Member Spotlight | Neela

This month, get to know Studio Calico member Neela Nalam (Neela). Neela is an engineer and scrapbooker who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., with her husband and two sons. Learn more about about Neela below!

I am married to a wonderful man and mom to two adorable boys aged 11 and 5. I grew up in Bangalore, India and moved to Santa Barbara, U.S.A. about 15 years ago. I am lucky to have lived in two very beautiful places with absolutely fantastic weather. I am an engineer by profession and I enjoy working as one. Scrapbooking is my passion and my creative outlet – no rules and algorithms that need to be followed. I was introduced to scrapbooking by one my colleagues when my older son was born and I was completely smitten by it. Since then I would create on and off. But when I discovered the world of online scrapbooking, I just couldn’t stop. When I first came across the Studio Calico website and saw the projects that were being created by the members, I was blown away. The techniques, the products, the inspiration were out of this world. I couldn’t help but subscribe to the beautiful kits.

SC Member since:

I have been a member since April 2013. The very first kit that I received was Spencer’s Scrapbook kit. I remember being fascinated by it. Every single item in it was better than anything in my scrapbooking supplies at that point.

All-time favorite past kit or collection:

I have a lot of favorite kits. But, I have an all time two favorite kits – Sugar Rush Scrapbook kit and Far Far Away Scrapbook kit. I just loved the colors, patterns and embellishments in both those kits. I have created some of my favorite layouts with them.

What do you do when your kit comes?

As soon as I get my kit, I have to open it no matter what. I look at all the papers and remove all the embellishments from their little bags and examine them. I don’t always have time to start creating with it immediately but my mind starts working overtime trying to match my photos with the papers and embellishments. I always check out the creative gallery again because, now I see all the projects in a different light.

What's your go to technique?

I love to make layouts with giant photos. I also love to cut up my photos into shapes, especially circles using circle punches or silhouette. A lot of my layouts also end up having grids. I love seeing all the dreamy and light layouts but when I go to create one, my layouts always seem to be filled with contrast and color.

What are your top 5 products?

·Puffy stickers – especially hearts and stars

·Arrows in any form - stickers, clips, wood veneers

·Patterned paper – I cannot create a layout without one anymore

·Silhouette Cameo – I am amazed with what you can do with it

·Alphas - stickers or the giant chipboard alpha

Where do you go when your mojo is low?

My favorite place is the Studio Calico gallery. There are so many talented designers posting here. I also like pinterest for more graphic design kind of inspiration. I also like to check out Instagram to get my creative juices flowing.