Tuesday Tutorial with Neftali

Happy Tuesday crafty friends and welcome to another Tuesday Tutorial! It is Neftali here today to share with you a fun tutorial to create a “simple and minimal layout.” Let’s get started!

Here is the layout I created for this tutorial, which took me no more than 30 minutes to make:

I don’t know about you, but I am sometimes a huge fan of those soft and airy layouts that give you a feeling of “freshness” and “simplicity”. Well, that is what I tried to portray with this particular layout, and I think I achieved it pretty well.

Here is how you can take your supplies to create something simple yet evocative:

First, choose soft colors and simple patterns that contrast, but work well together. 

For that I decided to use the papers in the November “Pleasant Valley” Pocket Life Kit because there were soft colors but still fun bold patterns like the black crosses.

Second, choose a minimal amount of supplies that you think you might use. 

I decided to go with the patterned papers, my circle punch, my sewing machine, and a few of the exclusive ephemera pieces from the PL Kit. I also picked out a few other pieces that I didn’t end up using like the exclusive wood veneer word phrase pieces. I ended up switching that idea out for stamping, instead.

Go with whatever fancies you at the moment but remember to keep just a handful of pieces out on your desk so you don’t dig for anything else. We’re keeping it simple, remember!

Third and final tip, which I used specifically on this layout, was to go for a small black and white photograph. 

I feel like the small photo size helped keep my layout super minimal. But so did the black and white because there are no clashing colors with the other supplies/colors I am using.

The photo in this layout is sized 2x3 (tiny, I know) and I normally print these sizes by using an app where I can fit 4 - 2x3 photos in a 4x6 photo sheet. Easy peasy!

So, those are my 3 quick tips to create a simple, airy, minimal layout. 

I chose to punch a few circles to create 3 totally random clusters across my page. To each cluster I added a (not so perfect) machine stitched circle. To me, white stitching = simple!!

I added my photo on top of a tag and attached that in between the clusters. Then, I used only 5 pieces of what I had picked out from the exclusive die cuts.

Finally, I added a few stamps and my title next to my photo. That’s it! 

Super duper simple and you still have that awesome feeling of having had a moment to craft, especially when you’re busy but just have an itch to make something quick. I really hope you guys give this a try. If you do create something beautiful, come share it with us at The Citrus Twist Facebook Fan group! Thanks for stopping by today, xo.

First Day with Emma

Hi CTK friends!  Emma on the blog today to share a layout using the, oh so gorgeous, February Main kit!  I'm quite sure I've confessed my love of circles before - there is just something about them that I adore and I find myself sneaking them onto pages without even realising sometimes.  In this case it was actually a conscious decision but rather just use circles on my page, I mixed it up by adding them onto 2x2 squares and creating my own patterned background!

This is one of those layouts that kind of just came together on its own.  I started it with an idea of using circles and the design changed a few times in the process of actually putting it together ;)

Here's a look at the page I created:

 

As you know (or may not know), my pages are all 6x8 which means I'm always left with lots of 6x4 "scraps" of paper, particularly white cardstock which I almost always use for my backgrounds and I'm forever looking for ways to use them up.  For this page I've used them by cutting little 2x2 squares and then adhered my circles on top (I used my glue pen).  I used a 3/4" punch and cut dozens of them using almost all of the papers included in the Main kit.

 I think I had around 10 of the 2x2 squares done by the time I'd used up all my punched circles (I went a little crazy with my trusty little punch).  I had originally planned to just adhere them to the page in a plain square pattern but by some odd chance, I'd turned one on the diagonal and liked how it looked so ran with that instead.

 

Rather than keep it all square and uniformed I cut a few of them in half (so they're 1x2") and mixed the positioning, keeping a small border around them.  Although I've mixed all the patterns with the circles I found that having the squares/rectangles all butt up together was crazy busy so that small white border around each shape helped to break things up a bit.

I adhered the pieces using double-sided tape but I've also gone over a few pieces with the sewing machine (using either standard straight stitch or the zig-zag).  My pages are not complete without some machine stitching on them!

My journaling is typed up in Photoshop and I just make sure it fit within the 2x2 white squares then printed it on the same white cardstock I've used on the background (using up more of that scrap cardstock I have!).

The gold alphas included in the main kit are gorgeous and I LOVE how they have mixed sizes of the font.  I often have trouble using some of the alphas on my page becuase they are so big but these smaller fonts are perfect.  I used a combination of the small and large fonts here and by some small miracle, they are a perfect fit for my 2x2 square format!

Although I knew what my layout was going to be about I actually left the photo printing until I'd figured out the background design.  Although my title/journaling are on the angle I didn't want my photo to be so I used Photoshop to create the diamond shaped template for my photo and then just printed it on 6x4 photo paper.

I left the embellishing to the bare minimum because the page has alot going on in the background already, I just tucked one of the word stickers at the bottom of my journaling then cut the yellow heart from the leatherette stickers and popped it underneath.  And that's it!  Embellishing is my favourite process of any layout so only having 2 pieces is unheard of for me ;)

I'm not going to lie - this page took a bit of time to put together.  I'm a slow scrapper at the bet of times but this probably took a few hours (I want to say 2 hours but in all honesty I think it was probably longer than that, ha!). It was fiddly, and somewhat messy with gluing all those circles down, but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it!  And it's such a great way to use all those patterned papers too (without it looking like a crazy mash of patterns!).

I am so happy how this page finished up.  I got to use my favourite shape (circle) but added a new spin on it by having them stuck to 2x2 squares and having them on an angle. 

Thanks so much for joining me on the blog today!  I hope this might inspire you to try a new spin on a trusted favourite shape/technique of yours!  Take care, Em xo

3 to Inspire with Leigh

Hello friends! Leigh here, with my last project as a Citrus Twist Kits Design Team member. I have loved working with the gorgeous and exclusive kits, and the CTK Sketches are the best!


Here are the three items for today's challenge:
1) tulle
2) staples
3) puffy stickers

We got lots of puffy stickers in our kits, so I thought now would be a good time to use them. The title above is a puffy sticker too. I like that the circles in the background paper repeat the shape of the ornaments I hand-lettered for our tree.

Here is a close up to try to show the tulle on this page. I know it is hard to see, but I cut three to four circles and layered them and stapled them off-set over the printed circles on the background paper. 

I cut tags from the kit paper and layered them over the black and white American Crafts text paper in the background. The tag on the far right has some type-written journaling, and the title goes below that. Splash on some splatters, if you like.

Another close shot of the tulle layers and the staples. Thank you for joining me today, and I can't wait to see how you use the three items in this challenge.

Hugs,
Leigh