Studio Calico

Tutorial

Hey everyone! Kinsey here with my first ever SC tutorial and it's all about making your own ink pads with Mister Hueys. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at those pretty little bottles of spray mist and longed for stamp ink in the exact same colors. I love that the mists coordinate perfectly with the papers and embellishments, so it's really handy to have an ink pad version on hand when you need that perfect shade of bonny blue, right?! For my example project, I used the Boardwalk kit because I love the variations of greens, aquas, and blues- and the exclusive stamp is perfect for showing off how well the Mister Huey's work as an ink. Here's a close up of the finished product...

So let's talk methods...the first is definitely the fastest and easiest- it's the Cut-n-Dry stamp pad foam or felt by Inkssentials.

It comes in an 8 x 10 inch sheet in either foam or felt. For my demo I used the foam version and loved that after each use, I could rinse it out, let it dry and reuse it; or just put it in a ziploc baggie for later use. Another cool factor- you can make a 4 x 6 ink pad for your SC background stamps and ink the entire stamp in one step without running the risk of missing a spot and ending up with a blotchy image.

To use the Cut-n-Dry stamp pad, just use a pair of scissors, cut a stamp pad to size, spray 2 pumps of mist onto the pad and stamp like usual...easy right?!

The second method I used is a little bit more time intensive but the idea is pretty similar...for this approach, I raided my daughter's craft felt supply and cut it up into smaller pieces and then spray with a few pumps of Mister Huey's and stamp...

I did notice that because the craft foam is so light, it would stick to the stamp as I was inking it so I made a make-shift stamp pad base for the felt pads (see photo above). I just cut a piece of acrylic to about 2.5 x 3.5 inches and then added the 'crunchy' side of a piece of self-adhesive velcro that the felt sticks to during stamping.

I keep all of the pads stored by color in 4 x 6 inch ziploc bags on a binder ring and love that they don't take up a bunch of space.

One last method that I recently saw on the SC message board, uses the Tim Holtz Ink Blending tool in lieu of a stamp pad...you can read more about Joanne's (aka spagirl) awesome approach here.

Here's one last look at the full finished layout:

Can you tell that I used both of the stamp pad methods here? (I used the foam pad with the lunchtray, pickle, bonny blue, and barnwood Mister Huey's and the felt pad with the clover, warm calico, and gable green)

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out with me today! Happy mist-stamping!

Insider Tips

Hello Studio Calico friends! It's Lisa here today, and I've got some insider tips on misted backgrounds for you.
I love the look of masking + misting on my pages, but I'll be the first to admit that it takes a little planning to pull off. After all, you need to mist the background paper before you add anything - but you have to know where your major elements are going to be before you mist! To get around this catch 22, I start building my page on a plain background. I don't add all the embellishments and details, but I make sure I know where my photo, title, journaling and any large pieces of patterned paper will be. Once I've got everything planned, I add the masks to my design and draw in some light guidelines to represent the elements on my page - this makes putting it all back together much easier!
Next, I get ready to mist. I remove everything on the page that I don't want covered in mist and put my page into an old Studio Calico shipping box. For this page, I misted in two layers - first with Mister Huey's Clay, and then went back over it with Mister Huey's Shine. I knew I wanted a gradient affect around the butterflies, so I held the bottle closer than normal - about 4inches away - and then misted 2-3 times directly over each butterfly mask.
Once the mist is dry, it's time to start putting elements back onto the page. From there, I add in accents of patterned paper and embellishments - for this page, I also added some stamping with the new Studio Calico stamps made by Hero Arts.
(supply list : cardstock - Vanilla ; patterned paper - Memoir Love Bird, Autumn Press Die Cut Bracket Light Blue, Autumn Press Frolic ; stickers - Addy Alpha Green, Kraft Stars ; veneer - Astericks ; mist - Mister Huey's Clay and Classic Shine ; stamps - My Happy stamp set, My Best stamp set, banner stamp from Thespians add-on ; ink - Jenni Bowlin Studio Seedpacket & Weathervane ; other - border stickers & little letter stickers from Glee Club, Tiny Attacher, circle punch, button, gems)

Misting the background of a page may take extra planning, but I love the finished look. I hope you'll give it a try on your layouts!

sunday sketch

Hello there! This week's sketch is based on the oh-so-inspiring Miss Susan.

Susan has such talent to make her pictures look so bright and colorful and her sense of design just makes me speechless...anyway, I was very impressed and inspired at the same time by Susan's layout. I thought I would replace some of the photos by tags and just made myself a reason to have fun with my Mister Huey's mists!!!

Some machine stitching around my layout adds some contrast on my layout!

I can't wait to see your take on this week's sketch! Post your layout by Monday, July 25 for your chance to win a SC giftcard!

Product Spotlight - Mister Huey's

Hi Studio Calico friends- I'm so excited to be showing off some of the new Mister Huey's Color Mists and one of our new masks today! I was thrilled when I heard Studio Calico would be making masks - and I love the designs!



There are three designs in this release - a 4x6in intertwined circle background, a set of butterflies, and an ampersand. They're made of a thick plastic & are heavy enough that you can lay them on your project and mist over them without worrying about blowing them out of place! Once you're done misting, you simply wipe them clean and they're ready for the next color.


For my page today, I chose to focus on using the background mask. I started by trimming the die cut ledger paper from State Fair into mats for my photos, then used the circle background and a different color of Mister Huey  on each one. From top to bottom, I used Custard and Dewey from Autumn Press, and Clay from the Memoir line. This is a great way to add mist to your page if you're new to using it - if you're not happy with the results, you can try again on a new photo mat without ruining your entire layout! I love the subtle detail & color it adds behind my photos.
(supply list : patterned paper - State Fair Die Cut Cream Ledger, State Fair Pie Contest, Countryside County Line, Studio Calico exclusive & Sassafras from Mind the Gap ; stickers - Addy Alpha Yellow, 6x6 labels blue ; wood button - Veneer Buttons ; mist - Mister Huey's Clay, Mister Huey's Custard, Mister Huey's Dewey ; mask - intertwined circles ; other - brads, yellow buttons, ticket and chipboard from Paper Moon and add-ons, washi tape, twine, tiny attacher)

I stacked my mats and photos along the right side of my layout, and taped them in place with washi tape. I can't wait to see what you'll do with the new Mister Huey's Color Mists and Masks!

Tutorial

Hi all... Nicole H. here, sharing a fun way to use all of those Mister Huey spray inks you have in your stash!! When working with the Lawn Party kit, I knew I wanted to use this chipboard frame... but it needed a little something. Supplies: Mister Huey's Piglet and Clover, Paintbrushes

So I grabbed my Mister Huey in Piglet to see if my hunch was right, and it was! They make GREAT watercolor inks!! Here's how I did it:
In this example, I used a veneer star as a mask, with the Lemonade Mister Huey...then opened up my bottle of Clover. I dipped my brush inside the bottle, swiping the excess off.
Then I dabbed my brush (with the color already on it) onto a paper towel, just to get rid of some of the ink. I was looking for a muted/watercolor effect, so this worked perfectly.
All that was left to do was paint!!
 
One more cool way to use those Mister Hueys... who doesn't love that!?

Tutorial

Hello everyone, Kimberly here to share with you all a tutorial using mists in a creative way. If you haven’t already tried to use the mists to stamp with, I hope this inspires you to give it a try. As most of you know, I love to create layouts using ordinary scrapping tools in unique ways. Using the mists to stamp with, gives the stamped image a kind of water colored appearance that I just love.

One of my favorite qualities about Mister Huey Mists is how quickly they dry, as well as the vibrant pigment in each of the colors. These spray inks work well for both misting and stamping.

For this creation, I unscrewed the mist caps and poured a tiny amount into my painting tray cups. Then I used two different paint brushes to apply the ink colors separately onto the stamp image. I let the inks bleed together before stamping the image onto the paper. I painted each letter then stamped them onto white cardstock.

Here is another tip I often do to ensure the best possible image when stamping. If you flip over the cardstock and use the back side of the paper, which is the less textured side, it will give you a smooth and even image. You will still see a little bit of texture through the ink after it’s stamped, and yet achieve great coverage at the same time.

After the letters were dry, I added another little touch by outlining each letter with my pen. Then I cut each letter out and placed a foam tab square behind the letters before attaching them on my layout.

Finally, here is my finished creation with a close up.

Supplies used: Cardstock-More white; Patterned Paper-Countryside- Harvest and Barn swallow; Mister Huey-Bluegrass and Barnwood; Adhesive- Foam Tab squares; Studio Calico alphabet stamps from a previous kit; Fabrips- yellow.

There you have it, I hope this spurs some fun and creative ideas using Mister Huey mists on your layouts.  

Thank you,

Lisa's Tutorial

Hello everyone!! I've been having a lot of fun with my Countryside and State Fair Mister Huey's Color Mists lately, and I wanted to share a fun technique. 

 

This page went up on the blog back in March, and I had a few questions about how I did the border. I love the look of the masked off circles, but wanted it to be a bit more free, so I allowed for some overspray alongside my masks. I love the extra color that it adds to my background! Here's a step by step of how to recreate the look, as well as a variation on the technique.

I started by gathering the mists I wanted to use. I went with a collection of blues and greens - Mister Huey's Clover, Pickle, Bonny Blue and Bluegrass. I love how they compliment each other and knew that the colors would layer nicely when I misted. 

I created a mask by using a pinked circle punch on a spare piece of cardstock. I started by masking off a circle in the center of my border, so I could be sure my border would be evenly spaced. I held my mist about four inches away and sprayed directly at the mask, and then moved it so that I was ready to spray my next circle. 

On my "yum" page, I made sure to keep the area to either side of my circle masked off so that I had a clean border running the entire length of the page. For my "in a tree" page, I just used the smaller mask for a different effect.

When you use a smaller mask, the overspray fills the border area - I love that there are darker and lighter areas where the mist colors overlap. This variation works best with shades of mist that are similar. To finish the page, I pulled together a variety of pieces from State Fair and Countryside that follow the same blue/green color scheme.

Supplies: patterned paper - Countryside Besty, Countryside Wildflower, Countryside County Line, State Fair Midway, Sassafras ; stickers - green Addy alphabet, Countryside labels ; veneer - buttons, butterflies ; tag - State Fair die cut tags ; mist - Mister Huey's Pickle, Clover, Bluegrass and Bonny Blue ; punch - Martha Stewart ; other - Hambly overlay and washi tape, Tiny Attacher

I can't wait to see what you do with this technique! If you give it a try, please link me up!

Insider Tips: Waleska

Hi everyone! It's Waleska with the insider tip of the week.  I want to show you how to make a polka dot background like the one in my Hula Hooping layout in the Into the Woods gallery.

This is what you'll need:
Supplies: Studio Calico Mister Huey's: Classic White, Orchard, Clover and Bonny Blue; Kraft cardstock; a plain piece of paper; ruler; mask and paper trimmer

I used two templates for this. One that I made myself (a 4x6 rectangle to define the area) + an old polka dot Heidi Swapp mask. If you don't have a mask you can create your own with punches, a die cut machine or even your craft knife!

Once I decided the shape and size I just measured, traced and cut it out with my paper trimmer.

I placed the first template on top of the Kraft cardstock, put them inside my misting box and sprayed with Mister Huey's Calico White. I wanted a subtle background so I only sprayed a few times across.

Once it was dry (you can use your heat tool to speed up the process), I placed the polka dot mask on top and sprayed with Mister Huey's Orchard (left), Clover (middle) and Bonny Blue (right).

Once again, I sprayed just a couple of time and at a close range to make sure the colors didn't blend too much.

I used a paper towel to soak up the excess ink and removed the templates... and this is what you get! A pretty, colorful misted background.

I hope you give this a try.  Please let me know if you have any questions and I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Mister Huey's

Hi Everyone!  Lisa and I were asked to showcase the gorgeous new Studio Calico State Fair colors of Mister Huey for this post, and I decided that it would be a fun opportunity to play a bit - using the new wood veneer butterflies as a misting mask.  I created the focal accent for my Hello Card using this technique.


Simply punch a large circle from cardstock and select the shape butterfly you'd like to "mask" with.  Use just a tiny bit of adhesive on the backside of the butterfly to adhere it to the middle of your punched cardstock circle.  Mist ALL OVER (!!!) and repeatedly until you have the saturation level of color you'd like.  I used the very vibrant Bonnie Blue mist here.  Then peel back your veneer butterfly, and accent the misted shape with a butterfly rubon and smaller veneer butterfly.  Voila!

Studio Calico Countryside patterned papers, alphabet rubons, and tiny punched butterflies complement the butterfly accent on my card.  I have to say that I love the way that everything mixes and matches so easily from the two new lines.
Supplies: Mister Huey's Bonnie Blue, Lemonade, Calico White; Butterflies Yellow Graph Rubons; Alpha Blue Rubon; Countryside Harvest Paper; Countryside Betsy Paper; Wood Veneer Butterflies; Cardstock; Rhinestones

Lisa also created an awesome layout using the new mists...
Supplies: patterned paper - State Fair Guess Your Weight, State Fair Pie Contest, Countryside Wildflower, Documentary Window Seat, Documentary Jet Set, Sassafras and American Crafts; tag - Countryside die cuts; stickers -  Addy Alphabet - yellow; veneer - buttons and butterflies; mist - Mister Huey's Pickle, Hot Dog, Lemonade and Piglet; other - Tiny Attacher

She says: "I am loving the new State Fair colors of Mister Huey's Color Mists! They're so bright and vibrant - perfect for summer photos. I think Pickle is my favorite, but don't tell the others.

For this page, I made a mask by punching a circle in scrap paper, and then using it to create a border of circles in Pickle, Lemonade, Hot Dog and Piglet. I didn't mask off the whole page, so I got some overspray along the border - and i love how it looks! While these mists were designed to match the State Fair papers, I find they're versatile enough to match almost anything - I snuck a little Countryside & Documentary onto this page, as well as some papers from other companies."

I hope this gives you some great ideas for using the new Mister Huey's!

Insider Tips: Maggie

I get the most questions about my misting process so I thought I would share with you a little bit about that today. One of the hardest parts about choosing a misting color(s) for me is figuring out which color(s) to pick and which one(s) will match the best. Often times I am misting right onto my background paper which typically means I have only one shot to get it right. I have to admit there have been few times where I grabbed a color I thought would work and after misting away I realized that it actually clashed with the papers/photos/embellishments I had chosen for the page. Oops!!

The problem is that lots of times the mist color looks very different in the bottle than it actually does on the paper. And even if it is close, it is sometimes just hard to tell by only looking at the bottle. So now instead of guessing, I have come up with a system that has worked really well for me. It's not super fancy or even pretty but it works!!

I simply took sheets of white cardstock and I misted each color I have right on there. I did just a few at a time so I wouldn't get them confused when it was time to write down the names of the colors. You will want to wait a few minutes for it to dry and then I found that the American Crafts Slick Writer worked best. Whenever I get new colors I simply grab a new piece of paper and repeat the process.

Now I keep all of the sheets on a clipboard right by my scrapbooking table. When I am starting a new layout (like the one below) I can quickly flip through all the pages and find the color(s) that will work the best and now I know it will match perfectly!!
Supplies: March Main Kit, Mossy Knoll Kit, Babbling Brook Kit, Maya Mist Hydrangea Blue, Mister Huey's Mist Bonny Blue, Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium, American Crafts Precision Pen