Insider Tips : Create a White Wash on your papers

Hey there!

Today, I'm going to show you how to make a WHITE WASH on your patterned papers without having to use water.

Simply use GESSO and a plastic card (just like a customer card you get at EVERY STORE).

Take a bit of gesso on your card.


Apply randomly on your patterned paper.


Spread as fast as you can, as gesso dries pretty fast.

Now, hold your card tight and try to get rid of the gesso : the white wash effect is here!

You can also use your plastic card as a stamp : simply put more gesso on your card and draw shapes with it!

Here's one of my layout made with the Continental July kit.

and here, a mini album I taught in France. I used my card to apply both gesso and acrylic paints (I used Yellow, Turquoise and Red for this album).

Have a wonderful day!
:)

Tuesday Inspiration : we LOVE collage artists

Mixed Media and Collage artists have always been a passion of mine : I've been doing Mixed Media since I was 17 and I've been lucky enough to take classes with some of the most talented artists like Karen Michel, Lynne Perrella, Nina Bagley, Michael De Meng, and more...

This week, I wanted to show you and bring you some inspiration from FOUR artists that I truely LOVE : Lynne Perrella (my Mixed Media mentor), Claudine Hellmuth, Teesha Moore and Karen Michel.

Be inspired!

Art by Lynne Perrella


Art by Teesha Moore


Art by Claudine Hellmuth


Art by Karen Michel


What about you? Who are your favorite Mixed Media artists?

Enjoy! And don't hesitate to visit these artists' amazing websites for more inspiration!

Partly Sunny Favorites

I completely forgot that I was supposed to blog yesterday. I'm really sorry. I went hiking in Boulder with the family then we had friends over for swimming and kabobs. It was a delightful day, completely void of any thought that I had a job to do! So I hope that perusal through the Partly Sunny gallery will make up for it. :)

Also I'd like announce the winner of Sasha's rub on challenge, it's Rimna! Please send your information to info@studiocalico.dom stating you're the winner of Sasha's Rub on Challenge for the week of May 24. Congrats! Here's her layout:


And now the DT gallery favorites, through my eyes. I decided to go backward through the gallery this time. So enjoy!

I had a hard time picking a favorite from Waleska's gallery this month, they were all fun and happy, but I think this one won because of the banner. I love how she stamped underneath it and then added the fabric swatches over top. And those faces? How could you not smile at them?

Not Tina's typical style, but it is totally fitting for the topic she journaled about here. I think that's why I love it. Her journaling is absolute joy on paper. Everything on this page has a reason of being there. Love how she chose her title too, it's a fun way to use the strip.
I wanted to pick Airplane Alert for my favorite, just because I loved it in Susan's sneaks, but come on, how can you not laugh and smile at that picture? I thing Susan's happy selection of papers and embellishment perfectly highlight an adorable baby. :)

I love the way Steph W. captures her 6 years with her sweetie. A fun way to look at things that can seem so day to day. I love hwo she used the MM flowers, the perfect little touches to a beautiful layout. And the paint and stamping balance so nicely with the K&Co paper lace, pretty.
Hee hee, Steph H. made this before she knew about twins and I think that's part of the reason this one is my favorite this month. I just LOVE the stamped starbursts around the circles, brilliant, but the journaling is the best part. Well, that and how she turned the 8 into an S. Um, cool.

I love how Sasha took a couple of different papers and used bits and pieces of them to compliment the Jenni Bowlin Coredinations paper. What a fun finishing touch to add the stitching. I love the "Impossible Nothing" she added with the MS punches. Very cool.

By no means is this kind of layout unique. Lots of scrappers have captured whole season on a page before, but the way Nicole S. has designed this one is so beautiful. Her strips of paper between the photos and the center so nice and clean allow the photos to shine.
This one by Nicole H makes me giggle for a couple of reasons. First, I'm at the bottom of the technology latter as far as it comes to phones. And I know when I some day convert as she has, I'll be the EXACT SAME WAY. Secondly, it's green. Could that be any more perfect? I also LOVE the look of the bubbles punched cardstock over the striped MME paper from Front Porch. Lovely.

Bright colors popping against the fun Cosmo Coredinations is one of the things that I loved about this layout, but then I noticed the green stitching and that won me over Maggie!

See how easy it is to bring momentos from your life into your scrapping? I adore how Lisa used the tag from her son's birthday/mother's day trip to a cupcake shop in her layout. It's front and center, but doesn't take away from the fabulous photos. Great way to use that stamp too!

I love how Laura can capture so much in such few supplies. Her stitching and type always pull me in to study. and then she does the cute little heart over the top of the yellow and it just makes me smile.


Yep, I was right. I knew I'd love this one by Kelly. The colors just POP on the dark cardstock and combined with those hilarious pictures of Brady, well this one went into my favorites pile pretty quickly. I love how Kelly used the banner stamp too.
Although she had a bunch of masterful layouts in her gallery this month, I REALLY LIKE Joy's idea. Pre-make a summer fun album and fill it in as you go. What a clever idea for capturing your summer before it slips away. You can tell this is a momma who's good at planning ahead. Since summer officially starts for me this weekend, I'd love to slap something together, now i have a template to copy. :)
Always one for her happy combinations of paper and color, Jenn did not disappoint this month. I love how sh used the cloud paper tucked into all her strips of color to represent a rainbow. Beautiful!

I knew when I saw her sneaks I'd like this layout. I was even more pleasantly surprised! the way Davinie brought in the fabric swatches with the Jillibean flowers from Front Porch makes this layout sing of summer.
Celine's album was so beautifully put together, I really loved how she combined the green/yellow/browns in the kit and made a fun album about her friends.
This alphabet set was the reason I bought Front Porch as my add on this month. I love how April took hers a step up and colored them. It's absolute genius! And what a fun look at her 9 years of marriage, congrats April and Greg!
Finally we come to Mou Saha's gallery. I love Mou's style, probably because we're both inot handwriting your journaling. It always pulls me in on her pages. I love the perspective on this photo, and the planes are just fun.

Wednesday Tutorial - Paint Splatters

I know this is going to seem really easy, but this is one of THE most asked questions about my layouts lately.

First, gather a cup, a basic paintbrush, some craft paint like this from Making Memories, or any other acrylic paint like Claudine Hellmuth's Studio line. Also, have some water on hand.


Next, add just a little paint to your cup. Once you have the amount of paint you want, depending on your project, add just a little water to thin it out. Always add water to your paint, because if you begin with too much water, you'll waste a lot of paint trying to get it to the right consistency.


Mix up the paint and water, then go to town. You can also use a toothbrush for this, and bend the bristles back to splatter paint in all different directions.





Once you're done splattering, and the paint has dried finish decorating your piece with mists and stamps. I used Sunflower Yellow, Orange, and the awesome vintage airplane stamp from the Studio Calico shop.



Then you're done! Add this technique to gifts, art journals and layouts :)


xoxo,

Steph W.

Insider Tips! "Sunshine & Waves"

Hi! Susan here again today with a few insider tips on how I put together one of my layouts with January's Whodunit Kit... "Sunshine & Waves"



I love this photo of my son, Evan, that I snapped of him playing on the beach. Despite it being winter, I wanted my page to have "beachy" feel. The kraft cardstock underneath my photo & journaling helps with that overall feel, as does the turquoise blue + yellow colorscheme. I used the Hydrangea Blue mist to very simply add a bit of depth to the light blue background cardstock.

I used my circle cutter to cut out my "sun" and then pinking scissors to give the sun some "rays". I thought that the sun could use a cloud in front of it, and decided that one of the pages from the Maya Road scalloped chipboard mini album would be perfect as my cloud. I painted my cloud white using white paint, and then after it was dry I sprayed it with the mist. The cloud needed to pop off of my page, so once the mist was dry I used a smaller paint brush to gently edge the scallops on the chipboard cloud with white paint.

The cute, CUTE birdie stamps in the Colonel Mustard Add On kit were a perfect embellishment for this page. To use the bird stamp in a similar way to the way that I did, stamp your image, and then trim from cardstock leaving a "tab" underneath the image like this:

The stamped birds can then be tucked into anything like a punched border (as they were on my page!), or under a sticker, piece of paper, or behind a chipboard alphabet letter.

I hope some of these tips will help you try something new on one of your projects sometime soon!

:) -Susan

tutorial : snow frosted background

Happy New Year's Eve! I'm popping in here today with a tutorial to help you add a layer of frost to your winter layouts.

The January kit, Whodunit, has a gorgeous color scheme that is awesome for any season - but I wanted to make it even *more* winter-y for a page featuring my older boys sledding with friends. I started my page by drawing a border 1in in from the outside of my 12x12 cardstock, and then punching squares of various patterned papers from the kit and arranging them in rows inside my square. I used a square punch from Fiskars, but you could simply use your trimmer to cut squares if you don't have a punch. I attached each square of patterned paper to my background using just a bit of adhesive in the middle of the square.



Now, I'm loving this color scheme, but it's a bit spring-y for what I'm going for. I could have left out the greens and yellows, but I really liked the pattern that those pieces added. I knew a wash of white paint could tone down the colors and give me the effect I wanted. I used Manila paint by Making Memories, but Claudine Hellmuth's Blank Canvas paint would work just as well. I love these brushes - the set is inexpensive and they are *much* nicer than the brushes I used to pick up at my local craft store! I put a glob of paint on a paper plate and then soaked my brush in water. I dabbed the brush in the paint and then brushed it across the plate a couple times to remove the excess paint and water. Remember - you can always ADD more paint to the background, but you can't take it away - you'll want to start with very little paint on the brush. If you get a spot that looks too watery, press a paper towel over the top to soak up the excess.



I brushed my watered down paint across the background, adding more paint and water as my brush got dry. I ended up doing two coats to get the shading that I wanted. I painted a little outside my block of squares on all sides to give the piece a nice border. While the paint was still wet, I sprayed the whole background with Silver Plated Maya Mist - the Iridescent Pearl would give you a similar effect. It didn't add any color, but it *did* add a frosty shimmer. Since I only adhered each square in the middle, the water in the paint warped each piece a bit, giving the background some dimension. I hadn't planned on this, but really loved the effect.



I love the star stamps that came with the main kit, and wanted to work them into my design. I laid my photos and journaling block onto my page so I had an idea of what areas would be covered, and then added a couple of stars to each row. I stamped with silver pigment ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder - the stamping is subtle, but adds an extra bit of shimmer and interest to the background.




I cut the scallop sticker from the sticker sheet in half and added it to the top left and bottom left of my square of blocks and then I stitched a border with grey thread. I stamped the journaling stamp with black ink on blue patterned paper twice, and cut each block out. I used one whole to hold my journaling, and cut the top off another and used it as a date tab at the top of my page. I took advantage of the white space in my larger photo and layered the smaller one on top of it, and then added them to my page with foam adhesive. I wrapped the photo with red baker's twine and finished the layout with a few button accents, and a label sticker embellished with star rubons.



While I've used this white washing technique to get a snowy look, it can also be used to unify *any* collection of patterned papers. This would be a great way to use up a bunch of scraps that don't quite match. You could also add a twist to it by using a bolder mist over the top of your background. I hope you get a chance to try this technique, and please link me up if you do!!