"Chapters" with Marsha

Hello friends!  It's Marsha, here with my first post as part of the Citrus Twist Creative Team.  I am so happy to be here!  The March Life Chapters kit, is absolutely gorgeous, and I am excited to share with you the layout I created using the kit, Life Chapters Cut Aparts, and Traveler's Notebook Stamp Set.

To begin the layout, I chose a black and white photo of my husband and me, taken last month at a Valentine's Day Banquet.  The geometric heart patterned paper from the kit is my favorite, so I decided to use the full sheet on my layout.  I cut it in half and layered it over some white card stock, machine stitching around the edges for interest and texture.

I layered the "chapters" ephemera piece along the edge of the patterned paper to serve as my title.  Next, I stamped on a label using the Traveler's Notebook Stamp Set.  The sentiments on this set are perfect for my layout!    I used some of the cut aparts, and one of the chipboard circle pieces to complete this section of the page.

For the other side of the spread, I used one of the journaling cards from the kit as a mat for my photo.  I layered a label behind the photo, stamped the date on a tab, and added a couple of chipboard pieces.  I trimmed another one of the 3x4 cards into a tag shape to use for my journaling and tucked it behind the photo.

Here's another look at my completed layout.

Thank you so much for joining me today.  I hope I have inspired you to use the March Life Crafted kit and Traveler's Notebook Stamp Set to document your stories!

Meet our March Guest Designer - Krystal Becker

Today we are so excited to share with you are next Guest Designer for March, Krystal Becker.  If you are not already following Krystal then you really should - her Instagram feed is an absolute delight to scroll through!  You can see more of Krystal's amazing work on her blog and YourTube channel!

-------------------------------------

GET TO KNOW KRYSTAL

My name is Krystal Becker, and I live in a small, rural, college town in Indiana. I have been with my partner, Jesse, for nearly 19 years, and we have four furry children (two dogs and two cats). They are my everything! By day I'm a librarian. I currently work as the Marketing and Communications Director of our local public library.

I've been crafting nearly my entire life. I used to spend hours with my grandmother making little gifts for other family members out of painted wood, paper, fabric, pipe cleaners, or whatever else she could find in her closets. My style today is a little bit eclectic. I used to be very minimalist and only used clean white backgrounds, but I've been dipping my toes in the mixed media pond lately, and I'm starting to embrace a "messier" look. However, I always select limited color palettes for my projects to keep things cohesive and to prevent them from looking too overwhelming to my eye.

Q&A WITH KRYSTAL

When did you start scrapbooking?

I made my very first scrapbook when I was in high school (in the mid 90's). I didn't know that there were special products for scrapbooking back then, so I just used whatever I could find around the house (construction paper, confetti, bits from magazines, etc.). It wasn't until around 2005, after I graduated from college and had some spare time, that I discovered the world of papercrafting. I've basically been addicted to pretty paper ever since. 

What is something most people would not know about you?

Scrapbooking is not my only hobby; I also sing. I've been singing my entire life, and even spent a year touring with a production company right out of high school. I'm currently in a local jazz band and also sit in with an old-timey band at times. 

What are the 3 scrapbooking products you can’t live without?

Only 3?! This is going to be difficult. I definitely need patterned paper, and I use labels on nearly everything I create, so I would definitely need some of them. Then I'd probably want something with some kind of dimension. Enamel dots are usually my go-to. So yeah, I'd say patterned paper, labels, and enamel dots.

What do you love about the new Life Crafted kit?

I am seriously in love with the Life Crafted albums! I struggled with the idea of traveler's notebooks for a long time. I like the size, but they seemed so limiting to me. With the Life Crafted album, you get the same size but with the flexibility to add in smaller bits and lots of dimension. The Life Crafted kits make it so easy to put together pages for the album. They have everything you need, all perfectly coordinated. I can sit down and create multiple pages in no time at all, which is important when you have limited time to create. 

Finish this sentence "If you could see my scrapbooking space right now . . . "

...you might be appalled. :) My space is far from ideal. I have a wall of make-shift shelving in the sun room of our tiny cottage and an Ikea desktop precariously perched on some small wire shelves. Our two cats spend a lot of time in this room, so I'm always fighting a battle with cat hair (and usually losing). It's generally a hot mess. But I make it work. :)

And here is just a little peek into her creative space:

---------------------------------------------

The pages I created are in my "Books in 2019" album. (I had previously posted the cover page I made for the album using the February CTK kit on Instagram). I made four two-page spreads documenting four of the books I've read so far in 2019.

Thanks so much for having me as a guest designer!  Krystal

"Just Us" with Suzanna

Hey there, crafty friends! I'm so excited to share my first post as a member of the CTK design team! I used the March Life Crafted kit to create a layout that, if you ask me, screams of spring vibes. I am so excited for the start of a new season right around the corner.

I created an 8.5x11" layout and really love the way it turned out. The patterned paper from the kit made the perfect background for my photo, journaling, and embellishing.

I'm a big fan of clustering embellishments and did so in three places around the layout. This "design triangle" guides the eye, so the layout flows well when you're looking at it. I clustered die cuts, chipboard pieces, and labels.

On the right side of my photo, I used a journaling card to hold all of my journaling - which looks like a blob to you because I had to blur for privacy reasons. But under that blurry blob there are lots of words that talk about what made this memory special.

To finish the layout, I added a bit of gold craft mist splattered around the same places I put my embellishment clusters. It really brought the layout together and added just the perfect amount of messy!

I hope this layout gave you a bit of inspiration on how you can use your March Life Crafted kit. I'll be back later this month with more crafty goodness! Until then, I'll be peeking at the CTK hashtag on Insta to see all the beautiful projects y'all are creating!

Sunday Sketch with Kira

Sometimes, a sketch is so perfect, that you should just follow it to a T.  That's exactly what I did with today's sketch!  Here's a look:

And here's the layout I created:

I started by choosing my two photos.  I had taken the one on the right just last month.  I love the sweet, yet serious, expression on my son's face.  And then I got a notification from Facebook that I had memories "on this day".  When I checked the memory, the adorable photo on the left popped up.  How crazy that he gave me this perfect expression two years apart on the same exact day?!

I knew my title had to be "on this day" since that's what it says when you check those Facebook memories, and the rest of the layout was pretty identical to the sketch.  I even kept the large "2" in place, since there's two photos, two years apart, and my son is currently two years old.  So many meanings there!

I used a Life Crafted card as my base layer, and added another smaller layer from the patterned paper on top, using a bit of craft foam to bump it up. I used lots of bits and pieces from the LC kit around the page.  Only adding in a tiny bit of twine and ribbon for just a bit of addition texture.

I finished off the page with some black splatters, and left off any journaling since I felt the photos did all the work for me.  And that's it!  I hope you can play along with this sketch too!

xo, Kira

3-to-Inspire with Nathalie

Hi there!
I am so glad to start a new term with Citrus Twist Kits and all these amazing ladies.   Today i will be hosting the 3-to-Inspire challenge for this week using the beautiful Life Chapters kit.  But before we go into the projects, let me share this week's prompts:

1. Use a non-white background
2. Create layers 
3. Add stamping to your title.

For my first project i used the Life Crafted - Life Chapters kit and the Butterfly Frame (free subscriber cut file) to create this page about my daughter's choice to cut her long-er hair.

The cut file was cut from white cardstock, so i chose Vanilla colored cardstock as the background for this page.   Once the frame was machine stitched to the background, i started working on the layers.

The papers in the Life Stories kit  and white vellum were used to cut different size butterflies using the same cut file.    Before attaching these to the page, i added a bit of white paint where the butterflies would be attached, and then machine stitched the butterfly shapes to the background.

For the picture, i chose to add a bit of ink to the background, and then layered papers, ephemera and cut apart elements to frame the picture.

The title was set at the bottom corner of the page, and i chose to mix the kit's  alphas with the stamp set to complete it.  The following  video will show you how it all came together.

I love the softness and color of this page, and since i had the negative pieces from  the cut out, i chose to use them to create a layout in my Life Crafted album using the prompts as inspiration.

This time, I used one of the Life Chapters' papers to create the background for this page.   I used a few of the negative paper pieces to create layers behind the picture.

   I used the Life Chapters kit stamp set to create the title for this layout, and set it at the bottom of the picture.    

I pulled an upcoming Life Crafted insert -expected in a few weeks- and used the top pocket to house my journal lines - i used the digital cards to add the lines using Photoshop-.   In the bottom pocket, i added one of the cards with a small phrase sticker on it, and then added the layer butterfly to the outside of the pocket.   The layered butterflies were also added to the picture so that there is a unified look in the page.

These two entries were both inspired by the 3 prompts and the colors in the kit, and now it is your turn to use them to create a project of your own.

Life Crafted with Anna

Hi dear Friends! Anna here with you today sharing some Life Crafted "Life Chapter goodness. Unfortunately my March DT-box is a bit delayed because of a snow bizzard. Though I have had a blast playing with lots of the gorgeous March Life Crafted digital printables which you can find in the CTK shop.
So much fun! I have also used a few puffy hearts from the February kit.

Here's what I came up with. It ended up with both a spread for my beautiful Life Crafted Album as well as an ordinary layout. Hope you will like it!

The left side is one of the digital Journaling cards for March. I printed it slightly larger and made some trimming to make it fit in my pocket. For my right side I have used one of the March digital Travelers Notebook papers and also a few pieces from the Cut Aparts sheet.

And there you have the album spread, next up is my layout. Enjoy!

I have used the March Digital Journaling cards and printed out one of them in Lettersize format for my background. For my layers underneath my photo I have printed some of the digital Travelers Notebook  papers for March. Also you can see a few pieces from the Cut Aparts sheet. 

Thanks so much for joining in here today with me! Now it's your turn to grab your own kits and start playing. Don't forget to share with us on social media as Instagram ( #citrustwistkits / @citrustwistkits) and on our CTK Fan Page on Facebook. My friends and I can't wait to see what magic you will create.

Also be sure to head over to the CTK website and sign up for a subscription or to buy some other goodies.

Until Next time! Anna xo