I Capture - my top 5 tips

Hi everyone, Suse Fish here with you today with a few of my photography tips. 

Now I'll preface these tips by admitting that my hubby has an awesome camera that I borrow - that does help an awful lot! But here are a few other little pointers to getting some lovely pictures that you won't be able to wait to scrapbook...


1. Take loads
For every one good picture that photographers show, I have a feeling that there are about a hundred more that they don't keep. You can set your camera to take a load at once or just keep snapping away, but the knack to getting that really brilliant photo is taking lots and being really selective about which you decide to keep and print.

2. Vary your eye level
Getting down on the floor to get that cat's eye view really can make all the difference. Or try photographing things straight on or from directly above. You can get some really interesting results by changing-up your eye level. Try photographing the exact same thing from several different view points and see which you prefer once you've uploaded them.

3. Use the self-timer
Getting familiar with how your camera's self-timer works can give you some really fun results. And it's rather nice to actually be in your photos once in a while, isn't it? And sometimes even shots that were mistakes (pic 3: no head!) can give quite fun results that still capture the moment well.

4.  Take selfies into a mirror
Now I love this tip for a good selfie: try sitting in front of a mirror. It's the only way I ever take selfies and the results are always lovely. You do need to crop the pictures in close later on so that folks don't spot that raised arm holding the camera, but that's okay. This way you get to see what your face is doing while you take the pictures: in my case, all sort of strange things!

5. Capture the everyday
These are the photos I like the best: those ones where you just spotted something fun or pretty and grabbed the camera and snapped away. I love recording those everyday moments where the kitchen's a mess or we're about to eat, because these are the moments our lives are made of, aren't they?

Happy snapping gang, and do let me know how you get on!

Hello with Christin

Christin here today to share with you a layout on how to use a lot of small pieces of scraps for your layout (and maybe also a background you were not really happy about.......

Full layout

A long while ago I played with different yellow paints - including  Izink Pigment Ink. Unfortunately it felt a little too bright yellow so I let the whole page rest, but for this page where the purpose was to use scraps I wanted to think about reusing this page.

There are a few tips on how to tone down a very colored page; first you paint a thin layer of white paint, I used a rubber thingy with stripes to spread out the paint. This way you make sure the layer isn't completely even and thick.  To add more effect you add drops of mist and stamps. A second way is to add a thick layer of gesso/modeling paste with a stencils with small patterns.  Together you get a much softer look.

On to the layers of paper.  If you have lots of scraps of paper left a good idea is to cut them in different sizes. I measured the photo and made one size just a tad bigger than the photo and other the same size and a few a little bigger. To add contrast between the papers I added a thin black stripe near the edges.  Then I just spread the papers all over the middle part of the page.  The fun thing about layering the pages is that it's very easy to add small pieces here and there, like a piece of washi tape here and there and pieces of ephemera underneath here and there.

Hope I have inspired you to use your scraps. I have used the November Main kit " Happy Lane", the Sprinkles and the "Hello Tomorrow" Embellishment kit.

Tuesday Tutorial : Personalized Supplies

Do you have leftovers from your CTK kit each month? I'm pretty sure we all do! I have a few items left in November Main kit + Sprinkles kit, after creating my projects. Thought it would be fun to use them in a fun way. I had a lightbulb moment and decided to use my leftovers to create gift cards, tags & clips. These are perfect to be used as part of gift packaging, handmade card, pocket life page, planner or even on a scrapbooking layout. 

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HELLO GIFT CARDS

First, cut out a few 3"x4" cards from the cardstock & patterned paper.  

 Next, cut the patterned paper diagonally as shown above.

 Once that is done, adhere the patterned paper onto the cardstock. 

 Then, cut out the circles that are on the patterned paper. You may also use a 2" circle punch to punch the circles out. 

 Finally, adhere the circles in the middle of the cards. You may pen down wishes at the back of the card :)

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HAPPY GIFT TAG

Firstly, you'll need to create a tag with your cardstock. It's pretty easy & fast to create one. I also adhered a hole enforcement on my tag.  

Once that the tag is completed, use a circle punch to punch out the circles. I chose the ones that are at the edges as I'll be adhering the circles at the edges of the tag. 

After pasting the circles on the tag, I used the heart glittered stickers to enhance my card!

 Here is my completed tag. Isn't that cute? :)

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BOW PAPER CLIPS

I was given an opportunity to design the bow tab die (it's available at the CTK online store) for Pinkfresh Studio and one of the idea was to use them on paper clips. As I was searching in my precious CTK kits, I found this pair of cute gold paper clips!

First, you'll need to run the bow tab die along with your choice of patterned paper on a manual die-cut machine.  

Then, all you have to do next is to fold the the bow into half, apply some glue and attached it onto the paper clip. Adhered a dot glittered sticker in the middle & you're done! Easy peasy!

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Here's a picture of all the personalized supplies ....

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial! Do share with us if you have created your own personalised supplies at our Citrus Twist Kits Fan Page or tag us at Instagram & #citrustwistkits.

Thank you for coming by! Happy Crafting!

Xoxo Jessy  

October Challenge Winners

Today we are happy to announce the winners of October's challenges!

Each week our Design Team provides you with three challenges to help you get your creative juices flowing. Pocket Life Sketch Friday gives you multiple sketches to use in your pocket style scrapbooking. Saturday's 3 to Inspire challenge brings you three creative prompts to incorporate on a project of your choice. On Sunday, our Sunday Sketch challenge goes live. To participate in either or all challenges, all you need to do is upload your project to the gallery within a week of the challenge date, noting the date of the challenge in the title of your project. Once a month we pick a winner from each challenge and announce them here on the blog.

Thanks to all that participated in the month of October! Here are the winners:

Sunday Sketch-$5 Gift Certificate to the CTK Store:
10/4:   aprilc79
10/11: runzalot81
10/18: justt
10/25: peggyemmy

3 to Inspire-A Small Prize from the CTK Store:
10/10: barbp
10/17: juliee
10/24: peggyemmy
10/31: celisemcl

Pocket Life Friday-Fun Mail!
10/2:   barbp
10/9:   pizookie
10/16: sunie

Winners, please email Trina at CitrusTwistKits@yahoo.com and include the name and date of the challenge that you have won in the subject of the email to claim your prize!

Sunday Sketch

Hello! Heather, your guest designer, here with you today to share this week's edition of the Sunday Sketch. Here is a look at today's sketch:

Using the November Main "Happy Lane" Kit, this is what I created:

I pretty much stayed with the same design as the sketch. I only adjusted two things; first, I moved the title to above the journaling because I thought the alpha stickers would get lost in the blue pattern paper; and second, I only embellished in the area to the left of the photo instead of putting more patterned paper strips there.

Now it's your turn! To play along with this week's sketch challenge, create a project based off of today's sketch, upload it to the CTK Gallery, include today's date (11/15) in the title, and you will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to use in the CTK Store! Looking forward to seeing you projects!

Heather

3 to Inspire with Aimee

You can find this challenge here every Saturday for those who need a little extra creative push to get scrapbooking, to keep scrapbooking or for those who just like a challenge! Your take on this challenge can be a layout or a PL spread and remember that you'll want to include all 3 prompts on your project.

Your prompts this week are:

1. Use a full piece of pattern paper
2. Embellish on top of your photo
3. Pop it up and give it dimension

Now it's your turn! Use the three prompts to create your own projects and share them with us in the CTK Gallery and/or on our Facebook Fan Page by Saturday, November 14th, for a chance to win. You can also upload to Instagram and tag us @citrustwistkits. Have fun!

Aimee Xx

Pocket Life Sketch Friday

Happy Friday everyone!

Marie here with you today to share the Friday PL sketch!! Don't forget that there are some prizes to win. :) See details at the end of the post.

Here is a page I made with the November 2015 Pocket Life and Embellishment kits.

And here's the sketch for the left page of the layout.

For your chance to win some happy mail, create a layout based on the sketches in this blog post. Remember you can use these sketches to brainstorm ideas for Pocket Life and/or traditional scrapbooking. Then post your layout to our Gallery or on our Facebook Fan Page by Friday, November 20th and label it PL 11/13. The winner will be announced here on the blog later this month.


I hope it can help you jump start your creativity. Don't forget that the most important thing is to have fun!!

Marie