Playing with Pocket Life with April

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm excited to share my Pocket Life Week 44 with you all!  The December kits were a challenge for me because of the color scheme.  They were all gorgeous kits, but definitely out of my comfort zone with the reds and lime greens.  I love how the colors worked together though.

For this month, I grabbed a lot of different alphas from my stash.  It's my goal to use them all up, so this month gave me a chance to do that.

I kept it pretty simple this week because I didn't have much to document.  It was the week of Halloween and I was away for work this week.  When I go away, I almost always take photos of the room(s) I stay in.

I took screenshots of some sweet text messages my husband sent me while I was away and added them to my album (sorry, I blurred them for privacy).

I love the journaling cards printed on kraft paper!  And the confetti stars were a fun embellishment to use.

I find myself cutting up pre-designed journaling cards to use the design elements across multiple cards.

As usual, I love the Star and Bee wood veneers included in this month's kit!  This "Just another week" banner was perfect for my week in review card.

Here are your sketches:

Supplies from my stash:  Pebbles kraft alphas, BasicGrey red and green mini alphas, AC black alphas, Glitz Design gray alphas

Supplies from the CTK PL Christmas Daily kit: JillieBean red alphas

Thanks for stopping by!

Announcing Our NEW Design Team Additions for 2014!

It's exciting to grow our Citrus Twist Design Girl team and it's time to announce the results of our 2014 DT call. Thank you to every one of you who submitted work for consideration. Here at Citrus Twist it felt a lot like Christmas as we opened each submission and viewed the design work of scrapbookers worldwide. We had more applicants than ever and it was a big challenge to narrow the field down to these newest Citrus Twist Design Girls.

Please join us in welcoming this mix of amazing designers, listed in alphabetical order!

Tanya Batrak (Ukraine)

"My family and I live in the beautiful city of Kyiv, Ukraine. I have a passion for paper crafting, photography, traveling and sometimes cooking. But scrapbooking is always in the lead among all my hobbies. I started scrapbooking in 2009. That winter our sweet daughter was born and I decided to make an album with her pictures. I ended up creating two mini albums with pockets for CDs, to give to my parents and parents-in-law!"

Visit Tanya's blog here at tanyabatrak.

Jen Chapin (United States)

"Hi! I'm Jen Chapin and I'm super excited to be joining the design team here at Citrus Twist Kits! I'm 30 years old and live in Iowa with my husband Adam and our two kids, Keira (4) and Connor (1). I work full time as a nurse in Quality Improvement. I've been scrapping since 2006 and got my start in cardmaking. Scrapbooking is now my passion. I mostly do 12 x 12 layouts and love to do pocket scrapping as well. A few of my favorite techniques are die cutting, misting and machine stitching. In addition to scrapbooking I love to cook and read magazines. I'm so happy to be here!"

Visit Jen's blog here at jenchapin.blogspot.

Eve Limacher (France)

"My name is Eve. I'm 31 and live in France near Paris. I have 3 children: a boy and a girl. I have been scrapbooking since 2004 and I'm in love with it and scrapbook almost every day: mini albums, page layouts, project life. Actually, I am a photographer for births and weddings, too. I'm really happy to be part of this fabulous design team and these amazing kit products."

Visit Eve's blog here at studiojee.

Evelyn Pratiwi Yusuf (Indonesia)

"Who am I? I'm Evelyn Pratiwi Yusuf, 27 years old on July 18th. I'm taken. Graduated as Communications Bachelor. I studied at Petra Christian University in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia.Add me at Twitter and also Instagram @geekgalz."

Visit Evelyn's blog here at evelynpy.

We look forward to an exciting year of play and shares with the Citrus Twist Kits and our expanded design team. These four women join our team in addition to the entire 2013 team who have chosen to stay on with us.

Please leave some love below for our new designers and watch for their work to begin showing up on our website and blog in January 2014!

It's December Reveal Day at Citrus Twist Kits

Good morning! It's reveal day over at Citrus Twist Kits and we want to share this month's scrapbooking kit line-up with you.

You can view these  December kits on our kits page. Be sure to check out our store and see some of the new items--some exclusive--that we have added here at our Store.

We are going to start off sharing our December Kit Add-on "Vintage." This is a great kit for your fall photos or any layouts family oriented. The rich jewel tones are wonderful and Crate Paper's Close Knit stand out embellishments and darling American Craft Autumn Crisp puffer embellishments will give you a lot to play with:

Our Main kit is a neutral blend with pops of lime green and silver. This kit is not Christmasy but for those of you who want to make this a Christmas kit, our Pattern Paper and Embellishment kits blend perfectly. For the first time we are bringing you etched wood chip badges and we've added some brand new Studio Calico Printshop paper and cork shapes:

Let your December PL pages "Shine" with this month's Pocket Life kit! We love how the Finnley collection 6 x 6 paper pad draws from Christmas colors but is not Christmas themed. This kit has charcoal and kraft neutral tones with pops of lime green and a little red to make your pages pop. (Not shown in picture: you'll still get our PL label sheet included in with your kit.)

Take your Main--or PL kit--up a notch by adding on our colorful "Jolly Good" embellishment kit. For just $10 this kit will make your neutral Main or PL kit Christmasy!

"Peace" is this month's Pattern Paper kit with a wonderful collection of 8 papers from Chic Tags, Crate Paper, Studio Calico and October Afternoon. If you are doing a daily December album this year, both "Peace" and "Jolly Good" combine for some Christmasy fun:

Speaking of Christmas, we are down to our last few large Christmas Daily kits. You can still add one of these on to ship with your December subscription at no additional shipping charge. This kit is packed full!

Our PL "Sleigh Bells" Embellishment kit sold out right away during pre sale but for those who want to see what we had in the kit, here you go:

Each month we offer a Solid Paper kit. For those of you who love your solids, this kit will double up the solid paper in your Main kit and matches your PL kit, too:

Don't forget our stamp add-ons! "New Beginnings" was designed to take you from December into the New Year! Our stamps our designed so you can use them over and over again on your layouts throughout the year.

Want a detailed look at each and every piece of the December kits? Melissa has another reveal video for you this month!

We still have a few of our exclusively Fabstagram-designed "Good Cheer" 4 x 6 Christmas stamps in stock, also available on the Kits page:

We'll end our reveal by sharing some of the exclusive wood chips that have been added to our store, including two styles of arrows . . . 

. . . and some etched Christmas-themed badges.

Wherever you are, have a wonderful December and New Year and thank you for visiting our blog today. Watch for a blog announcing the new additions to our Design Team for 2014. We think you'll fall in love with the mix of U.S. and international designers that are joining Citrus Twist Kits, beginning in January.

6x6 Paper Play with April

Hi CTKers!  Isn't it crazy how time flies and that it's already December!  This is my favorite time of year though, so I'm not complaining! :)

Today, I'm here to share gift tags I made using items from the Dec PL Embellishment kit.  I started with using some sheets of paper from the 6x6 pad in the Dec Pocket Life kit as my base, then layered on some journaling cards and stickers from the Dec PL Embellishment kit.  On the tags that I couldn't fit a "To:/From:" line on, I used a handy-dandy label that came in the Dec PL kit.  To finish off the tag, I added some white ribbon from my stash.

I love that the Dec PL kit was not so "Christmas-y", but with the addition of the Dec PL Embellishment kit.. it can totally be used for Christmas layouts and decor! :) 

Don't forget, you still have time to make a guess at what you think is in this month's kits. Leave a comment(s) from any blog post(s) between the 1st and the 5th to be entered to win a $5 GC to the CTK shop! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday Tutorial with Trina: Layering

Hi, it's Trina again, this time sharing the technique I use for working with patterned scrapbooking paper like Studio Calico's new Printshop "Monochrome" from the Main December scrapbook kit. The backside of Monochrome is a wonderful collage-style pattern. If you are one who finds this type of patterned paper difficult to work with, this tutorial shares my process. I love layering and collage paper makes it extra fun!

If you are a subscriber you can login and see the December kits now here Citrus Twist kits page.

Here is the layout I made:

To begin my page I cut elements out of the collage paper that I liked best, including items like the camera, music notes and other ephemera. I cut out shapes in strips, circles and fussy cut items like the camera. I also cropped my photo so I could build layers up behind it. Here are some of the many pieces I cut out (plus my photo). I wasn't sure which ones I would use, but wanted enough available to grab from. The C-shaped piece of paper was to stretch my paper further. I used this to tuck behind the layered photo frame.

Next I cut a few frames to tuck behind my photo from some of the patterned green and patterned black paper that came in the kit. Each frame is a little larger than the last so they will peak out from behind the layer in front. I even cut one of the layers out of the collage paper.

I cut three strips out of three of the patterned papers from the Main kit. I cut these by hand and wanted them to have slightly uneven edges. I used these as a base behind the photo and photo layers on my page:

First I glued down the strips. Next I glued down the bottom (or back) frame for my photo, then layered each slightly smaller frame on top, building them up until I glued the photo down. I don't glue right to the edges of my paper so I can tuck some of the little collage pieces behind. Then I got down to playing. I tuck the little shapes here and there to see what I like best. I don't glue them down until I like what I see. This truly is play time. I added the silver washi tape as an after thought:

Then it was time to reach for my embellishments to put down on top of the background strips and photo and to fill some white space of the background using things like the etched wood badges and gray glitter stickers and more of the collage paper ephemera.

Next I covered my photo with a piece of scrap paper to protect it, splashed (really, I splash!) a little Heidi Swapp Tinsel Color Shine randomly on my page and stamped a few phrases.

This picture shares some of my layers of cut outs from the collage paper. I scattered the circle shapes here and there on my page and adhered one of the new Studio Calico Printshop cork shapes. The very last thing I did to the page was do some layered strips at the top and bottom, using bits of the "Monochrome" and other patterned papers:

Thanks for visiting our blog today. Full reveal is on December 5th!

Trina

Simple Strategy Monday with Trina

Good morning, Trina here today sharing a simple strategy using December's "Vintage" Kit Add-On. One of the things that is great about this kit are the fall colors mixed with vintage elements. I decided to combine for a Simple Strategy post using layering. This layout was completed in 30 minutes.

I started out with the vanilla background and used some of my faves: Heidi Swapp's Color Shine in Gold and Blush. Instead of spraying on the mist, I flicked the paint on using the cap/tube.

I picked a photo of us that I love and wanted it to stand out on the page. I used layering to do this. Here is the finished result:

Layering can be very simple. I started by trimming my photo down to the size that I thought looked best and created a white mat border for it. I decided to layer 3 pieces/colors of paper behind the matted photo. I trimmed each layer a little larger than the last to create a layered and colorful border. Last I tucked a couple of colored strips of pattern paper behind the framed and layered photo. TIP: When creating layers I don't glue right to the edge. I run the glue 1/4-1/2" away from the edge in case I decide to tuck more things behind the layers (like the banners beneath the photo that I added at the end).

I didn't want a busy layout competing with the photo but did tuck a small embellishment cluster down in the lower left corner of the page. I used one of the arrows from the Citrus Twist Arrows 1 pack (new in the CTK store). I anchored the base of the page with a strip of color made up of two pieces of patterned paper. The small typewriter stamps available in this month's kit subscriptions and as a stamp add-on were a perfect touch for the page.

Last, I decided to use some of the cute papers and sticker embellishments from the "Vintage" kit to create layered banners. These are too simple! I just cut some strips (with scissors) about 1/2" wide and others strips about 1" wide. I nipped the bottoms of the strips with a V and tucked the mini banners up under the base of the layered photo. I finished it off with an embellishment heart from the Crate Paper Close Knit stand out elements, the title "us" and added a little "FAVE" banner and another wood chip arrow.

Thanks for visiting the Citrus Twist blog today and seeing what I created using December's scrapbooking kit add-on "Vintage." We'd love to see what you do with this simple technique posted in our gallery. Stay tuned for more scrapbook kit reveals through December 4th, with reveal on the 5th.

Not a subscriber yet? You can contact us at CitrusTwistKits@yahoo.com and we'll get you set up to view the December kits.

Happy scrapbooking,
Trina

Welcome our Guest Designer Jina Jean

I'm Jina Jean. I live in Seoul, South Korea with my family. Last June, I turned 37, but I'm still single. So, I entirely tend to concentrate on only myself, my favorite things and my life's desires in all of aspects of my daily lives. There's no exception to scrapbooking. My layouts and photos are mostly about my routines, hobbies and sometimes, my friends.

I currently design for Gossamer Blue and Write. Click. Scrapbook and also teach scrapbooking class in Korea.
blog : atelierbjina.blogspot.com
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD-c8EeVrKn58sSUcqxB8AQ?feature=watch pinterest: pinterest.com/JinaJean
instagram : instagram.com/_jinajean_ I just started instagram life 3 days ago. Would you like you to visit my new page? :)

Here is a few sneaks of my scrap space:

★ Guest Design Q&A
  1. How long have you been scrapbooking and why did you start? : When I first saw my friend, Katie Kim's wedding scrapbook in 2006, I've been hooked ever since. But I could not well start scrapbooking until 2009 and actually I have taken up scrapbooking seriously since 2011.

2. How would you describe your scrapbooking style? : I mostly enjoy a simple layout with one photo, fancy layers using tons of embellishments and rich textures. Absolutely I'm addicted to bright colors and romantic details.

3. What scrapbookers have influenced you most? : Undoubtedly my scrapbooking muse is Ania-maria Wolniak. As soon as I found her blog about 2 years ago, oh my God, I fell in love with her beautiful art pieces at once. Since I've become a big fan of her. I adore all of extraordinary compositions and color combos she makes. Also lately I added some fabulous scrapbookers to my list. :) - Wilna Furstenberg's arty style, Stephanie Bryan's soft & airy tones, WaiSam Ho's cute layering technics and so on. Oh, There are too many talented people all around the world!

4. What is your favorite thing about kit clubs? : Always I feel I'm in a certain pattern of shopping and designing. Sure, It's pretty familiar and habitual to me. But sometimes It's quite boring, too. And in this way, kit club is an exciting challenge for me. From monthly kit club supplies I easily could get a lot of chances and motivations to try various style and hot trend. It's certain that give an opportunity for me to develop my style and taste in my own scrapbooking business.

5. If you departed on a week-long trip to CHA Anaheim 2014, what are your 5 favorite scrapbooking items you would bring with you (besides your camera and photos!)? : I won't hesitate to put 5 favorite items into my luggage. patterned papers, tissue paper or vellum, some cords(especially white thread or oyster twine), white mist and an ephemera pack(maybe from American Crafts or Crate paper always I love).

6. How would you describe the Citrus Twist December's kit and what do you enjoy most about the kit? : December Kit is full of cozy seasonal mood - for example various tones of brown & silver and cute patterns as tree & hunter trophy. Among them my most favorite items are Citrus Twist's wood chips, Heidi Swapp's silver stickers and Studio Calico's vellum star stickers. These are so useful here and there on my space. I really like to play around with these little things.

**Remember to leave some love or ask a question and you will be entered to win ONE of our Guest Designers favorite things.**

Here are some sneaks of her work using the December Kits.