Sparkle & Joy Cover Page with Ashley Horton

 

Merry Christmas (in October), CTK friends!!  You're probably pulling out the Fall/Halloween decorations, but around here.  We're getting ready for Christmas with the gorgeous Sparkle & Joy Kit!  Over the next few months, you'll see tons of inspiration from some of the CTK Design team and special guests, that will help to give you some ideas for using your Sparkle & Joy Kit to document the holidays!

Today, I'm starting off by sharing the cover page of my album.  I'm using the Peacock Life Crafted album to hold the pages of my December album, because I love to use non-traditional colors for my Christmas memory keeping. 

There is so much wonderful product in the Sparkle & Joy Kit, so it can be hard to figure out what to start with.  I decided to go with a simple look on my front cover page, to keep from feeling overwhelmed at the start of my album.  I used one of the patterned papers included with the kit and placed the large "Joy" ephemera piece with one of the leaf ephemera pieces in the center of the page.  I added some sequins and a few more ephemera to get the look I wanted.

Once I had all of those pieces in place, I cut a piece of transparency paper to 5x8.  I wanted to use the Alpha Stickers for my title, but I wanted them to "float" over the embellishments I had placed on the under page.  I used my 6 hole punch to punch holes in the transparency paper and the patterned paper.  Then, I placed the Alpha Stickers around the ephemera pieces while I had the transparency paper layered over the patterned paper, to make sure I got the title in the right place.

I love that this created a fun, interactive look, immediately inside the album.  You could also try this idea with vellum, if you don't have transparency paper.  I think working on your cover page at the beginning of your December Album process helps to set the tone for what you want the rest of your album to look like.  I definitely want to continue my album with some interactive elements, but keep a clean and simple look to my pages.

Make sure you are keeping up with Citrus Twist Kits on social media!  I'll be sharing more this month of the CTK Instagram feed and also on my personal Instagram, ashleyhorton75.  You won't want to miss out over the next few months!

PL challenge with Laura

Hello ladies! It's Laura here and today I bring you a new Pocket Life challenge so that you can get inspired with this gorgeous new December Life Crafted "Hustle & Heart" kit!

My challenge for you is to...

1. Add some bling!

2. Use your handwriting

3. Use two main colors and a basic

So, once this is told, I'm going to explain myself, but you can take these prompts and create what you feel!

On the first place, I love to add shiny elements on all of my projects. On this kit, you can find these gorgeous golden stars, but you can combine them with some sparkling embossing powders! Get the most out of your stamps and play with different materials!

On the second place, I encourage you to use your own handwriting! It's always nice to see how it changes through the years and it is faster as well!

Finally, you can see that I used some pale colors on this page. My pictures were a little bit dark, so I wanted to balance all the layout. Another technique that I like to use i to combine only two colors and some neutrals. This way, it will be easier for you to match everyting!

And that's all for today! I hope that you got inspired and that you play along with this challenge! And don't forget to check the shop for more beautiful scrapbooking goodies!

Best wishes!

Product Highlight with Emma

Hello CTK friends :)

Emma on the blog today and I am so happy to be able to share one of my projects using the April kits.  For this layout I wanted to focus on using the fun Maggie Holmes Sunny Days Accent Stickers that are included in this months Add-on Kit!

First up, here's a look at the page I put together :)

This is sized to fit in my Life Crafted album and as usual I've gone with a white cardstock background (I just can't break out of the habit!).  I added a few black ink splatters at the top and bottom of my page and centered my photo.

I love layers so I've gone added one of the stickers at the very bottom then on top of that I've popped one of the die-cut pieces (also from the add-on), one of the 3x4 LC cards and a small section of one of the digital TN papers before laying the photo on top!  Yes, I love layers :)

Once I had my photo cluster all set I had some fun picking out my favorite stickers to add around it.  That yellow "sunshine" sticker was a must have but I wanted to add a bit more dimension (rather than have it stick straight onto the photo) so I added a scrap bit of paper behind then used a foam-dot to give it some depth). 

The "so this happened" title is actually from the digital journaling cards - I just pulled the words out and re-sized it to fit my page then fussy-cut around the lettering - super easy!

The stickers are such a quick and easy way to add dimension to the page - and I'll often bend them up slightly on the edges just to give the page a bit more movement (like the yellow sticker, I'll add a bit of scrap paper behind to stop the sticker sticking properly!).

That umbrella sticker is so cute, knew I wanted to use it straight away but I couldn't find any photo's with an umbrella to match, but I figured a beach shot was close enough :) 

To fill a bit of the white space at the top/bottom of my page, and to balance things out, I've used a bit more of the digital paper I'd printed (I just printed it onto plain copy paper so it's nice and thin!).

At the bottom of my page I've created a small cluster on the left side using the seashell stickers, which are a perfect match for a beach photo, then layered a print & cut word (something I created using silhouette studio).  And those flip-flops on the right side just finish it off :)

Love how this one finished up and even though I've used all those stickers I've still managed to create a page with lots of dimension!  Thanks so much for joining me on the blog today - I hope this will inspire you to use those fun stickers on your projects!

Embelishment Fun with Neftali

Hello there and happy Thursday CTK fans! It’s Neftali here once again this month ready to share some scrappy inspiration using the September “Heartbreaker” kits. I was so excited to see that we had so many Amy Tangerine goodies from her Shine On collection this month. I wanted to get the best use out of all these fun stickers and ephemera pieces so I decided to create a layout having some major embelishment fun! But I’ll let you be the judge, take a look:

So. Many. Embellishments. Am I right? Let me tell you how I got this layout done.

I started off by choosing my photo and then using the Crate Paper Willow Lane pink patterned paper as the main focus in the center of my page. I didn’t measure anything, I just never do, I simply cut so that it would be a very large square at the center of my white cardstock base.

I added a little texture to it by lifting the edges with my fingernails and also adding some “peek-a-boo” tears on all four sides. I loved the pop of color from the underside!

Then all of the embellishing fun began! Since I had such a large piece of cardstock in the center, I wanted to create a look that seemed as if the embellishments were tucked under and coming out of the peachy pink paper.

I layered so many textured and pieces from a mix of the kits. I used the chipboard stickers, the ephemera pieces, and the cardstock stickers, (all Amy Tan!)  and finally some black splatters to bring it all together.

The final thing I added was the journaling piece from the Shine On ephemera pack under my photo and three of the little flowers from the chipboard sticker sheet. I thought this to be the perfect touch to this layout as it matched so well with the photo of my sweet family and myself this past Thanksgiving. 

This was all I did to create this fun layout that gave me such great use of the Shine On pieces. I hope you have enjoyed this bit of scrappy inspiration today, and I invite you all to take some time from your busy day to get crafty with your September kits. Have a lovely end to your week scrappy friends! Xo

Use up ALL your stickers on one page!

Hi guys, Diane here today to share a fun technique I tried this month!

When I saw the Wild Heart sticker sheet in the Embellishment kit this month, I could barely decide which sticker to use first! So instead, I used ALL of them! (Well, most of them anyway).

I started by sticking down my photo and then just put down as many stickers as I could around the page. It helps to start with the larger ones first and then fill in any gaps with some of the smaller ones.

Any left over gaps got a little bit of doodling and then I added a small amount of journalling on top of one of the stickers. This page is 100% busier than my normal pages, but I love it. It feels like a real riot of colour, a celebration. Which is exactly what I was hoping for!

Have you ever used ALL your stickers (or any other embellishment) on one page? I'd love to see, so leave me a comment with a link so I can check them out!

Things Above - April GraceBox

Hi friends, Ashley here. I should be washing the loads of Easter dishes I made, but instead I'm busting out the craft supplies. (I think it will really motivate me to work hard in the kitchen later. wink, wink! ) The April GraceBox is here & bursting with color and possibilities. The rub on stickers, the stamp set, the colorful alphas, the die cuts - a girl struggles to know where to start!

Typically, I lay it all out on my desk and the first things that says USE ME, USE ME is where I start. This month it was the All People All Nations Paper Ephemera (Illustrated Faith). I loved the continent pieces! Oh the places I could go with them. Then i decided the rainbow card illustrating Col. 3:2 needed to be a part of it. I found my verse page empty in my Bible, so it's time to get started.

Here is a peek at the components this month.  Click HERE for the full descriptions & photos.

After 10 minutes of driving myself crazy with trying to make my earth geographically correct - I decided to just get artsy with it. So I cut my own shapes and created an earth that fit. :)

A little watercolor base, squiggly outlines, splatter and polka dot stamps completed the look.

 I loved how the verse card had the rainbow coming out of the earth. It inspired the stacking of the alpha stickers. The Booklet of colors were begging to be used all together. But boy are those buggers hard to get straight. They are a thin, almost opaque-y sticker - you've be warned!

 I topped by page in Colossians with a tab & doily from the kit and a few coordinating washi from my stash. No page is complete without a bouquet of clips & bows. 

 This was a awesome kit to dig into and I can't wait to use the next pieces. Head over to the shop to sign up for your kit subscription or try one to start!

Happy Crafting,
Ashley Haake
aka
@magmagandme

Pocket Life Challenge: From Scratch!

Hey Everyone! This is Jennie with today's Pocket Life Challenge! IT'S NOVEMBER! Yikes! How did that happen?! If you are planning a major catch up make sure you check out the rest of the challenges this month. They can be a great way to get inspired!

My Challenge for this month is to create a filler card from scratch! I used the 6x8 papers to create 2 of the cards. If you are a simple scrapper you can start with just cutting a 3x4 card and adding one of the bigger die cuts from the ephemera pack.

I love to use the little bits of the ephemera pack on my photos. I also make extra tiny bits using heart dies and the 6x8 paper from the kit. I love the super cute colors of this month!

The puffy alphas of the November Pocket Life Kit are so perfect. And they have numbers! Yay! I kept my title card super simple because I liked the design from the 4x6 card and I din't want to alter it too much. Next to it I have a card with a little journaling about a drawing my daughter made.

Here you can really see the two filler cards I made. On the first card, I used the black and white stripes paper. I used the 3x4 stamp set that comes in the Pocket Life Kit to stamp all over the paper. The lines made it so easy. Then I layered die cuts, puffy stickers and the cork. You don't have to add everything and the kitchen sink like I do. If you want to go super simple I recommend using the rules of threes and try to vary the size of the items. On the second card, I used a circle stitched die to add a layer to the card instead of adding the circle on top. This creates an illusion of depth. This cat die is the cutest!

The 3x4 stamp is perfect if you've been wanting to stamp on your photos. They are small and they stamp perfectly. I stamped using Brilliance White on the grass and with Back StazOn on the photos of my daughters. I also did a little ghost stamping. 

I love the ephemera die cut pack! Besides being super cute they always have labels (a must for stamping dates on a  title card) and little words which I love to put on photos.

I hope you enjoyed these pages! I like to share some of my filler and title cards on Instagram if you want to check them I'm @jenniegarcian over there. 

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

2 Projects | Gina R

Hi everyone, today I'm sharing a couple of pages created with the gorgeous February kits. On this first page I've used the Brinley main kit and embellishment kit. I've played around with a mixed media background on kraft cardstock - I love the combination of pastel colours and white gesso against the kraft background. 

My second project was created with the main kit only. I've used a simple horizontal design with the addition of a corner pattern paper piece. Black + white geometric papers are great for this purpose, they are not as "heavy" as a bright or solid colour, and won't compete or draw the eye away from the main feature of your page.

Have you been creating with February kits? Don't forget to share your projects in the CTK Facebook group and gallery!

Gina xox

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