Sunday Sketch with Nathalie

Hello everyone!
Nathalie here with the last sketch on June... Tomorrow a new kit will be revealed (and it is a beauty!), but before we get new goodies, let me show you how i made the most of my kits using this week's sketch as inspiration.  Here is this week's sketch:

It is a rather fun sketch, as soon as i saw it all i could think of was a grid  of some sort.   First i decided to use the sketch with the left over pieces from my Around Here  Life Crafted Kit in my Life Crafted album:

For this layout, i decided to divide the sketch in  half and follow it as close as i could.  Since the pictures are in color, i decided to chose rather neutral papers for the layers behind them.

The secret to balance the sketch was to keep everything at the same level/border.  So, once i had the limits marked, i used the typewriter to add my lines of journal, and then glued the layers in place.   I added the extra tag above the small strip of paper at the bottom of the picture to help balance the page.

I followed the sketch for the other side of the layout, but added a few things just so that it helped me tell the story of the pictures.   All the gorgeous ephemera pieces about "creatives" was perfect for this side, so i just added them to the clusters and then stamped some sentiments from some of this month's Stamp sets.   Love how easy it came together, but i tried the same sketch with the add-on kit for a 12x12 layout.

I wanted all those pastel colors in the Add on kit to create this page about my daughter's first horse-riding adventure. 

I started with creating the layers behind the picture using all the papers from the add on kit.  However the bottom layer of the pictures is one of the large Alpha pieces (Maggie Holmes Sunny Days collection) as they had a vibrant and solid look to them.

To bring the grid look of the sketch to the page, i decided to mount my layers on a piece of vellum.  This helped with limiting the space for the layout, and made layering the papers much easier (a little chipboard and foam adhesive help to create the soft shadow behind the layers).

I wanted to keep the soft look of the page, so instead of adding those paper strips to the corners of the page, my  choice was to create a small shaker pocket.  For this, i simply used a ruler and penciled the rectangles, then hand stitched the rectangles and fill them with sequins.

To finish the page, I used one of the ephemera pieces from the Around Here kit in combination with the stickers from the add on kit, added a few gold ink splatters, and then added my lines of journal with gold ink (and smudge a bit of it with my hand, too).

Just love how these turned out using the sketch as the starting point for the layouts.  Now it is your turn to get inspired by the sketch and create a project of your own.  Remember to share your projects with us over social media (use #citrustwistkits or @citrustwistkits), we love to be inspired by your work.   If you have questions on how these came together, please do not hesitate to contact me!

XO

Life Crafted with Laura Rahel Crosby

Hey friends, it's Laura Rahel Crosby here today and I'm so excited to share one of the layouts I made this month using the Life Crafted kit. My favorite thing about the Life Crafted kit is that it is designed to work with any kind of project you want to make. You can use it to make traveler's notebook pages, pocket pages, traditional scrapbooking pages- whatever you want! It's truly about crafting the memory keeping projects of your dreams. And I love that adaptability aspect of the kits. Today I'm sharing a fun 8.5x11 scrapbook layout I made this month.

I've been super into warm colors lately with a 70's vibes- all the yellows, reds, and oranges. So I made this layout as my first attempt in exploring this new style direction of mine. I also played around with mixed media and am loving the result! I created a fun border down the left side of the page using one of the floral stamps from this month and a strip of tissue paper I had in a gorgeous blush and gold color. I also created a fun, painted background using gold shimmer acrylic paint that was watered down. The end result looks like a gorgeous yellowish-blush shimmer mixed media background for my photos which I adore.

The black foam phrases and icons in the June Life Crafted kit were perfect for traditional scrapbooking so I made my title out of that and added some of the icons across my page. You know I had to add journaling too- as I like to do that with 95% of my layouts! I used patterned paper and ephemera from the kit to mat my photographs. And I finished the page off with a couple of black enamel dots and some hand drawn hearts. I hope you have enjoyed this projects. Make sure you're following me over on YouTube so you don't miss any of the projects I make with my Citrus Twist Kits each month! Happy crafting, Laura

Travelers Notebook Challenge with Marsha

Hey friends!  Marsha here, and I'm hosting this week's Travelers Notebook Challenge!  I used the Life Crafted "Around Here" kit, along with the This is Life "Routine" stamp and the Travelers Notebook stamp.

My challenge for you today is to create a TN layout documenting one of your crafty or creative projects.  Here's a look at the spread I created documenting my first garment sewing adventure:

My mom is an amazing seamstress, but this is not a skill that I have inherited!  I love adding stitching to my scrapbook pages, but an actual garment is much more challenging for me.  It was fun getting this little story about myself documented.

The June "Around Here" kit is perfect for this type of project.  There are so many fun embellishments in the kit that work great for this type of documenting.  To begin my spread, I printed some photos of my sewing project.  I chose to highlight one photo on the page, and I added a tag behind the photo to hold the journaling and an additional photo.  I created the tag using one of this month's exclusive subscriber printable journaling cards.

The cute sewing machine ephemera piece worked perfectly on my page.  I added some stamping and used the tile alphas included in the kit to spell out the word "sewing."

For my title, I used a puffy foam phrase sticker and an ephemera die cut piece.  I absolutely LOVE the black puffy foam stickers this month and may have almost used the entire sheet!  They are great for titles and also include some fun icons.

To finish off the spread, I added some machine stitching to several areas on the page.  This was the perfect touch for my project about sewing.

Here's one final look at my TN layout:

Thanks for joining me today.  I can't wait to see your take on this week's TN Challenge!

Playing with Layers with Trina

Hello everyone,

I'm here today to share a 12" x 12" layout I made by mixing and matching the June Life Crafted and Scrapbooking Add-On kits together with a couple sneak peek elements from our July "Best of This Life" Life Crafted kit.

I love pretty layers so thought I'd show how I mix and match paper and embellishments to create them. I found an old box of photos of my mom (she's on the left) from her college days at Michigan State. I really enjoy using black-and-white photography against bright, happy colors. I pulled most of the elements from our June 2019 kits. Here is my finished layout.

If I am going to use mist or acrylics on my pages I always do this in advance of sitting down to build up my laters. I splattered some heidi swamp black color shine on my base page and stepped away for a couple of hours, giving it time to dry. I knew I basically wanted the layers in the lower left-hand part of my page, so I splattered my mist accordingly. The finishing touch to my layout was going in adding the punched stars and some sequins.

Here is a close-up of one corner of my layers. I started with a larger floral yellow piece of paper, layered it with a vintage dictionary page (from one of the vintage flea market kits in our shop), then continued building my layers up from there. The "tickets" are cut from a piece of 12" x 12" paper in our June 12" x 12" Scrapbooking Kit Add-on.

Here are close-ups of the layered tags.

I use my thumbnail to gently crumple the edge of the pattern paper.

Here is another peek at a few of the elements from our soon-to-reveal July "Best of This Life" Life Crafted kit:

Thanks for stopping by to check out my project. I hope this inspires you to build up layers on your projects.

Sunday Sketch with Emma

Hi friends!  Emma on blog today to share this weeks Sunday Sketch challenge!

I love this weekly challenge and I have had so much fun playing with this month's Life Crafted kit.  The colours are so fresh and fun; more so for us experiencing this icky winter weather - everything is so blah bit I opened up my kit and the colours were an instant happy!

First up let's have a look at the sketch:

And here is the project I created:

As you can see I've converted the 12x12 sketch to fit my smaller 6x8 format but it still totally works!  I've used the June Life Crafted Kit "Around Here" but also added in a few of this months stamps as well.

I am seriously LOVING this floral paper included in the kit this month.  The colours are just perfect and I'm feeling the need to put it on everything (you can bet I'm keeping all the little off-cuts!).  I kep with the sketch by putting a piece of at the bottom of my page but I also added a corner piece at the top left of my page, to create a bit more balance and because I really do just love the colours/pattern and wanted more of it on my layout :)

I got lucky in being allocated a sketch I loved this month so decided to try and keep my layout as close as possible.  I started my page with the messy part - because it's what always gives me the most trouble.  Splatters seem like such an easy thing to do but I always seem to mess them up, ha!  I used Pinkfresh Translucent Liquid Watercolor (which I picked up from the store a little while back; finally using it!) and I'm so happy to say that on my very first attempt they actually went where I wanted them to!  That never happens ;)

Once my successful ink splatters finally dried (which always seems to take soooooooo long) I started to create my layers.  I picked a couple white tags from my stash and stamped a few sentiments that matched the photo I wanted to use (of my mum and aunt).

I built up my photo cluster by adding a neutral pattern underneath my photo (I didn't want anything to compete with the gorgeous floral pattern) and popped one of the die-cut pieces underneath my photo.  I typed my journaling up on the computer and printed it out.

I'm also loving the black foam phrases included in the Life Crafted kit - aren't they the perfect size?!  I used one for my title and added the arrow/hearts around my photo to balance things out.  I do love how they fit in with the blank splatters on my background too!

To finish off my page I popped one of the carstock foam stickers underneath the photo then added a few of the enamel shape stickers around my photo for a few more pops of colour!

I had so much fun putting this one together and I cannot wait to see your take on it as well!  Be sure to share on our Facebook Fanpage so we can all see!

Take care, Em xo

3 to Inspire with Marsha

Hey friends!  Marsha here sharing my first 3 to Inspire for Citrus Twist Kits.  For my layout today, I used the June Life Crafted Around Here kit, the Label It free subscriber exclusive cut file, and the Bows cut file.

Here's a look at the layout in my Life Crafted Album, documenting one of my favorite places- my craft room!

Our prompts:

1. Around Here kit
2. Cut file (or 2!)
3. Stamping

I started by cutting out the cut file using white cardstock.  I then backed a few of the labels on the cut file with a floral patterned paper from the kit, and backed the entire cut file with the wood grain patterned paper.  I couldn't resist adding a cut file bow to the page, too, cut using a striped patterned paper.  I can't get enough of the fun cut files this month!

Next, I added some ephemera pieces, puffy foam stickers, and tiny alphabet stickers.  I stamped a sentiment onto one of the cut apart labels.

For the other side of the layout, I used the 3" x 8" bookmark included in the kit.  I added the title using a puffy foam phrase sticker and some stamping.

I fussy cut a flower from one of the patterned papers and layered it over the floral elements at the bottom of the bookmark.  This brought the bright pink over to the left side of the layout. To finish off the spread, I added a puffy cardstock sticker and more of the ephemera pieces.

Thanks for joining me today!  I can't wait to see how you use the 3 to Inspire prompts on your project!