August Studio Calico Kit and Layout

Its hard to believe August is here and that summer is winding down. Soon the crisp fall air will be rolling in, but first, we need to finish documenting our summer! When I scrapbook I tend to combine a lot of kits and collections and use whatever I like to make my layout come together. I decided to create a little challenge for myself to only use one kit to put together a layout. I received my August 2017 Studio Calico kit and immediately broke into it. Some of the cards and embellishments contain brighter more summery colors but I was drawn to the softer pinks and blacks and whites. I don’t do weekly Project Life layouts and instead just keep my months together. I had printed photos from the first couple weeks of the month and pulled out the photos that were a bit softer. This included a photo of details of a travelers notebook spread that I had played around with in the A Color Story app (kind of meta to scrapbook a scrapbook layout, Scrapception?), my new favorite sleep shirt that pays homage to napping, a corner of my room, and the day there was a beautiful rainbow in St. Louis (I was stuck in traffic snapping the photo).

I first pulled the cards I thought I might use. I knew I wanted to use the calendar card because I absolutely loved it!

These are the cards I pulled from the kit that I didn’t use. Aren’t they lovely?

I also loved the marble and pink card but I thought it needed some gold. The kit came with gold sequins so I decided to glue them along the card where the two sides met. The process was tedious but actually only took a few minutes.

I scrap on my bed most of the time so I’ll pretty much use any flat surface (including my Happy Planner) as a tabletop. 

I also wanted to use the stamp set that came in the kit for extra embellishment. The stamp seems to be travel focused but I made it work for my photos at home and around town. I stamped directly on the rainbow photo and I felt that the calendar card needed a little extra something so I added a stamp to the top of that card as well.

The only extra item I added to the kit was the little label for journaling which was a stamp from a Kelly Purkey set. Overall I think I did pretty well with my challenge!

July Recap and Layouts

If you’re familiar with the paper crafting world, then you’ve most likely heard of December Daily. You’ve maybe even heard of October Daily. After July ended and I had 6 layouts (!) I kind of began to think I should have done a July daily. I love summer and July seems to be the month that summer really seems to begin for me. I’ve already shared two of my July spreads in my Fourth of July post, and here are the rest.

 

This first spread documents the 1st and 2nd of the month. July 1st was a lazy day for me, I finally saw Moonrise Kingdom and the plant I have been growing really seemed to grow tons overnight. On the 2nd I visited with friends, went out to a Mexican restaurant, and played with the cutest little ginger ever. Pretty much every thing used was Studio Calico or Crate Paper, as usual.

Spread 2 is a favorite things spread. The song I could’t stop playing, favorite flower photos, and even my favorite Snapchat filter. Most of the cards were again Studio Calico. The card with the purses and makeup is a cut down page from Paige Evans’ Oh My Heart collection.

This next spread documents a weekend I spent with my friends. We went to a local baseball game for Harry Potter night, I spent the night at their house, and the next morning we went to see Spiderman Homecoming (and my friends indulged me taking the ticket picture, they get my documenting ways. Lol). I used a lot of Feed Your Craft in this one and again some Studio Calico and Crate Paper.

The final July spread is super bright and colorful and probably my favorite. It documents me stumbling across some cool art and having a shopping day with my mom. You can probably guess that this is mostly Studio Calico again.

 

How was your July? What were your favorite memories to document?

 

💜

Baby You’re A Firework

One of my favorite things about St. Louis is celebrating the 4th of July here. Fair St. Louis is an event that my friends and I have taken part in for over ten years now and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. There’s always great concerts, great fireworks, and great friends.

On this day we first headed to Serendipity, a great local ice cream place for some treats. The atmosphere is adorable with cute murals on the walls and very delicious ice cream (I recommend the Gold Coast Chocolate if you like really rich chocolate ice cream).

After we had our ice cream we headed to the fair.

The fair was so hot. Luckily a couple of my friends brought umbrellas we could shade ourselves with (and an awesome shaded playpen for the little one). On the night we went the concerts were a bit of a throwback: Eve 6, Sister Hazel, and 3 Doors Down. It ended up being a really good time, especially when the sun went down.

Although this spread is for Independence Day, its not overtly patriotic. Instead, I chose to do a more subtle Americana theme.

When it comes to creating, stamping is one thing I’ve always been a bit apprehensive about. It’s something I’ve done in the past that worried me: would I ruin this card or photo? I’ve been practicing more and becoming more and more comfortable with it. The “Today’s adventures” stamp on the title card is from a recent Studio Calico kit. The “MEGA HEART EYES” stamp is from A Beautiful Mess and I love it with Miss Izzy’s dancing photo.

I knew I wanted to use that Find your Tribe card from Gossamer Blue in this layout. For one, it perfectly matched the turquoise and red color scheme I had going on, and two, it pretty much describes how I feel toward my amazing friends. This layout got a bit sappier than a usually do, and I think a lot of it came from my Tim Holtz small talk stickers. Part of the phrases are 4th of July themed from the occasions booklet, but the rest are more lovey-dovey toward my friends (Lol).

I always really enjoy my 4th of July layouts. Do you have a favorite holiday to document?

Supplies Used

Studio Calico Documenter Kits

Gossamer Blue June 2017 Life Pages Kit

A Beautiful Mess July 2017 Messy Box

Shimelle enamel shapes (similar)

Tim Holtz Small Talk and occasions

*not affillate links, just helping out 😀

Modern Memory Keeping – Something Different

These two spreads from June are quite different from each other and from my usual style. Still, I’m quite happy with how they turned out. Both of these layouts showcase random moments throughout the month: times spend with my mom, booking my Disney trip (!!), sweet treats, and bunnies, lots of bunnies.

This side is bright and very colorful, uses a lot of different collections, a lot of embellishments (for me), and minimal journaling.

 

I’m trying to figure out why I haven’t done a blue/green spread before. I love it! This side came out quite minimal for me, so it was easy to put together and looks nice and simple.

 

 

 

 

Supplies used:

Studio Calico Documenter kits

Gossamer Blue June Life Pages Kit

Feed Your Craft Better Together Kit

Bits and pieces from Crate Paper’s Oasis Collection

Dear Lizzy Lovely Day Puffy Stickers.

 

💙

June Recap

Given my penchant for memory keeping, I only thought it would be appropriate to do a monthly recap as an additional way of documenting life. Here’s what happened in June.

 

Crafting

Still Project Life-ing. I love it. I love how it is so your own. You can make things very embellished or more simplistic. You can focus on photo heavy spreads or add in more cards and paper. I guess traditional scrapbooking can be this way as well but Project Life feels more free to me. After using this system for about a year and a half, I feel like I’ve finally come into my style and my likes. I’m currently loving Crate Paper’s newest collections, Oasis and Chasing Dreams and I’m also really loving Feed Your Craft. I just got into them and I love the designs and their super quick and courteous shipping. Check them out!

In addition to scrappy stuff, I’ve also started working on my second ribbon banner. The first I made for my best friends as a decoration for their house warming party that they now use for regular decoration.

I’m currently making one to match the colors of my bedroom. They’re fun to make, but quite time consuming.

 

Watching

Moana: I finally saw it! As much as I’m Disney obsessed, I’m sometimes bad about seeing the newer movies. In case you didn’t know, Moana has made its way to Netflix so its definitely a good time to check it out if you haven’t yet. I just loved it: the music, the visuals, the girl power. Its a great one.

Orange is the New Black: I always get excited in anticipation of the new seasons of this show, but so far this one is letting me down. I haven’t finished it yet, though I’m about two-thirds of the way through. I’ve heard it gets better toward the end, but so far its just felt slow to me.

 

Songs on Repeat

Stay – Zedd and Alessia Cara; To me, Zedd can do no wrong.

Feel it Still – Portugal. The Man; This song sounds like it would be in a go-go scene in Austin Powers, but in a really good way.

Something Just Like This – The Chainsmokers and Coldplay; This song has been an obsession since the first time I heard it. It just doesn’t get old.

 

Other Stuff

Still loving that I saw Gavin DeGraw again at the beginning of the month. It makes me really excited for upcoming summer concerts!

I’ve gotten back into a consistent workout schedule! Its only twice a week but its still much better than what I was doing (zero- maybe once a week).

 

So that was June. What have you been loving lately? I’d love to hear 💕

 

Modern Memory Keeping – STL Uncorked

This page in my album documents just one evening in my life. St. Louis held its “Uncorked” celebration the first week of June this year and my friends and I decided to check it out. We hung out at the newly reopened, and remodeled, Keiner Plaza, and ate food, chatted, and got some free stuff. At the end of the evening we were treated to a free concert from Ryan Cabrera and Gavin DeGraw (By the way, if you’ve never seen Gavin DeGraw live and get the chance to, do it! He does not disappoint.). My photos were pretty vibrant so I decided to use some bright cards and embellishments to make it really fun and summery.  Most of the cards I used were from The Story flat pack from Feed Your Craft. I also used one of the “flat flair” embellishments from this set too, and I used a stamped round label from Kelly Purkey to make it stand out more on the photo. The striped 4 by 6 card is a cut down paper from the Crate Paper Oasis 6 by 6 paper pad. I just love this collection so much!

I had so much fun this evening and I really enjoyed making this layout! I’m definitely excited for upcoming summer adventures!

 

Modern Memory Keeping – Documenting May

Let’s talk about my scrapbook.

I started scrapbooking last year using the Project Life style of memory keeping. Generally speaking, Project Life is done in a week by week format. However, what has worked best for me is documenting in a monthly fashion highlighting the bigger events that have occurred (although the way June and July are looking, you may see weekly spreads from me coming up). This month I had quite a few “random moment” photos and I needed to go a bit bigger than just one spread. That’s when cutting down one of my older 12 x 12 page protectors to 6 x 12 came in.

Several of the photos had been edited already because they were posted to my instagram, so they were bright and vibrant. I got to use a couple of my favorite newer paper collections, Crate Paper Oasis and Amy Tangerine On a Whim. I also used bits and pieces from Studio Calico documenter kits. I played with the stamp set that came with the May Studio Calico kit and I love how they look as flat embellishments on some of the photos. 

All in all, this layout is fun, bright, and me. I’m hoping to keep this style going throughout the summer.