3 TO INSPIRE WITH ALENA

Hi everyone, it's  Alena  here today to share this week's 3 to Inspire challenge. Your take on this challenge can be in the form of a layout or a PL spread and you'll want to include all 3 elements on your project.    We offer this new challenge every Saturday for those who need a little extra push .

      Your prompts this week are:

1. Use the gold.
2. Use a puffy sticker. 
3. Use a white background.

This is what I did with the challenge: 

Inspiration with Alena

Hello!
Here is Alena with you today with a new PL spread. I created this using a set of July PL+Embellishment Kit .  I like to mix pages  3x4  and 6x8.

To create the page 6*8 I used the negative of chipboard.

I cut off the top part and prepared photo.

Here's how it looks from the inside :

Then I added a little decor.

I like the result.

I hope you are inspired to create something with your CTK kit today!

Pocket Life with Olya

Hello, hello!
Olya here, with my August pages. I have to say that I thought July's Pocket Life kit was pretty awesome and then Bam! here comes my August one and I just can't stop swooning over all the papers, colours and embellishments. Everything fits together so well, from patterned papers to buttons, from 3x4 filler cards to stickers. But enough of talking, let's look at what I actually created with those August CTK goodies.

This month my husband and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I wanted to create some kind of layout with our wedding photos and when I saw those 2x2 squares in Shimelle's new patterned paper, I knew I had to use them. I cut a 4x6 photo into 2x2 squares, placed them into pocket protectors, then filled the remaining open spots with papers. I added some embellishments on top of the page protectors because a) I didn't want to fuss with taking papers once they were in the page protectors and b) lately I've been enjoying seeing my embellishments on top of the photos, in a 3D sort of way :)

For the second wedding photo I just trimmed it, adhered to the cardstock that came with the kit and drew some lines and hearts around the photo. I completed the page with some gold accents from August PL add-on and the main August PL kit. Once again, I love how all the embellishments just flow together, making it easy for us, scrapbookers, to put a layout in a pinch.

And here is my 12x12 spread from the everyday Project Life album.

That stamp phrase was perfect for our Jenga night, with game pieces flying in all directions when the tower finally breaks.

Again, look at those stickers and the pretty 6x6 paper in Shimelle's new line. Two words: IN LOVE.

Another love worthy embellishment is this month's wood veneers. I just adore those circle, pie-chart looking veneers. I added some colors to them with my gel pens, let them dry and attached to the paper using little glue dots.

My second 12x12 spread is again full of Shimelle's patterned papers, and embellishments from the August PL kits and add-on.

Pocket Life with Pamela

Good morning everyone!  This is Pamela back with lots of Pocket Life pages to share with you.  Summer is always the busiest season, with lots of BBQs, firework shows and road trips!  Be prepared for a photo heavy post and lots of August PL kit goodies!

I'm loving this month's paper pad by Shimelle.  So colourful and such fun designs!

I'm also loving those Pink Paislee Solstice Ephemera from the PL embellishment kits. You can adhere those clear pieces with staples, sewing or by hiding adhesive behind the coloured parts.

  

Here is the other side of Week 30. I prefer clean and simple PL pages and Shimelle's paper pad allowed me to keep the embellishments minimal so that I could showcase the lovely pattern papers.

 

 I love stitching one of the ephemera as an overlay for one of my photos!

  

Here is Week 31. I used lots of stickers from the PL embellishment kit to decorate my cards and journaling.

 

I used some of the alphabet stickers from July's PL kit and used some wooden arrows to frame my photo. I just that sticker with that photo of Teavana!

 

This is definitely another one of my favourite spreads. I love spreading a panoramic photo in 4 sections!

 

That view was simply amazing. Perfect for fireworks and perfect for a panoramic view of downtown Vancouver.

 

How is everyone doing with their Pocket Life spreads? Hope this gave you some inspiration to either start, continue or get caught up with your album!

Citrus Twist Pocket Life Kits: A New Price, New Look and Less Expensive Shipping

We thought we'd do a post today about the new Pocket Life packaging and changes coming to our PL kits beginning this September. When you begin your PL-only subscription this month on or before August 31st, you'll get to keep the current Pocket Life kit pricing ($18) coupled with the new shipping costs, beginning in September ($6.25 US, $9 Canada, $15 International).

If you haven't seen the new look yet, here is a sneak, neatly tucked in a cloth bag, nestled in it's shipping box:

You can begin your subscription today by visiting our Kits page.

Why the changes? We've been listening to our subscribers and the many requests we get for cheaper shipping and not as much paper.

What can you expect from our newly-packaged Pocket Life kit?

• It's lighter and smaller which is how we were able to lower the cost of shipping.
• Instead of a full pad of 6 x 6 paper you'll get roughly 1/2 pad of 6 x 6. You'll still get the fabulous paper lines we have been featuring in our kits.
• We will be adding more embellishments to play with on your PL pages. You'll already see more in August's PL kit.
• The price of our 3-month PL subscription is going to be $19.50 beginning September 1st, but as long as you begin your subscription this month and as long as you continue your subscription without canceling, we'll hold your sub at the current price of $18.
• Lower shipping! (Our Main kit and Main plus PL kit subscribers will continue to pay the current shipping costs as they are now set up.)
• Each PL kit comes packaged in a cloth drawstring bag with a little special treatment applied.
• An idea and sketch sheet packed with each PL kit. Having trouble keeping up with your PL? This monthly addition to your kit will share ideas on staying up with your Pocket Life project.

Be sure to visit our Friday blog each week for PL Friday and see what our PL design team is doing with their kits and sharing PL sketches. If you haven't done so yet, send a Facebook request to join our Citrus Twist Kits Fan Page.

Have a happy week of Pocket Life.

Trina

iCapture: Photography with Jen

Hi, Jen here today sharing some of my favorite tips on how I take, edit and prep photos for my Pocket Life pages while on-the-go.

Being at home with three children under school age means 1) taking a lot of photos of their cute faces, primarily with my iPhone, and 2) having very limited time to scrapbook. The big, dSLR camera is always at the ready when at home but, the ease and practicality of using my phone camera has been winning out more often. The brilliant advantage is that a few phone apps and screen taps make photo editing and staying up to date with my albums easier. My most used apps of late are: PicTapGo for editing and Little Moments for adding text and graphics.

PicTapGo: (left) original, (right) edited

Little Moments: (left) original, (right) edited

One immediate benefit to using iPhone photos is that the images are already perfectly sized for 3x4 pockets. Using the PicFrame app, two photos are easily dropped onto a 4x6 canvas. The collage can then be sent to a printer or printing service straight from the phone. Just grab the prints, trim down the center and slip in your pocket pages...simple! Here are screen shots of my process:

This layout, using the beautiful August Pocket Life and Pocket Life Embellishment kits, uses only photos taken and edited using my phone.

In the Studio with Olya

Hello, lovely Citrus Twist friends!
Today I'm sharing with you a little tour of my studio, where all the scrapbooking and art magic happens. So grab a cup of tea, get comfortable in your chair and let's have a peek into my creative space, shall we?
First things first: my desk. I love clean, organized spaces, especially when it comes to desks. It helps my mind feel more clear and inspired. When I create, however, this is what my desk looks like. Messy with barely any room to actually put my projects on.
What's on my desk? Why, Citrus Twist August kit, of course. When I get my CTK happy mail, I immediately unpack everything, lay it out on my desk and just swoon over all the little bits and pieces. Pocket Pages layouts start popping in my head, seeing all the pretty papers and embellishments. I get super giddy and excited, like a kid in a candy store. I store my monthly Citrus Twist kit in a dedicated wooden caddy from a dollar store. (it even has some broken English and French on it! Bonus ; ) )
Then eventually admiring all the pretty papers turns into printing the photos, selecting patterned papers to go with the photos' themes and colors, gluing everything, decorating with embellishments, and adding some journaling. Badaboom, that's my crafting process in a nutshell.
I have two bookshelves in my studio, one holds miscellaneous stuff, and another one is filled with art and crafts books, scrapbooks, notebooks and art journals. Here is my favorite shelf with my go-to books for easy reference and inspiration.

and here are 'some' of my countless pretty journals, photo albums and scrapbooks. Yes, I have a problem. No, I'm not willing to do anything about it : ) 

I also have a 'snailmail' station, where I gathered all the stationery I've collected over the years, as well as stickers, mail related stamps, tags and washi tapes. Now I don't have any excuses for taking too long (read forever) to reply to my penpals.

And last but not least, here's my art station. Though most of my work happens outside, walking around my city and doing urban sketches on the go, I create some art at home as well. 

Well, this is mostly it. Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a tour around my studio, guys.

Have a happy creative weekend!
xo

Pocket Life with Sam

Hello there, this is Sam to share my August Pocket Life pages with you. I am so sorry  thatI have been posting this blog post late. The immigration held up my kit and it took much much much longer than usual. Anyways, August is my birthday month but things haven't been great. So I thought I would scrap a colourful page and also journal a little about my unhappiness. Things do happen and it is not a must to just record happy moments in my Pocket Life pages.

So here's my page, with a lot of goodies from August Pocket Life kit & Embellies kit. So much goodies that I think I could scrap a few more pages and share on our CTK Fans page.

Although this two weeks I had a lot of ups & downs, but happy colours in this page does remind me to count my everyday blessings and be grateful.

I am pretty much happy with doing my monthly spread and not stressing myself for 'catching up' on those un-documented weeks and photos. Everything in the page is from August Pocket Life kit and Embellies kit and only sneak in a sheet of Crate Paper Thickers.

I also added some journalling with water-colour and my vintage typewriter.

This pictures of all my Filofaxes in pink definitely made me happy!

To me, it is definitely ok to record my negative thoughts and unhappiness in my PL.

I water-colour a piece of white card stock and add my journalling with my vintage typewrite with cursive font.

Another pic from this week to remind myself to be grateful - I met this cute doggie whose nose has been chopped off by some cruel 'human'. HE is still a handsome yet cheerful chap regardless how sorry we felt for him.

And there you go, I am in the midst of editing a process video for this page and will  upload to my Youtube channel + CTK fans page soon. Thanks for looking and have a great week ahead. I do hope that my page inspires you to document the true moments of your everyday life - be it ups and downs, and all the little things that remind us to be grateful + treasure our life.

XoXo,
Sam

Let's get digital with Jen Chapin

Hey there and happy Monday to you! Jen here and today I'm sharing a layout I created with the August kits, along with a free cut file. I was inspired by the heart wood veneers in the main kit this month, so I created a heart background for my layout. You can download that cut for free HERE.

I used a ton of foam squares to pop the die cut off the background of the page. It is subtle, but it does give the layout great dimension. I used a few pieces from the Pocket Life kit, as well as those gorgeous gold thickers from the main.

The Heidi Swapp word stickers in the kit this month are great. I used quite a few on my projects! My other favorite item were the Crate Paper Notes and Things embellishments included in the Summer Dreaming add-on. Those butterflies are just gorgeous.

I have one more layout to share with you. This one was created using a large photo (8x10).

I started with this photo of my kids playing in the backyard. I knew as soon as I took it that I wanted to use it for an enlargement on one of my projects. After adhering the photo to patterned paper, I used the rest of the embellishments from the main kit and Summer Dreaming add on to layer up below.

I also added some enamel dots to the photo because, hello, I cannot make a page without them.

More layering and how awesome is that exclusive book paper garland!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great week.