Let's Get Digital with Sarah

Hello, CTK friends!  Today I'm back with a layout using some digital elements.  Before we get started let me preface this post by saying that you do not need any fancy cutting equipment to replicate this type of look.  We're going to be using some basic cutting tools and a little bit of patience to put together this really fun page.

For this project I used the Modern Beehive cutfile as my focal point and then embellished using the November cut aparts, the pocket life and main kits as well as the "Thankful" and "Documented" stamp sets.

If you have a cutting machine that would definitely be the easiest and fastest way to trim your cut file.  However, the great thing about using a simple geometric cut file like this is that you can easily go in with a ruler and exacto knife and cut around the outline, which is what I did here.  I simply opened the .png file in photoshop and printed it out.  The default of the image is black, which is what I wanted for my layout, but you could also change the color before printing it out.

I didn't worry about being too precise with my cutting (you can see little slivers of white around the beehive) because you can't even really see them once all of the embellishments are stuck down.

I backed a couple of of my hexagons with patterned paper and stuck down some die cuts, stickers, and labels to embellish my beehive.

Finally, I made a little visual triangle with my stamping just to give some interest to the edges of my paper and finish my layout.

I hope this gives you some inspiration for using some of the digital files this month!

Happy Crafting!

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

Tutorial Tuesday with Andrea

Hello friens! Andrea here to share a tutorial with you on this fine Tuesday! Who's ready to get stampy? Today we are going to create a whole page of stamped sentiments and it's going to be easy! I'm sure you've experienced the frustration of having this beautiful cluster just the way you want it, and then you basically have to take it apart to adhere it all back together. Well I like to avoid frustration in my scrapbooking so I found this stamping trick to be super handy when stamping multiple on the same page.

Start by selecting all of the stamps you want and place them down (the right way, with the backs facing up), arranging them to your taste and design idea. My idea here was a collage look with variety in the sizes but being careful to spread out larger stamps evenly so it didn't feel cramped. I used all stamps from the Badge Maker set and the Little Things set.

Once I had all the stamps down where I wanted them, I grabbed my acrylic block that was big enough to cover all the stamps. If you don't have a block big enough for your design, then do these next steps in smaller sections.

Lay the acrylic block down on top of the stamps and press firmly in order to get each one to grasp the block.

Carefully pull up the block and all the stamps should come along for the ride! Now you have a block with all the stamps exactly how you wanted them!

Even though I photographed this next step with the stamp pad on the desk and the stamp block on top, I would recommend the opposite. Lay the acrylic block on the back side down on your table and press the ink pad onto the exposed stamps. This will allow you to see the ink coverage better so you make sure that all the stamps are inked evenly.

Depending on the ink pad you're using, and how big your overall design is, you might have to work quickly. I use staz-on and it dries fairly fast so I had to ink-ink-ink super quick to get it all covered.

At this point you can stamp it down. I always eye ball stuff but you can pencil out a frame to guide you or make little markers with washi so you remember where exactly you wanted to stamp.

That's it for the stamping portion - now it's time to decorate! I added puffy hearts and die cuts to the stamped page to add color and fun! 

On the opposite page I built a fun photo cluster using cards and die cuts from the gorgeous Little Things kits! The wood grain background is from the 6x8 papers and I basically want all my backgrounds to be this pattern!

Here's another look at how the two pages work together. I feel like the open feeling of the stamped page balances out the heavy cluster on the left page. And because I used coordinating colors and shapes on both pages, it pulls off that balanced look.

Thank you so much for joining me today for this fun tutorial. I hope to see how you create your own stamped collage! Until next time, happy scrapping!

Tuesday Tutorial with Alena

It's Alena here today with simple tutorial about how to add some interesting effect to your Pocket Pages. 
First, a cut file with round holes was cut  size 6x7. I prepared a background of white cardboard a little smaller, 5, 5x8. 

 From the patterned paper, which was included in the set, I cut a few pieces.

Then gold accents and a title were added. 

Now com the best part - choose the perfect embellishment. It was pieces chipboard, Ephemera, Puffy Stickers.

It remains to add a phrase using a stamp from the set and a couple of buttons.

This is what the spread looks like:

I hope you are inspired to create something with your CTK kit today!

Make Your Own Printables with Chantal

Colour is my jam and like many, I have a load of things pinned on my Pinterest board (colour combos and wonderful graphics). Once in a while, I'll get inspired and I'll create something of my own in Photoshop, for my projects. Digital printables are a quick and easy way to add a little "oomph" to any layout and keeping it simple is best. If you have a cutting machine like me, you can create custom flags and tags but if you prefer to stick to your manual punches, circle printables in 1in, 2.5in and 3in, are THE best!

First off;

1- choose a great font (e.g., something that can still be clearly read when sized at 15 pt)
2- pick out a colour palette
3- find a few simple words and/or sayings

Font Guideline Tips

Remember, if you're mix and matching your fonts; opposites attract. Like serif & sans serif, fat & skinny and uppercase & lowercase. An example of great font combinations are Lora & Source Sans Pro and Futura & Georgia Italic.

The below project was created with some of this month's Sugarland goodies and a few basic printables that I designed in Photoshop, especially for this layout.

As a special thank you, here's a link to a few Sugarland coordinating printables. Enjoy!

Happy creating!

Tuesday Tutorial with Kathleen | Custom Notebooks as Gifts

Hey there ladies! It's Kathleen (aka Scattered Confetti) here and I'm so happy to be on the Citrus Twist Kits blog today with my first blogpost as member of the Creative Team :)

For this week's Tuesday Tutorial edition I'm bringing you three cute customised notebooks which would be great as little gifts. Because they are so quick and easy to make, they'd also be perfect for a craft session with your kids or at a birthday party for your littles.

For my notebooks I used the October "Good Vibes" Scrapbook Main kit and the October Embellishment kit and here's how I made them:

First I gathered my supplies. You will need some patterned paper, regular white printer paper and some things to embellish your notebooks (like alpha stickers, ephemera and other bits and pieces).

1. Per notebook I used three sheets of printer paper which I cut into six equal parts (about 3.5"x4.25"), that makes 18 pages per notebook. I used my stapler to staple them all together at the top edge. (You could use more pages, but keep in mind not to make it too thick because you will need to still be able to staple them together.)

2. For the cover I cut down a sheet of patterned paper to 4" wide and 9" long.

3. I then scored that piece of patterned paper at 3.75" and 8.25" and adhered the stack of printer paper with a strip of double sided tape to the middle part. To cover the staple needles, I used a small strip of paterned paper and adhered it on top (see second photo in this post).

4. Now the fun part begins: embellishing your notebooks! I used the October Scrapbook Main and Embellishment kit for this. When I was done embellishing them, I also added the initial of the person I made it for on the cover.



Tip: To easily keep the notebooks closed, you can use an envelope notcher on the bottom flap so you can slide the top flap into it (I hope I'm making sense, haha :D ). I don't own such a tool, so I just used my craft knife.

And here's a closer look at the other notebooks I made:

I really hope you enjoyed this cute and simple tutorial and maybe give it a try! Thanks for stopping by!

Kathleen

Tuesday Tutorial with Veera

It’s Veera here today to share my tips and tricks for creating your own traveler’s notebook insert. I love the format of traveler’s notebooks and creating your own inserts is really easy. All you need is blank papers, pattern paper for the cover and some embellishments.

For the inside pages I use white copy paper that is a bit thicker than normal copy paper. The reason for this is that I don’t want writing or stamping to see through on the other side. The paper I use is 120 g/m2. I folded the papers in half and cut the pattern paper I want to use as cover. At this point I’m not cutting everything to a correct size, rather having all the paper to be a bit larger than the final size. I try to be modest with the number of inside pages as I know that I will be adding on to this book (photos, embellishments etc) so I want to make sure that the insert itself isn’t too bulky already.

The next step is to bind the book. I used staples but you can even sew your pages together, whatever works for you.

The next step is to cut everything to the right size. The reason for cutting everything at this stage is to get a clean edge. If you would cut the pages first and the folded and binded, the edge wouldn’t be straight. I used my paper trimmer to cut the edge at this point.

The last and final step is to add embellishments to the cover. This is optional but highly recommended to make the insert even prettier! When I’m adding the embellishments to the cover I try to adhere everything carefully so that everything will be in place once I have finished using this book.

I hope you'll try creating your own traveler's notebook inserts!

Tutorial: Mixed Media Background

Hi everyone, Gina here to share with you a step-by-step for creating a mixed media background. This is a favourite process to use when creating my layouts. You can also use this technique on white card stock or patterned papers but I love the chalky contrast of the white gesso against kraft card stock

To start, I've chosen a small b+w photo and a few possible embellishments and ephemera pieces from the gorgeous Photo Booth main kit

Lightly pencil in the position for your photo and, using a flexible plastic card or palette knife, scrape thin layers of gesso onto the card stock, working in different directions. I prefer do multiple thin layers and add in a few thicker patches, cutting lines into them, with the edge of the card or knife to add lines for texture

Once the gesso is dry (usually only takes about 5 minutes) start adding some colour with distress stains or a similar product. I've used 3 colours here; a gold and two different pinks and I usually blend them around with my fingers a bit

Applying the stain slightly outside the gesso  will result in a more intense colour directly on the card stock. Wipe off excess stain with paper towel, or if you prefer the colour brighter leave as is

I also added some random white splotches with a paint pen

Add a few watercolour splatters in a contrasting colour

Frame the  photo with a piece of patterned paper and tag. A torn edge to the paper is an easy way to add contrast and texture.

Position embellishments, ephemera and title roughly where you want them. I've add some cotton thread under the button and star



Now it's time to stick everything down. I changed the journal tag to a different colour and stamped a phrase onto it

A good quality black felt tip pen is an easy way to add some 'controlled' splatters to your page

Here is the final result (with a couple of graphite scribbles and more stamping under the b+w flowers)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're now tempted to have play around with backgrounds sometime using this technique. It's a fun way to customise colours to compliment your papers and embellishments and I can guarantee that every page will be unique! x

Gina

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