Calling all new subscribers!

Have you subscribed to the Studio Calico kits yet?  All new subscribers to Studio Calico can receive $5 off the July kits, simply use the coupon codes below by June 30th at midnight EST! I'm in love with this PL kit you see here, and I actually ordered the PL kit for myself for next month. Can't wait to start on Project Life. The card kit is fun too, here is a link to my nine cards I made with the Valley High kit if you are interested in that kit instead! :) Grab one today!

(July's Valley High Project Life kit)

Valley High scrapbook subscription coupon code:  SCRAPBOOKVALLEY

Valley High card subscription coupon code:  CARDVALLEY 

Valley High Project Life subscription coupon code:  PLVALLEY

Gift card necklaces...

All this week, Pink Paislee and Epiphany Crafts are blog hoppin' together! Did you know that you can win a prize pack from each company? Visit both of their blogs each day this week for more chances to win! Here is a sneak of the project I made for my assignment.

I loved the heart charms sent to me by Epiphany Crafts, so I made little necklaces and gift cards to attach them to.

A peek at my second one. I love the mix of the Secret Crush line with the Cottage Farms line. It never occurred to me before to try mixing those two lines!

Stop over to the Pink Paislee blog to read more and see a tutorial on how to make these. They're fun, quick and very easy. While you are hopping, visit Epiphany Crafts as well!

Studio Calico's Valley High card kit...

Like totally, for sure!

The Valley High card kit is available tonight at midnight EST at Studio Calico for non-subscribers (available now for subscribers)! I made 9 cards just with the kit you see above - this is the main card kit! Isn't it fun?

On this first card, I used the floral stamps in the kit and stamped onto the lighter blue patterned paper to create a background. The big background flower was die cut with the Lovely Layers dies by Papertrey Ink. To make the ribbon ruffly, I stitched on it with my machine a little bit and pulled on the strings to ruffle it. Then I wrapped it around the card front and folded it over in the front a bit and stapled it for a soft look. The top piece is cut with Papertrey Ink's Edgers #3 dies.

Here I wanted a white background, but with a textured feel, so I cut the white cardstock with a Parisian Lace Doily die.

I have a butterfly punch by Martha Stewart that is an oldie, but still a goodie! Punches are a great way to add lots of pattern and color. I stamped the "hello" speech bubble with Harvest Gold ink by Papertrey Ink, but trimmed off the extra and just used the hello part.

I wanted to use the stamps in the kit to create a fun and colorful background, so here I used Sweet Blush ink, Raspberry Fizz ink, Aqua Mist and Hawaiian Shores ink by PTI. To get the stamped off look, just keep stamping the saying without reinking.

A quick and simple one layer card, but yet it has lots of dimension to it.

I wanted to feature this gorgeous paper, one of my favorites in the kit, so I used it as a background here and stamped the two flowers and "friends" sentiment onto the tag.

The heart is cut with a Heart Border die.

Isn't this chipboard fun? I had to use it up on a card. To keep the design simple, yet fun, I wanted to punch circles and add lots of color.
The stripe is actually from the 6x6" paper pad front!

This one was very simple also, I layered some of the papers in a crooked manner for a fun feel and punched a big 2" circle for the center. There is an index strip in the 6x6" paper pad which shows all the fun patterns in the pad, so I cut a piece of that index strip to use on this card to add lots of color.

Another cute chipboard piece from the kit...you could paint these, but I left mine plain.

On the baby card, I used a Button card die to cut the little squares and a Wonderful Words: Baby die for the word. You could also use your Cameo die cutting machine to cut a saying if you don't have these dies!
I love using my dies on my cards and use my Cuttlebug machine to cut them, it's so easy, love that I don't have to turn it on...simply layer my paper and my dies on the plate and hand-roll it through the machine.

Next, I decided to use the rest of the paper pad cover on a card! ha Just love those stripes!
I used the Button Card Die again and trimmed around the negative to make a frame. The "happy" was cut with the Wonderful Words Die Collection.

Are you still with me?! :) The papers in this kit are so cute, aren't they!

Last, but not least the sunburst or floral stamp was used as a border. I stamped it half way off the edges with Classic Kraft ink to create a frame around the design.

The ribbon in the kit was used to make little ribbon roses, and the leaves were cut out of white cardstock with the Turning a New Leaf die. Here's a little video I made a very long time ago on making these rolled ribbon roses. Skip ahead to the 2 minute mark! Or I have this video also with crepe paper rolled flowers, but it's the same idea.

If you liked this kit, get signed up for the monthly card kits at Studio Calico!

an SC challenge...

Need a challenge to get your mojo flowing today?

Sasha and I have a challenge for you over at the Studio Calico blog. The challenge is to use all of these 5 things on a project:

• vellum
• yellow (not all yellow...just a little bit of yellow is fine as long as we can see it!)
• frame (slide frame, polaroid frame, cameo cut frame...anything!)
• stars
• at least 2 tags

I loved her challenge and wanted to use the new Valley High card kit coming out on the 27th at Studio Calico! To add vellum to my card, I punched stars and glued them all over the background. They are subtle, but I love the look!

Stop over to the blog to read more.

Studio Calico sneak peeks...

Wahooo! It's time for some card kit sneak peeks. Would you like to see what I've been up to? I had a super creative crafty night last night (unusual for me lately!) and made 9 cards in one night- ALL with the main card kit only for July, Valley High!

I will definitely say that this is by FAR my favorite card kit I've ever received from Studio Calico! You'll probably see in my pics how much I loved creating with this kit, and the fact that I was inspired to make so many cards was awesome. Really loved the colors and more of the "girlyness" of the kit. If I get time, I might make a few more. :) Here I used part of the "hello" stamp in the kit.

More stamps from the kit on the next card! I love how you can layer these flowers. I used a "stamping off" technique to get the different lights and darks of the sentiment for a simple one layer card.

Here I stamped onto some of the patterned paper in the kit to make the aqua flowers, and I really like how they turned out. I did a little bit of sewing on my ribbon and then pulled the string to ruffle it. I wrapped the ribbon around the front of my card and then folded it over twice and stapled it on the left side.

The Valley High card kits will be available soon at Studio Calico!

Today my little girl turns 8! Can't believe it, wishing she could stay small and innocent forever! Love, love her so much. She's the kindest, gentlest person I've ever met, and I'm so lucky she was born into our family. We're off to take her to a movie and out for ice cream today - have a creative day, friends!

release day...

It's release day once again! We've been showing the new products for June over the past few days from Papertrey Ink. Would you like to see what else is being released this month? :)

I made this little book as a way to get autographs at the end of the year from friends with their names, phone numbers and a fun message. We could have really used one of these this year with Kati...they went to a few weeks of school here in Colorado and didn't buy a yearbook, so we needed to get her new friends' information to keep in touch over the summer.

I used the new Cover Plate Chevron Vertical with some Linen Vellum Cardstock and die cut the chevrons, then I poked out every other chevron and added the top piece back onto another piece of linen vellum. Does that make sense? I used the new Back To School stamps and dies, the Teacher Tickets stamps and the new Antique Alphabet stamps to decorate the front.

Aren't those apples and books so adorable? Oh my.

And the tickets could work for so many different things. I love all of the colors layered together.

School Autographs Mini Book supplies:
STAMPS: Back to School, Teacher Tickets, Antique Alphabet
INK: Pure Poppy, True Black, Hawaiian Shores, Harvest Gold, New Leaf, Classic Kraft inks
PAPER: Linen Vellum cardstock, Spring Moss cardstock
DIES: Cover Plate: Chevron Vertical, Back to School dies, Just the Ticket Border Die
OTHER: burlap, twine.
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Here is a new stamp set and dies called Bigger Blooms, which is a bigger version of the Mini Blooms!

I cut the Boutique Borders: Thanks frame twice - once from white cardstock and once from red dotty paper. Here's the trick: I cut the dotted frame in half to make it appear longer!

You're Sweet card supplies:
STAMPS: Bigger Blooms
INK: Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush, New Leaf, True Black, Fresh Snow
PAPER: white, kraft and Smokey Shadow
DIES: Boutique Borders: Thanks die, Bigger Blooms dies
OTHER: dot paper by Studio Calico.
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I must have been feeling in a black and red mood, because my next card has black and red on it also. I used Teacher Tickets, Back To School and Wonderful Words: Teacher. I created a large ticket myself by cutting a rectangle and punching in the centers with a half circle. This "houses" the rest of my design, so it's not floating on the card.

The paper clip attaches the word to the big ticket. I used the lined stamp as a diagonal in white on the background.

Teacher We Appreciate You card supplies:
STAMPS: Teacher Tickets, Wonderful Words: Teacher, Back To School
INK: Pure Poppy, True Black, New Leaf, Fresh Snow
PAPER: Smokey Shadow, Classic Kraft, white
DIES: Wonderful Words: Teacher, Back To School
OTHER: dot paper by Studio Calico, burlap by PTI, paper clip, seam binding, circle punch.
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Here I kept my design simple with some blocks of colored cardstock and used the new Live, Love, Life stamp set in matching inks, all on Classic Kraft to help the colors shine.

Thank You card supplies:
STAMPS: Live Love Life
INK: Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold
PAPER: Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart, Classic Kraft Pattern Pack, Classic Kraft cardstock
DIES: none
OTHER: none.
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Last, another simple, clean one with Polka Dot Parade #5.

I used the new Happiness in Blooms dies (leaves) with the little bird.

Happy Birthday to You card supplies:
STAMPS: Polka Dot Parade #5
INK: New Leaf, Hawaiian Shores, True Black, Summer Sunrise inks
PAPER: Soft Stone Pattern Pack, white, Spring Moss
DIES: Polka Dot Parade #5, Happiness in Bloom dies, Layerz Mat Stack 3 die
OTHER: none.
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That's it for me! For more ideas, visit the other team members to see what they've made with these same sets. All of these products will be available on June 15th at www.papertreyink.com.
Betsy Veldman

Cristina Kowalczyk

Dawn McVey

Debbie Olson

Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols

Jessica Witty  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips

Nichole Heady

Round Repeats...

We're back with another Papertrey Ink group blog post to share peeks of a new stamp set called Round Repeats. You'll have so much fun with this one, I promise you! There are several stamps in this set, just waiting for your creativity to be unleashed. :)

On the first card, I kept it simple and used the stamps to create a fun border around the sentiment. Very simple and quick card, one layer. Well, technically it's a two layer with the card front added to the base. :)

I started with the Raspberry Fizz ink in the corners, then added the Summer Sunrise ones. Last, Sweet Blush ink fills in the centers. I used a Boutique Borders: Thanks sentiment and frame.

Sending Sincere Thanks card:
STAMPS: Round Repeats, Boutique Borders: Thanks
INK: Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, Sweet Blush, True Black
PAPER: White, Harvest Gold
DIES: none
OTHER: none.
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After making a border, I wanted to try stamping these Round Repeats in a pattern to create a focal point. I made a flower with them by stamping them 4 times in a circle with Summer Sunrise ink. I popped the finished flower up over two Bountiful Banner die cuts. (I made two die banner cuts, one for each side of the flower in Raspberry Fizz ink, something different than the typical green leaves!) 
I used Background Basics: Text Style in Fresh Snow ink on Classic Kraft cardstock. A sentiment finishes it off from the new Bigger Blooms stamp set!

I was out of brown cardstock, so I found a chocolate colored tag in my stash from Creative Cafe (remember them?) and trimmed it down to fit with my card.

You're Sweet card:
STAMPS: Round Repeats, Background Basics: Text, Bountiful Banners, Bigger Bloosm (sentiment)
INK: Fresh Snow, Dark Chocolate, Summer Sunrise, Raspberry Fizz, Pure Poppy
PAPER: Classic Kraft, Harvest Gold
DIES: Bountiful Banners
OTHER: tag from my stash from Creative Cafe, twine.
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Last, I stamped white on white and heat embossed the Round Repeats flowers that I made. After cool, I inked over them with a Vintage Cream ink to set them off slightly from the white cardstock. They would work as snowflakes as well on a holiday card, but I decided to go with a birthday card instead this time. I made another large flower with another one of the Round Repeats with Hawaiian Shores ink, cut it out and added a Bountiful Banner over the top. Sentiment is from the new Bigger Blooms.

If you used a more elegant flower and color scheme, instead of a playful look like I have here, this would make a nice wedding card also with the embossed background.

Best Day Ever card:

STAMPS: Round Repeats, Bountiful Banners, Bigger Blooms
INK: Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, Vintage Cream
PAPER: white, Harvest Gold, Aqua Mist
DIES: Bountiful Banners
OTHER: butterfly punch, seam binding, white embossing powder, corner rounder.
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Visit the team to see more with Round Repeats!
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols
Jessica Witty
Maile Belles
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady