Insider Tips - use stamps for your title

Hello everyone!

I made a special layout for today's insider tips - I couldn't resist using my left over products from my Elk Lake & Adirondack add-ons :) I just LOVED playing with these two add-on kits, not only they match perfectly with my Main Kit, but the colors are exactly what I'm craving for at the moment :)

Here are a layout for my two of my best friends, a special gift for them : Amelie is an excellent cooker and Ben simply ADORES food :)

For this layout I used :

Elk Lake & Adirondack add-ons
Stamps : Tweets, Sewing Machine Set, Months stamps, Noah alphas
Raspberry Maya Mist
Punches : Bubbles border, Double Embossed Dotter Lace border , Photo Labels punch, Royal Butterfly
Foam squares


For my title, I simply combined one of Jenni Bowlin's journaling tags, the Months stamp and Noah alpha stamps to make my title : simply use different fonts, different ink colors, different elements to make a unique and urban background.
Feel free to mount one of the stamps with foam squares in order to add dimension to your layout.



Here I first stamped my label stamps that I got in a previous kit (available soon at the shop) that PERFECTLY matches my Photo Labels punch - could it be even more perfect?! So that means : you need to order that punch and then order the stamp soon available :)


Thank you and I'll share a layout I made inspired by Sasha on Saturday :D
Take care!
c

insider tips : faux washi tape

Happy Thursday, everyone! This week is flying by for me. Today, I want to share some faux washi tape inspiration with you. I love the look of washi tape, but have never been able to pick just which colors or patterns to get - and buying rolls adds up quickly! I've experimented with making my own with masking tape, mist and stamps, but was never happy with the results. Earlier this week, I came across this tutorial for making it using fabric tape that you find in the first aid aisle. The tutorial uses watercolor paint to color the tape, but I wanted to see if I could make it work with mist - and it did!

I found that the best way to get even color was to brush my tape with water first. I love this brush set - they are priced well and the brushes hold up beautifully over time. You can use the tape full size or cut it to a smaller width - I had no problem using my paper trimmer to cut it.



Next, I sprayed the tape with mist. I used hydrangea on this piece. After I misted, I used my paint brush again to spread the mist evenly. You could also leave it as is, and get a more of a gradient color wash - the point closest to where you sprayed would be the darkest, and it would fade from there. If your color is too dark, blot it with a paper towel and you can remove some of the mist. If you're happy with the color it's time to let it dry. It took about twenty minutes for my tape to dry completely, but if you're in a hurry, I'm sure a heat gun would speed up the process!

Now comes the fun part - adding patterns with stamps. The sky's the limit here - you can go for a tone on tone look, or experiment with something a little more bold. After I stamped, I used my tapes on a quick card - and of course I had to keep with our travel theme for the week. =)



(supply list : vanilla cardstock, jetset pp, window seat pp, girl's paperie pp from the july kit, hydrangea mist, lemon mist, charcoal mist, tumbled glass ink, mustard seed ink, journaling lines stamp, tweets stamps, tiny attacher, bumpy road border punch, foam adhesive, shipping tag, fiskars heart and circle punches, typewriter)

The best part of this? The roll of fabric tape cost me $2.79 - I had everything else on hand. Now I can have tape that matches any project for a fraction of what washi tape would cost. I can't wait to experiment more with this technique.

tutorial : building a mini

Hi all!! I'm here tonight with a tutorial on how I made the mini album in my Continental gallery. I've been holding these Fuji Instax Mini pics from our February trip to Kansas City, just waiting until the right kit came along. As soon as I saw this Making Memories packaging in the Magellan add-on, I knew it would make a perfect cover. The packaging had more of a faux suitcase shape, but I opted to trim it down into a rectangle. I then backed the opening in the front with a transparency and added a couple die cuts and Basic Grey studs to the outside.



Next, I spent some time thinking about how I wanted to construct the inside of the album. Since I was dealing with original photos, I wanted them to be protected - but I needed to keep the pages on a fairly small scale so they'd fit within the cover. Once I came across these divided page protectors (we keep them on hand for the boys' baseball and Pokemon cards), I know I could turn it into individual pages.



I began by cutting the page protector with my trimmer - I left one row of pockets intact, cutting about 1/2in beyond the dividing line. I repeated the cut on the other side of the middle row, which left me with two strips of three pockets. I then cut those strips into three pockets each - one divided page protector will give you six mini album pages.



My next step was to cut three pieces of kraft cardstock to 4x5inches. I scored them 1/2in from the edge and then added one to the back side of my album cover. I then used a hole punch to punch two holes through both the kraft cardstock and the cover.



Using the punched cardstock as my guide, I punched each of my page protectors as well as the two remaining pieces of kraft cardstock.



Since I knew the title page would show through the window in the front of the book, I laid it in place inside the album as I worked on it, and made sure to shut the album to see how it all looked before I stuck everything down! Once I'd finished, I wanted to hide the backs of the staples from my tiny attacher and the stitching, so I layered a second piece of kraft cardstock behind it. If you have additional journaling you'd like to add to your book, both the back of the title page and the back page of the album would be perfect - just stamp some journaling lines and write away!



Now came the fun part - working on the pages! I cut kraft cardstock to the same size as my Instax Mini pics and built from there. Each page got a label stamp stamped with pumice stone ink and punched out with my photo label punch, and a mix of products from the kit.



To bind the album, I simply stacked up all of my pages and threaded a length of twine through the two holes. I looped it around three times and then tied it off at the back of the album.



My boys have enjoyed flipping through this album - the size is perfect for little hands!!

Partly Sunny Favorites

I completely forgot that I was supposed to blog yesterday. I'm really sorry. I went hiking in Boulder with the family then we had friends over for swimming and kabobs. It was a delightful day, completely void of any thought that I had a job to do! So I hope that perusal through the Partly Sunny gallery will make up for it. :)

Also I'd like announce the winner of Sasha's rub on challenge, it's Rimna! Please send your information to info@studiocalico.dom stating you're the winner of Sasha's Rub on Challenge for the week of May 24. Congrats! Here's her layout:


And now the DT gallery favorites, through my eyes. I decided to go backward through the gallery this time. So enjoy!

I had a hard time picking a favorite from Waleska's gallery this month, they were all fun and happy, but I think this one won because of the banner. I love how she stamped underneath it and then added the fabric swatches over top. And those faces? How could you not smile at them?

Not Tina's typical style, but it is totally fitting for the topic she journaled about here. I think that's why I love it. Her journaling is absolute joy on paper. Everything on this page has a reason of being there. Love how she chose her title too, it's a fun way to use the strip.
I wanted to pick Airplane Alert for my favorite, just because I loved it in Susan's sneaks, but come on, how can you not laugh and smile at that picture? I thing Susan's happy selection of papers and embellishment perfectly highlight an adorable baby. :)

I love the way Steph W. captures her 6 years with her sweetie. A fun way to look at things that can seem so day to day. I love hwo she used the MM flowers, the perfect little touches to a beautiful layout. And the paint and stamping balance so nicely with the K&Co paper lace, pretty.
Hee hee, Steph H. made this before she knew about twins and I think that's part of the reason this one is my favorite this month. I just LOVE the stamped starbursts around the circles, brilliant, but the journaling is the best part. Well, that and how she turned the 8 into an S. Um, cool.

I love how Sasha took a couple of different papers and used bits and pieces of them to compliment the Jenni Bowlin Coredinations paper. What a fun finishing touch to add the stitching. I love the "Impossible Nothing" she added with the MS punches. Very cool.

By no means is this kind of layout unique. Lots of scrappers have captured whole season on a page before, but the way Nicole S. has designed this one is so beautiful. Her strips of paper between the photos and the center so nice and clean allow the photos to shine.
This one by Nicole H makes me giggle for a couple of reasons. First, I'm at the bottom of the technology latter as far as it comes to phones. And I know when I some day convert as she has, I'll be the EXACT SAME WAY. Secondly, it's green. Could that be any more perfect? I also LOVE the look of the bubbles punched cardstock over the striped MME paper from Front Porch. Lovely.

Bright colors popping against the fun Cosmo Coredinations is one of the things that I loved about this layout, but then I noticed the green stitching and that won me over Maggie!

See how easy it is to bring momentos from your life into your scrapping? I adore how Lisa used the tag from her son's birthday/mother's day trip to a cupcake shop in her layout. It's front and center, but doesn't take away from the fabulous photos. Great way to use that stamp too!

I love how Laura can capture so much in such few supplies. Her stitching and type always pull me in to study. and then she does the cute little heart over the top of the yellow and it just makes me smile.


Yep, I was right. I knew I'd love this one by Kelly. The colors just POP on the dark cardstock and combined with those hilarious pictures of Brady, well this one went into my favorites pile pretty quickly. I love how Kelly used the banner stamp too.
Although she had a bunch of masterful layouts in her gallery this month, I REALLY LIKE Joy's idea. Pre-make a summer fun album and fill it in as you go. What a clever idea for capturing your summer before it slips away. You can tell this is a momma who's good at planning ahead. Since summer officially starts for me this weekend, I'd love to slap something together, now i have a template to copy. :)
Always one for her happy combinations of paper and color, Jenn did not disappoint this month. I love how sh used the cloud paper tucked into all her strips of color to represent a rainbow. Beautiful!

I knew when I saw her sneaks I'd like this layout. I was even more pleasantly surprised! the way Davinie brought in the fabric swatches with the Jillibean flowers from Front Porch makes this layout sing of summer.
Celine's album was so beautifully put together, I really loved how she combined the green/yellow/browns in the kit and made a fun album about her friends.
This alphabet set was the reason I bought Front Porch as my add on this month. I love how April took hers a step up and colored them. It's absolute genius! And what a fun look at her 9 years of marriage, congrats April and Greg!
Finally we come to Mou Saha's gallery. I love Mou's style, probably because we're both inot handwriting your journaling. It always pulls me in on her pages. I love the perspective on this photo, and the planes are just fun.

member spotlight : qingmei

Happy Friday, all!! I'm super excited to sspotlight one of our members today - the lovely and talented Geralyn! She goes by qingmei on the message board and I'm sure you've noticed her beautiful pages in our gallery. Geralyn's work shows a wonderful sense of color and design, and I can't wait to share a little more about her with you all.

1. What 3 items can you not live without?

Studio Calico alpha stamps (particularly the Carter & Storytime alphas).
Label stickers.
Border punches.

2. What's inspiring you right now?

These days, I find a lot of inspiration from browsing through tumblr or design blogs (one of my favorites is http://ohjoy.blogs.com/). I also get inspiration from JCrew and Anthropologie catalogues. If I ever feel like I'm stuck, the amazing DT gallery at SC never fails at inspiring me; I love browsing through the past galleries as well.

3. What's your favorite Studio Calico kit?

Joyland - I love the color palette and the mix of papers, alphas and embellishments is perfect. I find that my layouts with Joyland are coming together pretty quickly because I love the combination of supplies so much.

4. What are you listening to right now?

Hmmm...The Fray, Jack's Mannequin, Joshua Radin, Matt Nathanson, Explosions in the Sky, and Voxtrot. Oh, and songs from Glee!

5. Any guilty pleasures?
CW's The Vampire Diaries. I thought it was a silly show, but my sister got me into it at the beginning of this year and now I find myself anticipating the newest episode each week :)

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

Hmm, I don't really know how to define my 'style', but perhaps this layout:



I picked this layout because it shows that I scrapbook 8.5x11 pages (I'm more comfortable with the smaller size than 12x12). I feel that my layout designs are pretty neat/clean, but I love adding details and embellishments. Oh, and I always handwrite my journaling! :)

Here are a couple more examples of Geralyn's work:


How fun are those fisheye pics?? i love the added patterned paper borders on two of her photos, and titlework here is perfect.


More beautiful titlework on this page - and I absolutely love the misted background and all of the little bits sprinkled around the page.

I hope you enjoyed this inspiration - please stop by Geralyn's gallery for even more gorgeous projects! If you have any questions for her, please ask away - I'm sure she'd be happy to answer.

insider tips : from inspiration to finished page

On Tuesday, I shared a few inspiration pieces with you. Today, I thought I'd show you how I used those ideas on a page.



I started with this piece as my main inspiration. I loved the way the hexagons were scattered on the background, and wanted to use a similar design on my page. I cut one hexagon from the Studio Calico exlcusive paper in Granny's Cupboard, and then used it as a pattern to cut more from other patterned papers from Anthology and Granny's Cupboard.



I played around with the placement of the hexagons and drew in where I wanted to add stitching, stamped journaling lines and some border punched paper. I use this trick a lot - once you stitch and stamp, there's no going back! This gives me a better way to visualize how it will look once I've added those elements. Once I'm happy with the basic design, I usually snap a quick photo. Because if I'm going to add stitching to the background I've got to go back to the beginning.



Yep. Everything came off the kraft cardstock. I added the strips of red at the top and bottom and stitched around my border, then added the graph patterned fabrip and the blue punched paper and did some zigzag stitching. I also stamped the journaling lines in pumice stone down in the bottom corner.



Then I need that photo that I snapped so I remember how to put it all back together! I added a few more hexagons and another fabrip to the page, and the stitched them all in place. The American Crafts glitter brads from Linens and Lace were the perfect accent to my small punched circles. At this point, if at all possible, I walk away from the page for a while. It's almost done, but I know it needs some finishing touches.



The next morning, I added the tab at the top of the photo (it's a sticker from the Anthology Labels - I punched a few hearts in it and backed it with the grey Aperture paper), the layered accent at the bottom right of the photo (that space just felt empty to me - I layered a piece of October Afternoon Thrift Shop paper punched with my Fiskars L Seal of Approval punch with a stickers from October Afternoon and Anthology, and then topped it with chipboard hearts). I also added a couple more small chipboard hearts tucked in with the other elements on the page. I added my journaling and did some stapling with my tiny attacher to finish the page.



I used some of the other ideas from the original inspiration post - the circles within the hexagons and planning my cuts around an element in the patterned paper. These ideas helped make my groupings more interesting than if it had all just been patterned paper.

So that's a little peek into my creative process - let me know if you have any questions! =)

Tutorial: Fabric Envelopes!

Hi everyone! Susan here today, with a tutorial on how to make the fabric envelope pictured above. :)

I love to use leftover fabric odds & ends in different ways, and this envelope is one of the easiest ways to make a hand-crafted card even more special...

Start by selecting a fabric that coordinates with your card...


I like to use Fiskars Pinking Shears to trim the edges of the material for my card envelope. I find that the pinking edge holds up much better when leaving a raw edge on the envelope - as is the case here.

These scissors are definitely an "investment" - but trust me, they are well worth the price. They will last you a lifetime if cared for correctly, and are one of my "go-to" sewing tools that I use on a constant basis. (I also love using them to deco-trim the edges of fabric that I incorporate on paper projects like scrapbook pages and cards!)

As an example of size, for my 5x4 inch card here, I trimmed a 7.5x20 inch piece of fabric. >> You want your fabric piece to be slightly wider than your card, and at least 4x as long as your card's width.


Now start to make the iron press/crease marks to guide the shape of your envelope:

Use an iron to fold in the edge of one short end and press to crease. Fold in approx 1 inch.


Continue folding upwards, then press to crease to create main "pocket" portion of the envelope.


Fold leftover top flap down and press with iron to crease along top. (Body of envelope is now formed.)


Machine stitch with 1/4 inch inseam & straight stitch along top of front pocket panel.


Pin sides together to hold in place.


Then machine stitch with approx 1/4 inch inseam & straight stitch each of four sides.


Congratulations, you have a fabric envelope! :)


Take it a step further and choose ribbon or lace or pom pom trim and machine stitch that along the envelopes flap. I choose a scalloped velvet trim.


What's nice about giving someone a card in a fabric envelope, is that the "envelope" can then be reused for years to come!


:)
-Susan