Life Crafted Inspiration With Shu-Wen

 

Hey everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing some Christmas inspiration for a 6x8 Life Crafted Album (I'm using the color "Midnight" here)! This layout is documenting the origins of my ChouxPuffCreations "small business" account, including my Instagram and Facebook business pages, and I'm going to be using mostly elements from the Merry Making Christmas 12x12 Add-On Kit! 

To start off, I created a large library pocket using two of the 12x12 patterned papers in this Add-On kit. I love the 12x12 papers because it is so easy to use them to create large interactive elements like pockets for extra photos and journaling! Then, I used the postcard ephemera pieces from the Add-On Kit to include some journaling about the story of starting my small business and what prompted me to start using my ChouxPuffCreations "brand" to reach a wider audience online. I decided to include a copy of my business card in the pocket, and I included some extra photos on the backs of these journaling postcard ephemera pieces as well! To finish decorating this page, I used the "Love" die cut ephemera piece from the Jingle All the Way Die Cut Ephemera Pack to decorate the left side of my library pocket, as well as some Gold Alphabet Puffy Stickers to spell out my title on top of the pocket. Then, I decorated the bottom of my page with an assortment of die-cut ephemera pieces and enamel dots from the Add-On Kit. I especially love the cute little hedgehog in the center of my embellishment arrangement!

For the right page of my layout, I decided to keep things a bit simpler and make a photo grid collage using the die cut frame ephemera pieces from the Add-On Kit. Then, I decorated my grid collage with some puffy stickers and more of the enamel dots from the Add-On Kit. Lastly, I matted my photo collage onto another piece of patterned paper from the kit. I also love that these 12x12 papers are large enough that I can cut out pages that match the outside-the-page-protector size of these 6x8 albums! 

Here's a look at my finished layout! I love how the colors of the new Citrus Twist Kits Jingle All the Way Kit match the colors in this Add-On kit perfectly! I look forward to mixing and matching all these products together to make my December Daily pages this year! As for this layout, I'm planning on either including it in my "Before Your Story" 6x8 album, or starting a "Stories of Christmas Past" album. 

I hope this inspires you to get creating with these gorgeous Christmas kits! If you're creating a layout inspired by this page, be sure to tag me over on Instagram @ChouxPuffCreations so that I can see what you've created, and make sure to share you layouts over on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Page as well! Thanks for stopping by!

3-to-Inspire with Shu-Wen

 

Hey everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing a spread that I created in my Life Crafted Album documenting my first trip to the rodeo! This spread features some components from the Sunshine Mini Kit that was released this month, and the summery sunshiny goodness in this kit was perfect for documenting a (mostly) sunshiny day!

Here's a photo of my layout for today:

And here are the 3 prompts for this week's 3-to-Inspire!

1) Layering

2) Real-life Ephemera
3) Digital Journaling Card

I started off the left page of my spread by layering a photo that I took from the rodeo with one of the digital journaling cards from the Sunshine Digital Journal Cards set to create a bit of contrast with the rainbow starburst patterned paper that I printed out from the Sunshine Traveler's Notebook Digital Paper set. Then, I layered in some of the floral ephemera pieces from the Sunshine Die Cut Ephemera pack, making sure to pop some of them up with 3D foam tape, and added in a few puffy stickers from the Sunshine Puffy Stickers sheet for some more texture and dimension. On the top of that page, I added my title "Not My First Rodeo" using the Sunshine Puffy Alphabet stickers from the mini kit, crossing out the word "Not" with some of the thin washi tape from the Explore Mini Kit from a couple of months ago. I loved this as my title because it's a play on the commonly used phrase "Not my first rodeo", since this was actually the first rodeo I had ever gone to. 

For the insert in between my two Life Crafted Album pages, I decided to use the paper sleeve that held my plastic cutlery, provided to us with the dinner for the event, to hold some extra bits of real-life ephemera: the tickets from the event, as well as the program for the day's schedule of events. At the bottom half of the paper sleeve, I included a photo of my boyfriend enjoying some refreshments, as well as a flip-up to hold some journaling that I printed out using another one of the digital journaling cards. To serve as a handle to flip the journaling card up, I adhered one of the tab stickers from the Sunshine Chipboard Stickers sheet, making sure to overhang the bottom arrow of that tab over the edge of my photo and removing the stickiness from the back of that arrow tab with my embossing powder tool. Next, I adhered one of the Life Crafted Adhesive Strips to the back of that paper sleeve, which allowed me to put the paper sleeve into my album without having to punch holes through it! 

On the back part of that paper sleeve, I included yet another digital journaling card with more journaling on it, as well as a small photo at the very bottom. I decorated the page with the heart-sunglasses ephemera from the ephemera pack and a chipboard sticker at the very bottom. For the right page of my layout, I decided to keep things simple by letting my grid of 4 photos do most of the work; I only used two circle embellishments from the chipboard sticker sheet to finish off my page!

I hope you decide to give this 3-to-Inspire challenge a try! I especially loved incorporating my real-life ephemera into my layout as an interactive element in my album! If you'd like to create a layout featuring real-life pieces of ephemera, be sure to tag me over on Instagram @ChouxPuffCreations so that I can see what you've created, and make sure to share you layouts over on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Page as well! Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Sketch with Shu-Wen

 

Hi everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing a spread in my 6x8 "Me, Myself and I" Life Crafted Album that I made using today's sketch, documenting my go-to hair style. Here's the sketch that I used for my layout:

I followed this sketch pretty closely for my layout, as the proportions are sized perfectly for a 6x8 page! For the layers of patterned paper, I used pieces from the new Flea Market Findings 2 Life-Crafted Kit; I especially love how the bottom collage patterned paper I used as my base has references to hair styles, making it the perfect background for my layout! To make the individual pieces of patterned paper stand out a bit more from one another, I used my Paper Distresser to rough up the edges a bit. I also added some staples with my Tiny Attacher to add a bit of interest and texture to my page. For my photo, I took a picture of my hair from behind, carefully trimmed the photo to get rid of the background in my photo, then mounted it onto another piece of patterned paper from the Flea Market Findings kit. 

To embellish my page, I added a floral die-cut ephemera piece from the Flea Market Findings kit, a few of the puffy stickers from the kit (including one that I stapled to the page for added texture), and scattered a few pink enamel dots to bring out the pinks in my embellishments. For my journaling, I cut one of the 3x4 journaling cards from the kit in half and added my typed journaling using some clear sticker paper. I distressed the edges of this journaling card as well to match the rest of the layered papers on my layout. 

For the top of my layout, I used the Bright Pink Puffy Alphabet Stickers in my favorite sticker font to spell out my title "My Go-To Hair" in a curve above the circle patterned paper that I cut out using my electronic cutting machine. Because the alphabet sticker set didn't come with a hyphen, I cut apart one of the letter Z's to use as a dash (we never use up those letter Z's anyways, right?). I love that the bright pink stands out boldly across the more neutral tones of the patterned papers I used in my page, and I really like how the curved alphabet looks over the background collage patterned paper. I also added a puffy sticker that says "Beauty" from the puffy sticker sheet along the left edge of my photo to emphasize the vertical lines going on in the strips of patterned papers. 

Here's a look at how my layout turned out compared to the original sketch! I feel like I say this every time I do a sketch challenge, but I love how effortlessly I was able to put together this page using the sketch! 

I also love how the Flea Market Findings kit has some papers and embellishments that are neutral enough to go with photos from any occasion, with some pops of color to brighten up any layout! Make sure to check out this kit bundle up in the Citrus Twist Kits shop to get a discount on all these goodies!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sunday Sketch with Shu-Wen

 

Hi everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing how I used this week in 2 different ways: 

1) To make a layout in my Life Crafted Album

2) To make a card for a friend

Here's the sketch that I used to create my layout and my card:

Let's start with the layout first!

I decided to adapt the right side of this sketch into the right page of my layout. 

For each of the three photos in the sketch, I backed three small 1 3/8" x 1 3/8" photos of me doing some crafting with the Instax-type frames that came in the Handcrafted Digital Elements package. And for the numbers, I cut apart the stitched hearts in the Handcrafted Traveler's Notebook Basics and Patterns Digital Papers and used the Black Alphabet Puffy Stickers to number each of the photos as shown in the sketch. I decided to ink the edges of these little squares with my Distress Oxide inks to help them stand out from my page a bit. 

Next, I layered up some patterned papers from that same set of digital papers; my craft room is usually not very well lit, so I love how the bright colors of these patterned papers brighten up my layout, even if my photos are a bit darker.

Because I was going to do my journaling on the left side of the spread, I decided not to add any journaling to this right side of the spread, and instead just decorated the empty spaces with some ephemera from the digital ephemera pack and the Handcrafted Die Cut Ephemera Pack, as well as some puffy stickers from the Handcrafted Puffy Sticker Sheet. I also used the puffy sticker that says "Making Things" as my title for this page.

I used one of the digital TN papers as the base for my journaling and stapled one of the ephemera die cuts to the top. I absolutely loved being able to document my love for crafting with this new kit from Citrus Twist Kits!

Here's what my final layout looks like: 

I noticed in the past year that since I've been scrapbooking more, I've been neglecting my cardmaking, which means I don't have as many cards left to pick from in my stash! I happen to have a co-worker who is leaving us at the end of this month, so I decided to challenge myself to create a card for her using this same sketch. As I'm only working on an A2 sized card base (4.25"x5.5"), I decided to make the right side of the sketch into my card front and ignore the left side of the sketch that's blank. 

I love that this kit is so versatile that it can serve as the base for a friendship-type card, and not just be used for scrapbooking our hobbies. In place of the 3 photos and journaling spot, I chose to cut apart even more stitched hearts. Instead of the numbers, I decided to use some mini heart buttons from my stash, which I stitched to the card base. And finally, instead of a title, I decided to add the sentiment "We'll Miss You" with the Deep Turquoise Puffy Alphabet Stickers near the top of my card. As for the patterned papers, I mostly used some leftover scraps of the digital patterned papers I had cut up to use in my Life Crafted Album spread.

You can check out the full process video for this spread and card on my YouTube Channel!

This new Handcrafted Mini Kit has been one of my favorites from Citrus Twist Kits, and I love how both my Life Crafted Album spread and my card turned out! If you decide to make a layout using this sketch, feel free to tag me on Instagram or on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Fan page so that I can check it out! Make sure to check out the Citrus Twist Kits Shop for all the new goodies this month! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

3-to-Inspire with Shu-Wen

 

Hi everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing a spread that I created in my Life Crafted Album to ring in the New Year! This one features the new Fresh Starts Life Crafted Kit, a sneak peek of a new item that will be available in the Citrus Twist Kits shop next month, and some musical inspiration!

This week's 3-to-Inspire prompts are:
1. Rainbow
2. Song lyrics
3. Die cut ephemera

Here's a photo of the layout I created:

I had 4 photos that I wanted to document from New Year's Day, 2 from our breakfast at my boyfriend's parents' place, and 2 more from our dinner at my parents' place, so I thought it would be a great idea to put two on each of my Life Crafted Album pages and surround the grid with some of the colorful ticket die-cut ephemera pieces from the Fresh Starts Die Cut Ephemera Pack. Instead of using white cardstock or patterned paper as my base pages, I decided to use some kraft cardstock instead to give some more contrast to my photos and die-cut ephemera. On one of the labels, I used the Harper Alphabet Stamp Set to stamp the date on one of those ticket pieces; the alphabets were just small enough to fit into the blank spot on this label! 

As I was making this spread, I had the song "22" by Taylor Swift stuck in my head, because it's 2022!!! So I decided to use the Fresh Starts Tiny Alphabet Stickers to spell out one of the lines from the song with a little twist: substituting "22" with "2022"! To make more of an impact, I used the upcoming ombre puffy alphabet stickers for the number 2022! These ombre alphabet stickers aren't being released in the Citrus Twist Kits shop until Feb 1, but I just LOVED how the colors of the alphabet matched the pinks and yellows in the rest of my spread, so I couldn't resist including this sneak peek! ;)

To finish decorating the top of my pages, I scattered some of the word phrase stickers from the Fresh Starts Puffy Phrase & Icon Stickers in rainbow order across the two pages, then added some puffy stars from the same sticker sheet to fill up some of the spaces between the word phrase stickers. I love how this rainbow looks across my page!

I was debating whether I should add some journaling to these pages, but in the end, decided to keep the focus on the photos and the bright vibes from the song lyrics and the decorations! But if you'd like to add some journaling without interrupting the flow of this page, I did consider cutting one of the 3x4 Page Protectors in half so that you only have the bottom 3x4 pocket and using a journaling card from the Fresh Starts Journaling Card Set to add in some journaling. 

If you'd like to give this challenge a shot, feel free to tag me on Instagram or on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Fan Page so that I can check it out! And make sure to check out the Citrus Twist Kits shop for all the new goodies coming out each month! Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Sketch with Shu-Wen

Hi everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing a spread that I created in my Life Crafted Album with the new December 2021 "Fernwood" Add-On Kit available in the Citrus Twist Kits shop!

Here's the sketch that I used to create my spread:

Since this sketch was made in a portrait-style orientation, I decided to use this sketch for the design of the left side of my layout and pair it up with a full-page photo on the right side of my layout.

First, I created the base of my layout by cutting strips of patterned paper to mimic the stripes across the page in the sketch. I decided to use all blue patterned papers for the colored stripes, going from darkest at the top to the lightest at the bottom (papers used: "Into the Woods", "Fable", "Fernwood", and "Focused", all from the Vicki Boutin "Fernwood" collection). I chose the "Keepsake" patterned paper from the Maggie Holmes "Chasing Dreams" collection for the bottom-most wider piece of patterned paper; I purposely chose a neutral, lighter colored patterned paper in case I wanted to add my journaling later on. I held the pieces in place with some light adhesive, then stitched them together with my sewing machine to add some texture, similar to the stitch marks in the sketch. 

Next, the film strip die cut from the Vicki Boutin "Fernwood" Journaling Ephemera pack was perfect to use in place of the panel with the 3 squares in the center of the sketch. I chose to back the top and bottom ones with small photos. For the middle frame, I created a small shaker pouch to hold some of the floral shaker sequins that I received in my Citrus Twist Kits package (I always save all these little gems from my packages!) and embellished it with a heart die cut from the "Take It Inside" Die Cut Ephemera Pack available in the Citrus Twist Kits shop. Then, I backed the film strip onto a leftover piece of the "Keepsake" patterned paper to give it enough contrast to stand out from my background. 

For the embellishment clusters, I decided to use some more die cuts from the "Take It Inside" Die Cut Ephemera Pack; I love how the florals in this ephemera pack go with the colors from the Fernwood Add-On Pack! I also added a bit of thread behind my floral clusters to add a bit more interest, similar to the floral clusters in the original sketch. 

For the bottom of my spread, I decided not to type up any journaling. Instead, I filled up the bottom of my spread with one of the ephemera pieces from the "Fernwood" Journaling Ephemera Pack that says "Happiness is..." and finished the title with the "Right Here" Thickers from the "Stories of Us" Thicker sheets in the Add-On Kit. The letter "G" did overhang the edge of the page a bit, so I trimmed the bottom part off. 

For the right side of my spread, I printed out a large 5" x 8.25" photo from our fall photoshoot; I love how the warm, deep colors in the "Fernwood" collection go with the autumnal colors in our photos. I kept the embellishments simple with another ephemera pieces from the "Fernwood" Journaling Ephemera Pack that says "Smile", some more stitching detail for added texture, and a few butterflies from the "Stories of Us" Thicker sheets.

I love how this spread came together so easily using a sketch for one side of my layout and a full page photo for the other side. Also LOVING the colors in the "Fernwood" Add-On Kit and looking forward to making another project with this kit later on this month! If you decide to make a layout using this sketch, feel free to tag me on Instagram or on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Fan page so that I can check it out! Make sure to check out the Citrus Twist Kits Shop for all the new goodies this month! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sunday Sketch with Shu-Wen

 

Hi Everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing a spread that I created in my Life Crafted Album with the new "Bungalow Lane" Add-On Kit available in the Citrus Twist Kits shop! 

Here's the sketch that I used to create my spread:

I love square sketches because they can be used for both 12x12 layouts or Life Crafted Album layouts! 

For the left side of my page, I used a 3x4 landscape oriented photo. Since I knew that it would have to span across both sides of my Life Crafted Album spread, I made sure to pick a photo where it wouldn't matter if I cut the photo in half! I substituted the circle shaped embellishments on the left side of the sketch with some of the smaller floral ephemera pieces from the ephemera pack that came in the add-on kit, substituted the label below those with one of the foam stickers from the Thickers pack that came in the kit, and used some coordinating enamel dots (a Citrus Twist exclusive) to finish off that page. I even added some 3D foam adhesive behind one of these floral ephemera pieces to give my page more dimension!

For the right side of the spread, I used an Instax photo as the focus point for the page. I used one of the butterfly ephemera pieces and one of the larger florals from the ephemera pack to put on opposite corners of my photo and framed them with some leaves that I tore off one of the branch ephemera pieces in the ephemera pack. Since I didn't feel that my page needed any journaling, I decided to substitute that with another Thicker sticker from the add-on kit. Then, I finished off my page with more enamel dots from Citrus Twist Kits!

Here's what my full page looked like in the end! I love how the warm colors of the patterned papers and embellishments in this kit went so well with the warm tones in the photos I took of us hanging out by the fire. 

You can check out the process video that I made for this spread on my YouTube channel!

I love how this spread turned out! If you decide to make a layout using this sketch, feel free to tag me on Instagram or on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Fan page so that I can check it out! Make sure to check out the Citrus Twist Kits shop for all the new goodies this month! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

3-to-Inspire with Shu-Wen

 

Hi Everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing a spread that I created in my Life Crafted Album with the August 2021 release and the Fancy Pants "Peachy Keen" 6x8 paper pad! I love how the cardstock ephemera, chipboard stickers, and journaling cards from this month's release work so well with the colors in the "Peachy Keen" line!

This week's 3-to-Inspire prompts are:
1. Interactive element

2. Stamping

3. Multiple photos

Here is a photo of the layout that I created for my Marigold Life Crafted Album!

For the left side of my spread, I included a full-page photo measuring 5" x 8 3/8". To frame the top of this photo, I added the "hike" word and an orange heart puffy sticker from the "Hello Sunshine" Puffy Phrase & Icon Stickers from July's release. I specifically wanted to include a green word phrase sticker to match the green in the trees and grass around the other edges of my photo. 

For the right side of my spread, I made a waterfall flip-up page for the rest of my waterfall photos, making this a waterfall waterfall! Get it? ;) To do that, I cut 8 pieces of white cardstock into 3 1/4" x 4 3/4", scored on the 4 3/4" side at 1/2", applied double-sided tape to the 1/2" hinge, and adhered all the flaps down onto my base page so that they all aligned in a waterfall pattern. I matted the flaps of my waterfall with patterned papers from the "Peachy Keen" 6x8 Paper Pad from Fancy Pants that I had cut down to 3" x 4". To fill out the panel to the right of the waterfall, I stamped the name of our hike (Beauty Creek to Stanley Falls) using the new "Sophie" Alphabet Stamp Set. I LOVE how this stamp set includes the bold AND the un-bolded alphabets in the same stamp set so they can be used together! I also stamped an arrow stamp from the new "Good Time Adventure" Stamp Set to indicate that Stanley Falls was our destination for the hike. 

Next, I added some clusters to the patterned papers in my waterfall using pieces from the "Here We Go" Die Cut Ephemera Pack. I love that some of the die-cut ephemera pieces, such as the "Smile" ticket and these cute blank labels, had spots for me to do some more stamping, again using the Good Times Adventure Stamp Set. I even did a bit of stamping on my photo to fill in some of the empty space! While I was decorating, I made sure not to add too much bulk on the insides of my waterfall flaps by only using the cardstock ephemera and stamping. 

For my last two flaps, I included two journaling cards from the new "Everyday Life" Double-Sided Journaling Cards. For the first one, I typed up some journaling onto clear sticker paper and adhered it to the center of the journaling card. For the second journaling card, I used a couple of Citrus Twist Kits' older stamp sets ("It's Weathering" Stamp Set and "Let's Wander" Stamp Set) to document the extremely hot weather we were hiking in. I love how the circle stamp lined up perfectly with the circles on this journaling card! Then, I decorated both journaling cards with more ephemera pieces from the "Here We Go" pack. 

To finish off my spread, I added a couple of "The Good Life" Chipboard Stickers to the very first flap in my waterfall; one to decorate the center of the flap, and another to hide a magnet that I've attached to some ribbon to keep my waterfall closed. 

You can check out the process video that I made for this spread on my YouTube channel.

I love how this spread turned out! If you'd like to give this challenge a shot, feel free to tag me on Instagram or on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Fan page so that I can check it out! Make sure to check out the Citrus Twist Kits shop for all the new goodies this month! Thanks so much for stopping by!