Sunday Sketch with Elsie

Hey CTK fans, it's Sunday Sketch time again! I have a 12x12 layout to share with you all today inspired by this weeks awesome sketch. I'm using the new and seriously delightful 'Photobooth' Main & Add-On kits.

I was immediately drawn to the Maggie Holmes Carousel 'Magical' paper in the Add-On kit. I thought it could make a really interesting background for a page, but I wasn't sure how best I could use it.

Once I saw the sketch I knew I had to try and make the paper work because there are embellishment clusters in the bottom right of the sketch, and the Carousel roof design on the paper is also in the same corner.

I love my white space, so using a patterned paper background is a really daunting task for me, so I'm happy I stepped out of my comfort zone!

I decided to add a frame around the entire paper, and I loved how it looked. It contained the paper's design and helped make it make a little more sense in my head!

I added a lot of the embellishments to the bottom of the page. I used three of these adorable ticket and food stands from both the Carousel ephemera pack and chipboard, and clustered them on top of the frame.

This gives the layout some more perspective as it looks like the stands are in the "foreground", the frame is the "middle ground" and the patterned paper is the "background". It's obviously not "to scale", but this idea helps all of these larger pieces work together and make sense when you're looking at the page.

I placed my photo in the same position as in the sketch. It looked a bit random without any embellishments around it, so I fussy-cut some kites from the Carousel collection 'Summertime' paper.

I jazzed up these kites by stitching around them with some thread of the same colour... I can never stray too far away from a needle and thread!

And how cute are the CTK exclusive puffy stickers in the Main kit? Those birds are so adorable, I couldn't resist having them perch on top of the ice cream stand!

And now it's your turn! To play along with this week's challenge, create a layout inspired by the sketch, upload it to the Citrus Twist Kits Gallery with the sketch date (8/06) in the title, and you might win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK store - yay!

I can't wait to see your creations!
- Elsie x

Adventure Awaits | Elsie Robinson

Hey everyone, it's Elsie here! I hope you're all having fun playing with your July kits. Despite how awesome this month's kits are, I've been in a (really annoying) creative rut recently. So today, I want to give you a couple of tips on how to create when your mojo isn't there!

Be inspired by your kits! This might seem like a fairly obvious point, but by taking just one image, a colour or a phrase and basing your entire layout on that can really help simplify and streamline your process.

So thats exactly what I did! I was inspired by the travel themed Carta Bella ephemera pack in the Sprinkles kit. The pack has some really cute images like the cars in the photo above and some road signs.

And so I thought I would take those road sign images quite literally and create a signpost. And everything fell into place after I made that decision. I suddenly noticed that there were quite a few arrow-shaped embellishments which were obviously perfect to pop onto my signpost.

Some of the stickers I used on the signpost brought in some mustard yellow and pinks, which inspired the paper I would used to back my cut file title. Which brings me on to my next point... 

... Use your favourite things! Again, this might be another fairly obvious point, but the temptation to hoard that beautiful "Artisan" paper from Cocoa Vanilla was really quite strong! But I'm so glad I used it as I just love the way it looks behind my title. 

The warm colours in the ombre pattern look similar to a sunset which kind of helps set my "scene", and the light grey colour strikes the perfect balance between able to stand out against the white without competing with the other embellishments on my page.

Another favourite thing of mine is this stringed star cut file. I hadn't yet used it on a page but thought it would work perfectly here as it just adds a whimsical finishing touch along with the Fancy Pants puffy stars.

Do you guys have any more tips and tricks on how to combat lack of mojo? I'd love to hear! 

Have a great rest of your week, friends!

- Elsie 

Sunday Sketch with Elsie

Hey CTK friends! It's Elsie here with this weeks edition of Sunday Sketch. This is a really fun sketch so I'm excited to share my interpretation of it with you. I used the June 'Boardwalk' Main, Embellishment and Patterned Paper Play kits.

I love the way the sketch has a diagonal design, that's something I really like to try to and think about when I make layouts because I think it looks pleasing to the eye.

I shifted my main cluster to the bottom left, because the cactus I paper-pieced was so large that it looked a little too strange in the middle of my layout!

I loved the layers behind the main cluster in the sketch, but that's not inline with my style. So to combat this I deconstructed some of those elements and included them in other ways on my design. 

I was inspired to create the bunting because of the fishtail banner underneath the title in the sketch. I punched out some semi-circle bunting instead, and I love how fun and summery it makes this layout feel! I also used the fishtail design to create a little fishtail banner sign to pop my punny title on!!

Instead of scattering stars on the background, I used some stitched clouds and clustered some of the flowers from the Pink Paislee chipboard and Elle's Studio puffy stickers. I also followed the sketch and made a cluster round my photo using some flowers and labels.

And now it's your turn! To play along with this week's challenge, create a layout inspired by the sketch, upload it to the Citrus Twist Kits Gallery with the sketch date (6/11) in the title, and you might win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK store - yay! 

I can't wait to see what you create!

- Elsie x

Sunday Sketch with Elsie

Hey all! It's Elsie back today with this week's Sketch Sunday, and it's a fun one!

I'm going to be completely honest and say that this layout really challenged me. I love this sketch, but I knew I wouldn't be able to follow it exactly as it's not inline with my style. I'm really not a "paper layerer" as I rarely ever back my photos with any patterned paper, so I came up with the idea to deconstruct the sketch and include all the main elements from it onto my design, to make it work for me! Let me talk you through what I did...

For this layout I primarily worked with the May 'Hello Beautiful' Add-On kit. I've had my eye on the  Shimelle Little by Little ephemera for a while; I was so happy to get it in this kit. I was inspired by the cute critter/animal images from that collection, and I wanted to make a feature of them on a page. 

In the sketch there are three different patterns behind the photos, so I used that number '3' as inspiration and used three different patterned papers and made them the focus of my page. I used the Shimelle cut-apart, that beautiful teal Daisy Dear Lizzy paper and also the Crate Paper Oasis woodgrain from the Main kit. I created some cutesy/whimsical looking trees and a small branch to set my 'scene' and use as my three main focal points.

The sketch has two photos, and I really wanted to challenge myself and use two as that's something I rarely do. The two photos I used are very similar, but didn't look great next to each other. I decided to separate them and use the two trees to anchor them and make them flow nicely with the design of the page. I'm so glad I was able to incorporate them both, if it weren't for the sketch that's something I really wouldn't have thought of doing!

I used that gorgeous embossed floral die-cut from Shimelle on the right side of my right photo, like in the sketch. I also created a cluster in the top corner of my page where I stamped the date and included my title 'Bold & Brave' (from the Expression's stamp set). 

The original sketch had that cluster in the top right, but it made sense on my layout to switch it to the top left.

And now it's your turn! To play along with this week's challenge, create a layout inspired by the sketch, upload it to the Citrus Twist Kits Gallery with the sketch date (2/26) in the title, and you might win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK store - yay! 

I can't wait to see what you create!

- Elsie x

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'Be Our Guest' Layout | Elsie Robinson

Hi CTK friends, it's Elsie here and I've got a 12x12 layout to share with you all today using the 'Sophie' Main Kit.

Inspiration for my layouts always comes from many different places, I could be inspired by papers, embellishments, colours etc. But sometimes I'm inspired by somewhat abstract sources, as is the case with this layout. For those of you who love this film as much as me, you've probably already guessed that this layout was inspired by Beauty & the Beast!

I've scrapped a photo of my friends and I having afternoon tea together from a few years ago, and whilst my photo has nothing directly to do with Beauty & the Beast, my love of the film really influenced a lot of this page's design and amplified the story behind my photo. Let me talk you through how...

I started by stitching my title. I found this free 'Be Our Guest' printable from Dawn Nicole Designs, which was completely perfect for this Beauty & the Beast themed layout and for the story behind my photo.

My colour scheme is primarily blue and yellow with pops of pink, which was obviously inspired by the colours of Belle's dresses! Two of my largest design elements followed that colour scheme: I stitched my title in yellow and used a piece of the 'Portrait' paper for that pop of blue.

And what would a Beauty & the Beast themed layout be without a teapot and teacup?! These were such simple shapes to draw, cut and stitch by hand and so they really didn't take too long to make at all. They also helped to tell the story behind my photo.

I fussy-cut the frames from the 'Portrait' paper which were not only really handy spots to include some journalling and stamping, but also helped create a vintage, traditional and whimsical vibe!

And of course I had to fussy-cut some of those butterflies, they're so pretty!

Some subtle details like using the small heart stamp from the Scrapbook kit with some light pink ink, and stitching some "bricks" with white thread really finished off this layout for me.

Thanks for joining me today and check out my process video below to see how this page came together!

- Elsie

House + Love = Home | Mini Album with Elsie

Hey CTK friends, it's Elsie here and I'm really excited to share the mini album I made with this month's Oliver kit. I had such a blast working with this kit!

To me, creating the structure of mini albums always seems like a really overwhelming and gruelling task, because I’m impatient to get into the fun decorating bit. But the 6x4 chipboard pieces in this months Main kit, made the mini album ‘construction’ super easy! 

I created a cover from the chipboard pieces, a small piece of cardboard (for the spine), some fabric and mod podge… and that’s it! No fancy tools or tricks and I had a sturdy and pretty album cover in no time. You can totally switch out the fabric cover for paper, but I think the fabric gives the album an extra bit of durability, and I’m notorious for accidentally ruining paper mini album covers!

Also to decorate the spine I used the Life Adventures stamp set and heat embossed the label with some gold embossing powder, for some extra sparkle!

I decided to split the book into two halves. The left side holds a small pocket which I'm storing a couple of spare photos and a tag with some journalling on it. And on the right side, I made this book out of white cardstock which is bound together with an accordion folded spine. (I'll hopefully have a tutorial up on my YouTube channel by the end of the week, to show you exactly how I made this)

This little book isn't actually adhered to the cover. I decided to not attach it because as you can see, it's a little chunky (!) so I wanted to be able to remove it so it was easier to look through. 

The first spread in the book doesn't have a photo. I wanted to create a title page and I mainly used some of the pieces from the Domestic Bliss ephemera pack (from the Sprinkles kit), to create a little scene.

This might be my favourite page in the album as it really makes me smile. The household ephemera pieces worked so perfectly with this photo that I've been wanting to document for a while. I was also pretty proud of using that washing machine, as I didn't think I would be able to find a way to use it as it is!

I love the spring colours in the papers from the Main kit, I grabbed a couple of flower and leaves stamps from my stash and fussy-cut them out. This was a super simple technique, but I love how fresh the page feels.

I love the exclusive CTK paper in this month's kit, it's such a gorgeous shade of yellow. I only have the tiniest scrap of it left, and I'm seriously going to have to hoard it!!

The Crate Paper cut-apart sheet from the Oasis collection had some really lovely elements I could to fussy-cut out. This page came together really easily because of that. And the exclusive cork pieces and stamps set from CTK were the perfect finishing touches to use for this page. I love that 'shenanigans' stamp, it's such a fun phrase to use!

I always like to make my mini albums as tactile as possible, so I always try to include different textures, flaps and pockets with hidden journalling or photos and windows... so I literally created a little window, where you can see the photos on both pages at once. I think this looks super whimsical and works well with the "home" theme of this album. 

Thanks for joining me today, I hope your inspired to create a mini album with this month's kit! 

- Elsie x