Sunday Sketch with Marci

 

Hello, thank you for joining me this Sunday for our Sketch challenge.  It is a very fun and creative one. 

Here is the sketch we will be using. I loved the evergreen trees on this page. My original plan was to follow the sketch almost exactly. After making my trees, I liked them so much I did not want to cover them up. I therefore adjusted the sketch slightly. 

Here is my final layout. I made the main page 7in wide by 8.25in tall to fit in my December Album this year. To include a longer story and more embellishing, I added two 3x4 journaling cards to the left side of the layout. 

I used two Citrus Twist exclusive cut files for my trees.  All the papers, cards, and embellishments came from the OH WHAT FUN! kit. I think the black and white color palette with a pop of red is such an elegant look. I made sure to pull a bit of red into each area of the spread.

I used a white, glitter texture paste from my stash to paint the center tree. Similar to the sketch, I wanted it to have a snow-flocked look.  I then used a red marker to color in the stars on the cut file. It was a simple step that I think adds a lot to the design. 

Here are a few more close-up looks. 

Thank you for stopping by. I'd love to see what you create with this sketch. 

MERRY & BRIGHT with Our Guest Designer LAURA ALBERTS

 

Hello everyone!

we are so excited to welcome  our next Merry & Bright Guest Designer Laura Alberts to our blog.  You are going to love what she has created!

Hey friends, Laura Alberts here with the stunning Merry & Bright Christmas 2021 kit to document my childhood Christmas stories! My personal favorite parts of the holiday season are spending time with family and enjoying the beautiful lights! Christmas is my favorite holiday and while catching up, I try to get photos of our family and friends in casual conversation rather than posed photos. It’s so easy to get caught up in getting the perfect holiday photos and forget to make the memories!

 

I’m working in a green Citrus Twist Life Crafted album for this project and loving the flexibility of the rings. For my layout, I’ve focused on a large TN page on the left and a pocket page shaker on the right. On the left side, I’ve used the Crate Paper Busy Sidewalks paper pad for a cheerful red background with branding strip banners down the one side as an anchor for my photo. I fussy cut these gorgeous poinsettia style flowers from the 6x8 paper pad to group on the top left. Then, below the photo I used the small pale blue alphas (that match my dress!) and one of the stamps from the Merry & Bright stamp set for my title.

 

The tag was fussy cut from the 6x8 paper pad as well and tucks into the side of the photo for hidden journaling. This photo is from when I was around two years old and I don’t remember much from that time, so instead of giving the who, what, when, and where of the photo, I share my love for the Christmas season instead! I decorated the front of this tag with a simple ephemera piece and word phrase sticker to give it a custom look.

 

The right side of my Life Crafted spread is a really fun shaker pocket style page. This uses the eight-pocket page protector from Citrus Twist and the little packet of sequins included in the Merry & Bright kit. I tipped the sequins into two of the pockets and then filled the rest with a variety of chipboard shapes, ephemera pieces, and puffy stickers for a purely decorative touch. This fun little shaker page really captures the excitement and energy of the photo too!

 

I can’t wait to see how you use the Merry & Bright Christmas kit in your holiday documenting! I hope you find inspiration in either using hidden journaling or a shaker element on your page too.

 

Always,

DECEMBER DOCUMENTING with Loredana

 

Hi there!

Today is our last day of our Sparkle and Joy Life Crafted kit feature.  Loredana has created so many beautiful projects with our kit, we want to share them one more time:

Be sure to catch more of Loredana's inspiration on our CTK feed.

We have loved each and every one of the projects our Design team and Guest Designers have provided for  you featuring our Sparkle and Joy kit.   THANK YOU all so much for your beautiful work!

December Document | Patricia

 

I'm excited to finally share how all the prepping I have been doing with the Sparkle & Joy kit are helping these memories come to life in my album.

I already had the left page prepped with a vellum pocket using a Sparkle & Shine cut file.  As I sat to document and looked at my photos, I decided to have a full size photo on the right and used a different vellum pocket I cut form a Sparkle & Shine cut file to use here.  I liked the colors and the digital card I printed worked best for documenting about the elf, or I should have said elves being back.  On that digital card, I just added some ribbon from my stash, and then stamped and added a sticker from the kit.

I added some pre-cut files I had done during prep time to the vellum pocket, and a die cut to my card.  The photo got more of the cut files I had prepped from the pattern paper in the kit.  I'm always so glad to have a variety of colors of the same cut files so I choose what works best.  The chipboard star comes from the star chipboards available in the shop this month.  The 'this' and the 'fun' are all from Sparkle & Shine kit.

I have another entry to share.  I didn't throw out any of the pattern papers I used for the cut files.  As I was filling in my album, I wanted to use the instax page protectors to include lots of photos, so the left side I could have more texture and color.  That negative sheet of pattern paper worked great here with a darker pattern paper under it.  I just used one of the cards I stenciled onto with a cut file, added notches to the corners, and added my journaling.  

I intended on using this bottom I made from the pattern paper and stamp set on the cover, but it worked best here on this page.  I added more of that ribbon from my stash under it, then finished with a chipboard circle from the kit.

The right side uses more of the prepped cut files, and kit items to add just enough in documenting, color and texture, but still keeping the photos as the focus.

Documenting during this busy season really is doable if you have your supplies handy, take lots of pictures to choose from, and have those prepped journaling cards, pages, cut files, etc. ready to go.  I have one more entry I had prepped for a memory coming up this weekend.  So I will add that finished spread in my Pocket Life Challenge post coming up on the 15.  Happy documenting December CTK friends!

December Documenting with our Guest Designer Nadia

 

Hello everyone!

we are wrapping our December Documenting feature with our Sparkle and Joy kit. Today we have our Guest Designer Nadia with her final post:

Hello friends, it’s Nadia here today.

 

I am sharing a page for my December album that I made with the pretty Sparkle and Joy Kit. .Here is a look at my completed page:

 

This spread holds the story of the wish list of my kids. I love tags and I planned to have two of them with the wish list on the back. Therefore, I created a pocket with the lovely wood paper from the kit. Luckily, I had two pieces of this one and it was easy to make my own page. The size is 6” x 8.25”.

 

Before running it through my sewing machine, I adhered a label on top of the flap of the pocket and stamped a sentiment with the stamp set. The height of the flap is approx. 4.25”. Next, I sew all together and choose three stars from the gold puffy stickers as well as the word “magic”. I love how it turned out.

 

For my tags I used paper from the kit. The bigger tag measures 4 7/8” x 6.25“ and the smaller is 3 7/8” x 5”. On top of the patterned paper, I glued the handprints of my kids. We made these handprints in November. After letting them dry, I made little Reindeers. They are so cute and I love that I have those little hands in my album. What a beautiful memory.

 I hope this inspires you to document your December Stories with the Sparkle and Joy kit.

 

Happy crafting!

Nadia

3-to-Inspire with Krystal

Hi all! Krystal here again with another page in my December Documented album. Today I'm using two of the new stamps sets that released this month, along with the Comfort & Joy Digital Elements and Traveler's Notebook Basics pages to make the title and intro pages for my album. 

Of course, this is a 3-to-Inspire post, so let's start with three ways to get inspired to use your supplies.

1. Add a stamped title

2. Fussy cut your stamping

3. Add dimension to your page

I created my title page by stamping out the year using the Big Numbers stamp set in red ink onto some white cardstock. Then I fussy cut the numbers and added foam adhesive behind them so that they would stand out on my background. I stamped the rest of my title using the Chloa alphabet stamp set in black ink directly on my background. I love how well these two stamp sets compliment each other!

I added a few pieces from the Comfort & Joy Digital Elements to finish off the page, but before adhering them, I used my scissors to distress the edges. This helps add texture and dimension to otherwise flat objects. I added even more texture with a gold staple and some felt trim from my stash. 

I also use the calendar from the Comfort & Joy TN Basics for another intro page. I printed them out and then adhered them to the back of my title and reason why pages. I'll save most of the embellishing for later on in the month. 

If you'd like to see more details about how I created these pages, you can watch the process video below. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope to see you all again soon!

 

December Documented with Krystal

 

Hi all! This is Krystal, and today I'm sharing another foundation page in my December Documented album. I wanted to create a page that would allow me to add a whole bunch of photos from Christmas Day without having to add a ton of pages to my album. So I decided to make a waterfall page.

I decided to make my waterfall page sized to fit 3x4 inch photos. To do so, I cut a base page from a sheet of acetate I had in my stash to be 4x8.25 inches. That's the size of a page protector with two 3x4 pockets. 

I then cut one of the papers from the Sparkle and Joy kit to be 3.25x8 inches. That will be the bottom page of my waterfall. For the pages that will flip up, I cut three papers from the kit to 3.25x7.5, 3.25x6, and 3.25x4.5 inches respectively. That will give me space to add a 3x4 card to each flip-up page and still have plenty of room for photos and embellishments. 

I adhered a 3x4 card from the kit to the bottom of each of the flip-up pages. I liked the way they each peeked out from the page above them. And because I cut my pages to 3.25 inches wide, you can see a border of patterned paper around each card as well. 

I kept my embellishments very minimal so that I have the freedom to embellish according to my photos and stories from the actual day I'll be documenting. But at least I have something to get myself started!

If you'd like to see more details about how I put this page together, you can watch my entire process in the video below.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you were able to find some inspiration in my project, and I hope you'll try creating a waterfall page in your own album!