Studio Calico June Sneaks and Sale News

It's almost that time of month again where the new Studio Calico kits are revealed. YAY! But before the June kits go live on the 1st I have to share with you my sneaks ;-)

 
First, here's the Mood Board to help give you an idea of what you might look forward to in the June kits. Let me point out the brightly coloured rainbow and the gold shiny stars. Wink wink!

I'm contributing to the Stationary Kit reveal again this month, which ironically doesn't mean I get the Stationary Kit to play with (since it's actually filled with ready-made cards) but rather that I get to play with the Add On stamp sets and dies that get released alongside it.

It's probably fairly obvious that I received the Bug Stamp Set designed by Jasmine Jones and I have to say that I truly have fallen in love with these cute little critters! Who knew there could be so many uses and punny sentiments to do with bugs!

I also managed to work the bee stamp together with the You're Sweet script die I received to create this fun card too. Bees....honey.... sweet.... get it?! ;-)

After my initial bug stamping frenzy I also made sure to dig into the June 4x6" paper pad and pair it with some embellishments from the Scrapbook kit to make yet another shaker card (sorry, they're still my favourite) and a pocket-page spread too.

As I said, all the kits will go live on the 1st, but whilst you're waiting to snap up your favourites you might also want to check out the current massive SALE that's happening right NOW!

There are tonnes of past kits on sale for really cheap prices, starting as low as $5. You can check it out HERE.

And I'll be back on the 1st to share all my projects.
xx

Project Life catch-up: Judah's monthly spreads

It's been a long while since I shared any of my Project-Life pages.
Mainly because it's been a long while since I made any!

But I had a bit of a binge catch-up session last week and quickly churned out these 3 pages for a start. It's to try and get me more up to date with my albums.

For Judah's first year of life I was regularly sharing weekly updates on my Instagram account, as well as monthly photos of him on his Judah-rug. These formed the basis of monthly Project Life spreads where I would use the photos from the monthly photoshoot, and use the journaling from the weekly updates. Make sense?!

I kept up to date with the Instagram sharing, I just took a little while longer to actually get around to finishing off the pages! But anyway, with the addition of these last 3 pages I'm now there! 

As for my supplies, I dug into my neglected pile of Studio Calico Documenter kits and started with those. So for this February spread I began with my February kit (Savannah) and pulled out some of the foundational cards and key embellishments.


When it came time to add finishing touches I would then often need to turn to other past kits, or other stash products so I could keep a bit of a theme going. For this February page I decided to add a lot more yellow additions than the kit involved, and those Pink Fresh Studio puffy alphas are a current fave!

I went full-throttle no-holding-back with my embellishment choices. Meaning, I actively decided to use all the major exclusive kit pieces at these pages that I could find. Forget the urge to 'save them for something special'.... these pages ARE special!!

And plus, we all know that in reality we'll never use all the supplies we have anyway right?! So forget saving them.... just use them!

I've also decided that this green is my new favourite colour. Is this kelly green? I don't know what to call it... but it's got all my heart-eyes currently!

Thanks for letting me spam you today. Hopefully I plan on getting more up to date with the rest of the families 2016 album now too. Meaning... I might actually start it ;-)

National Scrapbooking Day 2016

I love celebrating National Scrapbooking Day, don’t you? The fun challenges, the community chats, the chance to win awesome prizes, but most of all… the great excuse to sit in pajamas all day scrapbooking without interruption! Now I didn't really get a chance to do that today since we were busy with all sorts of other adventures, but the good news is I'm doing my NSD celebrations with Studio Calico... and their day has only just begun!!

STUDIO CALICO CHALLENGES

Check out the schedule of challenges below to know what to expect on May 7. These times are in EDT, so for an Australian translation let me tell you that their 7am equals 9pm here in Victoria, Australia.

7 a.m. – Getting Fit with Kelsey McEvoy
8 a.m. – Go Large with Natalie Elphinstone
9 a.m. – Adding Text with Lory Bucaria
10 a.m. – From Documenter to Scrapbook with Mandie Pierce
11 a.m. – Adding Hand-Stitching with Lilin Fang
11:30 a.m. – Color with Dana Fleckenstein
noon – Instagram giveaway time!
1 p.m. – Furry Friends with Jenn Picard
1:30 p.m. – Creating Layers with Mel Blackburn
2 p.m. – Watercolor with Anything with Lisa Spangler
3 p.m. – It’s Sketchy with Jen Chapin
4 p.m. – Add Paint with Cristina C.
5 p.m. – Bust Your Stash with Carson Riutta
6 p.m. – Using Planner Supplies in a Travelers Notebook with Rianne Alonte

Yes, that's me posting a challenge at 8am EDT. That means it's already gone live folks! In fact, you can see all the details for the challenges in the message board HERE. 

PRIZES

Don’t forget that one lucky SC member is going to win a 12-month subscription to the kit of their choice, the second place winner will get a 6-month subscription and the third place winner will receive a Jolly Holiday kit! To be in the running all you have to do is take part in any of our NSD challenges and post it in the SC gallery using the hashtag #SCNSD16 by Thursday May 12^th at 11.59pm EDT.

FREE PRINTABLE

To celebrate National Scrapbooking Day Studio Calico are giving you access to a free printable designed by Hello Forever.

 Download your FREE printable here.

SAVE BIG

Use promo code SCNSD16 to take 30% off of one order from the Studio Calico Shop. Promo code expires May 7, 2016, at 11:59 p.m.
You can find the Studio Calico Shop HERE.  

Jot Mood Board Challenge for May

I have to admit, when I saw the latest Mood Board challenge at Jot Magazine I wondered if I was going to pull it off. I had a brief moment pondering failure - but in fact, that's exactly the sort of thing that spurs me on, and since I'm never one to back down from a challenge I decided to embrace it instead. Here's what I created:

The fleeting failure thoughts entered my mind simply because this is about as far removed from my favourite go-to colours than I can imagine. I'm typically a sunshiney bright happy pink and green type of girl! But this Mood Board is dark and mysterious, mechanical and slightly grubby.

Maybe that's why it made me think of making a card for my Dad!! ;-) But honestly, some of those other clever Jot Girls have made the most delicate feminine projects too, so there really is no end to the creative adventure you can have with this one.

I reverted to my typical card-making style and started building up layers as I went through my stash and continued to pull out more bits and pieces that would fit the colours. I surprised myself with how much I had actually, and this card came together in no time at all.

 Won't you join us for the May Mood Board challenge at Jot Magazine. The lovely Jamie Pate is donating a pack of gorgeous Heidi Swapp goodies for the winner!
Find all the details HERE.

Studio Calico Jolly Holiday Reveal

The May kits at Studio Calico have been revealed overnight - they're called Jolly Holiday and they're soooo fun!!

This month I'm lucky to be contributing to the Creative Team gallery and I'm working with the Stationary Kit. Well, I say that, but I don't actually get the Stationary Kit as such since it's already filled with cute ready-made cards. Instead I get a few of the add-on supplies such as the Cloud stamp and die, the Dad die, and the 4x6" paper pad and I try really hard to put together some cards that might just inspire you ;-)

 

The first thing I wanted to test out was the cloud die that comes with the stamp set. Ironically the die doesn't actually cut out any of the 3 cloud stamps but that's ok because I figure that fussy-cutting a cloud isn't that hard! But having a die opens up the possibilities for combining them in a bunch of different creative ways.

I wanted to give the impression of rain spraying out of the cloud, after all, it's supposed to be a baby 'shower' right? But maybe this ended up looking too much like a jelly fish instead?! Ha!!

 

Now I'm fairly in love with clouds as an embellishment so I figured simply stamping the clouds in a repetitive pattern might be kinda cool. But to give it even more interest I made it a little bit water-coloury by inking up my stamp and then spritzing it with water before I stamped it down. 

I white-embossed the sentiment over the top to make it stand out.

  

While I had my Color Theory inks out I decided to get a bit techniquey with this New Dad card so I masked off a circle, sponged on some inks and sprinkled some water and mist over the top which makes it look very nicely like a planet.

I used the scripted Dad die to cut out part of the sentiment and turned this into a card to celebrate a new dad. What's that got to do with being a new dad? I don't really know! Something about being king of the universe and have big dreams and what-not ;-)

    

Still loving those cloud stamps I decided to put them to use one more time and make a sweet pastel baby shaker card. That sprinkle paper from the 6x4" paper pad was the perfect background and while I was aiming to keep this fairly neutral I'm thinking it's probably more boyish than girlish!

My last card was one I debated long and hard about whether I would be brave enough to attempt. This is what I mean....

The Trophy Husband saw the sentiment on Pinterest some time ago and quickly sketched out an idea for a card he thought I should make. You may have seen me share it on my Instagram? Anyway, when I saw that the Unicorn stamp set included all the elements I would need to actually put this card together the temptation was too great to resist ;-)

I used the digital stamp version so that I could manipulate the scale of the elements so it would all come together appropriately. Really, is 'appropriately' the right word? Probably not!

Anyway, that was my lot of creative effort for the reveal. I'll no doubt be creating a whole lot more with these supplies in the future because the possibilities are endless. Those clouds right?

You can shop for all the new supplies here.

Did any of you see the first (and epic) warehouse sale Studio Calico held on the weekend? Well now the good news is that you can get your hands on some of the heavily discounted bargains by pre-ordering a box of mystery goodies. Get a planner box, a documenter/scrapbook box or a stationary/card box for either $50 or $100 and receive a stash that's worth HEAPS more at retail prices! Check it out here.

Signing on to a new adventure!

Last week I run a little impromptu competition on my Instagram (I do post giveaways there quite regularly... and without much forethought!) where I asked if you could guess which Design Team I've just joined. It was so fun reading your different answers and it took a couple of hours but eventually the lucky Michelle guessed that I've joined Sizzix!!!

 

This will be quite new and different for me and I'm coming on board as a video blogger. Now you all know I'm a big fan of die cuts so that part's not going to be hard at all! And oh man.... you should see the haul they've sent me to work with. Including a brand new Big Shot Plus machine! That thing is huge and has so much potential for cutting out large dies. I'm so excited!

My girls are pretty excited too. No less because my very first project was to make something for both of them! There's a sneak peek of it in this photo ;-) You know they love getting involved in my videos and crafty adventures so I hope Sizzix knows they've actually just signed up 3 new designers!

Meanwhile, I have to admit I haven't been all that familiar with the Sizzix website in the past but now I'm such a fan. They've got so many project ideas that cover all sorts of crafting genres, instructional videos, blog posts, freebies, and so much more. This week the featured video is going to take you through a rustic wedding bunting project (which is great timing for me as we're in the midst of gearing up for my brother's wedding later this year!)

There's also a video tutorial on how to use your die cuts as stencils with some really awesome projects to be made - complete with downloadable instructions! You can see that here.

And one more thing you need to know about is the FREE paper archive they have. Yep, you heard that right... FREE digital papers for you to download and print for future use! Check it out here.

 

I'll be sure to let you know when my first post goes live, but in the meantime go and be inspired by all the awesomeness already on the blog.