Be prepared for December - Tuesday tutorial

Hello Everyone!

It's Mira and in today's post I would like to talk a bit about being prepared for December. It's almost here! Yay! Aren't You excited? It's the best time of the year and most of us just can't wait to start creating everyday magic plus capturing and documenting it in our albums.

December album can be sometimes overwhelming, so today's Tuesday Tutorial edition will be focused on some tips that I believe can help You start the album and actually finish it!

So, how can we be prepared for December-album journey?

1. Create a little space where You can put Your selection of December supplies and stick with this selection for the whole month

Or at least try :) By choosing things in advance, You can avoid walking through all of Your supplies later. It'll keep You sane and save Your time!

You can for example choose the goodies from Your own stash based on a specific color scheme - this is exactly what I've been doing for the last four years!

I especially love using things from previous CTK kits in my DD album, and this is my second year with white and gold tones as a dominant. So for a few last months I've been selecting most of the gold and wood elements from the kits and put them aside. This year I will probably add some red and turquoise accents here and there (oh so lovely Snow & Cocoa!).

Another way to collect stuff for Your Special December Box can be just by ordering a few December kits from Citrus Twist Kits, which I believe You already did, and stick with what's inside the packages! This will make Your creating process a lot lot easier!

2. Prepare foundation pages

You can have the number cards/pages ready in November, and I promise - nobody will call You crazy (at least nobody from the scrapbooking world). Place them in Your album and change their order later with absolutely no guilty feelings. Also if it helps, try to think about the topics that You would like to cover in Your album and when. Maybe planning what You'll be doing on weekends could help?

3. Prepare some embellishment clusters

Combining different elements and sticking them together can be real fun. It is also quite relaxing activity! Especially when You want to do something nice with paper and scissors, but You don't have pictures to work with.
When You'll have Your pictures printed in December, You'll just add these and voila! No mess involved!

4. Keep it simple 

As simple as possible.
Let's be honest. During December, there's not much time for paper projects. There are many other things to do. For example baking ginger-bread house or... skating (my favorite winter activity!). Or cuddles! It's so much better to spend our time with people that we love, than alone... so maybe trying this new technique that You've been wanting to try for a very long time, would not be the best idea now? Just think about it, and don't expect too much from Yourself. And You'll definitely manage to finish Your album. Or maybe all family members can help with a few pages? Maybe it will turn into Your family little tradition?

5. Have fun! Always have fun!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope this post will keep You motivated and at the end of December You will be happy to share Your December Album with us!

Have a fantastic month full of magic!

Sunday Sketch With Evelyn PY

It's me Evelyn back with Sunday Sketch. This is the sketch that you can play with

 This is how I play with the sketch. This is my final layout according to the sketch

I did change some in my final layout and that is okay you can do it to! Doesn't have to stick to the sketch 100% but you still have choice to make something lil bit different but still look the same with the plan.

I still use two photos even they are not square. To make my layout have some movement I tilt one of the photo. I created A4 layout so this 12x12 sketch still can be use on my layout. Instead of using big tittle at the top area, I use small chipboard the red circle one as my small tittle and move the big tittle after the photo using thickers. Again for the movement I tilt the pattern photo after the vintage paper.

Here are the details of my layout:

To play along with this week's sketch challenge, create a layout inspired by the sketch, upload it to the CTK Gallery with today's date (10/30) in the title, and you will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store!

Sunday Sketch with Veera

Happy Sunday, it's Veera here today to share this week's Sunday Sketch. I love working with sketches as the sketches can help you step away from your go-to designs and try something new!

I followed the sketch pretty closely, just turned it over. I really loved the diagonal line on the sketch!

For this layout I used October's Waverly Scrapbook kit. I loved the soft tones as they were perfect for this layout.

Now it's your turn! To play along with this week's sketch challenge, create a layout inspired by the sketch, upload it to the CTK Gallery with today's date (10/23) in the title, and you will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store!

3 to Inspire with Claudia

Good morning! This week I'm hosting the 3 to inspire weekly challenge and I'm so excited to be here with you today. This is my first post since joining the team and I can't wait to share more of my work with you.

Here are the 3 prompts for this week:
1. Use a black and white photo
2. Get creative with the Pinkfresh Studio Indigo Hills Ephemera
3. Use at least 2 strips of patterned paper with torn edges

The first thing I did was decide which papers I wanted to use for the strips at the top. I decided on that gorgeous bird paper and the wooden one to create a little bit of balance. When it comes to tearing up the edges; anything goes! There's no right or wrong way to do this so tear away! If you want, you could fold up the edges so the other side of the paper is visible in a subtle way.

I personally really love using black and white photos because it makes it so much easier to find colors that match (pretty much all colors). 

I love the Pinkfresh Studio Indigo Hills Ephemera that came in the Main kit this month so I wanted to try and use up as many of them as I could. Most of the time I just select a few bits and pieces that go with my layout but this time I actually pulled out the ephemera pieces first, decided on their placement, and then picked out my photo and everything else.

 

The ephemera pieces are the main 'feature' on this layout, but I needed something to fill in the empty spaces. These exclusive puffy stickers were perfect to do just that; they are also a great way to add a pop of a certain color to your layout. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing this layout and that you will feel inspired to play along this week. Use the three prompts to create your own projects and share them with us here in the gallery and/or our Facebook Forum. You can share them on Instagram too! Don't forget to tag @citrustwistkits and hashtag #citrustwistkits #ctk3toinspire.

xo Claudia

Feeling autumnal with Suse

Hey, sweet friends! Today I'm getting in an autumnal mood with a bit of a 'go to' layout design of mine: one featuring lots of pretty hand-cut leaves, falling fairly randomly on my page.

I'll be honest with you: it took me three attempts to get this background looking how I wanted it! Those mixed media ladies make it look so easy, don't they? 

I wanted to use modelling paste over my leaf templates, then brush on subtle washes of colour, before adding lots of splatters. What I found tough was knowing when to stop and with the first two sodden attempts, I definitely got too carried away!

I wanted my leaves to feel as if they were among the ones being thrown up in the air by Kitty in the photo... I'm not sure I achieved it, but I do love the relaxed, haphazard feel of all the layers. 

And there were plenty of beautiful patterns and textures in the October 'Waverly' kit to get really stuck in with! I do love the extra details in our kits like the buttons and the beautiful trim.

My final cute touch was this little bird that I fussy-cut from the Maggie Holmes Gather 'Kindred' paper - isn't it sweet, sitting there, turned away from all the action?

I'd really recommend having a play with shapes inspired by nature. Oak leaves have a lovely shape too, and there are all sorts of flower shapes that can look lovely treated in this random, layered way. 

It's a look that really is hard to get wrong, because nature gets it so right in the first place. Happy scrapping, gang!

Wendy Morris-Saponaro | Stamping Simplicity and Watercolor Dreams

Hello all and Happy Monday!  Wendy here to share up some simple stamping and watercolor fun.  Let's kick start the week with a bit of watercolor and stamping.  I love all things watercolor and lately I've committed to getting back into my artistic flow along with a new watercolor set in hand, I'm gonna make it happen.  Investing in a nice palette of watercolors is all worth it for colors that are vivid, vibrant, and crisp.

My 9"x12" layout, "Life is Lovely", was created using the October 2016 kit(s) and the stamp set from the October 2016 Scrapbook Main kit.

My husband, Vincenzo, and I recently went to Europe last month for 2+ weeks to visit family.  One of my sister-in-laws lives on the beautiful island, Isola d'Elba (founded by Napoleon) in Italy.  It was the quite literally the island of dreams. The type of island where there is not a bridge and you put your car on a boat to travel one hour to the island.  Yeah, epic.

I wanted to simply capture the beauty of the memory with an airy watercolor touch and stamped words or phrases to transpire my emotion at that time.  I love it when a kit has so many elements (i.e. diecuts, phrases, cork shapes, etc) that flow so well together in creating a magical feel to my layout.

I added some floral stems and sprigs from the Pinkfresh Indigo Hills puffy stickers (October 2016 Pocket Life Kit) and coordinating diecut shapes (October 2016 Main Kit).  Also, the stamped floral stems from the CTK exclusive stamp set (October 2016 Main Kit) were a nice touch that matched perfectly.

Then, as a finishing touch, I added some handmade 'enamel dots' using the Nuvo Crystal Drops (Neptune).  Those drops are addicting!

Hope I inspired you to grab your watercolors and stamps for some simple fun!

Wendy

Let's get digital - October's edition with Lilith and Mira

Hello,
I love You so!

Do You have a person that You love more than words can describe? You no longer need words to express that! You can use pictures, combine them with October Citrus Twist Kits (both, Scrapbook and Pocket Life kits) and the freebie cutting file* that we prepared for today's edition of Let's Get Digital and You are ready to create some magic!
After that, please, don't forget to share Your projects with Citrus Twist Kits fans! :)

Ok so, here's the file that we have for You today:

And here are two layouts and a pocket page that Lilith and Mira created using the file:

And a few details:

Are You ready to create something now?

We hope that You enjoyed this little inspiration and You're encouraged to create! Happy scrappin' Folks!

*Please, find the freebie on CTK Facebook Fan Page

Sunday Sketch

Hi friends-Laureen back with you today to share my take on this week's Sunday Sketch using the awesome October "Waverly" Scrapbook Kit!  Here's a look at the sketch:

The gorgeous sketch  immediately made me want to create.  I used one of the Maggie Holmes  Gather papers, the one with the wood grain, and created a ton of layers behind my photo.

For added detail, I fussy cut two birds out of the Gather paper and some leaves from the floral patterned paper.  The stamp set that comes with the kit is just so cute-it includes two branches-one solid and one outline stamp.

The Thickers that come in the kit are just divine-the gold dipped look is perfect and the pink matches the pink bits from Indigo Hills and the pink tones from Gather perfectly!  I created my title by combining an ephemera piece from Indigo Hills and the letters from Crate Paper. 

I knew I wanted to stamp them scattered around my page for added detail and used a brown ink to match the color of the paper.  The embellishing came together rather quickly-the little pink acrylic stars and the cork stars made the job pretty easy!

I used one of the little bags that the embellishments came in and put a tag inside and adhered it underneath all my paper layers. This way you can have some hidden journaling.  I personally don't journal on my pages and use this method just for added interest-plus I really wanted to use the blue Baker's Twine the kit was packaged with!

That's it for my second post. I truly hope you enjoyed it and had fun reading!  Now, it's your turn.  To play along with this week's Sketch Challenge,  create a layout based off of today's post, upload it to the CTK Gallery with today's date (10/9) in the title, and you will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store!

Have a great day,
Laureen

3 to inspire with Brenda

Good Morning!

Today I am bringing you the 3 to inspire for this week.  I am keeping this one pretty simple even though I filled almost all of my page.  Although that is not my usual style, it was really fun.

Here is my page.

Your instructions for this 3 to inspire are as follows:

1. Use 3 patterned papers.
2. Fill 3/4 of your page with your papers and embellishments.
3. Use 3 different washi tapes somewhere on your page.  (I put mine together but you don't have to.)


There you have it.  I used 3's in all my instructions completely on accident but I think that ended up being pretty fun.

Now its your turn!  Use the three prompts to create your own projects and share them with us in the CTK Gallery and/or on our Facebook Fan Page for a chance to win. Don't forget to add today's date in your title.
You can also upload to Instagram and tag us @citrustwistkits.

Tuesday Tutorial

Hello! Super happy to be here today to share my little trick for adding journaling on the occasions I don't have the space on my layout to do so. 

Seventy-five percent of the time I journal directly on my layout. If I don't it's because I either have already written enough on an adjacent page or, like on this layout, I have a busy background and know that my writing will be too hard to see. If the latter is the case, my solution is pretty simple: Make a hidden pocket and add a tag! Using the beautiful October "Waverly" Scrapbook and Embellishment Kits, I am going to show you just how easy this is!

I knew right away after picking the really great woodgrain patterned paper as my background that my journaling, which I do with a fine pen, would get lost on the busy pattern. With this thought in mind, I worked on my layout keeping an eye out for a good hiding spot for my tag. The design of my layout actually came from one of our Sunday Sketch Challenges from last month; I had seen the sketch and layout done by fellow designer Emma, and I just had to give it a go myself. With that being said, the obvious place for the tag was under the polka dot patterned paper and to do this I glued down three edges of the paper, leaving the right side open. To finish off the pocket and add a little bit of extra detail I stitched around the opening. This also helped to make the pocket more snug, so the tag would not fall out.

My final step in the process was to "lock" down my stitching. I very rarely will do this with the actual sewing machine since the back stitching would not look as neat as I would like. Instead, I placed some of the washi tape from the kit over the ends of my stitching lines. This will keep my stitching from unraveling. Here's the final project:

Wishing you all a fantastic day!

Michelle