October 3, 2010

the SC blog has a new home!

Please visit us at our new blog:

http://studiocalico.typepad.com

If you're here looking for the winners of the Reveal Night Giveaway, they're posted here.

October 2, 2010



The layout of the week is brought to you by Jill Sprott (JillS).
Each week, the layout in the gallery is linked, so you can add it to your favorites easily.


This layout has been added to your favorites more than any other layout in the SC community gallery for the week of 9/26-10/1.

Congratulations Jill! Because of this you have won a $10 gift card to be used on any new purchase at Studio Calico.

Want a chance to win next week? Be sure to upload your projects to the SC gallery, and support your community by adding special projects that catch your eye into your favorites! It could be YOU next week!



October 1, 2010

Gallery Spotlights...

I don't get nearly enough time to spend in the gallery each day and my goodness, there are some really amazing layouts there this week and always. I've chosen a few favorites to share here....

This layout by poki is outstanding! I'm totally digging the pops of red, the woodgrain background and all the great little bits here...
Lisa never disappoints...her layouts are always so perfectly designed. Check out the fun way she stamped this background with the journal lines stamp!
This layout caught my eye right away. Love the tiny photos and the colors are so fun!
Penny knocked this one out of the park...the design is just perfect and I love the way her journaling strips follow the shape of her flower.
Have a great weekend everyone!! :)

Insider Tips: Misting

I have a secret to tell you. I'm a little bit scared of misting. Ok. A lot scared of misting.

See, I like things that I can easily undo. Like pulling letter stickers up once I've laid them down or re-punching a shape. But then a man entered my life. His name is Mister Huey. And he was all pretty and the other girls talked him up like he was the hottest stud. So I had to try him out.
My misting adventure started when I couldn't cut up the American Crafts lace paper from On the Easel because it was too pretty. A lightbulb went off in my head to use it as a mask so that it could stay intact.

First I gchatted Lisa and asked her oh, eighty questions. She told me to line a big box with newspaper and to set my cardstock down inside. She also advised to make sure to lightly adhere down the edges and the center so it doesn't slip around. I love a good tone on tone page, so I picked out the Applejack Mister Huey. I want to try more tone on tone misting in the future - it's such a fun look. After giving it a good spritz I let it dry for a couple minutes and then viola! I have a completely masked background.
It turned out to be so easy and not only did I have a misted background for my page, but I could also use the lace paper as a mask again and still use the lace paper on my layout (cut up if I dared!) So even a 'fraidy cat mist-er can easily do a little masking + misting... hope you'll give it a try!

September 29, 2010

Fashion Inspired Layout

Happy almost Thursday! :) Kelly N here with my fashion inspired layout. When I saw Kelly P's post yesterday, I was instantly inspired by the ruffle neckline on this shirt. I knew right away I wanted to try something similar on my layout.
Being the Mama to 2 boys, I knew the purple wouldn't work ;), but I thought I could pull off the "ruffle" look without it being too girly. I used my circle punch to punch a bunch of circles from various Elementary papers. Then, I simply layered the punches along the edge of the Window Seat paper from Documentary. Super simple to do and it's a really fun look. To make my fashion inspired page less girly, I added some masculine elements like buttons and an arrow. I added in the Sass banner and border stickers from the En Plein Air add-on along with bits of the Sass paper to finish the layout. Also, using more traditionally masculine colors lends a boy-ish feel to my page.

Don't forget to link your fashion inspired layouts to this thread on the message board! We can't wait to see what you come up with! :)

September 28, 2010

Fashion Inspiration

Hi everyone, it's Kelly Purkey here! When Kelly Noel + I were brainstorming up themes for our blog week, I knew we'd be perfect for a fashion inspiration week since we're both girls that love to shop. I wanted to share some fashion inspiration today from a couple of my favorite sources.

I love the GAP website because their lines often have bright colors and fun combinations. I found this cute little boy's sweater... I never would have thought to put grey in with orange + brown but it looks fabulous.I also really liked the homepage for GAP. I could see a cool design for a page using this as inspiration. Maybe frames made from the polaroid stamp in the On the Easel kit!

I also found this cute top on the Banana Republic site (don't you love how easily they're all linked at the top of the GAP/ON/Banana websites?!!) and thought it would be a fun idea for layered punched circles.One of my favorite places to shop is J.Crew and they always inspire me with the color combinations they come up with. I loved this green, tan, dark grey, and light blue combo... it would be perfect for some winter photos.
I found this page in a recent J.Crew catalog and the colors that they listed for the coat caught my eye.
I whipped up a quick page using a dark green, dark blue, taupe, dark orange, and plum inspired by the colors listed...
Hope this gives you some ideas for finding and using fashion inspiration. Can't wait to see what you all come up with for the challenge!

Challenge: Fashion Inspired

Good morning! I meant to post this challenge yesterday, but got caught up in all the reveal excitement last night and forgot. My apologies! :) KP and I are hosting the blog this week. Since fall is here and all the fall fashions are popping up in the stores, our challenge to you this week is to create a layout/project inspired by fall fashion. Think fall colors, ruffles, stitching, etc. I'll play along too and post my layout later this week.

We'll choose a winner on Sunday night, so be sure to link your layouts to this thread for your chance to win a $5 SC gift code to the shop. We can't wait to see what you make!

September 26, 2010

Tutorial: Misted Flower Headband


Hello SC friends! Kelly N here to show you a quick little headband I made this weekend. It's super fast and easy and now I'm so hooked on making them, I might have to go buy some more headbands.

I used some of this new white flowery American Crafts ribbon (Maya Road makes a similar ribbon that would also work well). To start, I cut 3 flowers from the ribbon, trimming away the excess.
This is what the flowers will look like once you've cut them from the ribbon...
Next, I used mist to color the flowers. Super quick and the mist dries so fast, which I love, because I'm an instant gratification kind of girl! I used turquoise, purple and the Dark Calico Mister Huey for mine, but with so many different color mists in the shop, you could come up with all sorts of fun color combos.
Here's what they look like all misted....
Now, take a piece of cardstock punched into a circle (felt would work better for this, but I didn't have any...you should use felt!). Put some glue onto your circle...
Stick all the flowers down onto the circle, add a fun button/brad in the center to finish it off and then simply glue it onto a plain headband and voila, you've got yourself a snazzy headband!


I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial...be sure to show us if you make one of your own. Enjoy the reveal tomorrow night and have a great week everyone! :)

September 25, 2010

Layout of the Week


The layout of the week is brought to you by Geralyn Sy (Qingmei), using the Back 40 kit. Geralyn also added the Addy Alphabet stamps available in the shop on 9/27.
Each week, the layout in the gallery is linked, so you can add it to your favorites easily.


This layout has been added to your favorites more than any other layout in the SC community gallery for the week of 9/19-9/25.

Congratulations Geralyn! Because of this you have won a $10 gift card to be used on any new purchase at Studio Calico.

Want a chance to win next week? Be sure to upload your projects to the SC gallery, and support your community by adding special projects that catch your eye into your favorites! It could be YOU next week!



Sunday Sketch


Here's a challenging sketch this week inspired by Susan Weinroth's "Remembered" layout. This sketch is perfect for documenting LOTS of photos, but feel free to include memorabilia, embellishments, patterned paper, or whatever your heart desires in all the nooks and crannies of this layout.

Oh, and if you'd like to modify it to be a one page layout, that's fine too. Whatever you do, have fun and play!

Now it's your turn! Make this sketch your own and link your layout to this post no later than Saturday for a chance to win one of two Studio Calico gift cards!