  Hey all! How about a Clique Kits Double Header today! Don't you just love all the Pink Fresh you saw this morning?! I'll tell ya, working with these Pink Fresh goodies for Wednesday's blog share has been so fun. These embellishments are fabulous and great quality. In case you didn't figure out who's on today, it's Jody here for some Locker Room talk today. So, here's a question for ya? Do you hoard, I mean collect {clearing my throat}, I mean utilize 6x6" paper pads in your scrapbooking or card making? Personally, I'm much more of a layout or mini album gal rather than a card maker. But I do love me some 6x6 paper pads! Here's my layout using the new and fabulous Simple Stories A Charmed Life! Have all girls? Have all boys, or both? This line is right up your alley. Yes I know, there are three floral prints in this line but don't let that stop you from getting this line from Clique Kits even if you only have boys. The opposite sides to those floral prints are wood grain, a ledger paper and a polka dot. All of which are fantastic for either gender. Here's a look at the entire Simple Stories A Charmed Life line on the SS Blog <HERE>. It's also available for purchase in our Clique Kits store now!     And now, here is my short video showing you a fun way to use your 6x6 paper pads to create a 12x12" layout. You can also trim a 12x12 sheet into quarters. Same, same! I hope you enjoyed the Clique Kits Locker Room today and you give this fun technique a try. We'd love to see your work on our Facebook page. Remember, our first kit starts April 1st, which is coming up super fast! We still have some subscriptions available and we'd love to have your join our Clique! You can head over <HERE> and subscribe! Here's a peak at all the fun colors, patterned papers and other fun elements in our debut kit, DEBUTANTE!! Fitting name for our first kit, isn't it.  Thank you for spending your time with us today! See you very soon!
xoxo ~ Jody
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Enamel frames, icons, and drops, ombre washi tape and washi tape with gold highlights, and new color block wood veneers…I KNOW, RIGHT? We want and need them all ! That is why Clique Kits is collaborating with the super special, one-of-a-kind Pinkfresh Studio for a Blog Share next week. And just because we know you can't wait to get some Pinkfresh Studio embellishments in your first Clique Kit, Debutante, coming this April, we are going to GIVEAWAY a goody bag so you can have a chance to get your fab design loving hands on some right away! The very first time I heard about Pinkfresh Studio was here, on Amy Tan's blog. I started with some washi tape, which arrived in a hot pink bubble wrap envelope! And I was smitten! More recently, I fell in love with the enamel stickers. They come in neon, pastels, brights, retro, and neutrals. Clique Kits may or may not be including one of their hottest, newest items in our first kit, with more to come in the future. (Sorry-you just have to wait for the full reveal…) I highly recommend you subscribe NOW, as there are less than 30 days until Postman stalking begins for those of us in the Clique. 
Speaking of the Clique, do you know Kinnari? She is the founder, owner, and designer that IS Pinkfresh Studio, and she is definitely in the Clique-if nothing else an honorary member! We are pretty excited to be featuring Kinnari as one of our Designers in the Spotlight. She's all that too. Don'tcha just love it when women with BIG dreams inspire us with small businesses? Seriously, this is yet another benefit of subscribing. If you don't think you have time to be a purveyor of the most hip, premium quality, and unique supplies for your projects, and believe you have to settle for 'big box' mayhem, think again! The Clique Kits gals will help you out, with new items hand selected for your happy mail box every single month. Clique Kits is always on the hunt for the best designers and small businesses and the handmade/DIY markets worldwide, not to mention how proud we are of our in house designers. So please join us, and Pinkfresh Studio next week, Wednesday March 5th, for some inspiration and a chance to win! See you then, starting right here. -xGia 
Have you always wanted to create cards but do not know where to start? Are you more of a scrapbooker and creating cards seems impossible to you? Well today I want to share with you one way to use up pieces of your kits to create simple, beautiful cards using a sketch. You can find sketches all over the internet these days and pinterest is one of my favorite places to find great sketches and inspiration. One of my favorite sketch challenge blogs is Retro Sketches. They provide you with a new sketch each week and the Design Team has fabulous examples using the sketch as inspiration. Today I am using their current sketch as my inspiration to show you how simple it is to create a card. I will be using pieces of my Amy Tan Cut & Paste kit that we have been highlighting this month. If you missed our Blog Share I encourage you to check it out after this post! Here is a look at sketch #103 from Retro Sketches. 
You can see that it is a tag sketch but I will show you how I used this sketch to create a fun card. Here is a look at some pieces from my kit that I will be using to create my card. 
I started with the 12x12 cut apart paper that has the 3x4 cards on it. I chose a neutral colored card to create my tag out of . To create the tag all I did was cut each top corner at an angle. 
I stayed pretty close to the sketch and changed the size of my tag and a few different elements. I used a doily but just did not show as much of the doily like in the sketch. Instead of a floral type element on top of the doily I used this beautiful crochet heart embellishment by Laceybug Creations. 
In the photo above you can see I pulled out an exclusive Clique Kits flair badge and a couple bows from the Cut & Paste collection and started playing around with these two strips of paper to get the right placement. In the end I decided against the flair and the bows and just stuck with with the crochet heart as my main piece on the doily. 
I needed to find a simple and small sentiment for my tag so I dug into my favorite stamps and found this great "for you" sentiment from Paper Wings Productions. Once my sentiment piece was stamped It was time to finish up my tag and add some ribbon and twine for SpiegelMom Scraps. 
You can see my finished tag above and the sketch that I used as my inspiration. They are pretty similar and it was super fast and easy to create. Now I could keep the tag just like this and it would be great on a gift or a gift bag but I decided to pull some more paper from my kit and create a full card. 
I chose a pink card base to bring out the little bits of pink in my tag and then this great neutral colored heart paper as my layer. I attached my tag to the card using some pop dots and that is it! Card complete and it took me about 15 minutes to create and photograph! 
Thanks so much for joining me today and I hope this gives you a little push to create some cards! Make sure to follow us on Pinterest where you will find some of our favorite cards, layouts and a ton of inspiration. April is coming up fast and that means our very first kit! Here is a peek at Debutante! 
You can subscribe to our kits by clicking the subscribe button here. We have also started to stock our store with some great products from Simple Stories so make sure to stock up on your favorites before they are gone! Thanks again for stopping and enjoy your day!
-xErica 
Do you ever wonder what to take pictures of on a daily or even weekly basis to create a page protector album (My Life, Project Life, Project 365)? Are you uninspired? Do you feel like your subject is always the same? Are you wondering 'HOW will I really create a memorable layout each week!?' No fear! I will help make this process less stressful and hopefully more memorable through various blog posts this year. Photography Equipment Lets not have this title scare you. You do not have to have fancy equipment to take photos. Actually, a good phone camera will do the trick or a simple point and shoot that you can easily carry around. I'll tell you right now, I'm more apt to take pictures with my phone or my point and shoot than I am with lugging my dSLR around with me. Reasons?
Photo Ideas Now, I'm notorious for pictures of my puppy. I post pictures of him sleeping, playing, eating, sitting like a sweet boy, etc. As cute as my little puppy child is, my spreads in my album from week to week would be a little repetitive.
First, Lets clear the air right away. You DON'T need to put every moment in your scrapbook. You DON'T need to create a layout / spread for each week. Design your album to fit YOU and your lifestyle. So, what are some things we can photograph in our daily lives that is still meaningful, but doesn't look the same from week to week?
Ask yourself...Will this be important in 5 years? 10 years? With the easy access of cameras, digital photography and easy access printing (from home or a short drive away), we seem to be taking pictures of, well everything. So in this instagram crazed world, how do we pick the best pictures? This is mostly for you to decide, but ask yourself, "Will this picture have meaning in 5 years? How about 10 years?" Did you really need that picture of the Target Shopping cart at the far end of the parking lot? What is the meaning behind the photo? I'm all for random photos once in a while and I think they are great on Instagram, but we are speaking for an album, something friends and family now and in the future will flip through to reminisce about past memories. Does the photo you choose tell a story? Does it mean something in your life? These questions will help you pick out photos from your every day life that tell your story, your families story. It will put meaning back in your album. Also, don't feel like you need a spread for each week. Some weeks life may not be filled with memorable document-able moments. And that is okay. Skip the week or create 1 12x12 layout. Document your life the way you feel represents you. There is no right or wrong way to accomplish this.
Want to see how the Clique Kits team documents our every day lives? Follow us on Instagram! Clique Kits, Lacey, Gia, Jody, Erica. Thanks for joining me today. ♥ Lacey
 Do you have handmade cards, artwork, or notes from your children that you have thought about incorporating in to your scrapbook? There are many ideas out there for doing this including photographing or scanning them and using a pocket or envelope in a page protector for safe keeping. With my large family, I try to be selective about what we save out of all of the school work, art work, cards and letters. I choose the highlights from every year and STILL end up with boxes and boxes of memories! Once they go in the box, I know I have them, but they are put away out of sight where they do not get looked at again for years-maybe not until we move or have some other excuse to be sorting through stored items. Why not bring them out in to the light on a layout instead? As Becky Higgins says, "Scrapbook with the end in mind"- the enjoyment your family gets looking through their albums.  In this layout I wanted to preserve this heart shaped handmade Valentine my daughter Leah, 15 gave me for Valentine's Day. All of my kids are artistic in some way-they dance, sing, act, play musical instruments, and draw, paint, and even sew. Sometimes its the little things without all of the fanfare that impress me the most- their little drawings all over the house, costumes they design for 'dress up', and other things that might go unnoticed. In this case, my daughter slipped in to my art corner and made this little mixed media heart and I couldn't be more proud of her! So I made it the focal element of this layout, with a recent picture of her at this age.  This month the Clique Kits gals are working with Amy Tan's Cut & Paste collection as the spotlight of a kit put together by Erica with exclusive embelishments made by Lacey. I hope you had a chance to join us for the Blog Share on February 21st- if not you can find it here. I used this adorable journaling card made by Lacey with fabric she stitched to a blank lined card. To use it in this layout, I stamped my daughter's name and added a painted background for my journaling that picks up the organic wood like feel of the log she is sitting on in the photo.  Isn't that little red flair perfect? Three things you will find on just about every one of my layouts right now are flair, washi tape, and sequins. This is one reason the Clique Kits gals decided to make washi tape, flair, and sequins a regular part of our monthly kits when we go public! One advantage to having our exclusive flair is this: When I buy a package of flair, there is usually only one or two of them that I really like- and the rest go in to the circular file. When they are designed specifically for the kit I know I will use 'em up! One of my goals for the year and scrapbooking with Clique Kits is to get the most out of my supplies, and be able to use up and enjoy my stash. I believe that most paper crafters today are looking for ways to simplify, and to save time and money without compromising the results or the creative outlet provided by the craft. For me, subscribing to a monthly kit is the perfect solution! We would love it if you wouldjoin us on this journey! Subscribe today to reserve your space. -x Gia  We are so happy you have joined us today for our fourth Clique Kits Blog Share. Today the Clique Kits gals are featuring products from one of our favorite designers: Amy Tan. The Cut & Paste collection released at CHA-Summer 2013 has great neutrals with pops of color. You will find fun images throughout this collection including cameras, arrows, word bubbles and hearts. This collection is perfect for documenting everyday life and is very gender neutral!  First up in our blog share isErica so sit back, grab your drink of choice and enjoy The Cut & Paste Blog Share! Blog Share Line Up Clique Kits Erica Thompson Gia Lau Jody Spiegelhoff Lacey Igo Before you go, take another peek at Clique Kits very first monthly kit which will make its debut in April 2014. If you haven't subscribed yet you can do so here.  -x Erica, Gia, Jody, and Lacey
Happy Thursday everyone! Erica here with another Geek Lab post. Today I am pulling out another great tool from my stash to show you a great way to use up those bits and pieces of kits that you may have laying around and do not know what to do with. When Simple Stories came out with their I {Heart} Summer collection I was in LOVE! The colors were bright, fun and screamed SUMMER! I had to have the collection and every single piece of it! Well once I was finished with all my projects I had all kinds of bits and pieces left over. Today I am going to show you a great way to take these bits and pieces and create a quick and easy notebook/mini album. Here is a look at what I am starting with today. 
The Cinch is a binding machine made by We R Memory Keepers and it makes creating albums quick and easy! First I took my pile of Simple Stories scraps and cut them down to various lengths and widths. I wanted my album to be fun, interactive and have many different sized pages. 
Once I had the paper all cut to the lengths I wanted I put them in 3 different piles and then began stacking them together to create my album starting with the largest paper on the bottom since this would be the last page of my album. 
Now it was time to get my trusty old Cinch machine out and start punching holes in my paper. It is very simple to use and all the directions are listed right on the machine itself! I would try it out on some scratch paper first but once you get the hang of the machine you pretty much know where to put your paper and what pins to pull. 
There are many different colors and sizes of wire you can purchase for your Cinch. I decided on a piece of black wire that I had in my stash that I thought would go well with the touches of black in this collection. After all your holes are punched all you have to do is take your wire and thread it through the holes and trim your wire with some wire cutters. 
Now that your album is put together all that is left to do with it is have fun and fill it with great embellishments and memories to cherish forever! 
I hope this post inspires you to pull out your binding machine and scraps that has been stashed away and if you do not have a binding machine an album like this can easily be put together with a basic hole punch and some wire or binder rings! Thanks so much for stopping today and enjoy your day!
 Hellloooo everyone! Jody here today with a boy layout! Seriously!! I scrapbooked about this little blue-eyed charmer, our nephew Wyatt. Not only did I create a boy layout {for once, lol} I challenged myself to get it done~fast! My nights are super busy these days and sometimes all I get is 15-30 minutes to create. So, on Sunday night I did this entire layout in 28 minutes. The key... I didn't fuss over it. Oh, and don't you just want to squeeze Wyatt's cheeks!!!  Here's the play-by-play for todays 30 minute dash ~ I started with a 12x12 Amy Tangerine paper from her Cut & Paste line. This paper design has the upper 3/4 of the paper being an off-white and the bottom 1/4 being pink, red and yellow striped. I wanted to cover up the pink stripe on the background paper completely, so I used the nifty blue edge stripes on ends of 12x12 papers no-a-days. Such a clever thing the paper companies did to create less waste! No more pink, just like that. Next, I laid out Wyatt's photo closer to the bottom quarter of the page and trimmed the red and white dot paper to 6.5" by 4.5". I placed it behind the photo and tilted it. Then, I surrounded Wyatt with fun arrows, a glassine envelope filled with blue metallic sequins and gold stars, some fun word elements cut from the papers and a handmade journaling card by Lacey!! I didn't putz with these elements, I placed them and left them alone. I know that's tough for many of us to do, but give it a tray! Our clever Clique Kits girl, Lacey, sewed some fabric scraps right onto a 3x4 lined journaling card for sweet handmade look. It works perfectly to add some texture and interest to Wyatt's layout. You'll also see some ink splatter in areas. I used some Studio Calio Mr. Huey's in Pinstripe, which is a medium grey. I really like this color when I want just a little ink and nothing too dramatic. Don't overthink it when you splatter your ink. Just unscrew the spray nozzle and give it a little shake over the general area. If you've never used ink before I'd encourage you give it try! If you don't want ink in a certain spot, like your photo, just place a piece of scrap paper over it. Then, just let the ink fall where is may!  Here's a closer look at the sewed journaling card by Lacey, who also sent us CK girls some awesome crochet hearts. You also saw the crochet hearts in Gia's Art Studio post, which you can find HERE, just in case you missed it :)  Below , check out all the strips of papers and words. The "Moments Documented" strip and the blue grid just above it are those edge pieces I mentioned earlier. If you haven't been using them, look at the ends of your patterned papers and give it a try. Sometimes one side has the actual barcode on it, but then the other side is very usable! The yellow strip with the days of the week is another edge strip, which I popped up using some foam adhesive.  This has been another Locker Room play-by-play from me. As Lacey shared yesterday, we'd love to see your Clique Kits inspired projects on our Facebook page!
As we've said before, our kits are being designed so they can be used for boys and girls. Often times, one side of a 12x12 paper is girly with the opposite side being neutral or more boyish. Our goal is to make our kits usable for everyone, regardless if you have 5 girls like me, all boys & a both like many scrapbookers out there! Clique Kits is designed by us, for you. There are still a few subscriptions available so get yours before we sell out! Go HERE to check out the subscription nitty gritty. You can subscribe by going HERE, which is our Clique Kits Store Front. You'll also see new Simple Stories collection packs and SN@P Sets for sale! If you're still on the fence and have questions, please ask us! Keep you your mobile devices handy this Friday, February 21st for another Clique Kits blog share, featuring Amy Tangerine!! See ya then! ~ Jody  Happy Tuesday everyone! What did you think of the launch party? Did you sign-up for the kit club? Are you on the fence? Do you want to see what it's all about first? There are still subscriptions available. We are so excited for those of you already signed up to join us! Today I want to share a few ways to use the printables that we shared with you on Friday (Launch Day). The printables are great for layouts, cards and even Daily / Weekly / Monthly type albums (project 365, etc). There are a few ways I love to use them. First lets talk about those circles. I have designed the circles at 1", so they are easy to punch with a 1" punch. Below is a group of supplies and the printables. I printed on white Bazzill (non-textured) cardstock from my home printer (Epson Workforce 7520), 1" paper punch, Epoxy Stickers (mine are from Michaels, you can also get them on Amazon). I highly recommend storing these out of the sun, they seem to discolor when they are in the package and exposed to light. If I use them right away and they are exposed they seem to stay clear.  Below I show you how I punch out the circles with my circle punch and than place the epoxy sticker on top of the punched circle.
 Using the epoxy stickers adds dimension to the printables as well as the illusion of a flair button. Below you will see the 1" epoxy sticker in action. I used a vellum envelope sealed with sequins and decorated with Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste elements, along with the XO circle printable.
The second idea with the printables is with the "I {heart} you" journal card. I created the word "{heart}" as an outline to give the freedom to color it in if it matches your project! Below I colored in the word "heart" with Tim Holtz Distress Markers and since I didn't have a green marker, I used Distress Stain and a paint brush for the green.
Here are the end results! You can customize this to fit your own projects!  Did you know we have a BLOG SHARE this Friday?!? We will have a prize and tons of inspiration using the Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste Line and loads of cool embellishments. Here are a few tiny sneak peeks of a layout I'm working on and how I incorporated the printables into my layout!
Thank you for joining me today!! How do you use the printables? Share your projects on our Facebook page, using any of our printables we have shared for download!
{hearts & Hugs} Lacey 
Hi everyone-this is Gia back in the Clique Kits Art Studio today with a fun technique for you with watercolors! Paints sometimes intimidate scrapbookers because not only are they 'messy' and wet, many worry that they have to be an 'artist' to try to create their own unique effects with paints. Nothing could be further from the truth. First I will show you my technique and then I will let you in on my secret weapon for dealing with the 'messiness' issue. (So you will never have to worry about spilling your paintbrush water on your scrapbooking desk ever again!) 
Here is a layout I made using my watercolor design as my background. As you can see, I hardly used any patterned paper at all, and made use of some pocket page filler cards instead. I also went to town with some really fun embellishments.  Are you crazy about flair and wood veneers like I am? What about washi tape? These are some of my absolute must haves lately and I keep a big bowl of them on my desk since I am bound to want to use them on just about every layout. Another trend I am crazy about lately is adding embellishments with that DIY handmade look. Last week Erica demonstrated how to add texture and a handmade touch with embroidery. If you missed this post, you can find it here. Clique Kits designer Lacey Gasper Igo made these adorable crochet hearts this month for us to 'test run' for the Clique. I would say they passed my test with flying colors! I couldn't wait to use them on a layout! I love all of the details that the Clique Kits gals are focusing on to make our kits special and to go the extra mile in bringing only the best and exclusive products to our subscribers every month! 
So let's get started with our watercolor technique. Here is a raindrop stencil which I chose for this layout about a rainbow! You don't get a rainbow without rain, right? I taped my stencil down in just a couple places with low tack adhesive on to my card stock to prevent it moving around and ruining the design. Then I spread some embossing paste across the stencil with a palette knife/spatula. Once the entire stencil was coated, I used the knife to scrape off all of the excess. While still wet, the next step is to carefully lift the stencil up. I like to keep a plastic dishpan with some warm soapy water in it close by (but not right on my desk- knowing me that would be a huge disaster waiting to happen) so I can throw my stencil in there and worry about the thorough wash and dry later. The embossing paste takes about an hour to dry, which can be speeded up by using a heat tool. But for best results, let it dry completely before attempting to paint over it. (I get lots of laundry folded while waiting for my resist mediums to dry.) 
The next step is to grab your watercolors and with a wet brush use side to side brushstrokes working your way across and down the area you have stenciled. Watercolors are translucent and the shade depends on how much water is added to the pigment. They also dry quickly, and once dry it is possible to layer more pigment on top which creates very pretty variegated effects. This translucency and variegated (ombre) look is what allows watercolors to add so much interest. 
My last step is optional- but in case you are interested, I used a water spritzing bottle to wet down the paint again after I had covered my raindrops and then turned my card stock vertically to allow some of the wet paint to drip down a little. I wanted to capture the feeling of our tropical rainstorms in Hawaii which are always followed by a beautiful rainbow! 
And there you have a watercolor resist background. I use watercolor paper a lot as background paper for my artsy layouts but I wanted to demonstrate that you can use watercolors on ordinary card stock you already have on hand! The only difference is that if it gets very wet it may curl a bit whereas watercolor paper is heavier and more absorbent and doesn't curl as much. And as promised, I have a tip for those who like to stay dry and clean- and for those who wonder how they could bring watercolors with them to their next workshop or crop. Get yourself some water brush pens like these. They have a hollow compartment you fill with water and then it only feeds the brush droplets when squeezed lightly so it doesn't get wet or drip unless you want it to. They come in different brush sizes and styles. To clean it, simply flush more water through the brush until it runs clear and you are done- I usually keep a paper towel handy for this purpose. I have even brought my watercolors for long plane rides (Hawaii to anywhere=5 + hours) by bringing my water brush through security dry and filling it once I am on the plane! 
I hope that you enjoyed your visit to the Clique Kits Art Studio today! If you have a chance to try this technique I would love to see your projects! Sign in to the Clique Kits Forum and upload your photos (smaller size jpegs work best) to the gallery thread! Hope to see you again soon!
-x Gia |
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