Be Inspired By Scattered Circles

Hello, everyone! Melissa here with your weekly Be Inspired post.

Our Inspiration Girl, Kasia, does a fantastic job of rounding up images that fit a theme, and today I thought I'd try something similar while showing you the inspiration behind one of my kit layouts this month.

While browsing my Pinterest boards looking for something to spark my next layout, I noticed that I'd pinned several images of clustered or scattered groupings of circles.

Image Credit

Image Credit

Image Credit

Those circles took the form of everything from plates to bowls to cakes, and when I looked at them they reminded me of the Fine China patterned paper from the Crate Paper Flea Market collection. This particular pattern includes lots of decorative plate images, and before I knew it I found myself cutting them out and arranging them in a loose cluster on my page.

I admit that I struggled with the photo arrangement on this layout- until I tilted them all at an angle, that is! It's something that I hadn't tried before, but the diagonal direction of the photos flows well with the direction of the plates and helps it all work together.

I also added a few more circular elements in the form of the metal gears from the Embellishment Add-On and one of the exclusive flair buttons in this month's kits.

Sometimes browsing the non-scrapbook related images that you've pinned can be just as inspiring for your layouts as lifting or using a sketch!

6x6 Paper Play with Jen

Hello all! Jen here to share a 12x12 layout created using the amazing CP Flea Market 6x6 paper pad in the October Pocket Life kit. Our oldest son started preschool this year, with much excitement, and it was a memory I wanted to capture without delay.

I started with the notebook lined paper that I've hoarded in my stash forever and finally had cause to use. He is in a private program which requires uniforms - white tops and navy blue bottoms - so, the navy and white polka dot print was simply perfect as part of my background!

I wanted those school colors to stand out so, used the graduated teal paint strip paper to ground the dot pattern, cutting stars from the strip using my Silhouette, and backing a few stars with the cool, neutral wood grain paper. I added his initial using a Thicker from the PL Embellishment Kit.

Two of the October Pocket Life stamps paired together state "Today was the best." - the final little touch needed to finish my Silhouette cut title.

Tuesday Tutorial with our Guest Designer Malika

Hello, Citrus Twist fans!  It's Malika here today with a little tutorial on how I made the hand stitched grid on my layout, the Best of Friends.

Though I used the Main Kit only for this layout, I added some die cut card stock  circles that I made on my Silhouette.  There are a few tools that I keep handy when I am making straight hand stitched lines:  a ruler, foam pad, paper piercing tool, pencil and GOOD eraser.

Use the ruler to plan the spacing of the grid you want to make.  Very lightly, draw with pencil along side the ruler so that you have the grid in light pencil on your card stock.

With the foam pad underneath your card stock, follow the penciled grid with the paper piercer.  I like to use my ruler again here to help me keep the holes spaced approximately the same distance apart.  I don't worry too much if my holes are a little out of line.  That gives it the hand stitched look that I am aiming for. 

When all the holes have been pierced, go back with your very good eraser and get rid of the light pencil lines. 

Now you have the guide ready for your hand stitching grid.  Follow along the guide using a needle and embroidery floss (I usually use two strands of floss) doing a back stitch. 
Now that the grid is complete, it is time for the fun part…. embellishing!

Remember - Simple Strategie with Amélie

Hi,
Here is Amélie and today I will show you how to make soft background with gelatos (or neocolors).
First, my layout:

And some sneaks:

I love create background for my layout but I love when they are soft like this one.
It's very simple.
You need gelatos, you can mix several colors, water spray and a part of plastic package (here I used my Citrus Twist stamps package).

On a clean work space, draw some lines of colors:

Add some water. More you add water, more effect will be light and soft.

Place your plastic sheet on it:

And after on your background. Repeated this step several times until the desired effect.

 Isn't it beautiful??

Add some ink stains and it will be perfect!

Have a good day,
Amélie

Sunday Sketch Challenge with Trina

To play along with our sketch challenge, upload your layouts to the gallery by October 12th to be entered in a drawing to win a $5 gift certificate to the Citrus Twist store. When uploading to the gallery, please include "Sketch 10/20" along with the title of your layout. 

For this sketch I used the October Main and Pattern Paper kits along with the No. 1 Embellishment kit. I stop playing with the new Large Roller Stamp from Pebbles. I did my journaling with it this time. Now here is your sketch for this week:

My take on the weekly sketch. Thank you Kasia for providing such wonderful scrapbooking inspiration!

I love layering scraps of paper. This week's sketch gives you lots of opportunity to play with layering. The darling Maggie Holmes Flea Market tag paper helped loads with my layout. I also used some of the strips that are at the bottom of scrapbook paper for the vertical elements:

Here is a close up of some of the circle elements that Kasia had in her sketch. I used the metal heart gear from the October No. 1 Embellishment kit for this:

Thank you for playing along with our sketch challenge this week. Be sure to upload your sketch to the gallery to earn a chance for a $5 Citrus Twist gift certificate.

Happy scrapbooking!
Trina

Playing With Pocket Life With Melissa

Hello and a very happy Friday to everyone! This is Melissa here with you today to share this week's dose of Pocket Life kit inspiration using Citrus Twist's October kits.

This layout goes all the way back to May and a week that included a Mother's Day celebration, a high school graduation, and lots of photos of my little niece, Sophie. All of those things added up to lots of pink in my photos- a perfect match for the Maggie Holmes Flea Market paper pad in this month's Pocket Life kit!

I kept this layout a lot cleaner and used more white than I usually do since I had a lot of text to include to document this busy week. The exclusive journaling cards by Kimberly Kalil are a great balance of decorative elements and space for words or photos, and I found myself using eight of the twelve cards included in the kit on this one layout!

Several items from the new Pocket Life Embellishment Add-On also made their way onto this layout. The small foam Thickers are sized perfectly for little pockets, and the Dear Lizzy epoxy stickers and Sugardots from Prima are great for sprinkling around your pages like confetti.

I have your usual set of weekly sketches all ready to go, too, and you have the option of either pinning or saving the image below, or you can download a high-resolution PDF of the sketches here.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a fantastic weekend!

Winners!!!

I have some sketch winners, Guest Designers Favorite Items, and Guessing Game Winners to announce!

Sketch Winners ($5 Gift Certificate):

Sept. 15 anitatina
Sept. 22 anitatina
Sept. 29 BarbP
Oct. 6 Danielle the bee
Oct. 13 BarbP


Guest Designers Top 5 Items (you win one of the items):

The 5 OgilviesOctober 1, 2013 at 11:02 AM

Congratulations! I'm a big fan of your work. I can't wait to see what you do with this fun kit.

Guessing Game Winner ($5 Gift Certificate)

Tina FengOctober 4, 2013 at 8:22 AM

Beautiful pages! I'm excited to see all the Maggie Holmes Flea Market paper!

Please email CitrusTwistKits@yahoo.com to claim your prizes! 

Make sure to check out this weeks sketch and load your takes to the gallery for a chance to win!