Please welcome Andrea Gray to our Creative Team!

Please joins us in welcoming  Andrea Gray to our Creative Team!  We are such a fan of her crafty creations and cannot wait to see what magic she creates with her Citrus Twist Kits each month!

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Hello Friends! To say I'm excited to be joining the Citrus Twist Creative Team is a major understatement! If I could use all the adjectives to convey my happiness, I would!  Instead I'm going to introduce myself and do a little Q&A!

My name is Andrea and I'm also known as Retrohipmama. I recently started a crafty & lifestyle magazine as a way to inspire makers to keep on making! I love memory keeping and all sorts of crafty things. Making stuff has just been a way of life for as long as I can remember. 

When did you start scrapbooking? I've been crafty since the 80s! But scrapbooking came into my life in 1998 and I have never given it up. I've seen all the trends and styles come and go and along the way have reinvented my own style. I love the memory keeping aspect but I would be lying if I didn't admit to how much I adore the products. Playing with color and images is my jam!

What is something most people would not know about you? I have some weird food quirks. Snacks especially need to be eaten in pairs, either by color or size. There's something about the symmetry that just makes me need to snack like this! 

What are the 3 scrapbooking products you can’t live without? I definitely need labels, tags and clips to create almost any project! Everything else is just a bonus!

Now that you know a little bit about me, I'll share my go-to format for memory keeping using the October kits!

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6x8 is my main format and I love to do one side with pockets and a full layout on the opposite side. It gives me an opportunity to play in pockets as well as practice my new favorite full page style.

Lately I've been loving working die cuts and ephemera into a puzzle-like style. It's kinda like a collage and a grid design and I love making odd shaped supplies fit together! This is definitely my jam!

For this page about my dad, I wanted to remember that when he texts me, even though I know it's from him, he still always ends his texts with "Love Dad". I used the love die cut and the alpha stickers for the title and then added the floral elements and of course, hearts! 

Thank you so much for joining me for my first ever CTK blog post! I hope you gain some inspiration to use on your own projects!

See you soon!

Product Highlight - PATTERNED PAPER

Hello CTK friends!

Anna and Nathalie with you today to shine the spotlight on Patterned Paper.  Let's be honest, we all have a stash of paper we are keeping to document that special memory, and this month's Skyland  Scrapbook, PL kit, Patterned Paper Play and Outside Stories kit are filled with beautiful papers. But before you put them away in your stash, let us show you how you can combine and use them in your projects.  First up is Nathalie.

Hi there!,  Nathalie here to bring you a bit of inspiration using a few of the patterned papers from this month's Skyland kits.  This month, the papers are gorgeous, filled with fun designs, and perfect to document all your memories.

For my layout, i wanted to create a very coastal mood for the page, as it documents a picture of my daughter after spending a day basking in the sun on the beach. For this i picked papers from the Skyland Scrapbook Kit, PL kit, Patterned Paper Play kit and also used a digital card to create a patterned paper for this page.  

What better way to use paper and mix patterns than to crate paper flowers. I used a combination of cut files (Silhouette Store) and some dies to create the centers and petals of the flowers.  I used a bone folder to add some movement to the petals. Some of the flowers were layered together, so that they add dimension to the page.

Along the way,  i added a few die cut leaves  (Maya Road die) cut from white cardstock (color a few with green paint, too), so that they will form clusters around the picture and the entire page.   A few of the Scrapbook kit embellishments and elements from the cut apart sheet also were added along the clusters to embellish the page. Finally a few sentiments using the Conversation Starter Stamp complete this page.

Really, the patterns and designs on this month's Skyland kits are gorgeous, and easy to combine in your projects, so do not put them away (not yet at least!).

Well that is all for me, now it is time for Anna to show you her gorgeous project and give you a new take on how to use all the beautiful papers in the Skyland kits.

xo

Hi dear CTK friends! Anna here bringing you some more patterned paper inspiration made with the July Skyland Kits. But first, don't you love Nathalie's beautiful layout!? So much to love about that, as always with Nathalie's work. Pure happiness:)

Anyway, my layout is made with a combo of Skyland  Scrapbook kit, PL kit, Mixed Media kit and one of the gorgeous July Cut Files.

And here's what I came up with.

I decided to let a part of the gorgeous Simple Stories paper be the focal point and "queen of the page" since backing this lovely "Celebrate" Cut file with it as my BIG title. I love how this turned out.

For my background I've been playing around with the two pink acrylic's from the Mixed Media kit and a few ordinary color mists from my stash. Just smooshing (or as Vicki Boutin said, "Kissing" lol!) my paper with a plastic bag prepped with color until I'm satisfied with the result.

Look at these lovely layers of pattened papers, yummy!

And here's another stack of layers, a combo of papers, cotton and die-cuts, beautiful! Also there's a good idea to tuck some epoxy stickers or other embellishments within/underneath your layers of paper.

The colors and design of the papers in this kit (and all of the past CTK kits as well, lol!) are perfectly unperfect matched with the stickers and other goodies in the kit. Trina is the queen of making kits, thats the way it is, can't help it.

Well that is all for me and us! Now it's your turn to dig into your kits, packed with gorgeous pattened papers, and play along with us here at CTK. Be sure to hang on with our weekly challenges and don't forget to share them with us at the CTK Fan Page. Also,please do hashtag us, #citrustwistkits, so we can see and enjoy all of your beautiul creations.

If you still haven't signed up for a kit (or more) by your own, don't wait to long they are tending to selling fast :) Just click here and you are home!

Thanks for stopping by! Take care! Anna xo

Pocket Life Challenge: From Scratch!

Hey Everyone! This is Jennie with today's Pocket Life Challenge! IT'S NOVEMBER! Yikes! How did that happen?! If you are planning a major catch up make sure you check out the rest of the challenges this month. They can be a great way to get inspired!

My Challenge for this month is to create a filler card from scratch! I used the 6x8 papers to create 2 of the cards. If you are a simple scrapper you can start with just cutting a 3x4 card and adding one of the bigger die cuts from the ephemera pack.

I love to use the little bits of the ephemera pack on my photos. I also make extra tiny bits using heart dies and the 6x8 paper from the kit. I love the super cute colors of this month!

The puffy alphas of the November Pocket Life Kit are so perfect. And they have numbers! Yay! I kept my title card super simple because I liked the design from the 4x6 card and I din't want to alter it too much. Next to it I have a card with a little journaling about a drawing my daughter made.

Here you can really see the two filler cards I made. On the first card, I used the black and white stripes paper. I used the 3x4 stamp set that comes in the Pocket Life Kit to stamp all over the paper. The lines made it so easy. Then I layered die cuts, puffy stickers and the cork. You don't have to add everything and the kitchen sink like I do. If you want to go super simple I recommend using the rules of threes and try to vary the size of the items. On the second card, I used a circle stitched die to add a layer to the card instead of adding the circle on top. This creates an illusion of depth. This cat die is the cutest!

The 3x4 stamp is perfect if you've been wanting to stamp on your photos. They are small and they stamp perfectly. I stamped using Brilliance White on the grass and with Back StazOn on the photos of my daughters. I also did a little ghost stamping. 

I love the ephemera die cut pack! Besides being super cute they always have labels (a must for stamping dates on a  title card) and little words which I love to put on photos.

I hope you enjoyed these pages! I like to share some of my filler and title cards on Instagram if you want to check them I'm @jenniegarcian over there. 

Happy - August Kit - Emma Wood

Hello friends!  Emma on the blog today to share a fun page I created using the stunning August Main & Embellishment kits.  I absolutely adore the CTK exclusive pattern paper included in the Main kit this month and I may also be a little addicted to the Maggie Holmes ephemera so I started this page with those things in mind and I love how it finished up!

 

I cut two strips from the paper (you know I just had to go with the pinks..) and distressed the edges for something different.  I think out of all the tools I have the distress tool would have to be the oldest and the least used, haha.  To start my page I picked a mist that matched the papers (Heidi Swapp Color shine in coral that I picked up from the CTK store a while back) and did a few splatters on each side of where I planned the paper strips to sit.  I love the vintage ribbon included in the kit so I tucked that underneath the left edge and then stitched them all in place using my sewing machine.

I messed around with all the die-cuts for ages before I settled on this one and I really only picked it because the photo's I'd printed fit on top perfectly, with just the wheel and top of the die-cut cart peeking above/below!

 
I also tucked a copule of the die-cut flowers at the top of my photo and then put the "HAPPY' die-cut ontop of it all (using some foam-dots underneath to give it a little dimension).

There isn't a whole lot of story to go with this page, so for my journaling I used a combination of the word stickers and stamps.  I think it's a fun way to add some story to your page and love doing this on my pages (obviously not suited for all pages, limited by the stickers/stamps you have on hand and how long you want your journaling to be!).

To finish off my page I used a few of the puffy heart stickers and called it done! 

I really love how it finished up.  Soft and pretty with lots of layers; my kind of page ;)

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, I hope you enjoyed reading how this one came together and I would love to see how you used the exclusive paper - remember to share on the Facebook Fanpage or in our Gallery here :) 

Until next time!  Take care, Em xo

Journal - Sea Life

Hi friends!  Emma here to share my first attempt at creating a mini-album using a journal (or think travelers notebook type book)!  This month's Grace Box kit came with the cutest journal and I thought it would be fun to try making a little journal/mini about a trip we made to Sea Life earlier this year.

I have to say that making this little book was so much fun!  I was actually a little intimidated to begin with but once I stopped getting hung up on "perfection" (and limiting the embellishing...which is hard for me) - I really enjoyed the process of putting this together.  It's far from perfect, but for my first attempt at using a journal book; I'm pretty happy with the end result.  And more importantly - I've got the photo's and stories recorded :)

The journal included in the Grace Box has 24 pages but that was far too many for me to fill so so I simply stitched a few pages together (I think I went with 2 or 3 pages, I wasn't exact every time, I just grabbed a few and ran the pages through my sewing machine to join them together).

I included things like the train timetable/ticket stubs and the map.

I kept my layouts fairly plain and had to continually remind myself not to go overboard with the embellishing.  Embellishments are my favourite part when putting layouts together so it was tricky!  I used a little from all the May kits in this book and I love how it all coordinates together so easily.  Those copper alpha's from the main kit are absolutely gorgeous (the photo's do not do them justice!) and I had to stop myself from using them on every page...but they do pop up on a few ;)

All my journaling was typed up on the computer and printed out on plain copy paper (I cheat and use a typewriter font).

To add a bit of colour through the album I used patterned paper on one side of the page.  Love the blue of this exclusive paper from the Main kit and the matching die-cuts (from the PL kit).

I even managed to work a sequin pocket page into it!  I'm forever using sequins/veneer pockets in my albums; I love the movement they create.  I used a piece of vellum in this journal though and just machine stitched around the outside.   It's hard to see in the photo's but I also cut a jelly fish shape from white cardstock and popped that inside with the green/blue sequins.

Originally I was not going to have anything on the outside of my journal but I have this annoying habit of adding "titles" to the spines/fronts of my mini-albums so I had to follow suit here.  I went with plain black alphas (from an older kit, Jan 2017 Add-on) and just stuck them onto a plastic divider I had sitting around (that I trimmed down to fit my journal).

And here's a quick little flip through the full journal!

I actually created this as the NSD challenges were being posted and I originally I thought I'd create a page per challenge, but as you can see, I failed miserably, haha.  I did get one sketch into it though!  The LHS page is based on the sketch shared by Michelle on Day 1 of the challenges ;)

So all up I got ONE challenge from NSD finished...which = a big fail for me haha.  I had the best intentions...  But on the plus side, I was so happy to see so many of you joined in on alot of challenges and that is AWESOME!  Did you have fun on NSD?  How many challenges did you manage to finish up doing?!  And for those of you that won; have you got your goodies yet?!  SO LUCKY!

Thanks for joining me on the blog today!  I hope you'll be inspired to try these journal books for yourself; they're not as intimidating as I thought they would be and I'm planning my next one already :)

Take care, Em xo