Kit Love with Olya

Hello hello, Olya here.
This is my very first post on the CTK blog and I am super thrilled to be joining the 2014-2015 Design Team. I am in absolute awe of all the creative talented ladies on the team and I feel extremely honored to be among them.
Here is a little video I put together for our Kit Love segment. I received my first Citrus Twist PL kit and filmed my excitement. Enjoy :)




Citrus Twist Kit Love - July Kit (2014) from Olya Schmidt on Vimeo.

Click here to see this month's kits and add-ons. I received the July 2014 Sunkissed PL kit and July 2014 Hello Sun PL Embellishment kit.
Thank you so much for stopping by and happy creative week ahead!
xo

Sunday Sketch with Nathalie (with a bonus ;)

Since this is my first post this month, allow me to start by saying how happy and honored I am to be on the CTK Design Team for another year! Thank you Trina! Now, did you see the amazing July kits revealed yesterday?! I got to work with the July add-on and I loved it! I know, I know, you want to see the new sketch!

It is such a versatile sketch by Kasia, plus I had such a gorgeous kit to work with that I created not one but two examples for it! I hope you don't mind :)

This is my first version:

KIT USED: July add-on kit

NON-KIT ITEMS: pink thread and black ink

some detail shots:

And now for my second version:

KIT USED: July add-on kit, July stamp add-on, Prima chalk edger in Old Road (in the Citrus Twist store)

NON-KIT ITEMS: grey alpha stickers and pink thread from my stash

Can you see how I emphasized different elements of the sketch for each page so that even though they both stay close to the sketch, they do not look the same? Now we want to see your version(s)! :) To play along with our sketch challenge, upload your layouts to our gallery by July 12th to get your name in a drawing to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK store. When uploading to the gallery you can name it as you would normally but please include "Sketch 7/6" in your title. Of course feel free to share it elsewhere too!

Good luck! 

July Kit Reveal Day!

Thank you for stopping by to visit our July kit reveal. At 10 p.m. PST on the 4th of July, our July kits were unveiled on our site. We are excited to share this month's scrapbooking kits with you and to let you know about new happenings on our blog. You may have noticed that beginning July 1st we started changing things up on the Citrus Twist Kits blog. We have kept some of your favorite weekly features--Sunday Sketches, Tutorial Tuesday and Pocket Life Friday--but we are adding new monthly features as well as A View from Our Gallery, a weekly feature where we'll highlight work from our gallery.

We have a summer subscriber special this month! Subscribe to our Main or PL kits and get a free main kit (we select it for you from our winter kits). If you are a current subscriber--or a new subscriber who refers a friend for the special--you'll get a $10 store credit. That's one store credit for each friend you refer. Click here to see this month's kits.

This month we are open for school with our "2 Girls, 2 Perspectives" Mini Album Class. Play along with us and see how two designers take two entirely different approaches with a mini album using our first-ever class kit. We hope you'll join us for this fun class:

Here is the Mini Album kit. It's available for those who want a kit and to follow along with the same materials that the 2 designers worked with:

July's "Are We There Yet?" Main kit is color-rich, features 8 patterned papers and a sheet of Studio Calico South of Market Herringbone vellum, plus wood veneer, flair, washi, wood chip, enamel dots and more. Don't forget that with Citrus Twist your 13th kit is free with 12 consecutive months of subscribing!

You'll be feeling "Sunkissed" with this month's Pocket Life kit. Here it is featuring Simple Stories new Good Day Sunshine 6 x 6 paper pad, 2 alphabets, photo sticker overlays and more:

"Oh. My. Heart." is this month's add-on kit, filled with sweetness! Check it out:

Our July "Best of Days" Embellishment kit will provide you lots of layering fun. The new layered border strips from Crate Paper's The Open Road make embellishing a snap:

You'll be able to greet the summer with July's "Hello Sun" PL Embellishment kit. From PL cards, to a cursive sticker alphabet and adorable puffy shapes from Evalicious, topped off with enamel dots, stars and hearts, you'll love the extras in this kit. It pairs beautifully with our "Sunkissed" Pocket Life kit:

If you just can't get enough Pattern paper, meet "This Way, That Way", July's pattern paper collection. You can pair this with our Main or PL kit:

This month we were lucky enough to have Design Girl April Joy Hill do some calligraphy for our stamps. You'll get one of her stamp sets in both the Main and PL kits plus we have this month's stamp subscription stamp (for sale individually, too) "Hello."

And, as always, Melissa has put together the reveal in video for those of you who want to see it all as she walks you through the kits. (Note: The Mini Album Class kit is not included in the video reveal.)
Just click on this link to view:



Be sure to check out the new features on our blog this month and watch for the unveiling (one day soon) of the new website look.

Have an amazing July!

Trina

Playing with Pocket Life with April

Happy 4th of July everyone!  It's Friday, and not only is it the Independence Day holiday here in the states.. it's also Pocket Life day! :)

Today I'm sharing my PL Week 21 using the super colorful July PL and PL Embellie kits:

Here's a closer look at the left side.  Check out our little peanut's ultrasound photo!  We've been lucky enough to have ultrasounds at each of our monthly check-ups, so it's really cool being able to see our peanut's development every month.  (The "hello there" overlay came from June's PL kit.)

I loved the wood veneer arrows in this month's kit and the wood grain Elle's Studio alphas!

And here's the right side. 

I finally busted out my Instax Neoclassic camera for this outing.  Instax prints are so adorable!

Here are your July PL sketches:

And here's an extra set because I think I forgot to include sketches in my post last month!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  We find out if we're having a boy or a girl this weekend, so we are super excited!  Have a great one!

The "2 Girls, 2 Perspectives" Mini Album Class Is Here!

Class is in session! Please join us for this "2 Girls, 2 Perspectives" as two designers, Mira Wlosinska and Trina Craig, share their takes on creating a mini album. They each started with the class kit for sale here Mini Album Class Kit and created two very different results. (If you are not a current kit subscriber please register on our site then contact us at CitrusTwistKits@yahoo.com to request special access to purchase the class prior to reveal day on July 5th.)

And . . . for the first time we are offering an optional class kit for this self-paced Mini Album class "2 Girls, 2 Perspectives." (Non-kit subscribers will be billed an shipping in addition for the cost of the class kit. This is one big kit!)

Class Bonus: Mira has designed a cut file for this class that you can download and use for your project.

The optional class kit is loaded with paper, embellishments galore, a custom stamp and carefully hand picked vintage elements to spice up your pages. Mira worked with the O-rings that come in the kit and Trina used the new South of Market Studio Calico Handbook, coming soon to the Citrus Twist Kits store.

For those who purchase the class we'll be hosting a private Facebook forum called Citrus Twist "2 Girls, 2 Perspectives" Mini Album Forum that you can request to join to share your album pages, share ideas and keep us updated on your class progress.

We can't wait to see you in the classroom. The class begins on July 10th.

Citrus Twist Kits
Pssst! If you haven't heard . . . We have a new kit subscriber special for the month of July if you fancy a free kit (we'll select a Main kit from winter 2014 just for you).

Meet July's Guest Designer & a Giveaway

Hi there! This is Rachel Lim from sunny island Singapore – born and raised on this little red dot, I can truly call myself a fun-loving city girl. I’m married to a loving man and mother to two young boys – they are my driving force and motivation to continue to scrapbook ever since I started on my first two layouts back in 2006. I love making mini albums, altered projects and Project Life-ing of course! It’s simply amazing to put different brands of materials together and viola, a priceless creation is born. Being a memory keeper has been very rewarding.

When Trina asked if I’d like to guest design for Citrus Twist Kits, why YES, how could I say no when the kits were so wonderfully put together? I just need to play with them!

Q & A:
1. How long have you been doing Project Life and why did you start? This is my second year in my Project Life-ing. Being a paparazzi (stalking on my three boys), I believed this is the one effective way to document precious memories. Besides, it really served us well on all those flashbacks when either one of us pulled out the album and started flipping through the pages.

2. How would you describe your PL style? Clean and simple that comes with a touches of color. I choose to let my photos do the talking, and of course coupled with minimum amount of elements to enhance the overall look of my spread.

3. What scrapbookers have influenced you most? Everyone, to be honest. Be it a fellow crafter who just started on Project Life or a seasoned scrapbooker, I’m constantly inspired by everyone’s work and picking up useful tips every now and then. But if I were to pick a few, they have to be Stephanie Bryan, Marcy Penner and Geralyn SY.

4. What is your favorite thing about kit clubs? It is to create with what comes in the treasure box. No time wasted on digging through my stash and doing the matching game (which can be quite frustrating at time!).

5. What are your 5 favorite scrapbooking items you can't live without? #1 – Scissors, #2 – Adhesive tape/glue, #3– Washi tape, #4 – Pattern paper, #5 – Alphabet stickers.

6. How would you describe the Citrus Twist July PL and PL Embellishment kits and what do you enjoy most about the kits? Fun! I was smiling throughout the whole time as I went through the kits. They are totally prefect for my forever summer weather here in Singapore! The papers by Simple Stories are my favorite among the lot. And let’s not forget about transparent stickers. They are awesome! And here is what I had come up with on my week 23 PL spread with Citrus Twist July PL and PL Embellishment kits.

Here is a peek at some of her work that she has created with the July Pocket Life Kit. 

Here is a look into her scrap space.

**Giveaway time**
Leave some love for Rachel or ask a question, and you will be entered in to win one of her favorite things! 

Tuesday Tutorial

Good morning and Happy July!  This is Michelle here to give you your first sneak of July's Main and Embellishment Kits with a look at how I created an 8.5 x 11 layout.

When designing layouts featuring my son, I tend to go a little bit more geometric. This time I chose to feature a starburst to bring the attention straight to an Instagram of my son at the end of a baseball game.

Starbursts can sometimes be a little time consuming, especially when you want to use multiple patterned papers.  Luckily, I recently ran across some advice that simplified the process.  The basics of this starburst technique is to staple strips of patterned paper together, making you able to then fan the papers out into a desired arrangement without having to painstakingly cut and piece them together.  Since I wanted the starburst to radiate from the photo in two spots, I put together two bundles of paper strips using my standard stapler (I tried this with my Tiny Attacher, but found that the larger staple gave my strips more "mobility.")

To make this already easy technique even easier, I decided to staple my strips of paper directly onto my background paper where my photo would be placed. I then played around with the arrangment and placed a little bit of glue along the strips to hold them down. Here is what the final placement looked like:

 

I find that in most cases when layering paper and embellishment over staples, that staples can be a bit bulky.  To offset this, I applied pop dots to the patterned paper that I matted my picture with. 

Here are some closeups of the finished layout:

Thanks for stopping by today and make sure to come back tomorrow for more sneaks of July's kits!