Studio Calico

Sunday Sketch

Hi everyone, Kimberly here to share with you this Sunday's Sketch. What fun this is to create a layout from April's creation. Her layouts always WOW me with her creative way to mix different elements and dimensions with each creation she does.

I really love the design and use of different patterned paper April used with her creation. I LOVE the placement of her photograph and journaling spots. When I use a sketch to draw inspiration from, I will generally not look at the layout example at all until I am done creating my layout. This helps me to create something from it that is not an exact duplicate.
 
* I chose to create a 2 page layout from April's one page design, so that you all can see how far you can stretch your creativity with a sketch. The sky's the limit.

* I love finding different ways to use inks, and absolutely LOVE the variations of the new Mister Huey colors that will be available soon. I wanted to use them all together so you can see how well they work together. Rather than using patterned paper strips as April did, I used a different color of mists from the sketch example.

* Also, instead of journaling in the same areas on the sketch, I decided to repeat the title for a fun effect. I also used the journaling label cardstock stickers to carry out the design of the journaling spots from the sketch. Another thing that would be fun twist to do, is crop photographs to go in place of where I chose to mist, and April chose to put patterned paper.

* I tend to also like using more photographs... as many as possible to compliment the design and journaling. With making this layout a 2 page layout, it made it easier for me to add a couple more photographs.

* I love to layer different embellishments to my creations also. This gives them a more unique look. Don't be afraid to layer a rub-on over the top of a sticker. It's a simple touch, and add's just enough to complete a simple design like what I've created here.
Supplies: Ink- New Mister Huey: Barnwood, Pickle, Bluegrass, Orchard, Piglet, Lemonade, Hot Dog, Bonny Blue and clover;  Cardstock- More Kraft  and More Vanilla; patterned paper - State Fair: Sideshow; Alpha- Studio Calico die-cut alpha green and Sunrise Thickers - Limeade from Into the Woods; Stickers-Studio Calico Die-cut stickers and labels; Rub on's- Studio Calico Blue and green butterfly's; Fabrips- Studio Calico Pink Houndstooth
 
As you can see, my design follows a lot of the same lines as the sketch itself, but don't be afraid to turn it around, or flip it. Whatever it is that you can draw inspiration from with this sketch, stretch your boundries and just create!

I can't wait to see your take on this sketch! Be sure to post a link to this thread by March 14 for a chance to win one of two $5 Studio Calico gift cards. Good luck and have fun!

kelly's mist tutorial

Hello, SC friends! Kelly here to share a quick little tutorial on using Mister Huey with your SC stamps. I touched on this a bit before, but wanted to expand on the idea and show you exactly how to achieve the same effect.

Here's the layout that was shown on the blog before...

And here's the card I made for this tutorial...

Supplies: kit- Candy Shoppe; Noah Alphabet Stamps; Mister Huey's Color Mist- Piglet; ink- JBS Cough Syrup

First you'll need some mist, a stamping block, cardstock and some ink. Get out your trusty misting box (mine is looking mighty messy!) and place a small strip of cardstock into the box. Arrange your letters (I used the Noah Alpha set for this card...such a classic font and perfect for just about everything) onto the cardstock face up, so that the flat part of the stamp is against the cardstock and the words "read" correctly and not backwards. Basically you're placing them the opposite way than you would if you were actually stamping them.

Next, get some mist and spray away...several short sprays from about a foot away seems to work best.

Once you've sprayed, carefully pick up the stamps and clean them up with some baby wipes. Let them dry off and get your stamping block and ink ready to go. You can see that we've left the negative of the word here and now we can just stamp right into the spots for each letter. 

It is really such a simple technique, but the possibilities are endless. You can do this with just about any stamp. Hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you'll try this technique out on your next card or layout! 

 

 

Product Spotlight - Mister Huey's Calico White

Hello SC friends! I'm here today to show you some fun ways to use my new favorite mist... Mister Huey's Calico White! Of course, by now, you know that the white mist is just amazing and the only opaque white mist out there. This makes it totally versatile and so many cool techniques can be done with it.

Here is a fun page I made using leftovers from my Metropolitan kit plus the new Weekday Stamp Set: Supplies - Metropolitan Kit; Mist - Mister Huey's Calico White; Stamps - Weekday Stamp Set

This misting/stamping technique is definitely my new favorite way to use the Mister Huey's Calico White and it's super simple to do. I simply arranged the stamps onto my sheet of Kraft cardstock, placing them upside down (so that the words read correctly when you're looking at it...the stamping side down). Then just mist away with the white and pull the stamps off revealing the outline of the days of the week. I cleaned up my stamps with a baby wipe and then, using Pumice Stone Distress Ink, stamped them into the negative space the misting left. Such a neat effect and super easy!

Lisa used another fun technique on her page using a mask that she created. She printed a "3" on a square of paper and then cut it out to create her mask. Then she placed the mask on her page, sprayed away with the Calico White and didn't worry about the overspray. It leaves behind a very cool stencil look. I think this would be a great for title work on a smaller scale too if used the same technique with letters.
Supplies: Patterned paper - Elementary Show Your Work, Elementary Harper's Rule, Elementary Atmosphere, Elementary DieCut Blue; Stickers - Elementary Label Stickers; Wood Veneer - Stars, Alphabet; Fabrips - Documentary Fabrips; Mist - Mister Huey's Calico White; Rub-ons - Star Graph; Staples - Tiny Attacher 

I hope you've enjoyed this little spotlight on Mister Huey's Calico White. He's really fun to play with and so versatile. We can't wait to see what you all come up with using this awesome product!

Lisa's Insider Tips

Hello, everyone!  It's Lisa, and today I'm here to share some insider tips on one of the pages from my Metropolitan gallery. I love masking with Mister Huey's Calico White - it gives a lot of impact, especially on darker colors. I wanted to bring that into my titlework.
Supplies : Metropolitan; Mass Transit; mist - Mister Huey's Calico White; Vintage Doily Punch; chipboard - Crate Paper Snow Day; stickers - Crate Paper Snowday phrase stickers; tiny attacher; ; Handwritten cartridge for the Slice

I started by cutting out my title in a script font from the Handwritten cartridge for my Making Memories Slice.  The Slice will cut a shadow on the newer cartridges - but only up to 3.5inches - and I wanted to make my title 4 inches high. So to make my own shadow mask, I layered my title letters to a scrap of cardstock and cut around them, doing my best to maintain an even thickness.  This technique would work with any title medium - you could use the same idea with chipboard, letter stickers, handcut fonts or letters cut with an electronic cutting machine. I then placed my photo onto the background cardstock for my page to get an idea of where I wanted the title to be. I used temporary adhesive to stick down the mask, and then removed the actual title letters and the photo.

I do all my misting in an old Studio Calico box - it saves my scraproom from being covered in color! For this page, I aimed my Mister Huey's Classic White right at my title masked, and sprayed it five times from about eight inches away.  This insures that the mist is most opaque right around my letters, and then fades out on the rest of the page. I let it dry for a few minutes - the opaque colors take a bit longer to dry than the others.

I knew I wanted to repeat the word "go" to emphasize the theme of my page, so I cut it in different sizes using my Slice and arranged them around the page.  I also backed my title letters with one of my favorite Studio Calico patterns from Metropolitan - I'm in love with this little herringbone! All of the patterned papers on this page are from Metropolitan and the Mass Transit add-on - I can't stop using this mix of colors.

I finished the page with these awesome arrows from the Mass Transit add-on, and used the Jenni Bowlin Chalkboard alphabet to put Sam's initial up in the top right corner - I love this tiny font, it's perfect for accents like this.  I also scattered some brads and chipboard accents before deciding that the page was done.

I hope you'll give this masking technique a try - I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully, if you're reading this (and live in the U.S.), you've finished your turkey dinners and didn't have to wash the dishes!  Regardless, it's always a good thing to sit back and take stock of what you can be grateful for in your life. For me, the list would include good health for both myself and my family...a job that I love...even my mama's homemade chocolate pudding pie that she whips up for dinner at this time each year.

Simple things.

But topping the list would be these two yahoos.

My husband + our daughter.  Love them both up to the moon and back. But what I love most... what I am most thankful for today... is that they are as thick as thieves. They are so close that for a second, I feel jealous.  That passes quickly... and I am reminded of how lucky a girl is to be close to her dad. (I may have been exactly the same way, heehee)

Snapped these pics of the two of them on our way to soccer a week or so ago, and decided to make a layout about them... I'd been wanting to dig into the veneer frames + alphabet since we got them, and those Notions flowers had even ME... a confessed flower-phobe... excited to give it a go.

Just  a few details:

I kind of cringe at 'bulk' on my pages... so I smooshed one of those flowers before using it in the frame. Then i spritzed the wood veneer with a few different colors of Mister Huey's, and rubbed some of the color off with a paper towel before it dried. It kind of acted like a 'stain' this way... love that you can still see the grain of the wood.
Supplies: Stickers - Elementary Label; Mist - Mister Huey's Warm Calico, Schoolhouse, Atmosphere, Sunshine, Cream Calico; Patterned paper - Window Seat Paper, Nibbles paper; Flowers - Notions; Wood Veneer - Alphabet, Frames

Then I got crazy... my curiousity got me.  And I took apart one of those flowers to see what would happen.  SURPRISE!!  They have a beautiful scalloped edge... WHOA!  So i folded one on itself a few times and used it as a border... after spraying it with some Mister Huey's, of course.
 
Hope you take a second to pause and think about gratitude today...

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! 

Emily's Misting Tutorial

Hello, Emily here with a quick and easy tutorial using Mister Huey's and any punched or die cut image. I made a butterfly background for my November Napa Valley gallery using the Making Memories die cut butterflies as masks and three different mists by Studio Calico.

Today I'll show you how to make the same type of background, only using snowflakes instead of butterflies. The look you get depends on the colors you use and how many different layers you decide to do. I did three layers for both the butterfly and snowflake backgrounds, but there's no reason you have to stop at three. Mister Huey's do a beautiful job when you layer them, and masking allows you to get a very subtle effect if you stagger the die cuts/punched images just right. There's no wrong way to do this technique, just play with it until you get the look you want. Here are the products I used: Mister Huey's Warm Calico, Lunch Tray, and Calico White, Martha Stewart punches in Himalayan and Scandinavian, This to That Glue Dot Runner by American Crafts, White Orange Peel Cardstock by Bazzill, and a Studio Calico cardboard box.

To keep the snowflakes in place, I used a small strip of the This to That Adhesive in permanent. I love this adhesive because although it's permanent, you have a bit of wiggle room when reusing a mask.


Attach the snowflakes randomly to the cardstock, making sure some of the snowflakes overlap the edges.

Lightly mist with your first color. I tried this technique a couple of times, first with the Lunch Tray, then with the Warm Calico, just to see if the order I applied the mists mattered in the final product. It doesn't really matter with these three colors. I also adjusted the number of snowflake masks, the first time I used about 20, the second attempt I used 28 masks. It gives you a more complex look the more masks you use.
Carefully lift and reapply the masks, overlap some of the original snowflakes, so you'll still have bits of the original white cardstock showing through after the second layer of misting.

Add your second color of mist. It's really important to LIGHTLY apply the mist. I held the bottle about two feet above the box I was using. The image below shows what it looks like after you start to remove your 2nd round of masks. (I took some of the masks off to photograph.) Remove all your masks, then you'll reapply them as in the last step, making sure to overlap the original images.

The final step is to mist your masks with the Mister Huey's Calico White. You can go a bit heavier with how much mist you use with the white. This step may not appear to do much at first, but as the mist dries, the effect is beautiful. Any place that has the original white cardstock showing will almost glow, and the spots you've had masked for this third layer of misting will be subtle. The image below is after I've removed my 3rd round of masking.
Let it dry fully, then use the background in any manner you'd like. I love the subtle layers the different mists create. It looks like a snowstorm, yet if you look carefully, you can see each layer of misting. It's really a fun technique.

Try it with other die cuts/ punched images, play with your mist colors. I found that doing the white last gave me the most beautiful surprises, but try it in a different order if you'd like. The possibilities are great.

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!

Product Spotlight - Documentary

Documentary has been one of my favorite line from Studio Calico.  I can't believe how versatile this line is - you don't have to travel to be able to use this line.  Imagine the possibilities with the double sided papers, the fabrips, the stickers and more!

Waleska has been amazing - she managed to make the best of the paper collection. See how beautiful her handmade embellishments are, sewing on papers, how clever!

Papers: Studio Calico- Window Seat, Souvenir, Holiday; Tape: American Crafts; Wood Veneer: Studio Calico Quilting bee; Mist: Mister Huey Warm Calico; Buttons: Studio Calico Granny's Cupboard; Stamps: Studio Calico Labels set + alpha Napa Valley

For my layout, I couldn't resist playing with papers and colorful photos AND Mister Huey!


You will be amazed by how colorful Documentary is and if you havent purchased the Line yet, definitely check it out!

Insider Tips: Kimberly Neddo

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a fun idea with masking and making what you have on hand unique even if you’ve used it before.
 
I love to work off of borders and you can use anything you would like, from punches to die cut machines, to cutting knives to create your own personal masking tool.  I used my cricut machine to cut these circles in a row out evenly spaced.  Once I had the circles cut in the cardstock, I popped the circles out to leave the circles open so I could utilize the negative space as my mask. 
 
Since I want to position the template temporarily, I used my MS Glue pen on the back side of my template. One of my favorite things about this pen is how you can use it as a temporary adhesive if you let it dry before placement. I used it as a temporary and this keeps my template where I want it with out it slipping, as well as allowing me to pick it up once I’m done misting or stamping without it damaging the paper underneath.

Now with my template in place, I am ready to start misting inside the circles. I first misted with Mister Huey Calico White, then a little mist of Mister Huey Lunchtray. Keeping the template in place, I then used Studio Calico label stamps. After I finished stamping, I removed the template and began creating the rest of my layout around the misted circle border.  While I’m waiting for the misted circles to dry completely, I’m decided to make something else.
 
Lately I’ve really love the look of decorative tapes… but again, I like to create my own embellishments to add a unique look to my creations. I created this fun decorative tape using simple crepe paper. I stamped over it and cut out the strips and simply attached the tape where I wanted them on my design.


Once the circles that I misted were dry completely, I stitched around the edges for a fun look. This is a simple way to add a little more dimension to your creation. You may also like to try other ways to add dimension by simply drawing around the masked circles, or sew around them…or leave it just as.
Supplies; Patterned Paper - Elementary Show Your Work; Stamps - Studio Calico labels;  Fabrips - Elementary;  Ink - StazOn Black; Adhesive - Martha Stewart Glue Pen; Stickers - Elementary Cardstock Alphabet; Mists - Mister Huey Lunchtray and Mister Huey Calico White

Hope you enjoyed these fun tips!