Sunday Sketch with Desiree

 

    Happy Sunday crafty friends!  Today, I am sharing this week's sketch.  I also got a chance to work with the lovely November Warm Wishes add-on kit.  Let's take a look at the sketch.

I was excited once I saw this sketch. Even more so when I got the chance to do a Christmas Edition of the sketch. So let's take a look at my version.

I decided to do this sketch in my new Pistachio Life Crafted Album. To make my pages, I enlarged the 4x6 journal card from the Gratitude Digital Journal Cards in the Citrus Twist Kits Digital shop. I then layered strips of the pattern papers from the Warm Wishes Kit to the edge of each of my pages.

Next, I added a cluster to each page. One at the top left and bottom right. I used the Warm Wishes ephemera from the Warm Wishes add-on kit and Warm Wishes Puffy Stickers. I used the lovely ornaments and poinsettia florals from the ephemera pack to accent my pictures. I used the garland ephemera to connect my photos like the sketch.

To add even more details to my cluster, I used the Life Crafted Simple Moments Gold Tiny Word Stickers on my pictures.

    

I completed my layout by adding stickers from the Hustle and Bustle Thickers from the Warm Wished add-on kit through my pages.

I love that this sketch gave me the opportunity to create a little unplanned uniformity on my spread.  I love how it came out.

Thank you so much for checking out today's sketch.  I hope you get a chance to play along.

3- To- Inspire With Aimee

Hey there friends! It's Aimee here with you today— bringing you this week's 3-to-inspire challenge. I chose to make a full page 8.5x11 layout but I think it will translate well to many different sizes. Let's get into the prompts!

1. create three distinct clusters

2. use strips of paper to anchor your clusters 

3. use leaves or florals

So, as you can see I have created three distinct clusters that are separate from one another on the page and I have set them up almost in a staircase fashion if you will— I find that this draws your eye all around the layout. I cut pieces from the cut apart sheet that's available in the Flea Market Findings kit and rather than splitting them up into individual word phrases I left them altogether in a long strip to use as anchors to my clusters. I like that this creates a straight horizontal line under my photo and embellishments especially— this really helps to create perspective. 

 

I added in some of the beautiful leaves from the Falling Leaves Die Cut Ephemera pack on top of my cut-aparts to really frame out this photo of my daughter and add a touch of Fall to the page. On the top of the page I tore my white cardstock and added a bit of beautiful blue ledger paper from the digital Basics & Ledgers 6x8 paper collection to pull some blue up near the top of the page.   

At the bottom of the page I added a much shorter paper strip and decided to do some repeat stamping underneath using the Gratitude (Full Heart) Stamp set. 

 

I love this soft, feminine spread and I think that this design would be super fun flipped vertically as well! i hope you enjoyed this week's prompts and I hope you give it a go! Happy creating! I'll catch you next time!

Affectionately, 

MERRY & BRIGHT with Guest Designer CLAUDIA WHITE

 

Hi there!!

Our guest designer Claudia White is sharing a bit of her December Magic with us today!

Oh what fun it is to have this scavenger hunt for the holidays! A fun game that my family and I are participating in this year. Last month I share a copy of the list of things to look for when ever you are out and about.

I gave the list to my husband and my kids and they are also  taking photos of things they come across. This is a great way to get the family involved in documenting holiday memories.

 

Find a copy of the scavenger hunt  list here  and start taking fun photos. Look for these items when you go the store, the super market, the craft store and when you go for a walk around your neighborhood. 

If you carry a picture of the list on your phone, you can easily check off the items you have already found.

 

If you want to embellish your pages consider using some of the December cut files Citrus Twist offers. I used my Cricut machine to cut the snow flakes and I had some of their digital files printed by my local printing shop.

I ordered two copies of each of the label sheets and the journaling cards. They are one of my go to embellishments.   

 

Here are some ideas on how to use journaling cards in your projects, (besides the obvious) You can treat them as paper, cut tags from journaling cards that have pretty floral patterns, use them to frame up your photos, 

If the cards have large florals or other fun graphics, cut them out and use them as ephemera pieces to layer up all the embellishments.

I used lots of journaling cards in these two layouts using the ideas I just mentioned, including the two at the front where I list the items of the scavenger hunt I’ ve already found.

  

The Merry and Bright Kit included lots of beautiful papers that fit the Life-Crafted album. I created side pockets by gluing the edges of two sheets. For the pull out pages I knew my photos were gonna cover most of the paper so plain white 

cardstock was good enough. The great thing is that now my pages are double sided and are ready for my next layout.

 

 

Print your photos any size you want, but I recommend choosing a smaller size since you will have a lot of photos to add to your December albums.  To print my photos this small, I first created a 4x6 collage with my Photoshop app. 

I can add 4 photos to each grid and each photo measures 2x3.  This size worked perfect to create the slider pages that will fit in my pocket page. I saved my photo grid to my photo library and used the Canon Printer photo  app to print my photos here at home.

 

Printing all the photos I collect one a week helps me keep up to date with my memories. I might now always have time to work on my albums or create a page but when I have some free time to craft, my photos are ready to go. 

I use my Canon Printer at home but if  have lots of photos to print I usually send them out to Persnickety Prints, they are my first choice when it comes to printing my family photos.

Don’t forget that you can use both sides of the slider page to add more pics. 

  

Hope all this looks ok. Let me know if you have any questions. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, have a great day tomorrow.

Thank you

 

 

MERRY & BRIGHT with Our Guest Designer LAURA ALBERTS

 

Hey friends, Laura Alberts here with the stunning Merry & Bright Christmas 2021 kit to document this iconic photo of my mother playing an Atari system in the early 1980s. It’s fascinating to see my mom as a young adult just as excited by a new video game system as my brother and I were when we were teens. Love this little peek into her life before we came along! 

 

 

I wanted to create a one-of-a-kind background for this special photo, so I pulled in both the True Life V2 and Merry & Bright stamp sets to puzzle together a backdrop on my white card stock using three colors of ink. I intentionally chose black ink for the larger stamps to make them stand out as a title underneath of my photo. This background was a lot of fun to create! 

 

 

 

I matted my photo with a piece of patterned paper from the Crate Paper Busy Sidewalks paper pad and then with a piece of vellum. This softens the transition from my photo to the busy background. Then, I fussy cut from another Busy Sidewalks paper two large poinsettia flowers to add to the top left and bottom right of my photo, as well as several smaller florals to mix in with the stamping. A few ephemera hearts, puffy gold hearts, and glitter enamel dots sprinkled in open spots finished it off beautifully! 

 

 

Nuvo drops and gold ink spray splashed around the clusters gave the layout a beautifully whimsical feel and filled in white space. However, the journaling may be my favorite part as it really captures my feelings while looking at this photo. Often just a few lines with the person, place, and date is all that’s needed, but sometimes a little comment on how the photo makes you feel really adds valuable insight to the page. 

 

 

 

I can’t wait to see how you use the Merry & Bright Christmas kit in your holiday documenting! I hope you find inspiration for using a variety stamps on your page too.  

 

Always,