3 to Inspire with Nathalie

Hi, I am here today to share a new edition of our "3 to Inspire" series. We offer this new challenge every Saturday for those who need a little extra push to get scrapbooking, to keep scrapbooking, or those of you just looking for a 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.

Since today is Valentine's Day, our inspiration will be:

      1. Use several types of hearts

      2. Include at least one photo with YOU in it

      3. Use pop/foam dots to create dimension

Here is my interpretation of this challenge created exclusively with the February Main kit "Love Letters":

Not counting the Crate Paper Constellation paper, I used two of my favorite elements from the kit on this page: the Dear Lizzy Gold word stickers and the Kiss Kiss Gold Foil Cut Outs (can you spot all four cut outs on there?;)

Here are some close-ups including the three inspirations above:

Thank you for stopping by! If you take on this challenge, post your layout or PL spread in the Citrus Twist Gallery or on the Facebook Citrus Twist Fan Page. 

And have a wonderful Valentine's Day! 

Saturday Inspiration with Gina

Hi everyone, I'm here to share a couple of pages with you, created with the gorgeous 'Beautiful Life' main kit and a couple of items from the 'Day Tripping' embellishment kit. The main floral paper used here, made me think of vintage florals and was perfect for this funny pic of my daughter and her friend trying on what they call "granny florals" (or something your grandmother would wear) then taking selfies in the changeroom.. I've added some patterned paper squares down the side (after scraping a little white gesso over to soften the colours) then machine stitched in plain and zigzag for a patchwork effect..

along with a couple of handcut stars, journaling, flair and chipboard arrow..

to finish, I've added a few Studio Calico chipboard stars and stamping using the main kit stamp and "Bring it On" stamp add-on

I've kept this layout quite simple, leaving quite a lot of white space, because I wanted to show off this beautiful white woodgrain cardstock, which has such great texture.. I really like mixture of white and cream together, along with mint, woodgrain and yellow. I've added a few paper layers behind the gauze and doily. A little machine stitching helps to hold it all down.

I hope you're enjoying your kits as much as I am..happy scrapping!

Gina x

Simple Strategies- adding texture to your layouts

Hello! Kasia here today with a layout made completely with this month's main kit. When I looked through the kits items I knew they will allow me to create almost a monochromatic layout- I love making these! I thought it would be also a fun excuse to talk a bit about adding texture to your pages- when you cut on the colors textures pop and allow you to highligth details of your work!

Adding textures will make your pages look more dimensional. The easiest way to do it is through playing with layers. Try to use different materials- patterned paper, vellum, book pages, cardboard or stickers- they are all paper but have different quality so they will add lots of beautiful detail to your layout.

Another way to add texture is using medias. Try to start with simple white gesso or acrylic paint- you can paint with them, smudge over the layers on your page, stamp the pattern you want- the thicker the paint the more texture will be visible on your finished project.

Don’t limit yourself with paper and medias- you can grab some other materials which will build texture look- think of small enamel dots, thickers, cut files or fabric- all  or some of them layered on the page will make a beautiful, textured details for your layout!

I hope you enjoyed these tips and will try with playing with textures on your projects! Have a fun day!

Two Page Layout Tutorial with Melissa

Hello, and happy Tuesday, everyone! Melissa here with your weekly tutorial, and today I'm going to walk you through my process for putting this two-page layout together, using the February kits from Citrus Twist.

I started off by choosing a background and briefly considered using two different papers- one patterned and one cardstock. I've used this type of design before, and it works quite well as long as you use something- like strips of patterned paper that span both sides- to tie the two pages together.

I have another layout with a similar mismatched background in this same album, though, so I opted instead to cut the gray star paper down to 11.5" x 11.5" and have it span two sheets of white cardstock, making it the element that ties the background together.

This pile of photos doesn't really have a story behind it- they're just random shots from a day at a Star Wars convention- and I wanted to put them all on one layout to be a wrap-up for the "Day 1" section of the album (I was there for four days!).

The hardest part of a two-page layout for me is the photo arrangement, and I went through three different ones before landing on one that I liked. I started with a large group of photos off to the right, with fewer on the left so I'd have room for my title and journaling. At this point I also picked up a card from the Pocket Life kit and a piece from one of the cut-apart sheets to work in with my photos.

I wasn't entirely happy with the first arrangement, so I tried again, this time going for more of a loose grid that ran in a line across the center of the page. This time I felt like everything was just kind of sitting in the middle with nothing to lead the eye across the page, so I tried one more time...

...and came up with this! The photos in my final arrangement are grouped in sections, and the trio of groupings flows in a loose diagonal up from the bottom left to the top right.

I was finally happy with the photo placement, so I moved on to the next step- adding patterned paper and embellishment layers around and behind the photos. This is the step where you can fill in any awkward gaps in your photo arrangement with little tags, tabs, and more pieces from cut-apart sheets. I also worked a piece of paper from the 6x6 pad in the Pocket Life kit onto the page.

With the basic structure in place, I added my title and a few more embellishments, including the start of a little cluster on the top left. I also worked in one more piece of 6x6 patterned paper under the bottom left cluster of photos.

After that, it took just a few more tiny pieces and some journaling to finish the layout off!

I never really start a two-page layout with a plan, and I generally follow these basic steps every time I make one. I've found that once I find a pleasing photo arrangement, the rest of it comes together quickly!

Inspired by paper flowers with Nina Ostermann

Hi everyone, it´s Nina here on monday to start a new week full of beautiful inspiring projects....

In the last days we had in Germany a little bit of spring feeling and I decorated our house with lots of flowers. This inspired me to use also flowers of a page which are created with papers from the awesome Citrus Twist February Kit in combination with a rosette die. 

Every time I use this die I´m totally in LOVE with it and I´m asking myself why I don´t use it more often?! It make scrapbooking pages something special in just a few minutes.....

(All products are included in the kit, I only used some sequins and a half doilie from my stash...)

Whats about you?! Are you also in spring mood?!
Thank you for visiting the Citrus Twist blog today....
Nina

Handbook Layouts with Eve

Hello,

Today, i will show 2 pages, i did for the album of my son. It's a Handbook of his first Year.

Have a great week end :)

Inspired by frames with Jen Chapin

Hi there and happy Thursday! Hope your week is going well :) Today I'm sharing a layout that I made with the main scrapbook kit this month. I was totally inspired by the pack of October Afternoon chipboard frames and wanted to use as many as possible on this layout.

I layered my elements on the sheet of dictionary paper that was included in the kit, then added wood veneer, buttons, stitching and some vellum.

I hope you'll try this on a layout soon! Don't hoard those supplies, use them! Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great weekend!

Simple Strategies With Sandy

Welcome to another Monday instalment of Simple Strategies. Today's February Main Kit only layout is designed to feature lots of square format photos (perfect for instagram fans), lots of journaling (ideal for those who love story-telling) and, for anyone who enjoy stretching their kit supplies, only one piece of pattern paper.

 

 

Lately I've been interested in achieving various effects on my pages through pattern paper manipulation and this Printshop Criss Cross paper is a perfect candidate for experimentation. Using only skinny, little slivers of the paper allows me to get three different looks from this one paper. Nothing is wasted, I've even used the 0.5"inch label strip, turning the Studio Calico logo into an organic flourish pattern.

 

 

You can easily reproduce this look with little strips of pattern paper. However if, like me, you enjoy the subtle, depth effect of layering underneath your cardstock, you'll need a sharp penknife. Start by cutting one window from your cardstock and layering a generous amount of pattern paper underneath. Then cut an adjacent window, this time through two layers of paper, before layering the second pattern beneath. This method of working allows me to position windows where ever I like on the page without having to worry about how to secure the pattern underneath.

Hope everyone enjoys playing with their February Kits as much as I did !  

Saturday Inspiration With Evelyn

Hi everyone, Evelyn here today, sharing my first layout, using the February Main kit "Good Life". This time I wanna create a layout that pop up the photo and also pop up the title equaly! I use my pregnancy photo and print it 4 x 6 inchi. Big enough to make it equal with the thickers. So in this layout I divided two equal parts; right and left. The right one is for writing the title and the left part is for laying my photo.

To decorate the photo I use star dies the big and the small one and do the layering, I also use the wood veneers, button, the blue chipboard and cuty flair that you will find in Feb Main Kit.

Big title using thickers isn't enough for me, I need pretty little details about which can explain the photo it self. So I use CTK Clear Stamps, cut it as a banners and put it randomly at the top and the bottom of the layout. As a final touch I decorate it using pretty enamels dots.

 

Ok thats all for today, happy weekend to you and your family. See ya!

Tuesday Tutorial with Gina

Hi, Gina here today, sharing a technique for creating a unique photo border on your page, using a section of the lace found in the February Main Kit, and a few spray mists..

The brown paper bags from kit packaging come in handy for spraying between...I just placed a strip of lace between to bags and sprayed around where my photo was to go in alternating colours. This time I've used a turquoise, mustard (gold) and graphite (grey)..

It's okay to overlap a bit and once you're happy with the effect, add a few splatters of mist around the outside of the frame..

one the sides of the stencilled frame, I added a couple of strips of cloud washi tape and denim ribbon, which I first folded over a couple of times and stapled down..

the next step was to add some 12" hand cut strips of patterned paper down the left hand side of the page, and cut out the speech bubbles from the October Afternoon Daily Flash "Snapshots" paper

To finish, I've added some Daily Flash chip frames, stickers, alpha and exclusive flair, along with a bit of stamping with the main kit stamp set..

...how cute is the little arrow stamp?

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if you have any lace left over, you might consider using it as a stencil, and there's need to throw it out, it can be added to your next layout! You can even use the brown paper bags as well..I've cut out a section and added it behind the photos in this layout..

I've used just the main kit for this page..here are some more details..

Gina