Granny's Cupboard...Studio Calico May.

hey everyone!! just taking a minute to share my layouts for Studio Calico's May kit, Granny's Cupboard...so much packed into these, and I had so much fun using it to bits this month!

Date Night is something Allie and i look forward to every now and then when Mike is out of town. she and i usually go to dinner and a movie, but we had some extra time here, so we went shopping at the mall as well. snapped this photo of us outside with my phone...and made what i would consider a GIRLY PAGE...WOOHOO! girly for me anyway, lol. i am still in love with the Months stamps from the shop, and use them whenever i think about it. i used the photo corners from the K&Co. ephemera pack in the Trinkets add-on to make butterflies...kind of neat to think outside the box and use what you have in a different way. the kraft border down the center was a complete fluke, lol...i wasn't sure which border punch i wanted to use, so i was testing each on a scrap of kraft cardstock. ended up liking both so i plopped it down on the white cardstock base and let it roll!

shop supplies:

• Double Embossed Dotted Lace Punch
• Bracket Border Punch
• Cream Maya Mist (my FAVORITE mist...great for toning down white cardstock a bit)
• Studio Calico Months Stamps

so a few years back, Allie and i were at a yard sale and she picked up this tablecloth that, in my eyes, had seen better days lol. as a wee one, she was drawn to the wacky colors...and since it was only $0.25, i figured i'd humor her. when we went to pay for it, the gal running the sale explained that as a small girl, this was the tablecloth that they dyed Easter eggs on every year...so if Allie was going to buy itm she had to promise that we would use it for that reason ourselves. we agreed and went on our merry way. fast forward to this year, when i (mistakenly) assumed that since the secret was out at our house regarding Mr. Bunny's authenticity, we wouldn't be dying eggs. i was gently reminded by one almost 11-year old girl that we had 'pledged' to that gal at the sale that we would pull it out year after year until we passed it on to someone else...and these are the pics i snapped that day a few weeks ago.

Shop Supplies:

• Yellow Pastel Paint
• BG File Set

this next layout totally came about from a FaceBook post i made one day while Allie and i were at the library. she randomly confessed as we were walking in that whenever we go to the library, she tries to figure out how many WORDS are in all of the books there. her guess?? 'at least a million, mom'. i love that she thinks like that...and tells me about it. she and i have devised a plan to try and get a ballpark guess over her summer break, and i knew i wanted to write this one down, lol. i opted to use just one of the October Afternoon Thrift Shop Journaling Cards from the Shop on here, but after punching all of them off of the 12x12 sheet they are shipped on, i cut the borders that were left out and used those to make little frames...i am OBSESSED with frames lately.

Shop Supplies:

• October Afternoon Thrift Shop Journaling Cards
• Large Double Butterfly Punch (probably my most used punch!)

This next one is pretty simple/clean...and i really love how it turned out. we have 3, yes that's right...THREE hyacinths that bloom next to our side door every year that we wait for, lol. Allie always snips them and brings them inside so we can enjoy seeing/smelling them...and even though they only last for a few days, it reminds us that spring is just around the corner. it is no secret that i LOOOOVE graph paper, and so when i saw the 'B' side of the SC 'Tupelo' paper, i was all aflutter. i opted to cut a few squares out with my Xacto knife and place punched strips backed with patterned paper in them to make 'windows'. kind of a fun way to use your border punches in a different way!

Shop Supplies:

• Modern Garland Border Punch
• Yellow Pastel Paint
• Craft Knife
  

this last layout may be my fave of the month. i found some photobooth pics of my Mama, scanned them and then printed them out to use. used my 1 inch square punch to punch out some bits of the October Afternoon papers and my Xacto again to cut the frame off of the OA Great Find paper to use as a border. i LOVE that i have these photos of her, just after she married my Dad. even though the pics are nearly 40 years old, they are just so 'her' that i smile whenever i look at them. i also used the Photo Labels punch to add some fun words to the edges of the pics! Shop Supplies:

• Craft Knife
• Photo Label Punch
• Bubbles Border Punch
• Pastel Yellow Paint
  

so there it is...Granny's Cupboard in all her glory, lol!!
hope you enjoy it as much as i did!

National Scrapbook Day at Studio Calico.

so this Saturday is National Scrapbook Day...and Studio Calico has a million different ways to celebrate our hobby!



from 10am to 7pm (EST), we will have hourly chats with the DT members...we are pairing up to chat the afternoon away while we scrap. no topic is off limits...we can talk techniques, the new Kit (available TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT EST!), Glee, the weather...you name it. just a little friendly banter to move your day along with a smile. :)



in anticipation of the Event, each DT member has chosen a challenge...the completed list will be posted both at SC and on the SC Blog. Mine is pretty simple: USE AN OLD PHOTO! i loooooooove to pull out old photos for layouts...even if i don't remember or know what was happening when that photo was snapped, i can still use it to tell a story i DO remember. and the only one who is any wiser will be me. :) so since i can't show you the entire layout until after midnight EST tonight, here is a snippet:

an old photo of my Mama...how fun is that?!

i hope you join us on Saturday...each Challenge offers a $10 SC Gift Certificate, and who wouldn't want that?

see you then!!

a sneak peek into Granny's Cupboard.

hello all!!

wanted to share a few sneaks of Studio Calico's May kit...Granny's Cupboard. this kit has tons of the new October Afternoon Thrift Shop line (my fave line from CHA), and so many other fun tidbits. i picked up the Trinkets add-on, but also have bits from the others from my stash...here are a few layouts i've made so far... those red American Crafts thickers add such a great pop of color to this kit...LOVE them.

you can't tell, but this layout above is actually VERY girly for me...and i love it! who knew?!

loving the bright spring colors in these...an EASTER layout?i am terrified of 'holiday' layouts, but this one was actually fun!!

hoping to get one or two more done before i head down to Nashville on Thursday to meet up with April, Steph and Lorie...still can't believe i get to see my friends AND go junk shopping AND take some awesome classes with Jenni Bowlin. total spur of the moment decision, and i'm so excited i just can't stop smiling!

have an awesome week!!

:)

love for Home Front.

hey everyone!! just want to share a few layouts i've made recently using mostly the Home Front line from Studio Calico...and share a quick Public Service Announcement re: the Home Front line and it's availability.

i recently snapped this pic of Allie making cookies. now, the funny part about it is that she doesn't actually eat the cookies...or sweets in general for that matter. (clearly, she gets this from Mike, because her mama would rather eat dessert than 'food' any day of the week and twice on Sunday, lol) but every now and then she asks if we can bake cookies from scratch, and we whip out the baking sheets and mixing bowls. like just about everything else in her life, she takes this verrrrrrrrrrrrry seriously...much thought goes into the composition of each cookie and there is distinct purpose in her eyes. when i asked her why she is so intent on them being just right, she told me...

'Mom, it's really no big deal...i just take a calculated guess with the spoon and they turn out fine.'

well, baby girl...not exactly, lol. but i love it. so i used the B side of the Periodical paper from Anthology as my base for this page...p.s., Anthology will be available at the Studio Calico Shop starting at MIDNIGHT EST tonight!!! i used a random strip of both the Odds & Ends and Conversation Piece Home Front papers and a piece of the awesome wood veneer i had leftover from a kit as the border. i punched along the side of my photo using the Apron Lace punch, which is such a fave that i reach for CONSTANTLY, that i'm thinking i should add the Open Scallop border to my stash as well...i tied a snippet of Bittersweet Jute to one of the holes and tucked the ends of it under the photo so they would stay in place. the alpha border is the Typeset rub-on in Red, and i threw a few random stickers from the Home Front Label Sheet along the right side toward the top to balance things out a bit. and i can't seem to stop reaching for the Alphabet Stickers...that woodgrain is divine and well, we already know of my love of grey!

this next layout was made using a sketch for Creating Keepsakes' magazine's March/April issue. i opted to use only 1 page of the sketch, but had a blast with it! anyone who lives where winters are tough understand what it's like to get the itch to be outdoors...and as soon as we get that first break of warm weather here in Ohio, Allie is begging to load up the bikes and hit the trails.

so...i am loooooooooooooooving white cardstock lately. but i often spritz it with just a bit of Maya Mist to break up the starkness, and on this layout i used the Orange Maya Mist. the image of the young fella on bicycle from the Odds & Ends paper was perfect for this page, so i replaced a spot that initially was for a photo in the sketch with him. the green tone of the B side of the Dollhouse paper screamed 'spring' to me, so i ran a fair-sized chunk of it along the left of the page. defined the edge of that with the orange piece of the Home Front Fabrips (just crinkled them a bit as i stuck them down)...hand cut a strip of that beautiful scalloped border from the A side of Dollhouse, punched a few photo corners from the wood veneer (i made that stuff last FOREVER, lol!)...added a title and voila! i punched a circle from one of the Journaling Cards and plopped it in the center of the photos to kind of keep them together and also edged all of the photos with some of the Touch of Teal paint from the Shop so they would stand out a bit.

so.

here comes my PSA re: the Home Front line.

April has confirmed that there will be no more reprinting of this line...which is to say, that what we have left in the Shop is all that we have. let me stress that a different way:

if there is something you love from this line, BUY IT NOW!! once it is gone from the SC Shop, IT IS GONE!! i would hate to see anyone miss out on having a back-up for one of these fun items...i mean, i will confess to having probably 10 sheets of my fave ledger paper of all time in my stash lol. i still reach for it!!

so run to the Shop and add your faves to your cart...buy them now (they aren't 'yours' until they have been purchased...please remember that), and shoot a note to info@studiocalico.com so they can save it to be shipped with your May kit at no extra charge!

i'll say it one more time...

don't miss your chance to stock up on the Home Front!!

:)

'Mom...i'm just glad we're us.'

and with those 6 words, my heart melted.

i was flipping through some pics a few weeks ago...looking for a few to take with me on a cropping day with Jenn, when i noticed that Allie was looking over my shoulder. no big deal...she often sneaks up and does this, lol...i don't even flinch anymore. we were kind of laughing and making comments on the ones i had printed already. (i usually print when i sit down to make a layout, because i am not fortunate enough to be one of those scrappers who knows exactly where their layouts are headed when they get started, lol. i'm more a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal i suppose...).

and then she saw this one.

and we talked about that day at Cedar Point last summer, and what a fun time we had on our annual Father's Day outing. but then she said something that literally caught my breath. we have a fun time looking through photos and telling each other what makes us happy about them. usually it's a specific event/time/joke that comes to mind...but this time, she simply said...

'you can tell in this one that we're both so happy, even though nobody can see that you were tickling and squeezing me...Mom, i'm just glad we're us.'

there it was.

her heart...flung right out in the open.
and mine, thudding so heart i would swear the neighbors could hear it.

and i knew that if i opened my mouth, i would cry lol.
(in a good way)
so i squeezed her hard and smooched her on top of her head.

man, who knew that 6 words could shake you so hard?

Supplies:
-Studio Calico Home Front Dollhouse paper
-Studio Calico Grey Typeset rub-ons
-Studio Calico Anthology Journaling cards & Labels
-punches: Chrysanthemum (Martha Stewart), Upper Crest (Fiskars) amd Asterisk (Paper Source)
-Cosmo Cricket chipboard alphabet
-Making Memories pearl brad
-Creative Imaginations WoodVeneer