Creating a Flip Up with Shannon

Hello, scrappy friends! Last month, I shared a video tutorial on creating a flip-up on your pocket pages on the Citrus Twist YouTube channel. I know that YouTube videos aren't for everyone so I decided to make a written tutorial this month using the June 2020 CRAVINGS Life Crafted Kit and the scrapbooking add-on. Interactive scrapbooking is quickly becoming one of my go-to tricks when I scrapbook and it's so easy to learn!

Flip-ups can be used for hidden journaling or as a way to add more photos to your page. You'll see that I did both here! Most of the time I hide my journaling because I enjoy decorating my pages and then before I know it I've lost the room for journaling. If you want to give this a try (and you totally should), here are the six easy steps:

Step 1: Cut a piece of cardstock. I like mine to take up most of the width of the top of my card so I cut it 2.5" wide. The length is up to you, but I suggest at least 2" long so you have enough on each side to adhere to the cards/photos well.

Step 2: Fold your cardstock in half. Use a bone folder to make a good crease because you'll want it to stay mostly closed. If you don't have a bone folder you can use the side of a pen or something else that won't leave a marking on your fold.

Step 3: Test out your crease. Make sure it can stay closed pretty well.

Step 4: With your cardstock creased, adhere one side to the back of your top card. This is the card that will be the flap on top of the pocket. Make sure the crease is at the top of the card. You'll want to leave the top of the crease sticking up over the card just a hair. You'll see why in a minute!

Step 5: Open the flap and adhere your hidden photo or journaling to the inside of the flap. This is the card that will actually go into the pocket. When you adhere it, you'll want to make sure it's down just a bit from the crease. If it's too close to the crease then the flap won't stay closed well. You'll also want to make sure the sides are aligned with the flap card on the top. Otherwise, the flap won't cover the pocket completely.

Step 6: With the flap still open, adhere whatever you choose to put on the underside of the card that flips up. In this example, it's where I've placed my journaling. You might also put a photo or a journaling card there. I always adhere it with my flap partially opened so I can make sure the orientation is right when the card is flipped up. Otherwise, you risk upside down journaling! Make sure you're not adhering it right against the crease. You'll want to leave some room for the flap to open and close easily.

You'll notice that I added a little tab on the side of my top card. This is just to indicate that the card can be flipped up. Sometimes I add that, sometimes I don't. It all relates to page design. This journaling card is from the June 2020 CRAVINGS Life Crafted Kit and the "yes" is from the Yes Digital Stamp Set. I used the Digital Journaling Cards so I could add my journaling in Photoshop.

Enough about flip-ups! Let's take a look at the rest of this Life Crafted spread. I love food so I knew when I saw this journaling card with all the words like needing, wanting, craving, etc. that it would be perfect for a spread about some of my current favorite foods (and coffee, of course). That card made the perfect flip-up. Then I used the alphas from the June 2020 Life Crafted kit to write out a phrase on my picture.

On the left side of my spread I did lots of layering. I mixed pieces from the June 2020 CRAVINGS Life Crafted Kit and the scrapbooking add-on. They play so well together! I started with the photo placement and then just kept tucking things behind and on top of it until I was happy with the end result. At the top of the page, I used the physical Yes Stamp Set. I love that the back of these larger stamp sets has tons of ideas for mixing and matching the various stamps! I'm also a sucker for any stamps with ampersands and/or coffee. I kept my stamping in a neutral grey so it would blend with the ink splatters that are already a part of the Digital TN Papers. Plus, the bottom of this page is pretty busy and I didn't want to overwhelm it.

Combining a full size traveler's notebook page with the page protector that holds 2-3x4 cards/photos is one of my favorite ways to use the Life Crafted albums. It allows me some extra creativity on the TN side of the spread and lets me use the wonderful journaling cards that come in the Citrus Twist monthly kits on the pocket side!

I hope I've inspired you to try creating a flip-up on a pocket page. If you do, please share it with us on Instagram or the Citrus Twist Kits Fan Page on Facebook. I can't wait to see what you create!

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