3 to Inspire with Michelle

Hello! Michelle here with this week's "3 to Inspire" challenge! You can find this challenge here every Saturday for those who need a little extra creative push 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 must include all 3 prompts on your project. This is what I have for you on this last Saturday in March.

1. Use colored cardstock.
2. Play with circles.
3. Include two or more wood veneer pieces.

Here is my take using the March "Happiness Is" Add-on Kit:

 

I used a hot pink cardstock as the base of my layout and layered circles from the Pinkfresh Studio shape pack under the photo.

 

 

I misted three pieces of the new Elle's Studio wood veneer before adhering them.

 

 

Now it's your turn! Use the three prompts to create your own projects and share them with us here in the gallery and/or in our Facebook Forum. You can also upload to Instagram and tag us @citrustwistkits. Can't wait to see what you all do!

 

Michelle

Inspired by Pinterest

Hi! Michelle here to share with you how a Pinterest pin became the design inspiration for a double page layout.

A lot of the time when I am stumped for an idea, need a little extra inspiration, or when I just want to try something new, I turn to my Pinterest board that contains non-scrappy design related images. When I begain to work on this project with the February "Love Letters" Main kit, I knew I wanted a design that allow for me to use several pictures.  Looking through my board, I found this image which reminded me of a magazine type layout complete with several pictures and lots of room for text. With this in mind, I came up with this double page layout:



I really stuck pretty close to the pin, keeping the photo arrangement very similar and using the column on the right for my journaling. I varied from the image by adding a place for my title as well as adding in embelllishments and patterned paper.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Michelle

Sunday Sketch with Michelle

Happy Sunday! Michelle here today with the weekly Sunday Sketch Challenge. Today's sketch features a single square photo with layers, tags, and circles.

For my take on the sketch I used the February "Love Letters" Main Kit and gold embroidery thread from my own supplies..



I typically scrap in an 8.5x11 format and I find it no trouble at all in translating a square sketch into rectangular layout. My usual technique is to simply downsize the sketch, basically recreate it on a smaller scale. Occasionally, as I did this time with the journaling, I will move elements to where I have more room. 



Now it's your turn to take on this week's sketch! We love to see what you do with our kits and sketches so please make sure to upload your projects to the Citrus Twist Gallery. And remember, by uploading your take on today's sketch to the gallery by 2/7, you will be entered to win a $5 Coupon to use on anything in the CTK Store! Also add 2/1 to the title line.



3 To Inspire: Get Crafty with Citrus Twist Kits

Hello! Today is the second installment of our new weekly "3 to Inspire" blog post. Do you need a little creative boost to keep your pages moving along? Are you getting behind in Pocket Life? Did you step away from your crafty space for too long? We hope you'll join us and participate in our new inspirational blog post, coming to you weekly on the Citrus Twist blog.

Are you ready for your challenge? Here we go!

Create a scrapbook page or Pocket Life page using the following 3 things:

1. A cluster of embellishments.
2. Use 2 alphas in your title.
3. Add some stitching-this can be my hand, with a machine, or drawn/stamped on.

Here is my cluster of embellishments that I made using the brads from January's Main Kit:

 

Use 2 alphas in your title:

And finally, add stitching:
 

 

Here is my finished layout for my daughter's preschool album:
 

 

This layout was created with the January "Fields of Gold" main kit. When you subscribe this month you'll get a free Main kit, shipped with the first kit in the Main subscription. (P.S. The price of our 6-month Main kit subscriptions just went down to $29.95 a month!)

 

Thanks for visiting and reading 3 to Inspire. Send us a request to join the Facebook Citrus Twist Kits Fan Page. We'd love to see what you do with this challenge posted there or in the Citrus Twist Kits gallery.

 

Michelle

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kit Love with Michelle

Hello and welcome to this month's installment of Kit Love where I showcase some of my favorites from the beautiful January Main and Embellishment kits.

I don't know about you, but Crate Paper's new line Kiss, Kiss was love at first sight. And these tags from Kiss, Kiss are adorable. The gold touches are perfect.

I am a big fan of cork and We R Memory Keepers took them to a new level.

Hello beautiful brads, rose gold alphas, and gold glittered Thickers.



Lots of possiblities here with the fabric strip, stamps, and wood veneer!

From the Fields of Gold Main Kit, I really found myself liking these die cuts from Gossamer Blue.

This month was my first time using these organizing trays from Iris and I had to share what all the embellies looked like all organized and ready for me to play with :).



Well, what do you think? Are you as excited as I was to start playing with January's kits?? If you are still wanting to see more, head on over to the gallery to see what the Citrus Twist Design Team did with the kits.  Happy crafting!

Tuesday Tutorial

This month you will find a vintage pattern piece in the December Main Kit and if you are at all like me, your first instinct will be to use it as a layering element. The pattern piece would definitely work well for layering because it is thinner than paper and it would add a different texture to your project. However, this time I ignored that first instinct and decided to use the pattern piece as an embellishment instead.

This is one of the photos I was working with and I thought that perhaps I might be able to use the pattern piece to mimic the lights on the tree.

 

 

To do this, I first sprayed the pattern piece with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold Lame (available in the CTK Store). After allowing the paper to dry I ran it through my manual die cutter using three different sized circle dies. I found that due to its silky texture the pattern piece took a little bit longer than normal to dry, so please keep that in mind.

 

 

And here is what they look like on the final project.

 

 

I really loved how they turned out and thought they created a bokeh-life effect.



 

 



 

Michelle

Sunday Sketch with Michelle

Hello!  Michelle here to share my take on this week's Sunday Sketch with you.

Here is the lovely sketch:

 

 

I found a lot of inspiration from this sketch.  Besides the general layout of the page, I really liked the snowflakes. Also, the banner at the bottom made me instantly think of the Open Book banners included in the December Embellishment Kit. With those in mind, this is what I made:



 

 

 

 

Now it's your turn to take on this week's sketch!  We love to see what you do with our kits and sketches so please make sure to upload your projects to the Citrus Twist Gallery. And remember, by uploading your take on today's sketch to the gallery by 12/20, you will be entered to win a $5 Coupon to use on anything in the CTK Store! 

 

 

Sunday Sketch with Michelle

Happy November!  Wow.  November already??  With the holiday season officially upon us, time is going to start flying by!  A sketch is the perfect tool to use during these busy times because they take the guess work out of creating layouts and allow you to get scrappy when you have little time to spare.

This week's sketch calls for multiple photos.

 

Using both November's Main and Embellishment Kits, this is what I created:

 

 

 

 

Now it's your turn!  We are always excited to see how you use our sketches so if you can, please share your take on today's sketch with us by uploading your project to the Citrus Twist Gallery. And remember, if you upload it by November 7th you will have a chance at a $5 gift certificate to the CTK Store.  Happy crafting!!
 



Tuesday Tutorial with Michelle

Hello!  Today is Tutorial Day on the Citrus Twist blog and I want to walk you through the process of using a non-scrapbooking related image as inspiration for a scrapbook layout.

To start the process off, I browsed through my board titled "Scrappy Inspiration" which is where I file away images of the non-scrapbooking kind.  For the most part, it's a blend of various graphic designs, cool title work, and magazine-type images.  This is the image that I chose to work with:

Source

 



 

I really liked the mix of colors and placement of the squares and rectangles, so I set about cutting my own from the various papers and the envelope included in the October Pretty Pieces Add-On Kit. 
 

 

Next, I played around with the placement of the shapes while keeping the inspiration piece in mind.
 

 

Using my pin as a jumpstart really took the guess work out of figuring out where I wanted my papers to go and left me with lots of time to play around with the fun embellishments in the October Add-On Kit.  This is what I ended up with:

 

 

 

 

You can definitely see the resemblence between the inspiration piece and the layout, but you can tell that I made it my own. I took the simple composition and ran with it.  More and more I find myself going to non-scrapbooking related images when collecting ideas for future layouts.  What inspires your papercrafting? I would love to hear from you :).

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Tutorial with Michelle

Good morning and happy Reveal Eve!  Before we turn the calendar and begin the lovely month of October, I want to share a simple technique that was inspired by this image I found on Pinterest.

The image features a starburst radiating out from the top left corner. I thought this would be a fun way to incorporate several pieces of the patterned paper in the September Free Spirit Main Kit.



First, I took a sheet of 8.5 x 11 kraft paper, drew my pattern on it using a ruler. and cut it out with my paper trimmer.  I then numbered each piece so that I could remember what went where.
 

 

Next, I traced the templates onto my three pieces of patterned paper and cut them out.

 

 

 

And here is the starburst all put together:

 



 

Often times when I think of a starburst I picture it radiating out from a focal point and had I not seen the image on Pinterest, I am sure I would never have thought to have used it as I did.