Life Crafted Inspiration with Shu-Wen

 

Hey everyone!

It's Shu-Wen here, sharing my last blog post for the year! In this post, I'm sharing some inspiration for my 6x8 December Daily Life Crafted Album, featuring the December 2022 "Winter Magic" Digital collection and ephemera pieces! 

Ever since I first saw the Christmas tree cut file from the "Trim the Tree" cut file set designed by Ashley Horton, I knew I wanted to back it with patterned papers to use as a feature page in my December Daily album. The weather outside has been dreadful here in Alberta, so it's been perfect for staying indoors and crafting! I find backing cut files a very "hygge" experience, it's relaxing and allows me to take some time just for myself as I sip on some hot chocolate. I backed the cut file with some papers from the "Winter Magic" Traveler's Notebook Digital Papers set, because I thought the wintery teals and greys in would be perfect to reflect the frigid temperatures we've been experiencing here towards the latter half of December. So although I was originally planning on using this as the base of a layout documenting our cold temperatures, I decided to make it into a vellum overlay instead to serve as the title page for volume 2 of my December Daily albums this year!

I had fun playing around with the placements of the patterned papers beneath the cut file, making sure to include this little blue bird within one of the tree outlines! ^_^ After I finished backing the cut file with various patterned papers, I added my title using some Black Puffy Alphabet Stickers to spell out "2022 December", and added an ephemera piece from the "Winter Magic" Die Cut Ephemera Pack for the word "Daily". I had initially tried a light mint green font for the alphabet stickers to go with the wintery greens of this collection, but ultimately went with the black font instead because it made the title stand out a bit more from the background. Then, I scattered numerous enamel dots in coordinating colors onto my vellum page, focusing most of the enamel dots towards the center of the page where I had my title. I took these enamel dots from a couple of different packs from the Citrus Twist Kits line, including the "Flea Market Findings" Enamel Dots and the "Jewel" Enamel Dots. I also made sure to include a variety of sizes of these enamel dots, evenly distributed across the page. 

Here's a final look at how my title page turned out! I'm looking forward to layering this on top of a bright wintery photo outside, that is, if it ever gets warm enough that I want to stay outside for a bit to snap a photo! XD I love the ethereal look of this cut file floating on the vellum page, and the wintery colors of this kit certainly give me winter vibes as well! 

I hope this inspires you to look at using cut files and vellum as cover pages for your albums!  If you're creating a layout inspired by this page, be sure to tag me over on Instagram @ChouxPuffCreations so that I can see what you've created, and make sure to share you layouts over on the Citrus Twist Kits Facebook Page as well! Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Sketch with Patricia

 

Hello Citrus Twist Friends!  I'm excited to be on the blog today to share my interpretation of the Sunday Sketch and a look at how I'm using the Travelogue Collection to document the family Disney Cruise five years ago.

The first thing I notice about the sketch are the two main clusters with the sentiment on the left and the photo on the right and then the beautiful layers under it.  I flipped that vertically and used two cut files that go with the Travelogue collection to take the place of the two main clusters.  The Beach Life is from the Places We Go cut file.  and the Await is from the Vacation Memories cut file.  I backed the Beach Life with Digital TN paper printed onto vellum.

And for the bottom, I used a photo to back the Await cut file.  I also cut out tropical leaves from the Vacation Memories cut file, then used two shades of pink to add an ombre look to them.  I used those, and Travelogue die cuts and stickers to finish my page.  The Castaway Cay is from my stash of Citrus Twist Kits foam alphas.

The right side top pocket uses a digital card available this month for my journaling and stamping using the Travelogue Stamp.

The bottom pocket is a photo with Travelogue stickers and a die cut adhered to it.  I also used more digital TN papers and the available divider cut files available to stamp 'at the beach.'  I know my album will have activities on the ship and on the beach, so these cut files are perfect for this.  

So happy with how this is coming out.  You can see more of my album using all digital elements from the Travelogue collection on my blog here.  Thanks for stopping by!

Pocket Page Challenge with Erica

Hey guys! Today I am sharing the second Pocket Page I made with the beautiful Night & Day kit. For this spread I wanted to highlight a really amazing weekend I had at the beach with my family. It's mainly focused on the bright fun colours of the day, but also has one card to bring out a few of the night elements.

For my title card I added an ephemera piece and a few labels. This kit didn't have alphas so I used some Citrus Twist ones from my stash for the week. To bring it all together I stamped some of the adorable stars from the AM/PM stamp.

I'm not afraid to add ephemera to busy photos. On this photo of a great meal I added circle embellishments to compliment the round plates. Almost all of these elements are from the April Cutaparts!

I also used a cute tag from the Night & Day Digital Tags and layered it on a card.

I had a few small 2x2 photos leftover from another project and I didn't want to waste them, so I popped them onto a 4x6 card I altered in Photoshop. It was originally a 3x4 card, but I experimented with doubling it and placed them side by side. Then I erased the middle until they fit together. 

I love including real pieces of ephemera like movie tickets into my spreads. I didn't make a pocket for them this time, but I mimicked the shape using a die cut from the April Cutaparts and stamped the perfect sentiment!





Thanks for stopping by the blog today and have a crafty week!

August Life Crafted with Amanda Baldwin

Hi CTK Friends & Fans!

Amanda here, sharing some more August Life Crafted: Chasing Rainbows Kit inspiration!
If you missed my scrapbook layout post earlier this month, you can go back and check it out HERE.

For today's post,  I am totally focusing on documenting the everyday stories in my Life Crafted Album. Nothing fancy or time consuming - just simple, beautiful everyday moments recorded!

Here's what I have created with the Chasing Rainbows Kit....

"This Kid"

How sweet is this?!

I've been going to scrap these photos for sometime now, but never really found the right collection to do it with. Until now! The designs on the exclusive pattern papers are similar to the one on my son's shirt, and partner perfectly! The cool blues & teal with the white base create such a refreshing, and modern look. A light & fun color palette for Summer pages. Love it! 

Here's how these pages look in my Life Crafted Album.....

To add emphasis to my photographs, I layered both of them on 3 x 4 note cards, and kept embellishments to a minimum. You'll spy a few tabs and hearts, and of course, those incredible printed cork stickers. The cork adds a touch of warmth & balance, and connects the color photograph to both pages. 

I used the vellum tape stickers for a tiny spot of journaling, and finished with the Turquoise Puffy Alphabet Stickers title.

Simple, but so effective! 

Next up, I created a page for my darling daughter, using some of the gorgeous florals in this month's kit....

Sigh! SO pretty! 

Another really simple design that only takes a minute to create. 

Here's how.....

Simply trim the pink floral pattern paper to 5" x 8". 

Adhere the 3" x 8" bookmark onto the pink floral paper, about half an inch from the left hand side. 

Next, back your photograph onto the yellow bloom 3" x 4" note card, and mount it to the bookmark with thick foam tape. 

Embellish with an acrylic heart, sentiment from the Digital Printable Cutapart Sheet, and that awesome Printed Cork adornment. 

Voila! 

Super pretty & with minimum fuss!

The Life Crafted Kits make memory keeping a breeze, especially for those of us who are time poor! 

Here's another double pager from my Life Crafted Album, recording the simple things in life....

Life's little pleasures, indeed! I absolutely LOVE the colors in this month's kit! So much variety, and a perfect mix of Summer blending into Fall! 

For the page on the left, I have used a 5" x 8" sheet of smooth white cardstock and layered it with note cards. I used the acetate ephemera for my title at the base of my page, and then embellished with printed cork, a chipboard sticker, and a vellum tape sentiment. 

For the page on the right, I  opted for a pattern paper base, which I mostly covered with smooth white cardstock. I oversized the bloom pattern tag from the Digital Printable Cutapart Sheet, & created a book mark to layer my photograph and embellishments onto. Here's a closer look for you.....

Such a simple, but oh so pretty page! 

And there you have it! 

Daily documenting made super easy, and really beautiful with the Life Crafted Kits & Albums!

I hope I have inspired you to dive into your kits, and start documenting those important everyday stories! 

Thanks so much for visiting, 

Happy Arty Days, 

Amanda xo 

3-to-Inspire with Amanda!

Hi Citrus Twist Kit Friends & Fans! 

Amanda here, & welcome back for another inspirational installment of our favorite 3-to-Inspire challenge post! The August Kits are simply STUNNING! & I just had to use both of them for my layout today! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you better head over to the CTK store now before they're completely sold out!)
Before I share my layout, here's the 3 things you'll need to feature in your projects to play along too....

1. Use floral pattern paper  I love a good floral & to be completely honest, both kits are sporting some very pretty designs! Infact, it was hard to pick which floral paper to use!

2. Put a heart on it  There are a myriad of heart embellishments, digtial items and even stamps  for August. Show us how you like to feature hearts on your creations.

3. Make it messy  Feature any form of mixed media on your project - be it stamping and inks (the stamps this month are aaah-mazing!!!), watercolors, or even some texture paste. Whatever medium takes your fancy - just be sure to include it on your finished project.

Now with the formalities outta the way, here's my layout to inspire you with...

"Hello"

Isn't this dreamy & divine?!

As I mentioned previously, I couldn't decide on which gorgeous August Kit to create with, so in the end I combined both the Life Crafted Chasing Rainbows Kit with the Scrapbook Add-On Kit. I think they coordinated pretty well together! You'll also spy that I used this months Traveler's Notebook Stamp, and some of our wonderful Digital Cut Apart Elements too! Simply stunning!

Here's a closer look for you....

I used the divine floral pattern paper, New Thoughts from Pinkfresh Studio that was included in this month's Scrapbook Add-On Kit. I just LOVE the colors in this pretty floral paper - they complimented my photograph beautifully, & became the color scheme for my entire design. I used the white cardstock as my layout base, and then created a painty, watercolor background using the Pinkfresh Studio Liquid Watercolors. The colors I used were Lavender, Sapphire, Bubblegum & Sky Blue and you can find them all in the shop HERE! To this background, I also repeat stamped the heart icon from the Life Crafted Traveler's Notebook Stamp. Gorgeous!!!

In keeping with my color scheme, I decided to print & fussy cut a number of the Digital Cut Apart Elements. Believe it, or not, my larger lilac banner base is actually the same banner as the tiny one with the blue rose on it (simply enlarged and printed singularly).

 So cool! I just love how versatile the Digitals are! 

Over this banner, I built my photo cluster using lots of lovelies from the Life Crafted Chasing Rainbows Kit. If you look carefully, you'll even notice that I fussy cut the Kit Title Note Card, & used it both above, and to the side, of my sweet photo! To complete this cluster, I adorned my photo with that fabulous printed cork embellishment. 

The hello acrylic word included in the Chasing Rainbows Kit was too amazing not to use! I positioned mine over my mixed media base so that it was more visible on the white cardstock. 

For a finished look, I added cotton floss & sequins from my stash, as well as the blue puffy alphas & acetate hearts from the Life Crafted Kit. Voila!

There you have it! My take on this week's 3-to-Inspire challenge! 

Now it's your turn! I can't wait to see what you'll create! 

Be sure to upload your creations to the Citrus Twist Kits Fan Page HERE.

Haven't shopped your kits yet? If you're super fast there *might* be one or two still available in the store HERE but, to avoid disappointment be sure to sign up for a subscription & never miss a kit again - YAY!!!

Happy Creating!

Thanks so much for visiting, 

til next time, 

Happy Arty Days, 

Amanda xo 

Sunday Sketch with Amanda Baldwin

Hi CTK Friends!

Amanda here, and I am so happy to be joining you for this week's installment of the
Citrus Twist Kits Sunday Sketch feature!
Today's sketch is tons of fun, and I hope I can inspire you to play along!

So, without further ado, here's what this week's Sunday Sketch looks like...

Told you it was a fun one! Such a cool design, and really easy to take inspiration from!

Here's my twist on it...

"Weekend Happiness"

Isn't this pretty?!! 

As you can see, I have altered the sketch (Or kinda trimmed the right hand side off) to create an 8" x 11" layout page. That's the wonderful thing about sketches, you can edit them to suit your creative style! Plus, after creating quite a few projects this month I really didn't have any 3"x 4" cards left over to 'perfectly' follow the sketch. Realistically, I could have cut my own 3" x 4" card from one of the Best Of This Life Pattern Papers, or used one of the July 2019 digital printable 3 x 4 Journaling Cards but I still needed to fit the sketch into a smaller page size. So, I decided to use the 2nd photo as the card, and replaced the paper clip with an embellishment or 4! 

Here's a better look at my page...

Happiness, indeed! Ain't nobody loves the weekend like my sweet girl! In her own words, "Mondays be like, Meh! & when FriYAY calls I'm like, so there!" Ummm... yeah, teen lingo and whatever that means, lololol! Seriously though, such a super fun and playful page! 

I've used the Best Of This Life July Life Crafted Kit, the Life Crafted July 2019 Digital Cut Aparts & the Joyful Day Phrase Stickers (Pinkfresh Studio) from the July 2019 Scrapbooking Add On Kit. 

I have foam mounted the photo cluster to add a little more interest and some dimension to the design. 

Speaking of clusters, how fantastic are all those embellishments in the top right of my photo?!

The puffy stickers in this month's kit are so fab! I'm loving the bright Summer colors and the sentiments are totally on point!

And let's not forget to mention my mixed title....

I have combined the bright colored WEEKEND ephemera with the Pinkfresh Studio Joyful Day phrase sticker, happiness to create my title. I love how effective this looks! 

You'll spy that I foam mounted the ephemera for added 'pop' against the phrase sticker. 

And there you have it!

Simple. Pretty. Lazy Sunday creating!

I wonder how you'll interpret this sketch?

Please be sure to add your projects to the Citrus Twist Kits Fan Page HERE so we can be inspired by your awesomeness too! We LOVE seeing what everyone creates with their Citrus Twist Kits! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today, 

til next time, 

Happy Arty Days, 

Amanda xo