travel – Gia Aloha

Using Haute Mess Acrylic Paints

Having just finished the Clique Kits and Bad Girls Couture team up holiday blog hop today I was reminded that I never did get to share some of the pieces I made the very first time I received some of the Haute Mess acrylic paints from Wendy La Croix, Bad Girls Couture owner almost a year ago! I am pretty sure I posted these on social media so if you have seen them already I apologize!

In this photo layout I used bright colors and a now retired Close to my Heart stamp set (the polka dot butterfly)

Gia Aloha

Some of the properties I love about Wendy’s hand mixed acrylics:

They are fast drying
They have a matte finish that is similar to a chalk paint
They are made without Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) which is better for your health and environment!
They come in a full palette of colors plus some great neutrals!
They work perfectly with the haute mess gel media also.
They are super creamy and mix smoothly!

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This art journal page was so much fun to create using the glass bead gel medium from Bad Girls Couture. You can find this Paper from Ciao Bella in the Clique Kits shop!

I have really enjoyed collaborating with Wendy and we have become really close just talking shop about our common passions! I believe in her products and her vision in offering hand crafted, eco-friendly products made by and for mixed media artists.

The concept of a handmade and fully customizable art journal that has a large capacity for dimensional pages is going to resonate with other mixed media artists like it did for me! I love to collage in my art journal and travelers notebook and can never have enough paper products. Between Bad Girls paint, media, journals, and unique vintage stuff and all of the paper kits at Clique Kits what else could a Bad Girl ask for?

-xGia

New brand! Studio Forty

Clique Kits is probably the ONLY U.S. vendor at least that I know of carrying an amazing new brand from Poland called Studio Forty The first time I saw one of their posts on Instagram I thought to myself- I need all the things! Much of the first shipment to the Clique Kits shop has flown off the shelves, and I can’t wait for more stock to come in!

To create this layout I used one of the newest cut files in the shop August release designed by Cecily Moore called “Stained Glass.” This design was perfect for my layout of my two youngest boys sitting on the top of the peak of Haleakala volcano- which literally means House of the Sun, a very sacred place to native Hawaiians. Haleakala summit is deceiving in that it is rarely seen from the ground because it rises about the cloud layer! This means that from about 10,000 ft above sea level you are literally walking on ground above the sky- much like what you see from an airplane window in flight.

If you do not have a die cutting machine, you are in luck because this file is available from the shop pre-cut!

I also love the flair that says ” Nothin but blue skies” from the exclusive photoreal flair set. It is available in the shop here. This flair set is perfect for summer vibes whether you are taking vacations, weekend getaways or even staycations- you will use every one of these. Don’t forget to pick up one of the Studio Forty stamp sets which you will use on layouts and in your travelers notebook over and over!

Thanks for visiting today and aloha from Maui!

-xGia

#Finish-it-February

On February 1st I was scrolling my newsfeed on Facebook and came across a post in the Scrap Gals Community Facebook Group on the tradition of using the month of February to finish several of the projects that you just never got around to completing! It made me think about some of the pitfalls for completing projects that often affect me.

By the time I come across an unfinished project, I have no enthusiasm for the project anymore.
Other events or pictures have eclipsed those memories in importance
Sometimes I don’t like the products I was using at the time (even though I thought they were perfect at one time!)
I’m just not into whatever style or media I was using when I started.
I have new products calling me to use them right away.
I am afraid to “waste” what little time I have to scrapbook on an old project when I have current stories and photos to document.

Do you relate to any of these pitfalls? I think that the idea of setting aside one whole month to go back to my unfinished projects would possibly help me to finish at least some of them, and in the process rid me of some of the guilt of “wasting” supplies, and my past time and energy. I may not be able to finish everything I want to finish (I have the 3 past years of unfinished December dailies and if I am honest I have been putting these off for- well- 3 years.) But I can do what I can for one short month, and let the chips fall where they may. Right?

I really love to travel, and when a photo album I had of a trip I took to India was destroyed (in the pre-digital photo days) I cried over the loss of those photos and memories. So for me, this month is going to start with finishing some travel journals that are really important to me. I am happy to announce that I did it! I finished the TN insert of my trip to Thailand last September! One down and…never mind how many to go.

Here is the short list of Clique Kits products I used in this journal. I love that Clique Kits is now offering Limited Edition Traveler Notebook kits. I hope that at some point there will be enough demand for a full TN subscription kit.

The Cosmo Cricket Art Deck. This is a booklet, the same size as a TN insert full of pretty sayings hand script with trendy designs as resist patterns on watercolor paper, along with some gold foiled designs.
Assortment of Washi Tapes
My goes-everywhere-with-me box of Prima watercolor paints and a waterbrush. (no link because they are sold out- but I imagine they are available other places!?)
A bunch of skeleton clips like the ones visible in some of the photos. These are a must for using anything wet while on the go since you need a way to keep your pages open to dry.
The travel stamp set by Meli Melo studio that Clique Kits sells, which is perfect for stamping in your TN!
This lovely butterfly stamp.

A couple of things to note before I conclude this post. This was my first attempt at working in the Traveler Notebook insert formula and there was a little bit of a learning curve for me. First, I am used to working with wet media on cold press watercolor paper or at least mixed media weight paper. I learned that the paper in the average TN insert is quite thin, and I figured out halfway through the project that it was better to paste two pages together than to try to use them singly when using anything wet on them. So yeah, the front half is full of wrinkled, flimsy pages and the second half is much more sturdy and lays flat.

I loved adding little bits of memorabilia to the album, like this 20 baht note (Thai currency). There is a story behind this particular note- and now I will never forget it!

I used this project as an opportunity to practice some brush stroke lettering, without pressure because my lettering was not perfect and I was totally okay with that! (unlike how I would feel if it were on a scrapbook layout) I am now enamored with traveler notebooks and whatever the trip or subject, I know they will be very personal to me and something that I love to look back through in the future. I also plan to work on an archiving system for them for when they are finished and end up on my shelf. There is much to talk about with Traveler Notebooks that I will save for future posts!

I would love to hear from you if you have any unfinished projects to work on during #Finish-it-February and what some of your pitfalls are to getting them done. Maybe we can help each other!

-xoGia

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 Snorkeling Na Pali Coast

The beautiful Na Pali Coastline of Kauai is one of the most amazing pristine places to snorkel and observe the gorgeous tropical fish and other sea life along a living reef. It is only accessible by boat or by air. We were lucky enough to take a cruise on a 65 foot catamaran called the Blue Dolphin II. I wanted to create a special interactive layout that my son would appreciate when he looks at this album and remembers our snorkeling experience in Kauai.

I started with a package of tropical fish embellishments from Little B. I felt like these stickers were exactly the fish we saw underwater! Perfect! In order to create the transparent watery effect I was looking for, I left them attached to the clear plastic backing in the packaging. I cut them apart in random shapes and dipped the plastic in some paint from Jillibean Soup that came with my Clique into Color kit.

Once I had the fish inside the pocket I used my fingers to smoosh the paint around a little until I was happy with the appearance. You do have to be careful not to use too much paint or it will ooze all over the front of the fish.I used some sequins and enamel dots for finishing touches.

And here is how I made the adjacent page