The one with Amanda De Jong

You all know how much you inspire me each and every single day? Well you do. I am simply amazed by your talent, and so honored to be a part of this community! Today I wanted to shine a light on our very talented friend, Amanda De Jong. I love her, I know you will too!

Personal Blog

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

Twitter

Business FB

Etsy

Society6

Hi there! My name is Amanda and I live in Portland, Oregon with my husband, Josh, and 6 year old son, Carson. I am fortunate enough to work from home running my small paper-crafted and vinyl decor business which lends itself nicely to my addiction to coffee and paper! I am mostly a 12x12 scrapper but also do 8.5x11 and digital/hybrid pages. I recently began doing mixed media work as well and besides art journal pages & canvas, I like to incorporate it in to my layouts. My style is pretty eclectic although I do tend to lean more towards bold fun color. 

Before we get started I wanted to share some of my favorite pieces from her Society 6 store!

Be Happy

Good Enough

Amanda, I love you style can you tell us where you go for inspiration?

Instagram has really helped me immerse myself in to the scrapbook community. There is such a wealth of inspiration that spins off from there to blogs, galleries and more. I am constantly adding new blogs to my feed so I can keep up with fellow scrappers and artists. I have also been a Studio Calico subber for a little over a year, and I must say the SC gallery rocks! Of course, I can’t forget Pinterest!

I know you are creative outside of scrapbooking, tell us a bit about your prints and etsy store!

My Etsy store has evolved quite a bit over the last couple of years. I began by creating and selling altered items, like frames and monograms. Now I find myself primarily making vinyl decals, signs and the occasional print. I am a sucker for a good inspirational quote and when one speaks to me I try to translate that in to my work, whether it’s a decal or a layout. I firmly believe in cultivating a positive life and these designs are my way to inspire others to find blessings in the everyday.  

I know each creation holds a special place in our hearts, but if you had to pick three projects that represent your style what would they be?

I find my style to be pretty eclectic; jumping around from clean to artsy to, what I would call, a hot mess. Here are three that definitely stand out as being “me”

It's so interesting to see where people create, can you show us your space?

Absolutely! I have an 8 foot alcove in our spare room/play room/laundry room. We used just about every inch of wall space we possibly could to take full advantage of it. I apologize for the bad lighting in these pictures. I need to retake them in daylight when my space is clean again ;-)

One of my faovrite places to go for inspiration is Pinterest! What is the last thing you pinned?

pinned here

WOW that is beautiful!!!

Amanda came bearing GIFTS!!!! I asked Amanda to design a template for you all, I thought that she had a store with templates (I WAS WRONG LOL) but she should, check out this amazing template she made for you guys! It was her first crack at at, HELLO natural.. party of one!!!!! Thank you Amanda this is amazing and I can't wait to use it!! xox

----->>>>>   download the template here  <<<<<-------

Thank you all for stopping by!!! Make sure to leave some love for Amanda, she sure deserves it! xox

The one with the TOOLBOX Challenge

Happy Friday friends! I hope you are all enjoying the week as much as I am! For those of you currently enrolled in the TOOLBOX Class I have a little challenge on the classroom for you today, and I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Here is a little clue as to what the challenge is all about ... 

(image from castle and things) 

For details, I will see you in class!! xox

The one where YOU blow me AWAY

I am so inspired by the creative community over at Studio Calico! So I don't know why I am so surprised every time the gallery blows me away. But what is REALLY fun is to see everyone so excited about the learning something new and jumping right in to do so! Now I know not everyone posting for the toolbox class is new to hybrid, in fact some are passionate digital scrapbookers, which is why this is even MORE exciting! I love seeing digital scrapbookers at Studio Calico! They are a creative bunch let me tell you! :)

I wanted to share some gallery highlights today and all the fun ways the girls are using the template!

I LOVE all the colors and layers in this FUN layout form Michelle

I love how Akihasmomma used the template and then took is one step further 

and ran the whole design through her CAMEO! Hello LOVE!

I love this digital layout from Amanda, the colors are just perfection!!

NatasaTsouf rocked this digital layout, I love how she highlighted the BIRD!!

I am a HUGE fan of Jen so when I saw she played with the template .. it was love at first sight!

Can you believe this is Magdalen's first digital layout. OH MY she's a natural!!!

j.leija ROCKED the colors and made them TOTALLY work for her layout! AMAZING!!

Make sure you stop by the Studio Calico gallery for your daily dose of inspiration!

The one with the FREE CLASS!!!

You know what kind of friend you are? Are you the kind of friend to sign up for this super awesome class and share with a friend! :) We are excited to announce that anyone that signs up for Toolbox will get a free code to gift to a friend! We thought this would be the perfect class for this fun promo since it is like 4 mini classes in one! You will get to pick up so many tips and tricks in the workshop that we know you will want to share with your friends, so this is your chance!

Fill your crafting toolbox with cool tips on stitching, mixed media, misting and digital from four technique masters. Amy Tan, Celine Navarro, Geralyn Sy and Shanna Noel will each spend a week in August teaching you the ins and outs of their favorite techniques.

AT A GLANCE : 

12 PDF lessons - posted M-W-F starting August 5th

4 technique videos

8 step by step technique tutorials

36 class projects - layouts, cards, Project Life spreads and mini albums

4 new sketches posted each week

class message board and gallery

technique challenges from your teachers throughout August

CONTRIBUTORS : 
Anna-Maria Wolniak, Barbara Picinich, Becky Novacek, Catherine Davis, Dana Fleckenstein, Dani Flanders, Emily Branch, Evelyn Pratiwi Yusuf, Felicitas Mayer-Klink, Gayatri Murali, Jen Jockisch, Jen Kinkade, Jill Sprott, Kinsey Wilson, Lisa Spangler, Maggie Holmes, Marcy Penner, Nicole Reaves, Patricia Roebuck, Robyn Werlich, Sasha Farina, Stephanie Bryan, Stephanie Washburn, and Tina Aszmus

CLASSROOM FILES : 
All students will have access to the class digital files on August 1st. These files will include digital papers from Studio Calico, a template from Catherine Davis, printable stitching templates from Amy Tangerine and Hello Forever, digital stamps from Shanna Noel, cut files and printables from In A Creative Bubble.

LESSONS : 
week 1 | Digital with Shanna Noel
building a base in photoshop, using a template, using type

week 2 | Mixed Media with Celine Navarro
gesso, watercolor backgrounds, mixing textures

week 3 | Stitching with Amy Tan
stitching with templates, fancy stitches, fabric + paper

week 4 | Mist with Geralyn Sy
masking, resist, more ideas for mist

I know the ladies all have some VERY exciting and fun things planned for you but I wanted to detail some of the things I have planned for you!!!! You know I love to take you step by step in screen capture video while I work in photoshop creating my layout. We will be doing MORE of that but NEW techniques that you will want to be in class for!! Not only that but I have created special brushes that will give you an totally different effect then the digital brushes crated from stamps because these have a opacity to them that you can't achieve in regular digital stamps, I am SUPER excited about them!

I am also SUPER exited to have this AMAZING template from Catherine, which is specially designed for the class. We will explore using digital papers in paper scrapbooking and other fun effects I want to show you! 

On top of all the exciting news... I get to invite ONE of you to be my GUEST for the class! If you would like to win a FREE spot in the class just leave a comment in the comment section with what you are most looking forward to in the class! I will draw one lucky winner Sat. evening. GOOD LUCK everyone! 

We are having a blog hop so in addition to stopping by the Studio Calico blog make sure to stop by and say hi to everyone!!

TEACHERS

Amy Tan | Stitching 

Celine Navarro | Mixed Media 

Geralyn Sy | Mist 

Shanna Noel | Digital 

STITCHING CONTRIBUTORS : Patricia Roebuck | Sasha Farina | Jen Jockisch | Becky Novacek

MIXED MEDIA CONTRIBUTORS : Stephanie Bryan | Lisa Spangler | Marcy Penner | Anna-Maria Wolniak 

MISTING CONTRIBUTORS : Dana Fleckenstein | Jill Sprott | Nicole Reaves | Dani Flanders

DIGITAL CONTRIBUTORS : Catherine Davis | Barbara Picinich | Stephanie Washburn | Tina Aszmus

The one with ALL THE AMAZINGNESS!!!!!

As I mentioned before I am OVER THE MOON excited to be teach in the next class for Studio Calico, TOOLBOX! Please go to Studio Calico for more details >>>--------------> here .

The REAL reason I am here today though is to show you all the goodies you will be getting with the class! I can't wait to sign off the blog and start playing with some of the amazing printables, cut files, templates and stamps for the class!!! YIPPEE!

Are you kidding? ^^^ amazing!!!

^^^ STITCHING TEMPLATE!!!!

Digital Paper to USE with the TEMPLATE!? Hello, love!

There you have it! Can't wait to see you in class!!!

The one with MY FIRST CLASS at STUDIO CALICO!!!!

Oh my goodness I feel like pinching myself. Not only am I teaching at Studio Calico but I am doing so along side some VERY seriously MEGA talented ladies including Amy, Celine and Gerlyn!  We are teaching a technique based class and we plan on filling your toolbox with some new tools for creating!!

I am teaching on digital design. Using photoshop to enchance your paper pages! This is all about loving the hybrid way of creating, using those digital brushes you bought but aren't sure what to do with!!!

I tell you what, I created some brushes just for this class! I had so much fun creating these. Since they aren't being used as physical stamps that gave me a little more freedome to play with transparency in the stamps that you won't see on other Studio Calico stamps. They look like WATERCOLORS! And they are so much fun, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!!

**Please note note all the digital stamps are shown in the preview but it will give you a good idea! **

I had so much fun creating the stamps for the class I couldn't wait to put them to good use so I wanted to make sure to share a little peek at one of my projects!

Along with digital stamps I am going to show you some fun ways to incorporate digital paper into your projects! Studio Calico has brought some of your favorite paper patterns to us DIGITALLY for the class! We have unique things planned so I hope you will join us in the classroom.

I also have sneaks from my inspiring teammates!

I hope to see you in class, get more information and sign up ---->> HERE <<-----

See you soon!!!