I am being Featured on Studio Calico Blog and a Giveaway!

I was super excited when I was asked to design layouts for the Studio Calico Sunday Sketch contest. My layouts are being featured on their blog today. Studio Calico products are amazing, popular and are at the cutting edge of the scrapbooking industry. They started off with kit clubs and then started manufacturing their own line of products.

They usually have a card sketch and a layout sketch on their blog every Sunday. These sketches are based on cards and layouts made by their design team. They choose Studio Calico members to design layouts based on these sketches and feature them on their blog. I am very happy that they selected me for this week. You have one week to submit your layouts on their blog to be entered into the sketch contest.

I made layouts for both the layout and card sketches. I had to adapt them both for 12x12 layouts but otherwise stayed true to the sketches.

For the layout sketch, I used photos of Arjun and Surya. Arjun has started reading to Surya at bedtime sometimes. I think this is such a special development between them and I wanted to record this with a layout.

Here is the layout:

For the card sketch, I used a photo of Surya taken at the Santa Barbara zoo. We have a ton of photos of the kids sitting in this egg over the years. I have one of Arjun's that is really cute too when he was about 2 also. One day I might make a layout with both of these photos side by side. Here is my layout:

For both of these layouts, I used studio calico products and products that I have been getting in their kits over the past few months. The kits contain products from the newest released lines in the scrapbooking industry and they enable you to use fresh and new products. I am so happy to have subscribed to their kits. You can see the kits here.

If you are a follower of my blog and if you leave me a message on this post by October 6th I will pick one lucky winner and send them a $10 gift certificate from Studio Calico or Two Peas in a bucket or Amazon - you can choose.

For more details about the layouts check out Studio Calico blog here.

 Have a fun filled and relaxing Sunday :)

~Neela

 

Surya's Trains

Surya has a lot of trains right now from the Thomas collection. These are all actually Arjun's trains that Surya inherited. He plays with them everyday. He gets his brother to build the tracks for him and plays with his trains for hours and makes up stories about them. It is fun to watch him because Arjun used to play with the trains the same way. Sometimes they play together and it is such a pleasure to see them together.
For Hello Story week 9, the topic was Numbers .... to make a layout interesting with numbers. I immediately felt that I should do a layout with Surya and his trains. I collected the trains from all over the house and took an inventory of them. He has way more than he needs. All my friends, my parents and brother would give Arjun these trains every time they visited. So he had collected them over the years and now Surya gets to enjoy them.
So here is my layout:

 

 

I used a lot of goodies from a bunch of Studio calico kits. I also used a Maggie Holme's paper and one from Amy Tan's Yes Please. The number chipboard stickers are from American crafts. I typed up all the names of the trains with Impact Label font.

My goal was keep the colors of the layout bright and fun and I think I achieved that . I really enjoyed making this layout.

What numbers would you like to record?!?

Have a great day...

~Neela

 

 

My Journey

I am catching up on Week 8 of Hello Story class. The topic for this class involved maps and how to tell a story using maps on a layout. Ali encouraged the students to do no photo layouts. I think they are more challenging because you need to tell the story with words as compared to letting the photo tell most of the story. It was hard for me to make this layout. I am finding it quite hard to write about myself. It may be because I want to share this on various forums.

I really liked the water color maps that you can generate from http://maps.stamen.com . I generated one of India and one of U.S to tell the story about my journey from India to the U.S. I should have written way more but felt very inhibited to do so. In any case, I used a very simple grid design for the layout. Here is my layout:

 

 

For this layout I used Marks and Co and Salinger kits from Studio calico. I love the pink and aqua paper by Dear Lizzy - Polka Dot party. The background paper is from fancy pants. I also really like the gold arrows from freckled fawn. The letter stickers are from Glitz Designs. I picked up the sequins from Michaels.

Have a great day.
~Neela

The 5Ws - Flying Fish

This is my second layout for week 10's subject of Hello Story with the topic of 5Ws - Who, Where, What, Why and When. This time I chose a photo from our recent trip to Sea World in San Diego. I think it is just by sheer luck that I got this photo of Chandu and Surya on the Flying Fish ride. Arjun and I were sitting in another Elmo Flying Fish. Apparently, I was not supposed to keep any cameras or cell phones outside but didn't know. After I clicked a few photos of them, the operator started announcing to put away all cell phones and cameras. Anyway I am happy I got my photo. For me this was another fun layout. Just simple and straightforward.

Here is my layout:

Ali gave us the cut files for the 5 Ws. I made them larger than the original size and cut them out with the silhouette. I used the Double Scoop kit from Studio Calico for the cardstock. I love the background paper from the Cut & Paste collection from MME. I love the color gradient from blue to green. I also love the cloud paper from the same collection. I used some stickers and other other elements from Dear Lizzy - Lucky charm collection, Amy Tan - Yes please collection and Maggie Holmes collection from Crate paper. The enamel dots are from freckled fawn. 

As you can tell, this class was worth every penny. The number of digital files we got and all the new techniques and thought process that I learnt from this class are priceless. We have just two more weeks left. I feel so bad that it will end but totally appreciate all the effort that was put into creating this class.

Try to take a class if you can.... even if you are an expert scrapbooker, it totally gives you a different perspective and will spice up your work.

Have a great day....

~Neela

The 5 Ws - Fun at the Zoo

We are on the 10th week of Hello Story. I haven't made any layouts for the 9th week and still plan on making another layout for the 8th week. It is quite hard to keep up. I hope I will be able to stick to my goal of 2 layouts per week for this class over the next couple of weeks.

This week's topic was to make layouts using the words - Who, When, Where, Why and What. I really loved all the layouts that Ali Edwards made as examples. She is such a talented person and seems to have unlimited creativity. She gave some silhouette studio cut files and digital overlays for this week. I used the silhouette cut files. They were these fun circles and I totally loved them.

I decided to make a layout with Arjun and Surya having so much fun sliding on a little hill made of artificial turf at the park in Santa Barbara Zoo. This is the first time that both of them sat together and did the sliding together. Before this Surya never knew how. This time Arjun took Surya with him and taught him how to. But I think they had most fun when they were sliding down together. It is so much fun to see them bonding more and more everyday.

Here is the layout I made:

I know, this is a boy layout and I used so much of pink. But I love these two papers from Dear Lizzy - Lucky Charm collection. They are beautiful and look great when paired together. So I made all the photos black and while and used these two papers. I also used the 'Treasure these moments' sticker from Yes Please collection from Amy Tangerine. I used enamel dots from MME.

I really love making these fun layouts of wonderful moments. Hope you have fun looking at them.
~Neela

These Hands - Hello Story week 8

This week's prompt for the class was maps. I know that you will think there is no connection to the layout I made and maps. But one of the layouts that Ali made was thinking of the different parts of the body as a map and kind of explain what they do right now. She had made a layout of her hands and what they do. I thought it would be fun to do a layout of Arjun's and Surya's hand prints and what they currently use their hands for. When I was writing down all the things they do, it was fun to contrast how they use them to do different things right now. I also loved to see the contrast between the sizes of their hands. I could direct Arjun - my 8 year old very easily what to do but it was a different story with Surya - my 3 year old. With Surya's hand prints, I had to do a couple of tries. They are still not perfect, but that is part of the fun. I don't think I have ever made and stored their hand prints before. So this was a fun project. Both and Arjun and Surya were quite excited to do this.  Here is my finished layout:

I used Maggie Holmes's Crate paper collection for the patterned paper and the stickers along the top and the bottom as borders. This collection actually has a lot of flowers and I thought that it had a somewhat feminine vibe to it but I was pleasantly surprised that it suited this project so nicely. I thought the Chevron paper was well suited for the journaling.
Ali had provided us with .PNG files that had the 'these hands' circle. I made it big enough to fit Arjun's hands and cut the printed circles out on a white Bazzil cardstock. I then cut the circles out with silhouette.
She had also provided us with .PNG files containing the cursive handwritten 'these hands' that I used as a title. I converted them to .studio file and cut it out with the silhouette also. The card stock I used to cut it out with turned out to be quite subtle against the background but then I didn't want to use another one after I cut it out so I just went with it.
For the handprints, I used Tim Holtz's fired brick Distress Ink. I thought that it went very well with the distressed brick background.Trust me though, it was quite hard to get the ink out of my kids's hands.
I used gold thickers from American Crafts for my kids's names. The gold arrows, sequins and the kraft card stock are from various Studio Calico kits. The gold arrows are manufactured by freckled fawn.
Hope you enjoyed looking at it. This is my first ever layout without a photo. Stay tuned for another one soon.
Have a great day....
~Neela