Sunday Sketch with Emma & Anna

Hi dear CTK friends, Emma and Anna here today, sharing our projects with you, based on this fun sketch!

We hope you can play along as well and we would love to see your take on this sketch. To enter the challenge, post your project in the CTK Fan Page at Facebook with today's date (July 8) in the title.

We can't wait to see where this sketch will take your creativity.

Anna's first out and here's what I came up with using the July Skyland Scrapbook kit. I'm just blown away, it's divine so if you don't have signed up for one yet do it right now since it selling fast :)

I've sticking to the sketch quite closely, just flipping it a bit. I love how the sketch invites for lot's of white space which I love. I  totally fell in love with the citrus papers and die cut's by Pinkfresh Studio so I proceeded from that.

I did some stamping (using the stamp set from the Scrapbook kit) as sort of my journaling. I didn't get it stright but  saved it with one of the gorgeous yellow CTK exclusive puffy stickers.  The shape of the heart and how I positioned it kind of strigthened it up at  least I think so, lol!

I love labels and especially to stack them together in layers, YUM! And a few stitches doesent make it worse, lol!

That's all from me right now. And here comes Emma (I adore her work) with her absolutely gorgeous layout. Take a cup of something you love and just enjoy! 

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Hi friends!  I absolutely ADORE Anna's take on this sketch (so clever!! wish I could remember to spin them around like that!) and her page is stunning.  

I've been a little less creative in my interpretation ;) of this sketch but that's the best part about sketches - they can spark different ideas or (if you're like me and having a bad week) you can whip a page up in no time by following the design and end up with a page you love!

I've used the Skyland Main Kit (along with a couple stickers from the Pocket Life) and the awesome Conversations Starters Stamp for my  page.  I love that background striped pattern paper but found the colour were a little too over powering for the page so I popped a bit of the vellum on top to tone it down.  

I've placed my photo and title just like the sketch (how fun are those chipboard alphas?!) and machine stitched them in place.  I did make a small change from the sketch, in that instead of having another photo in the top left of my page I popped one of the big epoxy stickers to the right of my photo instead!  I'm such a rebel I know ;)

For my embellishing I tried to make sure I kept with the rainbow pattern and added coordinating pieces to the striped pattern paper as well as adding a few mist splatters to fill some of that white space I have on the right of my page!

To finish it off I added a bit more machine stitching on the left side of my page and popped some of the adorable puffy hearts on the edge of my vellum paper (in matching colours, of course!) and called it done.  I am so happy how this page turned out - using the sketch made this such a huge time saver for me!

Now it's your turn - Anna and I can't wait to see how you interpret this weeks Sunday Sketch. Remember to share them with us in the CTK Facebeook Fan Page!

Take care, Em xo

Product Highlight : Ephemera

Hi CTK Friends!  It's Emma and Nathalie on the blog today to share a couple layouts featuring some of the ephemera in the April Kits.

I loooooooove die-cuts (easier for me to say than ephemera, lol, I'm always typing ephemera wrong!).  They are without a doubt my favourite and the very first thing I'll look for in any collection or kit.  They are so easy to add onto a page or if you're anything like me - use all over your layout ;)

I absolutely love the die-cuts included in the Add-on kit this month - the colours are so bright and I couldn't wait to use them on my layout.  They are also perfect for using on their own!  Although I love the  papers included in the kit, for this page I've let the die-cuts steal all the glory and just used white cardstock for my background.

To frame my page I machine stitched a border around three sides of my page in white, red, yellow and blue (to keep the bright colour theme going!).  At the top I used a section the crayon die-cut because it's got all the colours and is a perfect match to balance out the die-cuts at the bottom of my page.

The bottom of my page features layers of the brightest die-cuts I could find that fit with my page theme - although those iceream and lollipops might be a bit of a stretch ;)  My title is a combination of the die-cut "hello" and the smaller alphas included with this month's Main Scrapbooking Kit.

To finish off my page I added a one of the veneer pieces under my journaling and few groupings of the enamel dots to fill in some of the white space I had on my page.  They really finish it off perfectly!

And there you go - a fun little page without any patterned paper and a whole bunch of die-cuts!  I'm so happy how it finished up.  Die-cuts really are my favourite embellishment - you can use them here and there or you can use them to fill your page and leave out everything else :)

Take care, Em xo

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Hello everyone!

Don't you  just love the colorful and fun cluster of die cuts in Emma's page.  That large cluster of images draws your eye to the page.  A beauty, so into my scraplift file it goes!!.

Now let me show you what i created using the Savannah Main and Embellishment kits.  This month kits are gorgeous (but i think there hasn't been a kit we have not loved!!).  But just like Emma, i always look for the pack of ephemera to see what inspires me to create.

I am not a cat person, but all the mer-cats/cat-mermaids in the ephemera pack were just too cute to pass up.   So i used them all up to create this page about my daughter and niece's love for the swimming pool.

To bring the water color to the background, a bit of Distress Oxide inks were blended together.  A few drops of water created the bleach/splash  look in the water.   While the color set in the page,  I create the cut file for the title/main focus of the page.

I backed all the letters  but the "O" with papers from the main kit and some foam adhesive, and then added my picture to the inside of the letter O.  Then used the Dear Lizzy ephemera pieces -included in this month's Savannah main kit - to create clusters around the letters of the title (so that they form a visual triangle).  Then just added a few extra embellishments from the cut apart sheet, the cardstock stickers, and to finish a few sparkling elements from the Embellishment kit.

To finish the page, the cardstock was trimmed, and then a large strip of one of the Flourish collection papers -included in the kit- was glued in its place.   A bit of distressing just created the perfect spot for another cluster of ephemera (more mer-cat/cat-mermaid goodness!!!).   After a few stamped images, and some gold splatters (i was hoping they looked like bubbles!)  the page was done!

Love how this turned out!!!  All those cat mermaid/mer-cat pieces in the ephemera pack of the Savannah kit just add the right amount of cuteness to this page.

Now it is your turn to put your ephemera packs to work.  Regardless of the kit you are receiving, check your ephemera packs, you will be surprise at what those little pieces will inspire you to create.

That is all for me!

XOXO

Nathalie

3-To-Inspire with Emma

Hi CTK friends!  It's Emma on the blog with today's 3-To-Inspire challenge!  We love to share this challenge every Saturday for those of you that are looking for a little extra push to get scrapbooking, to keep scrapbooking, or those just looking for a challenge (and the chance to win a little something is a nice little bonus!).

I hope you'll join me this week using the following prompts:

1. Create a "grid" style layout
2. Have your title on a different angle, i.e. it could be vertical, diagonal or even curved (just not running horizontally)
3. Use atleast 2 different pattern papers on your page

And here is the page I came up with!

I mixed a few pieces from the Main, Pocket Life and Add-on Kits for this one.  My page started with my photo, the truck/van die-cut, the tag die-cut (that I've printed the journaling on) and those gorgeous pink alpha's from this months PL kit.  I layered them on top of one another to form a grid-style cluster in the middle of the page.

To fill the large white space left at the top and bottom, I added a couple patterned paper borders, layering the different patterns and machine stitching them in place.  I picked the pinks to tie-in with the title and the pinks of the cupcakes in my photo's! 

For contrast on my page I used the pops of yellow at the top and bottom (puffy stickers at the bottom of my photo and I cut little pieces from the PL cards for the top of my page).

I fixed my title vertically on my page so that it fills that bottom right corner of my grid (underneath the front of the truck/van die-cut).

I just love the puffy stickers included in the Pocket LIfe kit this month - they are the perfect mix of colours and fun shapes!  I particularly love the red and yellow star scalloped border piece so I mimicked the design at the top of my page by using the centre pieces from the "P" and "R" alpha letters, by sticking them together they look like a pink scalloped border too!  Always fun to use those left over pieces to make something new ;)


Now it's your turn! Use the three prompts to create your own project/s and share them with us here in the gallery and/or our Facebook Forum.  I can't wait to see your take on this one!

Take care, Em xo

Christmas Stories album with Emma

Hi friends!  Emma on the blog today and I am so excited to share my completed December album!  Yep, you read that right; I have actually finished it - wohooo!  I am so happy I could dance, ha!

I've already shared the first few pages of my album in the CTK Facebook Fanpage but I thought I'd share the whole album here so apologies if you're already seen a few of these before ;)  I used the Christmas Stories kits for the majority of my album but there are also pieces from previous years kits and other random things from my stash throughout.

This year I went with a 4x4 album and painted the cover (it was white with purple spots, I covered the whole thing in white paint and added gold spots!).  I'm definitely not going to win any awards with this paint work, but I actually don't mind how it turned out!  Edges are wearing already but that's OK.

The album has finished up ALOT chunkier than I'd anticipated.  I love a chunky mini but this one is really stretching the limits!  I've had to use a band to keep it closed because it can't close properly (and I need to be a little careful turning the pages so the rings don't pop open...oops!).  I used a red elastic band I had in my stash from who-knows-what and added a few "charms" - a die cut, sticker and actual charm (from a dear friend!).

Before I go on too much, here's a quick flip through of the whole album (sped it up 2x so it's just over a minute, didn't want it to take too long and bore you all!):

Rather then show photo's of every page, I thought I'd just  share a few of my favourites and talk about those but if you have any questions about others, please leave a comment below and I'll get back to you!

The most surprising thing I've noticed about my album (now that it's all done) is the amount of red I've used!  Red isn't a colour I use a lot of (scrapbooking and in real life) but it's on almost every page of this album and I actually love it!

I love my intro page - it's super simple but something different.  I had some gold craft wire in my stash so I used that to form my circle and used the hot-glue gun to stick it down.  Then I picked a few chipboard stickers and white sequins and stuck them on top (using the glue-gun again).  So easy right?

No mini-album of mine is complete without some kind of sequin pocket. I love them.  I think they add a fun interactive element to any book.  I used my sewing machine to stitch the top of my page so they don't pop out (one day I'll invest in the Fuse...).

On this page I used one of the papers from the December Add-on (Sweater Weather "Cozy") and added various stickers inside each of the boxes and added some (red!) pompom trim at the bottom of the page.  Another simple but effective page to put together (it's how I roll!).

The majority of my album relates to the elf and his daily antics.  We don't typically do a whole lot of "Christmas-themed" activities during the month (other than the crazy shopping) but we do have our elf, Freddie, and he is always entertaining so I include everything he does in my album.  All of my journaling is typed up on the computer (using a typewriter font) because I'm not too fond of my own handwriting.  Actually that's not true, my handwriting is fine until I put it on a scrapbooking page, and then I think it makes it look messy, haha.  Weird but true.

I've also included a few random notes from the elf and tucked them behind the photo/journaling and just used ribbon that's stapled to the tops so you can pull them out.  And yes, more red....

My album is actually repetitive in the layouts I've used - such as this one - I used big photos and added a word/embellishment directly on top, then for my journaling I'll either have it on the page beside or on a tag of some sort.  I love having different textures in my album so I've used various ribbons/twine/elastics to loop the tags over the rings.  (Although I picked up the WRMK Crop-A-Dile so I'm currently addicted to adding eyelets to everything!!)

I completely forgot to take photo's when we went to my brothers for our Christmas Day lunch.  I packed the camera/tripod so I could get the family photo's but never got around to it!  Just means we were having too much fun hanging out :)  I also blame the fact that I was super tired, haha - I got to bed late and Zack was up super early....I am a girl who need her sleep!

But it's not the end of the world, sure the photo's would have been great but I added a quick little note saying I'd forgotten and talked about the awesome food.  We love our food ;)

Using the Christmas Stories kits made this album so easy to put together.  And it all coordinated so well with pieces from previous years Christmas kits so I was able to use up pieces from those too (I never, ever throw out or give away my Christmas-themed items haha, they stay in my stash forever!).

I loved putting this little book together; makes me so happy to have those random little bits down on paper (with photos) so that hopefully in the years to come, we can look back and have a little giggle about the fun we had at Christmas time (while Zack still believed in the magic ;) ).

And if you've made it to the end of this post - THANK YOU!  Sorry for the novel but I'm hoping this might help inspire you to finish your own album (if you've not done so already - and if you have - HOORAY!).  Remember, if you have any questions at all, please leave a comment below and I'll get back to you!  I'll also be sharing all the photo's on my blog (all 43+, eek!) incase you wanted to see more.

This is my last post on the CTK blog for 2017 (I'm back in 2018 though!) so I just want to say thank you so much for your support this year; it's such an honor to be a part of this team and I hope a few of the projects I've shared this year might have inspired you, even if it's just a teeny bit!  Best wishes for the New Year - please stay safe and have fun!!!

Take care, Em xo

Sunday Sketch with Emma

Hi friends!  Emma here to share my layout using this week's Sunday Sketch. First up, let's look at our sketch for today:

And here's the page I created:

As you can see I've not changed too much from the sketch - the layout is basically the same.

The page started with the ink splatters to match the sketch.  I have a love/hate relationship with "messy" things - particularly ink splatters.  They never seem to go where I want them to no matter how careful I am.  Took me 3 attempts to get it right, haha.  I mean I get that they're meant to be a little random but I obsess about the size and spacing..I know, I'm crazy right? ;)

Once I was happy with my splatters, I picked my photo - I love it because it has alot of gorgeous blue sky but what really I love is the sun flare in the top right of the photo.  I went with a yellow patterned paper (sun flare...sun....yellow....you seeing my logic? ha!) and teamed it up with a neutral pattern papter, then layered those underneath my photo just like the sketch.

My title on the RHS was the most fun to put together!  I brought together a few pieces from the Main kit and layered them all down the RHS of my photo (popping a few foam dots behind a few of them to give it a bit of dimension).  Those gold Thickers from the Main kit are gorgeous so I paired it up with a few of those die-cuts. 

Because the title/phrase words had extended the full height of my photo on the RHS I just popped my journaling on the bottom left of my photo (being sure I didn't block any of those rather specifically placed ink splatters!).

To finish off my page I machined stitched at the top/bottom of my page (in black cotton for a bit of contrast) and popped a few of the gold thicker stars around my page to match in with the gold letters of my title (balance things out given I didn't have gold anywhere else).

This sketch was such a fun and easy one to work with.

Now it's your turn! To play along with this week's Sunday Sketch Challenge, create a layout based off of today's sketch, upload it to the gallery with today's date (12/17) in the title, and you are in for a chance to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store!

Thanks, Em xo