Hi CK friends!

It's Jodie here with you today!  Working with the January 2019 Heart Eyes kits that feature Paige Evans' Whimsical collection has really inspired me to try some techniques that Paige is known to use.  Today the technique I'm trying is a rainbow themed spread.

I'm loving stitching on my projects so much at the moment and that's how I started off my background.  I marked a point where the centre of my circular photo would sit, and then marked around the edge of my spread at 1" intervals.  I drew a really light pencil line from the centre point to each mark around the edge and then stitched holes along those lines with my sewing machine (with no thread in it).  I used an eraser to remove the pencil lines, and backstitched each line in embroidery thread to make up a 360 degree rainbow.

So yes the stitching took a while, but I put together a little pencil case with my layout, all my chosen threads and a needle and scissors and carted it around with me over a few days, and every time I had a few spare moments, like in my lunch break at work, or while my hubby was driving the car and I was in the passenger seat, I pulled it out and did a little bit more, and do you know what?  It was completely finished before I knew it!

The next step was to add a little mixed media to my background with some watercolour splatters to match each colour of the rainbow.  Each colour overlaps just a little bit and I love how they blend into each other.

I die cut a scalloped circle in white cardstock and my photo in a smaller regular circle.  For some texture I chain stitched around the photo in white embroidery thread.  The cluster to frame my photo stays true to the rainbow colours in that section of the spread, with blues at the top and greens to the lower left.

To finish up my spread I pulled a bunch of small pieces from the sticker book and rub on sheets in the kit.  The phrase and stitching rub ons were placed directly onto my spread, and the butterflies were placed on some scrap white cardstock and fussy cut.  Then it was easy peasy to place each little ephemera piece in its colour section.

I also used the Thankful cut file from the Clique Kits store for my title, cut it in white cardstock and heat embossed it twice with gold embossing powder.  You might notice that this piece is missing some squiggly bits on each end.  I really love them but if I had left them on this piece would have been too big for my page.  So I used the eraser tool in Silhouette Studio to erase those parts before I sent the file to cut.

I hope I've inspired you to try a rainbow project today, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Hi friends!  Jodie here today with a traveller's notebook spread using the beautiful January 2018 Heart Eyes Travellers Notebook kit.

This month the spotlight collection in the kits is Paige Evans' Whimsical.  I adore this collection, and it really has a full and varied colour palette, but today I've pulled mostly teals and liliacs for this spread.

The background of my layout is based on one piece of 6x6 paper, and I trimmed it so that I had one 6x4 piece and one 6x2 piece.  The larger piece I adhered to the left side of the spread and the smaller piece to the right.  Then to add some texture and definition I chain stitched with an embroidery thread around three sides of each paper.  If you're familiar with Paige's style you'll know that she's a big fan of chain stitch on her layouts, so it was kind of fitting to include it on this spread.

The smaller patterned paper piece ended up being the perfect place to pop my journaling.  I printed some strip journaling on my printer and stitched it down with my sewing machine.

And OMGosh you guys, I was SO excited to see these tassels in the TN kit this month!! Aren't they the sweetest!?  I've tucked this one across the top of my journalling, and I love, love it!

One of the January add-ons that I purchased from the shop is this 2019 acrylic piece.  I had planned on using it on a pocket pages spread but it worked so well with this layout I couldn't not use it here.  It has a really nice thickness, weight and colour to it, and I love it.  The floral piece popped on top is from the rub-on pack in the kit.  Since I wanted to use it more as an ephemera piece, I applied it to some white cardstock and then fussy cut it out.  There's another yellow flower in the cluster that didn't work with the rest of the spread... so I just covered it  up with the puffy heart ha!

And here's the finished spread!  I hope I've inspired you with a way to use 6x6 papers on your travellers notebooks today, and maybe even to try some stitching.

Thanks for stopping by,

Hi friends, Jodie here today with a traveler's notebook spread using the gorgeous and vibrant December Rainbow traveler's notebook kit and the pattern paper add on.

For this spread I knew I wanted to have a large title as a feature filling the entire left page.  The only two criteria for the main word in the title were that it should be an inspiring word since this layout is about my son graduating university, and it needed to have six letters to fill the page.  I settled on the word 'Dreams', cut that out with my Silhouette, and then backstitched around each of the letters with white embroidery floss.

For the rest of my title elements I typed 'follow your' in Word on my computer, recoloured the background to a blue that compliments the colours in the spread, printed it out and cut it into a tag shape to tuck under the letter D.  Then I pulled the 'on an adventure' tag from the ephemera, and added it over the letter A.  To finish off this side I scattered a few ephemera pieces here and there.

Because the papers are fairly busy and bright in this spread I kept things clean and simple.  I double matted my photo to help it pop off the diagonal striped pattern of the background.    I love the strip of stars from the branding strip of one of the papers, and included it at the bottom of this page.  I only needed to add a few ephemera pieces and my journalling to finish this one off!

I love how simple this spread is while still having so much colour.  Thanks for stopping by today, and if you stop by the Clique Kits shop you can grab one of the last of these kits before they sell out!

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Hi guys!  

It's Jodie here with you today and I'm super excited to be sharing my first spread for the month, with the gorgeous December 2018 Rainbow Travellers Notebook kit.  This kit features the amazing Fancy Pants Designs On Our Way collection and I just love it!  This month I bought a couple of add ons from the Clique Kits shop, including the December Paper Pack  and the On Our Way ephemera.

I've created a spread in my 6x8 project life album of our week 47.  I'm kind of all over the shop with weeks at the moment, and it kind of looks impressive to be up to week 47 right?  In reality I have more than a few weeks missing for the year, but at the moment it feels good to be documenting recent memories, so I'm totally okay with doing that.

It took me a while to settle on a colour palette this week, and eventually I chose sunny yellow, turquoise, and grey, with a few pops of orange, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I used the family time tag as a jumping off point for my title card and printed the dates on my printer after typing them up in a Word document.  The font on the alpha sticker sheet this month is super cute and I used it to spell out the week.  When I adhered the tag to my 3x4 card I left it sit a little bit over the top, so that it sticks out in my album just a little bit.  I love all those little bits that stick out of an album once it's finished!

This filler card came together really quickly with patterned paper trimmed to 3x4 and then cut in half on the diagonal.  I adhered that to some white cardstock also trimmed to 3x4.  I used a couple of my favourite doily, circle and star dies to create some shapes for layers, and topped them with an ephemera piece that I love.

A super easy way to create a custom journal card is to trim some white cardstock to about half an inch less than the width of the card you're using, and to whatever height you like. This can be a 3x4; a 6x4 or even a square pocket. Use a corner rounder punch to round the top two corners and adhere it to some patterned paper.  I usually like to add a couple of small ephemera pieces to finish it off, like this phrase tag and die cut heart.

Hi guys!

Jodie here with you today with a classic black, white and gold card set.

One thing I love about a scrapbooking kit is the ability to pull different elements from it to create a totally different mood in your projects for the month.  This card set is completely different to the bright and fun travellers notebook layout and the sweet mixed media style travellers notebook spread that I've created with the November Seneca Falls Main Kit already.

The main elements I've pulled from the kit for these cards are the Amy Tangerine Hustle & Heart gold foil die cut specialty paper, the black and white floral paper, and the die cut wreath ephemera piece.  

​I also pulled some essentials from my stash, some white cardstock, black cardstock and a couple of dies.

For both cards I used the leafy circle cut file that is the special edition free cut file from the Clique Kits collaboration with Spiegelmom Scraps this week as part of my background.

For this card I cut the file in white cardstock on my Silhouette, then trimmed it to the same size as my card.  Then I backed each of the leaves with the specialty paper, and adhered it to my card.

The November Clique Kits Colour Kit includes the absolutely gorgeous 'Grateful' stamp set from Avery Elle. To create my sentiment I've stamped the Grateful stamp on white cardstock, curving it a little bit so that it fits into the space left by the wreath once it is layered over the top of it.  

I've also created a shaker pocket with some foam tape and sequins from my stash and some packaging from the kit, and layered the wreath from the ephemera pack (which I've turned upside down so it matches my theme for this project) over the top of that.  Then I die cut a bow from the specialty paper and adhered it to the top of the wreath with some gold thread, and called this card done!

My second card is really clean and simple, but I love the contrast to it.

This time I used the same leafy circle cut file cut from white cardstock, and trimmed it down to half the card size, on the diagonal.  I trimmed the black and white paper to be the other half of that diagonal, and edged it with some scalloped black cardstock.

I stamped the Thankful sentiment from the Avery Elle stamps onto a die cut circle that I popped up on foam tape, and added a few black splatters.  I adore these scripty font sentiment stamps from Avery Elle and I can see me using them a lot in my projects.  I was really impressed with how crisply they stamp on the page.

I die cut another bow from the specialty gold foil paper, slipped a paper clip over the die cut circle and adhered the bow.  

I love the contrast of the black and white with the texture of the cut file and pops of gold in these cards.

Even if you didn't get a chance to check out the collaboration with Clique Kits and Spiegelmom Scraps this week, you can still pop by the Clique Facebook Group and grab this gorgeous free leafy cut file.

Thanks so much for dropping by today!

Hi guys!

It's Jodie here with you today, sharing a TN spread made with the November Seneca Falls Main Kit.

I decided to play with a little mixed media and the beautiful Leafy Wreath cut file from the CK digital shop on this spread.

The first thing I do when playing with mixed media is to prep my cardstock or patterned paper.  I really like clear gesso for this, even on white cardstock, but you can also use white gesso as well.  The gesso essentially seals the cardstock so that the fibres don't absorb the liquid in the media and warp.  It also provides some 'tooth' (grittiness) for the media to adhere to.  Once this is applied and has dried, you're good to go with adding some colour!

I mixed some watercolours to match the pink in the Amy Tangerine Shine On collection that's featured in the kits this month, and used the packaging technique to apply this in the general area that I was going to place my cut file.  Then I added some splatters in the same pink.  I dried this off with a heat tool and then repeated the process with a yellow to match the flowers in the collection, and Sophie's shirt in the photo.  

Finally I added just a few tiny splatters in black watercolour to tie everything in, since there is so much black in each of my top left and bottom right clusters.

Once I was finished with my mixed media I adhered the cut file to the page. 

I know fussy cutting is not for everyone, but I just love it!  And the Bouquet patterned paper in the kit is full of beautiful blooms waiting to be fussy cut.  I trimmed one out to sit at the top of this cute tag that holds my journalling, which for this spread is really just the date and location where the photo was taken. I also trimmed out a bunch of smaller individual flowers to scatter across the page.

For the bottom cluster I fussy cut some more flowers and placed them both behind and in front of my photo.  I used some of the corrugated black cardstock from the kit to layer behind my photo.  I really liked how this turned out because it framed my photo and also added extra dimension to my spread with the corrugations in the cardstock.

I used one of the sticker phrases and a rubber word for my title, and called this one done!

I hope I've inspired you to try out some mixed media in your projects today, or even to bring out your scissors and try some fussy cutting.

Thanks for stopping by today, and remember we'd love to see your projects made with your Clique Kits over on The Clique Facebook page.

Hi guys!

Jodie here with you today, and I'm sharing a travellers notebook spread using the gorgeous November Seneca Falls Main Kit.

This kit has a lot of elements that have a black contrast to them, like the floral patterned paper and tag on the right side of my spread.  I've played with those elements in this spread, and also brought in the black corrugated cardstock from the kit for the left page.

Because the paper on the right page is fairly busy I've kept the embellishment of that side minimal.  The unforgettable tag really pops off the page because it has the black contract to it.  The only things I added to this page are a word sticker to the side of the tag, and a sweet puffy heart, and I called this side done.

To get my journalling to fit on the tag and on the printed lines, I first measure the area I want to journal in.  I create a text box in  Word that size, and type my journalling (this time in my favourite vintage typewriter font called  Typical Writer).  Since I know how many lines I want to fill I count these up, then adjust the line spacing until it fills the text box with the right number of lines.  From there I usually print a couple of practice pages on copy paper, adjusting the line space until it's just right, and then use some washi tape to hold the tag in place over the top of the journalling where it is printed on the copy paper, and feed it through my printer one more time.  I know it sounds like a bit of fussing, but I love the way this type of journalling looks.

I tore a corner off the 'sprinkled' paper and adhered it to the edge of my left page.  I've then used a couple of strip elements trimmed from the papers and layered them at the same angle at different intervals.  The orange and black scallop is trimmed from one of the ephemera pieces.  I've then fussy cut the 'you're my fave' banner and adhered it using foam dots for a little dimension.  I don't mind using foam tape in my TN spreads because I'm totally okay if my TN albums end up a little chunky.

Finally to tie the left and right pages together I fussy cut a cluster of flowers from the same patterned paper as on the right, and tucked it under my photo.  I was so happy to get this photo in my TN album, it really captures the fun and cheeky side to my daughter and her boyfriend, and a cheeky story to go with it.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Hi  friends, it's Jodie here with you today and I have a sweet set of patchwork heart cards to share.  I love stitching on paper projects, so creating  paper quilted hearts is right up my alley, and it's really not hard to do.

I'm using the Clique Kits May 2018 Riga kit for these cards.  It's definitely one of my favourites of 2018, but then I say that for each month's kits hehe.

To give you an idea of the dimensions, these cards are 5x5 inches square, and the hearts are 4x4inches in total.

To create a heart quilt block, you need a pattern, mixed patterned papers (I chose 3 papers and the beautiful specialty rose gold foil vellum from the Riga kit), and a piece of scrap cardstock to create your heart on.

There are so many patchwork patterns available online, and all I did to find this one was Google 'heart quilt block'.

To create a similar heart to mine, start by trimming a few 1x1 inch squares from each paper, then halve them on the diagonal (just once) to create triangles.  You now have all the elements to your heart! Then it's just a matter of laying them all out in the shape of a heart, mixing the patterned papers as you go.  When you're happy with the overall look, go ahead and adhere each triangle down.  You only need a light adhesive at this point because you're going to stitch all of the joins with your sewing machine.  

Now is a good time to trim away the excess backing cardstock from around the edges of the heart, and then you can go ahead and stitch each inner line and around the outside of the heart as well, in a small zig zag stitch.  In no time at all you have an amazing stitched patchwork paper heart!

On the first card I made a cluster on one side, made up of some of the leaf ephemera pieces and a sentiment from the kit, and tucked in one of the bows underneath the cluster. 

For the second card I used the same method to create the patchwork heart, but chose papers with a warmer colour palette from the kit.  I also centred the embellishment cluster rather than having it on the side of the heart.

These patchwork hearts could be a fabulous background element to so many projects.  I've included one in a 6x4 pocket page before, you could use them in a travellers notebook spread, and you could also resize the 1x1 inch squares to make them bigger, and have a patchwork heart as a background on a 12 x 12 layout.  The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for stopping by today,  I hope I've inspired you to pull your sewing machine and patterned papers out and create some beautiful paper patchwork hearts.

Hi everyone!  Jodie here with you today with the September Farmhouse Travellers Notebook kit, with some tips on how to create layered embellishments in your projects.  I've put together a project life spread, but you can use these same methods in layouts, cards and TNs as well.  

Here's a look at the left side of my spread and insert for the week.

And here's a look at the right. 

My best tip if you're trying to add some extra layers to your projects, is to remember that it's not just about putting paper on top of more paper.  Try adding things like some stitching, twine, or even a reinforcing punched hole to a label.  All of these things are extra layers and create visual interest.  And I've used all of these ideas on this one pocket.

An easy way to create some layered embellishments is to combine a smaller ephemera piece over a larger ephemera piece like this flower over the photo frame.

I've used the same idea here but used a punched butterfly to add to another ephemera piece.

And finally my favourite layered embellishment for project life or card making is a shaker pocket with some extra layers.  Some ideas I've included in this pocket are backing cardstock that's been embossed, glitter in some left-over packaging that I've stitched to size to sit behind a frame cut from spare cardstock, a couple of layers of labels, some tulle, an ephemera piece and some stitching with loose threads.  All put together it looks fairly simple, but each layer adds a little something.

I hope I've inspired you to try some embellishment layering in your projects today, and be sure to check out the beautiful September Farmhouse kits in the Clique Kits shop.

Thanks for stopping by!