October 05, 2017

Guest Designer | Jamie Leija

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

Hiya! My name is Jamie Leija (said Lay-ha). I'm a native Texan who loves to scrapbook, read, and travel. Scrapbooking has been a big part of my life for the past twenty years. At age 11 or 12 (too long ago to remember!), I went to a Creative Memories party with my mom and have been scrapbooking ever since! My first job was working for a local scrapbook store. I loved working there! And it helped me learn to love sharing this hobby with others. In college, I worked at Hobby Lobby and then another local scrapbook store. I consider myself an equal opportunity paper crafter. I love to create scrapbook layouts, pocket pages, Traveler’s Notebooks, and planner pages—plus the occasional card. Stamps are my absolute favorite supply and I try to use them on everything! I also love to play with color and contrast.

Currently *Main Kit Only* – I’m a big fan of pulling together random photos to tell a story. The story behind this spread is about life right now. I mixed a selfie, a shot of my pets, a shelfie, and a photo of my watch to show the temperature. They’re simple, everyday kind of photos and it was fun to put them all together. My favorite touch is the 3" x 4" card where I journaled using the word sticker sheet and my handwriting. Each sticker prompted the line of journaling.

Crafters' Collab – This was such a fun topic to scrapbook that I knew it needed a fun page to go with it! I loved that transparency sheet and its festiveness. Last October, my friend Tracey and I hosted a challenge on Instagram. We each made pages and issued challenges—all focusing on the theme of fall! To commemorate our challenge, I printed mini version of our pages. I included a ton of journaling on this page but it’s not immediately visible. Can you guess where it’s hidden? It's behind a hinge! That whole hello patterned paper lifts up.

Hello Autumn – Color is my favorite design element to play with on my projects. This color combo was really quirky, but I love it a ton! And I think the colors of the kit worked so well with the colors of my photo. The red door opposite that red journaling card was such a happy match. I also love circular elements. I punched circles from two of the journaling cards and they were roughly the same size as that fun cork emoji!