November Pep Rally

This month Clique Kits is trying something new as part of our monthly celebration of our current kit creations and the reveal of the next month’s kit. While we really loved the idea of a monthly blog share, we realized that today’s paper crafters are trending toward  Instant gratification such as Instagram for inspiration! Like everything new, we expect to run into some snags along the way. But basically how it works is very simple.

Subscribers are  eligible to earn free product credits for participating in the Pep Rally via Instagram. Participation is a very relaxed commitment on a month by month basis. Simply email marketing@cliquekits.com by the 15th of the month to have your credits recorded. Subscribers may earn 5 credits (1 credit=$1) for each month they participate. If you end up not participating- we  lash you with wet noodles. (Kidding.) We simply skip over your points that month. Credits are cumulative as long as you are still a subscriber! Sound good so far?

What do you do once you sign up? This is really straightforward too. We hope this step by step instruction covers what you do,  who is eligible to win a prize, and what the prizes are.

Step 1: Take pictures of projects you created using the monthly kit (please use a minimum of 80% kit and add on products so that the inspiration provided for the Clique is kit-focused.) You can do this anytime during the month- but be sure your photos post before 10 am CST on  Pep Rally Day.

Step 2: On or before Pep Rally day, join the event on Facebook and Instagram by sharing on Facebook with your friends and tagging them on Instagram letting them know that each name tagged is entered to win a free kit!

Step 3: Use the Instagram search tool with the keywords specified in the Hashtags and enjoy the eye candy! Leave some love for all your friends!

Step 4: Tune in to Clique Kits for announcements of the monthly Pep Rally participant winner selected to win an additional $10 product credit to spend in the Clique Kits store!

And without further ado, here are the hashtags.  The first 3 are the same every month. The last two will obviously change each month.

#Click_Connect_Create

#CKPepRally

#CliqueKits

#CKNovemberKit

#CKSwanLake

 

Beautiful photostrip style layout from Subscriber @ohsnapgonzo.

Amazing use of this Maggie Holmes Gather paper for a grid design layout.

And a little peek at a few projects that will be shared on Instagram by our Design Team. Arent’ they inspiring?!

Now get out there and get inspired because there are tons more where these came from! We love our subs and followers, and our community is growing every day. We are so thankful for you and hope you have fun!

 

Geek Lab: Typewritting with my Silhouette Cameo

Hell there!! How are you? Caroli once again with my last post of the month using beautiful Swan Lake kit, featuring Gather collection by Maggie Holmes.

Today I want to show you a simple trick that I am using a lot these days. Since I dont have a big scraproom and my crafting area is quite limited, I don’t have a 12×12″ typewritter. They are so cute and trendy, but I managed to have that typewritter look without a real typewriter by using my Silhouette Cameo machine.

For making this you have 2 options: you can use sketch pens or you can use the pen adapter holder. In both cases you will just use your Cameo for writting on your 12×12″ page, just like you would do with a typewriter.

You just have to use the text tool and write your journaling using a typewritter looking font, in my case I used a font named “Courier New”, which is very similar to a typewritter.

When sending the file to the machine, instead of cutting I chose “sketch pens” and write the words.

 

Here is the layout I made using this feature. As you can see, you need to design your layout in advance so as to make the available space to match with the text you will write.

My layout is super clean and simple and with a lot of white, I love it. I used this cute cutfile from Just Nicks Studio, and of course this gorgeous flower from the ephemera pack included on the kit.

 

 

Here you can see how my text came out perfect and exactly where I wamted it to be, isn’t that cool?

 

In order to make it fit precisely I recommend to make a test in another paper first, so you can check if elements in the page can be placed as you want or you need to move the text a little.  Here is another closeup of my typewritter wannabe text 🙂

 

I hope you like this idea and give it a try. We need to make the most efficient use of our resources so as to save money and can buy more pretty kits, LOL! Have a fabulous day!

XOXO – Caroli

Study Hall: Butterfly Cards

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Study Hall! Melissa here with you today and I’ve got two fun cards to share with you. Before I go on, I just want to say how much I love this category. We had Study Hall in my school days. I usually used it to goof off but, I always knew it was special to have some extra time to catch up on homework, get in some extra review and such.

So, for this post, I thought the Study Hall focus could be on “catching up” and getting in some good, card making review! I love making cards and I love experimenting with product and seeing how far I can make everything stretch.

One of those tools that help with making my products last as long as possible is my butterfly punch from Martha Stewart. I have had this thing forever! Thankfully, butterflies are timeless and can be used on many, many projects for years and years to come!

For this first card I’m sharing with you, I only used a couple of butterflies but, I can tell you about the overall design of this card. I love layering! And how fun is that corrugated paper??? By trimming a smaller piece and tearing one of the edges, I’ve just created some awesome texture for my lil’ ole card!

Here are a couple of close ups:

For this next card, I went all cray with my butterfly punches. I wanted to showcase all the luscious beauty of the Gather papers. SO pretty!!!

I love the whimsy that the butterfly trail provides.

Here is one more close up:

This may be review for some but, hey, this is Study Hall after all – when it comes to cards, think on a smaller scale when making your kit stretch. Small punch images, like my butterfly, help with that. Have fun layering and don’t be afraid to use “bulky” items like the corrugated paper. It will fit just fine in an envelope! More importantly, have FUN!

Thanks for joining me today! I know sneaks have started for the December kit already but, you can still snag some November kit items HERE.

Happy creating!

Locker Room: XOXO

Hello there!,

Nathalie here with a new layout created with this month’s beautiful Swan Lake kit.  I think we are all swooning at the lovely papers, and all the add ons on this kit.  It is the perfect kit to document memories regardless of the season.  It is just to versatile!

For this project, I pulled one of my favorite summer pictures ( I happened to catch my little nephew and my daughter in this lovely moment), and the papers from Maggie Holmes’ Gather collection were perfect to document this memory.  Here are a few close ups of the layout:

 

 

 

I was drawn to the “Kindred”, “Kate”, and “Sunshine” papers in the Swan Lake Kit.  I used the”Sunshine” paper as my layout mat, and i fussy cut the flower clusters in the “Kate” paper, and a few of the bird and branches from the “Kindred” paper.  I made sure to cut some of the images that were  along the edges of the papers, as I wanted to create sort of a branch design on my layouts.  There is a process video at the bottom of the page where you can see how this page came together.

 

 

Before gluing the fussy cut images, i used some Heidi Swapp color shine in gold, teal, and blush to create a row of ink splatters where i wanted to glue the images.  I used foam adhesive to add dimension to some of the fussy cut images on the branches.

 

 

I converted the picture to black and white, and simply layered some vellum (one of my favorite things!), and a few of the exclusive cards from the Swan Lake Kit.   I used a few of the die-cut pieces from the Gather collection, and also added some chipboard stickers from this month’s kit add-ons.  The mini tassels (included in the kit) were perfect to add some detail to the picture, I simply attached a piece of crocheting floss to them, and tied them to the ephemera piece on the picture.   To complete the page, I added the title using the Petals thickers in the Swan Lake kit, and a glitter arrow from the chipboard sticker.  Here is the complete layout:

 

 

My sister has asked if she could take this layout for her album (as I create albums for my littles -that is what we called my niece and nephew), but i love it too much to let it go.   It is like the Swan Lake kit was made solely to create this.     Here is small video on how the layout came together ( i just cut the part of me cutting all the flowers!)…

 

 

Don’t forget to visit the Clique Kits store to pick this month’s Swan Lake kit and all its add ons, plus you will find lots of products that will inspire you to document your memories.  You can always used any DT’s code to obtain 10% at checkout.

Thanks for visiting today, see you all soon!

Cut files and watercolors

Hello, Clique friends. I’m back today with a simple tutorial on how to use watercolors and cut files together. I’ve always loved the softness of watercolor paint. It is very versatile and you can obtain a different effect depending on how you use it. The November Swan Lake kit was perfect for the idea I had in mind.

I decided to use two of the exclusive November cut files:

For my first layout, I used watercolors to paint the cut out pieces so to match the tones in the Maggie Holmes Gather collection:

I then layered smaller and bigger flowers together to give more dimension to the page. The ephemera pieces included in the November kit are just lovely! I mixed up all the flowers I could find. Some I fussy cut from the patterned papers, others come from the add-on chipboard sticker sheet. The cut files this month coordinate perfectly with them.

I finished the layout with some colored twine to create a banner effect in the top left corner of the page.

I then added some of the same twine in the opposite corner to create continuity and achieve a cohesive look.

For my second layout, I used watercolors in a different way. My idea here was to create a backdrop of flowers to use for my daughter’s ballet picture.

First I used my Silhouette to create a stitching template for the vine kind-of-look. Then, I painted underneath the flowers to recreate the soft colors in the collection.

I kept my embellishments to a minimum as I wanted to draw attention to the background and picture.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my process. I would love for you to give these techniques a try and shows us your work in The Clique Facebook group. You can find the November Swan Lake kit and the awesome Prima Watercolor Set in the Clique store.

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a great day!

XO, Enza

 

Yearbook: Little Miss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello everybody, how are you? Caroli here again sharing a new project I made with the beautiful kit Swan Lake, featuring Gather collection by Maggie Holmes.

The lovely colors and feminine feeling of this kit are perfect or pics of little girls, so I decided to use it for documenting something really important for my little princess: her name.

When I was pregnant with my girl, me and her daddy spent a lot of time thinking about what name would be appropriate for her. It was a hard decision since we wanted a special name with a meaning. Once day I found at my Mom’s house a journal I wrote when I was 11 years, and in one of the pages I found my answer. When I was 11 I knew that I wanted to be a mom one day, and I wrote that if that baby would be a girl I would name her Isidora.  A lot of memories came to my mind in that moment, and I knew that was the name I wanted to give to my little girl 🙂

This is the story I document in this layout. Can you see how cool is to be able of documenting important and meaningful things like this through scrapbooking? We scrapers surely rock! 😉

 

 

I love the flowers in this collection, I’m a flower person 100%, so these pretty diecuts included in the ephemera pack were the perfect embellishment for this girly layout. Also, did you noticed the clear sequins?? Sequins are always one of my fave items on all CK kits, they are always so pretty and different!

I’m so in love with the fringe trend, and here I used it to fill the negative space of letter I cut as some kind of background for my layout.

 

I love you like this layout and get inspired to document something special today. Life is short and it’s full of memories, let’s treasure them today!

XOXO – Caroli

Field Notes – My Journal

Hello everyone!

Nathalie here with my very first  post as member of the Clique Kits’s Design Team ( i am so thankful to Clique Kits, and excited to be working with all the amazing designers in the team).   For today’s post i will be sharing with you how the beautiful and soft Swan Lake kit was used in my personal journal.

 

I have kept a journal since I can remember;  a couple years ago, I discovered Traveler’s notebook style journals, and i have been hooked on them since I bought my first one.     I think my style of journaling is  a bit eclectic (you’ll see), but it is me in a book!.

 

The two page spread for our Apple picking tradition.

 

For my first spread, i am documenting our Apple picking trip.   I created the photo strip on Adobe Lightroom, and printed it in color.  I cut the little frames from the “Moments” paper included in the main kit, and the paper corners from the “Pure Joy” paper included in the Swan Lake kit add on.  I layered the frames behind the photo strip,  added a sticker from the Pinkfresh Studio Indigo Hills collection, and a foiled die-cut from the Posh collection that i picked at the store.  To complete the page, I added a few of this month’s exclusive printables, which worked seamlessly in tying all the colors and feel of this spread.  Here are some close ups:

 

 

 

Like i mentioned previously, my style of journaling is eclectic; for the second spread of my journal, i used the Prima  Decadent Pies watercolor palette to create the background for the picture of my husband and I on our Thanksgiving Day walk (we already celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada!).  I just added splatters of paint to a wet background, and help the paint spread with a wet brush.

 

 

Once dried, I attached a black and white picture, along with some chipboard stickers (from this month’s kit add-ons), one of the exclusive printables, and a die cut from the Posh collection that it is available at the Clique Store.

 

 

I wrote a very personal note about how  this man makes my life better every day, but I chose to keep it hidden (sorry!), for that I used the “Love” paper included in the  Swan Lake kit add-on.  I used an exacto knife to cut the rectangle out of the paper, and attached it to the page using some of the Amy Tangerine washi tape available at the  Clique store.

 

a small paper clip die cut from Simple Stories Posh collection serves as a marker for the page.

Here is the  full spread:

 

 

I love how easy it was to incorporate pieces from the Swan Lake kit into my personal journal.  Don’t forget to check the store for the the new Traveler’s Note kit, and many of the small details used in these spreads.  You can always used any of the DT’s code to get a 10% discount at checkout.

 

Thanks for visiting today,

See you all soon!