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Friday, February 28, 2014

Office Hours Reveal

Ok... it's time to reveal the new March Studio Calico kit called "Office Hours", and everything that I've done with it! The Pre-Sale for subscribers is now up and running.. and the kits are flying out the door. But don't worry, there's always some held back for everyone else, and the general sales will start in 12 hours time :-)
ETA: General Sales have STARTED!!

Want to see the kits "in real life"? This month I've uploaded a YouTube video of me opening my 4 kits (the scrapbook Main Kit and each of the 3 Add Ons)! You are able to see it here. I go through each paper and embellishment in detail so you can see exactly what you'll receive. I think it's a great way of getting a true feel for the nature of the kits.


I admit, at first glance I thought this Main Kit was a little too masculine to immediately appeal to me, but then I realised the greens and blues weren't boy colours at all.... they're Spring colours! Match them with the scattering of pink and red and you've got a lovely fresh and flowery combination.


But it's true - I think the kit can swing both ways. And I wanted to prove it with my two Main Kit Only layouts! I used the same base for both of them (the plain grid paper is a b-side to the navy chevrons, and the bright green as my border colour) but went in entirely different directions with the papers and embellishments I chose. I think you're about to see how versatile this kit really is!


1. First up, "Bookworm". It was inspired by the 'Check It Out' paper with the date stamps on it. It reminded me of borrowing books from the library (which is obviously what it's supposed to be!) so I took it one step further and made my own pocket to pair beside it. I'm not sure if everyone's else library used the same system - but this is what my library books used to look like when I was a kid. A pocket with a tag in it, and a page for stamping the due date. There's going to be a tutorial on the blog later in the month with how I made my entire page... including that brush script title!



2. As I said, "Spring Baby" starts off with the same base of white and green... but then I took it in an entirely more girly direction. I definitely tried to capture the spring colours here and focused more on the pink, cream and red. Can you believe I even managed to make some handmade flowers for this?! Very atypical of my style in recent times... but this layout about my niece was screaming out for them ;-)



The first Add On I worked with is called "Coffee Break" and it's my absolute favourite! I made two layouts straight up (actually before I'd even made my Main Kit layouts!)


3. "Live Life" is such a different layout for me. Not my usual style at all. My husband mumbled something along the lines of ..... I'm glad you're not stuck in a rut... HHHmmmm?! At least he's noticing! I was actually inspired by this pin on Pinterest and decided to recreate it in layout form. I love the little clusters of embellishments all around. I think it gives each one the focus it needs so that you notice them all individually.

Live Life Supplies: Coffee Break Add On, Rolodex Add On (just for the blue 'm') More Kraft


4. "Bug Girl" also uses the Coffee Break Add On, but this time I focused on the pink and yellow combination. The Dear Lizzy stickers are just the cutest and I had so much fun piling them up and layering them around my photo. I think I wanted to really emphasise the 'girl' part of "Bug Girl"... rather than the bugs ;-)



"To Do" was the next Add On I wanted to work with. A very definite Spring time kit here, and I love the fun chalkboard Thickers.


5. In making "Hello Today" I wanted to do two things.... layer up the papers so it looked like a spring scene (ie. brown at the bottom for earth, then green for grass, some pink flowers and all that bright blue sky) and I wanted to feature all those colourful sequins in a way you wouldn't expect. I made a shaker box for them out of the packaging the green chipboard cameras come in which is much the same technique I showed you here in my video tutorial ages ago.



The Rolodex Add On has quite the punch of colour with that bright magenta paper and blue Thickers, but I took my layout is a slightly more monochrome direction!


6. "Golden Ticket" finally sees me getting around to telling the story of joining the Studio Calico Creative Team. With so much to say I knew I needed lots of space for my journaling. I could have hidden it away, or made it into a booklet which you've seen me do in the last 2 months, but I chose to have it all featured on a double page layout instead. I love how each half of this can be seen as a page in it's own right, but it also matches together as well. Tied together by the repetitive stamping of the cute circle images.

Golden Ticket Supplies: Rolodex Add On, To Do Add On, More Vanilla

Since recently investing in a colour printer I am really seeing the value of the Printables. For only a few dollars you have the advantage of printing them again and again, and I love the way they can really extend the life of your kits.


7. My final layout "Fun Beneath the Skies" is mainly build out of the Main Office Hours Kit with a few embellishments from each of the Add Ons, but it was the IACB Printables which made a real difference here. They're great for adding more layers behind a photo which you can see I obviously like to do! I went with lots of gold bits in this layout, and a touch of sparkle to fit with the magical theme of the page.



You can see more details about all these layouts and the supplies I used in my Studio Calico gallery.
Thinking of starting a subscription? Sign up here. In the meanwhile... happy shopping!

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Office Hours Supplies:
 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Office Hours Sneaks

In just a few short hours it's going to be time for the reveal of the March Studio Calico kit "Office Hours". Can't believe how fast this month has flown by... I know it's a short month, but it feels even quicker than that surely?!

I'll be honest... I was a little worried about how they were possibly going to follow on from the success of the February Sugar Rush Kits. Those babies flew out the door at record pace and were sold out within minutes. They were some of the most talked-about kits in the history of Studio Calico! But the Office Hours kits have not disappointed ;-) They're absolutely fabulous, and I'm certain they're going to go just as fast! Let me share some sneaks of the pages I've made...


The sneaks above and below were both created with the Main Kit Only. What I really loved was the range of papers and embellishments in the kit allow for some quite masculine colour combinations, as well as girly combinations too. So I've made my 2 pages using the different approaches to show you what I mean.


The raindrops cutting file comes in the Card Kit Digital Stamps and Coordinating Cuts 'kit'. These are such good value for money - they're only a few dollars each, you don't need to worry about shipping, and you get heaps of images that can be used as digital stamps or imported into Silhouette and converted into cutting files. I always get the whole lot of them!


This next page (above) is something really different for me. Inspired by this image on Pinterest, I've created a page that recreates this look. It was awesome to cluster all the piles of embellishments that come in the Coffee Break Add On.


The other bunch of clustering I did was with all the stamps from the Rolodex Add On. I'd be lying if I said I used the new Color Theory Ink Pads (I'm still waiting for mine to arrive), but I've linked up the Color Theory Inks that would be almost a perfect match to these anyway in case you were keen to recreate the look ;-)


Oooooh, now this sneak is of my favourite page out of the 7 I made this month (or 8 if you count the double as 2 layouts!) Most of it is from the Main Kit, but it has a sprinkling of embellishments from most of the Add Ons too. It seems as though the entire Creative Team fell in love with the watercolour diecuts from the Main, and most of us have used the 'Rad' is one way or another. I chose some blue paint and glitter for mine ;-)


Ahem.. so this page might actually be about bugs... see the photo?! Which is why I think I tried to overcompensate by making it really girly and feminine. I've used the Coffee Break Add On for this page for the lovely Dear Lizzy stickers that come in it.


Lastly, here's a sneak of the page I made with the To Do Add On (everything except for that banner which comes in the Main Kit). I absolutely loved the sprinkling of gold bits throughout all the kits, but the lion's share comes in the Maggie Holmes Styleboard Vellum Shapes that's included in To Do. See that butterfly? Perfection right?!

Get ready for an awesome reveal. The team has really rocked these fabulous kits. Not too much longer to wait!

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Here's What I've Used:
 

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