Gia Lau – Gia Aloha

Clique Kits Pep Rally: Moon Child

September 2016 Line-Up
Start here—->Clique Kits
Gia Lau <—– You are here
Go here next—–>Erica Thompson
Nicole Martel
*Marcia Dehn-Nix
Kim Allen
*Melissa Vining
*Donna Espiritu
*Leigh Ann Odynski
Sandy Gonzalez
*Elisabetta Margini
*Aliza Deutsch
Sara Mishler

Aloha and Happy Fall (it’s official now and October is right around the corner!) I hope you have been enjoying the reveal of the October Clique Kits monthly kit Sapphire-featuring the newest Pinkfresh Studio collection Indigo Hills. From the mood board to all the sneak peeks to the inspiration already rolling over on the Clique Kits Blog–I am chomping at the bit to get creating with it! But today’s purpose is to celebrate our creations with last month’s kit, and without further ado…

The challenge: Who do you love to the moon and back? We want to see them on your Pep Rally entry!

Of course I could choose from many, many people I love to the moon and back, but decided to show this layout featuring my youngest baby! We took a trip together this past May to Sedona, Arizona and I loved this snapshot of him while we were on a desert jeep tour through the red rock formations in the Sedona landscape.

To create this layout I first used yellow watercolor wash around the border of a piece of white cardstock. I then layered some of the pretty patterned papers in the kit behind my photo. Next I embellished with my title chipboard, a flair, and some ephemera. I really loved the butterflies in this kit. I finished the layout with a little bit of stamping just for fun.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. And now have a great time grabbing your favorite beverage and enjoying the rest of the hop! Leave a comment on each blog to be entered to win a Clique Kits store credit!

If you have not already joined The Clique on Facebook now is a great time to participate in the World Card Making Event online this Saturday, October 1st- everyone welcome! Until midnight tonight, pick up a past kit on sale in the shop for only 19.99. This sale includes many recent favorites- but hurry because when they are gone they are gone!

The Clique Kits Holiday kits (card and BIG documenting kit) are famous for being HUGE and jam packed with holiday goodness. An incredible value compared to other kits costing twice as much in some cases! As a subscriber, you save 20% on these and all limited edition kits! If there is any time of year this perk pays off-it is when preparing for the holidays! We have a follow up to our recent and now SOLD OUT (or close to it) travelers notebook kit coming soon! A special 30 days of gratitude edition soon to be released, with prompts and inspiration from our spectacular NEW design team!

ck_oct16-kit19 — Look at this beautiful October Kit Oh My !!

Speaking of the new Design Team, don’t miss their introduction blog hop this Saturday, October 1st starting on the Clique Kits blog. We are really, really grateful to the 2015-2016 design team, and will be soooooo sad to see them finish out their term this month. I for one cannot thank them enough for their hard work, creative genius, and enthusiastic inspiration on a daily basis. They will certainly be missed, those who are moving on to pursue other adventures in papercrafting- we wish them the best !

Have a wonderful day, and hope to see you again soon!

-xoGia

Clique into Summer: Hawaii Faves

I used the Clique Kits Limited Edition Summer Kit to create a fun mini album which serves as a pictorial guide book to all of my favorite scenic and cultural sites on Oahu. We frequently have visitors who naturally want to take in all of the beauty and culture in Hawaii-so what better way to get my “extra” photos into an album I can keep on display for them to peruse! Most of these photos were taken during day trips, hikes, and other events but never made it onto a layout of that particular event or trip.

Here are some of the specs of this album! It is approximately 4 x 6 in dimensions, perfect for holding my 4 x 6 photos and designed to resemble a camera with a twist! This album features a zebra pattern cover. My cover also features a peek -a -boo wooden hand-marbled heart. Throughout the album I repeated the design of white gesso backgrounds, crab washi tape, and full page photos. Both of the cover items (zebra and marbled heart) are on clearance in the Clique Kits shop! The rest of this album was made very simply from the Clique Into Summer 2016 kit which features the Simple Stories collection You Are Here. It is perfect for my Hawaii Album! I hope you enjoy the flip through my mini album.

-xo Gia

Clique Kits August Pep Rally

Well, it’s official. I no longer post on this blog unless it’s a Pep Rally day! How sad is that? Still, I am really grateful that this monthly event for my kit club Clique Kits happens, or I just might let this passion-scrapbooking- totally disappear from my life! I really hope I can carve out more time to create and blog- it is so much fun to be part of this online community of creative friends around the world.

This month we are sharing projects using the August kit: Rio. It was kind of fun to have a kit whose name was inspired by an ancient global sports competition that only happens every 4 years! Rio was one of my favorite kits this year. Details on winning prizes can be found on the Clique Kits blog post (see link below). If you are a blogger who enjoys doing blog hops and posting your creations online, I highly recommend you visit the Clique Kits website where you can read about the many benefits of subscribing.

August 2016 Line-Up

If you get lost or need info go back here—->Clique Kits
Gia Lau <—-You are here
Go here next—->Erica Thompson
*Kat Benjamin
*Marcia Dehn-Nix
Kim Allen
*Maryam Perez
*Caroli Schulz
*Melissa Vining
*Leeann Pearce
Sara Mishler
Donna Espiritu
Leigh Ann Odynski

An Instax Mini Album

First let me say that I have had an Instax Mini 8 camera since Christmas. The thought of spending $1.00 per print (that is approximately how much the “film” costs) -I’m not gonna lie-made me really hesitant to snap a lot of the time! What if it didn’t come out as expected? What if I end up with lots of wasted time and money? The camera sat on the shelf except at birthday parties when my kids would take it out for their impromptu photo booths. At least they could have fun, because they didn’t think about the cost!

Then I decided to try the Instax Share printer, which I finally got for my birthday this August- which uses the same film to produce mini polaroids, but prints images directly from a source- such as my iphone! Yay! I love this so much better, and did not hesitate to print out an album full of pics, knowing in advance how the photos would turn out!

Disclaimer**

If you cringe at the thought of a somewhat corny, lovey-d0vey album featuring two “old people’s ridiculous selfies” –that is a direct quote from my teenagers– then you might want to skip to the next blog (Ahem. You have been warned.)

Everything I used to fill the pages came from the August kit Rio , plus a couple of store item add ons (the Amy Tangerine rubber embellishments , the blue acrylic heart on the cover, and one pineapple die cut from the Clique into Summer kit)

I just love a little chunky mini that fits in the palm of my hand and is FULL of memories. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the hop!

-xoGia

Clique Kits July Pep Rally

PepRallyRaskog

It’s July 20th and that means Pep Rally Day! Welcome! I am so excited to see what everyone made with the July Clique Kit Raskog this month. I believe this kit has nearly Sold Out in the Clique Kits shop ( hurry there may be one or two left!) but you should check out all of the a la carte items available coordinating with this and other kits! We just received notice that some of the brand new Summer 2016 Releases are on their way to Clique Kits- which means stay tuned for even more hype on social media and another big clearance sale (because we have to make room for all the new stuff in the CK warehouse!)

July 2016 Line-Up
Clique Kits
You Are Here—>Gia Lau
Erica Thompson <—Go Here Next
*Justyna Kowron
*Elisabetta Margini
*Aliza Deutsch
*Candace Perkins
Janet Perafan-Babar
Sandy Gonzalez
Kim Allen
*Leeann Pearce
*Kim Oedekoven
Maryam Perez
Caroli Schulz
Donna Espiritu
Sara Mishler
Leigh Ann Odynski

The Softer Side of Raskog and Combining Old and New Kits

Here is my project for today’s blog share. I really loved the exclusive card that says, “She decided to live the life she always imagined” in the Raskog Kit. Most of my other layouts using this kit (which I am working on killing) were super bold and graphic! I decided to change it up with this one and show the softer side of Raskog! (You can check out my bold and graphic layouts here and here.)

I have probably mentioned before that whenever I start a layout, I plan my color palette first and foremost. For this layout, I wanted to use the pastel colors that are in the kit- aqua blue, pastel yellow, and just a touch of pink. Having some variety of the intensity of these colors adds interest and more depth in layering them. Grey is one of my favorite neutrals these days, and I love it even more so combined with pastel aqua or yellow.

I started my layout design by planning a tag banner across the top of my page using tags leftover from a previous Clique Kit called Alegria (Fancy Pants Designs Happy Place tags) combined with some of the rubber flags in the Raskog kit.

To help me to soften my background in a subtle way, I used this Tutti Frutti Dazzlerz shimmering dimensional paste which was a shop item and add on from previous kits. Anything by Shimmerz brand seems to fly off the shelves, but there may be some colors left in the shop here. This media is like a pigmented gel but with a consistency of fluffy icing that made me kind of want to eat a spoonful of it. (Luckily, I resisted that urge.) The pale blush color softened and added some shimmer to the pretty grey and white checkered paper.

I embellished the banner a little more with some adorable stickers from the Magical Sticker Sheet. I have a thing for unicorns.:-)

Last but not least, I went to the Clique Monthly Downloads page in search of a die cut design to add to my page. I loved this one from the June Kit La Dolce Vita. Subscribers get access to this page and get unlimited free downloads of the kit digitals to use over and over. Even non subscribers can find great digitals for purchase in the digital shop. Usually once the kit ages, the coordinating die cut files are loaded to this shop for anyone to purchase!

Here is another closeup and finally the finished layout again!

I hope you like this layout and enjoyed reading a bit about my process. One of these days I will overcome my shyness to make process videos for the Clique. But in the meantime I am stuck writing it all out. :)-

Now let’s go see what amazing scrapbooker Erica has to show us. Now she DOES make videos, and you should all make sure you subscribe to the CK You Tube channel as well as the amazing channels of many of our current Varsity DT members. Enjoy!

-xoGia

Mixed Media Monday: Monochromatic

Happy Monday! Tonight I am heading to Salt Lake City for the Sierra Pacific Mixed Media show excited to scope out new products for Clique Kits. I thought it would be apropos to share a mixed media layout today!

A quick and easy way to get appealing results from a composition is to use a monochromatic or analogous color palette. This layout combines yellow and green gelatos from the Clique Kits Mixed Media shop colored on and then stroked with a wet brush, together with some great stamps from Precious Remembrance layered on with Altenew Crisp black ink. I know that this stamp set is currently out of stock but is hopefully going to be back in stock along with other great stamps soon!

I dripped some Prima watercolors in blue and green as an accent to tie in the “Fierce” design on my daughter’s shirt in the photo.

Here is a listing of the rest of the supplies used on this layout!

Rubber embellishments and paper layers from Clique Kits July Kit Raskog and add on item papers from Pretty Little Studio and Elle’s Studio.
Clique Kits Clique Cards Spring 2016– pineapple die cut from the kit
Pineapple Washi tape and green embellishment grab bag from my Etsy shop Gia Aloha
This awesome Happy Art Stamp Set

Precious Remembrance stamps seem to fly off the shelves as soon as we get them in, so please check the website often for new releases and make sure you follow Clique Kits and all of our associated blogs! Don’t forget the amazing Design Team!

You can find more colors of upcycled embellishment grab bags pre-organized by color to make your scrapbooking layouts easier in my Etsy shop.

See you soon!

-xxGia

But first coffee…and donuts

This may not be big news to you on the mainland US, but here on Oahu I am pretty excited because I heard a rumor that Dunkin’ Donuts shops are going to be coming to the island. I love D & D donuts and coffee! For today’s But First Coffee post I am sharing some cute things new to the Clique Kits shop starting of course with some new donuts!

These cute puffy stickers are adorable! There are 6 to a sheet for only $1.00!

How about these sticky note tabs from Japan! My pick of course- the donuts! (And cupcakes) These are only $3.00 per set while supplies last.

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Have you heard of squishies? These donut key chains/planner bling as I call it (stuff to hang from and decorate my planner) are really fun- and just a little squeeze has NO CALORIES or FAT! Yay!

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I DO-NUT know if you know this, but Clique Kits has the cutest planner kit still available! It features these small donut sticky notes which double as a hole reinforcer if you have a ring bound planner. The rest of the kit is truly amaze-balls. You can see a really terrific unboxing video here.

And I don’t know if you have been following any of the newest releases from your favorite manufacturers, but Amy Tangerine’s new line called Oh Happy Life! contains this paper:

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You can be sure that Clique Kits will be carrying many of the newest scrapbooking products just released as we restock the store after the summer sales. This week I will be heading to Salt Lake City for the SPC Mixed Media trade show and scoping out more new products for Clique Kits!

In the meantime, I came across this coloring challenge on Amy Tangerine’s blog and really enjoyed the Blog Hop. I have recently played with some coloring on some color-your-own papers and journaling cards myself and I recommend these pencils to get started with ! I think that we will be seeing more coloring designs infiltrating the scrapbooking world! I especially love the idea of stamping freestyle in a travel journal and then coloring them in just to enjoy the process. Travel journals are a great place to get creative in smaller blocks of time, experiment with different media and techniques, and really free yourself to not have to finish a complete project or make everything a masterpiece to enjoy journaling and documenting every day. I am super excited that Clique Kits is putting together a limited edition travel journal kit right now! It will be available later this summer!

JHCE2067

I don’t want to be a spoiler by sharing the contents of the new travel journal kit just yet, so make sure you subscribe to this blog and the Clique Kits blog, and follow Clique Kits on Facebook and Instagram for all the updates! Check out the new stuff added to the Clique Kits store!

-xGia

Tuesday’s Topic: Unplugged Scrapbooking

Happy belated 4th of July everybody! I hope you had a lot of fun this holiday weekend! I for one had a relaxing weekend “roughing it” in a cabin on the north shore of Oahu- I call it camping but it’s probably technically “glamping.” I brung a tote bag full of scrapbooking supplies with me but the one thing I didn’t have was internet or any tools that require electricity. I challenged myself to go ahead and make some layouts without using a die cutting machine, sewing machine, or printer (using pre-printed photos of course). I think it is really nice to spend some time unplugged in general and force my kids to do the same!

So here is a layout made the old fashioned way, with just paper, scissors, and glue!

Supplies used:

July Clique Kit “Raskog”
Clique Kits Large Acrylic Hearts embellishment
Nautical journaling cards from Fancy Pants Designs (my Etsy Shop)
Large words-wood veneers and die cut phrases like these from Crate Paper available at Clique Kits.

Thanks for stopping by today! I’d love to hear if you have ever tried unplugged scrapbooking! It’s definitely a challenge but also rewarding.

–xoGia

Clique Kits June Pep Rally

Pep RallyJune16

Happy second day of summer in the northern hemisphere! Perfect time for some really summery layouts using my June Kit La Dolce Vita…The Sweet Life! Here is the lineup for today’s blog share! I can’t wait to see what everyone is sharing today!

Clique Kits

You are here———————>Gia Lau
*Kat Benjamin <————–Go here next
*Elisabetta Margini
*Marcia Dehn-Nix
*Aliza Deutsch
*Candace Perkins
Sandy Gonzalez
Kim Allen
Maryam Perez
Sara Mishler
Audrey Yeager
Kim Oedekoven
Donna Espiritu
Janet Perafan-Babar
Janet Zeppa
Mariah Hechler

Visitors can enter to win a free kit by leaving a comment on each blog. Bloggers of course will earn product credits for participating and be entered to win the monthly prize of extra credits! I already have my product credits wish list for shipment with my July kit. There are great sales going on this summer-a new sale each week which helps to stretch the budget even further! You can use code CK40 for the weekly sale items. And don’t forget to order your limited edition Clique into Summer 2016!

Summer Layouts: Creating Drama with Large Titles!

This month I challenged myself to get back into the swing of using my Silhouette Cameo before it gets corroded under layers of dust and rust. I am always so glad I exerted the effort whenever I take advantage of the many digital files available to the Clique.

For my first layout I wanted to use the negative space of a large die cut title. This one is actually one of Clique Kits past kit die cut files from last July! I love the soft pastels and the tiny floral patterns in the Elle’s Studio collection featured in this month’s kit. The acrylic piece is really special too and deserved to be a focal point. Finally, my finishing touch was an add on item-the mirrored hexagons from British company Do Crafts.

Here is another layout with a large title die cut with my Silhouette Cameo using one of the June kit monthly cut files. For this one using the positive image for a white on white textured look I blew the size of the title up really huge. The exclusive cards and one of the 6×6 papers were very sparsely layered behind my photo and title. I wasn’t sure at first how to use the clear acetate words and shapes in the kit but found out my favorite look is when they are layered just as they are adding depth to an otherwise flat page.

Thanks so much for stopping in and enjoy all of the amazing inspiration to follow!

-xoxo Gia

Trendy Tuesday: I Love Indigo

Did a little trend stalking while shopping at Anthropologie this weekend. I have also noticed this trend in home decor and fashion. It’s indigo blue! There is something so appealing about it and it reminds me of elaborate china patterns and rich looking textiles. Of course scrapbooking paper patterns will not be far behind! This trend was the inspiration behind my layout today using the June Clique Kits kit called La Dolce Vita.

To make this layout I cut my title using a file downloaded from the Silhouette Studio shop from a sheet of white cardstock that I had prepped with white gesso and then painted with blue watercolor paint. Gesso helps to make a clean cut after the cardstock has been painted as long as it is sufficiently dry. I also liked the effect of some of the white showing through and giving it a distressed look.

Here is a close up of some embellishments added from my stash of leftovers from a previous Clique Kit. There are some of the January and February kits still available in the shop, along with some of the Amy Tangerine washi tape!

Using indigo in this layout featuring my daughter in that blue shirt was a no brainer! I love how it came out!

I hope to see you back tomorrow for the Clique Kits monthly pep rally!

-xo Gia

Tuesday’s Topic: A Quick Sketch Challenge

Sunday morning just for fun Erica posted a sketch challenge in the Clique Facebook group for subscribers and fans over at Clique Kits. I had two b&w photos I was planning to scrap anyway so I was up for the challenge and felt inspired by the sketch right away!

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Using my April Clique Kit Origins plus a few simple additions from the Pinkfresh Studios Felicity collection die cut pieces and some washi tape from my stash (and from MAMBI Happy Planner collections) I was done with the layout in less than 20 minutes. I really love the wood veneer title piece that was in this kit from Fancy Pants Designs and the little coffee cup was perfect for the photos of us on a lazy weekend morning having our morning coffee. Here are a couple of other views.

If you would like to join the fun and are not already a member of The Clique simply request an invite to the group or email for an invite to info@cliquekits.com or erica@cliquekits.com.