Happy - August Kit - Emma Wood

Hello friends!  Emma on the blog today to share a fun page I created using the stunning August Main & Embellishment kits.  I absolutely adore the CTK exclusive pattern paper included in the Main kit this month and I may also be a little addicted to the Maggie Holmes ephemera so I started this page with those things in mind and I love how it finished up!

 

I cut two strips from the paper (you know I just had to go with the pinks..) and distressed the edges for something different.  I think out of all the tools I have the distress tool would have to be the oldest and the least used, haha.  To start my page I picked a mist that matched the papers (Heidi Swapp Color shine in coral that I picked up from the CTK store a while back) and did a few splatters on each side of where I planned the paper strips to sit.  I love the vintage ribbon included in the kit so I tucked that underneath the left edge and then stitched them all in place using my sewing machine.

I messed around with all the die-cuts for ages before I settled on this one and I really only picked it because the photo's I'd printed fit on top perfectly, with just the wheel and top of the die-cut cart peeking above/below!

 
I also tucked a copule of the die-cut flowers at the top of my photo and then put the "HAPPY' die-cut ontop of it all (using some foam-dots underneath to give it a little dimension).

There isn't a whole lot of story to go with this page, so for my journaling I used a combination of the word stickers and stamps.  I think it's a fun way to add some story to your page and love doing this on my pages (obviously not suited for all pages, limited by the stickers/stamps you have on hand and how long you want your journaling to be!).

To finish off my page I used a few of the puffy heart stickers and called it done! 

I really love how it finished up.  Soft and pretty with lots of layers; my kind of page ;)

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, I hope you enjoyed reading how this one came together and I would love to see how you used the exclusive paper - remember to share on the Facebook Fanpage or in our Gallery here :) 

Until next time!  Take care, Em xo

Happy Birthday

Hello there! Melissa here sharing one last project as an August guest designer here at Citrus Twist Kits! 

Today, I really challenged myself to create more of a traditional style scrapbook page in my travelers notebook. This is something I don't do very often, but after this project, I really need to get on board. I had serious fun with this layout. 

If any of you are familiar with my work, you know black & white are my colors. My OCD takes over and when I try to put color on a layout my mind goes into overload. I wanted to scrap this photo of my daughter that we had taken of her for her 7th birthday. Her favorite color is yellow, and the August's Photobooth PL Kit had some really sweet yellow pieces that I wanted to use. Again, this was a big challenge for me, but the pieces were so cute, they went on and stayed on. 

I really loved the flowers and twigs from the diecut pack. 

Last, the stamps. They are perfection! Another favorite is that "all dressed up & somewhere to go" stamp. 

Thank you so much for having me! I really had a great time.  See you around.

Love You

Hey everyone, it's Bea Valint here today, and I am so delighted to be this month's guest designer for Citrus Twist Kits! There are so many gorgeous products in this month kit that it was hard to choose what to use first! I love the colorful patterns, the feminine details, and the shiny ephemera pieces…

Here is the layout I created:

The first thing that caught my eyes was the colorful Pink Paislee- Summer Lights "08" patterned paper. The pretty colors reminded me of colorful butterflies, so I cut some of them with my cameo and dived into my stash to find some similar colored card stock. I cut some butterflies from the different colored card stock too, layered the butterflies with color on color, and machine-stitched them.

I love the pretty black and white die cut flowers from the Maggie Holmes ephemera pack and tried to find the best way to use them on my layout. I decided to copy the flower to a piece of vellum with embossing pen, thorn around the pattern, and layer it behind my photo.

To add more interest to my page I painted some pink stripe in the background, and dropped watercolor around the page. The colorful background added more contrast to the white embossed flower.

I cut some stripes from the Pink Paislee- Summer Lights 06 paper and adhered them to the vellum. I arranged the butterflies diagonally and spiced up the layout with the pretty CTK exclusive heart stickers.  

I also have a process video! If you have free time, check it out!

I really hope you like my project and I could inspire you to use your pretty Photobooth Kit! Thanks for stopping by and have a nice day!

Bea

3 to Inspire

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of our 3 to Inspire Challenge! Each Saturday Citrus Twist provides three prompts to get those creative juices flowing. To play along and be eligible for a fun prize, make sure and post your project in the CTK Gallery with today's date in the title. Now lets get to those prompts!

1.  Use three or more words in your title.

2.  Number it.

3.  Incorporate paper strips.

This is my take on today's challenge:

 For my title, I went ahead and used a journaling card that I cut from one of the papers included in the August Scrapbook Kit. I really felt like the title was quite perfect for these photos from our June trip to the Sierras. I also really liked how the black and white journaling card contrasted with the colors in the photos and paper.  I decided to go ahead and simply number my photos using the ephemera from the kit. Another way to incorporate numbers would be to include a list in your journaling or even add a number into the title.  The final prompt inspired my page design as I cut down strips of paper to layer vertically. 

Now it's your turn! Can't wait to see what you all create!

Michelle

Today's Narrative

Hello!! Melissa here again to share another project with you all today! 

I'm really loving getting to play with these pretty supplies from the August Kits. Using just a few pieces of ephemera from the August Photobooth PL Kit and stamps from the This is Life Narrative stamp and stamps from the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly I put together this layout in my trusty Travelers Notebook. 

I knew I wanted to use the "this photo says it all" stamp from the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly stamp set, so I went ahead and stamped it up on the top left. The photo is of two of my beach babes playing with one of their friends at the beach in a 'spa' they dug in the sand complete with seats and a tunnel for water to fill their spa. I stapled the 'today' chipboard piece with my tiny attacher to the photo and adhered it to my page. Then I created my own journaling card here using the "today's narrative" and "written by:" stamps from the This is Life Narrative stamp. I created this journaling card by simply stamping the sentiments on a 4"x4" piece of printer paper. I then typed my journaling with my typewriter, and adhered that onto the page. Lastly, I added a bit of washi tape to the top of the journaling card.

For the right side of my layout I used one of my favorite go to methods which is a full size 4"x8" photo. This photo is of my view....my beach babes were digging for sand crabs with the pier in the background. This side came together so quickly. I first stamped the "absolute perfection" stamp from the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly stamp set, to my photo. I attached the "this doesn't happen every day" chipboard piece to my photo with my tiny attacher. Again, I finished off this layout with a slim piece of washi tape (the same print from the left side) under the chipboard set. 

Thank you for following along. Happy Crafting.

Tutorial: Mixed Media Background

Hi everyone, Gina here to share with you a step-by-step for creating a mixed media background. This is a favourite process to use when creating my layouts. You can also use this technique on white card stock or patterned papers but I love the chalky contrast of the white gesso against kraft card stock

To start, I've chosen a small b+w photo and a few possible embellishments and ephemera pieces from the gorgeous Photo Booth main kit

Lightly pencil in the position for your photo and, using a flexible plastic card or palette knife, scrape thin layers of gesso onto the card stock, working in different directions. I prefer do multiple thin layers and add in a few thicker patches, cutting lines into them, with the edge of the card or knife to add lines for texture

Once the gesso is dry (usually only takes about 5 minutes) start adding some colour with distress stains or a similar product. I've used 3 colours here; a gold and two different pinks and I usually blend them around with my fingers a bit

Applying the stain slightly outside the gesso  will result in a more intense colour directly on the card stock. Wipe off excess stain with paper towel, or if you prefer the colour brighter leave as is

I also added some random white splotches with a paint pen

Add a few watercolour splatters in a contrasting colour

Frame the  photo with a piece of patterned paper and tag. A torn edge to the paper is an easy way to add contrast and texture.

Position embellishments, ephemera and title roughly where you want them. I've add some cotton thread under the button and star



Now it's time to stick everything down. I changed the journal tag to a different colour and stamped a phrase onto it

A good quality black felt tip pen is an easy way to add some 'controlled' splatters to your page

Here is the final result (with a couple of graphite scribbles and more stamping under the b+w flowers)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're now tempted to have play around with backgrounds sometime using this technique. It's a fun way to customise colours to compliment your papers and embellishments and I can guarantee that every page will be unique! x

Gina

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3 to Inspire with Melissa

Hello everyone! Melissa here with your next 3 to Inspire challenge.

Are you ready?!

 

Here are the three prompts:

1. Use a photo strip or collage.

2. Use a frame to frame at least one of your pictures.

3. Use as many stamps you can. 

Here is my take on the challenge:

This layout in my travelers notebook was created with August's Photobooth PL Kit. After deciding on my pictures, I pull all my supplies (journaling cards, ephemera, stamps, etc.)  I think I may want to use. The ephemera pack had so many pieces that were perfect for my photos. They also allowed me to use a bit of color, which on most of my layouts, color only comes from the photos I use. So that was fun!  

In order to avoid chunky notebooks I don't layer much, especially with paper. In order to "ground" my photo strip on this layout I used a black fine tip pen to draw a border around the entire photo strip. I really like how it turned out. 

Next I picked my ephemera. I really love how the frame I used to frame the picture of my three kiddos has the same colors as the Kodiak Photos tag I used on the left hand side. It pulls the colors to both sides of the layout. I stapled a label tag with my tiny attacher behind that label just to add a tiny bit more color and detail. 

Last I grabbed the awesome Narrative, Entertainment, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (all some of my new favorite stamp sets) and a few other Citrus Twist stamps, I had in my stash and just grabbed every stamp that I thought went with the theme of my layout and just started stamping away. This tag/label from the Narrative stamp set might be my favorite individual stamp. So good and I know I'll use it often. 

I hope you are inspired by this challenge and I can't see what you all create. 

Tuesday Tutorial: Layering Texture

Hello and welcome to this week's Tuesday Tutorial.  Today I am going to focus on one of my favorite scrapbooking subjects: texture! Yes, it seems like a slight detail, but texture can make a big impact on any kind of paper project. When referring to texture, I am thinking about the characteristics of a material. Is it smooth and flat like paper or is it rough and bumpy like glitter? My general rule of thumb when working on a project is to use a variety of textures because the more texture I use, the less "flat" my project looks. Lucky for us, the scrapbooking industry provides quite the variety of textured products from foiled embellishments and epoxy stickers to an assortment of mixed media products.  The possibilities are essentially endless and today I am going to give you several examples of how to incorporate texture into any paper project using the fun August Kits.

For this 9x12 layout, I knew I wanted to layer on the texture and to do that I had to start from the very bottom layer--my base paper.  To create the very first layer of texture, I reached for my Color Shine sprays from Heidi Swapp. These are my go to sprays because the colors are glittery as opposed to being a flat color and I like that extra sparkle. As you can see in the photo, I already had my patterned papers stacked and stapled because I like to know ahead of time where my papers and general design is going to go, so that I know where I want to drop the color on the page. For this instance I was going for a diagonal direction-from the top right corner down to the left corner.

My second application of texture was the addition of a colored paste that I applied using a mask. This particular paste is a flat color which I picked because it contrasts with the glittery mist that I first applied. Contrast is always at the top of my mind when I am choosing products because I want variety. Variety makes it interesting!

                                     

Now that my background is prepared, it I can move on to the paper layers. As mentioned earlier, the average patterned paper is flat and smooth, but there are ways to add texture and rough up the surface. The most simple of adjustments is to tear the edges of a paper. This creates instant texture and interest. Second, look for specialty papers. I chose to use a simple piece of vellum (which I also tore!) and a piece of patterned paper that had some gold foil. You can also consider adding stitching to paper or even adding in another layer of mixed media. And since I mentioned stitching, don't forget to consider thread! Thread is soft and airy and bunching up a bit of it and tucking it under a photo or embellishment is a great way to introduce a new texture to your project.

You can also consider texture when you're picking out embellishments. For example, after having chosen to use a few pieces of chipboard which has a matte finish, I wan\ted something different so I went for the plastic puffy hearts. To add a final piece of texture I pulled out a few pieces of the ephemera that had a glittery gold finish and tucked it in under my layers. Here's a look at the final project:

Here are some additional tips for adding texture to your projects:

• Not into mixed media, consider using a textured cardstock or paper for your background. 
• Mix it up--variety is always good.
• Vary the amounts of each type of texture--you don't want a lot of everything.
• Think outside the papercrafting box--things like fabric and ribbon are good options!

Thanks for stopping by today and if you create a project that features some texture, share it with us! You can post t here in our gallery or on our Facebook Fan Page! We love seeing what you all create!

Michelle

In My Studio with Leigh

Hello friends! Leigh here with an In My Studio post featuring how I organize my Citrus Twist Kits for use in my craft room. As soon as I get a new kit, I clear off the desk in the center of my room. Beginning with a clean desk and my new CTK kit, gives me a fresh focus.

By having the new CTK as the only thing on my desk, I can see color schemes and begin to piece together a theme for my page. This one is very floral and girly since it is about me and my two sisters.

 That ticket stub was perfect for part of my title, because it had been eight years since we were in the same room together!

I used the heart from the stamp set in this month's kit to create the flower centers, and fussy cut them out to bring more of the black color to another layer.

The Main Scrapbook kit for August 2017, Photo Booth, is here in the kit section of the Citrus Twist Kits Store! 



Thank you for visiting today!
Hugs,
Leigh