Kesi-Art – Gia Aloha

Adventure! Clique Kits July Main Kit Regatta

Hi lovely scrapbooking friends! I have another layout to share today using the amazing, inspiring Clique Kits July Main kit! The papers in this kit from Fancy Pants Designs Poolside collection and the Kesi-Art papers coordinate so well. That is the beauty of a curated kit subscription– the job of finding supplies that work together is done for you giving you more time to enjoy the design process!

This is another cut file I used my Scan N Cut machine to create. I love how the kit papers look backing this cut. Here is a close up!

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The first thing my daughter did on her visit home from the mainland was jump in the water! She is living and going to college in a place without the ocean nearby and she misses the endless summer and lifestyle of living in paradise! I would be more than thrilled if she moves back to Hawaii once she finishes her degree. I have so many photos of beachy fun and am definitely getting close to killing my July kit with them! Thanks for visiting today!

-xGia

Clique Kits July 2018 Main Kit

Here is the first of a series of layouts to come using my Clique Kits July Main Kit: Regatta.

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I started with a sketch I had of a dragonfly, which I scanned in to my new toy the Brother Scan N Cut 2 machine. I then created a repeating design in the machine, which I cut from 12 x 12 white cardstock and then layered on some mixed media. To create a variegated blue splatter design I started with some Tim Holtz distress oxide ink from the shop, followed by some ink sprays in different shades of bright blue. When I was happy with my dragonflies, I bent the wings up a bit to give them some dimension when adhered only down the mid section.

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The rest of the layout came together really quickly with one piece of Kesi Art patterned paper, one card cut from the Carta Bella cut apart paper, and one rubber piece and several chipboard pieces (Freckled Fawn) from the kit.

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And there you have a very fast and easy mixed media layout! I hope you enjoyed this layout and stay tuned for lots more to come using the Regatta kits and more!

-xGia

Maggie Holmes Flourish Cards

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The April 2018 Clique Kits “Winter Park” kits featuring Maggie Holmes Flourish collection is so pretty and versatile for any project. I am not usually a card maker, but April is the month my mother and grandmother both celebrate their birthdays, so I was inspired to use scraps from my kits to whip up some fast cards.

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I was a little disappointed though that the photos do not do justice to the texture of the backgrounds which I embossed! The bird card is for my grandmother who turns 100 tomorrow! Wow! 100 years- is amazing. I hope I have her genes.

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This bunny is for my Mom, whose birthday is the 28th.

If you look closely you can see a doily pattern on one and a swiss dots pattern on the other very faintly. I used ephemera from my kit to embellish scraps of paper that I had die cut some leaves out of. I never like to waste paper, so I used both the leaves and the negative space left behind after cutting on my Big Shot, only I used them on a different set of cards-the one shown below as an example!

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This Spring card shows how I used the Maggie Holmes acetate specialty paper as a backing for the geometric planter. I also used those adorable vintage music paper butterfly confetti from the Clique Kits shop.

Here are the other products I used:

The Hero Arts Terrarium Die:

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Kesi-Art Metaliks Leafy:

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It figures that in 2018 after finally giving myself permission to NOT have to make handmade cards (even though I have enough supplies to make cards for the rest of my life) what do I do- I start whipping out some cards. Next I am going to give myself permission to NOT have to lose 10 pounds and see how that works for me.

-xGia

Using a cut file to frame a photo

In this layout I used one of the add on cut files I designed for the Clique Kits March 2018 kits. The CK Malama kits feature the Paige Evans Pick Me Up collection for Pink Paislee and the color palette in this collection reminded me of the colorful scenery in Thailand when I took my trip there in 2016. If you missed it, I shared this layout also about my trip to Phuket, Thailand.

I separated the inner and outer circles after cutting the file so that I could use the large one to frame my photo of the view of the countryside and ocean on the Phuket coast, which was an enlargement. I challenged myself to do some hand stitching using the embroidery thread that came in the main kit. As it turns out, I am not good at stitching. But I do like the texture it added to the layout even though it was pretty crappy looking embroidery.

I found this Kesi-Art stamp in the Clique Kits shop and it is going to show up a lot on my travel layouts! You can download this cut file right here! Use my coupon code to save 10% GIA10.

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Clique Kits August Pep Rally: Featuring Ambrosia

Hi friends! I am very excited to particpate in this month’s Pep Rally! This month’s Clique kit Ambrosia featured the Pink Paislee Citrus Bliss collection and so much more! This kit was so inspiring to me to get started creating again and I have been working on this mini-album documenting my recent long weekend in Kauai. You should have come from the Clique Kits Blog. Here is the full line-up:

Clique Kits

Here—>Gia
Erica <—Next
Sophie*
Sandy G.*
Megan
Emma Prescott
Mariah
Cassandra*
Donna*
Aliza*
Kim Allen
Tyra
Karrie
Evi Ortes
Hannah

So I have written a lot so far about this mini album and today’s post for the Pep Rally will be a continuation of the series. Since this is a brand new blog it isn’t too hard to find the last two posts if you are interested 🙂

For today’s post, I decided to show you a watercolor technique to make a multicolored or ombre colored pineapple with a diamond cross hatch pattern much like the pineapple design in the Pink Paislee collection. I used this technique to create a personalized layout in my mini album featuring a photo of my son Jesse.

Here we go!

And now let’s head over to see what great project Erica has today!

Documenting My Trip to Kauai with Clique Kits

This project consists of multiple parts, so I am going to divide it into more than one post. In this post I will give an overview of the project!

For my birthday weekend I had a chance to go to a neighbor island with my husband Joel and my youngest son Jesse, age 7 1/2. It is really rare that we get to spend quality time with any one of the children, let alone with each other. Needless to say, this was a really special treat! The stars just happened to align that weekend for us, so off we went to Kauai. I have been keeping a travel album of our visits to all of the other Hawaiian islands, but I was so blown away by the beauty of Kauai I had to make a special album just to dedicate to this trip.

I started the album with an empty 3-ring binder we had a very limited quantity of in the Clique Kits store way back when. I loved it for the gold debossed flamingos on the outside cover and the lovely salmon color. I started filling the album with cardstock, watercolor paper, acetate, and some Simple Stories pocket pages trimmed down by one column.

I decided that I would keep repeating certain motifs throughout the album, so that even though it is a very eclectic album, certain themes are coherent. Some of the repeated items are pineapples, watermelons and other fruit from the Ambrosia kit (I especially loved the artwork by Lacey Gasper for this project), flamingos, and Palm fronds. The colors are all in keeping with the colors from the Ambrosia kit palette, which included salmon, pinks, aquas, greens, yellows, and orange. The add on paper pack from Kesi Art with a Hawaiian theme was perfect for this project, and so were the little pineapple and watermelon dies.

In the next post, I will show you how I used some watercolors and other paints to personalize my album by creating some one-of-a-kind artwork for some of the layouts in the album.