3 To Inspire with Veera

It's time for this week's 3 To Inspire Challenge! Here are my three prompts for you:

1. Layer tags
2. Use elements from previous kits
3. Use a color that you haven't used a lot

For this layout, I wanted to challenge myself to use the gorgeous purple that was included in the June scrapbook kit. I really like that color but haven't really used that in my scrapbook layouts.

When I saw the die cuts 1, 2, 3 I knew I wanted to create a list. My original idea was to add journaling to this list but that didn't work as I hated how my handwriting looked. Tags to the rescue and I covered the journaling with the tags. Instead of writing my own journaling I took some old phrase stickers from previous CTK kit to act as my journaling.

Even though I wasn't brave enough to have handwritten journaling on my layout I encourage you to do so! I really like how handwritten journaling looks on layouts and I want to learn how to add that to my layouts more!

Now is your turn to use the prompts to create a project of your own.  Remember to share your creations on the Citrus Twist Kits Friends page on Facebook, or on social media (please tag @citrustwistkits) .   I look forward to see how you interpret the prompts in your pages.

-Veera

Scrapbooking a Page About a Best Friend

Good morning everyone!

It's Trina here today and I'm sharing a page about my best friend. My challenge to you today is to scrapbook a page about your best friend.

Karen and I met when we were in middle school. We knew each other at school (she was the new girl at school) and one day an adorable little stray kitten wandered in the open door of our math classroom. That kitten bonded us (we were both determined that between the two of us we could convince one of our parents to adopt it) and we've been best friends ever since.

I worked in my usual trim size: 6" x 8" so I can tuck this in my 2018 PL album. The page needed a little something when it was done so I drew lines, squiggles and journaled along the edges of my layout. (Try this! It is fun.)

I started the page off using a tiny bubbles stencil (this stencil will be in the Citrus Twist Shop for July) and used some of Vicki Boutin's yummy acrylics to add paint to my page. (You'll want to check out our July Mixed Media kit for some of Vicki's acrylics.)

I grabbed one of Maggie Holme's Flourish papers and fussy cut the scalloped paper then layered it with an exclusive piece of paper from our June Cypress Pocket Life kit.

Next I worked with the remnants of my Crate Paper Here & There Envelope paper from the June Cypress Scrapbooking kit, trimmed them down and randomly arranged them in layers. Instead of glueing the envelope paper down I lay a strip of Crate Paper Wild Heart pattern paper horizontally over the arranged layers and stitched it all down with one little line of stitching. This was an easy peasy way to attach a biggish grouping of layers.

Here is a close-up of that stitching (and you can see the stencil I used peeking out to the left side of my photo).

After I stitched down a Fuji Instax photo of my friend I added bits and bobs of ephemera all around the photo, tucking some bits behind, stapling some bits on and stitching down others. The end result was a mixed media look that I love.

I love the little vintage-looking gingham "tape strips" that are in the June Cypress PL kit. I stitched one down below my title.

Here is one last close-up that shows some of my embellishing.

And...my finished page.

I can't wait to see a layout or page of one of your best friends! Be sure to share yours in our Facebook Citrus Twist Kits Fan Page.

xo,
Trina

Sunday Sketch with Chantal

This week, our sketch is a 8.5x11 layout with an abundance of layers. Fellow creative team member Kelly Barron, is also joining me this week and sharing her take on our scrapbook sketch.

For my project, I opted for some neutral tones for my papers and added a pop of colour to it all, with the elements.

The elements used, are various items from the Scrapbook and Embellishment kits. I've always been a fan of mixing and matching various shades of green and yellow together.

I printed the speech bubble and whipped out my vintage typewriter to add a bit of text. I then adhered it to my page with some foam tape.

My favourite thing about this layout, is the globe. I really wanted to incorporate the rub-ons in the foreground instead of adding it somewhere behind everything else. To do that, I simply rubbed the globe onto a piece of scrap photo paper and fussy cut it out.

To complete it all, I added a little sewing to the arrows, stamped and dated my page.

Here is Kelly's take on today's scrapbook sketch;

I adapted this sketch to make it a full 12x12 layout. To create this page I used primarily the Happy Heart Add-On kit and bits and pieces from the Main and Pocket Life kits.

I fell in love with the colors in these papers and arranged them in rainbow order for a fun look. The stitching in black helps to bring the title and the black accents of the sticker together for a cohesive look on the layout.

I added a doily from my stash to add some softness to the photo. The texture and interest that doilies bring to a layout make them one of my favorite embellishments to use.

Now it's your turn! To play along with this weeks sketch and be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to the Citrus Twist Kits store, create a project inspired by this week's sketch and upload it to the CTK gallery with today's date (06/17) in the title.

Happy creating!!!

Sunday Sketch with Tazhiana!

Hi Citrus Twist Fam! It’s Sunday and I’m taking over Sunday Sketch this week. This sketch was super fun to interpret and I hope you guys have a go at it yourself!

I knew from the second I saw those tags on the Crate Paper Wild Heart cutapart sheet that I was going to use those tags for my layout. I went through the papers in the kit and cut out a few more tags in the same color family and then added watercolor in a rainbow pattern behind the tags to mess up the background a bit and add some interest to the page. I don’t sew well on my pages so I chose to forgo that step and went straight to embellishing. 

I chose the rotate the sketch a bit and put my photo and my title in the lower right corner instead of the upper left. I used the thickers included in the kit for my title and used some die cuts from the Noteworthy pack to embellish. With such a dynamic background and a large photo, I chose to keep the embellishing to a minimum to avoid covering everything else up. 

Finally, I made a cluster for the upper left corner with some of the die cuts as well as the stamp that was included in the kit. A couple of enamel dots across the page completed the layout.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it, and I hope you play along as well! 

Meet our June Guest Designer & Tuesday Tutorial with Tazhiana Gordon

We are so thrilled to share our June Guest Designer with you!  Tazhiana is an amazing artist that we've been admiring for some time and we're so excited to have her working with us this month!

Hi Citrus Twist Fam, and I am super stoked to be the guest designer this month! My name is Tazhiana Gordon and I hang out @preciselytazhi on Instagram - please come over and say hi! I’m 27 years old, and I’m currently juggling a full time job, nursing school, and being the best wife I can be to the most amazing man in the universe. In my free time, I enjoy playing with paper, making giant messes that never get cleaned up, telling stories and keeping memories. 

Q&A with Tazhiana

When did you start scrapbooking?

I started scrapbooking in 2016 - I discovered memory keeping by way of the snail community on instagram and I have never been more grateful for that! I didn’t know this was a thing but once I did, I jumped all the way down the rabbit hole.

What is something most people would not know about you?

 My Meyer-Briggs personality is ENFJ, and it is scarily accurate. i love asking people what their personality type is - I probably put more stock in it than I should but I really do believe it’s spot on!

What are three scrapbooking products you can’t live without?

Tombow permanent adhesive tape runner, a really sharp pair of fussy cutting scissors and my tiny attacher.

What do you love about the Cypress kit?

I love the mix of colors! I’m 100% over winter and I am so glad to be able to play with color and scrap bright photos again.

Finish this sentence - If you could see my scrapbooking space now..

You’d be surprised I can find anything! My husband calls is barely organized chaos and I’m constantly finding and losing and rediscovering things I forgot I had. My new favorite thing to do is go shopping in my craft space and make something with older products that need a liitle bit of love. 

On to Tutorial Tuesday - for this spread in my traveler’s notebook mini album, I decided to challenge myself to put a page together in 15 minutes. Sometimes, you want to be creative but there’s just not enough time in the day so I have been working on perfecting a quick and easy formula for a fun and impactful page that takes no time. The secret to it all - LAYERING! 

Adding a bunch of layers takes next to no time and makes a really simple layout look complex. When working with a kit, it’s even easier as all the papers coordinate and go together. First, I picked out a 3x4 journaling card that would work as a title for my page - saves time from fussing with alphabet stickers and stamping - and then used that card as my color palette. I grabbed four papers and glued my photo and the card down, then layered the papers around them.

The die-cut pack was chock full of embellishments so I picked a few of the ones that I loved the most and saved the rest for later.

Finally, I grabbed that blue and white striped paper to add some interest to the background, glued everything down, punched holes and called it good. I love the colors in this spread and how easy it was to put together!