Mixed Media Time with Adele

Time to get painty peeps!

Today I am challenging you to pull out some sort or messy, painty supply and add it to your next layout. I am pairing some modelling paste, a large stencil and some watercolours from my stash with the gorgeous October Main Kit today to create a layout that's very close to my heart.

I have also created a process video so you can see the mixed media techniques I used from start to finish, which will be at the end of this post.

I began by spreading a thin layer of modelling paste through my stencil and allowing it to dry COMPLETELY. You do not want to add any watercolour until your modelling paste is dry as it will end up a bit of a smudgy mess...trust me, I learnt the hard way previous hehe!

I used a combo of this month's alpha stickers and my brush lettering to create a soft and subtle title. I paired this with some strips of journaling below my photo.

I loved adding the little puffy hearts and some splatters to add those finishing touches to this precious photo of my Mum, Nanna and I.

If you're not a fan of mixed media, this is a great technique to try because you don't need to be precise with your watercolouring and can make it as subtle or bold as you like depending on what colours you use. Have fun!

Adele

Travelers Notebook Challenge with Sarah

Hey there, CTK friends!  Today I have a TN challenge for you that involves using a bunch of frames to create an interesting background.  If you don't already have some frames that you want to use, that's totally okay because we are going to be making our own by cutting up some patterned paper!

If you've never tried using frames for a background, I'd love to encourage you to try it out.  Frames add such a fun pattern and shape element, and you can get really creative with different colors and textures to make it your own.

For this page I used some pattern papers from the "Little Things" Scrapbooking kit to cut out my frames.  Using my Exacto knife, scissors, and paper trimmer, I cut out some rectangles and circles of various sizes and patterns.

Once I had all of my frames ready I played around with their placement on the page, making sure that I didn't have any floating elements.  I had some frames go off the page and the rest of the frames connect to each other.

I didn't need to do a lot to embellish this page since I already had a lot going on with the colors and patterns on the frames, but I did add a title and a few small die cut pieces to finish off my page.

There's a video below if you'd like to see how this page came together.



I'd love for you to give this a try!  There are so many possibilities with frames so you can get super creative and make it your own.

Happy Crafting!
Sarah

   

Customized Embellishments

Hey crafty friends, Melanie here with a fall layout today.
Autumn is my favorite season, I love everything about it I am taking a lot of pictures at this time of the year. You can imagine how excited I was about using the 'Falling' cut file from the shop this month. I cut it out of white cardstock with my silhouette with some additional leaves.
I placed the cut file on the beautiful paper from the Scrapbook Kit, which makes such a nice background for my page.

I colored the leaves with the Pink Fresh Studio water colors (available in the shop) so they would go with the  colors of the paper.

I placed my photo in the middle of the page and layered it with some papers from the Scrapbook Kit and some of the cutaparts. I also tucked in a flower embellishment and white leaves for more interest.

I placed the leaves all over the page on a slight diagonal, like they had fallen down, using some foam adhesive for more dimension.

For some contrast and to complete my title (this song always reminds me of my granny), I stamped the word 'leaves' in black ink making it a little crooked, so that it looks like fallen leaves. I used the Griffin Alphabet, which is gorgeous, love me a serif font! And look how perfectly it goes with the cut file!

I really love, how the page turned out and how my leaves look! I hope, I inspired you to make matching embellishments for your project. When you don't have a Silhouette, you can always cut out some leaves by hand or use any other shape for this technique. 

Don't forget to share what you created in our Facebook Group and on Instagram using the hashtag #citrustwistkits so we can find your work!

Happy crafting, Melanie

Sunday Sketch with Anna

Hello CTK friends! It's Anna here today with today's super fun Sunday Sketch!

And here's what it looks like...

There's no secret that I love working with sketches and this one is just awesome. For me a sketch is a kick starter and saves me a lot of time to decide where to start when crafting. And there's no right or wrong when you interprets a sketch, you can let loose your inner artist and just enjoy the journey.

For this one I decided to turn the sketch upside down, and here's what I came up with using the October Little Things Scrapbook Kit.

My background is prepared with some color mist. I use a small plain plastic bag for this, just make a little "hole" and spray some mist in it and then apply and repeat until you are satisfied :) I've also made some splatters of ink. After drying I arrange my papers and embellishments (and photo of course)

I thought the header for my vintage page was perfect for my page so I cutted it to fit in with my photo and layers of papers. And have you seen these small foxes from the Maggie Holmes Willow Lane collection? Sooo CUUTE! :)

This little die-cut cloud (from the Pinkfresh Indigo Hills 2 ephemeras) is so cute! I just had to use it here on this page with my little man.

Another favorite from this months Scrapbook kit is those Wood Veneeer words, I've used the "Go" here.

Talk about favourites, here's yet another one! These puffy hearts from the Amy Tangerine Shine On collection, to die for, for real!

I do really love how easy this layout came together by having the sketch as a basis for my page, using this months "Little Things" Scrapbook kit. 

Needing these October kits? You find them all here! 

Now it's your turn - we can't wait to see how you interpret this weeks Sunday Sketch. Remember to share them with us in the CTK Facebeook Fan Page!

Thanks for stopping by! Anna xo

Product Highlight - Wood Veneer Cuts with Neftali

Happy Thursday everyone! Neftali back to share with you two very unique ways you can use the woodgrain cutouts that are included in this months "Little Things" Scrapbooking kit. If you are wondering how you can include them in your pages or need a few extra ideas I've got TWO ways for you to do it today!

First let's start off with using the cutouts as titles. I personally love using any words as titles rather than using alphas. Which is why you will always see me use up my thickers as titles in most of my pages. However, I thought that these wood veneer words would be able to complete the job perfectly. So I used the one with the word "Go" as my title of this 12x12 page below:

I not only used this piece as my title, but I tried to make it stand out as much as possible. In order to do so, I kept my layout super duper minimal by including the free October 2018 Leaf Frame cut file on white cardstock with some white stitching. 

I kept my photo black and white and the only other thing I added was typed journaling below my photo. 

That is literally all I did! I feel like it all goes well together and all the important details are the center of attention: my title, photograph, and journaling. DONE. 

If you're wondering whether you should add the wood veneers to your Traveler's Notebooks, I say go for it! They will add some slight dimension to your page, but not without some natural texture and interest. I call that a win, and that's what my next example for using these pieces is about.

I recently started a pregnancy TN using the CTK exclusive mini travelers notebook covers and have been documenting certain aspects of my pregnancy. This time I decided to use the "Eat" wood veneer cutout to document the story of my dietary restrictions while pregnant. 

I thought it would be a sweet touch to add the wood veneer straight on to my photo! It might work as a title, but it also works as the "theme" of the story from my journaling on the left hand side.

This was also a very quick way to document using the wood veneers and the pay off is great when the pieces are placed above a nice bright photograph. They just pop!

So, crafty friends, these were two fun ways you can use your wood veneer word cutouts in both 12x12 and TN formats. Can you think of any more ways? If you do, share your ideas and projects with us on the CTK Facebook group! 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you're all enjoying these sweet crisp Fall days. Stay crafty friends, xo.

Sunday Sketch with Trina, Nathalie & Emma

Hi CTK friends! It's Nathalie, Emma & Trina on the blog with today's Sunday Sketch :)

First up, here is a look at the sketch:

It seems like most days with my daughter, McKenzie, off at college, that my pages tell many of her "away" stories. I'm lucky enough that she calls, texts and sends photos home on a regular basis. This page is sharing one of her stories, so it seems perfect to use this vintage book page from our October Little Things Scrapbooking kit. I started by simply stitching the book page down to my 6" x 8" PL page to create a mini layout.

The little crosses on the sketch inspired me and (mostly) I grabbed from the Scrapbooking kit to fussy cut them from the smaller patterned papers. Pretty much I love sprinkles of anything on my pages!

I also used exclusive patterned papers and embellishments from the Little Things Pocket Life kit that I absolutely love. In addition, the Little Things October Traveler's TN stamp was perfect for stamping sentiments on the page. I used my Tiny Attacher to staple some elements on the page. (Who else uses a Tiny Attacher just for the look of having staples without actually stapling something down?!)

I don't like flat pages and often add foam pop dots beneath some elements to add dimension. I did this with the fussy cut flowers in the photo below.

I can't wait to see what you do with this month's sketch. As you can see, all 3 of us took different approaches to the sketch, so have fun and please share!

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Hello friends!  No surprise that I love a sketch; it's such a huge time saver for me (and life is pretty crazy right now so it's the perfect solution to get a layout finished!).  And this week's sketch is a super fun one.  Here's my take:

I have used this month's Main kit and teamed it up with a few sentiments from this months TN Stamp.

My background paper is plain white cardstock cut slightly smaller than 6x8 so I could back that up with one of the pattern papers (Indigo Hills v2 “Ridge” by Pinkfresh) to create a subtle border around my page.

For the background I used one of the stencils from Vicki Boutin's Field Notes Stencil Set (sadly it's sold out at the moment!).  One of the circle stencils has the exact cross pattern I needed so I just used some modeling paste (left it in white) and positioned them in a few spots on the top left of my page (to match the sketch).

I also hand-cut a few of the crosses from one of the Maggie Holmes papers using my scissors (so they're far from perfect!) and just popped them on top, once the modeling paste had dried ;)

I positioned my photo roughly centered, height wise)  on the right of my page and instead of having 2 photo's like the sketch, I've just used a large die-cut piece to anchor it.  Then I stamped a few sentiments underneath to fill the white space underneath (how perfect is this month's TN stamp?! Love it!).

To finish off the page I added a couple of the flower die-cuts in opposite corners of my page, popped a couple puffy heart stickers on, then added a bit of machine stitching (because my pages feel naked without it) and called it done! 

The only slow part  in putting this page together was waiting for the modeling paste to dry (but even then I just left it sitting under the heater vent in my room so it didn't take long lol).

Take care, Em xo

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Hi there! How awesome are Trina and Emma's designs!  I find sketches a great starting point for a project, as they are a building base of your page; but let me show you my take on the sketch...

I used the Main and Embellishment kits along with the TN stamp set to create my page, and of course a bit of mixed media!

I created my background using some watercolor paper and a few of the Pinkfresh Studio liquid watercolors (available in the CTK shop).  I wanted to bring the blue/purple color in the Indigo Hills 2 ephemera (included in the Main kit) so that all the other colors will stand out.

Next i used an old Heidi Swapp stencil and some texture paste to create the white crosses on the background.  While this dried, i cut a few crosses from some of the papers, and used  a bit of foam adhesive to attached them to page.   I decided to switch the placement  of  the title; so, I added used some gold paint to color one of the wood pieces -included in the Scrapbook kit- and layered a piece of ephemera under it.

I kept pretty true to the sketch from then on.   First i used papers from the kit to back and layer the photos of my son, and then just switch the position of them a bit.   Once in place, i added a few extra stickers from the Embellishment kit, as well as some elements from the cut apart page.  To finish, i added a few sentiments to the page using the TN stamp (love all the phrases included in this month's stamp set!)

I love how easy this was to put together by using the sketch as a blueprint for my page, and mixing in a bit of this month's "Little Things" kit.   

Now it's your turn - we can't wait to see how you interpret this weeks Sunday Sketch. Remember to share them with us in the CTK Facebeook Fan Page!

xo