Studio Calico Seven Papers – Amelia

I love the funky fresh colours in the Studio Calico Seven Papers Amelia range and I’ve never shied from using pink on layouts of my boys especially as there’s also lots of black and white papers in the collection too.
I know time is short for many of you now now that summer is upon us , holidays ( hopefully ) are round the corner and you may have children home from school who need entertaining, so my idea this month was to do an easy peasy layout with one sheet from the collection as the background paper , both sides of another sheet  as photo mats  , a handful of stickers and a bunch of stamps. I aligned my photo with the slanted stripes on the patterned paper ( 003 )  and got stamping, overlapping some with my photo mount. The paper had enough going on in it already so the stamping was designed to blend in but add a personal touch at the same time.
 

 
I’ll admit I’m a stamp addict . I still get a thrill from ripping open that sticky strip and pulling out a shiny new sets of stamps – not to mention that fantastic smell of rubbery acrylic that always reminds me of lilo’s and swimming pool inflatables ( tell me I’m not the only weirdo that does that ?!! ) .
As I was trying to keep it simple , I limited myself to a couple of sets all of which have infinite possibilities and a mixture of sentiments and images. I love the fact that you can use words as the first part of  a title, finishing it off with Thickers or whatever although I used them on their own here. They’re very adaptable like that.


 
I also used a Chickaniddy set called 365 which although they’re not still in stock – some of you may have snapped them up when they were – lucky you – they’re fabulous.
Unbelievably there are over 40 stamped images on this layout but as they blend nicely with the patterned paper – they look like they belong. I’m enjoying using the Avery Elle ink pads in the Hey Little Magpie shop. They are pigment ink and the colours are so vibrant . Being pigment ink , it sits on top of the paper rather than sinking in so it really stands out but also has a lovely chalkiness to it . There are 10 colours to choose from – I’ve used raspberry here which complements perfectly with the Amelia range.
 

 
The gold on black stickers are gorgeous too – there are 5 sheets in the pack making it really god value and they have a real variety of texts which makes a nice change than the usual phrases … like ‘Ritual’ , ‘In My Bag ‘ and ‘Little known Fact’ . In fact , looking through them all , it’s inspired me to use them as the basis of quite a few  future layouts. I couldn’t resist adding a few more of those puffy stickers from Studio Calico’s Baxter range – they have delightful tiny hearts that give a nice pop of colour here and there.
 

 
For my second layout, my cat Jenny obliged me  by squeezing herself into a fabric tote ( remember these Sarah and Lianne –  they were the goody bags at one of your retreats ! ) which was exactly the same colour as the papers in the Amelia Collection , providing the perfect photo opportunity. I can’t always rely on the boys to oblige by wearing scrapbook friendly colours but the cats usually come up trumps !
 

 
The 6 x 6 pad has all the designs in scaled down sizes – great for matting photos.
 

 
And I just adore the  plastic glitter bows in American Crafts Dear Lizzy – Fine and Dandy range … and yes they smell of lilo’s too !
 

 

 
There are a few of the tiny cat phrase stickers from Studio Calico’s Baxter range dotted around the place too and a few of  the Bella Blvd – Color Chaos – Enamel Doodads – Oreo – another of my all time favourite brand of enamel shapes packs – 9 colours to choose from and 4 different shapes including hearts, stars, arrows and corners in varying sizes… and yes a few more of those Baxter puffy stickers.
 

 

 
So – I can’t always rely on my cats or boys to wear scrapbook friendly colours so just to show that these colours will work with any photos – here’s a layout where no-one is wearing pink !
 

 
 
There are so may patterns in the Amelia 6″ x 6″ pad , you’ll be spoilt for choice. I’ve stamped using the Avery Elle Raspberry colour again with some black for contrast, this time using some of Technique Tuesday’s – Flairific stamps . These are my go-to stamps as they cover everything. Here , I heat embossed them using white embossing powder and then swabbed some ink over the top using a resist technique so that the white shone through from underneath. The base white card stock is mounted on a sheet from the collection called 004 which grounds it nicely. I also used some of the teensy Webster’s Pages – These are the Days – Little Letters 4×9″ Sticker Sheet – Faces & Images. They are so adorable.  One more of my beloved plastic glitter bows completes the layout.
 

 
And finally another page from Websters Pages These are the Days Collection – this time for the month of July. I’m really loving these papers . I used the same sketch as last month , just flipped vertically , which is going to make putting together a year’s worth of layouts a snip.
 

 
 
 

 
I decide to print my journaling onto one of the 4″x 6″ cut-aparts on the sheet and used my Minc to print it in gold. It really makes it stand out against the patterned background and complements the gold on acetate cut apart chevron from Crate Paper’s Poolside collection  and the title inside the frame which has also had the Minc treatment.
 

 
I love to incorporate frames on my layouts but I didn’t have the right colour this time. Instead I inked up a pale coloured one with a variety of tonal blue ink pads to achieve an ombre effect ( without the expense ! )  As the paper covering the frames has a slight sheen you can smooth the ink down the frame to achieve a good shaded effect.
 

 
Thanks for looking.
Supplies used – All available from Hey Little Magpie …
Studio Calico Seven Paper – Amelia – 003 Paper
Studio Calico Seven Paper – Amelia – 004 Paper
Studio Calico Seven Paper – Amelia – 008 Paper
Avery Elle – Pigment Ink Pad – Raspberry
Studio Calico Seven Paper – Amelia – Phrase Stickers
Studio Calico Seven Paper – Baxter – Puffy Shape Stickers
Heidi Swapp – Wanderlust – Memorydex Words Acrylic Stamps
Pebbles – Jen Hadfield Cottage Living – Acrylic Stamps
Studio Calico Seven Paper – Amelia – 6×6″ Paper Pad
American Crafts – Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy – Plastic Glitter Bows
Studio Calico Seven Paper – Baxter – Tiny Phrase Stickers – Cat
Bella Blvd – Color Chaos – Enamel Doodads – Oreo
Technique Tuesday – Clear Stamp – Flairific
Webster’s Pages – These are the Days – Little Letters 4×9″ Sticker Sheet – Faces & Images
Webster’s Pages – These are the Days