3-to-Inspire with Shannon

Hello crafty friends! Shannon here with a 3-to-Inspire post for you to give you some ideas for your next project. On this spread I'm using the March WEEKENDER Life Crafted Kit, Weekend Life stamp, and printable cutaparts.

My 3-to-Inspire items are:
1. Use a stamp
2. Make a cluster
3. Use puffy hearts

First, we'll start with the stamping. I used a stamp from the Weekend Life stamp set on the top right card with a sentiment about Sundays. Can anyone else relate? I also used a card from the March WEEKENDER Life Crafted Kit to stamp on that "currently" tag. I love stamping on my projects! In fact, I had a video on the CTK YouTube channel just a couple of weeks ago that includes stamping tips.

Next, let's add a cluster. This spread has clusters all over. I find that clusters help me ground embellishments so they don't feel like they're floating on the page. I often try to make my clusters using an odd number of embellishments. Something about it pleases my eye more than an even number of embellishments.

Finally, add some puffy heart stickers. I cannot get enough of the puffy heart stickers that often come in the Life Crafted kits! They come in such a wide variety of colors and sizes. On this spread, I used two hearts on the left side and one on the right. I used them to create a visual triangle (I'm using the triangle shape very liberally in this spread). Visual triangles are a great design technique to help the eye move around the page.

I hope my 3-to-Inspire has given you great inspiration for your next page. I can't wait to see what you make!

Life Crafted | Patricia

Hi, Everyone!!  Hopefully by now, everyone is enjoying their March kits!  I'm back on the blog today to share a couple of entries in my Life Crafted Album using the kit, stamps, and cut file!

My daughter took awhile to get into Harry Potter...just a little too scary for her.  We could only get to Chamber of Secrets.  But this past December we were able to watch all of the movies together as a family...now I'm hoping she will want to read the books I saved for her in hardcover!  I found these images by doing a Google search.  They are the DVD covers but they were small enough to print and fit into the new 2x2 page protectors!

All I added to them was the gold puffy alphas from the kit to the outside of the page protector, numbering each story in the series!  I knew I wanted the Currently screen cut file to be a focal point to break up the photos of the series and journaling.  I went with grey to help blend in with the photos, and then added repetitive stamping with the new Weekend Life stamp set!  To add just a bit of color, I added a cluster of kit contents to the screen cut file.

My journaling page peeks through the screen.  I picked this pattern paper from the kit for two reasons, the color was a little more of a contrast but not too much, and the houses!!  I loved those images also on the Weekend Life stamp set.  Perfect to document these movie nights we had in December.  I used the Weekend Life stamp to stamp the tabs, then used the puffy gold alphas for the main three characters.  I used the stamp from the Weekender kit to add to each tabbed image.  

I didn't want this page to be too heavy with the heavy colors from the photos and the grey screen cut file.   I used a chipboard from the kit over Harry, and then used the digital files labels to type my journaling on the computer and print, so they would be small enough.

Staggered the journaling in between the stamping clusters.

So happy to have this documented in my Life Crafted album...my next Life Crafted project uses the March kit that was on Social Media earlier in the month on the 3rd showing how this came together.  But wanted to show the photos of the project here as well.

I focused a lot again on the Weekend Life stamp set and the March Traveler's Notebook stamp set.  Using the stamps and the kit die cuts and embellishments, I created a fun layered tab look at the bottom, and the post-it notes above it, filling in with stamping and embellishments.

Always a fan of the 3x8 cards in the kit, so used it as a divider.  The saying went perfectly with my selfie!  I just added stamping, die cuts, and puffy stickers to it on the front.

On the back of it, I added a die cut and chipboard.

For the page under it, I added more of the stamping, die cuts, chipboard, puffy hearts, to create a grid above my photo.

You can see the step by step of how this came together here on Instagram in my Tutorials.  Thank you so much for stopping by, and love what I am seeing in our Facebook group!

Start in to 2020 Life Crafted with Nikki Kehr

Hello Citrus Twist Kits Fans,

Nikki here with my first blogpost as a new Design Team Member from Citrus Twist Kits. Life Crafted is a completely new territory for me and at the beginning of the year I decided to give it a try. At that time, I had no idea that I would be included in the Citrus Twist Kits Design Team. Therefore you are there live as I step by step to the new project and I can hardly wait to work with the great products from Citrus Twist Kits. And how do you best start a new project? Of course, with a nice title page and that's what my post today is about. Let´s get started :)

Before I decided to start Life Crafted, I had been doing Project Life since 2013. At the beginning of each year I wrote down what I want to achieve in the coming year and the date of major upcoming events. I always liked that very much, so I wanted to include it in my Life Crafted album. So I first designed a small pocket in which all the notes find their place.

As a little highlight like a kind of peek a boo effect, I didn't stick the title of the album directly on my pocket but on a page out of vellum. All important facts now have a place here. The year 2020 and that it is about memories of our daily life.

I hope you enjoyed the little inspiration of my title page and motivated you to get creative yourself. I am glad that you stopped by and we will see us again soon with my first memory in my new Life Crafted album.

Pocket Life with March Life Crafted Weekender | Patricia

Hello CTK Friends!  This is Patricia using the new March Weekender Life Crafted kit in my 6x8 pocket pages.  I pulled out lots of the fun new items available both in the kit and available digitally to create a colorful and fresh spread documenting highlights of the month of May.

I first picked a title card from the kit, then trimmed one of the labels from the 4x6 card in the kit, to adhere the new gold puffy alphas to it.  I stapled that in the center with a daisy die cut tucked under it.

The next pocket has a full-size 3x4 photo.  I always love the stamps and little details from the die cuts, and easily found a cluster to stamp and add to my photo.

The 4x6 card on the bottom left, I wanted to keep simple with journaling, but I had a lot of journaling.  That is when I turn to the digital elements available with the new kits.  I could add a lot journaling while keeping it small.  I added it with more kit contents to create a cluster in the center.  LOVE the new Weekend Life stamp with that file tab!  So many possibilities!

My pockets on the right are 6-2x2 and 1-4x6.  I filled four of the 6 2x2 pockets with photos to fit, and then trimmed one of the kit 3x4 cards to fit in the other two.  

The kit contents were perfect colors and saying to add to my photos.  Some I kept simple and some like this 4x6 photo, I added a lot to it since it had negative space.  The trimmed pattern paper from the kit, helps to fill in that space of the photo and bring attention to the subject.

For the middle 2x2 card, I used a blank part of the same 3x4 card I used in the top pocket, so that I could stamp ADVENTURES GATHERINGS GOALS.  Then stapled and adhered a die cut and puffy heart to it.

Very simple spread with a lot of memories packed into it, but still light and fresh.  The kits are so easy to get this look!  Hope you get yours soon and share with us!

Sunday Sketch with Marsha

Hey friends!  It's Marsha here with you today sharing this week's Sunday Sketch Challenge.  My project came together so quickly using the sketch and the gorgeous Scrapbooking Add-on Kit and This Is Life "Weekend Life" Stamp!

Here's a look at the sketch:

Here's the layout I created:

For my project today, I chose to create a spread in my Life Crafted Album, instead of doing a traditional 12x12 or 8.5x11 page.  To begin, I trimmed some white cardstock to 5x8.25 inches to serve as base pages for my project.  Following the sketch, I trimmed two patterned papers to span across both sides of the album.  I typed my journaling on a piece of white cardstock and used the This Is Life "Weekend Life" Stamp to add a bit of stamping above and below the journaling. Next, I used the Magical Forest Copper Alphabet Stickers to add the word "good."  I used a black and white striped paper from this month's Life Crafted kit to add a hand-cut pennant banner above the journaling block.  This little detail was found in the sketch and I love the extra interest and texture it adds to the page!

For the other side of the layout, I fussy cut a large floral piece from a patterned paper in the Add-on kit.  Then, I layered my photo over a "remember" card I trimmed from a cut apart sheet in the kit.  To embellish, I added some gold polka dot washi tape, a puffy butterfly sticker, and an ephemera tab and label.

For the top portion of the spread, I followed the sketch and added a strip of patterned paper across the top of the layout.  I tucked another fussy cut floral behind the strip.

For the title, I stamped the word "weekend" using the Weekend Life stamp and black ink.  I used the copper alpha stickers to complete the title and added an ephemera tab to the edge of the page.  As a final finishing touch, I added some machine stitching to several areas of the layout.

Thank you for stopping by today!  I hope you will join in on this week's Sunday Sketch Challenge and share your project with us on the CTK Facebook Fan Page or on Instagram using #citrustwistkits.  I will see you again soon!

xo,

Fun With Foldouts

Hi friends! I'm thrilled to be here sharing my first project with the Citrus Twist Kits Creative Team. Today I've created a spread for my Life Crafted Album. All of the products here are from this month's gorgeous March Life Crafted "Weekender" kit. I'm using the new Fir Green album and my plan is to create an individual album for each of my kids, Ava and Ben. Here's a look at my first spread for Ava's album:

The idea for this spread really started with the "It's Basically the Best Part of the Week" journaling card. Every Tuesday, Ava has musical theater with her best friend Emily. The girls have taken dance together since they were three (the upper left 3x4 photo). They are both seven now. I'm also extremely close to Emily's mom. So, really, that class is often the best part of the week. 

I actually took this picture of the girls together last week and I was surprised at how great it turned out. They were both being so goofy. Ava's a little blurry, but this is totally them. I turned this photo into a foldout to provide a space for some journalling. 

This foldout was really easy: I simply printed two copies of the same photo and cut the second photo in half, securing it with floral Washi on both sides. I used a few of the stamp phrases because the sentiments were a perfect fit for this story. Also loved adding the heart stickers. The tab die cuts were functionally perfect and each of the sentiments also worked so well.

One of my favorite details from this spread is the little title I created with the gorgeous gold puffy alpha stickers. I thought that were beautiful against the black and white of the photo.

I am head over heels in love with the Life Crafted album and I can't wait to get more spreads in these albums. Thanks for letting me share this with y'all. I can't wait to see all the gorgeous projects you guys create with this month's kits, stamps, and add ons!