Tuesday Tutorial with Suse

Hi gang! Welcome to this week's Tuesday Tutorial. Today I'm going to show you how to make a dimensional framed layout that would make a lovely Christmas present using the gorgeous November Emerson kit.

Once I'd bought my box frame (mine was £3.50 from Ikea) I started by finding a photo of Nanny's boy and her Granddaughter. 

I loved this shot of them both laughing and knew the 'smiles' title from the Amy Tangerine 'Oh Happy Life' Wild set would work beautifully with it.

I picked out papers that I knew would look pretty in Nanny's house: she loves gentle tones, so this peachy-coloured heart paper (Magical from the Gather collection by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper) was perfect. 

The thing I love about working with black and white photos is, you can go in pretty much any direction when it comes to paper choices!

Next, I added a little background interest and movement with white acrylic paint and some gold splatters.

I love the exclusive stamp sets that come with each kit: they always seem to contain just the right phrases to really add that extra something to my projects.

Once I'd stuck my main cluster into place, it was time for my favourite bit: embellishing! And of course, with a frame this deep, I could really go to town with the foam pads. 

I stuck to a gentle palette of peach and gold, with tiny pops of teal and black, aiming for a nice classy result. 

A fun after-thought was adding a few extra embellishments to the glass itself. I love the super-dimensional look it gives!

I'm so happy with the result: a beautifully original present for not many pennies, but a whole lot of heart!

Let's get digital with Lilith

Hello everyone.

Today I'm going to be sharing my layout for the Let's get digital blog post. I designed the cut file with one idea in mind: a funky zigzag/chevron. It took me some time to design and I was a bit afraid of how it would turn out but once I started working with the November Emerson kit and the cut file everything worked out just fine. 

Here is a look at the cut file;

Here is the layout I created with it.

I used a more neutral patterned paper with a contrasting colour and some white cardstock so that the design would pop out. To soften the the look I added some soft pink and a large leaf to draw attention to the photo.

I hope you enjoy working with the file.
Don't forget to share your work on the Citrus Twist facebook fan page and add the tags #citrustwistkits #lilitheeckels.

Thanks for popping in.
Have a wonderful Monday and happy scrapping.

Lilith

Sunday Sketch

Hi friends and happy sketch time!

I was able to create a layout again using the beautiful sketch for today's Sunday Sketch Challenge!

I absolutely loved the hexagons and therefore just had to recreate it using the November "Emerson" Scrapbook Kit!

I started off by cutting a strip out of the beautiful exclusive woodgrain paper to four inches and sewed it down onto the middle of my page. The rest came together rather quickly-I cut out six hexagons out of the Crate Paper papers from the kit and then later used one as a template to cut my three pictures into the same shape.

I had three hexagons left and decided to just continue the pattern across the page-because it gives you more room for embellishing-and more embellishments is always good right?! I love the cork stickers included in the kit and just had to use the stars and little hearts around my hexagons and photos.

The stamp set includes awesome saying that are perfect for planning-like the priority one-but also great for scrapbooking. The stamp "going places" was the perfect little addition to my travel photos that were all taken in Paris on top of the Arc de Triumph.

I always love the look of photos with text on it-as if you used a clear sticker on top of it.  That's why I used the "going places" with the Stayz On Ink and stamped it directly onto one of the pictures.

That's it from me for today-I hope you will have fun creating with the sketch-it is such a beautiful one plus the shaped photos make such a difference in your album and changes things up!

Now it's your turn! To play along with this weeks Sunday Sketch Challenge, create a layout based off the sketch, upload it to our gallery with today's date (11/13) in the title of your project, and you will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store!

Happy Sunday and happy creating!
Laureen

3 to inspire with Andrea

Hello there all you fabulous scrappers! Today I am thrilled to host the following challenge...

This is my first "3 to inspire" and I am super duper excited!!! So for this "3 to inspire", I would like you to do the following things:

1) use a shape punch to create one or more embellishments out of the pretty patterned paper/s in your kit
2) do some sewing (hand-sewing or machine)
3) use repetition (repeat a shape, a product, a word...whatever you like!)

Okay, are you gathering your Citrus Twist kit goodies so you can start the challenge...good! I can't wait to see what you all make!

In the meantime, let me share with you a bit about what I made for this "3 to inspire" challenge. I decided to make a lovely 12x12 layout using the awesome November "Emerson" kit to document my love of scrapbooking! For my "I love to scrap!" layout, I used the pretty, light peach heart patterned paper from the Maggie Holmes Gather collection by Crate Paper as my background.

I used a 3x4 photo of me scrapbooking and layered up a few pieces of various patterned papers from the kit to create a kind of frame for my pic. This layering helps draw focus to my photo. But to bring even more attention to my photo, I used embellishments like sequins, gold heart confetti, enamel dots, and a wood veneer heart and a cork circle that says "ok", on either side of my picture. I also wrote "paper and pics" on a little round label (since that is what scrapbooking is all about) and did some doodeling here and there because I wanted to create a "scrapbooking" theme for my page.

Under my photo, I used the white foam thicker words "little moments" from American Crafts. And to the left of my photo, I washi-taped on a little note paper that I cut from the Citrus Twist exclusive cut-apart peices (sans the yellow border), to write the words "I love to scrap!". This serves as my title. Even though the words, "little moments" are larger, they are not my title, but a sort of sub-title if you will (since it is the little moments in life that I most love to document in my scrapbooking).

For number 1 of the challenge, I used a heart shaped punch to create my layered hearts that I spread across my layout in a kind of diagonal line from the upper left hand corner to the bottom right.

For number 2 of the challenge, I used my sewing machine to sew the layered hearts together. I also sewed a zig-zag stitch at the bottom of my layout, where I added a couple border strips for a lovely detail to create some interest at the bottom of the page in order to ground things.

For number 3 of the challenge, I repeated the heart shape all over my page. I did this with my layered hearts, but also with the gold confetti hearts that come in the Citrus Twist Sprinkles Kit for November, the wood veneer hearts that come in the Emerson kit, the cork heart stickers from Fancy Pants that are in the Emerson kit, the little heart I used to dot the "i" in my "I love to scrap!" title, and even the hearts that are in the background peach paper that I chose to build my layout up on.

To finish my layout, I clustered some embellishments at the top of my page. To promote the theme of scrapbooking, I specifically used a puffy camera sticker, a bit of patterned paper (to make a kind of "photo corner" at the top of my page) with a paperclip, and a few labels on which I used the exclusive stamp set to stamp words like "photo", "document" and "smile".

I hope you enjoyed my "I love to scrap!" layout and that I have inspired you with this "3 to inspire" challenge to use the November kit and my 3 challenges to document something that makes you as happy as scrapbooking makes me...I'm going to take a wild guess though and say that you will probably pick scrapbooking too!!! :-)

Remember to share what you create with this "3 to inspire" challenge by putting them here in the gallery and/or on the Citrus Twist Facebook Forum. And you can share on Instagram too so tag with @citrustwistkits and hashtag with #citrustwistkits and #ctk3toinspire so we can see your awesome creations!

xoxo...Andrea :-)

Pocket Sketch Friday with Mira

Hello Everyone!

It's Mira here with Pocket Life Sketch Friday challenge! Today I have a very clean and simple pocket page to share, together with one simple sketch to follow. If You try to work with this sketch You will be able to achieve similar clean effects in Your albums! Wanna try it?

I've recently found out that I love having white, thick frames around my photos. It makes the album looks very clean and elegant. It also makes a lot of space for my favorite embellishments. This month I've been working with "Emerson" Pocket Life Kit together with Embellishment Kit. And here's what I prepared:

My pictures are still big enough to see what's in them, but I have a plenty of white space around them, what makes the whole layout very balanced.

I've been using the same frame thickness for a while, and now when I walk through the album it's very consistent. I love that simple effect!

Additionally, each month I create my own pocket cards using papers from Citrus Twist Kits PL Kits. They are  filled with a lot of white space, so the balance of the whole pages is always kept on the same level.

Have You ever tried this trick? It's easy, and the results can be really satisfying.

Now You can try this idea, and here's the sketch that can help You to achieve the desired effects:

If You happen to use this inspiration, remember that You have a chance to win a price! 

Here's how: Create a layout based on the sketch, post your layout to our Gallery or our Facebook Fan Page by Friday, November 18th and be sure to include PL 11/18 in the title!

Thanks for visiting Pocket Life Friday!

In My Studio with Aimee Dow

So here is the thing, I know I am super lucky to have a dedicated studio all to myself. I realise that there are many, MANY people out there who don't have that luxury and often looking at studio tour posts can be it's own weird form of torture. Take for example Emma studio. It's so pretty and immaculate even when it's messy. Yeah... you should know mine is nothing like that. It's more of a work in progress. So for todays post I'm going to keep it super real. And when I say super real, what I really mean is I did nothing. No tidying or decorating. No photo editing took place here, because frankly it irks me a little that we are all a little green eyed for each others made up social media lives. This is my stand. Messy studio and all.

Before Eva was born I had massive Studio pride. We lived in another house and my studio had 2 huge bay windows and ton of natural light. It was even featured in Ikea magazine here in Australia. Then when Eva was 6 months old we moved into a bigger house. In the new house my studio is much larger but with a lot less light. There are however some other benefits. 

As you walk in door, (oh wait, I should first mention there is no door. This used to be the old lounge room and so it's really more an open door way off the kitchen that we have baby gated) there are 3 alex units. At one end sits my 12x12 papers organised by brand at the other Mount Washiton. No that's not a miss print, it really is a ton of washi. 

The first set of Alex draws holds all my kits. As you can see this months Scrapbook and Sprinkle kits. I keep the kits together for 3 months and then they get broken down in to my stash.

The second set of Alex draws holds loose embellishments. Think Veneers, acrylic pieces, twine, ribbons, etc.

The third set of Alex draws holds my shame. I have an embarrassing large collection of ephemera packs. The ones with plastic wrap over them are the ones that haven't even used since the move.

In the corner of the room is one of the perks of my new studio. A mantel! I've never had one before. Not going to lie, it sure is fun to decorate. The fire place doesn't actually work, but Eva really enjoys playing in there.

Next to the fireplace and on the wall opposite to my desks is a large set of french doors that open out onto a veranda that wraps around our house. Eva prefers to play out there when I'm scraping and it lets in a lovely breeze. 

On the wall behind my desks has a bookshelf and and my kallax unit. 

I try to keep them organised, but you know, little hands...

It's always worked best for me if I corral like things together.

Here my random packet embellishment bin:

And the sticker basket:

6x6 Pads:

And my Alpha collection:

They are all within easy reach of my desk. 

I have a messy desk and a clean one. My messy desk holds my current stamps and all the little bits and pieces I want to use up. It's also got my cutter and craft mat because I'm notorious for making do with whatever is in arms reach and then I staining my desk or massacre my paper.

Speaking of which, because I scrap standing up, I keep all my other essentials (favourite ink, date stamps, tags and glue) in the top of my Raskog cart. This makes it super easy for me to move them around the desks as I do. The bottom two shelves these days are filled with things Eva can play with and that pretty much wraps it up. I hope you enjoyed your look inside my real life studio.

Aimee Xx

Beauty | Gina Rodgers

Hi everyone, it's so great to be back after a few months off while travelling, and what a gorgeous couple of kits to be working with this month! I've been creating with the Emerson Main + Sprinkles kits and here's my first layout. I've layered some patterned paper pieces along with a section of glassine bag packaging as a matt for my photo.

The cork stickers are nice and flat, making them easy to layer also

Thanks for stopping by

Gina x