Tag: christmas

Holiday Blog Hop: Clique Kits & Bad Girls Couture

Hi Everyone and welcome to our Clique Kits X Bad Girls Couture Holiday Blog Hop! You will definitely be inspired with the vast array of holiday projects that we have created…there is something for everyone. Grab your favorite cuppa, join the CLIQUE, and get ready to be a BAD GIRL maker as we take you on an AMAZING creative journey! 

TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR PRIZES!!!

We have lots of store Gift Certificates to the Clique & Bad Girls Couture Shops…this way you can shop to your heart’s content and treat yourself for Christmas! Make sure you enter by following @cliquekits & @badgirlscouture2007 and tagging a friend on Instagram! 

To get extra entries sign up for our newsletters @ www.badgirlscouture.com & www.cliquekits.com 

 

Blog Hop Participants:

www.badgirlscouture.com/blog      

https://funkyfreshcool.blogspot.com     

www.datatar.blogspot.com     

https://scrappydonna.blogspot.com     

http://nicolekerrink.blogspot.com          

https://lovingoutloudart.wordpress.com

https://nicolemartel.blogspot.com

www.giaaloha.com

http://cliquekitsblog.weebly.com

Here is my first project! I created an altered wood slice as a holiday decoration!

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I made a 2 minute preview video to show you some of the Clique Kits Vintage Lovers Christmas kit that I used for both of my projects as well as the Bad Girls Couture products and other things in my stash. You can find the video preview on the Clique Kits You Tube Channel here. Here is a close up!

 

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I used Haute Mess products including some Matte Gel Medium, Molding Paste, and Acrylic Paint in Torrid.

I also used a Joy acrylic piece by Bella Blvd. from the Clique Kits shop as my title piece. I loved how the translucency of the red acrylic piece and the resin snowflake I made with 2 part resin, a Wilton silicone candy mold, and the glass glitter in the kit complemented each other and also let light through to add more depth. (see more in the video)

Everything else you see here came from the Vintage Lovers Christmas Kit including the Simple Stories Simple Vintage Christmas paper collection, the fabric scraps, and the flowers.

For my second project I am sharing some work I have started on making my Bad Girls Couture Art Journal ( which is available in a bundle with media and paint as a starter kit in the Clique Kits shop   while supplies last) into a nostalgic holiday memory album.  The idea is to create a foundation to go back in during the month of December and add photos and journaling to remember the holiday season this year. The Cobblestone Lane art Journal will always be stocked and fully customizable on the Bad Girls Couture website! So many great options! While you are checking out the Bad Girls website you will definitely fall in love with all of the colors of paints!

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Here is my simple but glam cover! It has been painted white like snow and I gave an old broken Christmas ornament a new life as my cover bling. I love upcycling and making something out of something else in my artwork whether it is something sentimental to me or a found object or thrift shop find!

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The inside cover of my journal started out with a fabric pocket and in order to alter it to match my Christmas theme I simply covered over the old fabric with a red and white striped fabric scrap.( I found these rolls of self adhesive fabrics in a Japanese store in Honolulu called Daiso which is like a dollar store and they come in handy when sewing is inconvenient!) . I tucked a vintage postcard and a tea bag I made with plain, empty tea bags, stamps and ink, and paper stars from the kit stapled on with a Tim Holtz tiny attacher. The tea bags came from the Vintage Vibe ephemera pack in the Clique Kits shop. The first page in my book is made with the limited edition Kraft Booklet page from Bad Girls Couture.

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In this spread you will see repetition of a theme of kraft with the haute mess fast drying matte finish paints and some molding medium which was spread over a snowflake stencil. There are numbered Advent tags in the kit which I plan to tuck in throughout the book to loosely keep track of the festivities throughout the month leading up to the 25th. I joined the next two pages together to create 2 additional pockets for some tags. I had fun again applying paint and some bits of old book pages in the Vintage vibe ephemera pack.

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The last page I am showing today is set up for me to document my youngest baby’s list for Santa this year. It came together fast with a piece of the Altenew Gradient Lines washi tape in the Clique Kits shop. White gesso is a perfect medium to use to prep a surface for journaling later on!

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Once again, everything needed for this project can be found here or go ahead and start exploring the customization possibilities at Bad Girls Couture! Now it’s time to head over to the Clique Kits Blog for the end of the hop and wrap up post!

-xGia

Ghosts of Christmas Past, failures, and lessons learned

 

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Throwback Thursday you guys…for today’s edition I am sharing an overview of some of my December documented albums from past years. Before I begin, let me just provide a little background. Most people are aware of the December Daily® phenomenon started by Ali Edwards and from which she grew a multi-million dollar brand. I get it. It’s brilliant. And it’s meaningful. And popular. My history of  being an EPIC FAILURE on the other hand at a Day/Week in the Life ®, One Little Word®, and of course DD haunts me to this day.

So I promise you that this year I will NOT promise to do anything in the month of December, and more than likely I will never again promise to try to do anything daily ever. But that doesn’t mean I did not have tons of fun buying cute Christmas paper crafting supplies in anticipation of December scrapbooking. And yep…I did it again this year. So what could possibly go wrong?

Well, I’ll tell you what.

  1. I could start the season with the best of intentions and then blink and it’s already New Years and everyone has moved on from December documenting to picking out a word and buying organizing stuff from Target. Then it’s time to pack up all the pretty Christmas stuff in one of those organizing things until next year when…holy smokies there is so much NEW cute stuff again and the cycle continues.
  2.  I could dedicate several crafty binges to assembling foundation pages only to get sick of the project by the time I start “living” the days I planned to document on them. So I set it aside waiting for my mojo to return and before I know it I have a pile of half done “foundations” with no photos in them.
  3. I could struggle to take interesting pictures because none of the photo prompts I am trying to follow apply to  when you live in Hawaii and they are all geared to cold climates and white Christmases.
  4. I could take so many pictures and realize I don’t really have a plan for my album and get overwhelmed because I don’t know where to begin.

I am totally speaking from experience as these are all scenarios from my Christmas’ pasts attempting a December Daily album. Ya feel me?

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This one is from 2013- do any of you remember that clipboard album from Maggie Holmes? This was the year I realized that Crate Paper Christmas collections are always going to be my favorites.

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A few of the inside pages. Since this was my first album, I did number the pages by days and tried to use one “story” a day from Christmas shopping, to ornaments, to haircut day,etc It is definitely my favorite that I have done and completed.

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2014 I used the first Clique into the Holidays Limited Edition kit in a 6×8 album. This time, I had made the so-called foundation pages ahead of time and ….WOOPS…did not actually insert any photos until (gasp) 2018. Yes- like a month ago. But at least I did eventually get it done!

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This little guy is a handmade Instax photo album. I used an XL size Sizzix die by Eileen Hull  called Passport designed to make the framework for a mini album. I used recycled chipboard and red and black buffalo plaid fabric from Wal Mart. This album has a definite junk journal feel to it. I used my Instax printer to print out mini polaroid style photos daily. I kept it simple- just a snapshot from my Instagram account each day. This was my attempt at following a photo prompt a day format.

At some point I will probably photograph and post the inside if anyone is interested. It definitely is less popular with the kids because the photos are more of “stuff” than of them.

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I also have an aqua Simple Stories Snap album in 6×8 that I believe was from 2016 to show you which I will save for another day. I am sorry to be the deliverer of Bah Humbug, but yeah.  This year, while not doing december daily, I think I am going to use my Clique Kits Hipster Holiday kit and other Christmas products in my 3 x8 binder from Ali Edwards. I am going to have a plan- which is to do the whole album on New Year’s Day this year. I will limit my supplies to one kit and my favorite stamps. I will create a sketch outline and rotate 4-6 page designs through the album. Repetition creates unity and cohesion. I will take pictures organically during the month of December and only think about enjoying the moment until Dday. I’ll let you know how it goes–(and maybe I’ll run into you at Target) LOL.

-xGia