Tuesday Tutorial with Melanie

Hey crafty friends! Melanie back with another Tuesday Tutorial for you. I love all the bright colors of this month's 'Sunshine in my Soul' Kits and I thought it would be fun to create some colorful backgrounds without using a Silhouette! I used the honeycomb paper from the Scrapbook Kit and punched out lots of hearts in different colors.

To create my first layout I placed the hearts on my page sorted by colors, I love the rainbow look it creates.

I replaced some of the hearts by diecuts and pieces from the Embellishment Kit and the Scrapbook Kit in the same colors.

After I had decided where everything would go, I ran the layout through my sewing machine and stitched through the centre of every heart.

I framed my photo by using the cute heart frame, put it on fun foam to make it pop and placed it on the top of the page. I finished the layout off by using some of the cute enamel shapes and framing it by putting it on the striped paper, which repeats all the colors from the page. I really love the light look of the page.

For my second layout I placed the hearts in circles on my page and sewed through every circle.

In between the heart circles I used a stamp from the stampset which is included in the Pocket Life Kit to add some interest and contrast.

 I cut my photo into a circle, backed it on white paper and again used some foam adhesive to make it stand out. I placed the photo in the middle of my page.

I love all the craft related embellishments from the Whimsical Collection in this month's Kits and I used a picture of an old cake stand which belonged to my grandma which I use to store some of my inks.

I made a cluster of embellishments on the top left on the page and on the bottom right to create a diagonal.

I finished the layout off by adding some black splatters and also framed it to give it a little more contrast.

And because I still had some hearts left I also created a quick rainbow- heart card.

I hope, I inspired you to try this technique, you could use any shape and it would also look great on a black background or you could use white shapes on a colorful paper. Anyways, have fun creating and don't forget to share your work on instagram using the hashtag #citrustwistkits and in our Facebook Group so we can see your creations.

Happy crafting, Melanie

Customized Embellishments

Hey crafty friends, Melanie here with a fall layout today.
Autumn is my favorite season, I love everything about it I am taking a lot of pictures at this time of the year. You can imagine how excited I was about using the 'Falling' cut file from the shop this month. I cut it out of white cardstock with my silhouette with some additional leaves.
I placed the cut file on the beautiful paper from the Scrapbook Kit, which makes such a nice background for my page.

I colored the leaves with the Pink Fresh Studio water colors (available in the shop) so they would go with the  colors of the paper.

I placed my photo in the middle of the page and layered it with some papers from the Scrapbook Kit and some of the cutaparts. I also tucked in a flower embellishment and white leaves for more interest.

I placed the leaves all over the page on a slight diagonal, like they had fallen down, using some foam adhesive for more dimension.

For some contrast and to complete my title (this song always reminds me of my granny), I stamped the word 'leaves' in black ink making it a little crooked, so that it looks like fallen leaves. I used the Griffin Alphabet, which is gorgeous, love me a serif font! And look how perfectly it goes with the cut file!

I really love, how the page turned out and how my leaves look! I hope, I inspired you to make matching embellishments for your project. When you don't have a Silhouette, you can always cut out some leaves by hand or use any other shape for this technique. 

Don't forget to share what you created in our Facebook Group and on Instagram using the hashtag #citrustwistkits so we can find your work!

Happy crafting, Melanie

Sunday Sketch with Melanie

Hello crafty friends, Melanie here with another Sunday Sketch. This week's sketch is so fun, I just love it! Let's have a look:

And here's what I came up with. This layout is all about a wonderful evening I spent with a friend of mine watching Mama Mia. It was the sing along version and it was so fun singing Abba songs and watching the movie. This month's Kits are full of great patterns and colors, I love all the purples and the orange. One of my favorites this month are the wood veneer pieces, they are so gorgeous!

The  notebook stripes were perfect for this Layout and I layered them with some other matching  papers from the Scrapbook and Add On Kit. 

I also love the phrase stickers from the Embellishment Kit which go so great with the theme of my layout.

I used the awesome exclusive wood veneer words to create my title and added some of the cute wooden hearts for even more texture.

I used a black pen to create faux stitches and added some of the triangles on top of it with some foam adhesive, just as the sketch suggests.

I finished it off with some black splatters like I almost always do! This layout came together so quickly and I am happy to have this story documented. Now I can't wait to see what you are creating based on this sketch, so go to your craft room, make something pretty and share your work in our Facebook Group  or on Instagram and use the hashtag #citrustwistkits so we can see your creations!

Happy crafting,

Melanie 

In My Studio - Album Storage

Hi CTK friends!  This month the Scrapbook Team are sharing some ideas on how they store one of our most important items - all our albums :)

Hi sweet friends!

I keep my albums along with some other scrappy stuff as cardstock and other goodies in my IKEA Kallax shelf unit which is placed in front of my desk. Since I haven't got enough albums for ALLLLL of my layouts I also store some of my pages with page protectors in boxes that fits in my Kallax shelf.

I actually store all my albums in an old kitchen hutch that we painted white.  My little 6x8 albums are the perfect size for the shelves.  The hutch is just tucked behind the door as you enter my room (also holds my mini-albums and alpha baskets).

All my layouts are filed away in albums by year (of photo) and I've just typed up some very plain looking labels for the spines.  I'd say that 90% of my layouts are about my son or niece so I just mix them together (rather than split them up per person) and I've stuck with black cloth albums for consistency.  While I wait for more albums to arrive (they are so hard to get over here!) I just pop them into the plastic sleeves and sit them in a clear tray in my shelving unit.  So they are still easy to flip through if anyone wants to look at what I've created! :)

I love the IKEA Kallax cubes for most scrapbooking storage. I have some knock-off Target brand cubes too, which is where I store the albums I have. I’m going to let you in on a little secret though...the majority of the scrapbook layouts don’t hold residence in my albums. See that stack of Citrus Twist Kits boxes next to my albums? Yep, that’s where most of my layouts live. Maybe one day I’ll buy more albums and be able to empty those boxes. But for now, that’s where they’ll stay. 

I am keeping my larger albums, mostly 12x12 or 6x8 in an Ikea  shelf.

My smaller, handmade minis are put away in Boxes, which fit in the Ikea shelves perfectly. I can grab them out whenever I feel like looking at them.

Since I’ve started making Traveler’s Notebooks this year, I bought some covers to fit them in and they look so pretty on the shelf.

Hi there!  Living in an apartment and having to share my workspace with the family means that everything has to have a place at all times.   We opted to transform our sofa table (Kallax Unit from Ikea) to storage/display furniture, so I use empty cabinet space to store my most recent filled scrapbook albums, layouts (in their plastic sleeves) and TN inserts.  Once the album gets filled, it moves to the bookcase in the office/den space of our apartment, so that anyone can access them at all times.

Hello lovelies, Neftali with you, and welcome back to another happy section of my crafty space! Today I am sharing how I store my albums. And well, I can’t say that I’ve got it all completely figured out for all of my albums, but here is what I’ve got so far. At the moment I keep all of my 6x8 mini albums, planners, notebooks, Travelers Notebooks, and Mini Albums in this 3x3 cubbie shelf unit. On top of it sits our television, since my scrappy space is shared in our tiny living room space. I like to keep my albums separated by size for the most part, but I also store them by type: TN’s together, Mini Albums together (in a wire basket), 6x8’s together, as well as planners and notebooks together. It’s pretty simple! 

But where are my 12x12 albums?? You might be asking yourself that question and, well, I have a simple answer. I don’t have any 12x12 albums! As crazy as that might sound, I have opted to keep my 12x12 and 8 1/2 x 11 layouts in plastic Iris containers until we move to a bigger home where I can buy a beautiful display storage system for those larger books. So, yes, I do have a nice growing stack of filled up iris boxes under my desk, but I’m happy with that at the moment. As far as album storage goes, this is how I opt to store mine considering the space limitations in my home. I hope you find some of these ideas useful for your small spaces. Thanks for visiting today!