Poet Society Reveal. ETA - Kit Unveiling Video

It's the most exciting time of the month in the world of scrapping! It's Reveal Day at Studio Calico! This month's kits are called "Poet Society" which is actually a complete cooincidence as far as a reference to Robin Williams is concerned... but it's still a lovely tribute.

This month for my kit unveiling video I've let the Trophy Husband have some time off - he's been busy concentrating on his own assignments and just didn't have the usual enthusiasm for it this time around. Plus, I had a couple of other eager volunteers who have just been waiting for an opportunity! So I was shoved out of my own scrap room after I set a camera rolling, and I let these two do completely their own thing... unsupervised! Scary.. but I think you'll find the end result as amusing as I did ;-)

 

Here's what I've whipped up with the Scrapbook Kits...

 

"Rad" is made with purely the Main Kit only, as well as a couple of the digital stamps which I converted into cutting files. The giant title, as well as the watercolour leaves have been cut with my Silhouette. The kit as a whole is rather more on the masculine side I would suggest, but with this layout I found enough pink bits and blingy bling to make this quite girly!

Yes, I've found a new love for sequins! Those burnt orange coloured stars and sequins in the Main Kit are stunning :-)

My second Main Kit Only layout, "You're a Gem" is slightly on the hybrid side, with the addition of a digital stamp and computer journaling which I printed directly onto the blue paper. Once again I put my Silhouette to good use cutting out the title and diamond which are actually replicas of the stamp set that comes in the Card Kit. It's totally cute, you'll need to check it out!

I did stick with more of the what might be considered the boy colours of this kit, but I'm pretty sure navy blue, lime green and orange can pass for a feminine layout too right?

So here's a first for me - a heritage layout.... well I guess you could call it that? After my Grandmother passed away last month I felt the need to dedicate a page to her. Who knows, it might be the first of many. But for now I'm happy with starting here with this one.

I kept it fairly simple, with an oversized photo and a quote from her as she neared the end of her life printed directly onto the green patterned paper from Alcott (Add On 2). The texture comes from the green velvet ribbon and blue bling from the Main Kit.

And lastly, I really REALLY needed to use a bunch of those gold bits from Dickinson (Add On 1) on a page. Those large gold alphas, black and gold polka dot paper, and gold foil accents in the chipboard make for a really lovely layout. The only difficulty is that it's a bit hard to photograph. I've done my best for you!

You can catch more details about my layouts in my Studio Calico gallery here. And the supply list is below (the links will work once the kits have been fully revealed to the public).

Happy Reveal Day!!



Supplies:

Poet Society Scrapbook Kit Add On 1: Dickinson Add On 2: Alcott Add On 3: Whitman Poet Society Printables by LifeLovePaper Poet Society Printables by In a Creative Bubble Poet Society Printables by Hello Forever Poet Society Scrapbook Kit Digital Stamps Poet Society Card Kit Digital Stamps Poet Society Project Life Digital Stamps Color Theory Ink: Something Blue Color Theory Ink: Deja Blue Color Theory Ink: Well Red Color Theory Ink: Clean Slate Color Theory Ink: Orange County

InLinkz.com

September Shopping List

In what can only be considered as the worst timing ever when you're hanging out for the Studio Calico new kit reveal, an unfortunate incident with a bulldozer has left the SC site running too slow for the appropriate shopping frenzy that's normally happening right now for subscribers.

What it means is that the Subscriber Presale has been moved up until an hour before the full Reveal. That means 1pm Aussie (Victorian) time for subscribers, and 2pm for the reveal... which is when everyone gets to go shopping! Read the full details on the blog here.

But once it's up and running... here's a preview of some of the products I've had my eye on this month:

• Everyone is super excited about the new set of Color Theory Inks that have just been released! Half of the excitement is finding out what fun names they've been called, and the the other half is knowing these will be in the same great quality and juicy brights that you've come to expect if you already have the other Inks. 

• Two new classes are being advertised for September. One is called Pen & Paper by Laura Kurz and will focus on telling your story, and the other is called Snapshot by our very own April Foster and will be a photography class. Since these classes will complement each other perfectly, there's also an option to purchase these as a bundle.

• Get a little sneak peek into what you can anticipate in the upcoming Poet Society Kits by checking out some of the coordinating Printables. This one by In a Creative Bubble is a great mix of watercolour arty, and clean graphic lines. I love it!

• With your new Ink Pads, you might also want to add to your stamp collection hey? I'm hanging out for Summer and this Love Story Stamp Set is making me wish for it even harder. I can see a thousand uses for something like this. 

• If you saw my sneaks earlier in the week you would have seen my newly found crazy obsession for sequins (yes I know.... a little late in the game!!) so now I'm backtracking and adding all my favourite colours to my cart this month!

I'll be back for reveal!!

Poet Society Sneaks

The September kits at Studio Calico are called "Poet Society" which coincidentally were named after the famous book/movie 'Dead Poet's Society', a name that came into fruition weeks before the tragic news of Robin William's apparent suicide. We actually debated long and hard whether we should do a last-minute renaming, but in honour of the great actor we have chosen to keep it. As scrapbookers we are memory keepers and documentarians, the name will now last as a small token of a memorial if you like.

The Scrapbook Kit is filled with bold primary colours, neutrals and a masculine feel, but as you'll see from my sneaks, it's got the potential for some girly layouts in there too :-)

Add On 1 is called 'Dickinson' and is my favourite this month. It's jam-packed with new Maggie Holmes goodies, including about a thousand embellishments. Only a slight exaggeration. Those oversized gold alphas are just the icing on the cake.

In fact, Add On 2 'Alcott' is pretty much stacked with embellishments too. This time focusing on the newly released Shimelle collection.  There's literally the whole rainbow of colours in this kit, you're going to love it if you're a ROYGBIV fan like me ;-)

And Add On 3 'Whitman' which actually is the embellishment-only kit will have you gasping with excitement if you're the sort of person who loves never-before-seen new products that stretch the imagination and inspire you to create.

Let me show you some sneaks of what I've made this month.....

For my first Main-Kit-Only layout I stuck with the bold colour scheme of navy, lime green and grey which works equally well for both masculine and feminine layouts.

But for my second Main-Kit-Only layout I focused on the girly bits in the kit just to show how versatile it is. You know I can never pass up the addition of a hint of pink!

I used Add On 1 for this layout. I already mentioned the gold alpha stickers, but did I also mention the gold polka dot paper, and the gold foil accents in the chipboard embellishments? Whoooop!!

And lastly, my hybrid layout for the month was created mainly with Add On 2, and the addition of the felt ribbon and jewels from the Main Kit for lots of texture.

I've mentioned before the fabulous exclusive products that subscribers get a chance at pre-ordering to ship when their kits come, and this month is no exception. Check out the five sets of vellum alphabet stickers you can add to your cart for under $10!

I'm going to be back real soon with my shopping list for the month, and we're already counting down the days until the reveal on the 28th. Yay!

Class Sale

Studio Calico are having a Class Sale where you can purchase these 5 popular past classes for only $10 each, or the whole darn lot for just $25!

I've taken four out of the five of them myself and can vouch for their fabulousness ;-)
Let me share a little insight into them, and some of the projects I made as I took the classes...

"Mixed Media" first ran in April and was taught by Celine Navarro and Anna-Maria Wolniak. If there are two queens of mixed-media in the scrapbooking industry then these two girls are it! I'm no stranger to gesso, ink, paint, and all those messy techniques, but I learned sooooo much. New techniques as well as new mediums - those girls kept surprising me each week. But if you're a newbie you don't need to worry, because everything is explained in such an easy to understand way. This is a great class to take if you're interested in getting your hands a little dirty ;-)

 

"Digital | Beyond the Basics" is without doubt one of my most favourite classes of all time. The master of all things digital and hybrid, Shanna Noel, is the genius behind this one. By watching her fabulous video tutorials I've rapidly expanded my Photoshop skills, and my scrapbooking style as a whole has been revolutionised! I'm not quite ready to go into digital scrapping, but I've now embraced hybrid scrapping as an exciting alternative to the traditional layout.

"Stitched" I admit was a class I took because Paige Evans is inspirational, her techniques intrigued me, and because I thought it would expand my technique repertoire. And all those things are true! Turns out I still don't really enjoy embroidery and hand-stitching, and I'll need lots more practice if I'm ever going to attempt more of it on my layouts! (despite all my practice of similar techniques on real people!! LOL!) But if that sort of thing is something you enjoy then I highly recommend this class.

Lastly, "Inked 2.0" taught by Lisa Spangler and Tina Aszmus will show you a thousand techniques on how to get the most out of all those stamps you're hoarding and never use (yes, I think we're all the same!) in such a variety of ways. Think layouts, cards, art journals, home deco, off-the-page projects and so much more.

All these classes are on sale until the 25th, but once you purchase them you'll have access forever so even if you don't have time on your hands right now, this will be a great investment for your scrapbooking.

Whilst we're on the subject of classes, I'd also like to draw your attention to an article I wrote for Papercut Labs which also runs through some of the other scrapbook-changing classes I've taken this year. If you haven't heard of Papercut Labs, they're a new Australian company who are about to launch into the world of online classes themselves. With a bit of inside knowledge and a little wink of conspiracy I'll just say that there's going to be some fabulous Aussie scrapbooking personalities who'll be teaching there in the coming months and it's worth keeping an eye out for the breaking news. Follow along on the Papercut Labs blog and Facebook Page.

The Story of Something Glittery

I forced myself out of my creative funk with the help of two things...

1. Some fabulous new product.
This set of miniature Mister Huey's and the new alpha stamps called 'Kit' (named after April and Greg's newest baby!!) came in my last Studio Calico order and I've been waiting for something to come along to bust these out on. 

2. A scrappy challenge from Jot Magazine
There's nothing that inspires me like a good challenge, which might say something about my personality, but I prefer to just think I need a goal to work towards. Jot's challenge to include "something stripey, something bold, something glittery, something gold" was definitely something I could get on board with. And here's what I came up with..

Stripes? Black and white strips behind the photo. Check!
Bold? I figured I'm going to call my large title the 'bold' bit... do you think that will do?
Glittery? More subtle than I initially thought I would include, but there's glitter paper backed behind a few of those hearts.
Gold? Easy enough, I've used some gold star rubons by Jenni Bowlin scattered across my page in various locations.

And yes, those Alpha Stamps were just as fun as I imagined! These are sure to get a lot of use in my projects. I used them here with StazOn Ink so I can add the Mister Huey's as a watercolour - painting them roughly, not making any real attempt to keep that colour within the lines, 'cos I think it looks better that way!

What I also really enjoyed about the process behind this layout was that I essentially just used a bunch of scraps from my desk and recent products lying around. I didn't search too hard for any of these things. Most of the papers are Maggie Holmes, the diecut hearts was left over from a project from long ago, and there's a good scattering of Studio Calico Printables from the August Kits as well.

And the topic of the photo was glittery, even if not much else was! My girls love their 'scrap time' just as much as I do. You've probably already noticed that! And I've got bundles of photos capturing their artwork in progress. It's good to get one down on a page.

Here's to inspiration restored, and plenty more scrapping in the future.
xx