Hey CLIQUE KITS fans, you’re in for a real treat today.  It’s our Clique Kits Simple Stories Blog Share!   Thanks for much for joining us today.  You should have arrived here from Gia’s blog, The Painted Crane.  Wasn’t her project fab!!  If you’re just joining us here on my blog, you can get the whole line up for today on the Clique Kits blog HERE. 

Here are the deets on today’s prize too!  It’s a $10 gift certificate for the Clique Kits Store!  What do you have to do to enter the drawing? First, stop by each blog and leave a comment so we know you were there. Become a follower of Clique Kits on the Social Media of your choice (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest) and subscribe to our blog via email !  We will not bombard you with anything except invitations to sales and events and inspiration as it posts on the blog!
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Now, on with the show.  Here’s my first project using Simple Stories Daily Grind.  I LOVE making mini albums and this one was super fun to create!  It’s for a friend of mine who just had a baby boy.  The front and back covers  were made using recycled legal pads as my chipboard bases and measure 5″x7″.  I covered each side with some Daily Grind and another wood grain paper from my stash.  You’ll see that added a doily and a few other layers to add some interest to my cover.  I trimmed the doily in half and added on either side of the March journaling card.  I also added a small glassine bag with a shipping tag inserted inside and tied with some navy May Arts burlap string.  I love the little touch of texture the burlap string adds!  Next, check out the felt cloud and other goodies by Studio Calico, wood veneers & flair. 

And here’s the inside.  I found the white corrugated 6×6″ pieces at Hobby Lobby and loved them!  Don’t the make awesome mini album pages 🙂  Of course I added lots of Daily Grind, Studio Calico wood veneers and some sweet Pink Fresh Studio Enamel Drops.  The white squares are where the 4×4″ photos will go when I gift this little mini next week 🙂 

Did you wonder about the wood veneer card?  Well, that’s also from Studio Calico and so cute!  I lined up the holes I punched for the other pages on punched right through the wood veneer card, just like butter with my WRMK Crop-a-dile tool.  (I love that thing!)  Next, I added the stamped images (from CTMH) with some Memento fade resistant dye inks in brown and black.  Yes, you can actually stamp right onto wood veneers and it looks awesome!  I also colored the wood veneer camera with a Copic marker, but you could use any type of marker for that task.  In the forth picture down, you’ll see the backside of the wood veneer card stamped with various colors.  The green is from CTMH and others are Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick and Spiced Marmalade.  

 Lot’s more layering here, with a Heidi Swapp flag (Champion), new washi tapes, glassine bag and shipping tags.  The great thing about mini albums is you’ll have a dedicated space for your photos, and you can surround them with little embellishments and stickers.  You can also layer underneath your photos and papers by adding pull out tags for some fun hidden journaling!

Are you a ‘stash’ lover… mustache I mean!  You can join me this Friday on the Clique Kits blog for a fun tutorial on how I created the fun felt mustaches and arrows using my Cricut!!  Here’s a closer look at one them, along with the embossed cameras on my blue Daily Grind banners.  The Amy Tangerine camera embossing folder will be coming to the Clique Kits Store soon, so check back often!!

And here’s the back of my mini!  This Daily Grind card was the perfect ending to this mini album’s back cover, especially since it’s for a baby 🙂

Ok, one more quick project today!  I used the Summer Simple Set to create this fun layout from our vacation at the beginning of March.  This is a great example on how you can add multiple photos to one 12×12″ layout!  I kept the one in the middle with Brad and our girls at 4×6″, then trimmed the square photos down to 3×3″.  The silly photo of Sari on top is about 5×3″.  The water in the background made is pretty easy of overlap the photos to create this fun collage.  This is another easy  way to solve the ‘too much water in the photo’ problem I always have with pictures of my family in the pool or water in general.

I used lots of foam adhesive for the clouds, which I punched from the Simple Set’s product cover sheet in the packaging.  I added some Basic Grey blue gems and some random yellow enamel dots from my stash.

Here’s closer look at my stitched sun!  I used a bottle of Gesso as my circle template and punched some holes to create my sun!  It took me about 5 minutes to stitch the sun total. 

Thank for so much for joining us today!  I hope you’ve been inspired by my projects.  If you have, I would LOVE  if you followed my blog and connected with Clique Kits and myself on the net too!  You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and more by checking out my right sidebar.

But, wait there’s more!  Clique Kits is having a ONE DAY ONLY FLASH SALE on the Simple Stories A Charmed Life Paper collection . Today only and while supplies last, use coupon code CHARMED40 to get 40% your purchase of the A Charmed Life collection in the Clique Kits Store. We still have lots of Simple Stories in stock including some really fun Snap Sets and we will be getting even more in later this month! 

Next up, EricaRose Creates!  This girl is gonna rock you!!  Happing hoping today!

~Jody