gallery inspo.

My last post here on the Studio blog....it's always fun taking over for week. I leave you with some very inspiring layouts from the gallery. I love how each person has used there SC stamps in different ways. Like this one from Cassandra West....

See how the numbers stamp from May's kit is peeking out from the strip of paper....the perfect touch.
And this one from Nichoda..

She used the chirp stamp from June's kit to make this nifty tag. Adding the flowers makes it really pop.

I adore what Abigail did with July's postal frame. Check it out......Genius!

Thanks so much for hangin' with me this week! I've had a lot of fun! I hope I was able to return some inspiration to all you awesome SC'rs who have inspired me with the greatness that's posted in the SC gallery on a daily basis.
Take care,
Tina

winner winner chicken dinner.

Paula Barber! You're the winner for that awesome Making Memories RAK! Email april@studiocalico.com with your shipping addy. Congrats!

Now on to the nifty stamp storage.
There's so many ways to store clear stamps. It really all depends on what works best for you. I personally like to keep my Studio Calico stamps separate from the others. Before, I kept them in a basket (see pic from post below) and thought there had to be a better way to store them.

I've had this acrylic album laying around for a few months now. It's from the April project kit and I never got around to using it. Enter light bulb moment. So I grab my box of SC scraps from previous kits and got to work. This is a really quick and simple project and it works beautifully. Plus it's a great way to carry them to a crop. You stick on the stamps on the backside of the acrylic page so that you can see the design. You can also stamp the image on some card stock and place it in front of the acrylic page too.
Don't throw out those clear plastic images that come with the stamps! Those are handy little tools for when you're trying to decide where you want to place your stamp on a layout or card. Attach a library card pocket or envelope to the back to keep them all together.

Neat, huh? Like I said, it all depends on what works for you. This little book looks so much better in the basket now. Oh and I'm sure you've noticed I don't clean my stamps...gasp...not good, I know. :)

I'll be back on Thursday with my favorite dt layouts from the Confections kit along with some favs from the gallery that feature the SC stamps.

Take care,
Tina

obsession:stamps

So how happy was I that Studio Calico now includes an exclusive stamp in their fabulous kits? Very. Saying I'm obsessed with rubber stamps is an understatement. I was a stamper before I started scrapping. The photo above is just a fraction of what I own. These are my favorites. The ones I keep close by for that hand-stamped detail my page is begging for.

These are my very favorite ink pads. Like stamps, I have a lot but these have won me over for various reasons. Here's a list if you're curious:
Nick Bantock's Van Dyke Brown-the ultimate brown/sepia
Versafine Onyx Black-when you want the most even, black stamp impression
Memories Black-this one's like a polariod picture...you never know how it's going to come out. the impression is uneven and dull but I like it for certain techniques.
Versamark Watermark-when I'm feeling wild and want to emboss.
Memories Midnight Blue-this went great with the July kit.
Adirondack Lettuce & Espresso
StampFrancisco Scarlet RedThis is my pathetic temporary storage for the Studio Calico stamps. This is no way to keep these beauties so I decided to do up a little project to store clear acrylic stamps. Here's a little peek.....
I'll put up the full version along with some other ideas on Tuesday. Stay tuned for my rubber stamp dedication week!

Hope to see you all on the mb's tonight. Yes, it's premiere night. So dig up that photo of you with your mate, friend or whoever for Joy's avatar theme and prepare yourself for the over all goodness of premiere night at SC!

And, for added fun, update your birthday on your profile page, then leave a comment here for a chance to win this RAK from Making Memories! Winner will be randomly chosen tomorrow night.

Enjoy your Sunday,
Tina

Tie it all up in a pretty little bow

Challenge time!!!

Some of you may have noticed (it's pretty hard to miss)
that I love using ribbons and vintage trims on my pages.
I especially love bows.
Yes, I'm girly! Yes...I was girly before the girlies.
I can't help it!

Some of you have mentioned you are bow-challenged.
And that is where the "challenge" comes in.
Make a layout, card, project, mini...anything with a bow on it.

Post your layout to the Studio Calico gallery by Saturday and I will pick a winner.
I'm picking out of a hat this time, by the way...last time was WAY too hard!!
The winner will receive some ribbons and trims out of my stash....I collect beautiful
bits and pieces and there is no way I could possibly use them all.

I really hope you will all join in!

Below I'm adding a few SC bow layouts I've done.

have a wonderful day!!
xo
s

CHA Friends

Well friends, this will be my last post about CHA Chicago. I thought that it would be cool to show you pictures of all of the friends that we met while we were in the Windy City.

First things first, let's go ahead and announce the winner of the awesome MM stamps and acrylic block:

The winner is.........

Moonlightgrrl!!!

Please send an email to info@studiocalico.com with all of your info so that we can get your goodie package in the mail!

By the way, thanks to you all for your kind comments about the blog over the last few days, it meant a lot to me. I've really enjoyed sharing our CHA experience with you via the blog. It was a lot of fun to sit down and relive the day each night, it helped cement my memories!! Also, thanks for all of your sweet compliments on my little girl Natalee. I missed her so much this weekend and it was nice to share a little bit of that with you as well.

OK, now to the fun stuff. Here are some pictures of all of the friends that we met at CHA. I was teasing "the sandwich" and telling them that walking around with a Studio Calico T-shirt on was a little like being a ROCKSTAR. Out of nowhere, someone would come up and give me a big hug and tell me how much they love Studio Calico. There were even some that knew my name and recognized me from my avatar. It just affirmed for me how close knit all of our members are and how cool it is to be a part of the Studio Calico family! I hope that you enjoy the pictures and I can't wait to see you all again in Anaheim in January!

April and Scarlet with Kerry Lynn Yeary on Day 1.

Here is a picture of A&S with Jared our rep from American Crafts. We had a great time with Jared, he even joined us for dinner at Giordanos one night!

This is A&S with Vee. She caught up with us on Day 1 at the MME booth.

Lavern was so excited to meet A&S, it was really sweet. We met her the first night at the SEI party, be we didn't have a camera. I was so glad that we ran into her again the next day so that we could have an "official" photo!

This is A&S with Ann Davis(first row center). Ann is a subscriber who is also a breast cancer survivor. She shared a mini album with us that told her cancer story.....it was hard to read, but so well done that I could not put it down. I'm sorry Ann, but I could not remember your friend's names, I hope that they will visit us at Studio Calico so that we can get to know them too!

Here is our very own Divine Miss D (Davinie) with Holly from Pink Paislee.

Here you see A&S with Kelly Goree. Kelly was a victim of twin switch this weekend!! She had an encounter with Amber that was pretty comical.....she had a whole conversation with her thinking that she was talking to April. It wasn't until close to the end, when she paused for a second that Amber was able to tell her that she was not April. Very funny stuff!!

On Day 2 we caught up with Celeste and Dina down by the Basic Grey booth.

We also found Jill Hogans, Barb Novak (Babs), and Emily Spahn (JustEm).

We found Emily Pitts (Mlepitts) in the Expoteria on Day 2. I must say that Convention food left a lot to be desired, but it was fun to run into friends and share a meal and a few laughs!

I was really excited to meet Becky Novacek. She was our guest designer last month and she ROCKED the Apple Orchard kit!

On Sat night, I went to the 2 Peas reception with "the sandwich." We ran into Jenn Emch (nygirl), Vee and Michelle Skinner (michelleomega). It was close quarters in the room where the reception was held, but we were able to get them all scrunched together for a picture.

Last, but not least, here is a picture of me with my good buddy Elmo. I asked Amber to take this picture so that I could go home and show Natalee that Mommy knows Elmo. She loves Elmo and went nuts when I uploaded the picture this afternoon. She immediately started hollering Uh-oh, she can't quite say Elmo yet! Anyway, this picture was definitely a hit!

Well, there you have it, a photo journal of all of the friends that we met in Chicago. I know that there are some that are not pictured, some of the pics just didn't turn out due to the inexperience of the photographer (me). I'm sorry that we weren't able to get them all up on the blog, but we enjoyed meeting you regardless!!

I must sign off now and say goodnight ~ I am going to rock my little one to sleep, something that I missed while I was away, and then I'm off to bed. I'm finally going to get to bed before 11:00!!

Talk to you soon!

Lorie

Your favorite kit packer/blogger/pack mule/picture taker

CHA - Day 3 - MM Giveaway

Que music...

I would walk five hundred miles
and I would walk five hundred more
to be the one to fill your kits
with paper, trim and buttons galore.....

Yes ladies, I feel like I have walked five hundred miles in the last three days, but it has been so worth it!! I've covered a lot of ground, seen a lot of stuff and enjoyed every minute of it!! Hopefully, I've been able to give you a feel for what we have seen and tonight I want to give you a peek of some of the things that we have done. I hinted last night that I would show you my favorite part of the show tonight.......the "Make it, Take it" demonstrations that the manufacturers put together for your scrapping pleasure. These are quick projects featuring a new product, technique or tool that is available at the show. I got the DT and Amber together and we set off today to see what we could get into.....here are some pictures of our exploits.

First thing we went over to the Ranger booth to check out the new Claudine Hellmuth paints. This one also featured a new sticky backed canvas and fabric. You were given 3 sets of petals for a flower. The objective was to cover the canvas with the paint and then connect them with a brad to form a flower. Davinie, Nicole H and Nicole S were more than happy to sit down and play with the paints.

Since Nicole Harper is our resident paint expert, I watched her every move....of course, she didn't disappoint. She mixed and matched the paint to add accents and depth to the petals.


It was a great project and in the end you had a cute little flower pin to show off. It helped a lot of folks like me realize that paint is not so scary and would really make a great addition to a layout! Here is the example that they made for display....I wanted you to see it because it was larger and I was able to get a good shot so that you could see the detail.

Amber and I signed up in advance for a Pink Paislee session where we completed a really cool chipboard butterfly frame. This one was a whole project kit that that was developed for CHA and is available here if you want to check it out.


We covered all of the bases in this project.....cutting, pasting, stamping, painting and even doodling. I just happened to have some pictures of Natalee in my bag so I was able to complete the project, pictures and all. Here is my completed project for your viewing pleasure......

CHA has converted me, I will now promise to be a bona fide scrapbooker.....I even ordered an album for all of the layouts that I have planned in my head. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to find time to make those planned layouts a reality.....maybe I'll go over to April's and play in her scraproom?????

OK, now for the real reason that you ladies have suffered through this blog post....the MM giveaway. I will apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photo below....It was rainy here this morning and I couldn't get a picture in good light before we left for the Convention Center and then it was late when we finally finished for the day and the sunlight was gone. This one was taken on the tile floor in the bathroom at the hotel....do I get points for originality?

In order to be entered for a chance to win this acrylic block and these fabulous stamps, comment on the blog and tell me what you are anticipating most from the CHA new releases. It might not hurt to casually mention how cute my daughter is as well.....you just never know :) I'll announce the winner on Monday. We will be finishing up at the Convention Center tomorrow morning and then on the road all evening headed back to Bowling Green.

I hope that you have enjoyed these little glimpses of the festivities here at CHA Chicago. I have enjoyed recounting all of our adventures for you!! Stay tuned for the recap of our final day and the winner of the MM Stamping giveaway. On Monday the blog post will reveal all of the friends that we have met here in Chicago.

Goodnight,
Lorie

CHA - Day 2

First things first.....let's pick a winner from all of those wonderful comment from yesterday's blog post:

The winner is:

Tara

Please send an email to info@studiocalico.com with your information and we will get your fabulous SEI prize package to you!! Make sure to include all of your contact information.

OK, now to the fun stuff. Some folks here at the Convention Center in Chicago might have been rubbing their eyes and thinking that they were seeing double today....we decided to throw them a curve and bring April's twin sister Amber with us just to make things interesting. Check them out....do you think that you might get them mixed up??


Don't feel bad if you think that you might, several folks here got them mixed up today. April is on the right and Amber is on the left. It was actually kindof comical to sit back and watch Amber explain over and over again that she was not April. Several folks were really glad to see Amber until she told them that she was not April.....so if you are reading this and thought you saw April today and could not figure out why she acted like she didn't recognize you, it was probably Amber.

Now that we have cleared that up....WOW, what an amazing day!! I thought that last night was cool, but let me tell you, today just absolutely blew my mind!! First of all, the sheer size of the show doesn't register until you walk in and actually see row after row of booths. I had no idea that there were so many different manufacturers. When we walked through the doors this morning, it literally took my breath away. My first thought was, "How are we ever going to see all of this?" My second thought way, "I'm so glad that I wore my tennis shoes!" I mean seriously, we poured over a map last night and marked all of the booths that we wanted to visit, but I was not prepared for the vastness (if that is even a word) of the ground that we needed to cover. Fortunately, we brought reinforcements....Greg, Stephen, Amber and of course, "The Sandwich."

Once I gathered myself, I was able to really look around and appreciate the creativity that went into setting up the booths and the lengths that some of the manufacturers go to in order to entice you to their booth. There were all kinds....some were very elaborate, some very skimpy, some had too much product crammed into a small space, some had almost no product, some were well staffed, some were way under staffed. I decided to share some of my favorites with you tonight.

Here is one of the displays at Sassafras....notice the technique that they used to create the trees....amazing!


I also loved the way that My Mind's Eye displayed the new Laundry Line by Jen Wilson. They are truly "letting it all hang out."


Cosmo Cricket really blew my socks off with their themed die cuts and use of color. There was a mini album here that I literally drooled over! I don't want to reveal too much about it because I am going to work on getting the "boss ladies" to incorporate some of the ideas into a project kit!


The Rusty Pickle showcased their products with a rustic flair. They also had GREAT snacks and a cool chocolate fountain.


This is just a tiny peak of what we saw today, but they were some of my favorites. I will try to include more tomorrow.....I'm sure that I'll have more favorites after we cover some more ground. Speaking of tomorrow.....make sure to check back because I have a whole feature planned that will showcase my FAVORITE part of CHA. Also, we will be giving away another RAK, so make sure that you come back and visit.

I'll leave you tonight with a picture of all of the girls. Notice the new Studio Calico T-shirts that Stephen developed for CHA. It was sooooo cool to have people see the shirts and come up and tell us that they are a subscriber! It was really neat to meet folks face to face and talk about all of the yummy goodness that we have seen. If you are here and we haven't met, make sure to look for us tomorrow!


Stay tuned for more....
Goodnight,
Lorie

CHA + a giveaway

We left Bowling Green this morning at 6:15 and set out on our CHA adventure. Our little caravan made great time and we were here before I knew it....I'm sure that it was the good company and witty banter that made the time fly! We knew in advance that we wanted to be here in time for the Making Memories VIP party at 3:00, so we stayed on a very tight schedule. We made it with about 45 min to spare, so we had time to check into the hotel and freshen up a bit before heading to the Convention Center.

I was really excited when we got here, I could not wait to meet our design team members face to face after communicating with them all these months on the message boards! I got to meet Nicole and Nicole first....it was so cool! I've admired these ladies from afar, and then all of the sudden, here they are....standing in my hotel room....acting like we have been friends forever. I was really nervous, but they were so great that soon we were laughing and cutting up like we see each other every day. Once we completed the introductions, we loaded up and headed to the MM Party. It was so cool to go in and see product that no one else has seen before. Here are a couple of peeks for you......I'm sworn to secrecy about what orders were placed, you'll just have to wait and see later!



Once we were finished over at the MM party, some of us headed over to the Creative Imaginations reception. Greg took Nicole and Nicole to the airport to pick up Davinie and April, Scarlet, Amber, Stephen and I went over to the reception. We were in and out at Creative Imaginations pretty quick because we all wanted to meet back at the Convention Center for the SEI Party at 7:00. We also wanted to stay under the 30 min mark to keep from having to pay for parking again. You wouldn't believe parking....UUUGGGHHH!! Anyway, that is another story for another day, but I can't leave you without at least one little image of the sweetness that we saw....

The SEI party was really cool, they had this big slide show to show off each new line and gave away a ton of prizes. Again, we got to see all of the latest and greatest! One of the owners called this release some of the best product that they have ever showcased. I've got one little niblet here for you.....


One of the great things about attending these events is the great stuff that you are able to bring home and share with your friends.....with that in mind, we have an awesome SEI RAK that we will be giving away tomorrow! Leave us a comment on this blog and we will have a random drawing for some delicious goodies that we can't wait to share with you!

Once we were done with all of our engagements for the evening, we headed over to Giordano's Pizza for a well deserved meal! I love pizza and I have to tell you, this was the best pizza that I have EVER eaten. We had a wonderful meal and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone better and hearing their impressions of the products that we got to see throughout the day. Scarlet surprised all of the DT members with little packages tied up with string....she'll post pics of her creations later. Let me just say that I was touched by her thoughtfulness and astounded by her creativity and talent. Here is a peek of the packages.......


Well, it is after 11:00 and I must sign off and go to bed. I am the last one standing in our room, April, Amber and Scarlet have all had a visit from the Sandman and are off to dreamland. Tomorrow promises to be another fun filled day with lots of activity, so I must get my beauty rest. I'll make sure that we have pictures of our motley crew for you tomorrow instead of just a bunch of silly old scrapbook stuff.......yeah right!

Don't forget to post a comment to the blog to be eligible for that SEI RAK that I mentioned earlier.....I can't wait to hear from you!

Goodnight!
Lorie