Life Crafted with Alena

 Hey friends!
Alena here, and I'm sharing a spread in my Life Crafted album using the October Life Crafted "At My Table" Kit.

For the basis, I took a white cardstock. Then I added the lines of machine stitching on the cardstock in such a way that they turned into grid.

Then I posted photos and added embellishments to each square.

Thank you for stopping by today! Please share what you create with your kits in our Facebook group and/or on Instagram tagging @citrustwistkits so we can see!

October 2019 Citrus Twist Scrapbooking Retreat Recap

Last week I had the wonderful honor to host our first-ever 2019 Orcas Island Escape scrapbooking retreat and meet and get messy with a talented group of women who came from all over the United States and one from abroad!

The weeks leading up to the retreat were very busy as I worked with workshop instructors to get their workshops down in class documents so every instructor's class kit would have a how-to guide for our participants to take home. The weeks before were planning and food planning plus the logistics of hosting a retreat on an island gem - Orcas! - here in the Pacific Northwest. The element that was missing until the evening before the retreat - the night we gathered for the first time for wine and appetizers - was that human element. It was the meeting face-to-face these powerful, like-minded, embellishment-loving women who gathered together in the charming little village of Eastsound, Orcas Island, Washington.

What can I say about our workshop instructors and their projects? I think WOW is the perfect word. INSPIRED right up there with "wow." Nathalie DeSousa, Brandi Kincaid and Tina Stepanova shared their projects and Ingunn Markiewicz did a beautiful project shared via class kit and booklet just for this event.

The manufacturers who generously donated to our workshop kits made a bit of a festive scene at Citrus Twist as boxfuls arrived regularly. I want to give a big shout out to Altenew, Dear Lizzy, Pinkfresh, Vicki Boutin (Vicki, you fed our mixed media souls!), Pink Paislee, Maggie Holmes, Illustrated Faith, Persnickety Prints and Citrus Twist.

Today I want to share some close-ups of photos and projects plus quotes from some of the attendees to help you experience some of the magic that happened during October 17-20, 2019.

I can't wait for the next 2020 creative retreat which I am busy planning as I write this!

One of our attendees couldn't make it but she was there with us in spirit. This photo was taken under one of the Outlook Inn trees, gathered under fairy lights hung from it's branches, that has been there since the 1800s when the inn was built. 

"I had a fantastic time this last weekend and was blessed to get to know most all of you sweet women. I didn't know a scrapbook retreat was what I needed nor did I know that this particular scrapbook retreat would help me change my story not only as a scrapbooker but personally as I see myself..."

The workshop space was in the inn's Victorian Room. With seating for 20 we were able to sit in a large U-shape (with instructor's table at the head of the U) so we could visit and play for two days straight. I think I can say that we all had our creative zones stretched just a little, but the welcoming size of this group allowed ample time for everyone to have one-on-ones with the workshop instructors. 

"This morning I woke up and had my heart bursting with so much love and joy. This retreat was just what I needed to make the time for something I love so dearly but haven’t done in such a long time. You ladies were such a pleasure to spend time with over the last couple of days. Hearing all of your stories gave me a little piece of you to take with me. I met some old friends and new for the first time."

The workshop classes held a little bit of everything from mixed media to pop-ups, to a You Are Here journal, gratitude journal, scrapbooking, layers, sketches and more.

"What a fabulous time we had on this Citrus twist escape. Met so many wonderful friends. ... Thank you to the teachers who put on such fun workshops."

One of the many pleasures of this retreat was seeing how all the women worked the kits and workshops to fit their style. We saw everything from traditional layouts to mini Life Crafted Album pages to Project Life, December Daily, Bible journaling and more.

"It was a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL trip. BEAUTIFUL place, BEAUTIFUL people. 

Can't wait for next time."

"Absolute magic indeed. This was by far the most extraordinary and memorable trip I've ever had! Incredible people, amazing workshops, dream location ... my heart is filled with gratitude!"

"I have learned a bit of each one of you, learned a bit of your lives and shared a lot of mine. You are all forever a part of my heart, and I feel blessed to carry a bit of you with me!"

"It was such a great retreat! Thanks to everyone who had a part in putting it together. It was so fun learning, crafting and meeting everyone!"

While the adventure of riding on the ferry and exploring the light and colorful landscape and roads and lanes that are Eastsound has come to an end, this quaint island hamlet will live on in our memories of newly discovered friends, paper crafting adventures and the friendly and lovely bits and pieces of each person who attended will never be forgotten. I feel so honored and blessed that each of you chose the Citrus Twist Orcas Island Creative Retreat to let your inner artist roam free for a few days.

xo,
Trina

Christmas Stories with Lorilei

Hello!  I am excited to share the start of my December album using the Christmas Stories 2019 Kit from Citrus Twist Kits!  It was like an early Christmas opening the gorgeous kit!  I was thrilled to see the Heidi Swapp Winter Wonderland collection mixed with Pebbles, Pink Paislee, Pinkfresh Studio and the beautiful pieces by Citrus Twist Kits!
This will be my third year making an album of December memories.  I have learned a few things along the way about what my needs are in the busy month of December and making the opportunity to start early will be helpful in the process of recording those stories once December hits!  I focused on preparation to start the process.  Some of the tips may sound simple, but they are not steps I have taken other years, and I think they will be a game-changer for being prepared!

I chose a quiet afternoon and went through the entire Christmas Stories kit to familiarize myself with everything included.  I downloaded all the extra digital goodies so that I would know what my options were as well.  Next, I picked out all the pieces that needed attention to be used.  I trimmed the papers with tags, banners and cards, printed a sheet of labels and trimmed them all.  I cut some snowflakes from white cardstock on my silhouette and die cut some stars from gold glitter paper from my stash.   I cut 3 Build a Poinsetta cut files from the Christmas Stories digital set and painted them with watercolours to match the colours in the Heidi Swapp Winter Wonderland die cuts.  I found a nice dish to hold all my bits and pieces so that they would be handy to add to my album!

Next up, I decided to add photo page protectors to my album.  I chose to include 25 "days" worth of the combination of one double 3x4 insert and a full-size insert.  My thinking is that I will add paper tag inserts and extra protectors as needed for the number of photos on any given day.  Having all the inserts ready gives me a jumping-off point!  I can also collage photos in photoshop to fit in the full-size protector and include more photos that way.  Once I had all the preparation finished, I began adding some of the cards, numbers and tags to my album.  The beauty of the Life Crafted album is that I can move items around easily to fit the photos and stories.  I made a tag using the pretty red paper and used a Heidi Swapp cut apart card, doily and one of my poinsettia's to decorate!  I love using tags to add more photos or journaling, and they make a nice textural page in the album!

I love the little banners from the Pebbles "Just for You" paper!

For even more preparation, I set up a full-size photo printing template in photoshop.  I can know just clip my photo to the template and print!  I did some test printing with a Christmas photo from 2009!  I am happy with how the album seems to flow with the page protector set up.  I can add a 3x4 photo, as well.  I love to have easy options!

In my opinion, the most fun in a December album is the embellishments!!  I haven't adhered any of my ideas so far so that I can change things up depending on colours in photos or particular stories, but I love being able to have a "play" and see how things look together!

Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you get your gorgeous Christmas Stories 2019 kit out and get to know it!

Pocket Life challenge with Laura

Hello everyone! It's Laura here with a new project and a Pocket Life Challenge for you! I used the beautiful Life Crafted "At my table" kit to crate these two pocket life pages. :D

As you can see, this kit has such bright colors and so many cute embellishments, it's so easy to crate a page with them! And what I really like about it is the big words and phrases. And that's my challenge for you: create big titles in your pages, that way it's going to be so easy to know what your memories tell at a glance!

In this firs page, you can see that I combined one of the gold puffy sticker words with a bold card in the center, I love how the different typographies combine together!

I completed the title card with some diecuts and puffy hearts, they are so cute and the perfect embellishment to any page!

For the secont page I used some of the 3x4' cards combined with other filler cards created with the die cut phrases, just have fun with all of the possibilities they bring you! The chipboard stickers and the tiny alphabet stickers are the perfect finishing touch you need in your pages!

I hope you enjoyed it and got inspired to create your pages! Don't forget to check the shop and the Facebook Citrus Twist fan page!

See you soon! :)

Having Fun with the Halloween Kit

I am so excited to share the start of my October Journal with you today.  I didn't want to commit to the idea of adding to this October album daily (like I would for a December album), but I did want a spot to do some gratitude journaling and to store some fall memories.  The Halloween kit ended up being the perfect tool to bring this project together.  There are so many great little pieces in the kit to use up!

To create this journal page, I cut the bottom branding strips off of the patterned paper.  This is such a great way to get more of your patterned pages and cut small pieces without cutting straight into a 12x12 paper to get them.

I love that there were so many small pieces that were usable in the cut apart page, I love tags as they are a great way to add ribbon into an album, and my ribbon collection is embarrassingly large.

The Halloween kit has such a good selection of flat and dimensional pieces that it is easy to pull them together in a great little cluster that has some interest!  I love the little witch sticker, so I was looking for a good place to use it.

Here is the first page of the spread.

And the reverse, with my little guy displaying some attitude!  He loves reading so much that we tend to come home from school, put on PJs and break out some books.  Such a great tradition to record. Thanks for joining me today, I hope you found some inspiration here!

Sunday Sketch with Alena

Hey everyone!  It's Alena with  layout for Sunday Sketch.

Here's a look at the sketch this week:

And here's what I came up with using the beautiful AT MY TABLE kit.

I created a Title out of Mint Tiny Alphabet Stickers.

 The main elements on my layout, besides photos, are cut files.  Some leaves I painted using watercolor paints.

I wanted to add some black accents and used October Life Crafted Travelers Notebook stamps for that.

Well, then it is time for you be inspired by the sketch to create a page of your own.  Remember to share your creations with us on the Citrus Twist Kits Friends page on Facebook or by using #CTK, @Citrustwistkits on social media.  I cannot wait to see what you create with this sketch.

3-to-inspire with Anna

Hi dear CTK friends!

Anna here with you today bringing you this week's 3-to-Inspire challenge. Actually it's one of my favourite challenges. This month's Life Crafted Kit, Here at my table, is amazing as always so easy going. Let's have a look at the prompts I've choosen.

1. Use your CTK stamps, physical or digital.
2. Use more than three patterned papers.
3. Use a b&w photo.

With these prompts (and a few more goodies) my 12x12 layout came up so easily and I had so much fun while creating.

Now it's your turn to dig into your kit's and play along with us in this challenge.

Here's what I came up with, enjoy!

I've used the circle stamp and the coffee mug from this months Add On stamp set, This Is Life "Food Stories Stamp". Then I used a circle punch to cut out my stamped images.

I used not less then five different patterned papers for my page. Three for my circles, one for backing my photo and also one (I used the digital paper and printed it out in A4) for the edges of my background.

And I did edit my photo in b&w. Actually I like b&w pics a lot since then you are not limited to the colors on your photo.

And there you have it!

Hope you have got some inspiration here today! Now it's your turn to dig into you scrappy things and start creating. I can't wait to see what you create using these three prompts. Don't forget to share with us on Instagram @citrustwistkits #citrustwistkits and/or our CTK Fan Page on Facebook.

Until next time! Anna xo