Citrus Twist Kits | Cinque Terre

Hi everyone!

I have a layout for you today, one of my last ones with the Citrus Twist Kits since I decided to resign my position on the design team.  If you don't mind, I'll show you my layout first and tell you the story after...

So here it is, one of my four layouts made with the April Citrus Twist main scrapbooking kit.

I love every paper with compartments like this one. They always call for many small photos and embellies and stories.

So first thing I did was choosing a story I wanted to tell and I settled on our day at Cinque Terre in Italy. I knew I had enough photos to fill in many little frames.

I looked at the frames and chose my photos to go with them. I mesured the frames and sized my photos and placed them on a4x6 canvas in Photo shop. It looked like this:

I then cut out the photos and placed them over the frames to give me a good idea of how it would look and to see also if I needed more photos.

I then started cutting the inside of the frames with an exact knife. It was really quick and easy. Especially when I decided I'd get rid of the scallops inside some of the frames. lol I was cutting around them when my husband came in my room and I realized what I was doing was a loss of time. I just simplified. ;)

I love the look of the photo behind the paper. I adhered them all with washi tape. (I always have to check which one is sticking enough for that task. I also stick to one I love less or have more of, because it is hidden behind the page).

Once all my photos where adhered, I started adhering small embellishments and adding details with words and letter stickers.

I also decided I'd color some of the frames with gold ink because the photos being so small were totally lost on a total black and white layout.

I like that the gold ink I chose is very yellow and happy and still has the shimmer of the gold in it.

Very simple layout. it took me less than an hour to finish it. But I still like it. I'll add more to the story in other layouts (we did a 10 days road trip through Germany, Italy and Switzerland, so I still have a lot of photos and stories!) Or I might just keep this page in our travel album and move onto a mini album for the whole road trip. Yep, that might be a good idea. :)

So now for the story of my decision of stepping down of the design team...

I don't want to get too much in the details of why, but just let me tell you that this move to Prague, even if I absolutely love Prague and my new friends here took a toll on me and I was stretching myself way too thin for all that was going on. Inside of me, I knew that I was going straight to a fail, but I kept trying to make everything work until my body said "Enough!"

Last time by body talked to me like this it was when we learned the news that we were moving to Prague and to make a story short, I ended with my worse fear in my hands!

Yep, a snake!

So anyway, this time, with the mindfulness techniques I've been practicing since January (thank god for that!), I could keep my nerves under control but it was still very scary and at that moment I was struggling to stay sane, I knew I had to let something go, even if that something is what I love most in life. I cried over my decision but really, I had no choice. I've hit a wall. I have to step back and readjust. Go back to a minimum of things to do is a good thing to start with. I think.

So for now I'm on a break of all my design teams. I'll see in September what happens when I get back from our summer vacation and readjust again to our life in Prague. I'm just hoping that I will still be able to make scrapbooking a priority. Because it really is what I love most.

Thanks for stopping by guys, and for all the comments you leave me here and on Facebook and Instagram. They really lift me up and keep me going when times get hard.

Marie-Pierre xo

Citrus Twist Kits | Dubai

Hello everyone!!

Here I am today with a very long blogpost and lots of photos to inspire you!!!

I created this double page layout to document my day trip to the sand dunes in Dubai.

I would really love for you to head over to the Citrus Twist Kits blog post to read all about my process of putting it together. I assure you that you will look at it in another way after reading that!! :) And I hope that it will inspire you to scrapbook yourself, starting from scratch.

Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful day!!

Marie

Citrus Twist Kits | Documenting a trip

Hi everyone!

How do you document a trip you really really liked and have 500 great photos from that trip? Do you just forget about it and do nothing? Because that wouldn't be the way to go...

As you know it, not long ago, I came back from a trip to Dubai and I really loved it and didn't want to miss the chance to document it so here's how I went about to document it:

1. I wrote a blogpost. I didn't want to forget anything and I thought that was the best way to go. Journal. And add some pictures maybe too. It took me some time. Maybe a half day, but I'm glad I did it because when I had the chance to scrapbook my trip, weeks later, I had already forgotten so much information and I was happy to just look back at my blog post. I was also happy that my best pictures were already selected.

2. I did a layout about the BEST part of the trip! For me it was my day in the sand dunes. I'll tell you more about this layout very soon on the Citrus Twist Kits blog as part of a tutorial showing you how to build a double page layout with lots of photos and journaling.

3. I did a layout that serves as a summary of the trip. I didn't want to tell everything on that page, nor display all my best pictures, but I wanted to give a feel of the trip and show several activities we made.

It's this layout:

The title is "welcome to Dubai" and I chose lots of pictures of my husband an I, including the forbidden kiss at the top of Burj Khalifa. A photo at the beach, one of our hotel room number in arab and roman numbers. :) The Burj Khalifa and Dubai mall, the view at the marina (where we were staying), our favorite tea place with fresh dates and palm tree reflection in the glass of the table. The whole trip is not there. The sand dunes are not there for example, but the main of the trip is there.

I didn't use a lot of products either. Look.  A white background and just some embellishments here and there. Sometimes, you just have to stop overthinking everything and to over complicate everything. Simple is good. And what you want are your pictures and the story, right?!

Sorry for the inappropriate photo.... my daughter wasn't happy with this. But it was kind of a big part of the trip because we (or I) were a little bit nervous about that whole thing of not being allowed to hold hands in public.

The journaling sums the trip up. Not all details are there, but I knew that more pages were coming. :)

4. I then did a layout about the 2nd most interesting thing during my trip: the top of Burj Khalifa.

As you can see, it doesn't take much to make a scrapbook layout! Only a story to document.

I really wanted to incorporate these 2 tickets on my page so that's the first thing I did: find them a place. I then played my photos as it made sense, playing around to see how I could fit them in the space I had left. I decided I'd isolate the small picture of the tower to give it some more "power".

I mounted in onto a piece of colored paper and I added some details net to it. Adding enamel dots to act as bullet points. I used te stamp to add the subtitle "highlights".

I played a little bit with the papers I had in the kit to customize this tag. I really love that the kit comes with a bit of twine. I love adding it to my layouts. :)

I journaled in the space I had left. Story documented!

And theres a 3rd page made to document my trip. How awesome is that?
But I wasn't done yet!! I really wanted to incorporate more pictures that I had already printed in various sizes, and I wanted to document the mall + the day at the beach/souk/some more favorite moments.

5. So I made another simple page:

I used a colored background, just because I was getting to be tired of the pure white. Ha! :) And that turquoise fitted nicely with the feel of my mall photos.

Once again I used an ephemera, the mall guide! I had never seen a mall guide this thick. And a mall as beautifully done as this one!! So I really wanted to incorporate the guide in my book.

Because I wanted it to be easy to take out of the pocket to look at it, I've put it at the top of the page. It's a very thick and heavy book though, I'm not sure if it will hold in my album. Worse case scenario, I'll with the paperclip for a mini gold bulldog clip. But at least, this way, we only have to pull the page up an inch to have access to the brochure.

I used 2 3x4 cards from the Pocket Life kit to add my journaling and I basically just played around with the photos to see how they could fit.

6. I made one last layout with the rest of my photos:

Again, this layout was all about find a spot for all the pictures. How to position my photos so that it makes sense and so that it all fits!

I gathered together the beach photos, the evening at the marina + tea photos, and finally I used the last spot for the Burj al Arab and souk (no photos) we visited. The details are all in the journaling.

For my night photos I was happy to use a darker background paper.

Notice that I added the little bag of tea that I brought for that purpose. I really loved the shine of the gold on it. :) You know you're a scrapbooker when you bring back what others consider trash. lol

Ha, also, I numbered these 2 last pages to show the days and the order we did these things. On my blog, when I told the story of Dubai, I separated the things in 2 ways: first, by day, second, by event/places. I kind of liked it. On my pages, it's not that clear. But I hope that the 1 and 2 will help me make sense of it all when I look back on those pages in some years. I'm still not sure the order I'll put the pages in in my album, and also, maybe I'll add a number 3 on my sand dunes pages.

So that's it for my Dubai trip. It was quite a experience to document all this and it was fun to relive the trip. :) I ended up with 5 pages (one of them being double) and lots of stories and details. Not everything is there, and not every photo I love is there either, but the essence is there. I'm happy. :)

I hope this helps you make sense of it all and I hope you'll revisit this post when you'll be ready to document a bigger trip. I especially hope that you WILL document your next big trip, and that the photos AND stories will find a home in an album!!

Marie-Pierre

Citrus Twist Kits | Family Photo

Hi everyone,

here's a page I made with the Citrus Twist kit February 2017 add-on kit.

I only used one sheet of cardstock, no patterned papers and just some stickers here and there. How simple is that?! But the story? The story is all there, in photos, and words! 7 photos to be exact! Oh I love this!!!

I made some sort of title with different elements. I kind of like it. I used my brush pen to write "obligatory". And then I gathered some small elements around my grid to balance the colors.

I used a palm tree leaf to make a Christmas tree. Would you have known if I hadn't told you?! I had to grab that little star from my stash though. ;) I tried using the blue star as the tree top but it was too bulky and I liked it better in the sky. 

I stamped the year of each photo. I used this blue and gold arrow to highlight that pictures of which I talk in my journaling. I thought I didn't need more explanations than what's in the text already. Only some visual support.

And I rounded the page with a yellow label, to repeat the pink label I used in the title, and I used my cute little stamp set to add some wise words. I really love that these stamps are tiny so they fit everywhere! I also like that the words are in different fonts, styles and sizes so that we can combine them and they always fit together!! :) 

Hoping I could inspire you tell longer stories with many photos on a simple/single page!! I just love it when it happens!!

Talk to you soon!!

Marie 

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Citrus Twist Kits | One Little Word

Hey guys!

First of all, I hope you caught our Cutest Video Hop EVER yesterday?!! How fun was it?? :) I looked at all the videos and was so happy to discover Simon, the 14 year old stamper and card maker! And Laura, the 20 year old who's already a YouTube pro since many years! Call me old, or even stupid, but I thought famous youtube were all Mine Crafter! lol Apparently not. And Arielle is really pleased with ALL the comments she received. Maya, less pleased, told me she was sad for me that everybody was congratulating Arielle and not me! LOL I also had a blast watching this 6 year old playing with his "prize markers" (his mom's copic markers) and emptying a bottle of glue on each spot he wanted to adhere a small die cut. It was hysterical and oh so cute! If you missed it, it's here and it a MUST SEE! lol

CUTEST VIDEO HOP EVER! 

Ok, and now you're here for a new page I assume? ;) Well, what a coincidence, I do have one for you!! It's my 3rd project made with the Citrus Twist Kits Add-on and Pattern paper kits and it's funny as the pile of stuff to use grow leaner as the month goes on and projects are made, I still always have enough nice things to make another nice project. :) It's like magic! So here's my layout:

It's an 8.5x11 canvas, you are not dreaming! I made it for my One Little Word documentation. My word this year is Good and taking a mindfulness class was a must for me to get better and feel better. I didn't know that this "meditation" class would bring me just a little bit further and treat me with new friends and great tools. I am so thankful for this in my life at the moment!

So anyway, I used a 12x12 paper from Echo Park as my background. On the 12x12 canvas, the heart was right in the middle. I trimmed it down so that it would be off centered and even bleed out of the page on the left.

It was quite a challenge to find a piece of paper that could fame my photo nicely and sort of block the business of the background. Since the Echo Park paper is not a clean white, all the other papers in the kit wouldn't fit very well. The only one that was fitting was this yellow one, from Crate Paper, but I so wanted to use the other side that I really had to push myself to use it. Better used than hoarded, right?! :)

Here you see how the yellow really make a strong contrast with all the patterns and colors on the background. You also see that I distressed the sides and that I stamped "Days like these" and "where the magic begins". Such cute stamps every month in the kits! I use them all the time! I used another Echo Park paper, quite busy, to make a smaller mat between the photo and the yellow paper. The yellow alone was way too strong!

Over the photo, the wrote the name of all the ladies as seen on the photo. This is really the kind of detail I always omit to write down and that I am missing when I look at my album 5 years later, thinking it's not possible that i forgot the names of my friends! I added a big jewel (Maggie Holmes) and tucked it a little bit behind the yellow paper to give even more dimension than just the distressed edges. I also punched the whole side of the page to give it the look of a piece of paper I would have teared out of a notebook.  I finally added the "just be you" that I cut out from the bottom strip of one of the papers. You know, the space with the name of the company?! Yes, that. I fussy cut that tiny arrow from that same pattern paper.

 Here you se the punched border even better. That "wonderful banner was in the die cuts pack. The original piece says "wonderful you" but I trimmed away the you to have it say only "wonderful".

Right under it I spelled m"mindful" since it's a mindfulness class and I finished by trimming another die cut saying "mom life" to keep only the "life" part of it. :) One got to be creative, right?! I finished the page off with another jewel, this time a green little bow. Oh and I stamped the date. February 14th. Yes, I celebrated Valentine's Day with these friends. It was just plain awesome!! <3 nbsp="" p="">
Thanks for being here! I hope you also had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Marie xox

Citrus Twist Kits | She Glows

Hello everyone!!

This morning I would like to show a page that I truly adore!
I made it with the February Citrus Twist Add-on kit and I also used some elements from the February Project life kit.

I wanted to document the story of Maya being such a good little friend and receiving lots of love and of compliments from her schoolmates. She's rather a shy kid and she is calm and doesn't go towards others easily, but somehow, light is coming out of her tiny body and she attracts people. I really to have that in her album.

I started with a white background and a photo that I snapped on New year's eve that I absolutely adore (and that photo makes me think that I really should perfect my abilities of using my "big girl" camera and I should use it more. Way more!!!).

Then there was this paper from one Canoe two in the kit that looked like a bee hive. The colors were great and because of her name, we always connect Maya with anything bee related, so I wanted to use it. I didn't want to have the black bees on the page though, and I thought that using a whole piece of paper as is would be too much. So I started cutting the small hexagone shapes and placing them down on the white background. I suddenly saw sort of a little path forming. Thats when I decided to stitch all the forms. It was a lot of work but it was so worth it!

I then reached for that little fox and placed him on the path.

There was another paper that was interesting. The one with the books. I started to look at each of the books and when I read that title I thought it was SO perfect for my story! So I cut 3 books out. I chose the two others for their color. I cut the upper part of the cover and slid a "bookmark" made with one of the leather stickers from the PL kit. I put the top book, the one with the nice title about friendship a little bit on the side to make it stand out and I also used 3d foam tape under the cover, adhering the sion the book right to the background with double side tape to make it look like an actual book and not only a picture of a book. I added a small leather like stick in that shade of blue to attract the eye there. 

In the end, there was this large empty space in the upper left corner. It felt really awkward. That's when I decided to add this cute heart in the same colors than the path. The flair button was also just perfect for the page and the story!

I used some flower die cuts (Paige Evans) to frame the picture. I really love the bronze foil accents. It's really warm and  precious. I also added a couple more heart leather stickers in pinks and blues. I added my title to the top and under my photo and filled in the gap with my journaling. I always have Cathy Zielsky's voice in my head that there shouldn't be any trapped space! lol That's from my design class I took with her when I started scrapbooking, 9 years ago! ha!! ::)

There you go! Another finished page and a lovely story. I hope this could inspire you in many ways!!

Have a lovely weekend!

Marie-Pierre