Tuesday Tutorial with Gina

Hi everyone, I'm sharing a layout with you today, created with the Sparkle and Shine main kit and a few items from the Happy Girl embellishment kit.  I want to show you on a few ways to alter or change up embellishments before adding them to your pages..this is a fun and simple way to make them your own..

Firstly, I've used the exclusive vintage paper and lace embellishment and added some watercolour and also distressed the edge of the fabric a little. I've also altered the cork thickers by inking with a brown distress ink for a darker look..

 

The gold paper doily is so lush, I didn't want to cover it up with anything else and it was a bit too big to use in one piece, so I decided to cut it and use each piece on the edge of my cardstock for something different. 

The Webster's Pages photo corners also make great arrows or chevron patterns by trimming off the backing pieces, I've used several contrasting stickers on this page

I've also shortened the section of starry wood chip a bit to slot in under the photo below..

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've enjoyed these ideas and want to have a play with embellishments yourself..don't forget to share your CTK pages on our facebook page!

Gina x

Simple Strategies- adding texture to your layouts

Hello! Kasia here today with a layout made completely with this month's main kit. When I looked through the kits items I knew they will allow me to create almost a monochromatic layout- I love making these! I thought it would be also a fun excuse to talk a bit about adding texture to your pages- when you cut on the colors textures pop and allow you to highligth details of your work!

Adding textures will make your pages look more dimensional. The easiest way to do it is through playing with layers. Try to use different materials- patterned paper, vellum, book pages, cardboard or stickers- they are all paper but have different quality so they will add lots of beautiful detail to your layout.

Another way to add texture is using medias. Try to start with simple white gesso or acrylic paint- you can paint with them, smudge over the layers on your page, stamp the pattern you want- the thicker the paint the more texture will be visible on your finished project.

Don’t limit yourself with paper and medias- you can grab some other materials which will build texture look- think of small enamel dots, thickers, cut files or fabric- all  or some of them layered on the page will make a beautiful, textured details for your layout!

I hope you enjoyed these tips and will try with playing with textures on your projects! Have a fun day!

Sunday Sketch with our Guest Designer

Here is this week sketch challenge.  And remember to play along with this week's challenge, upload your entry to the gallery by May 18th and you could win a $5 GC to the store. When uploading your layout, remember to include "Sketch 5/11" in the title.

I really thought this was a neat sketch with so many possibilities! I love that everyone will see something different and interpret it their own way. Choosing my pictures was the first place I stared with it, and instead of using two I decided on using three in a longer photo strip. I really liked where the title in the sketch was placed to I wanted to keep mine starting in the same place.

For my journaling I opted for using the stamps that came in my kit and the word stickers, some of the words were perfect. I also liked where the sketch had all it's papers layered so I tried to keep mine in around the same places. I cut one of the vellum tags in half and placed it under my picture to add another layer, I liked the pink that it helped bring to that side of my page. I was bound and bent to use that straw on one of my layouts and I finally found a place for it on here. I used some of the gold ribbon beside it and placed the rest of my title on the right half of my layout. I used some of the vellum butterflies and enamel dots to add some extra interest here and there. I finished it off with a few splashes of ink and sequins from my stash using some staples.

Thanks for stopping by, I can't wait to see what you create using this weeks sketch.

Saturday Inspiration with Nathalie

Happy Saturday! I am happy to be here today to share two of my layouts created with the May Sparkle and Shine main kit and the Happy Girl embellishment kit:

Fill the blank came from the idea of having more about my husband into our family album. I noticed he was largely under-represented! The questions are from a special issue of Simple Scrapbooks called "Scrapbook shortcuts with quizzes and questions".

The design is based on a sketch from Scrap365. 

For a change of pace, I then created a 8.5x11 page. I forget how much I enjoy this format and should make more!

In case you're wondering Pastel de nata is a portuguese pastry that we tried during our trip to Portugal last summer :)

Now make sure to stop by tomorrow to see who won the NSD $100 grab bag!
And Happy Mother's Day to all the CTK moms! :D

✄ Nathalie

Pocket life with jen chapin

Happy Friday to you! Today I am sharing a layout I created with the May PL kit. What a great one it is! Such a great mix of cards and embellishments this month.

I am doing my PL out of order this year and I am totally ok with that. I have everything in order in my album, so I am going through and filling in the gaps as needed. These photos were from March. I am not concerned with "keeping up" and will treasure anything I document!

I love the Dear Lizzy wood buttons that came in the add-on this month. I like to add them on top of the page protectors.

The kit also comes with a 12x12 cut apart sheet that has journaling cards. Isn't this typewriter cute? And I love the clear stickers - I used them on a lot of my photos in this spread.

I have been a lot better about trying to include memorabilia in my Pocket Life. My daughter drew this family picture and I immediately stamped a date on it and put it in my album. Even if I don't have the surrounding weeks done yet, I still file my memorabilia this way so that I can keep track of it. And always remember to date it!

This pie chart card was my favorite this month! I also used the add-on stamp here.

My date stamp is my go to tool and I use it a lot on all my projects!

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great weekend!

Be Inspired By Cut Apart Sheets

Hi, everyone! Melissa here with you today with three layouts that use my favorite paper in the May kits, the square cut apart sheet from Webster's Pages Our Travels collection.

With all the fun designs on this single sheet of paper, it's like getting an entire embellishment collection all at once, and I started out by using it to create a block design below the photo on this layout.

I alternated a square from the cut apart sheet with a square cut from a piece of woodgrain paper in the kits. Each of the woodgrain squares also has a heart punched in it, backed by more Our Travels paper, then overlaid with one of the gold Maggie Holmes word stickers.

This next layout brings in lots of patterns from the 6x6 Our Travels paper pack from the Pocket Life kit.

I arranged strips of the papers down the left side of the page, then used squares cut from both the 12x12 version of the cut apart sheet along with tiny squares from the 6x6 version of the same paper (included in the paper pack) as accents.

And of course I used more of the tiny squares from the 6x6 version of the same pattern as embellishment on my Pocket Life layout this month, too!

After finishing these three layouts, I still had lots of pretty squares left from this design. I love it when cut-apart sheets are included in the kits!

NSD Challenge #7 - 6x6 Paper Play with April

Thank you for stopping by to see our daily NSD challenges on our blog! We hope these challenges will inspire you to scrapbook throughout this week. For each daily challenge you participate in you'll earn one chance to win (Participate 1 day, earn one chance to win. Participate 2 days, earn 2 chances to win. The more you participate, the bigger your chances to win!). We will draw one winner for a $100 embellishment grab bag!  On May 11th we'll announce the lucky winner. 

To be entered into the drawing, post your layout to your online scrapbooking Gallery of choice, mention the Citrus Twist Kit challenge in your layout write-up, then pop back to the Citrus Twist challenge post you based your project on and leave a comment. Don't forget to visit the CTK Store to see new items, sale items and NSD grab bags! Thinking about subscribing to our Main or Pocket Life kits? We have a special offer for those new subscriptions between now and May 7th.

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For your last challenge, I challenge you to create a layout in a size that you're not typically used to making.  For example, if you typically create 12"x12" layouts, create a 8.5"x11" layout instead!

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I created this layout in a size that I typically don't scrap in:  6"x8".  This is going into my travel album dedicated to my most recent travels to Tokyo, Japan (which you'll see more of in my PL posts this month).

It's a simple layout in which I layered some of the cut-apart papers from the 6x6 pad over a full sheet.  I didn't want to cut apart the full sheet because I loved the quote that was on it.  The size of the sheet ended up working out perfectly with the size of my layout.  Then I added some fussy cut  elements plus some embellishments from the PL kit.

Some close-ups:

Thanks for joining us through our NSD celebrations! Don't forget to link back to each challenge if you choose to participate! :)  Can't wait to see your take on each challenge!