Sunday Sketch with Melanie

Hello crafty friends, Melanie here today bringing you this week's Sunday Sketch. It's a fun one and I have a layout and a TN Spread for you today. But first let's have a look at the sketch.

For the layout I mainly used the Skyland Pocket Life Kit but also papers from the Skyland Scrapbook and the Pattern Paper Play Kit.

Instead of two landscape photos I used one vertical picture of myself 'hubby' took during our latest getaway while I was setting up the camera to take a picture of the two of us. Other than that I pretty much stuck to the sketch.

I used a stencil to add some splatters on the bottom of my layout and then started by matting my photo on coordinating papers. After that I added the base layers with patterned papers and put my photo on top by using some craft foam to add more dimension. The red exclusive paper of the Kit is so pretty and I also used some blue tones. For more layering I tucked some of the embellishments beneath my photo and made some tags of patterned paper. The cork circles give a nice texture on the layout, I always love using them.

For more texture I ruffled up the edges of the papers.

After that I worked on my embellishment cluster on the bottom right and added my title by placing the 'Oh yeah !' above my embellishment cluster and nestling in the 'SO ME' by using the gorgeous puffy stickers, they are my favorite alphas!

I placed the journaling above of my photo and to add more contrast I stamped the cute camera from the Daily Routine Stamp directly on my page with black ink. 

For the TN spread I rotated the sketch and used two small landscape photos we took on a recent bike trip.

I used the Skyland Pocket Life Kit and  layered some of the papers on both sides of the TN spread, placed my photos on the right hand side and a journaling card on the left. My title went on the very  top of the right page. I finished off by adding some of the lovely epoxy stickers and a little bit of stamping.

Now it's your turn!  I can't wait to see what you're all making, be sure to share your projects on Instagram and our Facebook Group and tag us so we can see your work.

Happy crafting, Melanie

Sunday Sketch with Amanda

Happy Sunday Friends! 

Amanda here with a really fun sketch to share & inspire you with! 

Isn't this fun?! 

I love the simplicity of this design! A nice & easy, one photo layout - perfect for lazy Sunday scrapping! 

And here's my take on the sketch.....

"Summer Paradise Found" 

Summer Lovin'!  

I have used the gorgeous Skyland Pocket Life Kit for this sweet page. 

The Summer themed vintage ephemera, and beautiful 6 x 8 papers complimented my photograph perfectly!

As you can see, I really kept to the sketch design, with the only variance being that I enlarged the size of the layers beneath my photo. I could have easily flipped or rotated this sketch, but when it's a lazy Sunday it's good to just match pretty papers to your photo, and glue! 

Here's a few close ups for you.....

Just look at those embellishments! Apart from the darling retro Summer die cuts, those exclusive Puffy Stickers and Freckled Fawn One Happy Day Epoxy Stickers are just awesome! 

I love adding sewing and thread to layouts, and in keeping with the sketch I machine stitch that tab/ticket embellishment at the top right  hand side of my layout. I add more messy threads to my layers, and even stitch that 4 x 6" card to the base of my layered papers. 

You'll also spy that I used a Skyland Free Digital Cut Apart tab, love you to distraction as part of my story telling & journaling. So sweet!

With such a clean and fresh page, I decide to use the die cut ephemera 6 point stars to replicate the ink splatters in the sketch. While we're talking ephemera, I must mention my cool title. I have incorporated the Every Summer Has A Story

4 x 6" journaling card with the ephemera Paradise and complete it with Found using the Exclusive Turquoise Blue Puffy Stickers. I love how effective this mixed fonts title looks! Super cool! 

And let's not forget the etched cork embellishments! Isn't that cork the cutest?!! 

The warmth of the cork adds balance to this very crisp color palette. Love it! 

So much gorgeousness in the July Kits and now it's your turn to showcase them! 

Play along with today's sketch, & be sure to share your creations with us in the Facebook group HERE!

Love instagram?! We do! 

Tag @citrustwistkits and use the hashtag #citrustwistkits so we can see more of your awesome creating! 

I can't wait to see your interpretation of today's Sunday Sketch! 

Thanks so much for visiting, 

Happy Arty Days, 

Amanda xo  

Tuesday tutorial with Anna

Hi dear CTK friends! Anna here with you sharing this week's edition of Tuesday Tutorial. I'll share a process video with you on how this happy page came up. Also you'll see how I use color mist's with a plastic bag to build up my background. This specific technique, I call it smooshing, are my way to go most often when I want some kind of colored background. I just adjust the amount and choose of color(s).

I've been playing with the July Skyland Kits as Scrapbook kit, PL-kit, Conversation Starters stamp and One of Those Days stamp. You find them all here (and you'll need them ALL, LOL!)

As you can see I've also been playing with one of the absolutely gorgeous July digital cut files as well. I love the texture you get while using cut files on your projects.

Anyway here's my process video. Hope you'll enjoy it :)

And don't hesitate on asking me anything if something isn't clear enough, I'll try to get you an answer as quick as possible.

These lines are made with the Conversations Starter stamps, so versatile and useful.

Love all these gorgeous die cut pieces, yum! And don't forget those beautifully glossy epoxy stickers, aahh!!

Another favorite, this puffy stickers "happy word" from the PL-kit, to die for. 

Here I've used the Pause Button stamp from the One of Those Days stamps. I love love LOVE labels and I also love to use my stamps on them, lol!

And there you have it! One layout and a process video out of our July Skyland Kits. 

I hope I have inspired you to get creating with yours! Can't wait to see :)

Be sure to share your creations with us on the Citrus Twist Fans Page  and don't forget to tag with @citrustwistkits on any social media:)

Thank you for joining in with me today! Take care! Anna xo

Life is better on a bike

Hi crafty friends, Melanie here today! I am so excited to be sharing my first layout here on the CTK Blog with you today. When I first opened the gorgeous July kits one thing that caught my eye immediately, were these cute Chipboard Alphabets in the Skyland Scrapbook Kit. I knew I wanted to use as many as I could on a page and decided to make a layout with a long title.

I printed a picture of me on a bike which is almost black and white so that I could to use any color I'd like.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love bike trips. To me it's such a great way to recharge, enjoy nature and remain fit. I started by matting the photo with some of my favorite papers and cards from the Pocket Life Kit.  I also used some bits and pieces from the July Cut Aparts, which are free on the website and perfect to use  with any of the July Kits, to add some layers to my photo.

After that I added some of the embellishments form the Pocket Life and Scrapbook Kit to add more texture and interest.

Then I arranged my title around my photo, trimmed the white cardstock down and glued it on the fun striped paper which is included in the main kit. To make it stand out a little more I also added some stripes of a darker paper from the kit. I added my journaling next to my photo and used the July Travelers Notebook Stamp to stamp out the cute little box with the stars and the 'rated', I love the 3D effect on this! To finish my layout off, I used some black ink to make some splatters on my page and stamped some phrases from the Conversation Starters stamps which I love! These small phrases are perfect to add some interest on your pages or to use them a starting off point for journaling.

I can't wait to see how you all are going to use the Alphas. Be sure to share your projects in our Facebook Group and on Instagram so we can see what you have created.

Happy crafting,

Melanie

Product Highlight - PATTERNED PAPER

Hello CTK friends!

Anna and Nathalie with you today to shine the spotlight on Patterned Paper.  Let's be honest, we all have a stash of paper we are keeping to document that special memory, and this month's Skyland  Scrapbook, PL kit, Patterned Paper Play and Outside Stories kit are filled with beautiful papers. But before you put them away in your stash, let us show you how you can combine and use them in your projects.  First up is Nathalie.

Hi there!,  Nathalie here to bring you a bit of inspiration using a few of the patterned papers from this month's Skyland kits.  This month, the papers are gorgeous, filled with fun designs, and perfect to document all your memories.

For my layout, i wanted to create a very coastal mood for the page, as it documents a picture of my daughter after spending a day basking in the sun on the beach. For this i picked papers from the Skyland Scrapbook Kit, PL kit, Patterned Paper Play kit and also used a digital card to create a patterned paper for this page.  

What better way to use paper and mix patterns than to crate paper flowers. I used a combination of cut files (Silhouette Store) and some dies to create the centers and petals of the flowers.  I used a bone folder to add some movement to the petals. Some of the flowers were layered together, so that they add dimension to the page.

Along the way,  i added a few die cut leaves  (Maya Road die) cut from white cardstock (color a few with green paint, too), so that they will form clusters around the picture and the entire page.   A few of the Scrapbook kit embellishments and elements from the cut apart sheet also were added along the clusters to embellish the page. Finally a few sentiments using the Conversation Starter Stamp complete this page.

Really, the patterns and designs on this month's Skyland kits are gorgeous, and easy to combine in your projects, so do not put them away (not yet at least!).

Well that is all for me, now it is time for Anna to show you her gorgeous project and give you a new take on how to use all the beautiful papers in the Skyland kits.

xo

Hi dear CTK friends! Anna here bringing you some more patterned paper inspiration made with the July Skyland Kits. But first, don't you love Nathalie's beautiful layout!? So much to love about that, as always with Nathalie's work. Pure happiness:)

Anyway, my layout is made with a combo of Skyland  Scrapbook kit, PL kit, Mixed Media kit and one of the gorgeous July Cut Files.

And here's what I came up with.

I decided to let a part of the gorgeous Simple Stories paper be the focal point and "queen of the page" since backing this lovely "Celebrate" Cut file with it as my BIG title. I love how this turned out.

For my background I've been playing around with the two pink acrylic's from the Mixed Media kit and a few ordinary color mists from my stash. Just smooshing (or as Vicki Boutin said, "Kissing" lol!) my paper with a plastic bag prepped with color until I'm satisfied with the result.

Look at these lovely layers of pattened papers, yummy!

And here's another stack of layers, a combo of papers, cotton and die-cuts, beautiful! Also there's a good idea to tuck some epoxy stickers or other embellishments within/underneath your layers of paper.

The colors and design of the papers in this kit (and all of the past CTK kits as well, lol!) are perfectly unperfect matched with the stickers and other goodies in the kit. Trina is the queen of making kits, thats the way it is, can't help it.

Well that is all for me and us! Now it's your turn to dig into your kits, packed with gorgeous pattened papers, and play along with us here at CTK. Be sure to hang on with our weekly challenges and don't forget to share them with us at the CTK Fan Page. Also,please do hashtag us, #citrustwistkits, so we can see and enjoy all of your beautiul creations.

If you still haven't signed up for a kit (or more) by your own, don't wait to long they are tending to selling fast :) Just click here and you are home!

Thanks for stopping by! Take care! Anna xo