I'm a Clique Kit Guest Designer!

I was thrilled when Erica from Clique Kits asked me to guest design for the month of January, and was super excited when I saw this preview of the kit! Lately I have loved everything that Fancy Pants has released and this collection is no exception.  In addition to the kit I ordered the 6x6 paper pad and both sets of puffy stickers.  I can never have too many puffy stickers and the word stickers make perfect titles.

Here is the first layout that I created with the kit.

I used a Heidi Swapp stencil and light modeling paste to reinforce the plus sign theme of the patterned paper.  I added some white Dylusions mist droplets on the background as well. I also used pop dots under the word stickers to add some dimension to the clusters.

I love using labels as part of my clusters.  I find that they are a great spot for the date or small bits of journaling and help to anchor the cluster.

Glassine bags make perfect layering pieces, and I save them when I get them in a kit.  I love to put tags inside and journal on the tag.  I popped the picture up with regular craft foam that you can find at any craft store.  I use that for two reasons: it is cheaper, and offers a different thickness so that I can tuck things underneath and pop them over with my foam tabs.

I decided to outline the layers in black ink.  I will often do this when I'm using papers from different collections, but I felt like the lines would help bring more of a masculine feel to the layout.  I tied a bow on the tag with the twine that was included in the kit.  

I have a process video if you'd like to take a closer look at my process. 

supplies used:

January 2016 Clique Kit - Alegria

Tim Holtz tiny attacher

Dylusions white spray mist

Liquitex light molding paste

Heidi Swapp stencil

Seasons Change

I am in love with Pink Paislee's Cedar Lane collection.  I just love every single bit of it.  I don't usually like many fall lines because they are colors that I just don't tend to use, so when I saw this line I knew that I needed it...okay really it was just wanting it, but I like to say that I needed it to justify buying more paper :)

I used the cut file designed by Kim Watson for the Hip Kit.  There are several files that are free to anyone that is a member of the site, and there are files that are exclusive to subscribers.  I am not sure which one it is since I am a subscriber to the kit.  I knew right away when I saw the file the layout that I needed to make and this is one of my favorites that I have made this year.

I love the feather paper clip!  I usually have a hard time getting paper clips to work on my pages, but this time it was super easy and perfect for that corner.

The word stickers in this collection are beautiful.  I love the aqua color and the gold type font. 

Of course I can't forget the puffy stickers!  I thought that they added just the right touch to the title. 

I have a process video up if you'd like to take a closer peek. 

Supplies:

Pebbles – Jen Hadfield DIY Home – Wood Floors Paper

Pink Paislee - Cedar Lane - 6x6 paper pad

Pink Paislee – Cedar Lane – Puffy Stickers

Pink Paislee - Cedar Lane - Gold Feather clips

Pink Paislee - Cedar Lane - word stickers

Dear Lizzy - Desktop - Gold foil Thickers

Serenading Mr. Jingles

I will have to confess that when I first saw online the November Hip Kit, I liked it but didn't love it. That all changed once I had it in my hands!  The exclusive papers by Kim Watson are beautiful and the quality of the paper is better than most.  I don't like scrapbooking Christmas themed layouts, but this kit made it fun for me to play this month.  My goal is to create 5 Christmas themed layouts in addition to my December Daily...I've already made 2 so I'm almost halfway there!

I knew that I wanted to showcase this red snowflake paper, and I love this layout design because I think that it really lets a patterned paper shine.  In addition, I think that the 2/3 white space really makes the colors look clean and crisp.

In addition to the main kit, I purchased the color add on which included the stencil that was designed by Kim Watson.  I wanted to add a bit of texture paste behind the photo to add further interest without cluttering the page.

I love how the white texture paste looks on the white cardstock.

This cluster is my absolute favorite!  I love the mouse and used different widths of foam adhesive to add more interest to the cluster.  I usually place my title around the photo, but I really like how this turned out.  I'm not sure why I haven't done this before, but I will definitely be doing it again.

Here's my process video if you'd like to take a closer peek.

Supplies:

Hip Kit Club Exclusive "OH WHAT FUN" PAPERS - designed by Kim Watson

Pink Fresh studios - HKC Exclusive - Aqua Puffy Alphabet 

Pink Fresh Studios - Christmas Wishes - Die Cuts

 Hip Kit Club Exclusive 6x6 Stencils designed by Kim Watson

October Afternoon - Mini Market Alphas - Peppermint

I'm on the Crafty Maven channel...

I had the pleasure of being on the Crafty Maven channel again and the mood board for this week was amazing!  I loved every little detail about it, however I had this one big problem.  I don't have purple collections nor are there many available. I also knew exactly what I wanted to do with my layout, so I searched for a photo that was going to be worthy of my efforts. I hit the jackpot!  It pays to be behind in making your pages.  In fact I rather like it because some stories only surface with time.

Here is the mood board for this week. I fell in love with the girl in the dress.  I grew up learning to cross stitch and now I love to knit, so I knew immediately what I wanted to do for my layout. I did a Pinterest search (love Pinterest!) and found several patterns that were perfect for my idea.

Here is my layout.  Is it wrong to be totally in love with how it turned out? The pictures don't quite do it justice.  It's really hard to photograph silver.

I've included a close up of the tree.  It really was super easy although it was time consuming.  It also took just over one full floss, so if you tackle a project this big make sure you have enough before starting...ask me how I know this.

In my search for purple patterned papers I found in my stash some 6x8 paper pads from Heidi Swapp and a Hot Buy Heidi Swapp 12x12 paper pad from Michaels that had some purples and pinks. They were perfect for this page. Right now my local Michaels has this glitter script font for sale. Please don't judge me on my boring title. I am officially diagnosed as title impaired :)

I was short of embellishments for this page so I made my own using my Silhouette.  This cut file from Basic Grey was absolutely perfect.  I didn't want any of my embellishments to take away from my tree so I kept them pretty simple.

 

I'm having some technical difficulties so here is a direct link to the video:  Chrismas Love

Supplies:

Heidi Swapp - Hello Beautiful - Memory Planner 6x8 pad

Heidi Swapp - Wanderlust 12x12 paper pad

Heidi Swapp - Hello Beautiful - Photo Frames

Heidi Swapp Pink Glitter Alphas

Freckled Fawn Silver Stars

                                  Studio Calico Pink Alphas

Heidi Swapp Washi

American Crafts Silver POW paper

Tim Holtz Mirrored Stars

Silhouette Cut File - Basic Grey Ornament

You + Me

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We did and of course we ate entirely too much but that is part of the holiday :)  I finally had a chance to edit this video...the layout has been completed for a couple of weeks.  I used the October Hip Kit and love the mix of Jen Hadfield and Pink Paislee papers.

 

I embossed this with American Crafts gold glitter embossing powder.  It's not as sparkly as I was hoping.  If you have one that you love, please leave me a comment.  A girl has to have her bling!

 

I love the way that the title nestles around the photo. 

 

The fox nestled among the flowers is my absolute favorite!  He is just so stinking cute! 

 

I have a process video if you are interested in taking a closer peek.

 

 

Supplies:

Pebbles – Jen Hadfield DIY Home – Blue Skies Paper

Pebbles – Jen Hadfield DIY Home – Wood Floors Paper

Pink Paislee - Cedar Lane - Riverside Lane

Pink Paislee – Memorandum – Punch Card Paper

Pink Paislee – Cedar Lane – Puffy Stickers

Pebbles – Jen Hadfield DIY Home – Ephemera Paper

 Simple Stories – We Are Family – Wood Veneer Shapes

Pebbles – Jen Hadfield DIY Home – Gold Foil Washi Tape Sheets

Pebbles – Jen Hadfield DIY Home – 6×12 Stickers

Pink Paislee – Cedar Lane – Glitter Arrows

Pink Paislee – Cedar Lane – Gold Feather Paper Clips

Pink Paislee – Cedar Lane – Word Jumble Mini Stickers

Pink Paislee - Cedar Lane - Silver and Gold glitter foam

Prima mist gold

Tim Holtz distress ink - Corduroy

 

 

 

Emily and Juliet

This layout I created combining the August and September Hip Kits along with a couple of things from my stash.  I knew right away when I saw the Dear Lizzy bold pink stripe that I wanted to use it as a background.  I found this picture of my daughter and our kitty from 2006 and thought that I needed to make a page telling the story of how we couldn't have found a better kitty for Emily.  They have a special relationship and I wanted to have that story told.

I did struggle a bit as I was making this page trying to find a home for the title and the balloon embellishment.  I walked away from it for a bit, and when I came back everything seemed to fall together.  

I love the way that part of the title rests on this PinkFresh wood veneer and the kitty card was absolutely perfect.  It helped to bring together the colors of the photo plus the black and cream papers that are on the background.  I love how just one thing can make the layout cohesive.

The doily made the perfect "home" for the balloon to rest on, and the bow was the cherry on top. 

I have a process video if you'd like to take a closer peek.

Supplies:

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy - Documentary - Me & You Paper

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy - Documentary - Bear Hug Paper

Crate Paper - Wonder - Ephemera

Crate Paper - Wonder - Enamel Dots & Sequins

We R Memory Keepers - Wildflower - Gold Word Thickers

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy - Woodland Gold Thickers

Pink Fresh Studio - Pretty Things - Wood Veneer Shapes

 American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy - Phrase & Accent Thickers

Crate Paper - Wonder - Glitter Shapes

Crate Paper - Oh Darling - Layered Paper Bow Clothespins

You Are Too Cute to be a Pirate

Two Halloween layouts in the span of a month!  If you know me you know that I don't like scrapping themes and that includes holidays.  So, I have challenged myself to create FIVE Christmas layouts, not including my December Daily, before the end of the year.  I feel like if I share my goals I am more likely to meet them...public accountability :)

I used The After Dark collection by Crate Paper along with some items in my stash to create this page.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  It can be hard to scrap pictures with traditional Halloween colors, so by minimizing the orange and using a white cardstock as my base I was able to create a page using traditional Halloween colors with my photo that has pink in it.

I love the kitty embellishment and thought that he was a perfect addition for the tag!  He is from an old Martha Stewart collection that I have had in my stash for several years now.  I was very happy that I was able to get one used on a layout.  I stitched around the edges of the large paper mat and on the corner of the page as well.

This title was definitely a labor of love!  I wanted the words to nestle in among the descenders of the word pretty.  To make matters more difficult, the Making Memories glitter alphas are a combination of upper and lower case and I didn't have all of the uppercase that I wanted to use. In the end though, I love how it turned out.  My other exciting moment was using the pumpkin banner...y'all I can not get banners to work on my pages if my life depended on it so I was thrilled when I got this to work on a page!

I have a process video if you are interested in taking a closer peek.

Supplies:

Crate Paper After Dark 6x6 pad

Crate Paper After Dark October Tags

Crate Paper After Dark Pumpkin

Crate Paper After Dark Puffy Stickers

Target Glitter Bats 

Sequin Stars unknown

After Dark Thickers Midnight 

Heidi Swapp black glitter alphas

Making Memories glitter alphas

Another Cute titled layout

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am not the best at titles.  I love it when I can use Thickers or embellishments as part of or as my entire title.  For this layout I combined a bunch of my leftovers from previous Hip Kits along with items from my stash.  I also challenged myself to make a more masculine layout and I really like the way that this page turned out.  

I was finally able to use these adorable PinkFresh Studio wood shapes.  I love them but they have been difficult for me to use.

This cluster makes me happy!  I love all the bits and pieces and bonus points for using some items that have been in my stash for a while.  

I have a process video if you are interested in taking a closer look at my process. 

Supplies:

Dear Lizzy Documentary - Me and You

Dear Lizzy Documentary - Bear Hug

Dear Lizzy Documentary - Hello Love (used branding strip)

Doodlebug doily

PinkFresh Studio Happy Things veneer stickers

Cosmo Cricket Tiny Text

Glitz Teeny Alpha Woodgrain

Crate Close Knit epoxy brads

Crate Wonder glitter stickers

October Afternoon Daily Flash Stars and Hearts

Thickers - Celebrate

                                    Mr. Huey's Skyscraper

Free Flow Wednesday on the Crafty Maven Channel

Today I am up on the Crafty Maven channel with a layout that I created using the new Shine collection by Maggie Holmes which I absolutely love!  Here are the inspiration pieces this week.  I love the colors this week...they are most definitely colors that I love to use on my layouts.

These shoes need to be in my closet!  I am not sure where I would wear them, but I would find a way.

Here is the entire mood board.  

I pulled bits and pieces from my stash before sitting down to create this page.  The only embellishments that I have from the Shine collection are the the chipboard.  I have other items on their way to me now as they sold out before I could purchase them.  I pulled out my Project Life Notes and Things set and they worked perfectly with these papers.  The fact that many Crate lines work with one another is definitely one of the things that I love most about this company.

I knew when I wanted to create this page that I wanted the floral paper to be a main element on the page.  The trend right now is for smaller paper layers, which I do like...but I love for my patterned paper to be the star of the layout as well.  I looked through my Pinterest boards for inspiration and was heavily inspired by Maggie Holmes herself when making this page. She has such a classic and timeless style that I love so much.

I wasn't planning on adding gold, but the ephemera pieces had gold foil on them, and it seemed like a natural thing to play off the gold on this page.

I took several things away from the inspiration board this week...the black and white stripes, the colors, the bow, the bling, and even the words on the vellum and die cuts.  

My process can be found on the Crafty Maven channel this week.  I will warn you...I have bronchitis and I had to fiddle with the voiceover quite a bit so that my coughing and hacking were edited out.

Supplies:

Maggie Holmes Shine - Cherish

Maggie Holmes Shine - Bright

Maggie Holmes Shine - Carefree

Maggie Holmes Shine - 6x6 paper pad

Maggie Holmes Thickers - Beautiful

Maggie Holmes Shine Glitter Chipboard

Maggie Holmes Open Book vellum

Maggie Holmes glitter bows

Project Life Notes and Things Value Kit

Heidi Swapp Color Shine Gold

Halloween

Yes I know Halloween has come and gone, but what can I say?  I'm late.  I loved the After Dark collection by Crate paper and ordered a couple 12x12 sheets, the puffy stickers, and the 6x6 paper pad.  I wanted more, but I restrained myself since I don't usually scrap a bunch of theme pages.  This page was made with mostly the After Dark collection and I am pleases with how it turned out.

I love the messy stitching, and think that it added exactly the right touch to finish it off.  It's always best though to stitch before you adhere your layers. I've done it the hard way too many times to count!

I love the Halloween puffy sticker, and bonus that it can be used as my title.  Creative titles is definitely not my strongest point.

I love the way that this cluster turned out!  I popped up the October 31 sticker and tucked the bat underneath.  I used Tim Holtz Wild Honey to distress the edges in orange. 

I have a process video if you'd like to take a peek at my process.

Supplies:

Crate Paper After Dark - October tags with gold

Crate Paper After Dark - Midnight

Crate Paper After Dark 6x6 pad

Crate Paper After Dark puffy stickers

Chipboard bats - Target

Sequins unknown

Dear Lizzy alphas

Pebbles Thirty One Chalkboard Labels

Another XOXO layout....

Yes, I know that I just made a layout using XOXO as the title, and I did it again.  These layouts will be in separate albums so I don't have a problem with my lack of originality.

This is my final layout using the Sew Lovely collection by Carta Bella.  I made 5 layouts and I am happy with each and every one.  I could technically make another layout with my scraps, but they are my least favorite papers. I don't feel the need to use every little scrap to get my moneys worth when it comes to paper, and I only save the scraps that I either love or know that I can use at some point.

This layout is definitely inspired by Maggie Holmes.  I loved her layouts when she was a member of Studio Calico and I found that it was easy to incorporate some of her style into my own.  I have a few sheets of book paper that I will occasionally use on my layouts, and it fit perfectly with this collection.  I did pull some scrap aqua papers to help stretch my papers since I used all of the aqua paper that was included in the kit.

 

Since I did not use much of the paper scraps from the kit, I decided to challenge myself and see if I could use 10 stickers from the sticker sheet.  I used 13 and was quite pleased with myself.  I used them as layers and also punched butterflies out of one of the stickers.

 

 

I stitched through the butterflies and left the little bit of thread showing. I liked it and thought it was a great touch to give the butterflies some movement.

 

 

I also stitched down some sequins on one of the paper layers and love the little bit of bling that it brings to the page.

 

 

The XOXO sticker was the perfect fit in this corner and thus my original title was born :)

 

I have a process video if you'd like to take a peek.

 

 

Supplies:

Sew Lovely Pretty Pattern

Sew Lovely element stickers

Heidi Swapp stickers

Pink Paislee Bella Rouge puffy stickers

Martha Stewart butterfly punches

EK Success  notebook punch

Lawn Fawn silver twine

Glassine envelope

Tag unknown

 

 

 

XOXO

I have now made four layouts using the Sew Lovely collection by Carta Bella. I really like the way that this page turned out.  I have some hidden journaling included on the tag behind the photo.  I will say that at this point it is becoming a bit of a challenge since I have used up the more neutral papers that came in the pack. I hope to squeak one more layout from this collection pack and then call it done!  

I love the little girl in this cluster.  I will always be my mother's little girl, no matter how old we both get! I couldn't resist adding this sweet pink bow.  I did add some Wink of Stella to parts of the flower embellishment, but it just did not photograph well.

The navy stitching really gave the chevrons a special touch.  

I have a process video if you would like to take a closer peek.  If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.  I'd love to hear from you!

Supplies:

Carta Bella Sew Lovely Pretty Pattern

Carta Bella Sew Lovely Sew Sweet

Carta Bella Sew Lovely Lovely Floral

Carta Bella Sewing Doilies

Carta Bella Sew Lovely Arrows

Carta Bella Border Strips

Carta Bella Sew Fun

Carta Bella Spool

Carta Bella Element Stickers

Crate Paper Oh Darling ephemera

Dear Lizzy Serendipity Thickers

Maggie Holmes flower resin clip

Recollections doily

Heidi Swapp Color Shine Gold

Beyond the Collection

I have met my goal of three pages with this paper pack!  Y'all, this is big for me.  I usually do a page or two with a paper pack and then I move on.  I may eventually get back to it, or it may get lost in my stash or the donation pile.  I'm really trying to get better about using my things while I still like them.  I will say that I have used my favorites in this collection.  I'm not sure how many more layouts I will squeeze out, but I made myself commit to one more, minimum.  

I decided to make a companion page for the layout last week, except I wanted to go in a completely different direction.  I wanted this page to be a bit more reflective of my current style.  While I love last week's page for what it represented, it is not my favorite and that is totally okay.

I love the end result of this page.  I used most of the same papers and the flowers that I used on last week's page. I also pulled in some Maggie Holmes die cuts that were perfect additions for this page.The title is a mixture of a couple of my favorite alphas at the moment.  I just love the way that it turned out.

I added sequins and used the same word stickers which added the final touches of elegance that I was looking for in this layout.  

I want more of the Maggie Holmes flowers.  I still have plenty from the first collection pack, but these are some of my favorite and I can see myself using these time and time again.  

I have a process video if you are interested in taking a closer look.  

Supplies:

Carta Bella Sew Lovely Pretty Pattern

Carta Bella Sew Lovely Sew Sweet

Carta Bella Sew Lovely Lovely Floral

Maggie Holmes Flower ephemera

Crate Paper Confetti Cardstock stickers

Doily purchased at Studio Calico

Thickers Imprint Black and Gold

Heidi Swapp Color Shine Gold

Recollections photo corners