3 To Inspire With Theresa

Hello Lovelies, Theresa here with a fun 3-To-Inspire for you! In this series we create a layout and give you three product challenges to inspire you to get creative with your kits! These are my three challenges for you today:

1. Use a cut file! I have used one of the Subscriber Exclusives called Own Your Magic.
2. Use mixed media and stamps to highlight your cut file! I have used both the Around Here stamp set and the Traveler's Notebook stamp set.
3. Incorporate a bold title! I have used the black foam word stickers from the Around Here kit.

Let's have a look at how I used these items in my layout!

1. Use a cut file!

I was inspired by the Own Your Magic cut file which is part of the Subscriber Exclusives. This one has some interesting angles plus a butterfly, which our daughter loves so I thought it would be perfect to document this photo. My photo is of Emberlynn at the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston Salem, NC, in fall of 2017, smashing it up in the bumper cars.

2. Use mixed media and stamps to highlight your cut file!

My layout began with a very simple and easy-going mixed media background. I used a few of my Dr. Ph Martin India Inks to add a bit of color to watercolor paper. I just lay down a bit of color, spray with a bit of water, and then lift some of the pigment back up with a paper towel or another sheet of watercolor paper.

Once the background was dry I adhered my cut file where I wanted it and then I added the stamped sentiment inside the angles of the cut file. I also added a few enamel dots inside and outside the cut file to add a bit more color and fun. 

3. Incorporate a bold title!

My layout needed a bit of pop! at this point, so I used the foam word stickers in the kit to add my title. I also added a few black hearts around the page. I have a go-to design tip about color, and that is that you can probably add just about any color to a layout as long as you repeat it in another place on your layout! The black is also repeated in the stamping and journaling.

Just a few other design notes: I used some punched hexagons to repeat the hexagon motif on the layout. Those were punched from the 3x8 card included in the kit, I simply punched from around that page. My goal was, again, contrast, and to give the embellishment clusters a sort of home base on my page. Speaking of clusters, there are three around the page that form the visual triangle. Each one is anchored by the orange hexagons, mint floral and butterfly from the cut file, and a bit of black.

This was such a fun layout to create and I am so happy to share it with you! I hope you are inspired to pick up your Around Here kit and get creative. We would love to see what you create, so be sure to share online and tag us! See you again soon!

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

Create your own filler cards and kill that kit!

Hi Guys! Diane here to share how I killed the last of my June kit with you!

I love this time of month, when my new Life Crafted kit arrives and I get to dive into all the new goodies to share with you. But I often still have a WHOLE lot of my last kit still to use up. This month, I decided to challenge myself and try to kill as much of my kit as possible. 

Even after ALL the projects I've made throughout June, I still had a few bits and pieces left. So I created a few different filler cards as part of my 100 Day Project so I thought I'd share a few ideas for making your own!

1. Create pockets and shapes

By adding a smaller piece of paper on top of your card and stitching or gluing around three sides, you can create a fun little pocket for adding hidden journalling, extra photos or popping a few extra tags or die cuts into. I also love to use my metal dies to create fun shapes like tags and circles to either layer onto cards or use in projects at a later date.

2. Layer die cuts

The Life Crafted kits always come with a tonne of die cuts, so why not use them in bulk! Create a cluster of die cuts with a similar theme or colour scheme and pop them onto a pattern paper background. Or add them to one of the beautifully designed cards in the kit to add a little extra dimension!

3. Add fabric or paper ruffles

By adding extra fabric or paper trims from your stash, you can really add a lot of dimension and texture to your projects. I love adding tulle layers, either with or without sequins! And with a hot glue gun and some crepe paper, you can create fun embellishments for your cards in no time.

4. Create stamped patterns

I'm a huge fan of creating your own stamped patterns and the Life Crafted kit stamp and add-on stamps are always filled with gorgeous sentiments to add to patterned papers or even plain card stock to create your own totally unique design. Try stacking your stamps like bricks, stamping on an angle or adding multiple stamps to one pattern.

5. Add texture by stitching things together

I love using my sewing machine for crafting (in fact, I can't remember the last time I used it for actually sewing fabric!) but you don't need a sewing machine to add a lovely stitched texture. Try hand stitching or even holding things together with paper clips. Fold and rough up the edges a little and you immediately have added texture and interest.

These are such fun ways to use up the last little bits of your kits. If you don't need them straight away, you can either keep a pile of ready-made filler cards waiting for your next pocket page, or why not create a pocket letter with them? Its the perfect little 10-minute activity when you are short on crafty time!

So do you fully finish one kit before diving into the next one? Or can you just not wait when that new Life Crafted kit hits your doorstep?!

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