Open Post: Life Crafted Pages Ideas with Angela

Hi everyone,

It's Angela back on the blog. I keep filling up my Peony Life Crafted album, documenting my and my family summer. Today, I have a couple of pages to show you that are the continuation of my previous post. You can find the previous pages in the post here.

To vary the style of the pages, I adhered two papers of 4.25" x 8" to an Adhesive Page Strip, cutting off the excess. Then, I scored the papers along the strip so to allow them to open.

Here is the spread opening the pages. The two papers are from Wild At Heart July Life Crafted kit and they are printed on a single side. This allowed me to play freely with the white space.

I am documenting my second visit to the hairdresser after the lockdown. Finally, I had my hair cut. Yeah! It's not easy to go to the hairdresser, now. We have to take an appointment because no more than one person per time is allowed in small salon, like the one where I go. 

I took a few selfies, I should say many, of my hair done and their new gorgeous color and I chose four photos.  Now, it is very hard for me to show myself in my projects. It's different when it's a picture of me and my family but it's hard when it's only me. I guess it is because I am not enough self confident and I do not like to be the protagonist. Whatever is the reason, I forced myself to do it because one of the things on my list is to take more care of myself. 

The spread was inspired by the beautiful big numbers that are in the Exclusive Die-Cut Ephemera pack. I adhered them in the corners and next to each one I placed one photo. Below every photo, I stamped a phrase using the stamps of the kit. I stamped the phrases on a strip of white card-stock and embellished with little pits and pieces like die-cuts and enamel dots.

I placed a fourth photo on the top right corner. I used a slide shaped die-cut with a beautiful phrase that really spoke to me and I embellished with a big pink flower. This is by Pink Paislee and it comes from the July Scrapbooking Add-On kit. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you liked this little idea of mine and feel inspired to create with Citrus Twist Wild At Heart kit. Have a great day!

Lots of Layers with Shannon

Hey there, scrappy friends! I have a fun new Life Crafted album spread to share with you today. If there is one technique that I love to do over and over again it's layering. I often find that once I start it's hard for me to stop. Anyone else? I mixed and matched the July 2020 "Wild At Heart" Life Crafted Kit and the July 2020 Add-On Kit to create this spread. I also used some Digital Tags and Digital Cutaparts. Did you know that Citrus Twist has a whole page of digital product? Be sure to check it out! Anyway, on to my spread...

I cut the base page to 5x8.25 so I knew this would give me plenty of room on the sides of the photo. I also punched my holes before beginning so I didn't accidentally ruin my design by punching them after the fact. I use a 6-hole punch but you could do it with a single-hole punch and use Citrus Twist page protectors as a guide. I like to do a mix of pages in and out of page protectors in my album. I used plain white cardstock for a clean background because I knew that I'd be incorporating a lot of color.

Like I said, layer upon layers! I went with a 3x3 photo here so I'd have enough room on either side to build out my layers. I also added a white border in Photoshop to give some separation between the photo and the papers. I used 5 pieces of paper behind the photo and cut each one about .25" bigger than the one before it. When building my layers, I try to offset them slightly so it's not perfectly even on all sides. It gives it a bit more visual appeal. When adhering each layer, I try to keep the adhesive away from the edges. This allows me to tuck in embellishments in various places. I actually build everything up on the bottom layer, adhere it all, and then attached the whole piece to my page. That gives me some freedom in placement. Once my layered block was placed, I added a few pieces to the top and bottom edges to pull everything together.

All the layering and colors on the right side meant that I needed to keep the left side pretty simple. I'd been waiting to use that large "2" die cut since my kit arrived. I love how it looks bold but clean against a white background. I used a few pieces of ephemera and some scrap paper at the bottom to create a small cluster. I cut a piece of paper from the July 2020 Add-On Kit to finish off the top of the page. After adding, adding, adding to my layers on the left side, it was actually pretty difficult to keep it simple on the right side!

One final tip about layering. I like to build up my layers completely before adding any adhesive. This lets me make sure I'll like the final product before I make anything permanent. It also lets me see where I might need to add more of a certain shape or color. Moving things around freely is key to ending up with a final product that I love!

I hope I've inspired you to try some layering in your next project. Maybe you'll find that you're like me and you just can't stop once you start! Happy scrapping!

3-to-Inspire with Erica

Hey crafty friends! Erica here and today I am on the blog with your 3-to-Inspire challenge! Today's recipe elements include:

1. Use digital files in creative ways

2. Include a pop culture reference

3. Stamp a bunch 

I'm a big advocate for making the most of your digital files on your physical spreads. Print out all those babies and mix them up with your physical product. I found the perfect card to go with this spread, it just so happened to be one of the Wild at Heart Basic TN Papers. So I brought it into Photoshop and resized it to 3x4 and used the journaling space for a photo instead.

A lot of my current weeks deal with documenting a stressful unplanned house renovation, so I never want to miss the chance to include some of the fun pop culture things that make me smile. I look forward to Star Wars day every year. I took a screen shot of one of my favourite SW artists to celebrate the day and stamped a title using the Bailey alpha. 

And the last element is to include more stamping! Stamp quirky phrases onto your cards and make those sentiments your own. Stamp in the negative space on your photos. Or stamp on labels and layer them with banners and flags from the digital cutaparts. The possibilities are endless.

Thanks for joining me on the blog today! I hope you give these recipe elements a go on a crafty project.

Open Post - Life Crafted Album Set-up and Intro with Angela Tombari

Hi everyone!
It's Angela back on the blog. I have started a new Life Crafted album. My Goldenrod album was about to explode because so full. I bought a few of the new colors, not only because I needed them, I admit it, because the are so pretty! I thought that the bright Peony was just perfect to document this Summer.

I am working with Wild At Heart kit together with the Add-on kit and July stamp. In July and August I will travel a lot between the place where I live and work and our beach house where my family has moved to spend the Summer, about 150 kilometers far away. For this reason I decided to arrange some foundation pages to work with when the time available will be limited.

First, I decided to open the album with an intro page with the name of the month. I wrote it myself with a black marker and then fussy cut it. For the page I used one of the papers from the Add-on kit and on the left I created a pocket with a strip of card-stock from Life Crafted kit. Pockets are always useful! Along the side of the strip, I adhered the name of the month. By the way, I forgot to tell you that Luglio is the Italian for July.

I added a few embellishments at the top right of the page. The 2020 is made with  the little yellow alphabet stickers. I placed them on a yellow label together with some flowers.

Peeking from the pocket is a 3x4 journaling card with number 7, 7 for July, that I created with the Crate Paper card-stock from the Add-on kit.

Turning the page, I recreated the same sketch of the intro. I used white card-stock for the base and a strip of paper on the right. In between the two pages, I inserted an Adhesive Page Strip. For this Life Crafted album I decided to go for a clean look, no wide pages that peeks from the album rings. 

On top of the page I adhered a white tag I created for writing the journaling. A mix of die cuts and enamel dots decorate the bottom of the tag and of the journaling card of the opposite side.

Next page is a 3x8 inches journaling card from Life Crafted kit. Here too I used an Adhesive Page Strip. On the back there is a list of 'resolutions', a few things I would like to do more to take care of myself... For the list I stickers from Let's Stay Home collection by Pinkfresh Studio and the July Wild @ Heart stamp.

Last but not least is the page with the Title. Here I am announcing to myself that I need to make more lists. I know, it sounds weird but I need to get more organized in the future and take a few important decisions. The beautiful paperI used for the page is from Wild At Heart kit and the bow by Crate Paper is from the Add-on kit.

On the label at the bottom of the page, I put together two stamps from July Life Crafted Travelers Notebook stamp and I love it, it's so me now.

That's all for today. I hope you liked the spread and feel inspired to create with Citrus Twist Kits. I will share a few other pages next week so stay tuned. Happy life crafting!

MEET OUR GUEST DESIGNER: LOREDANA BUCARIA

Hello everyone!
This month we are so excited to welcome an amazing designer to our blog.   She is always dazzling with her projects, loves our kits and Life Crafted albums, and we are so happy she is here.  Help me welcome, LOREDANA BUCARIA, our July 2020 Guest Designer. 

Let's get to know her a bit better...

Hello everyone! 

I am Loredana Bucaria from Italy. I started scrapbooking in the 2003 thank to a trip in a funfair park with some friends where I found a shop that sold a book about the paperkins from ek success, do you remember them? From then I started searching more and more about this amazing world where I have found myself, my place in the world, my peace, my joy. I enter in my scrap room and worries, problems, stress, nervousness, sadness, everything goes away and all the papers, the photos, the story behind them exists and I feel in the right place in the world, I feel like home!

I had a scrapbooking online shop for five years (2005-2010) and during that period, when in Italy and in Europe scrapbooking was not so known I hosted a scrapbooking and crafts related convention with teachers from all over the world.  That Elsie Flannigan, Heidi Swapp, Jamie waters, Celine Navarro and others came to teach at our event that was called Paper and co Show Italy. After I started working in the industry being published in many american and european books and magazine  and  as creative member for many amazing companies: American Crafts, Studio Calico, Ali Edwards, the spanish Lora Bailora,  Sizzix, the australian Jot magazine, Bella Boulevard, Kellie stamps, Feed your Crafts, Freckled Fawn, Paislee Press, Frecklled Fawn. I work also as scrapbooking teacher from many years, I have been invited at version scrap in France, I taught in Spain with Amy Tangerine in the 2012 , I have recently taught in the USA at She Loves Color event and I teach in Italy organizing classes by myself and on my website online classes.

My favorite ways to scrapbook are mini albums, project life, travel notebooks and layouts. I adore writing and telling about my everyday life. I love scrapbooking more than I could imagined.

I actually can say that Project life and little mini albums are my favorite way to tell my stories. What I certainly can say is that my style is colourful, clean, simple and full of details and heart.

I am a romantic cheerful girl, from the sunny  south of Italy that loves life so much!I love reading, cooking, traveling around the world. I am mom of two boys that fill my days with love and joy and I am married from 10 years, our anniversary was just some days ago, I am married to the one and only man of my life, my only love.  I am a make up and fashion addict as well LOL LOL

Q&A with LORY

• When did you start scrapbooking? I started scrapbooking in the 2003 thanks to a trip in a funfair park with some friends where I found a shop that sold a book about the paperkins from ek success, do you remember them? From then I started searching more and more about this amazing world where I have found myself, my place in the world, my peace, my joy

• What is something most people would not know about you? I  think that people don’t know I am a very scary girl LOL an I try to be not like this with my boys even if it’s not simple. I hate making cards, they make me feel nervous … they give me performance anxiety.. I don’t know why. I love to create with jazz music in background. I am a very sensitive, I cry a lot when something makes me feel sad. I'm learning to be kind with myself and so critic!

• What are the 3 scrapbooking products you can’t live without?  Oh I am so sure about this! They are: stamps, embellishments  in general, but especially phrase and words stickers , those tiny details that make me feel I have completed my storytelling J

• What do you love about the July Life Crafted kit  – WILD AT HEART -?  To be true I think that Citrus Twist has an innovative way to purpose Kits for storytelling, different in the scrapbooking industry and I love this difference! About the wild at heart kit I am in love with the journaling cards, the stamps and all the ephemera! I can use them thousand of times! Heart eyes when I see all the tiny details to fill my pages and my stories.

• Finish this sentence “If you could see my scrapbooking space now . . . You should say it need a restyle and I’m projecting just this! New wall color, new way to organize stuff, more airy and dreamy! I need time but I am happy and enthusiastic about this project.

You should say also that there is a big creative mess  LOL 

TELL YOUR STORY by Lory

I love storytelling and the pocket pages in general, I think I can define myself as a storyteller, I love writing a lot in my pages and not only I love to take care of the story behind the photo, the little details to tell my stories so for this reason I am in love with the Citrus Twist products, for all those tiny details that help me to give more emphasis to something important to me.

This year I have decided to dedicated a whole mini album to each month of this so strange year so different size albums from the 6x12 to the 4x8 Life crafted albums that are gorgeous! 

I have chosen the clementine album for June. I told the story of our first weekend outsite meeting my sister after months of lockdown. Seeing the sea, spending time with my family, with her was a blast.

I have printed my pictures on the matte paper and I am in love with the effect. I love big pics because there is always a lot of space where you ca add details, the stamps help me to tell my stories with just a sentence.

What I love about the page protectors is the endless ways you can use them and in these spreads it’s all about the in and out of the page protector using it like a page.  I adore the effect that the sequins give.

You have just understood that I am a details lover and so this tells you the second spread using the square pp. I have created a place for  my journaling fold in half three stripes of a bazzill white sheet, 5x10 cm. Inside them I added embellishments from the ephemera of the Wild at heart kit and the journaling in a square piece of paper.  

On each tiny card created I have played with the phrase stamps from the July and June TN stamps and kits. I am completely in love with them! A stamped brush of color and a stamped phrase to title these cardsJ

Then just some details here and there in and out of the page protector. And you have ever used the pp as a page?

WE just love what Lory has created with the kits this month, and we are sure that these will inspire you to play with our WILD AT HEART, too.   Remember to leave Lory some love and to follow her on social media so you can see all she creates:    https://www.instagram.com/loredanabucaria/

Lory will be sharing more of her work with our kits during the next few weeks, we cannot wait to share more of her gorgeous work.

XOXO

3-to-Inspire with Veronica Milan

 Hello lovelies! 

Veronica here, ready to share from my summer mini album. I know that we are not having the summer many of us expected. I get that. I hope you are staying safe and happy, and making the best of it all! I wanted to share that we have been staying local and by local, I mean home. HA! Stay-cations are fun too right!? I'm currently working on a summer album. I have included some fun tid-bits all about today's life. I encourage you to do the same! Let's get these wonderful stories down on paper.

Today I bring you this 3-to-inspire challenge:

1. Stitch (by hand or machine). 
2. Use enamel dots.
3. Make a list (the large die cut numbers are perfect for this).

Let's take a walk through this fun summer spread shall we!? Here I used the pocket page inserts with 2 3x4" cards to the right and a 5x8" cardstock to the left. 

I stitched on bits of labels and scraps. I love adding that extra touch to projects. I love cutting the labels in half and creating the illusion that I have more than one label.

Use some of those cheerful enamel dots to add little accents of color here and there! I used them for bullet points to list the 3 delicious summer salads we love.

The large numbers in the kit were begging to be used. I made a fun list of my top favorite salads! I used black ink to make the number 3 a solid black. This is a great way to use it even if you feel that the pattern didn't mesh well with your others, it's ok to "make it work". 

 I really hope I inspired you to make a beautiful layout spread for your current mini album. Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend!

Hugs,