Art Studio: Recycling Old Alphas

Hello there! It’s Caroli here and today I want to share my last project of this month using the fabulous kit RASKOG, filled with beautiful Life Noted collection by Pinkfresh Studio.

Today I want to show you a simple way of embellish your projects and use your stash. It happens to me very often that I ran out of some specific letters on alphas and then I don’t know what to do with them, because I can’t write anything with a lot of letters x, w and q!

This time, I decided to create a layer with those remaining alphas, so as to give volume and texture to my layout.

First, I cut a piece of thin cardboard and placed all my remaining letters as close as possible, then I used some acrylic paint and painted everything.

I recommend to paint two thin coats so that the color will be uniform and flawless. Once the paint was dry I cut the cardboard in squares and used them for creating layers in a grid design layout, here you can see the result:

As you can see, the composition of my layout gains a lot when using the painted-alpha layer 🙂 Here some close-ups, I love the result of this!

In this layout I used a lot the exclusive Cut Aparts included on my kit, love the designs, they perfectly match the patterns of Life Noted collection.

I hope you like this simple idea, it’s a good way of giving good use to some stuff from our stash and make room for future kits from Clique Kits 😉  Have a lovely day!

Geek Lab: Cutting Half a Shape

Hello everyone! Caroli here again, and today I want to show a little trick that I love when using my Silhouette machine: cutting just half of the a shape.

You may wonder why cutting just half of something? Well, because you can fold the cut part and thus create the missing part, giving an interesting effect, specially if you sew over it, like I did here:

 

The way for cutting just half of a shape is quite simple: just open the software of your machine and draw the shape you preffer. It must be a simple shape like a heart or a square. In this case I used a circle because I love circles 🙂 Then, I selected Erase Tool on the left of the screen and simply used it to erase half of the shape, as simple as that!

 

Once you’ve erased half of your shape you will have something like this. Then, you just need to copy it and paste it as many times you wish and place them whenever you feel like within your layout.

 

In my case I cut few half circles here and there and then fold the paper completely, placed some patterned paper behind it and then used my sewing machine to give a beter effect of this technique. Here is the full layout I made:

The colors and patterns of Life Noted collection are so happy and vibrant, perfect for documenting this pic of my and my best friend. Here you can see some more closeups of my project:

I hope you liked this idea, as for me I love it and used it when I want to create something simple and embellish mainly with patterned paper. Have a nice day! 🙂

Geek Lab: Faux Brush Lettering on my Title

Hello! It’s Caroli here again, and today I want to talk about something that is very trendy and really beautiful: brush lettering!

I love brush lettering , it’s such a beautiful technique and adds a lot to our projects, specially on the titles. Nevertheless, I must admit that although I’ve practiced a lot I’m not good at it. The brush and I are not good friends and most of the time I’m affraid of ruining a pretty page because my lettering comes out horrible.

So, what can we do if we want pretty brush lettering title but are not sure if it will come out as we pictured it on our imagination? we can use faux brush lettering, that is, cut the words with our cutting machine!

In this layout I cut part of my title in black cardstock to keep the brush lettering look. I completed the title using puffy yellow alpha and one acetate word, both included on July kit RASKOG.

Here you can see a closeup of the faux brush lettering, it looks pretty and it’s a  more controlled way of including it in your layout, don’t you think? I love the combination of black lettering, clear word and yellow alpha, it looks interesting and very colorful!

Of course you can use any brush font, I recomend you to google “brush fonts” and a lot of interesting and beautiful fonts will apear for you to use with your cutting machine. I you want to download Brusher font, which is the one I used on thos project,  you can do it for free here.

I hope you like this idea, it’s quite simple but the results are pretty. Have a lovely day!

July Kickoff: What’s in your Raskog?

It’s July 1st and time to kick off another exciting month with the Clique! Have you seen Raskog-the July monthly kit?  If you are not already a subscriber July would be a great month to join us because the word on the street is that Raskog is a MUST HAVE kit that everyone is talking about. Before I give you some highlights of the month ahead, I want to make sure you are tracking the significance of this month’s kit name! What’s a Raskog you ask? It’s only the decade’s most popular piece of furniture for crafters. The OG Raskog hails from the Scandinavian design mother ship known as IKEA. Since this month’s kit is filled with bold graphics, modern minimalist patterns, and clean lines reminiscent of Scandinavian decor we decided to pay tribute to the organizing cart so many of us know and love.

So, what’s in your Raskog? Make sure you stop by the Facebook group The Clique this month where everyone is sharing their projects- wouldn’t it be fun for everyone to also show us not only how they use their Raskog, but share any great ideas for organizing and storing paper crafting stash! There is always something fun to chat about with like minded paper crafters in our super laid back, supportive, and fun community online! You do not have to be a subscriber (but we love to enable you) to join The Clique- simply message or email us for an invite to The Clique private Facebook group.

 

Here is a fast and easy layout I made of my son and his guy friends ready to go to Prom. I used a fun photo editing app on my iphone to filter and then printed the photo in 4 x 4 size on my canon Selphy. Do you think it kind of looks like they are in a band and it’s an album cover? I went for that look because my son is very into music and his group of friends do have a band, so I hope the photo conveys this!

I love, love, love the colored acetate words and phrases from Pinkfresh Studio’s Life Noted collection included in the kit. I also used the yellow plastic paper and cut my own large ampersand with a metal die. The large black acetate letters from Pink Paislee were an add on item and were just the size I needed to complete my composition of typography on the page. It’s really nice to be able to choose add ons a la carte that work with your specific projects, and they almost always ship free with kits! Since add on items are time sensitive to go with particular kits, they do tend to sell out quick! That’s why our subscribers always get a sneak peek ahead of the general public and time to get their order in before supplies sell out.

And now for the news! The Clique Kits leadership team just closed our design team call for the next 6 month term and we are blown away by the talent in the applications we have received. Somehow, someway, with careful thought and consideration we will arrive at our final selections in order to announce the new team by the end of July! Thanks to everyone who took the time to apply- you are ALL awesome! We are looking forward to introducing Varsity Team 2016-2017 so stay tuned!

Clique Kits is really excited to bring you our third annual limited edition summer kit featuring another great Simple Stories collection!  This time the summer kit is all about simple summer scrapbooking to get your summer documented without wasting any beach or pool time to do it!  Look for tons of inspiration on You Tube!  These limited edition kits sell out fast and do not get re-stocked so get yours while they last! Lots of add ons are available in the shop to personalize your summer album.

Clique Kits still has their Summer Sales by the Week specials going on- these have been so popular and helpful to really stretch the budget so there’s plenty left over to spend on summer activities!

Do we ever have a surprise in store! Clique Kits is going to extend the summer sales for one additional week-this one time only this year current and past kits will be on BOGO 50% off sale! That is buy one kit, get another kit for HALF PRICE. And in most cases, no additional shipping will be charged. Take advantage of our shipping special where purchases over $60 always ship free while stocking up on kits! Be sure to follow this blog and Instagram, and like our Facebook page to be the first to hear this sale announced next week.

Thanks for joining us today and have an awesome July!