Goodbye March

Hi everyone! Before we head into a new month and exciting new kits, I'm sharing a few of pages created with the beautiful March main kit 'Sonoma'. Starting with a page, dedicated to a dear family friend - Saphira, seen here modelling her new bandana! 

A personal fave scrap supply of mine would have to be black and white geometric patterned papers and the lift they can bring to a page, co-ordinating with any colour and in this case I've used a mix of gold, aqua, green and orange. The bold black word Thicker finish off the page and make a great statement

how cute is the little wooden peg? 

Geometrics feature on this page as well, which touches of gold, aqua and pink..

Finally, this quick layout of my gorgeous girls and I came about by accident really.. I pulled out the beautiful sheet of CTK paper in the main kit, and while wondering how I could use it (it seemed a shame to cut up) I noticed the scrap paint sheet next to me and how the colours seemed to go so well with the paper. So I added a few graphite scribbles, die-cuts, wood veneer and alpha and it's made the perfect artsy backdrop! 

I love a happy accident when creating..thanks for visiting!

Gina..x

Use up every last scrap and share the love!

I almost killed the March Pocket Life kit. Almost.

So I sat down amongst all my scraps and left-overs and made just a few more cards. Now my kit is officially killed and I have some filler cards I can keep, or share. In fact, my favourite way to "share" these leftovers is in a pocket letter. Which is exactly where these beauties are going. Who wouldn't love this happy mail!

Photo-template basics with Mira

Hello Citrus Twist Kits fans!

Today I am here with a video tutorial where I demonstrate the very basics about preparing photo layout using photo template.

I discovered photo templates not so long ago, just opened it in Adobe Photoshop to start exploring what options do I have - what can I do with it.
I might not be a good person to teach You anything Photoshop - related (I use different software on a regular basis), but I managed to discover how to prepare a really nice photo-layout that can be further used in my Project Life album or framed and hanged on the wall!
I really want to share it with You - just to show You that it's not difficult at all!

If You want to go step-by-step with me through this process - be sure to watch the video that I prepared:

You can find free photo template that I created for march Let's get digital edition - it's available to download from Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Fan page, and if the only reason You don't want to use this template is the fact that You don't have Adobe Photoshop - remember that You can download it's trial version from the Adobe website: here.

Here is one of my recent PL page, where I used simple photo templates to add white space around the pictures:

To create this page I used wonderful March 2016 "Sonoma" Pocket Life Kit from CTK :)

I really hope You enjoyed this Tuesday Tutorial post and that You will fall in love with photo templates just the way I did!

Have a great week!
xx

Sweet and Simple

Happy Monday friends! As we start the count down to the new month, I wanted to share some quick and easy projects that I made with the beautiful March "Sonoma" Scrapbooking Kit!

Occasionally I feel like I need a break from my usual 9x12 layouts and when this happens I like to try my hand at creating on a smaller canvas.  One of the perks of doing this, is that the projects are relatively quick to put together and they quench my craving to create. 

Up first is a 6x8 layout documenting the last day of preschool and the happiness my daughter felt because Kindergarten was right around the corner. I kept the design simple and focused on creating a vertical line with my patterned paper and title. Using the larger floral embellishment gave some impact to the project and the small details created just the right amount of interest. Sweet and simple!

I am highly practiced at admiring other cardmaker's work, yet am often a little lost when it comes to creating my own. Occasionally though, I feel a little brave and give this tiny canvas a shot! The only way I know how to make a card is to pretend I am working on a scrapbook layout and that is how I approached this one:

Wishing you a great day!

Michelle

Here Sketchy Sketchy! Sketch Sunday with Aimee and Brenda.

Hiya and welcome to a very special Easter edition of the Sunday Sketch Challenge. The fact that it falls on Easter Sunday is just a coincidence. The 'very special' part is because Brenda Smith with be joining me - Two for the price of one peeps! We are nothing, if not great value here on the Citrus Twist Blog. So shall we get started? Here is the Sketch we will be rocking:

I for the first time in history stuck to the sketch (*Cough* Moderately).

I adore this page. These photos are some of my absolute favourites of Eva.

I cut a square the same size as the photos for my Journaling and used the typewriter to fill in the details. I also inked the edges to up the contrast against the background.

Oh speaking of contrast, I know it's not on the sketch, but I added the Shimelle clip to add a little more orange to balance out the title and pink fresh sticker. It was a little lost against the white cardstock, so I backed it with the black eye chart. I thought it was pretty cool given the glasses.

Last, but not least (and not required at all), I added a butterfly and an Elle's Studio tag to the bottom just to draw the eye down the page and make it a little less top heavy.

Well that about wraps up my contribution to the Sunday Sketch Challenge. I can not wait to see your take on it. Just for a little (or a lot) more inspiration, here's Brenda:

 

I have a folder on my computer of old images that I have not used for paper scrapping.  Every once in a while I dig through it to see if there is anything that fits the kits I am working with.  This time, these caught my eye.  This was my first time using a backdrop to take photos.  I literally set a sheet up in the doorway of my house where the light was pretty and snapped some photos of my middle girl.  She was so tiny!  Hooray for finding old photos to scrap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's your turn! To play along with these week's Sunday Sketch Challenge, create a layout based off of today's sketch, upload it to our gallery with the date of the challenge (3/27) in the title, and you will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to be used in the CTK Store!

 

3 To Inspire with Emma

Hi everyone!  Emma here to share this week's 3 To Inspire challenge! I've said this before but I love the 3 To Inspire challenges each week; they're the perfect thing to get that creative mojo going!  I hope you'll join in with me this week using the following prompts:

1. Use 2 tags
2. Use the kit packaging in some way (this could be the bag, the twine, anything really!)
3. Include banners

As a reminder, your project can be a Project Life page or a scrapbook page but it should include all three (3) prompts on it!

Here's my take on the prompts:

I admit that usually I set the prompts after I've made a page (such a cheater!! haha) but this month I created the prompts before creating my page.  It actually started with that brown paper bag. The kits always come beautifully (and carefully!) packaged and these bags usually end up in my paper recycling bin but I figured, why not actually use it!

One of the tags I used came from the Pocket Life kit (those amazing die-cuts from Pinkfresh Studio that I LOVE).  The other tag I created using one of the 6x6 pages and a circle punch (trick I picked up from Pam, can read about how she made them here, seriously, such a superstar!).

The banners I also cut using some one of the 6x6 pages and the other is the stunning Citrus Twist exclusive paper from the Main kit.  I wish I had another couple sheets of that paper, it is my absolute favourite!

Tucking each of the die-cuts in between the folds of the paper gives the impression of multiple layers but there really is not a great deal to this page - which makes it my kinda page, looks more detailed than it really is, haha ;)

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 can't wait to see your pages!

Thanks, Em xo

Pocket Life Sketch Friday

Hello. It's Friday and time for your weekly PL sketch challenge. You can play along with this challenge and earn a chance to win Happy Mail from Citrus Twist Kits (see below).

This week we are bringing you 4 PL sketches. These pages were made with the March "Sonoma" pocket page kit (still available here) and bits and pieces from the March scrapbooking kit.

What I like about these sketches is they are quick and easy to do.

Here is my two-page 6" x 8" spread:

Here are close-ups of the left and right pages:

I like to layer. The slide frame was made using Maggie Holmes Open Book dies (I just love that die set!) The loose thread is the leftover thread from stitching down the chevron pattern paper. I looped the thread around and behind the little Pinkfresh die-cut heart that is lifted off the page with a pop dot.

This "hello" script pattern paper from the new Maggie Holmes Bloom collection has my heart. I especially love the petite 6" x 6" version. (The little puffy bird is from the March Embellishment kit.)

I really enjoy seeing Swiss crosses in scrapbooking and decided to mix white, pink, yellow and black shapes and sprinkle them across the page. The sprinkling was completely random and I fit my journaling around the crosses.

Here are your PL sketches for the week:

 

Thanks for visiting Pocket Life Friday, where every week we share PL sketches and a chance to win. For your chance to win, create a layout based on the sketches in this blog post, post your layout to our Gallery or our Facebook Fan Page by Friday, April 1, 2016. Be sure to include PL 03/25 in your title when posting!

Happiness + with Aimee

Just one more sleep until Easter, can you believe it? I feel a bulk photo weekend coming on.  I've picked out Eva's outfits for all four days and I must admit even I was surprised how many clothes she has with bunnies on them. I may have also set aside a few pastel papers I think match her outfits, so I'll be ready to scrap at a moments notice. Okay - I know you all aren't like me, but you can borrow some of my principles for pages that go together super quick. Here's one I finished just this week with March's Sonoma Main Kit.

This is a photo from Eva's first ever bath. Looking at the dominant colours in this photo - you have the green of the bath, the pink of the soap and skin tones and the black of hubby's shirt. Not the best pallet to work with, but this months kit was PERFECT. I mean how cool is it that the Pink Paislee paper even looks like bubbles!

I found a little paper went a long way on this layout. Especially the green rose paper. That tiny little strip was all the layout really needed. Once the papers and my punched out bubbles were in place, I worked to build clusters in varying shades of my palette. *Cough* kinda went to town with the sequins and bloom puffy stickers, but I love the extra texture and dimension it adds to the layout.

I used a couple of pieces from the Bloom cut apart sheet and 2 little die-cuts from the Elle Studio pack to pull it all together. And there you have it, an easy yet striking layout, made simply by playing up the colours in your photo.

Thanks for hanging in this long. I'll be seeing you again on Sunday. I've got this week's sketch challenge.

Aimee Xx

How to choose a colour scheme for your pocket pages

Choosing a colour scheme each week can be difficult but here are a couple of simple tips to help make your pages pretty and co-ordinated.

1. Let the kit embellishment colour shine

Normally, I would normally never use green on my spreads, but the alphas in the March kit were so bold and pretty that I decided to make it work. Instead of shying away, I embraced the green, adding pops of it all over the page with die cuts. I choose to use yellow and a coral-pink as well, which ties in well with the photo of my Valentines flowers.

2. Choose one bold accent colour and keep the rest neutral

The photos for this week were pretty plain, so I keep all the papers and embellishments neutral, using black and white and found papers and played up the pop of teal from the photo of my shoes.

3. Let the photos decide what colours to use

This week, my (very few - opps) photos had a pretty strong colour-scheme themselves, being either black and white or rosy and pink! So I keep all the cards, papers and embellishments in the same colours. The glitter alphas worked perfectly and stitching adds a bit of texture to keep it interesting.

Luckily, the Citrus Twist Pocket Life Kit is so versatile you can achieve ALL these different looks from the one kit, and that makes it a bit easier as well!

Tuesday Tutorial with Jessy

Hello CTK fans & subscribers! Today I would like to share with you my step-by-step layout tutorial using your scraps left in the April Sonoma kit.    

After scrapping my layouts, I had some leftovers. They are big enough to use on a layout & I didn't like the idea of throwing them away. So I thought I should share with you how I created my layout with the leftovers. Before I begin, I will gather all the scraps and see how I can mix + match them. Apparently, I'm left with green, yellow and black + white. These colours looked so good together. And it's perfect for spring theme too! 

Next, what I did was to layer them randomly. When I'm done with that, I stuck the pieces of scraps onto a white cardstock. 

Then, I added the flower bouquet photo in the middle and continue to add more sentiments around the photo. And not forgetting the 2 doilies, one at the top & one at the bottom. The doilies will create a soft & subtle look. 

 I decided to add the light yellow cardstock to add a little colour to the white cardstock. I really liked how it soften the overall layout as well. Also added a title & more stickers to finish the layout. 

Hope you are inspired to create with the leftovers that you have in your CTK kit. Thank you for coming by! 

Xoxo Jessy