"I guess I can't make that." said No Crafter, ever!
I'm new to project life and have been delving into every Pinterest pin to find ideas, resources and tutorials. I came across a pin to Nichol Magouirk's blog, in which she made the prettiest frame-stamped journaling cards and gave you the names of the stamp sets, ink pads, etc, so you could recreate your own. Alas! Three of the four Studio Calico stamp sets are no longer available and at least two of them, Epic and Awesome, will not made or stocked again. For half a second I thought it was over. Then I realized, no crafter ever admits defeat so easily. -- I may not be able to make the exact same set, but I can make a set that is close to the same look and feel. I had one of the four stamp sets, with the chevron frame, so I made that one. Then designed a blank frame template in Silhouette Studio. Laid it out on a grid, arranged blank and patterned papers to the media mat and cut 12 frames in one pass. I then used red striped washi to make immitate the bottom right frame. Admittedly, I could have done a better job, but I was in a hurry to get to the frame I liked most: the "This is Awesome" frame. I used the same blank template I'd created earlier, enlarged the photo opening, and chose a font close in size and shape. (I only have the generic fonts that come with my pc, so it's not exact.) The font on my pc had very different spacing, so I had to adjust, and eventually it came fairly close to the dimensions on the original. I added two stars and voila!
Now I can punch my pics out with a square punch (specifically the purple Recollections punch from Michael's) and drop them in. So fun and easy, I can already tell I'll be making tons of variations to go with different layouts. Hope you enjoy making your own!
Thanks for the inspiration and challenge Nichol! And check out April's idea for creating a template for your square pics.
