Guest Designer - INGUNN MARKIEWICZ

Hi there!

This month we also have the super inspiring INGUNN MARKIEWICZ as one of our guest designers.   She has created a new project using the Chasing Rainbows kit, and i am sure you are going to love  it.

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Hi guys! For my second guest post here, I want to share a couple of different ways I approach highlighting photos in my Life Crafted albums. When we hike, my husband and I take a gazillion photos (it's like a sickness, but we can't stop). Once in a while, one of those photos turns out really lovely and also takes me right back to the moment. That's when I go BIG.

I printed my photo to 9.5 inches by 8.25 inches, cut it in half, and punched holes directly into the photo. I didn't want to distract too much from the photo, so I just cut down one of the 3x4 cards as my title and printed a little journaling spot from one of the digital printable elements. (The line around it was originally pink, so I recolored it in Photoshop to be turquoise instead.)

As a final touch, I stapled some of the acetate florals behind the cards. The flower behind the title cards is actually one piece, but I cut it in half so it could stick out on both sides of the card.

When I want to squeeze in a bunch of little photos in a spread instead of going big, I like to make a fold-out insert.

   

Here I cut out the sentiment from one of the 3x4 cards and glued it to the 6x4 floral card that I had cut down to fit the pocket. I used a 6x8 divided page protector with 4 3x4 pockets (this one is from Ali Edwards and the holes line up perfectly!) and folded it in half to create homes for extra photos and my journaling (happily, the back of the floral card was the perfect spot for my journaling - I love when I can use both sides of a card like that). I also added two of the chipboard circles to make it easier to open my fold-out.

To finish up my spread, I added acetate pieces wherever I could (I'm addicted to those things now!) and used the rest of the floral card in the bottom pocket to tie the pages together a little bit. 

Thank you so much for having me on and letting me do some crafty therapy with your gorgeous products!

WOW!!  These are just so beautiful and inspiring!  Thank you so much INGUNN for sharing your documenting talent with us.   Remember to follow Ingunn on Social media, you will love her work!!!

Guest Designer - SHEREE FORCIER

We are so lucky to have Sheree Forcier share one one last project this month.   We love her clean and detailed  filled projects...

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Hi everyone! 

Today I’m sharing my third project using the August kits and this time it’s a spread for my Life Crafted album. 

For the first page I went with the woodgrain paper for the background, then trimmed down the 6 x 4 floral journaling card to use behind the photo.  I kept the embellishments nice and simply, layering them together in the top left corner of the photo. 

Under the photo is a die cut label that I stamped with a phrase from the Chasing Rainbows stamp set.  I also added stitching around the page for added texture. 

I chose two of the 3 x 4 journaling cards for the facing page.  I absolutely LOVED the gorgeous floral card!  Since I wanted to print the text onto the card I used the digital version and added the journaling in Photoshop before printing it out.  Then I added a simple line of stitching along with the date and a yellow sticker. 

Finally I chose this fun card as the quote was just perfect for this spread!  I added one of the digital cut apart labels to the top of the card with a line of stitching to finish it off. 

You can see my process in the video below… 

I’ve had so much fun working with the August kits as guest designer this month!  Í hope I’ve given you a few ideas that you can use on your next project! 

What can we say, but WOW!  Thank you so much Sheree for sharing your beautiful projects with us.    We are so lucky to have Sheree join our team for the upcoming season, so be ready be continue to be inspired by her creations.

Summer Memories Documented with Nathalie

Hi there!

Nathalie with you today with a quick look at what my Summer looks like.  We are still in vacation mode here in Canada, and that means lots of time spent on so many activities, that documenting  some times is hard to achieve.   Here is where this month's CHASING RAINBOWS Life Crafted kit and add-on kit became my most favorite and easiest way to document a rather busy week.  Let me show you:

Since i had  lots of pictures from the week, i chose to create a 2x2 pocket collage of them ( the insert was cut from an original 6x8 Simple Stories pocket configuration to fit the album).   I  pulled papers and embellishments from the Add-on kit so that i can have a rainbow on the page.   I even pulled the Digital This is Life:Oh Happy Day to create one of the pocket cards.  Since yellow is my grounding color, i used the Office Hours mini Alpha (available at the CTK shop) to complete my title...

For the other side of the spread, i chose to use a more simple design, as the colors in the picture are darker.   First, i added a few more 2x2 pictures and added small embellishments to the pockets (trying to focus on the blue tones of the pictures). For the other side of the layout, I chose insert  3, and used one of the journaling spots to add a few notes on the pictures.

To continue documenting our busy week, i used Digital TN papers to create the layout and 4x6 card.   The journaling spots available in the Digital PL cards make it so easy to print your memories in the computer.    I added a large title so that it balances the page, this puffy script words come from the Pinkfresh Studio Just A Little Lovely and are available in the CTK shop.   To finish the page, i used embellishments from the add-on kit and cut apart elements.

The PL cards in the Chasing Rainbows kit are amazing, and so easy to combine that it took no time to create this spread. The rainbow card is actually the 4x6 card cut to fit in the Insert 2 pocket.  I fussy cut the  small circle from the b side of this card, and used it as an embellishment.   The green card was also created by cutting the 3x8 card, and then just adding a cut apart element  to complete the page.   

And just to finish the week of documenting, i brought some florals into this spread.   Since there are so many colors in the page, i chose to ground it all with a soft blue (the alphas and the pl cards helped with this!).   I fussy cut some florals to add them to the girls picture, and then used one of the Puffy stickers from the Just A Little Lovely collection (available in the CTK shop)  to create my journal card.

I hope this has inspired you to check this month's kits and use them to document your stories.  The beauty of working with the Life Crafted kits is that everything has been carefully curated, that it can easily be combined in your pages.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions on how these came together.

XO

A Little Cut File Love with Nathalie

Hi there,

Nathalie with you today with a couple layouts all about using some of those beautiful screen cut files and this month's kits.   By now all your kits are on the way and arriving at your doors, so what better time to start looking at how to use those exclusive cut files in your projects.

For these pages, i chose to work with the Screen cut files to give you a few ideas when creating layouts in your Life Crafted album.  For the first one, i am using the Ampersand Love cut file and a mix of the Add on  and Chasing Rainbows kits.

I used the cut file to create my title page on  this layout.   First the cut file was sized to fit a Life Crafted insert, and then decided to just back the ampersand of the cut out with a paper from the Just Lovely collection, from Pinkfresh Studio, included in the Add-on kit, then glued the screen outline to a piece of cardstock.

All the floral embellishments of the layout were fussy cut from the Pinkfresh Studio papers -included in the Add-on kit-  and then used to create clusters around the pictures and title.    A few embellishments from the Chasing Rainbows kit complete this page.  Love how easy this came together using the cut file as a page in the album, but how about  using it in a different way.

For this page,  my choice was to break apart the Screen cut out so that i can create layers and pieces for my layout.

First, i created a background by cutting one of the add-on kit's papers to fit a Life Crafted insert.  This time, i chose to cut the screen and create a layer behind the picture.   All the embellishments  - a mix of pieces from both kits- were then added around the picture.   Finally a title was added using one of the subscriber cutfiles, the Chasing Rainbows stamp set and Typewriter Alpha Stamp.

For the other side of this page,  i reached for Insert #2 and  create a 3x4 card by gluing the left over piece of the cut out to a piece of vellum.    The journal lines were then added to one of the Subscriber exclusive 3x4 bonus cards, and then this layout was finished with puffy stickers and enamel dots from the Add-on kit, and cut apart elements.

The following video will show you how it all came together:

I hope these have inspired you to use your exclusive cut files to create pages in your Life Crafted Album.   Be sure to stop by the CTK shop to check the kits -there are so many perks as a subscriber-.  If you have questions on how these came together, please do not hesitate to contact me.

XO