Studio Calico Burst Mask - Part 1

Hello, Jennifer here!

I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas and 2013 is bringing you lots of happiness and crafting time!!

I've been having some fabulous fun playing with the Studio Calico Burst Mask! I've got several projects and ideas to show you, and first up are are two layouts.

Magical Moments Layout

For this first layout, about my daughter at a Christmas parade, I used the mask in the simplest way - to fill the whole page. I began by spraying the back of the mask with removeable adhesive, to stop the mask moving as I misted, and I stuck it onto a piece of white cardstock.

I protected my surface with newspaper, and then spritzed all over the mask with Mr Huey's Honor Society Mist. To get an even coverage you need to move your hand quickly from left to right (or from right to left if you're left handed) as you are spraying.

Once the blue mist had dried a little, I carefully pulled the mask off. Remember not to leave the mask on too long if you've used adhesive on it, as it will end up getting stuck forever! About 5 minutes after misting should be okay. I then left the mist to dry completely for about an hour.

Once the blue mist was dry, I unscrewed the lids of Mister Huey's Calico White and Pretty Pink Mists, held the 'straws' over the layout, and tapped the lids with my finger to sprinkle drops of mist all over the page.

Once it was completely dry I trimmed the a little off each side, and mounted it onto some mauve cardstock. 

Then I just had to add my photo and embellish the layout!

I used: My Mind's Eye All is Bright stickers from the Collection pack 

MME Rhinestones and 6x6 Paper (for the journaling)

Studio Calico Wonderland Wood Veneer Snowflakes

Hey Day Aqua Thickers

Glitz Teeny Alpha 'Yours Truly' Stickers

and a few Hero Arts Clear Gemstones!

Little Angel Layout

For my next layout, I used the mask in a few different ways...

To start this layout, about my son when he was first born, I first misted a starburst in the top left corner. I covered the parts of the mask where I didn't want the mist to seep through. It's worth testing this on a spare piece of paper to check you get the size/shape you want. Once I had done my "test" piece I cleaned the mask and placed it on the piece of Sugar Cookie cardstock (I covered up the other holes too after taking this photo) 

And then sprayed it a couple of times in the middle with Honor Society Mist. I pulled the mask off while the mist was still wet, and used the 'straw' of the Calico White Mist to flick streaks from the middle of the starbust out to the edges  - make sure you clean the 'straw' before you put it back in the bottle!!

Next I created an a mat for the journalling, by blocking off all of the mask except one section of the 'burst'.

 And then I sprayed this with My Huey Letter Jacket Mist. 

A little word of warning if you do have a go at this technique - spray quite lightly.

On my first attempt I sprayed on way too much mist and it seeped below the mask and ended up looking like this!!

Not the look I was going for! 

On my next attempt I was much more sparing with the mist and it came out much better.

I used another section on the burst as a template to cut out a piece of Studio Calico Hey Day 6x6 paper.

Which I placed below the red misted section

And added a piece of My Mind's Eye All is Bright Decorative Tape above the red section.

I checked where my photo was going to go, and added some detail to the top right corner, by covering up most of the Starburst Mask, leaving just a small arrow shape to point down at my photo.

I misted the "arrow" with Warm Calico Mist, and then outlined with a black pen so it was extra defined, and topped with a little sticker.

I then just off the layout, adding some droplets of White Calico Mist, and using the same stickers and alphas as the last layout, plus some All is Bright Decorative Brads. The cherub image was especially apt for the layout.

Hopefully this post has given you a few ideas for using the mask. I've used lots of ways all on one layout but you could use just one of the techniques.

I'll be back soon with some more ways to use the mask! 

Jennifer x

Shop for Studio Calico Mask Now

See more of Jennifer's crafting on her blog: Jennifer's Jumbles

Jenny - Inspired By Winter

In the last part of our "Inspired By Winter" series I'd like you to get to know our 4th design team member, Jenny!

In case you missed the other posts here's the links to the other DT members: 

Jennifer

Louise

Lisa-Jane

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Hi I'm Jenny and I live in Bournemouth with my husband and three children. I work mornings in a shop doing admin work and spend my spare time crafting, mainly making cards.

 

 

I've always been crafty and have dabbled at many different crafts including cross stitch, sewing (I made my own wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses), and candle making. I started card making in November 2008 and haven't looked back since. I have been on several Design teams over the years and really enjoy the challenge they give me and allow me out of my comfort zone with some of the challenges.

  

 S J Crafts owner, Sarah asked us all a few craft related questions and these are my answers:

• What was your last crafty purchase? Gosh I can't think I have been really good this year and not really bought any christmas stash and I was determined to use up the box full I had here. I think the last thing I bought was the Sizzix Stamp & die set I've used in my cards below.

• Who is your favourite Craft Manufacturer? and why? I love MME paper pads as the colours really seem to suit my crafting at the moment and Lili of the Valley and Wee Stamps for images for my cards as they are just so cute.

• What is your favourite technique? This ones easy for me. It's just got to be colouring with my promarkers. I could spend hours colouring. I find it so relaxing.

I'm going to finish up by showing you a couple of quick Winter inspired Christmas cards I made

Both designs are fairly simple with some white embossed card, a piece of torn card to look like a snowy hill, stickles glitter along the torn edge and then I added a die cut tree or snowman from this set.

 

 

 Have you finshed all your Christmas cards? 

If my cards have inspired you to make some last minute quick cards, don't forget to leave a comment. We would love to see them.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and have a read. 

Jenny x

You can check out Jenny's blog at: Dragonllew's Spot

Lisa-Jane - Inspired By Winter

Thanks for joining us for the next post in our "Inspired By Winter" series.

If you missed the previous ones you can catch up on those here and here. This week I'd like you to "meet" Design Team member Lisa-Jane.

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Hello, I'm Lisa-Jane and I'm really pleased to be spending another term on the S J Crafts Design Team!  I have a wonderful husband and I'm a full time Mum to Bella and Louis.  As well as being a total paper-craft addict, I'm also studying Creative Writing part time with the Open University.   

I've always loved cutting and sticking and collecting and telling stories so scrapbooking is the perfect creative outlet for me.  My sister-in-law first introduced me to scrapbooking about 6 years ago but after seeing magazine layouts and the price of basic cardstock, I was too intimated to do any thing more than collect bits and pieces.  A couple of years later, I met someone by chance who was an avid scrapbooker and she tipped my husband off about a local retreat as a Christmas present.  I was exhausted after some rather intensive classes but absolutely hooked!  In the last 3 years I have taken over the house with my papers and embellishments and adhesives!  I think my husband rues the day he surprised me with that ticket!

• What was your last crafty purchase?  Back last week I bought the new Echo Park Photo Freedom kit for a friend who was wanting to start scrapping.  I'm trying to get lots more friends into it so we can get together more often!  I also treated myself to this gorgeous Glitz washi tape - washi tape is my new love!

• Who is your favourite Craft Manufacturer?  - and why? My top three are definitely October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye and Echo Park.  October Afternoon have such great interesting designs in really funky colours which are great for children.  I love the versatility of My Mind's Eye with their classic designs and the ability to mix their collections together and they have such beautiful coordinating embellishments.  The winner for me though has to be Echo Park.  Their collections in the last couple of years have been fabulous with stunning papers at a cost effective price in some gorgeous colourways - what's not to love!

• What is your favourite technique? At the moment I'm really working on my layering technique.  I always ink my edges and sometimes I distress them a bit too.  I love the look of heavily laden pages with lots of little bits and pieces peeking out.  I'll let you into a secret though... using lots of stash on my pages means I can shop for more, right?!

For my "Inspired by Winter" project I created this layout with lots of layers and little sneaks just peeking out.

When I think of Winter I think of cold mornings with pretty patterns of sparkly frosts.  I used doilies to recreate the delicate patterns that the frost leaves on the windows and I used winter colours of white, grey and ice blue, with a hint of sunny yellow.  I sprayed through a doiley with Mister Huey mist and added more Winter sparkle with some white gems and some snowflake patterned vellum to make a little envelope to hide my journalling.
  
My supplies also included: MME Lost and Found 2 6" x 6" pad, stickers from Lost and Found 3 (these two MME collections work so well together), Studio Calico wonderland stickers and Glitz Cashmere Dame washi tape.   

 The Open University year traditionally runs from October to April so the Winter months for me are often spent studying.  Although this photo was taken at my graduation many summers ago, it represents years of being tucked up in the warm with a text book and a highlighter pen. 

With that in mind, I'd better get back to some studying.  

Bye for now

Lisa-Jane xx

Don't forget to stop by Lisa-Jane's blog at Inside My Head

Carta Bella Traditions Scrapbook Layouts

Hi and happy December to you all!

A few days ago we showed you Lisa-Jane's gorgeous cards made with Carta Bella's Traditions collection. Today LJ is back to share with you some scrapbook layouts made with the same collection.

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One of the things I love about this collection is the mix of traditional and modern and I have used both alongside each other for this scrapbook page.  It was the perfect colour scheme for photos of my friend's little boy at Wisley Gardens a couple of years ago. I think the rich Autumnal colours work so  well with the blue and cream.

The superb quality of these papers meant that it was a breeze to distress the edges with my scissors.  I used plain card stock for my background and a leaf punch to add some scattered details and I raised up some of the stickers on This to That foam dots.

Traditions was also the perfect collection for me to use for our visit to Powderham Castle in Devon.  I have literally packets of photos from our week away leading up to the Jubilee so there will be a fair bit of red, white and blue in my Devon album.   Here I was able to use a lot of red, cream and blue but in a more subtle colour scheme with the hints of green and yellow and cream.

The traditional patterns and muted tones matched well with the historic building and gardens.  Because this particular double layout focuses on the wider extensive grounds, I used floral dies and punches for the embellishments.

I also used garden twine to add texture and a natural border on one side of each page.  A punched border on the other page brings in another of the gorgeous patterns which is then followed through on the flowers.

I fussy cut around the large flowers on one of the papers and added dimension by curling up some of the larger flowers.  There is a lovely sheet of tags included in the kit so I used 3 of them for my journalling area, raising the central one with my writing on.

Traditions is such a versatile collection which lends itself to feminine or masculine, traditional or modern. I can see Carta Bella becoming a firm favourite of mine!

Enjoy your weekend!

Lisa-Jane x

To see more of Lisa-Jane's work please visit her blog: Inside My Head