Studio Calico

After Christmas Shopping

| cristina
Have you heard that there is an end-of-year sale going on at Studio Calico right now (through the 31st)? Select products and mystery kits are discounted, plus you can get an additional 40% off with the code YEAREND40. And, domestic shoppers get free shipping if they spend $15+! (Note: this is a one-time use code so make sure you stock up your cart with everything you want before checking out!)
*Free shipping for economy domestic orders only that are $15 or more post sales discount. Offer ends 12/31/15 at 11:59pm EST. Not valid on previous purchases. Must enter promo code at checkout. Refunds will not be issued for misused or non-entered codes.
Well, so, even though Christmas was yesterday and I certainly got spoiled already, I couldn’t pass up on these deals. Here is what I picked up:
Fuse Tool Double-Sided Leather Traveler’s Notebook 4″x6″ Notebooks Screenprint kit
Mystery Kit Ruled Notebook Block Alpha Gold Foil Labels

The mystery kits are an awesome deal! I picked up 3.
I am also super excited to have picked up some things that had been in my wish list forever – the Heidi Swapp screen print kit and the WRMK alpha.
They also have an awesome deal on the Minc so I also picked up some foil!
Finally, I am really excited to have picked up the Fuse tool! It will come in super handy to customize pockets in my Project Life album!
Happy shopping!

This post contains some affiliate links. If you click on any of these affiliate links and make a purchase, then I happily receive a small commission. Thank you for your support! I purchased all the products you see and am happy to share what I make with them here on my blog.

December Daily 2015: Day 21

| cristina

Merry Christmas! My December Daily album is almost done.. just a couple stories more to fit in.
Actually, I almost forgot to include this story in my album.. but it’s one of our Christmas traditions, and I love how this spread turned out.

 

Today’s story is about how we watch Christmas movies throughout the month. This year it was a mix of old classics that we love and some new (disappointing) ones.

Doesn’t matter how many times we’ve seen these movies already… they get us every time! I made a log of the movies we’ve seen this year using some older stamps from Studio Calico. I used Well Red and Emerald City for ink colors. I filled in the stars using Peerless watercolors (currently sold out but you can find them on Amazon too) and a water brush. Ratings are based on number of tears shed. 🙂

These two cards are from Ali Edwards’s December Daily kit that I embellished with some puffy alpha stickers.

This post contains some affiliate links. If you click on any of these affiliate links and make a purchase, then I happily receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support! I purchased all the products you see used at full price, and am happy to share what I made with them here.
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Catch up on all my 2015 December Daily posts:
Title page
Dec. 1st
Dec. 2 and 3
Dec. 4th
Dec. 5th
Dec. 6th
Dec. 7th
Dec. 8th
Dec. 9 and 10
Dec. 11th
Dec. 12 and 13
Dec. 14th
Dec. 15th
Dec. 16th
Dec. 17th
Dec. 18th
Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th
Dec. 21st
Dec. 22nd
Dec. 23rd
Dec. 24th
Dec. 25th

December Daily 2015: Day 18

| cristina

Hello! Today I am sharing the Day 18 spread in my December Daily album.

This post contains some affiliate links. If you click on any of these affiliate links and make a purchase, then I happily receive a small commission. Thank you for your support! I purchased all the products you see used, and am happy to share what I made with them here.

 

This spread, and today’s story, is all about my handmade Christmas cards this year. 🙂 I love making cards!

The card on the right is a prototype I made before making my Christmas cards. I used a grid card for the base. The background stamp is stamped with Poppy ink. I embossed the “merry everything” stamp with Versamark ink and white embossing powder. Then I rubbed some Poppy ink on top (I have since purchased some Well Red ink and it would work better if you don’t want the pink hue to pop out). I learned this technique from Lisa Spangler in her cardmaking class bundle (she’s amazing!!)

On the back of the card, I applied some acrylic pieces (December from Jasmine Jones’s December Daily mini kit, and the numbers from the Wink Wink scrapbook kit from Studio Calico).
On the right hand side, I included three photos of my cards, which were embellished with digital stamps. In the first pocket, there is a picture of a card I made with this adorable stamp set.
In the bottom pocket you can see how I used the Christmas Icons stamp for a few more cards. I have to say this is my favorite stamp this year! I also used the Alyra stamp set – one of my favorite alphas! I used the Lollipop Guild Believe Digital Brushes and the Lollipop Guild Polar Bear Digital Brushes to embellish this photo.
This was a fun spread to make!
______________________________________________
Catch up on all my 2015 December Daily posts:
Title page
Dec. 1st
Dec. 2 and 3
Dec. 4th
Dec. 5th
Dec. 6th
Dec. 7th
Dec. 8th
Dec. 9 and 10
Dec. 11th
Dec. 12 and 13
Dec. 14th
Dec. 15th
Dec. 16th
Dec. 17th
Dec. 18th
Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th
Dec. 21st
Dec. 22nd
Dec. 23rd
Dec. 24th
Dec. 25th

Day by Day 2016 Class at Studio Calico

| cristina

I have been doing Project Life since 2012, in 12″x12″ format, and will continue to make weekly 2-page spreads (24″x12″) in 2016 as well. This is a project that brings lots of joy to my memory keeping. This post contains some affiliate links. If you click on any of these affiliate links and make a purchase, then I happily receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Since this will be my 5th year doing this project, I already know what works and doesn’t work for me, but I am always game for some inspiration. Also, I find that having a community to share my process with is a big incentive to keep going. That’s why  I will be taking the Day by Day 2016 class bundle at Studio Calico – a series of 4 classes with some wonderful inspiration for the whole year.

The first class in the series is Kickstart and it starts on January 1st. My favorite part of the classes at Studio Calico is that not only you get fabulous inspiration through the lessons, but you also get access to a message board with all your fellow classmates – I find that I learn a lot from the community!

I’m excited about all of these classes, but especially the lettering one – I started dabbling into lettering this fall and even started introducing some in my December Daily album (see here and here), and I’m excited to do that in my Project Life album too!
If you sign up for the bundle, you even get a gorgeous 4″x6″ stamp for free if you purchase the bundle before Dec. 31st:

The Kickstart. class starts on Jan. 1st – I hope to see you in class!

December Daily 2015: Day 11

| cristina

Only 9 days left to Christmas.. Today I am sharing my spread for Day 11.


Today’s story: even though it’s not a December story per se, being chosen for the 2016 Studio Calico Creative Team is the best Christmas present I could wish for, so into my album it went. 🙂

I included an insert between the spread, and went with a non-traditional color scheme.

I didn’t embellish the left side – the lettered paper from Jasmine Jones’s mini kit is gorgeous!

I backed the insert with a paper scrap left over from my Pop Art SC scrapbook kit – it’s a specialty paper with scratch off dots. I scratched off one that had the perfect sentiment for this day.
On the right hand side, the first card and the chipboard phrase are from an old Story Kit from Ali Edwards – Go. I added my journaling on the label after taking these pictures.
On the second card, I had fun with a lovely stamp set from Studio Calico.
In the bottom pocket, I added a Christmas card I got in my Studio Calico box a couple of years ago –  I really like the design and I don’t mind that it’s old, I thought it was perfect for today’s story.
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Catch up on all my 2015 December Daily posts:
Title page
Dec. 1st
Dec. 2 and 3
Dec. 4th
Dec. 5th
Dec. 6th
Dec. 7th
Dec. 8th
Dec. 9 and 10
Dec. 11th
Dec. 12 and 13
Dec. 14th
Dec. 15th
Dec. 16th
Dec. 17th
Dec. 18th
Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th
Dec. 21st
Dec. 22nd
Dec. 23rd
Dec. 24th
Dec. 25th

Studio Calico 2016 Creative Team

| cristina

I have the BEST news to share today – I am one of the 2016 Creative Team at Studio Calico!! I am so happy to be creating with their awesome kits and stamps (oh how I love stamps).

You will be seeing my projects here on my blog, in the Studio Calico gallery, on Instagram, on the Studio Calico blog and on Pinterest. I will be making cards, and Project Life spreads with the Documenter kit.
ETA: I will be making cards and Project Life spreads, not every month but every few months. So excited to get started!!
There have been several changes in the past year at Studio Calico, and a new rewards program was announced this week that benefits long-term subscribers. Having been a subscriber of their Project Life/Documenter kit since the very first one offered in January 2013, I have to say I really love their products and love receiving my box each month – this has never changed. I hope I can continue to contribute to the fabulous inspiring and encouraging community there and share my excitement for the upcoming products!

Kill My Studio Calico Kit: October – Wink Wink

| cristina

Hello and welcome back for another month of Kill My Studio Calico Kit! I have to admit last month I was a bit out of steam, but this month’s kit really inspired me to just have fun and create.
Like last month, I only got the Studio Calico scrapbook main kit, Wink Wink ($34.99). There was only one thing I loved in the embellishment add on kit so I passed.

Notes: I certainly do better with bold colors, and this kit has plenty! I love the plastic letters, the puffy asterisks, and the chipboard circles.

Kill my Studio Calico kit is a monthly series I started on my blog to hold myself accountable and use up my kits. My goal is to use up a kit before the next one arrives.

You can subscribe to the Studio Calico Scrapbook kit here.

Status: killed!
I made 11 layouts (10 12″x12″, 1 8.5″x11″), for a total of $34.99, or $3.19/page. I supplemented the kit with some cardstock from my stash, stamps, and the odd embellishment. Here’s a roundup of all the pages I made:

And here is what I have left:

Leftovers: I very nearly didn’t kill this kit.  I ran out of time. I was gone for a couple of weeks in the past month on travel so I made the best I could do, and was almost ready to move on to the next kit, but then inspiration hit and I made 3 more pages and officially killed the kit. The pink card stock just didn’t work for me with this kit, so in my stash it goes. I hoarded some of those puffy stickers 🙂 because I didn’t want to use them all up at once.

And here is what I made with the kit.

The die cut paper (the specialty paper for this month) is so much fun! I love that blue paper, and I arranged the strips of paper to be a bit wonky to add some fun to this page. This is my favorite page this month!

I arranged my circles/shapes in rainbow order and watercolored the patterned paper to match. I added the journaling at the bottom of the page after the picture was taken (it’s a bit personal), as well as a title with the black alpha letters on top of the patterned paper – they are a great addition to ground all the pops of color on this page.

I love that blue color!

I watercolored the tag but you can no longer see the embossed camera (or barely) so I wouldn’t recommend it unless that’s the effect you’re going after.

I love the fun colors of the acetate alpha in the kit!

I recently bought a tag die and I am having fun making tags from patterned paper!

On this page I used a few leftover embellishments from past scrapbook kits (Galileo – puffy sticker, heart die cut; Fairground – word strips; Brimfield – washi strip, chipboard phrases).

That diamond paper is one of my favorites this month. I prefer the black on white side, but I thought the white on black side worked best on this page.

The label and puffy stickers are from my stash. I also used the stamp from the November kit (love it!).

This is a 2-pager. I couldn’t bear cutting up or covering that lettered paper, so a 2-pager it is. 🙂

And that wraps up this month! Are you enjoying this blog series? Do leave me a comment if you are.

You can subscribe to the Studio Calico Scrapbook kit here.

Kill My Studio Calico Kit: September – Brimfield

| cristina

For September I only got the Studio Calico scrapbook main kit, Brimfield ($34.99). I didn’t like the look of the embellishment add on kit this month so I passed.

Notes: I love the color scheme, even if it doesn’t quite fit with my fall palette. The kit only has 2 pieces of card stock (one of which, the kraft one, is non my fave at all) so I had to grab a few extra pieces from my stash. It also has only one alpha, with single letters – luckily I had in my stash the Laina alpha stamp that matches it perfectly. I loved the paper with the birds, the acetate shapes, the enamel dots and stars, the transparency with the stars and the roller stamp. The little deer embellishment is really tiny, but very cute. The chipboard phrases are nice but the mint color isn’t my fave — however, I used them a lot and I loved adding them to my pages!
The floral paper and especially the floral map are not really my style.

Kill my Studio Calico kit is a monthly series I started on my blog to hold myself accountable and use up my kits. My goal is to use up a kit before the next one arrives.

You can subscribe to the Studio Calico Scrapbook kit here.

Status: killed!
I made 12 layouts (10 12″x12″, 1 8.5″x11″ and 1 9″x12″), for a total of $34.99, or $2.92/page. I supplemented the kit with some cardstock from my stash, stamps, and the odd embellishment. Here’s a roundup of all the pages I made:

And here is what I have left:

Leftovers: almost nothing, really.. One of the washi strips, some scraps of paper, some letters, a few chipboard phrases, a piece of the star transparency and a couple of enamel shapes.

And here is what I made with the kit, from beginning to end.

I noticed a fun pattern in my scrapbooking habits – more often than not, the very first page I make has my least favorite paper. In this case, it was that kraft card stock, way too dark for my taste. But it worked just right with these pops of color! I used the month roller stamp to create some pattern and fill in my page.

I love those acetate birds!

I incorporated the lovely chipboard phrases in my journaling.

The star transparency was great to work with!

This page goes with the previous one.

To be honest there isn’t much from the Brimfield scrapbook kit on this page – only the pink strips of paper, the phrase strip and the “september” stamp (the acetate shapes are from the PL kit), but I am counting it anyway.

For this page I cut into the bird paper – my fave! – and I love how it turned out!
This month it’s harder than usual for me to pick a favorite page, but I think this is it. I just love the colors!

I wasn’t a fan of the floral pattern, but it turned out to be just the perfect backdrop for this photo of me and my grandpa. I love this page so much.

And with this page I almost used up the entire bird paper. Kudos to me for not hoarding it! 🙂

As I already said, I was not a fan of the floral map paper. But it worked OK to document this memory from our spring travels. This is a 9″x12″ page.

I pretty much used up all the remaining paper scraps on this page! I also used the chipboard ‘frame’ that surrounded the chipboard phrases. I had cut off some of the empty space on some of the phrases, and used those pieces here to stamp some little phrases. I love how this page turned out

The very last page I made used up the last few scraps I had left – most of the washi strips, and some enamel shapes. All the other embellishments, plus the watercolor piece painted by me, and the paper are from my stash.

This was a very productive month, I felt I really stretched the kit quite a bit. Time for October’s kits now!

You can subscribe to the Studio Calico Scrapbook kit here.

Kill My Studio Calico Kit: August – Pop Art

| cristina

Since my September kit (Brimfield) is arriving soon to my door, it’s time to tally up what I made with the August kits. I bought a lot in August. In addition to the Studio Calico August scrapbooking kit, Pop Art ($34.99) I also purchased the Hockney embellishment kit for a promotional price of $17.99 and Stephanie’s mini book kit ($35.99 after rewards member discount – quite pricey but there were a couple of things in the kit that I really wanted).

Notes: I love the bright colors of this month. In the main scrapbook kit, I love the washi tape (love it!!), the specialty paper with the gold scratch off dots, and the acrylic circles. Not a fan of the stamp. The big alpha cards are really cool too. In the embellishment kit, I love the puffy plus signs, the enamel dots, the acrylic houses and the stamp. Not sure what to do with the “on point” card, but overall I love every single bit in this add on. In the mini book add on, I love the stamp, the frames, the floral paper, the gold dot paper and the enamel dots.

Status: killed
I made 16 layouts and 1 mini album with this kit (13 12″x12″, 3 8.5″x11″ and 0 9″x12″), for a total of $88.97, or $5.23/page (I counted the mini as 1 layout even though I have used up supplies for at least 2 pages in it). I supplemented the kit with some card stock and paper scraps from my stash, stamps, and the odd embellishment, as well as bits and pieces from the Pop Art card and Project Life kits.

Here are the bits and pieces I have left:

LEFTOVERS

Leftovers: 2/3 of the specialty paper, the lavender card stock (I tried using it more than a couple of times, but it just didn’t work and I ended up leaving it — I will use it for some cards), the “on point” card (I am not familiar with this expression so I am setting it aside for now), some washi tape (love love love!! – not pictured because it’s on my desk), a few embellishments, an almost full sheet of alpha, some leftover letters, and some paper scraps.
I certainly could create at least another 2 pages with these bits, but I am ready to move on. I’ve been neglecting my Project Life lately!

Kill my Studio Calico kit is a monthly series I started on my blog to hold myself accountable and use up my kits. My goal is to use up a kit before the next one arrives.

You can subscribe to the Studio Calico Scrapbook kit here.


And here is a walk through my pages
This is the first page I made this month:

The kits come with a handy 4″x6″ card that has the name of the month on the front and suggested color combinations on the back. When I pulled the card out of the bag and put it next to the papers, I loved the pop of color so I decided to use in on my page.
I also used a couple of cards and a rubber lemon from the Project Life kit.

The second page I made is probably my favorite this month. I love all the little details in the boxes, the split He|She design and the little tidbits about us.

While I was waiting for my kit to arrive, I looked online at the pictures of the content and was stumped by this paper with the big 8. But then I realized this year marks 8 years that we’ve lived in this town, and I wanted to make a page about that. I dug out those plastic letters from the Poet Society kit. I love them! I gave a slight pink tint to the white acrylic house with alcohol ink. I added the star stamps as an afterthought and I am still not sure if I like them or not (but there’s no going back..). And yay, I got LOTW (layout of the week) at Studio Calico for this page!

I wanted to use this bold paper as a background, and I felt that I could only make it work if I added something bolder – enter the gold paint and silkscreens! 🙂 The labels, glitter heart and wood veneers are from my stash.

This one is my 2nd favorite page of the month. I never use frames (not even in my digital pages!), but I played with these ones from the mini kit add on and I love how they turned out! I backed one with a PL card and the other with patterned paper.

Block design and gold – a great combination! I was seriously tempted to hoard that 8″x8″ gold foil polka dot on white paper, but I cut into it to make this page and I am glad I did!

For this page I cut up one of the papers that said “together is my favorite place to be” and used the letters to spell out “my favorites”.

I was a bit stumped by the square chipboard pieces from the embellishment kit (Hockney). But then when I paired them with digital designs from Ali Edwards’s Digital Story kit for August (Build), they were perfect!

I used just a small piece of that floral paper by Crate Paper (from Stephanie’s mini album kit), but I love it so! Also paired with a few digital brushes from the Build Story Kit by Ali Edwards that I printed directly onto the kraft background and my photo.

This was a fun page to make. And it also shows why I can stretch my kits so far, using only scraps of paper. 🙂 I just added some labels from my stash.

I love pink and yellow! I added a screenprint (“I love us”) and some hand stitching. Dressing up the kittens with bows was fun! The pink flower paper was from my stash. I used distress paint with the screen print (so easy to use!) and used it also to stamp the “let’s celebrate” and the cats.

The alphabet in the Pop Art scrapbooking kit has only 1 character of A-Z plus numbers. So I had to get creative to stretch them further.

For this page, I wanted to list the happy moments from this summer. It’s been a rather stressful period work-wise, and I want to remember all the good things that have happened too.

After using up the acrylic numbers, I used the negative shape on this page. And I highlighted the number 16 using enamel dots. I splurged and bought 2 Hero Arts ombre ink pads lately and I love them! Here I used the mint to green one.

On this page I cut up three journaling cards and also used two 3″x3″ from the Pop Art Project Life kit. The background paper and alphas are from my stash.

I finally got myself to cut into the specialty paper. The gold dots are actually scratch off, but I loved the finish so much that I left them unscratched. 🙂 The vellum and doilies are from my stash.

And that’s it! It certainly had been a productive month, that’s for sure! I felt the pressure to create a lot of layouts since I had bought so much, but in the end they all came naturally. I am happy to move on though!
If you enjoy this monthly series on my blog, please leave me a comment and say hi. 🙂

You can subscribe to the Studio Calico Scrapbook kit here.

Kill My Studio Calico Kit: July – Fairground

| cristina

Fairground is the Studio Calico July kit. The prices have increased, the kit costs $34.99 (up by $5), and I also purchased the Carousel embellishment kit for a promotional price of $11.69.

Notes: The only things I loved in the main kit were the yellow paper (the B side of the one with all the squares) and the stamp set. In the add on, I loved the chipboard hearts and the stamp. I liked most of the rest. I disliked the clock acrylic shapes in the add on and the floral transparency in the main -but I love how I ended up using them.

Status: killed
I made 14 layouts with this kit (10 12″x12″, 3 8.5″x11″ and 1 9″x12″), for a total of $46.68, or $3.33/page. I supplemented it with some card stock from my stash, some hybrid papers (printed out from digital), stamps, and the odd embellishment.

Here are the bits and pieces I have left:

Leftovers: a good chunk of the green paper with crosses, most of the flower transparency (not my favorite), a couple of pieces of the yellow dot paper (my favorite this month!), some alpha stickers (hard to make words with what’s left), some chipboard hearts (love them!) and silver foiled perforated words, most of the washi tape strips (am having a hard time using them), a clip, a few acrylic clock shapes and a few animals (I combined the acrylic shapes in the scrapbook and Project Life kits).

Kill my Studio Calico kit is a monthly series I started on my blog to hold myself accountable and use up my kits. My goal is to use up a kit before the next one arrives.

You can subscribe to the Studio Calico Scrapbook kit here.