Sunday Sketch with Suse

Hey gang! I'm with you for today's Sunday Sketch - hope you'll feel inspired to play along.

This time we've got a two photo layout where most of the action is on the right hand side of the page. I didn't have photos that were quite the right orientation, so mine's a little different, but here's what I came up with...

I couldn't squeeze my title in the right spot either, so a couple of small alterations were called for! But I love the end result so much: it really captures the 'children's party'-feel I was going for.

So now it's over to you! Play along and you could win a $5 gift certificate; all you need to do is to create a project based on this sketch and upload it to CTK Gallery by next Saturday (make sure you include the date of the sketch in the title). Hope you really have fun!

Hello Magic! Hello Simplicity!

Hello on Monday Everyone!

It's Mira Jurecka here to share the first day of January 2016 documented in my Pocket Album. I don't know about You, but for me that day was magical! We didn't have snow at the end of 2015 (this is winter and snow is must have here!) but on the first day of New Year we got A LOT of it! Like TONS! Everyone, absolutely everyone went for a walk on that day :) Including the three of us. It was actually the day, when our daughter saw the snow for the very first time in her life :) And during that walk I couldn't stop talking how lovey the aura is!

Today with this pocket page I would also like to share a very simple idea how You can work with the last bits and pieces from Your monthly kit. Each month if You effectively work with the kit You probably end up having a few stickers and embellishments that You don't know what to do with.
You might think: it's not enough for a layout or mini album, not even enough for a PL spread! This can be true, but not for everyone! :D
You can always use what's left to create very very very simple page and be happy about the results! Look what I did here:

As You see my work is really simple - only pictures and a couple of embellishments!
I filled every single pocket with one picture, printed a few words of journaling on the white card and used only a few embellishments to finish the page. It was made in 15 minutes, and You know what? I really like it's simplicity!

Once again let's see what's in here!

A few words created using Seven Paper Alphabet coming from February PL Kit, one stamp from the same kit (hello), "loving this" paper cut from the freebie sheet that You get with Your PL kit each and every month. And exactly two puffy stickers from February Sprinkles Kit. Additionally I have few tiny digital elements that I printed with my journaling. That's it!
Do I need more? What do You think?

You obviously don't need to kill each and every kit that You get using absolutely everything - if it works for You - fine. But if You have that need - remember that You can always create something beautiful - no matter how many elements You will add to Your page! And sometimes less is more :)

I hope You enjoyed my post today! Thank You for stopping by!
Be sure to leave a comment if You like it :)
And Have a fantastic week Guys!
Happy Monday!

Heart Punch, Three Ways

Now that you have all of those lovely photos from Valentines Day, I have a trick for you! I'm going to show you how to use one punch, three ways. You know I'm all about stretching a kit, and this is a great way to do that and incorporate a nice design at the same time.

So the first way is to use the punch as it was intended. See below, hearts punched and painted.

The second way is to utilize the negative pieces your punch left behind.. I trimmed those patterned papers into neat little squares around the punched shape. Then layered them onto a card. 

You can see it in the bottom right card as well. All you need is a little backing and you're set! Using these pieces gives the cards some nice dimension. Bonus!

The third way (and maybe even my new favorite way) is to use the negative as a stencil.

I just laid out a row of negatives and traced inside of them. Boom, mostly uniform sized hearts.
I wasn't worried about precision, but you could be precise with the stencil, no problem.

Easy, peasy, amiright? Guess I had hearts on the brain when I created these February projects! What kinds of things are you punching lately?

Elizabeth

Double Recipe Challenge with Emma & Tara

Hi everyone, it's Tara and Emma here today! We have a couple layouts to share as well as a double challenge! I asked Emma if she would like to do a joint post with me and she had a great idea of giving each other a recipe challenge! One of my favorite challenges here at CTK is 3 To Inspire, so this was a fun one to do together. Join us and try out our recipe challenge!
Instead of using the same recipe, we surprised each other and both had some great ideas! Emma definitely pushed me beyond what I normally do in my Pocket Life pages. I was so excited to take the challenge. Emma's prompts were to:

1. use stitching,
2. hand-cut letters,
3. and circles.

Stitching has been something I want to incorporate on my layouts, I just don't make the time to do so and since I don't have a sewing machine, I have to do it by hand. I have added stitching to maybe one layout, so this was a fun one! Hand cut letters are a fave of Emma's - one of her most recent layouts is so beautiful and inspiring! I haven't done any hand cut letters since high school or helping my kiddos with their science fair projects. The circles sounded like a lot of fun - until I realized I only own a 1 inch circle punch (yikes!!). I knew one way or another I would make it work and thanks to Emma I think this is my new favorite layout:

I had a hard time committing to which style of pocket page I wanted to go with. In the end, I really am happy with the final layout!

I LOVE the exclusive CTK patterned paper in this month's Pocket Life Kit! I used it to create the "Dream" cut out. I had grand plans to add a lot more stitching but I felt just a few pops here and there were perfect! I also re-purposed one of the 4x6 jounaling cards in the kit and made it a 3x4 card for my title. The puffy sticker on the letter "a" ties into the challenge too.

Since I don't own many circle punches, I used a hole punch to create tiny circles to add here and there, adding a little more color and circles.

I punched out one large circle and added another tiny circle and a cork piece from the kit. I even used a white gel pen to create "xx faux-stitching" on the teal circle.

I wanted to tie in the circle theme and the heart patterned paper was the perfect touch to my photo! I had so much fun working with Emma and being challenged in new ways. It's so great to try other techniques or work outside of my comfort zone to create a fresh and new layout.

Here is Emma's layout and her take on my recipe challenge for her. She did a fantastic job!

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I was super excited when Tara asked if I'd like to do a joint post with her this month - it's always fun to work on a post with someone else from the Design Team! I was even more excited when we came up with the idea to give each other a 3-part recipe challenge - I would give Tara hers and she would give me mine! I'm a big fan of any type of recipe challenge (like our 3 To Inspire weekly challenge!). I don't mind admitting I was a litttttle nervous about what my recipe would be and Tara did not disappoint, she gave me some awesome challenges - my criteria were to:

1. use my own handwriting,
2. incorporate either 3x4 sized photos or paper on my layout,
3. and use a bold/bright patterned paper for my background

If you're familiar with any of the pages I've made in the past you'll know #1 and #3 are my weaknesses! I can only think of a few times I've used my own handwriting (because it's so messy!) and I'm constantly using white cardstock on all my pages. I panicked for a few minutes then jumped straight into it - and can I just say, it was FUN to step outside my "norm"!

Here's the page I finished up with:

And my first thought when I look back at this is - the background paper - so much yellow! Haha, Although you'll notice I couldn't help but add a white border around the outside...had to include a little bit of my "norm" into the mix. This paper was one of my favourites from the kit and I had intended to use it differently but I'm kinda loving this page - it's different to my usual style and that's what I find so fun! I used the February Main and Add-on kits for this page (plus I picked a label from my stash).

I even included one of the embellishment's I created for yesterday's tutorial post!

As I mentioned, I had so much fun with Tara's challenge! As nervous as I was, I had a ball working with things that I normally wouldn't - it was like a breath of fresh air! If you can, pair up with a buddy (or group of buddies) and give each other your own recipe challenge - I promise you'll love it!

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Don't you think this challenge was super fun and easy too? We definitely thought so - we had such a blast, Emma and I would do it again in a heartbeat! We would love to see your take on either recipe or even a mash up of the two! Please upload your layout to the Gallery and/or share it on the Facebook Fan Page.

Thank you for stopping by and have a fab day!

Xxo,

Em & Tara

Tuesday Tutorial with Emma

Hi everyone!  Emma here to share a super easy tutorial for making your own embellishments!

This month's kits come with some super cut die-cuts, stickers and papers that are perfect for grouping together to make your own dimensional embellishments.  Some times when I don't have alot of time to put a page together I'll sit down and make these - gives me my crafty fix without involving a heap of time :)

 The beauty about making these is there are no rules and you're really only limited by your imagination and the amount of goodies you have onhand to use ;)

1 - First up you'll need some tools - I grabbed my punches, scissors and mini attacher.  Plus you'll need some double-sided tape and foam dots (to add some dimension!).

2 - Then you need to get all those bits and pieces you want to use - I've used some goodies from both the Main and Add-on kits :)

3 - Then pick your favourite papers and start punching and cutting shapes.  I went with circles (used punches) and cut banner shapes with my scissors.

4 - Now this is the fun part - rifle through all your goodies to find things that you love.  I like to group things together at this point.

5 - Start layering!   I don't stick anything down at this point so if I end up not liking something I can  easily take it away.  The adhesive pieces are a little tricky but I tend to just stick those to a clear ruler then lay that on top to see how it looks.

6 - Stick it all together!  Use that tape, staplers, sewing machine or whatever else takes your fancy to keep it all grouped together :)

Super easy right?!

I like leave these sitting in a bowl on my desk so when I'm making a page and need something a little extra, they're ready to go!

And because I still have a few of these left - if you would like a little happy mail with a few embellishments ready to go, just leave a comment below and I'll pick a random winner on Friday and send some of these your way!


Thanks, Em xo

Birthday layouts

Hi Guys!
Mira  here today with very simple idea of documenting changes in Your and Your family members life.
First of all - I love layouts with huge pictures! Don't You? There is something magical in them - I don't know what but I love it!
Whenever we celebrate birthdays in our house I tend to create big-picture layouts. And they go straight to my PL Album!
I promised myself that when my daughter will be growing up - year after year I will do the same: birthday layout with a few points of journaling telling the most important things about her!
Here's the first one:

So currently Ola is one year old, and even though she can't speak, she is a real babbler. She can talk for hours using this strange language of hers - and I admire that! She is also a wise guy and super cheerful girl with a million-dollar smile. She can sometimes be really nervous too. She loves eating and she's definitely a daddy's Girl! She makes our life beautiful and we looooove her to the moon and back :) In short - this is what my layout says.

I created this page with absolutely wonderful February Pocket Life "Stories" kit and Sprinkles kit from Citrus Twist Kits. I especially love that pinkish numbers from Sprinkles kit, that helped me with journaling! They are adorable and even though my layout is very simple they stand out from the first glance!

And for the title I used this amazing die-cut paper word "beautiful" by Heidi Swapp coming from PL Kit. Don't You just love this cute handwriting?

Do You think it is manageable to create layouts like that for every birthday in Your house? I really hope I can do it (keep Your fingers crossed for me, please)! It might be real fun to go through those pages after 18 years or so, don't You agree?

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great Thursday Guys!

Tuesday Tutorial With Our Guest Designer

Hello! Neela here, your guest designer for the month of February! When I looked at the colors of the February Main "Stories" Kit, I was immediately reminded of our parasailing trip in Big Island, Hawaii.  I pulled up the photo and I knew that I wanted it to be the focus of the layout, so it had to be a giant photo. That is where I started. I also knew that I wanted to use the cork shapes and do some stitching, so I got all of my supplies together.

I cut a white cardstock down to 9x12 inches as all my layouts from this trip are of that size. I poked holes and did some stitching at both ends of the layout. It is a simple backstitch. I used blue and yellow threads to go with the color scheme.

I wrote the word "ADVENTURE" for my title in Impact font in Silhouette Software and cut it out at the bottom of the photo.

Here is how it looks. I also liked what was left on the mat after cutting. Maybe I could use those letters for another project!

I then cut strips of the patterned paper from the kit.

Initially, I backed the title with these strips, but it made the title unreadable. Instead, I changed how I used the strips and added them at the top and bottom of the layout.  I knew that I wanted to make a visual triangle with the cork shapes. They were such a perfect accent for this page and exactly what the layout needed. I then printed out my journaling on a strip of white paper and glued everything together. For the final touch, I added some enamel stars and dots to the title and the page was done. I am really happy with how it came together. I went through a few design changes along the way, but that is a part of my creative process.  I am not scared to change along the way and that's what makes everything more fun! Here is the final layout:

 I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial today!

Neela

Sunday Sketch with Michelle

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by today to check out this week's Sunday Sketch Challenge!

This week the sketch features a single photo with lots of opportunities for layers and embellishments!

For my take on the sketch, I used both the February Main "Stories" Kit and Embellishment Kit. AND because I was feeling adventurous, I filmed my process for those of you who like to watch scrapbook layouts come together!  I've have included a video at the end of the post!

First though, here is my official take on this week's sketch:

As you can see, I took the sketch pretty literally and stuck to it pretty closely. The only difference is that chose to layer in a second piece of patterned paper (a 3x4 card cut from the Maggie Holmes Bloom cut apart paper) under the photo to add just a little bit of contrast to all the blues I had going on in the photo and papers. 

Now, it's your turn!  To play along with this week's Sunday Sketch Challenge, create a project based off of today's sketch, upload it to the gallery with the date of the challenge (2/7) in the title, and you will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store!

Now as promised, here is the video:

Looking forward to seeing what you all do!

Michelle

3 To Inspire with Suse

Hey everyone! I'm so happy to be back with you this month for another 3-to-Inspire challenge. 

To participate in this challenge all you need to do is make a project using my three prompts - it can be a layout or a Project Life spread, whichever you prefer. Once you're done, upload a piccie of your project to our gallery making sure that you include today's date (2/06) in the title.  If you're the lucky winner, you'll get a little treat from the CTK Store, so well worth playing along!

So here are my three prompts for your projects:

1. Use cut-out shapes from nature: butterflies, leaves, flowers, birds, etc. 

(You can use your cutting software or cut them by hand like me.)

2. Use stamped words as part of your background.

3. Mount your layout on a patterned paper 

(You can gut the middle as I did if you don't want to spare a whole sheet)

My layout was inspired by the gorgeous little butterfly that came on the cut-apart sheet in the February kit. It was just so pretty that I decided to use it as a template and cut a load more!

I layered up various papers, popping a bit of vellum in there too for that dreamy, subtle feel.

My journalling is tucked away on a tag tied with the pretty striped string that our kits come packaged with.

So now it's over to you: get out those nail scissors and enjoy a therapeutic half an hour of shape-snipping! Upload your work to our Citrus Twist Fan Page on Facebook, in our gallery, or on Instagram and don't forget to tag us, @citrustwistkits. Have fun, friends.