Life Crafted LOVE with Amanda!

Hi CTK Friends!

Amanda here, and boy oh boy have I been having tons of fun with my new Life Crafted Album!
The new February Life Crafted Kit - Love Stories - is all kinds of awesomeness! From pretty pattern papers to the divine ephemera & even the acetate shapes, this kit has my heart!
But enough chatter, let's take a lil looksee into my album.....

Missed my first post with the opening "Getting Started" pages? You can check it out here.

Here's the next installment...

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted January Fresh Starts Kit & die cut ephemera from February Love Stories Kit. 

This month I have been able to really embrace how Life Crafted is going to work for me & my stories! You'll see that I have now divided my album into 3 key sections: A Beautiful Life - memory keeping & story telling, Give Yourself Time - dedicated to self care and personal growth, & Random Thoughts - fun, random bits n pieces from daily life, as well as a bit of creative play. It's kinda like 3 albums in one, which will grow & develop as the year unfolds. I used my January Fresh Starts Kit for this, and then continue to mix and match the two kits because the kits have been so beautifully curated that everything coordinates together perfectly! 

My album will be an eclectic mix of scrapbook pages, pocket pages, traveler's notebook spreads and all things in between! Ultimately, it will become a beautiful mini album that reflects me & my stories! Perfect! 

Here's a few pages from my A Beautiful Life section.....

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit, Life Crafted Album - black. 

This IS my why! Such a treasured memory, & so beautifully documented. Love the soft color palette & the gold foil accents. On the left hand side of my album, I have a more traditional scrapbook style page with lots of pretty layers & embellishments. I trim the pattern paper to a 5" x 8" size, and hole punch the side so it fits into my ringed binder. To the right, I have created a more TN / pocket style page - doing things my way & loving how it looks! 

The stamps included in the Love Stories Kit are amazing! I use them subtly on both pages. 

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit, January Life Crafted Fresh Starts 6" x 8" Pattern Paper.

How awesome are these TN style pages?! Love This, indeed! Documenting the everyday moments never looked so good! Here's how it fits into my album...

Yes, This!!! 

For these pages, I mostly used the February Love Stories Kit, but I also added in the powder blue pattern paper from the January Kit. The 3" x 4" cards were perfect for these fun photos of my husband, son & new puppy - just look at the facial expression on my son, hear the love, indeed! The die cut acetate shapes in this month's kit are such a fabulous edition too! 

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit, black puffy alphas from the January Kit. 

Nawww! Another wonderful moment documented! So sweet!

I have mixed up my memory keeping style again & I have to say, I am having so much fun! The 5" x 8" title page is a fave of mine, & I love the mix of the January black puffy alphabet stickers with the February ephemera & acetate shapes! 

Here's a close up of my TN style page...

Isn't this darling?!!

I loved the bold colors, but as most of my album will be soft & full of pastel pretties, I used plain white paper as my base. The white helps to balance the yellow & red, and adds a 'clean' look to the page. 

Best part, it looks gorgeous and I documented it in minutes! Life Crafted is fitting memory keeping into my busy life! LOVE!

Next up, my Give Yourself Time feature....

For my opening page,  I use a clear vellum overlay which I embellish with the you've totally got this ephemera & a puffy heart sticker from the Love Stories Kit. But it's what's underneath that has me....

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted January Fresh Starts Kit. 

Ga ga gorgeous! Nothing says self care like encouraging affirmations! That pattern paper is totally swoon worthy! 

Over the page, you'll see more from the February kits....

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit

Each month the Life Crafted kits include an exclusive 3" x 8" book mark & this month's was perfect for my self care album! I embellished mine with die cut ephemera & acetate shapes as well as foiled chipboard & puffy sticker hearts! (All are from the Love Stories Kit). 

Peeking behind the book mark is a pocket page affirmation....

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit

Sigh! SO pretty & so heartfelt! A little reminder to self kinda page! 

Tip: To keep the dimension of the die cut butterfly wings, I adhere the butterfly onto the outside of the pocket, not onto the paper. This prevents bulging, out of shape pockets and looks just as effective. 

Also in my 'me' section, I am trying to document more of lil' 'ole me....

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit. 

Nawww, puppy love & evening beach walks! My best Summer, right here! This makes my heart happy!

As the month's progress, so will my stories & self care - but oddly enough, I have already created the closing page to this part of my album.....

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit

As soon as I saw the I AM ENOUGH label, I knew I wanted use it for the closing page of my Give Yourself Time album. I foam mount it onto a pretty pink label,& that divine floral paper. Pretty! I also add one last reminder to self...Breathe! Those gold puffy alphas are errrrrything!

And last, but by no means least, here's a very quick peek into my Random Thoughts part of the album.....

CTK Supplies: Life Crafted February Love Stories Kit

How fun is this?! Bright, colorful & creative play! Love it! 

And there you have it! 

Life Crafted  - my album, my stories, my way! 

If you're keen to hear more of the how-to, tips & tricks on crafting my album, join me in this quick album walk through video HERE

https://youtu.be/qOcmtKgymv0

I hope you enjoy watching and please press the subscribe button for future inspiration! 

Thanks so much for joining me today, 

I hope I have given you some ideas for how to use your Life Crafted Album & Kits! 

til next time, 

Happy Arty Days, 

Amanda xo

3-To-Inspire with Sarah

Hey, CTK friends!

It's Sarah here back with a 3-to-inspire challenge for you.  Today I'm going to be working with:

- Pattern Paper
- Stamps
- Stickers

Instead of using these products the same way I usually use them in my TN, I wanted to challenge myself you try something new with each supply.  Let's take a look at how this came together.

First, I used patterned paper to create a tag and a pocket in my TN for some journaling.  For the pocket, I cut down a piece of patterned paper to be the size of my notebook page, and then cut it in half diagonally. When adhering it to my notebook page I was careful to apply adhesive only to right and bottom edges.  This way there was plenty of room to tuck my tag inside.  I also took a branding strip from one of the papers to add a pop of pink to the edge.  It seemed like a nice transition into the plain white paper.

Next, I added a little bit of stamping to my tag.  Normally I go pretty crazy with my stamping, but for this project I wanted to keep it simple and just add a little something to spruce things up around my journaling.  

Finally, I used some of these clear stickers to create a pattern background for the left page.  I love how this turned out!  I've created my own background using stamps before, but I've never tried it with stickers.  Not only is this technique much faster, but I love how all of the different fonts look together!

So there you have it!  A pretty simple TN page using 3 products in a new way.

Happy Crafting!

Tuesday Tutorial with Melanie

Hello friends! Mel B here today to share a fun TN tutorial. I love working with TNs and will usually use small pictures to create a spread, but what about using a standard size such as 4x6? Can one still create a TN spread with a large picture, of course they can! So if you aren’t able to print small size picture I will give you some tips on working with a 4x6 picture. To create this spread I used the Skyland Pocket Kit along with the One of those Days stamp set. 

Today I am using a vertical 4x6 picture (for my next blog post I’ll use a horizontal 4x6 picture). I did want to use the full size, I didn’t have much editing to do for this picture, the only thing I did to modify it is cut off a ¼ inch from the left size, as I wanted to leave some white space to the right of this picture.

The beauty of working with large picture is that they can be used as is or trimmed down, a 4x6 picture could easily be converted to a 4x4 picture or even smaller, especially if you have a lot of white space in the picture.

Since my picture is rather large and dark in color, I wanted to keep the rest of the design light and airy. I opted for a grid design (my go to!) and kept the focus on a light color palette.

I hope you are inspired to use 4x6 pictures in your TN spread, maybe this is even an opportunity to go back and use older pictures that might not have been documented!! Happy crafting friends!

TN Challenge with Melanie

Hello friends! Happy to be back again with another fun blog post for CTK! 

This month I’m bringing you a TN challenge – I would like for you to include multiple pictures on a TN spread, at least 3 to 5 pictures!!! Even though a TN is much smaller format than a layout or pock pages, it is possible to include multiple pictures.

To create this TN spread I used the June kits – June 2018 Cypress Pocket Life kit, the June 2018 embellishment kit, the June 2018 Unplugged stamp set and the June 2018 TN Itinerary stamp.

For my project I included four 2x2 pictures and one 2x4 picture. By mixing up the sizes I maximized the working/design space.

I created small clusters of embellishments to anchor my pictures and add more details to my TN. Even though this is an embellishment heavy spread it still feels light because of the white background.

So go ahead and use a lot of pictures on your TN spread, it’s totally ok!! Have fun mixing up the sizes, I can’t wait to see what you create!!!

Melanie

3-to-inspire with Kristel

Hi all! 

Today I have another fun 3-to-inspire project for you;  made with this month's Malibu Pocket Life kit - which is filled with so many pretty goodies, yet again!
I also used all of this month's kit-stamps and single stamp sets, to add some fun details.

I started this page by choosing some of the cardstock stickers from the kit and placing them, along with some fun stamping. I just went from left to right, as if I was writing, using
various phrases and colors.

When I was done filling up the left page, it was time to add some background to the right page.
I chose a paper from the kit and added a PL card behind my photo.

I added a little detail with some cute embellishments and this layout was finished!

Today's 3-to-inspire prompts are:
* Combine stamping and word stickers to fill up a page
* Use various fonts and colors to add more interest
* Use one of the papers from the kit as a full background on your other page

I hope you like this 3-to-inspire and I wish you a lot of fun with it!
Have a lovely weekend and until next time!

Love, Kristel

3-to-inspire with Kristel

Hi all!

Today I'm here with a fun 3-to-inspire for all you TN (traveler's notebook) lovers out there :-)

I love to use my TN for anything random I just like to document and this time I've chosen to document my most beloved drink: Tea!

I have used the March "Lemon Drop" Pocket Life and Embellishment kits + Main stamp.

Here are the three prompts I've been working with:

* First divide your layout into 2 pages specifically; one for your photo and the other for your journaling
* Combine any 2 patterned papers as a background for your photo page
* Stick to 2 accent colors; for example green and pink, as I did

I always start by looking at my photo to find out which colors are most prominent.

In this case it's a pretty white photo with some accents of soft pink (underneath the flags), green and black, so these were going to be my colors for today.

I then chose my papers from the PL kit and cut them to size to fit the full background of this page.

I absolutely love the leatherette banners/flags from the embellishment kit and made a little cluster of these in the upper right corner of my journaling page. To add more balance I also used two of these in a little cluster onto my photo.

I added my journaling by first typing it onto regular printer paper and then cutting it into small strips which I glued on by using a stickermaker (by Xyron). This way the whole back of your paper will be covered in glue so you can add these strips in a matter of seconds.

As a finishing touch I added some splatters in a metallic bronze color.

I hope you are inspired to create your own TN page and I can't wait to see what you will make of it.

Have a lovely weekend and until next time!

Love, Kristel

Sunday Sketch with Kira

Hey everyone!  It's Kira and I am back with TWO layouts for you using the Sunday Sketch.  Have you used the sketches for your travelers notebook layouts yet?  I consider myself a TN newbie...or a TN dabbler?  Lol.  I don't know, I do TN spreads occasionally, but it's definitely not my main form of documenting.  So I find sketches really helpful!

I used the sketch originally for this 12x12 layout.  I chose this picture of my dog since it was horizontal vs. vertical orientation.  And then I stuck very closely to the sketch.

I started with all my paper layers.  I used the 6x6 papers that were included in the Pocket Life kit.  I wanted to use ALL THE COLORS on this layout.  So I loved the public transportation map paper, and loved that it also served as a neutral to break up the other patterned paper I chose.

I created a small cluster to the left of my photo using the camera from the thicker pack, a couple stickers from the Here & There sticker pack and finished it off with a puffy sticker from the PL kit.  

I added a small amount of stitching on top of the layers in black thread.  Along with a few puffy stickers from the embellishment kit and Pocket Life kit to add another pop of color above my photo.

I used the Here & There thickers for my title.  And layered it with a sticker from the Here & There cardstock stickers.  I brought the puffy stickers down to my title to create a diagonal design along my page and incorporated some more black by adding some splatters.

I added my journaling strips and a date stamp and called this page done.  You can watch the entire process here.

Now see how I used the same sketch but in a TN format. 

The first thing I did for this TN spread was flip the sketch on it's side.  Most of my photos are portrait orientation since I take them on my phone.  So it made more sense to me to flip the sketch.

I also went a little lighter on my layers.  And honestly, finding the right balance was harder in this format than it was on the 12x12 layout...but that's probably because I am a TN newbie/dabbler.

You might notice that I did add some stitching on my layers here too.  I did that before I adhered on layers into my album, and chose black since I knew I was going to add black throughout the rest of the layout.

When I started working on the reverse side, I knew I wanted to use one of the adorable Amy Tangerine paperclips as my title.  This led to me deciding on sort of flipping my orientation again.  I think it added a really whimsical look to the page. 

I added the phrase "Photo Story" from the TN stamp set.  Then added journaling strips underneath.  I finished the page off with black splatters.  You can watch the entire process here. 

I can't wait to see how you interpret this sketch!

Until next time,

Kira