In the studio with Suse

Hey friends! Suse with you today for a little glimpse into my crafty world!

We live in a small rented house in Cheshire, England, and our main living area is open plan - which means each area of the room has to really work hard. My scrapbooking area is also our dining area... so everything needs to pack away in between projects (or it risks getting spattered with gravy - not a good look!)

This sturdy cube unit works really well to store all my goodies - the cubes are just the right size for materials storage and albums alike. Even our printer tucks away into one of them. 

I don't worry too much about keeping things very tidy - so long as my stamps are in their spot and the paints and papers in theirs... I'm happy.

I've made a bit of an inspiration wall behind my desk by popping up some pretty little bits and bobs that make me smile. As it's a rented house, we have to be careful not to damage the walls, but washi works a treat for taping up cute photos and postcards.

I store my embellishments and stickers in this cute metal kitchen caddy. I spotted it (and the dotty box - how cute?) in TKMaxx one day and knew it would be perfect as I love to see exactly what I've got and rifle through them easily.

My best crafting find was my typewriter which I found in a thrift store for £6! I was so lucky to find one that not only worked, but was my favourite colour too.

I really hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my crafty corner of our house! Do leave me any questions or thoughts at all and I'll be happy to answer them. Bye for now and happy scrapping!

Kit Love with Michelle

 Happy July everyone! A new month means a new batch of kits and I am super stoked to give a little bit of kit love to the awesome July Scrapbook and Sprinkles Kits!

This month the kits feature an amazing color palette, with an out of this world blue that just might be my new favorite color!   Really, it's great and you can check it out in all it's glory in this little video I filmed while unpacking my kits and getting them ready to work with:

Well, what do you think about July??  I know I was pretty happy with what I unpacked! And how about the new Nuvo Crystal drops?  Exciting stuff for sure!

Wishing you a happy month of crafting!

Michelle

Pocket Pages with Melissa Mann

Good Morning and Happy Fourth of July to our American friends!

This is Melissa here with you this morning and I'm sharing a couple of my pocket pages that I have made so far with the fantastic July "Driftwood" Kit!

There were so many pieces to this kit this month that I just loved! I loved the cut-apart sheets! There was an entire sheet of just labels! I love to stick the whole sheet of labels in my typewriter and type all my journaling out for the various pictures in my spreads. It makes it SUPER easy! I also loved the die-cut pieces that were included :-) And last but not least, I really liked the exclusive epoxy stickers! The smiley faces were my favorite!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek! Make sure you share your projects with us in our GALLERY or on our FACEBOOK page!

Sunday Sketch with Wendy

Hello Citrus Twist Kits lovelies and Happy (long) Holiday Weekend (American peeps)!

Wendy here to share up with you today the Sunday Sketch.  I love long weekends and you can take this sketch to work up some creative flow after you eat some BBQ and enjoy some down time to kick start summer!  I feel I take more photos in the summer months and this sketch is a great one to bring a fun vibe to your next layout.

As my usual layout style and size, I adapted the sketch to a 9x12 layout format.

Here's my take on the Sunday Sketch this week...

My three stepsons still live in Europe (near Salzburg, Austria, to be exact).  We are thousands of miles apart but love for family is near and dear.  Plus, I had to include our Yorkie, Principessa (aka Italian for Princess) Saponaro who is part of the family too. Ha!

The repetition of the circles on this sketch had me at hello!  I like the different flow to get away from the typical and routine square photos.  So fun!

For this sketch, I blew the dust off of my circle punches.  I used circle punches in the sizes of 3", 1 1/2", 1", and 3/4" or you can easily use your Silhouette Cameo to cut out the various circle sizes.  The repetition of circles in the sketch brings many opportunities to use various pattern papers or photos, as you prefer.

On one of the 3" circles, I added my journaling with a typewriter along with the "I like us" phrase from the stamp set in the June 2016 "Capri" Scrapbook Kit.  I used the Maggie Holmes papers along with the Citrus Twist Kits exclusive paper in the kit.

The touch of florals along the circle shapes bring warmth to the sketch.  So, I added some floral sprigs from my stash along with some hand stitching for the leaves.

Supply List:

Citrus Twist Kits | June 2016 "Capri" Scrapbook Kit, Stamps: June 2016, December 2015, This Moment, Tiny Attacher stapler.

Other | Circle punches, spray mist, dye ink, florals, embroidery thread, needle, wood veneers (letters).

Now it's your turn. If you want to play along with this week's Sunday Sketch and be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate, create a project based off of the sketch and upload it to CTK Gallery by next Saturday. Please make sure to include "Sketch 7/3" to the title line of your project.

I hope I inspired you and you enjoyed my take on this week's Sunday Sketch!  We can't wait to see what you create with this sketch!  Now go and create it up!

Wendy 

3 to Inspire

Hello! Today we are lucky to have our Guest Designer France Wisniewski here with us to inspire you with her take on this week's "3 to Inspire" challenge! 

Your take on this challenge can be a layout or a PL spread and you must include all 3 prompts on your project. This is what I have for you today:

1. Create a grid using a combination of pictures and patterned paper

2. Use stamps to make your own word strips

3. Make some fringe.

Here is France's Layoout she made using the July "Driftwood" Add-On Kit:

Now it's your turn! Use the three prompts to create your own project, share it with us here in the gallery , and you will be eligible to win a small prize from the CTK Store. Make sure to include the date of the challenge (7/2) in the title of your gallery submission!  Can't wait to see what you create!

Meet Our July Guest Designer

Today on the blog, we would like to introduce you to our July Guest Designer. Say hello to France Wisniewski!

Hello! Hello! I'm delighted to be a guest this month. I'm a work from home graphic designer and documenter living in the lovely city of Seattle. Since much of my work is not particularly creative, I embrace the time I have to make as many things as I can. I knit, crochet, art journal, paint, and of course, scrapbook. I also watch an unhealthy amount of reality TV. At the beginning of this year, I decided to stop Project Life style scrapbooking in favor of a more tactile approach. I now use a monthly traveler's notebook to record my everyday memories. Notebook style scrapbooking has reinvigorated my love of this hobby since it combines so many of the right things I adore like art journaling and creative writing. When I'm not playing with paper, I love walking the many trails that surround my home and just enjoying nature. I share a little red house with my husband and my loudmouth, slightly overweight beagle/blue heeler mix. My idea of a perfect day would begin with a cup of coffee outdoors and end with wine, laughter, conversation, and candlelight. 

Here's a little peak into where France creates:

To get to know France a little better, we've had her do a little Q&A with us:

How long have you been scrapbooking and why did you start? 

I have been scrapbooking since the late 90's. In the beginning, I was really drawn to the "stuff" of scrapbooking. It took me a while to get into the substance. When I started there was no Instagram or Pinterest, so I depended on scrapbook magazines as my primary source of inspiration.  Most of the layouts depicted children and lifestyles that were pretty different from my own. I worried that I didn't have enough going on in my own life to warrant the time and money I was devoting to this hobby. Once I discovered the Internet, everything changed. I suddenly found a community of papercrafters that were scrapbooking for all kinds of reasons...for their families, as a form of therapy, and to celebrate their own lives and accomplishments. It became clear that every life is worth celebrating and documenting...including mine.

How would you describe your scrapbooking style?

Happy. Is that a style? I don't use my layouts as a place to work stuff out.  I'm not terribly prolific, so I want to focus on the joy and beauty in my life.  When I flip through my scrapbooks I want it to be less like a history book and more like a delightfully illustrated collection of treasured moments.

Which scrapbookers have influenced you most?

Hmmmmm. My primary influences aren't actual scrapbookers, but designers and writers.  Some of my favorites are Jane Austen.....of course, Beatrix Potter, Maya Angelou, Pablo Neruda as well as Tibor and Maira Kalman. I'm also heavily influences by children's book illustrators like Mary Blair, Barbar Wurszt, and John Klassen....but the list is ever changing.  In terms of scrapbooking alone, I adore Ali Edwards and Kelly Purkey.  Ali--for the way she has combined her design background with more artistic and hand crafted techniques like rubberstamping.  She's also an excellent teacher. Kelly-because she is so modern and lovely.  As a childfree woman, I love it when I discover scrapbookers recording lives that look a bit different than most.  I think she is a wonderful example of the value of telling our own stories no matter what those stories look like. 

What is your favorite thing about kit clubs?

Well, my first love was the "stuff" and that hasn't really changed.  The joy of receiving a box packed with prettiness is just the most wonderful feeling.  You can't buy happiness....unless it's a scrapbook kit and then maybe you can :).  Nothing makes me want to scrapbook more than a box of colorful, well curated product.  Everyone has their own motivation and that's a big part of mine.

What are your 5 favorite scrapbooking items that you can't live without? 

Only one of these things is a forever favorite....the rest are subject to change without notice.  White cardstock, patterned paper, sewing machine, die cuts, and rubberstamps.

How would you describe the Citrus Twist July "Driftwood" Scrapbooking Kit and what do you enjoy most about it?

The July Scrapbooking kit is a beautiful slice of summer, filled with light, bright, and fresh colors. I grew up in LA and spent a great deal of time at the pool and at the beach.  The puffy stars by Freckled Fawn reminds me of the ice cream I used to get from a tiny shop on the Santa Monica Pier. I was happy to see hints of periwinkle since I don't see it very often, and I always love the versatile rubberstamps.  I think the thing I enjoyed the most was the Nuyo Crystal Drops.  This was an unexpected surprise and I think that's the best part of any kit.  I knew very little about it and was excited to give it a try.  After a bit of experimenting, I can imagine so many fun uses for these dimensional drops. 

Thank you so much France for joining us here at Citrus Twist Kits for the month of July! It has been a pleasure getting to know you better and we look forward to seeing what you create with this month's kit!

For even more crafty inspiration from our Guest Designer, make sure and check out her Instagram feed @bananafishstudio and stop by her blog AND come back here a little later today to see how she takes on this week's 3 to Inspire Challenge!

**Make sure and leave a comment at the end of this post and we will be picking one lucky winner to receive one of France's favorite scrapbooking supplies! Good luck!

July Pocket Life Sketch

Elizabeth here today to share my latest PL sketch with you. I apologize for the quality of this.. I actually do "sketch" my sketches when creating, so this is pretty true to me! This month I wanted to challenge you to use several smaller photos on your spread. I love the trick of continuing the photos across the span of pockets. Such a unique look and way to include lots of photos for those busier weeks.

and here is the sketch translated into actual scrapping..

here is the page's counterpart...

and the entire spread..

You've probably noticed by now that I am a big fan of the small photos! Thanks for stopping by today. I can't wait to see what you all make using my very sketchy sketch. Aren't these July kits just to die for?!