Pocket Life Challenge with Krystal

Hi everyone! Krystal here with another Pocket Life Challenge! For my pocket page spread, I decided to use the November "Gratitude" Life Crafted Kit to fill in a page from my 2017 album.

I love all the bright, colorful elements in this month's kit, and I knew it would work perfectly with this week's darker, more neutral photos. It really helped brighten things up and make the page more colorful!

I used the gorgeous glitter foam alphas to add my title for the week. Because there weren't any numbers in this set, I decided to pull out the white tile alpha with copper foil letters that we got a few months back to spell out "forty five." It matches this month's alpha perfectly!

I also added a card behind my title to give myself an extra place for journaling. That way I was able to use more of my photos and the beautiful cards in this kit and still get all of the week's stories told. To make the journaling accessible, I created a tab from one of the papers in the kit and added it the top of my journaling card. I also used the 2"x3" add-on stamp to stamp the word "recorded" on the tab. 

When it came time to embellish the photos in this spread, I decided to keep things simple for myself and use a kind of formula. I added a tag from the cut-apart sheet, a chipboard or puffy sticker, and if the photo needed journaling, a label to each of the photos on the spread. This simple formula took a lot of the decision-making out of the process and allowed me to finish the page in no time!

For the filler card in the middle of my spread, I decided to add one of the hoard-worthy vellum leaves to the bottom, just to bring in a bit more color and texture to the spread. I also stamped the "this right here" stamp from the set included in the kit at the top of the card and added some doodles with my pen to add some more pops of black. 

Overall, the page came together very quickly thanks to the little formula I used. So that's my challenge to all of you this week. Try using a simple formula for embellishing your pages and see how quickly it will all come together. And the best part is that because there is so much variety in the kit, you can use a formula without it looking too repetitive. You can see how my spread came together in the video below: 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you were able to take away some inspiration for using your kits this month. Until next time!

MEET OUR GUEST DESIGNER : HEBA ALSIBAI

Hi there!
We are super excited to introduce our Guest Designer for this month.  Her style is clean, innovative, inspiring, and she is one of the nicest girls you could ever meet.  Help us welcome, our November Guest Designer, Heba Alsibai.   You are going to love her and her projects.

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GET TO KNOW HEBA

Hello, everyone! My name is Heba; I’m a mother of two teenagers and a wife to a wonderful husband. My husband and I own a small medical supply company that keeps my husband traveling and me working from home. I love that I’m able to work from home; I get to see my kids go off to school and welcome them home when they get back. I live in the beautiful state of Georgia, far from the hustle and bustle of Atlanta. I'm a total homebody that loves to read and loves to watch reruns of Friends. But by far my favorite thing to do is crafting. I also love sharing my crafty projects on my YouTube channel and Instagram.

You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hebaalsibai/

and my YouTube channel where I share process video http://www.youtube.com/c/MyLittleJournal

Q & A with HEBA

-          When did you start scrapbooking?

Back in 2001 When I gave birth to my first born, I started keeping a little scrapbook album for him. It wasn’t your traditional scrapbook album. It was more of journaling milestones and documenting pictures with dates. I also did the same with my daughter once she was born. But in 2007, I moved to Dubai and became really good friends with my next door neighbor who was an avid scrapbooker. Once she shared her beautiful scrapbooking layouts with me, I was hooked.

-          What is something most people would not know about you?

I play the piano! I started playing the piano at a young age and majored in music education but changed my major half way through to Early Childhood Education. I love music so much I even passed it on to my kids. Now my son is first chair Bass Clarinet and my daughter is first chair violin. We are definitely not a sports family lol.

-          What are the 3 scrapbooking products you can’t live without?

My #1 product has to be my Canon Selphy Printer. I can’t document anything with out great quality pictures. I love my printer so much I have at least three videos on my channel sharing tips and tricks on how to use a Selphy printer.

My #2 has to be Kokuyo Dotliner adhesive. If you haven’t tried this adhesive you are missing out. It holds up really well but if you change your mind and want to move things around on your layout, you can still do that without tearing your paper.

My #3 is my Scrapbook.com ink pads. You have 51 colors to choose from, they also have reinkers, and the quality is amazing. If you don’t want to invest in so many ink pads I recommend you start with their Premium black dye ink first. It’s the best black ink ever.

-          What do you love about the November  – GRATITUDE-?

I’m a sucker for puffy stickers and the puffy stickers in this kit is everything. I love the different shapes and sentimental of these stickers. They are very versatile and definitely fun to work with.

-          Finish this sentence “If you could see my scrapbooking space now . . . “

You would find all my unfinished projects on the floor. If I put my unfinished projects away then I will never finish them. So they sit on the floor to remind me that I need to work through them and get them done J

Hello friends! I'm delighted to be the guest designer for Citrus Twist this month, and share my first project with you using the Gather Life Crafted Kit. I can’t tell you how much I’m loving the Life Crafted Album. As a fan of the traveler’s notebooks, this size album is up my ally. I’ve been using my Life Crafted album to document my son's senior year of high school.  

The Gather kit had the perfect mix of embellishment, cards and papers to document my fun and bright senior. When I saw this beautiful yellow card I new I would be documenting him in his bright yellow mascot custom. I could have added my card in a 3x8 page protector. But I wanted to create an interactive element in my album and create a large tag. All I did was punch a hole for my twine, trimmed off the top corners and created a 3x8 tag. Easy peezy lemon squeezy :) 

I wanted to add some embellishments to my tag and picture, but I also wanted to keep it simple. So I added a few word stickers down my photo and a cute speech bubble. I’m all about, less is more, so by adding similar colored embellishments on my tag helped everything flow nicely. 

I had one more senior picture of my son to document so I ended up using the backside of my tag to document it.  I thought it would be fun to trim around my picture and make it look like my son was peaking out from the edge of the tag. I think it looks pretty cool, don’t you think? Using the stamp set to add words and sentiments around my image adds another fun element. 

To finish my layouts I used a 3x8 page protector with two 3x4 pockets. This gave me space to add two cards, one for my journaling and the other as a filler pocket. It was so much fun putting these spreads together. If you have a senior I recommend you document his/her senior year in the Life Crafted Album. It’s such a great size to document your seniors last year in high school.

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WOW!!!  Thank you Heba for sharing a bit of you with our followers and the amazing project.   We love it!  Remember to leave Heba some love and to follow her on social media.

 Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hebaalsibai/

 YouTube channel  http://www.youtube.com/c/MyLittleJournal

  She will be back later this moth with another project  and a bit more of her!

XO

Sunday Sketch with Kira

Hey there!  It's Kira and I am back with two layouts for this week's Sunday Sketch!  Here's a look at the sketch for today:

The first layout I made is for my fall TN:

I decided to flip the sketch on it's side and split it in my TN.  I used the add on kit for this layout and absolutely love the fall feel of the kit!

For the left side cluster, I used an exclusive cut file and layered it with a die cut flower and tag and added some puffy sticker thickers for some added texture. 

The second layout I created is 8.5x11 and I used the Life Crafted kit (and one piece of paper from the add on kit).  I kept the sketch in it's upright position and stuck closely to the sketch.  

I used the vellum die cut leaves to layer under my photo and added some chipboard pieces and yellow thread to add some texture. 

The bottom cluster was created using vellum speech bubbles, stamped with some phrases from the LC kit.  I added some additional thread and a chipboard heart as well.

I can't wait to see how you use this sketch! 

Kira

3-To-Inspire with Elizabeth

Hello friends.  Happy Saturday.  Can you BELIEVE it's November?  Time FLIES.  I'm EXCITED to share another 3-to-inspire challenge with you.  This weekly series is designed to help YOU channel your inner MOJO.  To participate, simply include ALL three of the following prompts in ANY project.

The prompts this week include:

1.  REPETITION of a word or sentiment.
2.  Create a POCKET.
3.  Journal in LETTER style.

Here's my take on this challenge...

As you can see, I chose to do a two-page layout in my Life Crafted Album.  The first prompt is to REPEAT a word or sentiment for emphasis.  In these photos, my son and his girlfriend look HAPPY.  I used repeat stamping, alpha stickers, chipboard AND journaling to repeat the word over and over again.

The second prompt is to create a POCKET.  I'm OBSESSED right now with pockets and photo strips.  For my pocket, I turned a 3x4 journal card on its side and used a circle punch to create a notch.  I adhered it to the background paper on three sides with redline tape.

The final prompt is to use a LETTER for your journaling.  A small change in writing style can create a UNIQUE, DIFFERENT voice.  You could even try writing a letter to yourself.

I hope this challenge provides some inspiration.  I can't wait to see what you create.  Please share with us on Instagram @citrustwistkits and/or our CTK Fan Page on Facebook.

HAPPY crafting:)

Life Crafted with Patricia

Hello Lovely CTK Friends!  The seasons are changing and the holidays are upon us.  One thing that I love about the Citrus Twist Life Crafted kits is although they change, there is always a consistency with them.  There's a perfect touch of the season/theme.  Even though the colors and embellishments change, they not only work well with everyday life or a theme but also work really well with other Life Crafted kits.  They just flow.  I love that!  My 2019 Life Crafted album has some holes or empty spots I needed to fill in, and the November Gratitude Kit amazed me how well it worked!

This first empty spot, had a blank 5x8.25 page on the left and two 3x4 pockets on the right.  I loved that beige or tan pattern paper from the kit with writing all over it.  I decided to break it up to make it look like a collage on my page, so with a pencil, I traced lines diagonally to create a diamond pattern, then stitched with black thread over the lines.  Next, I trimmed it to use just parts of the pattern paper to build my background.  I used a larger diamond shape to trace cut out my photo to be the focal.

Then I used the transparent die cuts from the kit to use the Gratitude stamp set that comes with the kit using StazOn ink.  Adhered those as well as the leaves under and over my design.

Then I filled in with the other embellishments from the kit.

For the 2-3x4 pockets on the right, I used a card from the kit and stitched a rectangle in black thread.  I did this for two reasons...to repeat the stitching on the left and to create an area to type my journaling.  I then filled in with embellishments.

You can see my previous CTK project under this, and this is what I love about the flow of these Life Crafted kits...it just works so well with other LC kits.  For the bottom 3x4 pocket, I trimmed the 3x8 card that comes in the kit to use just that part I wanted.  It went perfectly with my project.  I just added a date stamp.

I had leftovers of the stitched pattern paper and it inspired me to use it on another spread, again filling in those gaps or empty spots in my album.  

This spread uses the backside of Protector #3.  That previous page, I had accidentally used the pocket upside down, but it worked!  And it still worked for this spread!  I trimmed a 4x6 card to add my journaling for the top pocket, then filled the bottom pocket with pattern paper trimmed down, and just added embellishments to frame my photo.

This spread uses all of the Life Crafted kit with the addition of the new Grateful For and Life Crafted stamp set.  Those florals!!  I used them to frame my pattern paper.  I used the "hello" sentiment from the Life Crafted stamp to stamp right across the layers of my background and pattern paper, then finished my title with embellishments from the kit.  That empty diamond spot was also a perfect spot for the kit diecuts!  Before I did my stamping, I did add a strip of the same pattern paper from the left to the edge of this page.

I added a small photo under this with some embellishments to finish it.

This last empty spot to fill, was an awkward size, and you could really see the previous CTK Life Crafted pages.  This time I added pattern papers from the Gratitude kit to work with the pattern papers from the previous kit/project.

I layered a strip of pattern paper over the older pattern paper on the left, placed my photo just enough to see where to add stamping from the Grateful For stamp set in inks to complement the pattern papers.  Then I typed my journaling on the 4x6 card with labels, trimmed and foamed adhered, adding a puffy embellishment to each one.

I added more embellishments that worked perfectly with my project.

That triangle pattern paper also set the design I wanted to repeat throughout this spread.  Using that triangle puffy sticker creates the repeating pattern, as well as the Triangular You Cut File available this month that I use here on the right.  I used the negative leftover cardstock from this cut file to blend blue ink onto my background, then adhered the cut file, trimmed, and adhered again and trimmed to cover the page.

Instead of using pattern paper to back the triangles, I created a paint pattern on white cardstock, let dry, then punched three different triangles out, to foam adhere on top of this design.  

Finished it with the chipboard embellishments and some black paint drops.

Loved being able to go back through my album and fill in stories using the Life Crafted Gratitude kit!  The first project uses just the kit and stamp, the second project uses the kit + Grateful For Stamp + Life Crafted Stamp, and the third project uses the kit + Grateful For Stamp + Triangular You Cut File.  Regardless of using just the kit or not, the kits are so well put together that they all just flow so well together.  Hope you enjoy reveal and are able to pick up this kit and few other items!  Happy creating!!