Featuring Studio Calico │ Adventure Awaits Bundle

Earlier this month Studio Calico released a travel collection called Adventure Awaits. I didn't have time to work on a project prior to the launch but yesterday I was able to sit down and use the kit. I love that the kit is travelers notebook sized so the pages will fit right into your existing travelers notebooks. Its a kit that you could easily toss if your bag and create with it on the go.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

The launch included the Adventure Awaits bundle and also some additional stamp sets that you could add to it. For this project I used just the bundle but can't wait to put the other two stamps sets I received to some use.

I really love the topo map paper and its a design they have released in the past that I cannot get enough of so of course I was super happy to see it included in this kit. The kit also has the cutest tag die cuts and the acetate hearts and stars are always a good accent for travel pages.

When I was deciding what stamps to use there were several that I liked but wasn't sure how to lay them out on the page without looking to busy. Creating dangling tags is something I have done before so I decided it was a good way to go.

I stamped the images onto a simple grid background and fussy cut around the edges. I used the smallest end of my large crop o dial punch to cut small holes and added some yellow and white twine to each tag. I used my tiny attacher to staple the twine to the tag. I grouped them all under one of the die cut tags and the left side was complete. I kept the image side fairly simple and just clustered a few more tags and the hearts to add in some interest. Its a simple spread but definitely has a lot of impact and I love the finished spread.

I know the other stamps that were released along with the bundle sold out but hopefully they will be back soon, so make sure you click notify me. All of the pieces included in the bundle are also available separately so if you want more of some of these embellishments you can stock up on more too. You can find all of the items in the release right here.

Happy traveling!

Featuring Studio Calico │ Bookish April 2019

The Studio Calico Bookish kits went live on April 1st and the theme was all about reading good books and enjoying all that that brings to your life. And even if you don't want to document what you are reading I think I will help show you that the kits can be used for so much more than that theme. The colors of the kits and them embellishments were just so lovely, I really enjoyed working with the kits this month.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

I made two Travelers Notebook spreads and two full Pocket Page spreads using the kits this month so I'm looking forward to sharing them with you.

First up is a travelers notebook spread I made using the Bookish Travelers Notebook kit along with this months Stamp Subscription. The TN kit had such great tags included this month so I decided to layer a few with some flowers I made to fill the right side of the page.

This alpha stamp subscription set was so great but I wanted to challenge myself to use the stamps in a different way than just a title. I used the lined O stamp to create my own flowers and I love how this turned out.

The second TN spread I made was a quick and easy one to make. The pages in the travelers notebooks really do most of the work for you making documenting easy and fast. I loved the brush sentiment on this page and it paired well with my photo. A bit of stamping and embellishing and it was done.

 I made two Pocket Page spreads using just the Bookish Documenter kit only. There were so many great colors in this kit and I just adored this unexpected pairing of mustard yellow and pink, these colors look so good together.

My second spread was all about Easter festivities and the florals really helped tie everything together for a fun spread.

I hope you enjoyed the release this month! Even if you don't want to documenting your reading adventures I think you will still really love these kits.

And don't forget that the 9x12 Page Protectors are back in stock. I use a combination of the 3B and 4B protectors in my albums and that has been a good mix for me. There is also a multi pack of protectors if you want to try the size out and see how it works for you.

Featuring Kelly Purkey Shop │ March Shop Update

Happy April everyone! Its officially spring and I'm ready for all things sun and fun. I just wish Mother Nature would get the memo. I mean California has been wet and the mountains are covered in so much snow I feel like she's forgotten about sun shine. Every day we get that is blue and sunny has been so welcomed and its got me craving more and more.

We were able to find some nice warmish temps and plenty of sunshine when escaped to Southern California last week which was so, so nice. That meant we were gone when the Kelly Purkey March shop update happened so I'm here today to share the two projects I made this month.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

The first project I made is an insert for my Pocket Page album using just the Eating Out main kit only. This kit has such great cards and really covers a full range of eating out themes and the stamp set is so, so great. I loved the little half circle stamps that you could fill with icons or leave plain like I did.

I really wanted to fit in the lined stamps of food courses but didn't want to leave out the Let's Eat card so I opted to mask off the text on the card and just stamp so the course I wanted to highlight showed. I love how this turned out.

The labels that came with the kit were the perfect layering piece for stamping multiple sentiments on top of my photos.

My second project was a travelers notebook spread using the papers from the Food Journal Travelers Notebook kit, cards from the Eating Out kit and the stamps from the Food Adventure stamp set. I know that stamp set has sold out but I heard it may come back in April's shop update since there was so much interest in the items that have sold out.

I loved the subtle patterns of the TN kit and used them for the base of my page. Its just enough pattern to keep it interesting without detracting from the photos I used the two journal cards from the Eating Out kit to help ground my photo on the right side. It needed something a bit more than just the photo and I really wanted to add in some journaling to tell the story and that little noodle bowl card was perfect for this story.

I used as many of the noodle themed stamps as I could without making it look over done and I love how the icons and phrases move your eye across the page.

I loved the little tab stickers that came in the Food Journal kit and can't wait to label more food themed pages, the taco stamps are calling my name.

I hope you enjoyed the shop update, food is always such a popular theme so its no surprise the stamps and kits were a big hit this month.

Featuring Studio Calico │ Lucky Charm March 2019

The April kits at Studio Calico went live this past Friday and they are bright, happy and very springlike. I had the best time creating projects with the kits and stamps so I'm here to share all that I made.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

I made two Documenter spreads using the Lucky Charm kit and love how both of them turned out. The first was more of a recap of the month including St. Patrick's Day and the second was all about a one day adventure to Museum of Ice Cream and The Color Factory both in San Francisco.

One thing I try to do when I'm planning out my spreads it to look for ways to make my spreads consistent by choosing cards that repeat a theme. For this spread I ended up pulling all of the cards that had the stacked words. I love how at first glance they stand out and compliment the story and the colors of the spread. The Super Duper card was similar enough to work and I don't know if its just me but that card totally looked like a fried egg and thought it looked great with my breakfast photos. Anyone else see that?

My second spread is a whole lot of pink and I know not everyone likes it but the Museum of Ice Cream is basically a giant pink palace and man did I love it. I have a mini album for this trip but I still wanted some of the photos in this album too. I adored all of the rainbow cards in the kit and pulled my two faves to include. And when you have more than will fit, don't be afraid to get out our scissors and fussy cut and layer then up. That's what I did on the rainbow stripe card. I cut out the hand drawn rainbow so I could use both.

The Stamp Subscription this month was all about food and I adored the little food icon stamps and was super happy to see a burger was included. The Travelers Notebook kit had so many wonderful pages in it this month and I'm always drawn to anything geometric so I picked that for the base for my photo. I wanted to make sure the stamping showed up so I used a strip of vellum under the photo that gave me enough room to stamp and still allow the pattern to show. I carried over the same colors to the right side by using the circle die cut of the same colors to layer another stamp on a vellum circle. Again repetition and using similar themes are my go to design principles. I think this might also be the first time in a very long time that I hand wrote my journaling instead of typing it and then adding it on. I'm trying hard to get more comfortable doing that and I didn't hate it enough to cover it up so that's saying a lot for me.

I always love documenting what I watch and this new TV Time stamp set was fun to play around with. I could have easily cut my show images and placed them inside the TV stamp but I had done that already on a previous project so I wanted to try something new. When I saw the Faves list page in the Travelers Notebook I knew that would be the perfect place to hold my images. I searched on line for horizontal banner type images of my shows and was able to find some perfect ones for this. I figured out the sizing for the space, leaving enough room for the number so show and cropped them. To balance out the black and white on the left I used a sheet of paper from the notebook and cut it into a strip that I tore to direct attention to my stacked stamping. I love keeping stamping black and white and added in just a bit of color by coloring in the five stars.

I hope you enjoy your kits as much as I did. I know that the wait list is cleared for most of them so now is a great time to sub if you have been waiting.

Oh and the 9x12 Page Protectors are also back in stock so if you are using that size this year and have been waiting on page protectors now is the time.

Take care,