July 09, 2017

Guest Feature | Marcy Penner

We are thrilled to have ten past Studio Calico designers joining us this month in the Creative Team gallery! Each day for the next ten days, we'll be sharing a little more about each of these amazingly creative ladies—we hope you enjoy catching up with them as much as we have!

I am a self-proclaimed “simple girl” living in a white farmhouse on the Canadian prairies with my high school sweetheart and our three kids. On any given day, you can find me curating my farmhouse, homeschooling two of my three kiddos, designing products for Studio Calico and Goldenwood Co., or dreaming in the garden. I’m a believer in living simply, writing things down, and documenting every moment—no matter how mundane it may seem.

My time with Studio Calico has been organic and has changed and morphed throughout the years. I started years and years and years ago like all of you…a subscriber. Then I started sharing on the message boards and in the galleries. Then there were a few commissions to create badges for you all. I seriously remember enlisting child labor and bribing my kids with pizza to fill all those kits! Then there was the opportunity to come on as a guest Design Team member and eventually as a permanent part of the team (best day ever!) and to also start designing some products here and there! My goodness…being completing self-taught, I learned SO much! Friends were made and met. Classes were taught. Blog posts were created. Tutorials were compiled. Videos were filmed (just ask Lisa how full her desk drawer is of my flash drives since I have to mail in my videos for every class I teach—there’s been a lot). Pages and pages and pages were designed and put together late into the night. A million photos were taken. Headquarters was visited. A line was designed (hello Darcy). A new pocket page size was trialed and emerged (9" x 12" for the win!). And now, after all these years, I’m so happy to be bringing products to life that you all get to enjoy in the Studio Calico Kits each month through my work with Inked! I am so happy to be celebrating this milestone 10th year with you all! Cheers, SC!

Memory keeping has merged with my notebook/planner this past year in a big way. It’s definitely more little blurbs than big stories, but that’s okay. Life is still being documented—just in a different way. For my project celebrating Studio Calico’s 10th anniversary, I created a simple page in my notebook that features a large photo on the right and a balanced left page consisting of journaling and a simple accent. When selecting the product I wanted to use, I kept going back to the circle die-cuts! Maybe because I designed them…maybe because I loved how the yellow popped against the purple-blue hues of my photo. But either way, I think it’s the perfect accent for my spread.

And, really that’s all I need: simple, doable, and perfect for me!