Sunday Sketch with Suse

Hey gang, Suse with you today for today's Sunday Sketch Challenge. I hope you're going to enjoy this one... it's truly simple and there is a *lot* of white space for you to play with - or leave completely clean as I have!

So let's start with our sketch: a very simple grid design of layered embellished squares...

My plan for this page was to make a note of my New Year's resolutions and say 'hi' to 2017 officially!

 The fresh yellows, gentle blues and hot pinks in the January kits really helped to contribute to the positive vibe I wanted for my page.

Keeping your photo loosely the same size as the other squares in the grid helps to unify things visually. If your image features colours that don't quite match your scheme, just pop it into black and white for a crisp, fresh look.

My journalling features bullet-points made by stamping cute little star shapes from the stamp set, but you could use enamel dots or small stickers instead. 

Think about playing around with height too: popping foam pads behind certain areas to make them really stand out can look lovely. I couldn't resist using this hot pink telephone from Kim Watson's gorgeous new line. 

And if you're uncomfortable with quite so much white on your page, you could consider adding a loose watercolour wash or lots of splatters to add extra interest. Some white hand-stitching - hearts or stars perhaps - could look fab too.

I really hope you play along with this challenge today! All you need to do is create a layout inspired by my sketch then upload it to the CTK gallery with today's date in the title and you will be in with a chance to win a $5 gift certificate to spend in the CTK store. Have fun, gang!

3 to Inspire with Suse

Hey friends, Suse with you today for another fun 3 to Inspire challenge. Today I'm making a super-pretty wintry birthday layout in cool pastels and rose golds.

When every single paper in the kit is as gorgeous as these and I can't choose which ones I want to use, a cheeky trick of mine is to use small pieces of them all! 

I layer them up - either in neat patchwork squares, or in roughly torn sections as here - then pop them behind my page before tearing the front page away to reveal all the prettiness. 

So there's our first prompt for today's challenge: include a layered panel of your favourite papers somewhere on your page. You might like to stitch along the edge too, for extra interest.

I just adore the look of butterflies on my pages: they never fail to give a really beautiful look, even when used singly like this stunning golden one. 

I love to wrap their 'bodies' in thread or attach other embellishments or fabrics for extra interest. Balling up thread behind them can look gorgeous too. 

So our second prompt today is to use at least one butterfly on your page. If you don't have any die-cuts, it's very simple to download and trace an outline onto your favourite papers, then fussy-cut them out. 

You might like them to 'fly' across your page or just use one or two to give focus to your embellishment clusters.

My third prompt for this challenge is a nice easy one and it's one I do all the time as I love the clean look it gives: pop your journalling on a tag tucked behind your photo and use a simple stamp to give it a title. 

Now it's over to you! Remember to make sure to share your work with us here in the gallery and/or our Facebook Forum so we can all enjoy each others' creations!

  

Here's a reminder of our three prompts:

1. Include a layered panel of papers somewhere on your page

2. Add at least one butterfly

3. Journal on a stamped tag

I hope you have loads of fun! 

Sunday Sketch with Suse

Hey gang! Suse Fish with you today for our Sunday Sketch challenge. Let's head straight to the sketch...

It's a fab one, isn't it? I loved the challenge of using three identically-sized shots on one page. I'm normally a 'one square photo per page'-girl, so to use three made for a completely different look for me. 

I used the opportunity to make a page about our kittens: I have oodles of photos of them doing cute, wonderful things, so to use three on one page really helped tell their story. 

I couldn't resist making my photo 'stack' slightly quirky though... I can never have things too lined up and neat!

I just adore these Amy Tangerine words, don't you? They make the most gorgeous titles, especially against a pretty, lightly patterned background. I couldn't choose between 'crazy' and 'beautiful' as the kittens are very much both, so I decided to combine both words!

To play along with this week's challenge, create a layout inspired by the sketch, upload it to the Citrus Twist Kits Gallery with today's date (11/20) in the title, and you might win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store. Have lots of fun!

Tuesday Tutorial with Suse

Hi gang! Welcome to this week's Tuesday Tutorial. Today I'm going to show you how to make a dimensional framed layout that would make a lovely Christmas present using the gorgeous November Emerson kit.

Once I'd bought my box frame (mine was £3.50 from Ikea) I started by finding a photo of Nanny's boy and her Granddaughter. 

I loved this shot of them both laughing and knew the 'smiles' title from the Amy Tangerine 'Oh Happy Life' Wild set would work beautifully with it.

I picked out papers that I knew would look pretty in Nanny's house: she loves gentle tones, so this peachy-coloured heart paper (Magical from the Gather collection by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper) was perfect. 

The thing I love about working with black and white photos is, you can go in pretty much any direction when it comes to paper choices!

Next, I added a little background interest and movement with white acrylic paint and some gold splatters.

I love the exclusive stamp sets that come with each kit: they always seem to contain just the right phrases to really add that extra something to my projects.

Once I'd stuck my main cluster into place, it was time for my favourite bit: embellishing! And of course, with a frame this deep, I could really go to town with the foam pads. 

I stuck to a gentle palette of peach and gold, with tiny pops of teal and black, aiming for a nice classy result. 

A fun after-thought was adding a few extra embellishments to the glass itself. I love the super-dimensional look it gives!

I'm so happy with the result: a beautifully original present for not many pennies, but a whole lot of heart!

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!

Talking colour with Suse

Hey friends! So happy to be back with you today. I thought we might have a little chat about colour... do you have your favourites that you always gravitate towards? I certainly do! A *lot* of my layouts feature my very favourite colours, pink and mint.

But for this layout, I wanted more 'pop' than pastel... so here are a few of my tips for getting a really fresh, zingy look on your page.

I love papers like this original Citrus Twist Kits design: it's fresh and bright, but has those gorgeous graphic elements positioned in just the right places to really help frame your cluster. So from the word go, there's colourful interest happening in the background without it overwhelming anything.

My next tip would be to be a tiny bit braver and take a side-step away from your regular favourites. The bubblegum pink of her t-shirt looks delightful next to that bright hit of canary yellow; the hot pink title really zings on it's jade background. And I love how the turquoise flair works next to that yellow heart. 

We've even got bright red in there with the strawberry design on her top... but to me, the colours don't clash. They just pop away next to each other quite happily!

I've not used them on this layout, but other accent colours that work well alongside our girly favourites include orange, periwinkle blue and lime green. And of course: black and white!

My final tip for using bright colours is to keep the colour pops restrained. In the same way that a pair of red and turquoise cushions look awesome on a plain white sofa, make sure you're leaving plenty of white space, both to allow your image to breathe and to allow your eye to rest as it roams the page.

Thank you so much for joining me today: I'd love to hear your tips on how you use colour a little more bravely!

Feeling feline with Suse

Sorry about the title of this post, girls... but take a peek at my layout and you'll see why I chose 'feeling feline'! 

My little girl (Kitty: this is going to get confusing) has one dressing up costume that has out-lived numerous princess dresses and that's her velvet cat suit. Each time she's out-grown it, we've had to add extra trim to the hem of the legs - she just can't bear to part with it!

So when I saw this Crate Paper Cute Girl paper in our August kit, I just knew I had to document the story of her beloved cat costume.

Is it just me, or is this whole Cute Girl line just scrumptious?

I went a bit crazy with this embellishment cluster, but I do love the end result: all those fresh, zingy colours... it's the thing I love most about our Citrus Twist kits.

These chipboard titles from Dear Lizzy are just so strong, aren't they? I sometimes try and make my own titles in this sort of style by hand-painting words, but they never, ever look this good.

A favourite trick of mine is to tuck my journalling away on a tag in a glassine bag behind my photo... it keeps your thoughts a little bit more private, but also means you don't worry about spoiling your page with bad handwriting (I do envy those girls with lovely, loose handwriting, don't you?) 

As much as I love my white backgrounds for the fresh feel they give, I'd really recommend trying to use a full sheet of a fresh print like this one as your background - it gives your page a different - perhaps more 'finished' - feel. Have great days, friends!

3 to inspire with Suse

Happy Saturday, friends! Are you ready for another fun 3 to Inspire challenge today? I do hope so! 

This layout tells the story of me feeling a bit emotionally wobbly - no change there, ha ha! Did you catch the lovely Ali Edwards on the Paperclipping Roundtable podcast last week, talking about scrapbooking about her anxiety? 

I thought it was so refreshing and inspiring, that it made me want to make a 'real' layout - one that talked about my feelings.

I've tucked my journalling on a tag in one of the kit's glassine bags, so it's a little bit private when it's in my album.

I love to 'stack up' embellishments as I did on this cute Dear Lizzy camera... it makes an area look really visually interesting, doesn't it? I also adore the little phrase stickers by Pretty Little Studio - they have such lovely messages on them and in such pretty colours too. 

So here are this week's three prompts for your project:

1. Make a project that documents something emotions-related

2. Include an embellishment 'stack'

3. Use sequins alongside some splatters

Do have fun! When you're done, if you pop your project in our gallery or our Facebook Forum, you could win some lovely happy mail. Don't forget to label it with today's date, 08/13 and make sure you've entered by the 20th of August. You can also enter on Instagram by tagging @citrustwistkits. 

Happy scrapping, friends!

Sunday sketch - Suse

Happy Sunday to you, friends! Suse here with you today for our regular Sunday Sketch Challenge.

If you fancy challenging yourself (and you could win a little scrappy treat!) why not have a go at this one with me?

It's a lovely sketch, isn't it? I liked being pushed out of my comfort zone a little in using two rectangular photos instead of my usual one square shot. I also enjoyed thinking a bit laterally about how to treat that central band.

I've got to be honest, the July kits could not be more 'me' than if I'd picked them out myself: the pretty colours, the fun imagery... they were a delight to play with and I'm so happy with the playful end result of this page.

It's amazing how kids' smiles change so quickly at this age, isn't it? Kitty had lost both front teeth in these photos and it changed her entire face. I wanted to document that lovely gap-toothed grin in a cute, happy way.

I'm enjoying using my typewriter for journalling these days... as much as I wish my handwriting was lovely, it never looks very special to me, and this vintage printed look makes me much happier.

I reached a point with my page where I felt it had enough going on on it... yet there were still elements of the sketch that I'd not included and wanted to. So I decided to add elements like this fish tail banner and the strips at the top and bottom of my page, in vellum and white - that way, they're there without packing too much of a visual punch. 

I hope you feel inspired to play along with this fun challenge - you could win a $5 gift certificate to spend in the Citrus Twist Kits store. Just create a project based on this sketch by Saturday 23rd July and include 'Sketch 7/17' in your title when you upload it to our gallery. Have fun!