Sunday Sketch with Chantal

This week, our sketch is a 8.5x11 layout with an abundance of layers. Fellow creative team member Kelly Barron, is also joining me this week and sharing her take on our scrapbook sketch.

For my project, I opted for some neutral tones for my papers and added a pop of colour to it all, with the elements.

The elements used, are various items from the Scrapbook and Embellishment kits. I've always been a fan of mixing and matching various shades of green and yellow together.

I printed the speech bubble and whipped out my vintage typewriter to add a bit of text. I then adhered it to my page with some foam tape.

My favourite thing about this layout, is the globe. I really wanted to incorporate the rub-ons in the foreground instead of adding it somewhere behind everything else. To do that, I simply rubbed the globe onto a piece of scrap photo paper and fussy cut it out.

To complete it all, I added a little sewing to the arrows, stamped and dated my page.

Here is Kelly's take on today's scrapbook sketch;

I adapted this sketch to make it a full 12x12 layout. To create this page I used primarily the Happy Heart Add-On kit and bits and pieces from the Main and Pocket Life kits.

I fell in love with the colors in these papers and arranged them in rainbow order for a fun look. The stitching in black helps to bring the title and the black accents of the sticker together for a cohesive look on the layout.

I added a doily from my stash to add some softness to the photo. The texture and interest that doilies bring to a layout make them one of my favorite embellishments to use.

Now it's your turn! To play along with this weeks sketch and be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate to the Citrus Twist Kits store, create a project inspired by this week's sketch and upload it to the CTK gallery with today's date (06/17) in the title.

Happy creating!!!

Traveler's Notebook Inspiration

Hey friends! Kelly here with a Traveler's Notebook spread using the Main, Pocket Life, and Embellishment kits. The Main kit this month contains a Traveler's Notebook insert and I decided it would be perfect to document some of my favorite restaurants and meals. 

The colors on the pig die cut and Pocket Life card dictated my color palette for this spread. The patterned paper included in the PL kit is one of my favorites so I chose to extend it on both pages of the notebook.

I used a 3x4 Pocket Life card to journal about the day, and then layered a label sticker and enamel circle to finish the cluster.

The pig die cut included in the ephemera pack in the Pocket Life kit was absolutely perfect for this page! I layered the photo on top of a PL card and then on a doily from my stash. 

I have linked my process video below if you'd like to take a peek at how this came together. Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!

Tuesday Tutorial - Altering Alphas

Hello friends! This is Kelly and today I have a fun and simple technique to alter the color of  the puffy alphas by Pinkfresh. This technique works best when covering lighter color embellishments with dark inks. I also recommend to test the color on an alpha that you don't use frequently and for me that is the letter Z.

I started this page with a google search on Mickey images. I knew that I wanted the traditional silhouette, and once I found one that I liked, I imported into in my software and traced the image for this cut file. I also went ahead and messily stitched around the outline with black thread to emphasize the outline.

I don't usually gravitate towards themed products, and as a result a large number of my Disney photos have not been scrapped. The Malibu kit and the Paradise Add-on both had several pieces that I thought worked well with these photos, and inspired me to create another layout for my Disney album.

I wanted to document the park that we were in this day with the initials somewhere on the page. The Pinkfresh alphas were perfect, except the gray color did not stand out on the label with the rest of the black elements on the page. I used a black Copic marker and applied a few coats of ink to alter the color. I left the alphas on the sheet to make it easy, allowed them to dry in between coats, and then peeled them off and adhered them to the label. 

The one other embellishment that "needed" to get on this page was from the chipboard phrase from the Paradise Add-On kit. The phrase works perfectly for Disney photos as well as every-day photos. 

Here's a peek at how the layout came together. I hope that you will try this technique the next time you need a different color alpha. Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that you have a great day!

3-To-Inspire with Kelly

Hello friends! Today I am back with our first 3-To-Inspire challenge for the month of May. I have loved playing with this kit and hope that you will play along for a chance to win a prize!

My prompts are as follows:
1. Use tulle
2. Stitch (machine, hand, or both)
3. Use at least 3 patterned papers

Here is the page that I created using one of the cut files available as a NSD freebie in the shop.

For this layout I used the Malibu Main kit, Malibu Pocket Life kit, and the Paradise Add-on kit. I started creating the page by backing the heart cut file with papers that contained pink, coral, or aqua. Adding in the black and white polka dot brings a bit of contrast to the page.

I'm a sucker for birds and knew that this sweet bird would make the perfect accent on top of the photo.

The doily and twine are from my stash. I stitched through the title to add a bit more detail to the page.

 My mom has dementia, and we have had to make some serious life changes for her. It's been hard, and when I saw these stickers from Pinkfresh Studio, I could not believe how well that they told the story of my layout. Sometimes journaling is not even needed when your products say everything that you need to say.

I chose to layer the tulle behind the heart. I cut several squares so that the color would be a bit brighter, and adhered it to the back of the cut file with hot glue. I wanted to make sure that it would stay in place, and knew that hot glue would do the trick.

I have included a link to my process video if you would like to see how this layout came together. Now, it is your turn to use these prompts and post your projects on  our CTK Facebook Fan Page. Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!

xoxo, Kelly

Layout Share Using the Main Kit Savannah

Hello friends! It's Kelly and today I have a layout and process video to share using the Main Kit Savannah. The bright colors of this kit are lovely and perfect for spring! 

To create the background I used Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide ink and the packaging technique. If you aren't sure what I am referring to when I mention the packaging technique, watch my process video and you will see just how easy and this technique is to use to create fun backgrounds. I also sprinkled a bit of Heidi Swapp Gold mist on the background because more gold is a good thing!

I am a fan of white cardstock as my background on 12x12 layouts. In this case, I felt like the title got a bit lost on the white background. Adding the ink and gold mist to the background helped the title to stand out on the layout. These butterflies are my favorite embellishments in the Dear Lizzy ephemera pack and I wish that I had more of them.

The frames were fussy cut out of patterned paper and helped to add some interest to the cluster while bringing in a bit more of the gorgeous blue.

I did use a doily and crochet thread from my stash to complete this cluster.  The Thickers are the perfect size to add the year inside the frame. This is one of my favorite details on this layout.

A link to my process is below if you would like to see just how this layout came together. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!

Tuesday Tutorial with Kelly - Creative Ways to Use PL Cards

Hi friends! Today I am going to share a TN spread that I created using the gorgeous Pocket Life kit. Butterflies are some of my favorite embellishments to use and the ones included in the die cuts and puffy stickers are simply gorgeous. It was an easy decision to create my spread based on these embellishments.

I do not do Project Life, yet I still have a subscription to this kit each month because it is so versatile to use in both my TN spreads and my traditional 12x12 pages. Here is the spread that I created for my Gratitude notebook.

The first step for me in creating this spread is to go through the different cards and pull out ones that had colors that were similar to the butterflies. I found three different cards to use, and then chose the rest of the embellishments for this spread.

By fussy cutting an image from a 3x4 card, I created a die cut with the "This is Us" phrase. I also used another card to back behind my photo with similar colors.

One of the 4x6 cards had a beautiful diagonal stripe and this phrase. I fussy cut the phrase and then trimmed down the diagonal stripe to create a strip of patterned paper across the bottom of my spread. I pulled the doily from my stash and love the added texture that it brings to the spread.

I hope that this inspires you to look at your Project Life cards in a new way. I have linked my process video below. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!

Sunday Sketch with Kelly

Hi everyone! It's Kelly and today I have a fun sketch to share with you!

I used a polaroid cut file from the Silhouette store and cut them out so that the photo was slightly larger than 2x2 inches. Since I used white cardstock as my base, I enlarged the paper strips shown on the sketch. The largest measured 4 inches tall. In trimming the patterned paper, I chose to leave on the branding strip, and flipped it so that the branding strip was at the top. This is a great way to incorporate every little bit of the gorgeous pattern.

Cutting my letters by hand was made easier by drawing straight lines 1.5 inches apart. I then lightly sketched out the letters and cut them out on a piece of printer paper. I did this first because I wasn't sure how my title would fall in the space provided, and I needed to make sure that it stopped in a good spot that would make the title easy to read. Outlining the letters in black also helps to increase legibility with the different patterns, plus it adds a bit of whimsy to the page.

 The colors of the Here and There collection are bold and so fun. I chose to stitch through the letters in black to provide some contrast. I also stitched through the middle polaroid frame with both straight and zig zag stitches.

These banners from PinkFresh studio are so fun. I used some thin twine from my stash to wrap around the polaroid frame and tie a bow.

Thanks for stopping by today. I can't wait to see what you do with this sketch! Be sure and post your creations in the member gallery or Facebood group with the date of today's blog post for a chance to win a $5 gift certificate for the CTK shop!

Product Highlight: Playing with Crochet Thread

If you have received your kit and need inspiration as to how to use the crochet floss, this is the post for you! Crochet thread can be used to anchor buttons and charms, tie ribbon onto tags, binding albums, and my favorite technique is to stitch on the layout. Myself, Kira and Nathalie will be sharing our projects today and hope to inspire you to use the crochet thread.

On this layout I used a stencil to draw out a leaf. I then cut the leaf out, traced around the edges of the leaves, poked holes in the cardstock, and then did a simple backstitch. This method is easy and the only supplies needed are a needle with an eye opening large enough for your thread.

Hey everyone, Kira here to share another way to use the thread included in your kit.  If you are familiar with my scrapbook style, you'll know that I loooooove stitching on my layouts.  But I knew Kelly does too!  So I decided to stretch my creativity a little with this project and think of a way to use it in a non-hand stitching way.  

 

Enter the mini album!  I have been on a bit of a mini album kick at the moment (I think I've made 4 this month so far!).  But I have never attempted a coptic binding style mini and I thought this thread presented the perfect opportunity to do that.  I started with two 4"x5" pieces of chipboard from my stash (it is relatively cheap on Amazon, or you could even re-purpose the packaging from a 12x12 paper pad!).  I covered the front/back of the chipboard with the "Passion" paper from the main kit.  And covered the insides with the B side of the same paper.  

Then I created my "signatures" (apparently that's what the inserts in a coptic book are called...who knew? This is my first time making one.  Lol.) with plain, white printer paper and covered them with the 6x8 paper included in the Pocket Life kit.

  

I stitched everything up according to this tutorial.  And I added some of the Good Vibes charms that were included in the main kit, along the spine.  I plan on decorating the inside with my Citrus Twist kit, so stay tuned for progress on this later!

xo, Kira

Hi there!  When Trina mentioned to us that there will be crochet thread in the kit, I did a small happy dance.  I have crocheted my whole life, it is one of my favorite things to do, and i was itching to add it to one of my pages.  

I used the crochet thread to create a textured edge to one of the ephemera tags from the Flourish collection included in this kit ( i would crocheted the entire page, but there was not enough thread in my kit!)

I kept the page fairly masculine, and included small accents of mint/teal so that the texture in the tag will show  as you look at the page.  I just love all the small sentiments in the stamp , they are perfect to personalize the page.

I hope you are all inspired to use the crochet thread included in the Cedar Grove Main Scrapbook Kit.  It can easily be used to stitch on your pages, bind your mini books, tie your small pieces and tags, add texture to the page, or simply as decoration on the pages.  It is all up to you!

We cannot wait to see what you are inspired to create with it!!!

XOXO

Nathalie

Let's Go Monochromatic with Kelly

Hello friends! Today I have a layout and process video to share using the Main kit, Embellishment Add-on, and Project Life kit. I was inspired to create this layout with several of the romantic themed elements that are in the kits, and my starting point was the gorgeous vellum swan die cut. I consider neutrals to include gold, so for my pop of color I chose to use pink.

This photo is of my husband and I when we were on a cruise. The background of the photo is a bit distracting, so I cropped it close. I could have easily turned the photo to black and white, but ended up liking the pop of color the photo brings off the neutral background.

The music sheet that is included in the main kit makes a great layering piece behind the photo and the vellum die cut. I trimmed down the music sheet by using a ruler as a straight edge and tearing down to size. Tearing the paper with the ruler edge gives a bit more control of how much is torn off and keeps it relatively straight.

Usually when working with metallics I stick with one color. The mix of rose gold and gold works beautifully with this page and the pink tones. The large floral was fussy cut from one of the 6x8 papers included in the PL kit and helps to bring balance to the right side of the page.

To finish off the layout I machine stitched in gold thread around the edges of the layout, and added gold mist. Misting led to a happy accident when a blob of gold mist fell onto the page. It bothered me so much that I decided to use the word phrases to cover the mist blob and then layer a few more down the page to balance out the phrases.

I hope that you enjoyed this and will perhaps challenge yourself to make a monochromatic layout in the future. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!

3-To-Inspire with Kelly

Hello friends! It's Kelly here, and today I am here with 3 prompts that inspired me to create this layout, and hopefully will inspire you as well.

This week's prompts are as follows:
1. Use a photo that you love
2. Stitching (can be hand or machine)
3. Using the pom pom trim

This layout was created using the Main kit "Sugarland". This was the first layout that I created using this kit, and also the first one that I created after the holidays. If you are anything like me it can be hard to jump start my creativity if I haven't been at my scrap desk in a few weeks. So, I chose a photo that I love as my jumping off point.

This banner from the Carousel sticker sheet was the perfect size to add underneath the label, and I love the way that it brings a pop of turquoise up to this cluster. Banners can be a bit challenging to use so don't be afraid to trim it and just use part of it.

The book sheet included in the kit is a wonderful way to add more texture and interest to your project. I did trim down the sheet a bit and then tore the edges to make it look a bit worn. 

Pom pom trim is one of my favorite trims to add to the page. It's whimsical and adds so much visual interest. My final touch to the cluster was to nestle the arrow clip on the die cut in between the words. 

I have included a link to my process video in case you would like to see how my page came together. I hope that these prompts have inspired you to get out your kits and to play!  Remember to share your creations with today's date in the gallery and the CTK Facebook group. Thanks so much for stopping by and hope that you have a wonderful day! 

Jordan here today as well to share my take on Kelly's prompt.  I was so excited when I heard what her 3 items would be, because...stitching!!!  And pom-poms!!  Two things I love to add to my layouts!  It's rare for me to finish any type of layout and not stitch something on my page.  

  I used the Sugarland Main Kit as well as the Embellishment kit here.  I really love chipboard embellishments because they add texture and dimension to my pages. 

I chose this sweet photo of my middle and youngest playing so sweetly in my daughter's room.  The softer pink, mint and grey paired really nicely with my photo so I chose the papers that complimented the colors of her room.

And then I added pops of yellow, because it is one of my favorite colors to accent with!  I love the bright, happy vibe it adds here.  I finished it off by stitching the pom pom trim and a few layered papers down the side of the layout and adding a tiny cluster near the top left.

I hope you enjoy the challenge and I look forward to seeing what you create!  Happy crafting!