3-to-Inspire | Patricia

 

Hello CTK Friends!  I'm happy to be joining you today for another 3-to-Inspire using the Oh What Fun kit and stamp set.  Let's get started!

1. Pick a die cut from the kit to use as your color inspiration.
2. Create an inked or mixed media background using the color inspiration.
3. Use ribbon, stickers, and different color alphas.

I have found so many possibilities using the Oh What Fun kit with the various color options.  So I decided to do a totally different color idea in my December album.  I picked out the floral die cut that I wanted to base my colors on, and then I used a circle stencil to create my own 'bokah' background using inks in similar colors.

The beauty of an inked backbround like this, is I already have layers and texture, so I continued that with the different alphas available in the shop that went well with my project.  Then the last think I did was pull a sticker and ribbon from the kit to create a vertical and horizontal line.

The vertical and horizontal line creates direction and I also finished with stamping the hearts from the Oh What Fun stamp set to create my own journal card, one on the photo, but used a puffy heart for my larger focal point page.  All of these elements create a nice triangle across the two pages.

The stamp set and kit are so inspiring, I hope these three ideas give you a jumpstart to your next December project!

A YEAR IN REVIEW with Nathalie

Hello friends!

As we are about to start a new year, we wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on a few highlights of  2022.

When we launched our Original Life Crafted albums a few years ago, we could have never dreamed of how well they would be welcomed and embraced by you all.   However, we had so many requests for the quality and  colors of our albums in a larger format.   So, we launched a complete library of 6x8 Life Crafted albums at the start of this year.   A rainbow of possibilities for your stories is now available in our shop, and we are so thankful to all of you for the love you have shown to our exclusive products.

This year in which our industry has seen some many changes and challenges, we have strived to offer you a new kit and digital collection each month.   These are planned and designed with the idea of helping you safekeep  your memories in a modern, simple, and practical way.  We are so thankful to Kaitlin, Trina, Elif, Vanessa, Geralyn, Ashley, and Erin for always creating beautiful and functional pieces that seamlessly intertwine with your stories to produce beautiful memories.

We will never be thankful enough for all these amazing designers and friends.  Aimee, Alena, Amy, Ashley, Desiree, Diane, Diane D, Ettiene, Ingunn, Jasmin, Katarina, Kira, Kerstin, Loredana, Lorilei, Marina,  Natasha, Nolana, Patricia, Suzanne, Shu-Wen, and Traci thank you so much for sharing your talent and stories with us.   We have loved each and everyone of your projects and stories.   We also want to extend our gratitude to Jessa, Jennie, Leilani, Marsha, Sarah for showcasing your stories with your kits as guests for CTK.   We love you all.

Of course our biggest highlight of 2022 are our customers, all of you!      Your continuous support for our products is invaluable for this small home business.   All your conversations, purchases,  social media shares, and constant love for our products do not go unnoticed.    We have loved getting to know you through your purchases, comments, and also when you spend your time with us during our live sessions..... WE APPRECIATE YOUR CONTINUOUS SUPPORT, Thank You!

2023 is shaping up to be another amazing year.   We will continue to create exclusive products, and content each month in hopes to inspire and  invite you to document your story.   We are looking forward to a new design team, new kits, new exclusive products, more live sessions, and of course lots of inspiration from our CT and our customers.   We are looking forward to showing you what we have planned for 2023 throughout the next 12 months!

Finally, we want to wish you all a very Happy New Year, and see you all back in 2023!

Sunday Sketch with Suzanne

Hello friends,

Today I have made the sketch with the Halloween collection, I love this collection so much! And I am using it for my October daily this year!

Here is my project for today:

This is the inspiration sketch I am using for my layout

I have used the puffy letters from the kit and a big word from the ephemera to make the title of the page. Gotta love those filters haha

Behind the photo I’ve added a layer of vellum to create some extra interest. And with some of the sequins added some details to the page.

Are you making an October daily this year? I hope that I have inspired you with the use of this sketch and I can’t wait to see what you create

Happy crafting

Love Suzanne
 

Sunday Sketch with Patricia

 

Hello, CTK Friends!  Excited for another Sunday Sketch.  For today, I am using the new Spooky Story kit which is a packed kit!  I couldn't believe how much is in this kit and the exclusives are amazing too!  Nathalie did a live video in the Facebook group showing this kit, the December stories, and add-ons yesterday.  I'll be doing a live video today using the Spooky Story kit at 2 p.m. CST so hope to see you there.  Now onto the sketch.

I took the inspiration of the staggered layers by definitely incorporating photos into the sketch inspiration, but had the help of the CTK page protectors.  

The first layer is a trimmed down Page Protector #6.  I trimmed a smaller piece of the leftover protector, and then using the We R Memory Keepers Fuse, I sealed in an exclusive CTK flair and sequins.  In the larger trimmed down pocket, I added the exclusive intricate die cut and sequins, then sealed the top off with the Fuser.

You flip that over to my next layer that uses Page Protector #3.  This is where I incorporate more of that staggered layered/blocked inspiration from the sketch.  With one photo to fit inside the bottom pocket, I print two different sizes of the other photos and back one of them with paper from the kit to add texture, color and emphasis.  I trimmed the tag and punched the cat from the kit pattern paper.  Then added some of the die cuts for layering to create a grid.  I love how this came out, but a favorite is that exclusive doily with the kit die cuts, also inspired by the sketch.  

I wanted a place to journal, so to do that, I trimmed a piece of the kit pattern paper, added a punched border with a We R Memory Keepers planner punch, scored, folded and used double-sided tape to adhere two piece of cardstock together, having the top to flip up.

I picked out the die cut I wanted on this journaling cardstock piece, trimmed around her with a pencil, added my typewriter journaling, erased the pencil, and then added her back.  I finished that with stamping from the new Vintage Love stamp and more die cuts from the kit. The 2022 is from the Harper Alpha Stamp.

I was so inspired by this kit and sketch to create those staggered layers across two page protectors, altered one, created a fun pocket and an interactive journaling page.  I hope this gives you ideas on doing the same for your Fall or Halloween album and if interested at all in this Spooky Stories, grab it before it is sold out!  And FYI, the album here is the Lifecrafted Pumpkin Spice.  There is also a 6x8 version of this...enjoy!

3 to Inspire with Suzanne

 

Hello creative friends,

Today I’m on the blog with 3 ways to inspire.

1.use different stamps

2.make a big title

3. Use layers on your page

4. Use multiple photo’s 

For this spread I have used the July collection and a few different stamp sets. You can find them here:

Penelope alphabet

Card phrases 

Travelogue 

The papers and embellishments are from the Flea market collection and I love how all the papers match!

For this challenge I used 4 photo’s and printed them in a small format so they would fit one page of my layout.

I really hope that I have inspired you and I would love to see what you create

Love Suzanne 

Life Crafted Inspiration with Kira

Hey there! It’s Kira and I am back with another Life Crafted TN sized layout. I thought it would be fun to show y’all my process when making a layout, start to finish. Here’s a look at my finished layout:

I always start out my layouts with a story. I jot stories or quotes from my children in my notes app on

my phone. I usually just keep a running log, noting the date something was said. In this case, I had a

separate note started for our vacation we took in June since I also wanted to keep track of the places we visited or ate. I came across this sweet quote from my son while I was choosing which story to tell.

Once I chose this quote, I then select my photo. I don’t try and find a photo I took in the exact moment,

but one that will work for the situation. Since this was said while we were in Washington, I wanted a

photo of him in WA where the scenery behind him was indeed “beautiful”. I thought this one of him in

front of the Space Needle was perfect. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and we are clearly in Seattle.

After I settle on my photo, I go ahead and print it out. Sometimes I want a full-page photo or multiple

small photos so I would normally resize at this point. But I just went ahead and printed the photo at a

standard size of 2"x3".

Then it’s time to choose my embellishments. When using a kit, I still find myself overwhelmed if I have

too many choices, so I like to narrow everything down before getting started. I loved the green in this

kit and thought it worked well with my photo. And originally, I thought of pulling in some blues, but I

thought that seemed too “predictable” for a Seattle layout, so I opted for pops of yellow instead since

the sun was shining in this particular photo. I pulled out all the papers and embellishments that fit my

color scheme and theme of the page.

And finally, it was time to put together my page. I started by matting my photo with this green leaf

paper and used the lace trim as an accent piece on top.

I built a cute little embellishment with this rabbit die cut, which has nothing to do with the story, but I

thought gave it a whimsical feel.

At this point, I needed to decide if I wanted my journaling (quote) on this page or make this a two page

spread. Since this was just a quote, I thought one page would work fine. And I loved the idea of having

the journaling “hanging” on the tag.

I finished the page off with some stamping using the new stamps. And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed

hearing more about my process and I can’t wait to see how you use this kit.

xo, Kira

interNATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY with Citrus Twist Kits

 

Hello there!

Welcome to our interNATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY 2022 Celebration!  We are so excited to have you join us to celebrate this amazing and rewarding hobby.  Our Design Team has prepared two days filled with inspiration, challenges, live crafting sessions, and -of course- prizes!  

It is all taking place in our Citrus Twist Kits Fans Page on  Facebook. You will have to be a member of the page to have access to our live sessions, and to join in the challenges. Please click here to request access to the page.

It all starts on Friday, May 6 at 7:30 pm with our Kick-Off Live Crafting Event with Nathalie. Here is the schedule for our complete weekend event:

We cannot wait to see you all this weekend, and want to give you a sneak peek of what our Creative Team has prepared for this weekend

Be sure to join us for our live events, be inspired by our talented design team, then join in the challenges.  Have we mentioned that we are giving away prizes throughout the day!   We will be awarding gift certificates through our challenges, and physical prizes throughout our live sessions, so be sure to join us.

We also wanted to share our appreciation and gratitude for your continued support.  Our talented designers have created a special digital printable page  for this event.  This will be free during our celebration, only.   Click here to check our iNSD 2022 printable page (you will need to create an account to be able to download a digital copy of the printable).

Let's get started!  

Happy interNATIONAL SCRAPBOKING DAY 2022! 

Sunday Sketch with Kira

 

Hey there!  It's Kira and I am back with another Sunday Sketch using the May Craving kit.  First, here's a look at the sketch I will be using today:

And here's a look at my take on the sketch:

My family and I recently took a road trip to Las Cruces, NM.  My late father-in-law went to school here and my husband was looking for a way to connect with some of the memories he had when he was a child.  So, it seemed only natural that we visit my father-in-law's favorite restaurant while we were in town.  Since the sketch included a single landscape photo, and I usually only take portrait style, I decided to print out a larger photo of my husband and two smaller photos of our children.  

The colors on my husband's shirt worked well with the kit colors, but my children's clothing did not, so I decided to print their photos in black and white.  I decided to keep one side of the layout with a white background and the opposite using some of the papers from the kit.  

But once I started placing my photo and embellishments on the white background, it felt a little flat to me.  Which gave me the idea to add fork cut files to my white background and stitch over the top of them.  This gave just enough texture and interest to not feel so boring.  

I typed up my journaling on one of the other digital papers (which I turned the opacity up on, so you might notice the color is a little more subtle than it looks in the shop).  I cut the journaling out, roughed up the edges and added a little stitching for texture.  

I felt like the right side was missing some white, so I brought in one of the forks to add just a little pop of the white.  I finished off the whole layout with die cuts, chipboard stickers and puffy stickers from the May kit.  And done!

Thanks for stopping by!  I can't wait to see how you use this week's sketch!

xo, Kira