Two Very Fun People

Today's member spotlight is really a two-for-one bonus. I was going through my CHA photos and when I saw this picture of Em, Barb, and me, I knew what had to be done. WAY back, 3 years ago, when Studio Calico was very new and fresh, I met these two friends on the message board and immediately decided I liked them. They have both been here from the beginning, so I thought it was about time they got the spotlight.

So without further ado, I give you Emily Spahn and Barb Novak! Interspersed between the answers are their top 3 favorite layouts/projects.

1. How did you two meet? How did you become friends? Who joined SC first?

B: We met through a circle journal organized by a friend on Two Peas. That was probably five years ago. We met up about a year later in real life (went out for ice cream) and have been great friends since. Even our husbands are friends now! And, in case you were wondering - neither one of us ever got our circle journal back. :) We both joined SC at about the same time without telling the other (I think) and have been around since the first kit.

Barb

E: We met online probably in 2005?? We were part of a 2peas circle journal (that of course went horribly wrong!!). We met in real life in July of 2006...where thank goodness we discovered that the other was totally normal! ;) We've been friends since then and have had all kinds of fun online and real life adventures! We've even gone on vacation together and our husbands are now friends, too. We have both been at SC since the very beginning, but if you want to get technical, I joined first on 6/13/2007 and Barb joined three days later on 6/16/2007.

2. You've been around SC for a long time, list your top 3 favorite kits ever.

B: In no particular order:
Farm Fresh
Looking Glass
Whodunit

And, I will admit here that I am still hoarding part of Billboard. I just can't bring myself to break it apart and add it to my stash. (me too Barb, me too.)

E: Oh goodness. I don't know! That's really tough. I think my favorite kits were: Billboard (the first ever SC kit), Soda Fountain (June 2009?), and Partly Sunny (June 2010?). But I think this month's kit might be a new favorite...

3. What's your favorite tool or product?

B: Ledger paper
E: Patterned Paper and Kraft cardstock. I could scrap forever with only these two things, I think!!

Emily

4. Give me a quick rundown of how you create. What you start with, how you choose, etc.

B: I start with pictures and then find a sketch or something else to be inspired by. Then, I just play with paper and embellishments until I get it right. I'm an irritating person to scrapbook with because I'm always asking, "How does this look?" or "What about this?" And, I have to be honest and say that I'm a huge scraplifter, too. It's tough for me to make something without being inspired by someone or something else. I do always give credit to my source, though.

E: I almost always start with a specific paper or color scheme. I usually pick this before I even pick a photo. Totally backwards, I know!! I like to use lots of mismatched papers on my layouts, so I will build around either my original paper or the color scheme I chose. So if I know I want some green, I might have six different green papers laying out and choose the one that "fits" best. After it's all put together, I might try to throw a few embellishment on, though I admit that embellishments make me a little scared!

5. List 3 things that make you happy right now.

B: Mad Men, Sleeping late, and Iced lattes with honey.

E: At this very moment?? (Looking around...) Zucchini bread from the Madison Farmer's Market. My new orange bag from Canvas (thanks to Laura Kurz for sharing that store!). And the crabby, but cute little blonde that is pulling on my pants leg as I type this.

Barb

6. Describe your style in 10 words or less. Now describe Em's/Barb's in 10 words or less.

B: I'll would say that Em's style is patterned, colorful, quirky, and fun. I especially love how she mixes patterned paper and uses fonts. For myself, I want to be simple and classic. As much as I love product and paper, I really want to showcase a picture or two and tell a story in a way that is timeless and appealing.

E: My style....easy, fun, kinda simple?? I don't know how to describe my own!! Barb's style is easier for me to define...also semi-simple but with awesome little details. totally cool.

Emily

7. Who has influenced your scrapping style?

B: My first scrap-crush was Becky Higgins. For awhile, I didn't make anything without one of her sketches nearby. From there, I found The Dares and started to be a little less square and symmetrical. Sometime around then, I also found Ali Edwards and wanted to learn how to tell a story. And, at some point I found Shimelle Laine and got interested in making mini-albums. Right now, though, some of my favorites are: Lisa Dickinson, Jill Sprott, Tina Aszmus, and Laura Kurz.

E: My two favorite scrappers of all time are probably Shelly Lamming and Kelli Crowe, which is funny because I don't actually scrap much like either one of them!

8. What keeps you hanging around SC?

B: The people I have gotten to know here, the great kits, and the gallery. I can always find something to look at in the gallery.

E: The fantastic kits, the friendly people, and the great service. :)

Barb

9. What's your favorite vegetable?

B: In the winter I would say broccoli. Right now, though, I'm all about the zucchini.

E: Sqaush? Or creamed corn at Thanksgiving, but that's a starch, I suppose. I think I might be more of a fruit girl.

Emily

10. Which SC line have you loved the most?

B: I'm super excited for Elementary - especially the Penmanship paper.

E: I can't wait to get my hands on the new Elementary line. I love it all!!

Thanks so much ladies, I have had a blast reading your answers and seeing the layouts that top your personal favorites list. I hope you readers have enjoyed getting to know these two members better too. :)

Emily (it's so weird to call her Emily, she's EM), shared this final photo with us, it documents their first IRL meeting. Don't you love being a scrapper!?!

Top Ten Favorites...#5-#10

Ever been curious as to what the most "favorited" layouts of all time are? I'm here to show you numbers 5-10 and Steph will be back on Saturday with the top 5. These layouts have been added to your favorites in the gallery more times than any other layouts. That's a pretty amazing honor, don't you think?! :)

We'll start off with #10 by our very own Waleska! Her fabulous grid design draws you in and who doesn't love a layout made with Yearbook? Definitely an all-time favorite kit!

Paperandglue wowed you with this stunning layout in our #9 spot...she rocked February's Baker's Dozen kit with those sweet punched butterflies.

The fabulous Keisha wins our #8 spot with this gorgeous layout. Her stamping is so subtle but amazing here...

#7 belongs to Chelseavn, who always creates such stunning layouts. What's not to love here...the misting and banners and all the little details are amazing!

Bluestardesign wraps up my part of the countdown in our #6 spot with this beauty. That title with the baker's twine is so creative and fun. Lisa's layouts are always so perfectly done...

Congrats to these five designers for being in our top 10! :) Be sure to check back on Saturday for the top 5!

Bold Member Inspiration

Here are some layouts that caught my eye in the Studio Calico gallery. These members made some bold design decisions, and created some great layouts!

by Ursala

I really like her bold use of that huge feather.
Very brave, and it works!

by Margrethe

I love the bold contrasting colors in this layout.
The black and white, and red and aqua that Margrethe chose catch your eye immediately.

by JenniferSanborn

Jennifer also used color in a bold way.
I love how she chose a bright green and worked it through the whole layout.
YUM YUM!

by Penny

I love the bold titlework in this layout by Penny.
Having the title take up a large amount of room is one great way to make a statement.

by Elise

I love how Elise used a large interesting photo with her title printed right on it to pull you in.
Adding embellishments on top of photos is one of my favorite layout treatments!

by Marit

Another bold use of photos is to cut the focal point out of the background.
This retro treatment hearkens back to the early days of scrapbooking, but Marit makes it work!

granny's cupboard

Partly Sunny shipping notices are showing up in inboxes all over the globe - so I thought we'd give Granny's Cupboard a proper send off. There are so many gorgeous pages in the member gallery and I'm going to share a few with you today. While these pages aren't summer themed, you can use the colors, designs and page ideas as a jumping off point to get your summer photos scrapped.


(by Linda Sobolewski)

I love how Linda used the wave of the scalloped envelope as a guide for her titlework - this design would look beautiful with a series of beach pictures. I could also see photos from an ice cream shop on this page - those colors would be perfect!


(by rmoliverio)

I love this multi photo design - it would work well for recapping a week of your summer, or for an activity where you have more than one photo you want to feature. And the topic? Perfect. Summer isn't all sunny days and running through the sprinkler -go ahead and capture the "but mom, I'm booooooooooooooooooooored" and "but it's too HOT to play outside" moments. They might be frustrating now, but I promise you'll look back at them and laugh (at least, that's what I tell myself! ;)


(by Nora Griffin)

How gorgeous is that masked off tree on Nora's background? It's a perfect accent for her page about family, but when I saw it, it reminded me that I need to get some photos of my littlest guy hanging out in the shade with the other little kids at his big brothers' ball games. It's only natural to head for the shade to rest and recharge on hot days - those quiet moments would make a great photo opportunity.


(by astrid)

This page by Astrid just looks like a sunny day, doesn't it?? Her design is perfect to feature that one great summer photo you've been hoarding - the subtle circle created with the clear buttons really brings the focus to the photograph, and ties all of the main elements together.


(by allieh)

I love the simplicity of Allie's design - it really lets her photo shine. This would be a perfect way to scrap any detail shot of summer - dirty toes, scraped knees, popsicle covered faces, wrinkle-y fingers after being in the pool too long.


(by qingmei)

I love the side by side photos here, and how Geralyn uses photographs from the same place at different times. This would work well for a this summer / last summer page - I'd love to do one of my littlest then and now on the swing. It would also work well for first day / last day of school photos, or for showing growth in your garden.


(by reeni)
I adore how this page records a new summer tradition - it has me making a list of our usual summertime traditions so that I can get them onto pages. What sorts of things do you do in the summer that you don't do other times? My boys and I love to take advantage of the lunch specials at the pizza place on our corner - something we can't do during the school year.

There's still a couple days left to make a page for our summer challenge - I hope this has inspired you to get scrapping!

Member Spotlight

For this weeks member spotlight I chose Miss Rita. You can find her on the world wide web on her weblog Here's the Story and on the Studio Calico message board under the pseudonym rmoliverio. I chose Miss Rita from among the many wonderful Studio Calico members because I possess information about her that the rest of you ladies may not know. I know that she is a world class scraplifter!

I know that Miss Rita scraplifts in different ways. Some days she will just take an idea from a layout she sees and make it her own, and other days she will copy most of the layout. Rita chooses not to upload her layouts that she copies exactly, but I was able to obtain a few of them as evidence. I will also share a few of her inspired by layouts and original pieces.

What I love about Miss Rita is that not only is she an amazing artist in her own rite, but she also knows when to successfully use others ideas to quickly create some wonderful layouts with her own photos and journaling.

First though, I asked Miss Rita a few pressing questions:

1. What 3 items can you not live without?

My daily latte, cell phone and DVR. I'm cranky without my morning coffee and I can't remember the last time I watched a show live with commercials! For scrapping, it would be patterned paper, tiny alphas, and my exacto knife. I love using my exacto knife to cut out bits from my favorite patterned papers to use as embellishments.

2. What are your thoughts on scraplifting?

My approach to scraplifting has changed over the years. When I first started scrapbooking, almost all of my pages were lifted from a magazine or sketch book. It was a great way to try a lot of different techniques and styles without the fear of messing up. As I have become more immersed in this hobby, I have come to love the creative process as much as the finished product. There is something about pushing around the papers and embellishments on my desk and coming up with something I love on my own that just makes me happy. I know my creativity ebbs and flows, and scraplifting is a great way to get the creative process flowing when I'm in need of some inspiration. Sometimes it is just a little detail, and sometimes it is the whole layout. When I scrap at home, I am relaxed and it doesn't matter if it takes me one night or a whole week to feel like my page is complete. I tend to scraplift more when I'm scrapping away from home because I have this irrational fear of wasting my precious scrapping time, lol. I love knowing I can pull out my SC kit, my favorite DT layouts from the gallery and get to scrapping with my friends!

3. What's your favorite Studio Calico kit?

That's a toss up between Whodunit and Baker's Dozen, for very different reasons. Whodunit got me excited to create again after the busy holiday season. It seemed like those layouts just fell together perfectly. I love the colors and patterns in that kit! For Baker's Dozen, it was all about the embellishments! I loved the doilies and AC frames and made some of my very favorite layouts with that kit.

4. What are you listening to right now?

I'm old school all the way and mainly listen to the radio. My DH got me a Zune two years ago for Christmas and it still has the original songs he downloaded on it, lol. Wouldn't that playlist make a great scrapbook page? Some of my favorites right now are One Republic and Kings of Leon.

5. Any guilty pleasures?

Watching whole seasons of TV shows on Netflix. I'm addicted to the instant streaming feature and am watching the old seasons of Bones right now, one of my favorite shows. I caught a few episodes that I missed the first time around. I just added Buffy the Vampire Slayer to my instant queue...should that embarrass me?

6. Choose a layout that best represents you as a scrapbooker.

Here are 2 of Rita's CASE (or in her case, CASA(almost)

Rita used Jenn O's "perfect mix" for this gorgeous photo of her little sweetie. I love how she added a few pieces that personalized her work, but her basic layout replicates Jenn's design.

This layout is a CASE of Kelly N's "yard work." I love the addition of the Dear Lizzy chick that matched her title instead of a butterfly.

This layout "Preschool" was inspired by Lisa T's "eight" Rita liked how Lisa used the striped paper and recreated that feel on her own layout.

Rita used a few of the elements of Kimmithy's "The Fair" as inspiration in her "Circus" layout. She loves the way Kimmithy did her title, and felt like it went well with her theme. She also included several other elements from Kimmi's layout. When you look at the next to each other it is obvious that Rita was inspired by "The Fair," but "Circus" could also stand alone.

These last two are some of my favorites from Rita's gallery at Studio Calico.

This layout was for some of the NSD challenges at Studio Calico. I LOVE the color scheme and the white space. The textured cardstock with the bit of inking is fabulous too.

This last one has great colors too! I love the cutie photo of her oldest son, and how she cut out the stamped letters for her title!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this short journey through Miss Rita's gallery. She has a LOT of layouts posted, so you should go and wander through her layouts. They are pretty awesome!

How Shall We Be Inspired?

“To do exactly as your neighbors do is the only sensible rule.”

--Emily Post

Well hello good friends! Miss Emily here, thrilled to be hosting the blog today.

Today we will discuss various aspects of scraplifting. As Miss Joy mentioned yesterday, there are MANY ways to scraplift someone, but only ONE right way to credit your inspiration. Please, dear ladies, if you do scraplift someone, in ANY way, shape, or form, always give credit to your inspiration. And if luck would have it such, and you do not remember for the very life of you, please say something to the effect of, "I was inspired by someone and cannot for the very life of me remember who that might have been." At least you'd be acknowledging your idea was not your own.

This can be a sensitive issue. Neither Miss Joy nor I claim to be an expert, we've just been around for a while. Here's what we've concluded though:

• Scraplifting is great for trying out new ideas.
• If you don't feel comfortable sharing your scraplift online without giving credit to your inspiration, keep it to yourself. That's perfectly OK.
  
• I submit and do assignments for magazines. Personally, I don't think it's right to submit anything that I've KNOWINGLY lifted a design from. I think elements, techniques, and color schemes are different. There was one time I had a layout that fit a call exactly and my layout was really different, but I'd gotten the idea from a layout by Shannon Taylor. I emailed her to be sure she wouldn't mind if I submitted. There wasn't an issue, the layout didn't get picked up. I've had others do the same for layouts I did that inspired them. I appreciate knowing this before I see something in a magazine that could have been inspired by my work. I know I didn't come up with the idea, but I appreciate someone acknowledging their work was inspired by me. There's a gray area for sketches, I'm really not sure what the rules are. I talked to Kelly Purkey about this exact thing, she said she was fine if I submitted a layout based on one of her sketches. Asking is always the best policy I believe, especially if you could benefit financially from that inspiration.
  
• Always give credit to your inspiration piece. The first piece I ever scraplifted and posted in my gallery at Two Peas I attributed to "a Vicki Boutin." What fun it was to show it to her years later! She got a kick out of it, and I was relieved that I'd credited her way back when!
  

There really are no original ideas, but it sure is nice if you were inspired by someone or something to point the viewer in their general direction. Here is where I must post one of my favorite quotes about inspiration:


Now I must blush here and admit, I do not have a source for this lovely little piece of artwork. I pulled this off the web prior to my days of crediting correctly. Will you forgive me dear reader? I hope that is the case!

Some of the many ways you can scraplift include:

• CASE (copy and steal exactly)
• technique
• design
• use of a particular element
  
• color scheme
• title
  
• journaling
• topic
• photo angle
• creator's style
• photo placement
• journaling style
• product choice
  

To illustrate some of these ways, I asked a few members of Studio Calico to help me out. Our first example comes from the British Isles. AllieH has a lovely minimalist style and it tickled my fancy to ask her to look for a TECHNIQUE to scraplift. She went on the hunt and discovered this layout in the gallery of Donna (dmbd). She admired the color scheme as well as the all the fun little bits that Donna always adds, but in the end, it was the way Donna had cropped her photo in a circle that led Allie to choose that particular technique to lift. Now cropping your photo in a circle is not something Donna made up, but the way she did it on this particular layout spoke to Allie, who was then inspired to do the same technique on her layout, so she's going to give Donna the credit she deserves for the inspiration. Allie comments that she will definitely try new techniques because of this challenge. Thank you Allie for such a lovely example of technique lifting.



My next example comes from the wide open plains of the Midwestern United States. I asked Kelly (baylorgrad) if she would lift a specific ELEMENT from another member's layout. She fell in love with the look of this layout by our own DT member, Ms. Stephanie Howell. The element she chose was the photo. She found the printing of your photo directly onto textured cardstock to be rather intriguing. So she did just that. She played around with the idea, settling on a larger photo, just like Stephanie's, added minimal embellishments, and let the photo do the talking. She said that this lift forced her to think outside the box, and she ended up with a gorgeous layout. Is Stephanie the first person to ever print a photo directly onto cardstock? No, but what Steph did sparked an idea in Kelly's head, so by giving Stephanie credit for that particular inspiration, she's made Steph's day. Being scraplifted is a huge compliment.


Jen from Down Under played right into my hands for the next example. She'd commented on this layout I'd done for NSD, saying, "Oh I LOVE this Emily! I think I saw it over at the Crate Paper blog? I fell head over heels when I saw it and now I must lift it ;) love, love, love!" How could I resist asking her to do just that? So gentle readers, Jen's lift is an example of DESIGN lifting. Note how she kept the design quite similar, three photos in a row, title to the lower left of the row. She however made it very much her own by changing up the floral element a bit, adding tabs, journaling down the right side of the photos, a tag as the base of her title, and some fun swirls of baker's twine, to name just a few of her adaptations.



Now I, as the original creator, must not claim credit either. I used this sketch by the talented Becky Fleck, which she created for the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog, as my inspiration piece:

There was something in my original layout that appealed to Jen, but she made it very much her own, and when posting this layout to any gallery, giving credit for the inspiration would something like this, "I was inspired by Emily's layout, which was based off a sketch by Becky Fleck, who created her sketch for the Scrapbook and Cards Today NSD challenge." Yes, dear readers, it can be a bit tricky giving credit where credit is due, but it makes those credited so very grateful.

My final example comes from France, where Francine (scrappyfran) was asked to pick a layout that inspired her color selections. I am fully aware, kind friends, that this is not the first time blue and yellow have been paired together. HOWEVER, if you see a layout that has a rather elegant pairing of colors and that inspires you to create your own, please, share the inspiration piece as a courtesy. Francine's inspiration comes from this lovely layout by ania-maria. Francine picked this particular color scheme because she said it reminded her of Spring and Summer and just made her feel happy. She notes that she normally doesn't use the blue/yellow combination, but the color combination works smashingly well in both layouts. Since doing this lift, Francine has decided that she'll try using color schemes that she wouldn't normally gravitate toward. And she also found out that she enjoyed matching the color scheme of the photo, something that she normally doesn't do. In the end, the two layouts look nothing alike, but it would be proper for Francine to acknowledge the color inspiration.

It is with much gratitude that I end this post. I appreciate the examples these fine members have created of scraplifting. I end with a quote from Jen, I love how she put it, I couldn't say it any better:

In general, I don't like doing lifts. I feel like I'm cheating, which I know is ridiculous! But as I was working on this page I was subconsciously thinking of other layouts I have in mind which would work great with this design! When I'm doing a layout I feel like so much of my time is wasted on trying to come up with a design I'm happy with, it's really the hardest part of scrapping for me. Lifting really is a time saver, giving me more time for more layouts!

So scraplift away, and please, cite your sources!

"Leftovers" Challenge Winner!

the random winner of this week's "Leftover's" challenge...

and a $5 Studio Calico gift card is.....

.........

.................

.......................Geralyn!!!!

with this stunning layout that she created for Nic's old photo challenge!

congrats Geralyn...

Please send an email to info@studiocalico.com with the following information:

• Name
• Contest: Sunday Sketch
• Prize: $5 Studio Calico Gift Card

:)

NSD Challenge favorites!

Since this week's challenge is a "leftovers" NSD-themed challenge (see here!), I thought I'd take the chance today to revisit some of my favorite member gallery projects that were entered into Saturday's round of challenge contests...

Here they are!!!

I can't get past how FABULOUS these layered flowers are - that abbsparks created for this layout - for Kimmi's NSD layered flower challenge...

And I absolutely LOVE how allieH made just FIVE PRODUCTS so "minimally-chic" on this adorable layout for Kelly's 5 product challenge...

And how about this amazing layout by milkcan for Sasha's white space challenge... The series of color coordinated circle cutouts/punches is so fabulously fresh!!!

Finally, how sweet is this layout about her mom, by qingmei... for Joy's "Scrap your momma" challenge! And I adore the ultra hip grey/yellow/aqua color scheme!

Can't wait to see everyone's second-chance takes on the array of NSD challenges for this week's "Leftovers" challenge!!!

:)

-Susan