spent a lot of time on a shelf in a jar (where it looks super cute, so at least it has that going for it!). As I worked on this PL spread, I realized that buttons fit right in with my beloved enamel dots, and I really like the two of them mixed together! They're also not too bulky in the pocket pages. Maybe I'd better move that button jar a little closer to my desk...

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!

Bright Idea | Kelly Noel

I love using my kit leftovers. I will often leave the kit on my desk for a week or two after I've completed my design team assignments for the gallery. I find that I get more use out of the leftovers this way, rather than putting everything away immediately.

(Supplies - Planetarium kits + add-ons; Studio Calico Atlantic Portsmouth patterned paper, Cork Circle Stickers, Cork Arrow and Chevron Stickers, Glittered Star Stickers and Vellum Die Cut shapes)

In this case, I had the new Atlantic collection AND the Planetarium kits on my desk at the same time. There were so many pieces from the kits that I found I could mix with Atlantic. Even a card from the Project Life kit made it onto my layout and matched the yellows in the Atlantic collection perfectly. 

-Kelly Noel

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!!

wholesale spotlight

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

Kelly Noel - Good Eats : 

Dana Fleckenstein - Happy Birthday : 

MaryAnn Perry - S'mores : 

Susan Weinroth - You Are The Best : 

Natalia Bun - Remember : 

Ashely Cannon Newell - Be Fabulous :

weekly challenge

Hello SC friends!! Kelly and Amber here with a challenge for you today. Of course, we all love being inspired by Pinterest and it's so much fun to see where the same inspiration piece can take two different designers. Amber and I chose these images to be inspired by...

As you can see, there are a ton of ways to be inspired by these images. The bright colors paired with neutrals like kraft or black. The shapes....triangles & diamonds configured any which way. Here's my inspired layout...I loved the diamonds that were shaped into pinwheels/bursts. I used my Silhouette to cut them out in different papers from the Here & There collection and then simply arranged them randomly on my layout. 

Supplies: die cut shapes - Studio Calico Here & There ; stickers - Studio Calico Here & There Circle Sticker Sheet ; patterned paper - Studio Calico Here & There Savannah, Santa Fe, San Diego, Miami and Boston ; thickers - Studio Calico Snippets Aqua Thickers ;stamp - Studio Calico Neverland kit ; button - My Mind's Eye ; paper clip - Pebbles; ink - Hero Arts (Soft Pool & Pool) ; washi - Glitz 

 

Amber made this incredible card inspired by the first two photos in the inspiration images. The muted feathers in the second photo totally reminded her of the Sundrifter patterned paper, so she trimmed a feather and added it as an accent! Woodgrain Thickers finished off the sentiment and stayed true to the organic feeling that she got from these beautiful art pieces!

supplies - patterned paper : Studio Calico Sundrifter Teepee, Snippets Me Oh My, Sundrifter Wildflower ; letter stickers : Here & There Patchwork Thickers

 

Now we'd love to see your take on these images!  Create a project for this challenge, then share it in the Studio Calico gallery. Leave us a link to your project by March 11th in the comments here to be entered to win a $5 GC to the Studio Calico Shop.

 

-Kelly Noel & Amber Kemp-Gerstel

a week of photo prompts

Hello SC friends! Kelly here to share some fun photo prompts with you. Photo prompts are great for getting your creative eye going. I find that they help me think to capture something I might not have before. Here are this week's prompts:

1. Out and about. Take your camera along while you do something ordinary. I snapped this silly photo of my youngest at the yogurt shop outside of our neighborhood. 

2. Photo a detail. Grabbing a shot of the full situation is great, but detail shots are great for telling the "story" of the day too. 

3. Hand over the camera to someone else. My 8 year old took this photo and I love it!

4. Capture the sky in a photo.

5. Laughter. Tell a funny joke or be silly behind the camera to get your subject to crack up like my youngest is here. 

6. Friendship. These two boys have been friends since they were babies. Capture a special friendship with your camera. 

7. Art. Photograph art in some form or another. 

I hope that these prompts have inspired you to get out and snap some new photos. If you play along, be sure to post them in the SC gallery and link us up here!

weekly challenge

At the end of last week, we shared three inspiring tutorials from Maile Belles, Nicole Samuels and Kelly Noel. This week, we want you to give one of those techniques a try.

It's your choice - you can stamp on patterned paper like Maile, recolor your stamp brushes like Nicole, or create a diecut background like Kelly. We can't wait to see what you make!

Create a project using one of these techniques, then share it in the Studio Calico gallery. Leave us a link to your project by December 3rd in the comments here to be entered to win a $5 GC to the Studio Calico Shop.

silhouette background

Hello SC friends!! Kelly here to share a fun way to use your Silhouette to make your own background or large accent for you layout. 

For my layout, using lots of new Darling Dear papers, I was inspired by this piece I saw on Pinterest. I loved the way the composition of the arrows and knew I wanted to create a similar layout for my page. Rather than cut out lots of arrows from different patterned papers, etc. I decided to do a negative cut as a whole instead.

Click here to download the tutorial as a PDF

(Supplies: cardstock - American Crafts ; patterned paper - Studio Calico Darling Dear Wayne, Gardner. Monroe, & Hayworth ; stickers - SC Darling Dear Hearts & Arrows, SC Darling Dear 12x12 Alpha, BasicGrey ; Chipboard - SC Sotheby Ledger)

The first step do recreate this look is to choose several different arrow cut files. Open the first file and select the entire image. 

Repeat this same process with several different arrow cut files to add variety to your arrow background.

You'll want to mix up the arrows so that there are larger and smaller ones for variety and interest. Play around with it until you get the look you're after. Once you have all of your arrows moved around and resized, you are ready to cut!

After you cut your background, place the cut background onto your intended layout background. Adhere the cut background with repositionable adhesive. 

Now, use scraps to add detail underneath each arrow cut. Adhere the scraps carefully, making sure to line them up with each arrow.

After you're finished adhering the scraps, you can adhere the arrow background with foam adhesive for added dimension.

And that's it, you're all finished! A simple and easy way to create a custom background/large accent for your layouts. I hope you'll give this a try!

stamps

Our CHA-S release stamps have made it to the Studio Calico shop!We know you've been waiting patiently for these, and will want to ink them up the second you get them. Here's a little inspiration to get you started!

 

(spread joy by Lisa Spangler - featuring the Spread Joy stamp set : veneer trees - Studio Calico; ink - Hero Arts Ruby Dye Ink & Green Hills mid-tone ink, Evergreen Bough Distress ink, Colorbox white pigment ink; notecard - Hero Arts; embossing folder - Hero Arts/ Sizzix; twine - Lawn Fawn; other - Rock Candy Distress Stickles)

(happy holidays by Dawn McVey - featuring the Spread Joy stamp set : veneer - Wonderland snowflakes; patterned paper - Wonderland Toboggan, Alpine, Ice Caps;

(Junkstock by Lisa Truesdell - featuring Oh Snap and Sam stamp sets : patterned paper - Studio Calico Wonderland Toboggan; Darling Dear Flynn, Temple, Monroe, Hepburn Vellum; feather veneer - Sock Hop kit, ledger washi - Roller Rink kit; thickers - Charcoal Sotheby's; star sequin - Yearbook Ephemera; chipboard heart - Darling Dear Printed Chipboard Hearts ; arrows - Darling Dear Heart & Arrow Stickers, Vellum Shapes; ink - Hero Arts Wet Cement, Black StazOn; tiny attacher)

(Back to School by Kelly Noel - featuring the Back to School stamp set : cardstock - American Crafts; patterned paper - SC Darling Dear Flynn, SC Darling Dear Monroe; stickers - SC Darling Dear Hearts & Arrows;  ink - Prima Chalk Edger; diecuts - SC Yearbook Ephemera Pack; badge - SC Darling Dear Badges)

(Love Jason and Lisa by Lisa Spangler - featuring the Cal & Spread Joy stamp sets : mist - Mister Huey's Calico White; ink - Hero Arts Neon Pink, Neon Green, Soft Granite and Tide Pool; Colorbox white pigment ink; gems - Hero Arts; washi - Heidi Swapp & etsy; other - gray cardstock and corner rounder punch)

We're excited to see what all of you make with these stamps!

product spotlight

Hi everyone! It's Geralyn here today, with a spotlight on one of my favorite new items from the Classic Calico V.3 collection, the Sotheby's thickers! They come in classic ledger (my favorite!), charcoal, and the mistable version and they are my current go-to alphas. I love the font and the fact that there are both smaller and larger letters in a set. The different sized alphas are really fun to mix together.

(Supplies: patterned paper - Calico v.3 Quilted, Yearbook 6x6 pad, Textbook; alphas - Calico v.3 Sotheby's charcoal, Sotheby's ledger; veneer - Yearbook speech bubbles; Yearbook stitched pockets; Yearbook journal cards; badges - Calico v.3 weekdays; mistable - Calico v.3 feathers, enamel dots - Roller Rink kit; stamps - exclusives from Roller Rink, Rainbow Kneesocks, Couple's Skate, Crack the Whip; ink - Hero Arts Cup o' Joe; other - washi tape, Kelly Purkey stamp)

For my layout, I pulled together lots of Yearbook and Classic Calico, then decided to use both the larger ledger Sotheby alphas and the smaller charcoal Sotheby alphas for my title. I think they look pretty cool together and I like the contrast between the light and dark alphas. 

Hope you enjoyed this little product spotlight! Can't wait to see the Sotheby's thickers on your layouts!

We wanted to bring you even more ideas for using the Sotheby's Thickers - here are more layouts from our Design Team :

celebrate eight by Kelly Noel : cardstock - American Crafts ; patterned paper - SC Time Sheet, SC Charted , SC Geometry, October Afternon (yellow) ; wood veneer - SC Wood Veneer Flags, SC Wood Veneer Speech Bubbles ; chipboard - SC Mistable  Sotheby Thickers ; Enamel dots - MME ; ink - Prima Chalk Edgers (Turquoise Stone - teal, Rock Moss - green, Coltsfoot Stemens - yellow, Rusty Keys - orange) ; washi - Freckled Fawn

this is no good by Kinsey Wilson :  patterned paper - Studio Calico Yearbook- Pi, Honor Roll, Superlatives, Tardy, American Crafts- POW glitter paper ; letter stickers - Studio Calico Sothebys Charcoal Thickers ; veneer - Studio Calico Speech Bubbles ; Pockets- Studio Calico Yearbook Stitched Pockets ; spray mist- Studio Calico Pinstripe and Dark Calico Mister Hueys ; journaling card- Studio Calico Yearbook Journal Cards ; other - white cardstock, brown pen.

first day by Marcy Penner : patterned paper - Classic Calico vol.3 Quilted, Geometry, Botanical, Yearbook Most Likely, Pi, Hall Pass, Tardy; Letter Stickers - Classic Calico vol.3 Mistable Thickers (Sotheby); Stickers - Mistable Stars; Wood Veneer - School Icons; Journaling Cards - Yearbook; Cameo, mist - Mister Huey Gold; date stamp

one year old by Becky Novacek : patterned paper - Yearbook 6x6 pad; thickers - Sotheby's Ledger; stickers - Classic Calico Vol 3 hearts; veneer - Yearbook speech bubbles)

good morning kata by Sasha Farina - supplies - patterned paper : Studio Calico Clasic Calico V3 Charted , Yearbook 6x6 paper Pad ; Sticker : Classic Calico V3 Kraft Heart ; veneer : Studio Calico Heyday Speech Bubble ; Thickers : Sotheby's Ledger, Mistable Arrow : Studio Calico exclusive from Central High kit, Mister Huey's : Sunshine, SchoolHouse, Taxi; Diecuts : Heyday Ephemera Pack; Staples : Tiny Attacher ; other : vintage doily

We'd love to see YOUR projects using our Sotheby's Thickers! Link them up so we can check them out.