Today is the Studio Calico June Kit reveal and all of their kits are now for sale for subscribers HERE. They will be available for non-subscribers at 9:00 pm pst today, May 27th. As the header above shows, they are FULL of delicious color which makes me VERY happy!
I want to show you the two spreads I made using the project life kits and the techniques I used on them with the Hello, Hello kits and digital elements. You can see my gallery HERE with many more images of the spreads and linked supplies that I used.
This spread only uses the project life kit called Hello Hello. Some of my favorite things about this kit are all the colorful cards. I also love some of the print files this month and especially love Shanna's digital layout templates. I wanted to use those adorable, colorful hearts directly in my PL spread, so I turned them into project life cards I could print.
For my weekly title card, I cropped a portion of her 8.5" x 11" template to be 6" wide x 4" tall. I deleted the spot for the photo and the mat behind it. I then changed the title font to be the font I wanted for my word "week" and typed those letters. I printed it as you would any other print file. I stitched around the heart using embroidery floss, but you could also glue the blue twine that is in the PL kit around the heart for a similar look. I also added some droplets of Mister Huey in Sky and Mary Mary (which both go great with these kits) below the digital droplets to add more color. I cut around the bottom edge of the word "week" and then used the FIVE from the high five card below it for my week five title.
For this card, I printed the LOVE card to be 3" wide x 4" tall and again stitched around the heart. I placed a photo over the word love and added a border with the stamps from the PL kit. The two digital elements tied the spread together perfectly and added a lovely amount of color. The colors in the hearts match all the other kit colors so well.
The last way I used Shanna's digital files is on the "amazing love" circle above. I took the "amazing" printable from THIS SET of printables from In A Creative Bubble. Then I opened the digital page template from Shanna's set that is 4x3. I took the layer that says "love" and hit copy. I then pasted it onto the amazing circle. I changed the letter color of the L (since it was turquoise and didn't show up) to be yellow using my paint bucket tool in Photoshop Elements. I love layering my digital files to create unique embellishments!
This spread was really fun to make because not only did I use my PL kit leftovers, I also added in the two PL add-on kits called G'Day and Guten Tag. I also incorporated the 4x6 paper pad (which is one of my favorite items to use for PL each month as the papers are super thick like cardstock and work really well for PL card inserts) and the stamp add-on called Aloha.
I can't stop using my Neocolors as I find it so fun to color and look for ways to use them on my spreads. They are sooooo easy to color with and if you add a little water, you get such a great watercolor look. I also use them on many of my photos that have skies that are not blue enough to add more color. Let me show you some examples of how I used them.
For my weekly title card, I started witha card from the Guten Tag add-on kit that was all white with some gray circles along one horizontal edge. I colored each circle in with a Neocolor moving up the card with the rainbow of colors. After I colored them all in, I used a damp water brush and moved the color along the edges of the card so it looked like a rainbow all the way up. If you use this technique, color the circles in very dark so there is enough color to be blended along each line and the circles still stay saturated. Also keep the brush just damp, not wet since this is not watercolor paper as it will warp.
The Guten Tag add-on kit also has this "happy place" card in it that is made with watercolor paper. It was hard covering up the cute house, but I put a photo over it. I used my Neocolors again to shade the card from blue to yellow. I just colored a stripe of turquoise, then teal, then green, then yellow-green, and then yellow leaving space between each. Then I came back with a waterbrush and mixed the colors together so they have an ombre effect. Next, I stamped the little buildings from the Aloha stamp set in black ink on white watercolor paper. I used the same technique to color it from purple to blue. I cut it out and attached it to the bottom of the card. I placed some red/dot paper from the 4x6 pad underneath the words on the card and added some white letter stickers for the title.
This image is from the first spread using only the PL kit, but I wanted to show how I used my Neocolors to brighten the photo. The original photo was very drab. My daughter showed up well and was colorful, but the sky was gray and washed out and the rocks were very plain in color. I added some blue to the sky and brown and copper to the rocks to shade them. I also used a damp water brush over the colors to blend. It dries nicely on Lustre photo paper with no warping. I used the stamps in the PL kit with the Color Theory Clean Slate ink pad. I love how the Color Theory inks don't smear on photo paper - they are immediately dry and work perfectly.
I also used Color Theory ink on this Jump photo above. I used the Something Blue ink pad (which is a turuqoise color) and the little starburst stamp from the Aloha add-on set. No smearing right on glossy paper. I used a pink Neocolor around the edges of my photo to add depth. I can't stop using those crayons. I guess I want to be a kit again!
I cut the circular cork border from the Guten Tag add-on kit in one spot and then made it a straight line and used it along the border of one of my cards and the dress on the little girl card from the same add-on. I also used the starburst stamp from the Aloha stamp set on her dress to dress her up a bit. And of course I couldn't resist adding eyelashes! I also wanted to show you how I have been cutting out photos into silhoettes lately. It is SO out. And almost embarrassing to use this technique. But sometimes it just does a photo justice! For the bottom right card, my girls were sitting against a red wall, so by cutting around them and placing them over the 4x6 sheet of the red paper, it adds so much more interest to the background. Also, on the photo of my daughter jumping against the sky, I cut her out and added her to another turquoise paper from that pad and she looks way more interesting. Right? Or is this just not a good technique to use. You can tell me. Be honest. haha
And that is it! I hope you enjoyed reveal day at Studio Calico and you were able to get all the goodies that you wanted! All of the kit links above will work now for subscribers, but not be active until 9:00 pm pst for non-subscribers. And don't forget, we have a reveal chat tonight at 8:00 pm pst. Thank goodness Bachelor was on last night - haha! Have a great day friends! suzy
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