Field Notes – MY PERSONAL JOURNAL

Hello Clique Kits friends!

Nathalie here with a new entry to my personal journal (aka my TN) using pieces from the beautiful “Aquarelle” kit, and a few other goodies from the Clique Kits Store.

Most of you know that I keep a personal journal, which i use as my Project Life/ daily documenter method.  Though there is days that only writing appears on the page, there are those other times when you  need to include pictures.  I have kept a journal for a long time, so i am always trying to come up with new ideas for my entries – “Life is all about variety”-.  Here is one of the entries from a few weeks ago  after attending a 65th birthday party for a very good close friend of the family!

Our friend Martha loves flowers, so i set to create  a background for the page using the  Daisy  Layering Stamp from Altenew -which i picked from the Clique Store-.   For these flowers, I pulled a few archival inks, as well as some Hampton Arts inks from my stash, and stamped the flowers on a lightweight watercolor paper cut to the size of my TN page.

I tried my best to leave the center of the stamped page clear, so  the eye is drawn to the center of the page.  For this page, I pulled more goodies from the Clique Store -you should really check all the goodies available for sale at the store- in this case i am using Pink Paislee’s C’est La Vie Acetate letters, and the clear stickers to create the title of this page.  I paired them with some of the Aquarelle TN kit exclusive printables, and a piece of the branding  strip of the Wild at Heart collection papers.   I just love how the black in the title pops from the page.

Before gluing the page down to the TN, I cut a piece of vellum to fit the TN size, leaving about 3/4 in extra along the short side of the piece -the vellum measured 8×5 in for this spread-.  I marked with a bone folder the extra space of the vellum.  Before attaching it to the TN, i stitched one of the cards included in the Aquarelle TN kit, and added my sentiment.  Then glued the extra flap from the vellum piece to the TN, and added the stamped page on top of the vellum flap glued to the page.

Before completely stitching the  card to the vellum, i added one of the stamped images – i created some extra flowers, and fussy cut them- , some of the large flower sequin from the May kit releases, and a few gold flower sequin from my stash.  I just love that little shaker pocket, and surprise as you turn the page.

I took so many pictures of the celebration that day, but wanted to keep the focus of the page on Martha and her family ( we are very close friends of the entire familly), so I created a film strip of some of the pictures, layered a bit of the tissue paper that the kits come wrapped with, and glued it to the center of a piece of copy paper cut to the TN size.  Here, all the rest of the fussy cut flowers were used to frame the picture strip.  I pulled one of the fabric labels from the Aquarelle kit  – i was lucky to receive the “Birthday Wishes” in my kit-, and one of the copper asterisks from the Alpha set.

All Clique Kits are always loaded with lots of goodies that make their way to my stash, so i pulled some of the stickers from the Love Always kit  -which sold out-, and added them to one of the clusters of this page.  I love how this spread came together (sorry no video this time!),  the beautiful stamped flowers worked perfect to document this lovely lady on her 65th birthday.

There are so many products available at the Clique Store that have been carefully curated to match all the kits, so stop by to check most of the products used in this spread, and many more for some beautiful upcoming kits.  As always I am a comment away if you have questions on how this came together.

See you all soon!

Delight | Stephanie

Hey friends! Steph here with a fun Yearbook post for you. 🙂 I recently celebrated my 30th birthday and I really wanted to document a trio of silly photos I took with one of my best friends.

There were so many fun pattern papers in this month’s Jellybean kit that I really wanted to use a bunch of them. I decided to layer strips of some of my favorites and ruffle them a bit for extra texture.

Since there was so much interest on my page with all of the patterns, I decided to keep my embellishments to a minimum. I journaled on the bottom of my page and created faux “stitches” with black pen marks throughout my page. My title was a simple die cut word from white cardstock that I adhered with staples.

Such a happy turnout!! This girl is such a blessing and I love that I had the perfect papers to document this fun moment!! Thanks for stopping by! Happy creating!

Xo, Stephanie

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Locker Room: 2016 Wrap-up

 

Hello Clique Friends,

Happy New Year to you all!   As we begin this new year, it is also time to  look back at the last 365 days, and reflect on what we hold most dear.   So with that in mind, I set up to create a wrap-up layout using the beautiful “Hey, Sugar” kit.  All the beautiful and colorful papers are the perfect to create a layout about your most beloved memories.

 

 

To begin, i created a cut file/sketch that will allow me to add my top ten memories from 2016 without crowding the project.   After playing with a few combinations, i decided that circles will be the best option for the pictures, with a large title to balance the page.  Here is the sketch/cut file -feel free to download it-

 

 

 

First I transformed all the pictures to black and white, and printed them to fit into 2.5 in squares.  Once i had the pictures cut to 2 in circles, I set the size of the circles to 2.25 in on the my Silhouette software, and had the circumference edges perforated.    A little bit of hand stitching along the perforated edge created a textured, and colorful background for my pictures.

 

 

For the title,  I used the top part of the cut file to cut one of the Simple Stories papers included in the main “Hey, Sugar” kit.   The numbers were backed using papers from the kit, as well as the Heart Day 6×6 pad (this month’s kit add on – available in the Clique store).  To ensure continuity, I hand stitched around the number cut-outs.

 

 

Before attaching the cut out to the page, I used my new typewriter (my Christmas present) to type the list of the top ten moments of 2016 -in chronological order- on the top part (above the circles) of the layout.  I had decided that the number cut-out will become a flap over the typed list.

 

The pictures then were attached to the layout.   I used the alphas included in this month’s kit to number the pictures.

 

I used a the puffy heart stickers, enamel dots, and embelishments included in the “Hey Sugar”  kit to add color, and interest along the pictures.   Since all the products in the kit coordinate, it was easy to color block the stitched circle with their respective puffy heart or enamel dot (i love this kit!).    Finally, i dug into last month’s “Wonderland” kit for a little tab as a way to create a marker for the layout’s flap.  Here is the complete layout:

 

 

Though, i am not a fan of multiple picture layouts, I got to say that i was pleased with the balance of picture to white space on the page.  I love how the pictures, and all the pieces from the “Hey Sugar” kit work together harmoniously.

Don’t forget to check out the “Hey, Sugar” kit in the Clique Kits website, as  well as the new  specialty kits  – Love Always, and Traveler’s notebook  – in the Clique Store.  You can use any of the DT’s code for a discount at checkout.

As always, I am only a comment away if you have any questions on how this came together.

Thanks for visiting, today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 2017 Kickoff

I am not gonna lie- I am sorry-not-sorry to see 2016 finally end. Many people I care about  have been bruised by losses of many different kinds this year. In order to get into more of a celebratory mood for Auld Lang Syne I decided to go through my pictures from the past year and reflect on the good times with my family. While doing this, I also took some time to clean out and organize my Photo files on my Mac Book.  I think that the most common theme of welcoming a brand new year is starting fresh, getting organized, and of course determining some resolutions. So with that introduction, my focus in our January kickoff post is to share an idea for a multi-photo Year in Review Layout and also talk a little about getting organized for a fantastic 2017!

I love that the built in photo software from Apple is so intuitive and easy to sort your photos by dates, events, people, places, and customized albums. I find that it helps to be more efficient when I am looking for a photo to scrapbook to have all of the bloopers and bad shots already removed so that I can choose from mostly scrap-worthy snapshots. Of course your digital archives constitute the majority of memory keeping nowadays, and our layouts are the tip of the iceberg thanks to the wonders of digital photography. So one of my New Years resolutions is to take care of my digital photo files with the same care and organization that I put into organizing my supplies. After all, photos are the most important supply.

Rarely, if ever do we a see multiple photo layouts, let alone a layout with 12 photos-yes I said TWELVE! As I went through my photos I decided to pick one memory for each month of the year. It was difficult to narrow them down to one- but another parameter I wanted was to be able to include every one of my children in at least one of the photos-especially if the month included a special day for one of them-like a birthday. This helped me to eliminate photos by having to narrow it down by month AND whether I had already chosen a better photo of one particular child. Once I selected my photos, I printed them in 2.5″ squares on my Canon Selphy and all in black and white for a uniform look and color palette. I cut strips from one of the Hey, Sugar! kit papers to make a frame and then hand stamped a background design of Monstera leaves. I love the color combination of black and white and green. The Thickers alphabet in the kit really made the simple title pop. Finally, I printed a caption for each month’s photo and did some layering of the captions as well as some punched vellum scraps that were laying around from another project.

Last but not least, I had fun creating my own unique embellishment out of resin. I had this random smooshed toy flamingo in my junk drawer. I thought about using it as an embellishment, but then remembered I had some resin I had wanted to play with and if I could make a casting of it, instead of just one embellishment, I would be able to multiply its use by making more resin flamingos whenever I needed one! After creating a silicone mold from the original flamingo, which sets in about 20 minutes, I colored my resin with a few drops of  alcohol ink and poured it into the mold. After setting overnight, it was ready to adhere to my page. I loved the way it came out perfectly imperfect, and flatter than the original toy which made it easier to adhere and less bulky on my page.

Pantone announced their 2017 color of the year and it’s called “Greenery.” One of the trends we are sure to see in scrapbooking like in other design genres this year is the ongoing love of living things-especially tropical and woodland scenery and wildlife. From palms to ferns to succulents, you can’t go wrong with green! The latest pre-CHA new releases are starting to post and behind the scenes Clique Kits is planning upcoming kits and putting together orders for new shop inventory! We know that our 2017 kits are going to continue everything you know and love about Clique Kits, while adding more frequent Traveler’s Notebook add on kits.

If you have not already tried the traveler’s notebook as a way of documenting-and it doesn’t have to be used on a trip- although they are perfect for traveling- please get your pre-order in now for the latest limited edition TN kit.

This kit is coming out with perfect timing-whether for a holiday break from winter weather or if you live in the Southern hemisphere or the tropics already like here in Hawaii where Christmas is always green and bright- this kit is going to be perfect for using as an on the go smash book type album, an album  to document a special trip, or just as a daily documenter that is relaxed and smaller scale than large layouts. Be on the lookout as we add more TN product bundles to the school store, as well as inserts, and accessories!

Clique Kits has already been experimenting with the idea of hosting pre-orders for our subscribers and followers for hot new products -and many of these will be bundled to provide even deeper discounts for pre-ordering. However, once we close out ordering for shipment with the following month kit, these items, or whatever is left of them, will be transitioned to a la carte items, and priced accordingly. Just wanted to make sure that we keep everyone in the loop about how we adjust based on the crafting and buying patterns of our community!

Thank you so much for being part of The Clique- we love the diversity and varied talents of our community and value each individual member as a personal friend. And on that note…

 

We’ll take a cup of kindness yet for Auld Lang Syne!

-x Gia