3 To Inspire with Veera and Andrea

Today we have a treat for you! Me (Veera) and Andrea joined forces and both of use created layouts to this weeks' 3 To Inspire challenge.

This week we encourage you to 

1. sew
2. use color pink
3. use word stickers

Here's my take on these 3 prompts:

For this layout I used February main kit and embellishment kit. I used pink as my main accent color using pink word stickers and those beautiful pink flowers. As the top part of the layout is full of embellishments I balanced the layout by using a lot of white space.

Lately word stickers have been one of my favorite embellishments. These stickers can be used for telling the story and they are easy embellishments that helps the layout look finished.

Now it's Andrea's turn!

Hi there everyone! It's Andrea here and I had so much fun working on this special “3 to Inspire” with Veera for you all! When Veera and I picked the three elements of this challenge – sewing, word stickers, and the color pink, I was so excited because I knew that these would all work great with the Citrus Twist February kits and the over-all feeling of February which is frankly quite sweet and lovely (due to the nature of Valentines Day I think).

For my layout, I knew that I needed to use the super beautiful floral patterned from Crate Paper Oasis that is in “The Bright Side” add on kit. There is some fun pinks in that floral paper, but to add some more pink to my layout, I chose to use cute embellishments like some pink flowers from the Pink Paislee ephemera in the add on kit, and some butterflies and hearts and things from the chipboard stickers in the Main Kit. For more pops of pink, I did some fussy cutting and used some arrows from some of the patterned paper in the Pattern Paper Play kit and also some sweet little tickets that I cut from some of the product packaging.

I added word stickers to my layout that would help to tell the story. I used words like “loving this”, “let's go”, “me and you” and “you are my happy” to show that the story is all about me and my love, my husband Ryan, on a romantic Valentines Day night out. By adding both the flat word stickers and the chipboard ones, more dimension and interest is given to the page.

To add my sewing in, I did some hand-stitching here and there on my page. I stitched a bit across the top of the page where the paper clips are to kind of further anchor down the flags and things that I added to that top corner. I also did some cross stitches on my fussy cut pink tickets. And for the last of my sewing, I created a special little heart using a left-over piece from the Pink Paislee ephemera pack which I painted and then added some white cardstock to and stitched to make a fun and interesting, one of a kind embellishment for my page. (note: I added a few more painted touches here and there that had a bit of this kind of effect on it just to balance things out).

I had so much fun with this “3 to Inspire” with Veera! (Oh, and I just want to also point out that I had a lot of fun with my pics on this layout too and so can you...here is a fun tip...try coloring your pic/s for your layout in cool, colors like the challenge color pink and/or mint, yellow, blue, etc using photoshop or another photo editing app or software! )

So here you have it, inspiration and 3 prompts! I hope you enjoyed both of the layouts! Remember to join me and Andrea in this challenge and when you make your own layout or other project using these prompts, please share with us on the Citrus Twist gallery, the Facebook Forum and also on Instagram! Don't forget to tag @citrustwistkits and hashtag with #citrustwistkits and #ctk3toinspire!

Veera & Andrea

PL Sketch Friday with Tara

Happy Friday friends! So glad you're here for another sketch challenge and an opportunity to win some happy mail. I'm sharing my personal album today - it's my first time working with the 6x12 size and I'm completely smitten with it!

The February Brinley Pocket Life kit is so fun! My most favorite bits are the leatherette stickers - exclusives of course! This girl can't have too many hearts in her life.

Here is the whole spread:

I used my "January" lettering I shared here and decided to re-size it. I added the lovely yellow puffy alpha stickers and a couple more to keep the look clean.

Here is the sketch.

As you can see, I originally planned for my 3x4 photo to be on the right side but changed it up in the end. I love how it turned out with a little bit of a switch up.

Here are some close ups:

My One Little Word this year is light. I'm excited to document my journey with my word this year. I made my own journaling card with the patterned paper, a piece of floral ephemera, and a word sticker.

Here is the bottom half.

This journaling card was one of my favorites.  I really want to focus on getting more words and stories told this year. I added a "yes to..." Citrus Twist stamp from an old kit. I loved the Pretty Little Studio word stickers in this month's Embellishment kit (that Claudia designed) so very much I wanted to use them everywhere! I added in the "beauty" stamp and a couple stamps in my stash to write out a quote that resonates with me. 

Thank you for stopping by today. If you would like to join in on the fun, create a project using the sketch above. Then post your project in our Gallery or Fan Page by Friday, 03 March. Don't forget to include PL 02/24 in the title!

Happy Weekend! 

Xxo, Tara

Tuesday Tutorial with Mira Jurecka

Hello Everyone!

It's Mira here with Tuesday Tutorial and today I'll be fully concentrated on Pocket Scrappbooking, which for me is the best kind of memory keeping project EVER! What about You?

I'd like to share with You a few general tips together with a bunch of my favorite tricks that I use very often in pocket albums. I have a couple of pages prepared to illustrate those tips and all of them were created with February Pocket Life and Embellishment Kits from Citrus Twist Kits.
So yeah - let's do it!

1. Pictures

I've documented last four years of my family life in pocket albums, and creating process has changed many times before I decided what's the most important for me and HOW I want to preserve our memories. When I was pregnant I found out what's the reason why I am doing it, why I keep devoting so many energy and time to create more and more pages. It wasn't only because I enjoyed creating them. It was because I knew for who I am doing it - for my daughter. And this is why my albums are mostly focused on this little lady growing up. I knew I want our albums to be a beginning of many many future conversations - a super cool way to bond. This is why my pages are always overloaded with pictures and I have plenty of pages dedicated to journaling all the little stories from Her childhood.

Sooooo... my first general tip for You is to find Your reason why - why are You doing Your albums? It will definitely keep You motivated and will establish the way of how You create.

2. Color consistency

When a few weeks ago on Instagram I asked You Folks what You would like me to write about in today's post, there was this one topic that a friend of mine raised - a color consistency. So here's  my second general tip theme for You today.
Color consistency between pictures and all the details that You add to Your pages: cards, embellishments, etc.
Color consistency is this funny thing that I find very appealing when it comes to looking at the album pages and enjoying it's aesthetics. It begins with the environment You live in, the pictures that You take and goes through Your picture - editing process, to the choice of pictures, cards and embellishments.
For example I like keeping my album bright and detailed, so I take plenty of pictures of everyday details. I always edit them in a similar way - my pictures are rather pale and I often add white frames around the pictures before I print them, which gives me a lot of space for embellishing. Also I choose the cards that suit the colors from my pictures - they have to go together really well.

Obviously not all of us will be interested in color consistency. Some of us like experimenting, some has to try new techniques, some of us just don't care about the colors or just don't feel it. And it's all fine! It's all great! At the end of the day we just need to enjoy the process. Pocket scrapbooking is not about freaking out and comparing albums with others, it's about having fun and preserving memories!

3. Freedom

As I said previously: creating albums is all about having fun, so don't create too many rules for ourselves! This is our album, our project, our creativity and there is no such thing that would work for everyone the same way. Just find Your way, and feel free to change it any time You want.

4. Tricks

Ok, now it's time for details and some random tips that I'd like to share with You! Are You ready?

What my daughter really like is touching every little and colorful detail that embellish our pictures in the album. She always finds them all with her little fingers, so I started adding embellishments on top of a page protectors, to make this experience of her even more interesting. Does it sound fun to You?

I love creating custom PL cards with the use of white cardstock and embellishments from CTK kits. They are complementing my pictures in a very fun and simple way. Would You try this idea?

Customizing already existing PL cards with embellishments isn't anything new for our scrap community, but I always love adding that little touch of personality to the cards. Have You thought about it as Your personal signature? Is there a specific way that You like to do it?

Have You tried stamping directly on Your pictures? I know there are people who are afraid of ruining the picture, but You know what? I always do it and believe me I am a queen of bad stamping!

Splashes! Another perfect way to customize a card!

Have You tried writing down what people around You said and adding those words to Your albums? Obviously, I don't mean every.single.word. I mean funny things. From time to time. Quotations are rare in my albums, but I love them badly! Especially when our daughter says something funny!

Look at this strange water-related object wrapped with some blue plastic foil with a red "nose" (whatever it was), located in someone's garden and covered with snow. She looked at it and said: "Mommy watch! There's a snowman!"
Isn't that cute? It'd definitely worth remembering.

Another fun thing is to use a product packaging in Your pages. In February Embellishment kit there was this awesome set of tiny word stickers with a super cool packaging - tiny words as a pattern (It could also be from puffy-stickers, I am not sure :D). I used it as a PL card.
What do You think about that?

Bunny (or other animal) picture. Okay: this is must have! I found similar pictures in a few albums from the Internet, and it's great! I don't even know how to take this picture (there are probably some apps on Your smartphones that allow You to take them!), but the other day our Nanny just took them and sent to me. And I couldn't miss placing them in album. Awesome!

And my last trick is from similar category: screenshots from Your smartphone telling what was the weather like, or Instagram pictures telling some story. These are two fun ways to change things up a bit in our albums. Aren't they fun?

Okay, that's it for now! I could continue writing this post for ages, but I don't want You to get bored, so I'll leave it for another time :) I hope You feel inspired to create, or simply to share some of Your fav tricks with other Pocket Scrapbooking Fans! Feel free to do it!
Thank You for stopping by!

3 to inspire with Diane

Hi everyone, I'm here with another 3-to-inspire challenge for you! I love these challenges as a way to kick-start your creativity (and we all need a little help with that from time to time!). You can find this challenge here every Saturday for those who need a little extra creative push to get scrapbooking, to keep scrapbooking or for those who just like a challenge! Your take on this challenge can be a layout or a PL spread and remember that you'll want to include all 3 prompts on your project.

Your prompts this week are:

1. Use up your scrappy left-overs
2. Use something puffy 
3. Use a photo of YOURSELF!

Here’s my take on this challenge ...

After cutting down the 6x6 papers in the Pocket Life kit to 4x6 or 3x4, I'm usually left with a lot of 2 inch wide strips. So I cut them into squares and stitched them into a grid pattern on some card stock with my sewing machine. Then all I needed to do was add a selfie (no shame), some embellishing, ephemera and layers, then create my title using the Citrus Twist Kit alpha stamp and some puffy alphas. I couldn't help but add a few extra puffy stickers from the Sprinkles kit for good measure!

Now it's your turn! 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 also upload to Instagram, but remember to tag us @citrustwistkits. Looking forward to seeing what you can do!

3 To Inspire with Emma

 
Hi friends!  I'm back again with another 3-To-Inspire challenge!  I think it's fair to say I'm addicted to these challenges; they are my favourite!

We offer this challenge every Saturday for those who are looking for a little extra push to get scrapbooking, to keep scrapbooking, or for those of you just looking for a challenge (and the chance to win a little something is an added bonus!).

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

1. Create your own hand-cut title
2. Use more than one photo
3. Use a punched shape

 And here's a look at the page I created:

My title was actually inspire by something I found on Pinterest.  Now I know that's a pin for 3D letters but when I first looked at it, I thought the letters were on "hinges" on the sides.  So I set about creating my own version.  I actually love that the inspiration piece for this page is something completely different - just shows that we can interpret what we see in such different ways :)

I picked a few favourite 6x6 papers from the Pocket Life kit and folded a small section on one side, then I just used a pair of scissors to cut the letters out free-hand.

I picked a few of the best photo's I managed at night.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get the best photo's using sparklers at night.  I had planned to put the photo's to B&W but with the softer tones in the papers I used they actually got a little lost.  So back to colour they went!

I used modelling paste to add some textured stars to my background, they're a little hard to see because I went with white on white.  Then I used my hand punch to cut a few tiny stars out of paper (I used the same ones I'd used for the letters) and scattered them around my page.  I literally stuck them down where they fell :)

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

Thanks, Em xo

Let's Get Digital with Diane

Hi everyone! This month's digital file was created by Trina and inspired Leigh Ann's January layout. You can download it in the files section of our Facebook Fan Page!

I used the file in a few different ways. Firstly, I created a stitching pattern with two of the fern shapes and then stitched, stitched, stitched! Then I added layers of vellum and patterned paper cut with my Silhouette. Once I added my photos, some ephemera from the Pocket Life kit and a stamped title, I was ready to call this one done!

I then used the same file to create the title card on my Project Life page.

You can see how I put this page together below...