Sunday Sketch with Marsha

Hello friends!  Marsha here, and I'm excited to be sharing this week's Sunday Sketch.  Sketches are so fun to work with, and CTK always has the best ones!   I hope you will play along!

Here's the sketch for this week:

I love this design!  When I first saw it, I knew it would work perfectly as a layout in my Life Crafted Album.  Here's the spread I created:

For my layout today, I am using the Life Chapters Kit and the This is Life "Bookends" Stamp.

I loved the sketch so much, I decided to follow it fairly closely.  One of the only changes I made was mirroring the sketch.  

To begin the layout, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out one of the free subscriber cut files to use as my background.  I loved this detail from the sketch and wanted to use it on my spread.  I used a patterned graph paper from the kit and then layered it over a striped paper, also from the kit.

Next, I used some of the ephemera, word stickers and chipboard pieces to embellish this side of the layout.  I also did some stamping using the This is Life "Bookends" Stamp.  I love the extra interest stamping adds to a page!

Next, I used a journaling card from the kit, the stamp set, and some of the cut aparts to embellish the pocket, and I trimmed one card into a tag shape for my journaling.  The scalloped pocket from this month's kit was perfect for holding the tag with my journaling.  

For the right side of the spread, I trimmed a couple of the kit papers into narrow strips and adhered them to the edge of the page.  I used more ephemera, cut aparts, chipboard pieces, and stamps to embellish this area.

To finish off the layout, I added some machine stitching.  I love the texture and interest this adds to a project.

Here's one final look at my layout using this week's sketch:

I can't wait to see your take on the Sunday Sketch!  I hope you will play along!

Everyday Documented with Nathalie

Hello everyone!

Nathalie with you today!   i have had so much fun with my kit this month, and my challenge this month was to try and use as much of the Life Chapters kit as i could - these kits are so packed -, so i  am going to show you how i worked the kit into my Life Crafted album.

I love having the chance to add dimension and layers to my album, so i took advantage of the concentric pattern of the paper to add chipboard and ephemera to create this simple page about my nephew's 6th birthday.

This page complements small spread created for CTK IG stories a few weeks back.    For this i mixed similar elements as the previous page, and used layers -even the small glassine bag that carries the cork numbers- to document my nephew's celebration.

If you have seen my work before, then you know that i love florals.  So, I used the floral paper from the Life Chapters kit to create this spread about my crafty friends.

I pulled the "The Story" cut file to create the title of this page, and cut it from white cardstock.  I kept the page rather simple as i have lots of patterns in the page, however, i added the little bird on the title, and used the colors to bring the color in the word stickers into the page.

For the other side of the spread, i used the leftover piece of paper to anchor the scalloped envelope (included in the Life Chapters kit and also available for purchase in the CTK shop)  and build my page on it.  I pulled the small floral ephemera  to decorate this side of the page, and then used one of the large tags to house lots of journal about this day (you can find the tags in the CTK shop).   Love how this came together with the Life Chapters kit!.

This month's Life Chapters kit had a side focus on reading, so i used the large 3x8 tag ( and one of the new inserts coming to the shop in April) to create this spread all about  my reading adventures.   All the coordinating ephemera in the kit and the cut apart elements made this come together in a short amount of time.

And for my last page today, i chose to use the Floral Cascade cut file (free subscriber cut file) to create the large die cut that covers this spread.  Once again, i used one of the Life Chapters kit's papers to serve as a base for the spread.

To balance the spread, i chose to leave the title in the 3x8 page protector, and used one of the large cork numbers, while the other side houses the picture and lines of journal.   I have added some of the word stickers to form a visual triangle, while the vellum butterflies  form a second visual triangle on the spread.

All i have left with are just a few pieces that will slowly make its way to my personal journal or a future spread on my family album.   Having all you need in a bag made it so easy to put all of this together.   Now it is time to start working on the upcoming month's kit, you are going to love it!!!

As always let me know if you have questions on how any of these came together,

XO

Sunday Sketch with Nathalie

Hi there!
Nathalie here with this week's sketch challenge, and i am in love with all the layers that it showcases.  Having a sketch always makes a project come together easily in a short amount of time.  So, before i show you what i created using the Life Chapters kit and a few pieces from the add-on kit, let me share the sketch with you all.

I was inspired by the layers and positioning of the elements  to create this page about my youngest sister and her lovely story (trust me she herself is an adventure for us!)

I tried an stayed true to the sketch, but as you can see there are a few minor changes that make it more my style.  Firstly, i switched the location of the label and the small paper strip from the bottom to the top of the page, and added a bit of mixed media to the background, hence adding texture to this page.

While the texture paste dried, i used the Notebook Edge cut file to cut one of the Pinkfresh Studio papers with it, at the same time a few of the floral images from the Sunny Days papers (Maggie Holmes) from the add-on kit were fussy cut.

I pulled all the blue elements  i could find in the cut apart elements, ephemera and labels to bring the pops of color to this page.   Once i had everything ready, i followed the sketch to create the layers behind the picture using papers from both the Life Chapters and Add on Kits.

The ripped layer of paper was replaced with the fussy cut florals, and all the blue elements were used to create the small clusters that create the visual triangle on this page.   Gotta love the small alphas included in the Life Chapters kit, as they are the perfect font to combine with all die cuts, and so on, just like featured in the title of this page.  The following video will show you how it all came together:

As you can see this page is a reflection of my sister's story and it came together rather easily with the  inspiration the sketch provides.

Now it is  your turn to put the sketch to use in a project of your own.  Remember to share with us what you create, tag @citrustwistkits or #citrustwistkits when sharing it on social media or just upload your picture to the CTK Friends page on Facebook.  We love seeing your creations.

XO