Guest Designer | Amy Jo Vanden Brink

We're thrilled to have the lovely and talented Amy Jo Vanden BrinkAmy here at Studio Calico

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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