Guest Feature | Nicole Harper

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've been playing with paper since elementary school, when shopping for new supplies quickened my heart a beat. I spend my crafty time filling pocket pages, while working full time in surgery. I live in Northeast Ohio with my husband Mike, and our daughter Allison...and I remain a proud musical theater/choir mama, medical professional and trusted friend. I wear my heart on my sleeve and continue to travel the United States while working at Creating Keepsakes Events to encourage others to document more than just holidays, birthdays and vacations. 

Summer 2007. I had been searching for an online place to purchase supplies since my local scrapbook store had gone out of business, and noticed a thread on the message board at 2Peas that mentioned a new site called Studio Calico. I clicked on over to the site and immediately felt like this may be the place...clean graphics, cool products and a design team call. I gave it a go, and still remember receiving the phone call from April and Scarlet. At that point, I don't think any of us had an inkling as to how this community would take off! 

When I think about how many hours I've spent being a 'part' of SC it's kind of overwhelming. Time invested while doing design team tasks, visiting CHA searching for samples + ideas for kit items, adding input into early stamp designs, acting as the Community Manager and go between for our members before the company was big enough to warrant an onsite staff...you name it. It really was my online 'home', and I am grateful for the connections I made while there. Being able to share stories/tips/ideas about topics that weren't necessarily confined to crafty things was a bonus. I've shared so many of my family moments with the members and have equally celebrated theirs...I can't believe we are sending Allie off to college in under 2 months?! Wow, did that time fly. 

Man, was the July Documenter kit 'me', lol...bolder colors, clean lines and fun graphics!! As you can tell, I still stick to a few techniques that I love: stamping directly onto my photos, outlining the photos with paint and printing them with white borders, mixing handwritten journaling with my typewritten notes to name a few. Keeping things simple kind of lend a cohesiveness throughout my albums even though my pocket pages often have nothing to do with each other...plus I like how it looks and it's FUN!! I snipped the phrases apart from one of the 3x4 cards in the kit to use as accents around the pockets as well. I still like looking at an item and figuring out a different way to use it. ;)

Congratulations to Studio Calico on their 10th Anniversary!! Thank you for the invite to return and wished for continued success going forward!  :)

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