3 To Inspire with Anna

Hi dear friends!

Anna here with you today bringing you this week's 3-to-Inspire challenge. I really like this challenge (as well as the Sunday Sketch) it's just the perfect thing to get your crafty mojo on the road again or if you just want to try something new. This month's Life Crafted Kit, Gratitude and Add On Kit are amazing as always! Then add this gorgeous CTK cut file on top of that (a few of them subscribers exclusive) and you are home, lol! Lots of  happy colors, gorgeous designs and so versatile which make creating with it super easy. Let's have a look at the three happy prompts I've choosen.

1. Use layers, ie. under your photo  and/or layer your embellisments
2. Use a digital cut file, there's lot's of them in the CTK shop :) 
3. Use Vellum die cuts.

With these prompts (and a few more goodies) my 12x12 layout came up so easily and I had so much fun while creating.

Now it's your turn to dig into your kit's and play along with us in this challenge.

Here's what I came up with, enjoy!

Hope you have got some inspiration here today! Now it's your turn to dig into you scrappy things and start creating. I can't wait to see what you create using these three prompts. Don't forget to share with us on Instagram @citrustwistkits #citrustwistkits and/or our CTK Fan Page on Facebook.

Until next time! Anna xo

Pocket Life Challenge with Patricia

Hope this blog post finds all our CTK friends and fans doing well and enjoying some creating time for yourselves!  I wanted to stop in today to share a Pocket Life spread using one of the CTK Life Crafted Protector #2 with a 6x8 pocket page.  I love mixing these formats in my 6x8 album.  I feel like I have the best of both formats!  This project is my last of five projects using just the November Gratitude Life Crafted kit.  Leftovers always always inspire me...in this case to create layers in my pocket life page and hopefully give you a fresh perspective to creating in your pocket pages!

I used one of the 3x4 cards from the kit for the first pocket.  The pink strip at the bottom was a perfect spot to create some layers using one of the labels from the 4x6 card in the kit, the new "Weekish" stamp, and a puffy sticker from the kit.

Instead of using the sentiment on this card as is, I layered a die cut star and sticker from the kit over it.  Then using the 3x4 Typewriter Alpha stamp, I stamped the days of the week next to my typed journaling.

For the next 3x4 pocket, I used trimmed down pattern paper as the base, and then used a leftover piece of pattern paper to layer on top, then added a square photo, finishing it with a puffy sticker.

I really loved this butterfly from one of the 3x4 cards, but I decided to detail cut it from the card.  I also detail cut the square image from another 3x4 cards, then layered the square, a die cut transparent circle, and then the butterfly on top of a trimmed piece of 4x6 pattern paper.

For the two 3x4 pockets on the right, on the top pocket, I used a card as is, but added the alpha stickers from the kit to spell out 'full' with the 'u' being the image in the center.  'Full' also goes with the sentiment on this card.

For the last 3x4 pocket, I trimmed pattern paper from the kit, printed a smaller photo, and just stapled it with one of the die cuts from the kit that tied in with the pattern paper and my spread.

I have a combination of heavy, medium and light layers, and balanced them across this pocket page, along with colors and the patterns used.  Hope this gives you a fresh new perspective to take your kit leftovers, do some die cutting and start layering them with the kit embellishments.  This might be my new favorite pocket life!  

Sunday Sketch with Anna

Hi dear CTK friends! Anna here with you today to share this weeks Sunday Sketch. This is my favorite challenge. I love to kick start my layouts using a sketch, makes everything so much easier.

Well, let's have a look at this week's super inspiring sketch.

And here's what I came up with using the November Gratitude Life Crafted Kit as well as one of the colored cardstock from the November Add On Kit.

The original design is for a lettersize layout but I resized mine as a 12x12. Also I only have a four grid design instead of the original six. And do you know what, thats totaly fine to tweak your design when folowing a sketch. The sketch is just an idea and kind of a starting shot.
So no preasure, just create and have fun!

And there you have it! Now it's your turn and don't forget to share with us on CTK Fan Page and /or Instagram @citrustwistkits #citrustwistkits. We can't wait to see what magic you'll create.
Be sure to head over to the CTK shop and grab some goodies or maybe sign up for a subscription, you'll absolutely love it!

Until next time! Anna xo

"BeautiFALL" Life Crafted with Tina Stepanova

Hello CTK friends!

It's Tina here, and today I want to share with you a new Life Crafted project I made using the beautiful November "Gratitude" Kit.

I decided to combine documenting one of our recent hikes and gratitude journaling as this month's kit is perfect for both of these. So I started by decorating the photos of the first layout with some kind of title at the top using glitter alphabet stickers and a "time to unwind" puffy sticker. Next I trimmed a 3x4 journaling card to fit into the lower pocket of a page protector #3 and printed my journaling on it.

After that I cut out the quote from the turquoise journaling card and adhered its words to the butterfly card. And that's it, the first layout was finished.

On the back of the butterfly card I printed my gratitude journaling (I must say I did it before I adhered the quote I was telling you above). And then I added a cut apart purple label and a puffy sticker at the top of another photo of my family.

For the last page I chose a page protector #1, trimmed a piece of white cardstock to fit into it and created a fallen leaves pattern using die-cut vellum pieces from the kit. To add a little bit of dimension to the leaves I punched holes along the middle line of each leaf and hand stitched them with a mustard yellow thread. In the end I added a few chipboard pieces in the upper corner of the photo and created a title with glitter alphabet stickers.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Until next time!

XO,

Life Crafted with Patricia

Hello Lovely CTK Friends!  The seasons are changing and the holidays are upon us.  One thing that I love about the Citrus Twist Life Crafted kits is although they change, there is always a consistency with them.  There's a perfect touch of the season/theme.  Even though the colors and embellishments change, they not only work well with everyday life or a theme but also work really well with other Life Crafted kits.  They just flow.  I love that!  My 2019 Life Crafted album has some holes or empty spots I needed to fill in, and the November Gratitude Kit amazed me how well it worked!

This first empty spot, had a blank 5x8.25 page on the left and two 3x4 pockets on the right.  I loved that beige or tan pattern paper from the kit with writing all over it.  I decided to break it up to make it look like a collage on my page, so with a pencil, I traced lines diagonally to create a diamond pattern, then stitched with black thread over the lines.  Next, I trimmed it to use just parts of the pattern paper to build my background.  I used a larger diamond shape to trace cut out my photo to be the focal.

Then I used the transparent die cuts from the kit to use the Gratitude stamp set that comes with the kit using StazOn ink.  Adhered those as well as the leaves under and over my design.

Then I filled in with the other embellishments from the kit.

For the 2-3x4 pockets on the right, I used a card from the kit and stitched a rectangle in black thread.  I did this for two reasons...to repeat the stitching on the left and to create an area to type my journaling.  I then filled in with embellishments.

You can see my previous CTK project under this, and this is what I love about the flow of these Life Crafted kits...it just works so well with other LC kits.  For the bottom 3x4 pocket, I trimmed the 3x8 card that comes in the kit to use just that part I wanted.  It went perfectly with my project.  I just added a date stamp.

I had leftovers of the stitched pattern paper and it inspired me to use it on another spread, again filling in those gaps or empty spots in my album.  

This spread uses the backside of Protector #3.  That previous page, I had accidentally used the pocket upside down, but it worked!  And it still worked for this spread!  I trimmed a 4x6 card to add my journaling for the top pocket, then filled the bottom pocket with pattern paper trimmed down, and just added embellishments to frame my photo.

This spread uses all of the Life Crafted kit with the addition of the new Grateful For and Life Crafted stamp set.  Those florals!!  I used them to frame my pattern paper.  I used the "hello" sentiment from the Life Crafted stamp to stamp right across the layers of my background and pattern paper, then finished my title with embellishments from the kit.  That empty diamond spot was also a perfect spot for the kit diecuts!  Before I did my stamping, I did add a strip of the same pattern paper from the left to the edge of this page.

I added a small photo under this with some embellishments to finish it.

This last empty spot to fill, was an awkward size, and you could really see the previous CTK Life Crafted pages.  This time I added pattern papers from the Gratitude kit to work with the pattern papers from the previous kit/project.

I layered a strip of pattern paper over the older pattern paper on the left, placed my photo just enough to see where to add stamping from the Grateful For stamp set in inks to complement the pattern papers.  Then I typed my journaling on the 4x6 card with labels, trimmed and foamed adhered, adding a puffy embellishment to each one.

I added more embellishments that worked perfectly with my project.

That triangle pattern paper also set the design I wanted to repeat throughout this spread.  Using that triangle puffy sticker creates the repeating pattern, as well as the Triangular You Cut File available this month that I use here on the right.  I used the negative leftover cardstock from this cut file to blend blue ink onto my background, then adhered the cut file, trimmed, and adhered again and trimmed to cover the page.

Instead of using pattern paper to back the triangles, I created a paint pattern on white cardstock, let dry, then punched three different triangles out, to foam adhere on top of this design.  

Finished it with the chipboard embellishments and some black paint drops.

Loved being able to go back through my album and fill in stories using the Life Crafted Gratitude kit!  The first project uses just the kit and stamp, the second project uses the kit + Grateful For Stamp + Life Crafted Stamp, and the third project uses the kit + Grateful For Stamp + Triangular You Cut File.  Regardless of using just the kit or not, the kits are so well put together that they all just flow so well together.  Hope you enjoy reveal and are able to pick up this kit and few other items!  Happy creating!!