Pocket Life Challenge With Theresa

Hello Lovelies, it's Theresa here today with a fun Pocket Life Challenge for you! I absolutely love how easy it is to document our family members using pocket pages, and the March Life Crafted kit has everything you need to get those pages completed. Here is my layout I created for the month of October in my 2018 album.

One thing I do to help me get these pages done is to repeat my favorite techniques over and over again, and I thought for today's challenge I would give you a list of those favorite things so you can choose. Feel free to try one, or try all, and see how it helps you as well. My first technique is:

1. Use alphas to create a working title or journaling on a card. The white puffy stickers included in the kit are perfect for this! I used these alphas for the working title with my photo, which works perfectly for journaling as well.

My title card has a working title using the same alphabet to spell October. On that card you can also see my second technique, which is as follows:

2. Use different stamp sets on your layout together and see what sentences or sentiments you can create. The March kit stamp set works beautiful with the This Is Life stamp set this month!

Up next is a technique that helps give a layout consistency:

3. Repeat an element across the page, whether it is an element, a shape, a label, or other. I have repeated the circle chipboard in several places on my layout, which not only adds a bit of dimension to the layout, but it also leads your eye around the page. You also may notice I have used the word stickers in several different places around the layout too.

You can also see another favorite technique which allows you to get more mileage out of your journal cards:

4. Cut up journal cards to create layering elements. I really love the sentiment "bits & pieces (of our day)" but felt like the blue would be a bit overpowering for the color palette on my layout. So I cut out the sentiment itself and layered it onto the strip journal card. Don't forget to look at your journal cards for opportunities to cut them up and create your own embellishments.

Notice how the pop of blue makes a nice contrast on this layout compared to the muted colors of the layout. The key to making this work was to be sure to use your contrasting color somewhere else on the layout, as I did on my filler card. I used a scrap of the blue to layer along with the stamped label and the stars.

One last technique that I have been using in order to uncomplicate my memory keeping process:

5. Leave one photo or journal card (or both!) unembellished. It can be really tempting to want to put all the things on all the pockets, but it can be really freeing to leave something just as it is. Of course, this allows that element, whether it's a photo or a journal card, to stand all on its own, just as it is. In the photo above of my studio, you can see it needed no journaling or embellishment, just the photo itself that captures a moment in time. There is incredible beauty in that!

I hope you are inspired to try some of these techniques in your pocket pages today! If you are interested, you can view my entire process in the video below.




As always, be sure to tag us when you create from this challenge and share online! We would love to see. Thank you for participating, see you again soon!

Product Spotlight & a Flip Album with Amanda!

Hi CTK Friends & Fans! 

Amanda here, and I am just loving the new March Life Chapters Life Crafted Kit!
So much gorgeousness!
Today I am shining the spotlight on two of my favorite items from this kit; the cork numerals & the die cut ephemera!
To demonstrate the versatility of our Life Crafted Kits, I've avoided creating pages for my Life Crafted Album or even making scrapbook layouts. Instead, I have featured both items in a super cute, miniature flip album!

"Our Lil' Story"

Squeeee! How cute is this mini album?!! SO adorable! 

Here's a closer view of the cover....

The sweetest!

The front cover features lots of the die cut ephemera, and in particular the book pieces to enhance the story themed album title! I also decorate with chipboard hearts, and the white puffy alphabet stickers from the Life Chapters Kit. 

To create this mini flip album, I select 3 of the Life Chapters 6 x 8" pattern papers and machine stitch them together through the center (at 4"). Fold into half, and voila, a lil flip book ready to decorate!

Here's a look inside....

Life is a fairytale seems to sum it up perfectly! With so many book references in this month's kit, story telling is definitely on the agenda!
How awesome is that cork numeral? Such a statement piece!
All good stories start with number one - so gather around, I have a story to tell.

I layered the cork numeral onto one of the 6 x 4" journal cards from the Life Chapters Kit, and then embellished it with ephemera. Simple, but so effective! I use thick double sided tape to adhere the 6 x 4" journal card to the album pages.

Our story begins with the arrival of our newest family member....

Nawww! Such a cutie! 

I use the mint Tiny Word stickers, as well as the puffy white alpha stickers, to document part 1 of this happy story! More ephemera adorns the page, and that 'found' chipboard sticker graces my sweet photo!

Moving on to chapter 2.....

Isn't this adorable! 

Again, I mount the cork numeral onto a journal card - but this time, I use a 3 x 4" one. The cork number 2 also forms the 'handle' to lift the flap....

I love interactive elements, and hidden stories & photos is such a fun element to any mini album!

I attach the 3 x 4" card with washi tape from my stash, and embellish with more of the ephemera, and chipboard stickers. Simple, beautiful creating made so easy with the Life Crafted Kit!

Chapter 3 signals the close of this flip album.....

Like previous pages, the cork numeral is adorned with the exclusive ephemera and chipboard from the Life Chapters Kit.

The ephemera label, Endings can be beautiful was the perfect sentiment to end this mini with.
And there you have it!

Cork numerals and ephemera stealing the spotlight in this super sweet (& easy to recreate!) mini album!
I hope I have inspired you to get creating with your Life Crafted Kits today!
Needing more supplies? Visit the Citrus Twist Kits store HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,
til next time,
Happy Arty Days, 
Amanda xo

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!

Kitten Traveler's Notebook Page with Laura Rahel

Hey friends, it's Laura Rahel Crosby here and today I'm sharing a gorgeous page I made for my Life Crafted album by CTK. To make this page, I'm using the March 2019 Life Crafted Citrus Twist Kit and there's an awesome process video for you to see how the page came together.

This layout was sweet and easy. I wanted a neutral color background paper to go with the neutral colors in my photograph so I created my own. I used lots of phrases from the stamp sets this month and stamped them to make that gorgeous patterned background paper. I layered my photograph on some patterned paper from the kit and embellished using white thread and various ephemera and chipboard pieces from the Life Crafted Kit this month.

My favorite part of this page (aside from the photo of my kitten of course,) is that adorable scalloped envelope and the tag I made to go inside which holds some journaling. I love the simple, neutral mood this page has- exactly what I was aiming for.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this traveler's notebook layout I made! Make sure you follow me on Youtube to see all of my crafty projects and I'll catch you next time. :)

Happy crafting friends,
Laura

"Currently" with Kira

Hey there!  It's Kira and I am back with another 8.5x11 scrapbook layout using the March Life Crafted kit along with the scrapbook add-on kit.  Here's a look at the layout I created:

I wanted to use this photo of myself and create a layout about my current favorites.  When I had the idea, I remembered on of the Life Crafted cards from this month's kit and thought it would be neat to enlarge it to use as my background.  So I found the card in this month's digitals, and printed it as a full 8.5x11 paper.

I decided to play off of the multiple colored hearts/stripes and do some color blocking with my embellishments.  I pulled in die cut pieces from both the LC exclusives and the PFS pack included in the add-on kit.  I also used some of the chipboard from the LC kit and some puffy stickers from the add-on.

I wanted my journaling to be hidden, so I used the glassine bag that held the cork pieces in the LC kit as a layout behind my photo to hold my journaling.  Then I used a tag from the cut apart paper, Happy Place, to add my journaling and tucked it into the bag behind my photo.

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

xo, Kira

MAud | Life Crafted with Lydia Cost

I'm still in a little shock that I get to play with the amazing CTK goodies each month!  What a blessing I feel to be welcomed to this amazing team!  For my first project, I'm working through my Life Crafted Album.

This spread is all about achieving Master level on my Audible membership last year.  Audible had re-posted to their Instagram account someone who had joked about adding MA to their post-nominal initials, and I just thought that was so funny and clever, so I had to document that myself in true papercrafting fashion!

Using the amazing white-scalloped pocket that comes with this month's Life Chapters kit, I slid in a selection of books I'm currently reading, and stitched it down on my spread.  I then layered on a screenshot of my master level to document the achievement.

I finished off my spread by adding a great 3x4 card from this month's kit.  I wanted to document my book count from last year, because it was quite a feat for me!  This pretty, little yellow card summarizes the idea behind my title, Lydia Cost MAud!

If you want to see how this spread came together, feel free to check out the process video below!  I'm so excited to get to know all of you over the next couple months!