Guest Designer | Amy Jo Vanden Brink

We're thrilled to have the lovely and talented Amy Jo Vanden Brink as one of our guest designers this month and are excited to get to know her better today! Be sure to follow Amy here at Studio Calico to keep up with her and see more of her beautiful work.

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My name is Amy Jo Vanden Brink and I'm a music teacher in Edmonton, Alberta. I love to scrapbook my little family: my husband Chris, our son Max, and our puppy Farley. Together we have some great times, especially exploring our city which is known for its summer festival scene! I have been scrapbooking since I was very young; I even worked at a small town pharmacy when I was a teenager that stocked scrapbooking supplies and was allowed to help with orders! I have taken several breaks from the hobby over the years, but I picked it back up in 2014 when I started a first-year album for my son. I used pocket pages and was done in under a week! None of my friends had even gotten a start, and that's when I knew I had found a great system that would allow me to record all of the precious childhood moments for my son! Now I document a little more for myself than for him. I love to include my garden, what I'm reading and watching, and record a small slice of our life right now!

I had such a great time being a Creative Team contributor this month. I absolutely enjoyed the kit and I have only a few small pieces leftover!

Project Life Week 14: When I saw the days of the week cards, I knew they would be the perfect opportunity to put my photos from Week in the Life into my regular Project Life® album. I have been working weekly this year, so I didn't want to leave that week out. I also love to look for a colorway in the kit, and the green/gray with a pop of red/orange was a fun and unique combination. When I'm looking through a kit for the first time, I usually start with the black and white journaling cards and then look for a main color scheme. The alpha was so great and matched really well. Sometimes I fall into the trap of hoarding alpha stickers, but I really love the look of using them across a spread like this to create some unity. The stamp from the Documenter Kit was one of my favorites (you'll see it in three out of five projects!) and was a great layering tool.

Project Life Week 15: This spread started with that beautiful specialty card. I have been working hard at getting my garden ready this year, and a few trips to the garden center were included here as well. I love the little washi selection that was included in the To & Fro Add-on, mostly because it offered so much variety. It's an easy way to add some interest to Instax photos or a plain grid card. Again, I used the Documenter Kit stamp to create some layering and add some color to the title cards here (Friday and Garden Love).

June Title Page: This came together so quickly! I love it when that happens. The fill in the blanks card was a great way to get some of my current activities recorded, which I love to include in my weekly pages. The pink and green color scheme came back, but with the green as an accent. And that quote card will definitely be a staple in the future—such a great way to keep track of hilarious kid sayings, like "casseroles are fun."

Comox Vacation: This project was in my head as soon as I saw those lovely cards by life.love.paper. We had a little vacation on Vancouver Island last year around this time, and I had never gotten the photos into my Project Life®. I also used the Passport stamp to create the little destination postmark. I loved the feel and quality of these cards and the great gold foil accents. One of the ways I added a little interest and color again was to use a variety of the little washi strips on photos and on the cards themselves.

Canada Day 2016: This is probably my favorite project out of the bunch! I used the Here & There Add-on for the stamp and the big star embellishment, but this is also a great example of how you don't need a lot of extra stuff to create a great layout! The black and white photo has some of the Documenter Kit stamp layered on top with a bright pop of color, and then the very colorful floral to tie all the colors together opposite it is all that is needed to have a really pleasing spread. I love how the kit is still really useful if you aren't American, and celebrate July 1st instead of July 4th. There was only one stamp I had to avoid, and most of the sticker page was useful as well!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my projects with you this month. I hope that my projects gave you some inspiration on how to use the kit and some of the extras, as well! I had a lot of fun working with these products and I know you will, too! 

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