Happy Tuesday! 
I'm back for another Yearbook Tuesday post! Today I want to share a layout I created using the Debutante kit. At this point in my creating, I was running low on April Debutante product. Of course, I didn't want any piece to go to waste so I created this layout with scraps from the kit that I had left over.  And while doing that, I used a collage of photos of my husband and I throughout the years.

I love how this layout developed and how I was able to use scrappaper, journal cards, die cuts and various elements included in the kit. I enjoyed looking through my photos, finding some new and old that would work together to create a layout that I "cherish".

How do you use your scraps? Do you  make cards, use them on layouts or give them away! Share with us on how you use them!

Thanks for joining me today! Can you believe it is almost May! That means more inspiration and a new fabulous kit! Have a scrap happy day!
xoxo
Lacey

First up, we have the random Blog share hopper prize of a Debutante paper pack (from Amy Tangerine's Plus One collection!) which goes to Renee Joy! She is now a subscriber to the Clique Kits Blog/Newsletter by email and here is her comment:
"Yes, I knew the hop would be awesome!! Great job ladies!! 'Loving all of the inspiration, too!!" -Renee Joy
Renee, please email Clique Kits with your address so we can send your prize right out to you!

As a side note, if you have already subscribed, but have not been receiving our emails even though you have not unsubscribed, please try to subscribe again. I received a notice from Mail Chimp that for a couple of weeks Yahoo was bouncing emails in error, which led to removal from our list. The problem seems to be fixed, but we don't want anyone out of the loop!

Okay, now back to winners!
The winner of the Honor Society Challenge is Mandee Gillen a.k.a Scrappin' Madge! As an optional activity for this share, we challenged participants to share something about themselves either in writing, photos, or on their layouts or projects.

The Clique Kits gals loved the enthusiasm that Madge showed the Clique leading up to and during the blog share. She also took the time to share more about herself in her post (and her cute little Pug doggy child) AND she showed us pictures of her incredible scrapping space! In case you missed the blog share, you should go back and check out all of the inspiration on the blogs who who participated. We were kind of blown away by the talent in our Clique. Just saying'
Here is a slideshow of her awesome mini. She really made the most of the kit using not just the Plus One products, but the exclusive cards, flair, washi tape, Pinkfresh studio color block heart wood veneers, and sequins!  Her project really shows off everything we love about Debutante. Thanks for everything Scrappin' Madge! And thanks to everyone else who joined us at the first Pep Rally! Looking forward to many more to come (with more chances for YOU to be a winner.)

--xoxoThe Clique Kits Gals Gia,Jody,Erica,Lacey

Welcome to the PEP Rally! 

Today's event is brought to you by our Honor Society with special guests, our Students of the Month (Guest Designers) for April-the fabulous Danielle de Konink and Brooke Petermann!
We have an awesome blog share to show off projects made by our subscribers using our debut kit Debutante.  As an optional challenge, we are getting to know each other better by sharing something about ourselves in our posts!  If you are visiting here today and do not know about us yet, please sign up to follow us by email! You will receive an email notification whenever there is a new blog post plus a newsletter whenever there are special events, sales, and announcements! Feel free to learn more about us here, as we have openings for new subscribers for June! One of many great perks is getting to participate in these monthly blog shares and earning product credits for doing so! 
Without further ado, here is the list of blogs to visit. 

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Danielle
Brooke
Madge
Gina
Charity
Rosann

Everyone who comments on each blog and follows us by email will be entered to win our blog share prize. This months prize package is an Amy Tangerine Plus One Paper Set.  There are exclusive printables and die cuts still available with numerous other items  in the April School Store. The challenge winner will receive an additional 5 honor credits bringing their total for this blog share to 10! Eeek! We will announce the winners here on the blog on Sunday, April 27th.

And now here are some Pep Rally cheers for people Clique Kits wish to thank for helping us to have such an amazing debut this month!
Amy Tangerine- for being our Designer in the Spotlight and inspiring us with her Plus One collection.
Simple Stories- for their friendship and ongoing support!
Pinkfresh Studio- for the fabulous embellishments and inspiring products we love to include in our kits!
Freckled Fawn- for more amazing and unique embellishments, and for including us in their listing of small businesses.
And of course the new friends we have made and welcomed into the Clique so far! 
Can we get a great big T-H-A-N-K-S ! And thanks to you for joining us today. Now enjoy the blogs and the inspiration you will find there! 

--xoxo The Clique Kits Gals

I'm back again with another series of journal card sketches and samples using the April 2014 Debutante Kit! I really enjoy making one-of-a-kind journal cards for my albums. They are personalized for me, my style and my projects! 

These four journal cards really give you endless possibilities to create dynamic journal cards for your pocket page albums, layouts or even use them to inspire your next card creation! Here is how I took these sketches to the scrapbook desk!

Here are all four cards together! These cards add a lot of personality to my page protector album!

Punch with a circle (or shape punch) sections of a pattern paper. Apply an epoxy sticker on top to add a personalize flair style image to your journal card, layout or cards!

Have you seen all the great announcements in the last few days? If you missed it, here is a run down!
1. We have subscription slots open starting June 2014! Be sure to sign-up before it's too late, under store - Subscriptions.
2. Join the Clique Kits gals and the Kit club Subscribers (Honor Society), TOMORROW, April 23rd for the April Kit blog share! Start here at the Clique Kits blog. The share begins at 10am CST (8am PST, 9am MST, 11am EST).
3. Have you seen the MAY Sneak peeks? Head over to our Facebook page or Instagram page to see some sneak peeks of our NEXT kit!

Thanks for joining me today! I hope you have a scrap happy day!
Lacey

Happy Easter friends!  This bright pink watercolor look paper with the big white brush stroke "Love"  is such a versatile paper- I love that Debutante does not have a 'theme' and it leaves the creative possibilities wide open! For example, Plus One is in no way an "Easter" collection, but I was able to use it as one. In order to make this an "Easter" page, I followed Jody's tutorial from the other day to die cut some cute felt bunnies. If you missed it, it is here.  If I am going to invest in a collection, I want to know that it will work with any number of themes, and most of all, the everyday stuff! The Clique Kits philosophy is to design kits with this in mind.

I also  used my Amy Tangerine/American Crafts "Duplicate" embossing folder with some vellum to create a unique looking layer. First, I embossed the vellum while at the same time printing with gold letterpress ink right in the embossing folder! This technique does not give a perfect "letterpress" design but does give a random, somewhat distressed looking print. I then went over some of the cameras with my watercolors to add more pops of the colors in my patterned papers.

I have also been getting tons of mileage from the added printables and die cuts in this kit. It still blows my mind how much more I am using Debutante than any other kit I have ever bought!  We wanted Clique Kits to help us move from our old habits of hoarding more supplies than we use, to being efficient, productive, and doing so much scrapping we use our favorite products up!  Judging from Debutante so far- I think we are off to an excellent start! Stay tuned for the Pep Rally when the Clique Kits Gals and the Honor Society will be showing you even more ways to use your kit. It's taking place Wednesday, April 23rd starting here on the blog.  Join us ! 

-x Gia

Hello Clique Kits fans!  Erica here with you today to share a pocket page layout I did yesterday.  Baseball season has started which means my nights will be spent at the baseball fields from now until June!  This year we have two of our kids playing so that will be 4 games a week!  Crafting time will be cut short for this mama but that is ok with me!  Clique Kits has put together kits that make creating quick and simple with coordinating and exclusive products!   

Today I want to share with you what I created yesterday late afternoon right before my son's first baseball game!  I have had these photos of our two youngest boys sitting on my desk and I knew this kit would be a perfect match for the photos!  Debutante has some great black and whites to use as neutrals but also has great pops of color!  The color I wanted to really make pop was the yellow from the swing in the photos!  I knew this kit had a great yellow flair badge that went perfectly and just happens to have the word PLAY on it and the heart shaped colorblock wood veneers with yellow from Pinkfresh Studio are also a perfect match!  Here is a look at my completed pocket page layout!

This style pocket page has room for 4 4x6 photos or cards.  I used two of the 4x6 Clique Kits exclusive journal cards for the top two spots and for the bottom left corner I created my own card using pattern paper from the kit and a white piece of cardstock.  The last 4x6 spot I ended up using the two 3x4 Clique Kits exclusive journal cards together to create one 4x6!  I love how it looks!  These Clique Kits exclusive journal cards are not your typical cardstock journal cards.  They are nice sturdy journal card with a bit of a shine to them!  The quality is amazing and our very own Lacey Gasper has designed each and every one!  I used a regular thin point sharpie to add my journaling and there is no smearing or smudges!  This kit is great for both girl and boy themed projects.  Adding pops of pink instead of the yellow would have made for a very cute girly page for photos of my daughter!  I love that this kit offers the great black and whites and the colorful embellishments so that you can add pops of color where ever your heart desires!  The possibilities are endless with this kit!  Here are a few close ups of my pocket page layout.

Thank you so much for stopping today here on the Clique Kits blog!  I hope you are having as much fun with our first kit as I am!  Please join us next week for our Blog Share featuring Debutante!  We have added a few new items to the Clique Kits shop that coordinate with our first kit that you are just going to love!  So make sure to head on over and check them out!  Also if you missed the sneak peek of our May kit please CLICK HERE to check that out!  I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day!  If you do not already please subscribe to our newsletter and also check us out on Facebook!  

I am obsessed with instagram. I love to take photos with my phone and share them in the online gallery. I love to look at other peoples photos and see what they are up to that day. One of my main subjects is my puppy baby, Spock. 

Another thing I like about instagram is that I have square photos. I love using these photos sizes for my layouts and projects. They are already cropped how I want them and I just have to print them off (either at home or online, I use Shutterfly). I love to printing my photos in 4x4, 3x3 or 2x2. They make great featured images on a project!

Today, I'm sharing a layout using our April Kit - Debutante! This layout came together in less then 30 minutes, actually more like 20 minutes.  I love when layouts come together like that! Of course, this is a layout of my sweet little guy! I used the strips at the bottom of the Amy Tangerine - Plus One papers to add texture and visual interest the to background of my layout. I ADORE this large strip paper as well. I focused on using black and white with the pops of aqua and te small pop of green in the paper strip.

Here is a close up of the paper strips, the awesome acrylic arrow from Freckled Fawn and those fantastic foam stickers from the kit! I also used the 3x4 die cut to create some interest as well! 

Thanks for stopping by this Saturday and joining me! It's been such a fun and busy week here at Clique Kits, with our blog share, blog posts from Amy Tan herself and our April Guest Designer - Danielle! We have so much in store for you in the future as well! We've had planning meetings this week and are getting VERY giddy to start showing you the May kit!! Thanks for all your support! If you want to join our club, please join the wait list - located in our store under "subscription."

Have a scrap Happy DAY!
Lacey

Clique Kits is so excited to have Amy Tan as our Designer in the Spotlight this month! Her Plus One collection is the featured collection in Debutante, our April kit, and it is no wonder that it has been so popular!  Amy is the owner of a creative company called Amy Tangerine, and has been designing collections for American Crafts for several years. She teaches classes all over the world, and is the scrapbooker-on-location for the stars in Los Angeles! This past year, Amy's family increased in size by plus one when she had the cutest little guy ever named Jack Archibald. We hope you enjoy learning more about her!


Q. Paper crafters are eager to learn about the scrap-lebrities who design the products they love. Would you mind answering some questions to help our readers get to know you better as a person and designer? 
A. Not at all!

Q. Is there a story behind your name and logo (Amy Tangerine)?
A. A friend of mine came up with it back in 2000 when I was doing fashion styling. I started off as Tangerine Productions, but when it came to trademark & copyright, I decided Amy Tangerine was more fun. 

Q. We know that you have become a superstar and celebrity in the scrapbooking world, and that you teach all over the country/world.  Can you share the most interesting or outrageous experience you have ever had, or maybe give us some highlights of your career as scrapbooker for the rich and famous in Los Angeles ?

A. I feel incredibly blessed when it comes to the opportunities I have had. Not only do I get to travel the world – Europe, South Africa, and Australia promoting my collection, but I also get to meet members of this fantastic scrapbooking community. It’s really the best job. Oh and living in Los Angeles has opened up doors when it comes to scrapbooking for high profile clients. Some of the cool celebrity events I have worked include Dr. Phil’s 60th birthday party at the Beverly Hills Hotel and numerous kids birthdays of musicians and actors. 

Q. How did you get started as an artist/designer? Were you always creative? 

A. I think I’ve always been pretty creative, always having paint on my clothing and only a little on my apron back in junior high (some call this middle school). After getting a degree in Fashion Design & Marketing in 2000, I worked as a stylist and then went onto launch a tee-shirt line. When I discovered scrapbooking in 2007, my interests started shifting from fabric to paper and I debuted my first collection with American Crafts in 2010.

Q. Where did you get the inspiration to create your first signature line? All of your collections that followed were different and yet retained the Amy Tan “look” with elements such as cameras. Can you share  little bit about your design process?

A. The inspiration from my first line was a mix of all the things I loved. Since I had been scrapbooking for just a few years before it launched, I tried to come up with something I thought was fresh for the industry. I get to work with an awesome team at American Crafts – because of the success of the previous lines, they trust me when I want to push the envelope a little bit.

Q. What do you consider to be your greatest artistic accomplishment?

A. This is a tough one. Can I say my son, Jack? Well, the other day while setting up my table for live tv at HSN, Martha (yes, THE Martha Stewart) walked past and said, “Oh… cute.” That was really neat.

Q. Where do you see yourself in 10 years professionally? 

A. Hopefully still actively part of a creative company called Amy Tangerine – perhaps with more licensed products and ranges of services to offer.

Q. As an artist/designer, who are your mentors and/or influences ? 

A. I am inspired by passionate makers. My mentors are still those I had from the fashion industry. Many of them have had huge success with clothing lines and some are top editors at magazines. They always believed I had a fierce drive and was capable of building an empire. Not sure I have done exactly that, but success is something that needs to be defined on an individual basis. Sometimes my biggest success is doing 3 things in a day, which might include showering, a few solid hours of work and taking care of Jack.

Q. And now, on the more personal side:  As a first time Mom, you undoubtedly received a ton of pregnancy and parenting advice. Can you share what has turned out to be the best advice you received ? The worst (or at least it didn’t work for you)? 

A. Best: To enjoy every bit because it goes by quickly. Motherhood is much harder than I thought it would be. My recovery from a C-section was difficult. There are so many different phases and he seems to change every day. I am really just trying to soak it all up. Worst: I can’t even remember. I tend to take things with a grain of salt when it comes to unsolicited advice that has been bad, so I have likely just brushed it off.

Q. Favorites:
 Movie- She’s The One

 Book- Catcher in the Rye

 Food- nachos

 Dessert- salted caramel ice cream

 Place to vacation- Hawaii

 Music to listen to while creating? Pandora stations

 Clothing Store- Nordstrom


Q. Three things that people probably don’t know about you...

A. 1. I am highly allergic to cats and mosquito bites 2. I dream in color. 3. I take too many photos of Jack.

Q. And finally...Do you have any words that you live by?

A. The secret to life is knowing how to make the bad times good and the good times unforgettable.

That sounds like great advice! Thanks for making our debut kit and our Designer in the Spotlight post unforgettable Amy!


-x The Clique Kits Gals