3 to Inspire with Aimee

How lucky am I? I got the Christmas Day post AND the New Years Eve post. Better yet - I scored the last 3 to inspire of the year. So lets aim for a fresh start and a real challenge to send the year off in style shall we? Here are your 3 prompts.

1. Mix your patterns.

2. Use a product your not hugely fond of.

3. Use an up an entire packet of embellishments.

I often struggle with the mixing of patterns. It's certainly easier to manage when working on a base of white cardstock but I really wanted to challenge myself. So instead I choose to layer my spots, stripes and woodgrain. I think in this case it really works because they all share the mint green colour.

I'm just going to come out and say it. I hate cork... and burlap, but thats another story. I admit Pink Paislee certainly made it better with the gold glitter, but it's never going to be my go to embellishment. It really does suit this layout though. It added blog and detention but without adding a ton more colour. I'm glad I saved the packet after all.

Finally I used up the last of my Pink Paislee Puffy Stickers from this months Embellishment Kit. I must confess it wasn't a 'full packet' when I started the layout. There was just over half a packet maybe, but if feels so good not to have to find a home for it not that it's time to break this months kit down. So you can relax, the embellishment police are going to come knocking if it isn't a full packet. I will however award bonus points for more than one packet. Wink, Wink! 

Now go forth my beautiful little twisties and create!Use the three prompts to create your own projects and share them with us here in the gallery and/or our Facebook Forum.  I really can't wait to see how they all turn out.

Aimee Xx

Daydreamers & Stargazers | Elsie Robinson

Hey everyone, it's Elsie popping back on the blog today, and one of my New Year's resolutions is to be brave and incorporate some mixed media into my scrapbooking - haha! 

So this is definitely not a life-changing New Year's resolution by any means, but I always like to make sure that I am pushing and challenging myself creatively. And boy, does painting challenge me...!

I've always found it difficult to incorporate mixed media into my style of scrapbooking, and if I'm being honest a lot of previous mixed media layouts have ended up in the bin - eek!

But this layout was so much fun to make; I feel like I've finally figured out a way I can make mixed media work for me. Let me talk you through what I did...

I was really inspired by this month's Kinsley Embellishment kit, I loved the glitter, gold foiling and the galactic colour tones in the kit, and that combo was my starting point.

In the Pink Paislee Moonstruck collection there are some embellishments with script on them, so I decided to use a script stencil from my stash and start my mixed media process using that with some modelling paste.

Once that was dry I used watercolours in dark blues, pinks and purples with a very wet brush so the colours could blend and mix together, to get that Galaxy look I was after. I then splattered some white acrylic ink with a small brush to make it look like some tiny stars.

And honestly, I was left with a 12x12 piece of paper that looked like a mess!! Albeit a very pretty mess, but a mess I felt very daunted to make a layout with.

I decided to grab another piece of white paper, draw and cut a half-moon and star design, hand-stitch around them and back it with the mixed media page. 

And I loved the way that looked! Being able to control what parts of the background you could see and getting my beloved white space back, made the mixed media so much easier to work with.

I went to town clustering the embellishments around my photo. Also by firstly placing the translucent Pink Paislee Moonstruck stickers onto white paper and then fussy-cutting them out, meant that I was able to place them wherever I wanted and use them like die-cuts.

The wooden stars from the Main kit are so pretty and such a fun shape, but to make them work with this layout, I painted them with some white gesso and sprayed them with some gold ink. I love their distressed look, it really complemented and echoed the gold flecks in the cork title 'dream'.

Thanks for joining me today, and I hope you're inspired to try and work some mixed media into your projects!

Have a wonderful New Years everyone, and I'll see you again in 2017!

- Elsie x

Happy Mail Layout with Veera

Hi, It’s Veera here today. I hope that you are enjoying the holidays and spending quality time with your loved ones (and maybe even with your favorite craft supplies)! Today I want to share a layout I created with December Kinsley scrapbook kit and Embellishment Add-On.

Recently I have enjoyed creating layouts with a diagonal design and that was my choice for this layout too. The design creates certain kind of flow to the layout. I placed my title on a diagonal line too and added embellishments to emphasize the design.

I used the exclusive die-cuts as my embellishments too. The beautiful flowers matched the photo and paper perfectly!

I hope you are enjoying your December kits!

-Veera

Sunday Sketch Challenge with Aimee Dow

Hi there! Merry Christmas! I am SO very honoured that you've come to visit little old me on such an auspicious day. In fact, I kind of feel like I need to deliver in a big way just to make it worth your while. Good thing, I've got a cracker of a sketch and page for you then, huh? Let's get started.

I scored first pick of the sketches this month, so I like to think I got you the best one for your Christmas long weekend. I had a lot of fun putting it together so that's always a good sign. Here's how it turned out:

I used this months Main and Embellishment kits to create this page. I've got to say, I'm really not one for pattern paper background, but this exclusive grid paper from Citrus twist is to die for. A girl can always do with a shake up now and again.

I did try to stick as closely to the sketch as possible, but I did have to get a little creative when it came to title placement. I really struggle with titles so the fact that I managed to come up with such a good looking one with the Crate Letters and thinkers - well it was going on the page even it killed me. Fortunately it never came to that. Just 20 minutes of pushing things round, much like a cat nudges a ball of wool and I managed to figure it out. 

The layout itself is rather thin on embellishments. I really loved using the Moonlight clear stickers from Pink Paislee. I don't know that I ever really decided to make it monochrome it just looked best that way with the black and white photos. You certainly don't have to make yours that way. Remember if you are playing along, create a layout inspired by the sketch and upload it to the CTK gallery with today's date (12/25) in the title and you will be in with a chance to win a $5 gift certificate to spend in the CTK store.

I'll be seeing you again real soon.

Aimee Xx.

December Kit Love with Wendy & Mira

Hello all!  New month, new kits and some new love....December Kit Love, that is!

Wendy here with a special collab post with the talented Mira.  We are tag teaming today to share up some December Kit Love for you!

We are revealing up the contents and/or creativity 'behind-the-scenes' of the December Scrapbook Main, Embellishment, Pocket Life, and Sprinkles Kits with a couple of videos for you.

The Scrapbook Main is themed "Kinsley" and features a beautiful medley of mixed blues, peach, soft umber and other colors with LOTS of embellishments for the perfect kit to kick off to in the New Year!

The Embellishment Kit sparkles with glittery, colorful frames, tiny stickers, puffy stickers and paper tags.  Bright and fun to mix in with your "Kinsley" kits!

Mira's video features the Pocket Life and Sprinkles kits with close-up photos of projects created by two of the CTK Creative Team Pocket Life Designers, Diane Williams and Mira Jurecka.

The Pocket Life kit has the deepest cobalt blue with softer tones of blue, peach, yellow ochre and other soft colors as the perfect documenting start to 2017.

Also, don't forget we have the Gracebox kit that is perfection for bible and faith journaling.  The December "Shine Bright" Add-On kit has happy and playful embellishments and papers.  

Hope you enjoyed the sneaks and get ready to see your December kits delivering soon to your doorstep!

Wendy