Pocket Life with Olya

Hello, friends and happy Friday!

By the time this blog post goes live I will be on my way to Anaheim for CHA! *insert ten happy faces here!* Our Citrus Twist team will be bringing you lots of photo coverage from the trade show, so be sure to follow along here and on Instagram. :)
But let's get to January's Pocket Life pages! I have to say that this month was my most favorite kit ever. I adore Amy Tangerine's Stitched line and I loved coordinating it with our embellishments and exclusive papers. This year I'm trying out the 6x8 Pocket Life style and here's my 2015 title page.

Like I mentioned earlier, those papers are a dream. And puffy stickers are ever so squishy and cute. I almost hoarded them instead of actually using them. You know how it goes with pretty embellishments, right?

Here is part one of my January spread. I think that "Bright Happy You" card is perfect for the new year and all the exciting new joys and promises it brings.

This is a full spread, showing the back of the title page. I realized, after I took these photos, that my tiny staples are showing through the clear pockets, so I think I might add a little yellow heart embellishment there to keep them hidden.

And here is the part two of my January spread.

 Left hand side is all about the coffee. When I saw that tiny coffee sticker I instantly knew it was going to be 'featured' so-to-speak somewhere on a journaling card. I mean, look at it, it's adorable coffee cup puffy sticker!

And the right hand side, featuring lots of gold vellum.

Close ups of the pages for you.

And here are your (hand-drawn) sketches :)

Hope all have a wonderful, creative weekend!

Pocket Life with Olya

Hello, Olya here. Today I'm bringing you my pages using our December Pocket Life and embellishment kits. Shall we take a look?
This month I used a smaller 6x8 format for my PL because I wanted to focus on telling a story of our snowy trip to Cypress mountain, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Here's a close up of the left hand side. I used the puffy alphas to spell out Cypress Mountain for the title card and added a little sketch of the mountains :)

And here is the right hand side. I used the Citrus Twist exclusive 'little sprinkles of love' to journal about our little trip. I stamped the arrow from this month's stamp set on the journaling card and added a few embellishments on the photos.

Here is another spread about our ski trip. I absolutely loved the woodgrain paper and the hearts embellishments that were included in the PL kits. Oh, and those transparencies.. soo good.

Closer look at the left hand side page.

And here's the right hand side page. I adhered the polaroid-like chipboard frame directly onto the page protectors. I wanted my husband to be the main focus of the photo as well as the frame to unify the 4x6 photo that I split up into two 3x4s.

And this is my non-mountain-ski-trip spread of December PL. I wanted to make a grid of 2x2 squares to showcase the little December memories throughout them, as well as have fun with the amazing embellishments that were included in this month's kits.

Here's the left hand side page. Again loving those gold transparencies. *insert thumbs up emoji here*

And the right hand side page, which is a 6x8 page consisting of 2x2 little squares I mentioned earlier. Don't you love that exclusive wood veneer? It was pretty much the jump start of the grid idea, as well as those cute photo frames.

And that's all for today, folks. I hope you get to squeeze a little bit of some creative time this weekend among all the hustle and bustle of the last week before Christmas ;)

Pocket Life with Olya

Happy Friday! Olya here with my November Pocket Life and Pocket Life Embellishment kits pages. I'm always amazed with so many beautiful items in these kits, and the colors that coordinate so well together.
Now let's take a look at my week's spread, shall we?

Here is a close up of the left hand side page. That week was full of colorful leaves, foggy days, coffee dates and happy watercolors. I like how it's a variety of subjects that may seem too random to document yet everything just flows together thanks to all these kit's embellishments and cut files. 

I just adore those puffy stickers. And wood veneers always have a special place in my heart.

And here is the right hand side layout. The entire page is dedicated to a weekend trip to Whistler. We knew that we were moving at the end of that month so it was nice to take a break from packing and have a little getaway up to the mountains. I used the minimalist approach and focused on mainly photos telling the story. I did however use (almost) all the lovely embellishments to enhance that story telling :)

Again, I just can't get enough of all the embellishments in this month's kits. I mean, just look at that flair button alone!

I also made a little (5x7) insert because believe it or not I had more photos and postcards from the trip that I couldn't fit into a 12x12 page. Here are the front and back together. I used one of the 6x6 patterned papers and trimmed it to 5x6 and then "grew" it to a 5x7 by adding that trimmed inch of a scrap paper to the other side. (a little DIY for your weekend if you like :)
On the back of the patterned paper  I stamped the word magic from November's PL stamp. I tried to match the colors of the stamp ink to the colors of the creek water, which was truly magic to look at. 

And that's all for this week, friends. Thank you for stopping by and checking out my pages.
Have a wonderful and creative weekend!
xo

Pocket Life with Olya

Hello, dear Citrus Twist friends.

Today I'm sharing 3 spreads of my Pocket Life weeks with you, all using October PL kit and PL Embellishment kit. Ready? Let's have a look.
This is my week 38, from September 14th to 20th. I loved the colours in October PL kits. Everything just flowed so well together, so it was easy to pair up all the papers and embellishments for the pocket pages.

Here is a close up of the left hand side.

I particularly had lots of fun photos from the day my best friend and I hang out and took lots of silly photos together. I wanted to include lots of them and was running out of page pockets. So I decided to make a flip page, using another page protector pocket of the same size, that I trimmed, and a simple clear tape. I wasn't sure how it would turn out and whether the flip pocket would just keep flying out or not, but it actually turned out well and you can't even tell it's DIY :)

Open and close. Ta Da!

Here is the right hand side.
My sweet husband likes to leave little love notes for me, so beginning of the year I gave him some blank 3x4 Project Life cards, saying that there is no pressure for more love notes, but if the inspiration for love declaration strikes, he's welcome to channel it onto the PL cards, so I can just slip them in our album. And so he's been doing that ever since, unaware that his love notes will be photographed and displayed on all the social media outlets possible. Oh, well. That's the life you sign up for, when you marry a scrapbooker. :)

Here is my week 39, from September 21st to 27th.
Again, I had lots and lots of photos that I wanted to include that week, so I chose page protectors with lots of pockets in it.

Here is the left hand side.

And the right hand side.

Those craft dies in the October kit are to die for! (see what I did there?) I loved getting a little creative with them and adding the stitching effect by using a black pen and drawing tiny dashes.

And here is my weekly spread #3, Week 40, going from September 28th to October 4th.
Again, I used and abused all the lovely embellishments in the Pocket Life kits, to the point that I practically ran out. Oops :)What can I say? I loved them all that much.

Left hand side close up.
I knew that there was a reason I was hoarding September's PL 'happy moments' card. When my husband and I found our new dream apartment, I thought it was a perfect card to use for documenting how we were feeling after signing a lease.

And here is the right hand side of the week 40.
That week my two talented friends Caylee and Vanessa released their first collaboraton planner. As part of the presale they gave away a calender as a free printable. Once I saw it, I knew I had to use it in my spread. I added some watercolour under the word October to match the rest of the October kits colours.
By the way, that Autumn card is my absolute favourite PL card, probably in the history of ever. I posted a sneak peek of this layout on my Instagram and gotten quite a few positive comments on it as well.

And again, close up of the craft LOVE circle. I put another paper embellishment under the see-through letters, glued everything down to my photo, and used a black pen to write 'rainy days' around along the edge. I just love how it turned out. (okay, I'll stop with the puns :) )

And here is a close up of the title card, created with the wood veneer, quote card and some orange alphas.

And that's it for today. As always, we would love to see your PL pages, so be sure to upload them to our Facebook Page gallery.
Happy Friday and creative weekend ahead!
xo

What to do with your leftover Kits supplies

Hello, lovely creative peeps. Olya here *waves hand*

Ever have leftover supplies from your kits that you'd like to use but not sure how? Today I will show you how easy it is to make an art journal page using September Pocket Life leftovers.
I've created five 12"x12" pages using our September and Add-On kits and still had so many lovely goodies leftover that I wanted to use. Since art journaling is very hyped up right now, I wanted to show you how easy it is to make a page using nothing but the supplies you have left from your scrapbooking kits, some glue and a pen. Ready? Let's take a look!
Step One: gather your leftover kit supplies, glue, pen and a blank journal. (any blank journal will do).

If you're afraid of "ruining" the pretty notebooks you have, don't be. If you really really can't bring yourself to start on the first page, open it on the second or even fifth page. No stressing, no overthinking.

Step Two: pick any card stock paper and rip it in half or so. Glue it down. Do the same with some patterned paper. I usually use patterned papers from 6"x6" packs for my 4"x6" page pockets so I have a lot of 2"x6" trims from that.

Step Three: word stickers. I wanted my page to be sort of an inspirational advice so I picked the words from Shimelle's new line as well as Heidi Swapp's clear stickers that were almost a guidance kind of words. Step Four: non-words embellishments. I added some hearts and arrows stickers, and rub ons.

Final Step: Journaling. I decided to write down a little quote that I thought went nicely with the rest of the art journal page and the words on it. I also doodled around the word stickers, almost as if those were steps to take to achieve the happiness given in my quote.

And here is a complete art journal page, done with nothing but scrapbooking leftover supplies, pen and glue.

If you were hesitant about art journals before, I hope you're not anymore. It doesn't have to be complicated, heavy of emotional writing, full of paint and gesso or even actual journaling part. (though all those art journals are amazing too). It's just another way to express your creativity, however simple or intricate that may be. Remember there are no rules or judgements and no one has to see it but you. Unless, of course, you want to share your pages, then we would love to see your creations :)

Here's to more ways to use your scrapbooking stash and an upcoming weekend.
Cheers!

-Olya