Citrus Twist Sketch Challenge

| cristina

The third project I made as Citrus Twist Guest Designer this month is for the sketch challenge they run on their blog – come play along!

I followed the sketch rather closely.  I used two 3″x4″ photos that had bold colors and patterns, so I decided to pair them with even bolder papers. I cut into one of the papers following the geometric design and used it to mat my photos-I love how these colors and patterns matched one of the shirts I was wearing.  To switch up my title, I cut into the paper with the sketched letters. I added some stickers and wood veneers to embellish the page. This is a fairly busy page, but I feel like the triangles I used for the corners and the additional framing of my photos pull everything together.
Have a nice Sunday!

December Daily 2015: Day 6

| cristina

For Dec. 6, I did another 2-page spread with some pastel colors.

Today’s story: my husband sang in a Christmas concert. It was lovely!

On the photo, I used some digital brushes by Ali Edwards.

On the right hand side I brush lettered some of the words from my favorite piece in Handel’s Messiah.
______________________________________________
Catch up on all my 2015 December Daily posts:
Title page
Dec. 1st
Dec. 2 and 3
Dec. 4th
Dec. 5th
Dec. 6th
Dec. 7th
Dec. 8th
Dec. 9 and 10
Dec. 11th
Dec. 12 and 13
Dec. 14th
Dec. 15th
Dec. 16th
Dec. 17th
Dec. 18th
Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th
Dec. 21st
Dec. 22nd
Dec. 23rd
Dec. 24th
Dec. 25th

Studio Calico 2016 Creative Team

| cristina

I have the BEST news to share today – I am one of the 2016 Creative Team at Studio Calico!! I am so happy to be creating with their awesome kits and stamps (oh how I love stamps).

You will be seeing my projects here on my blog, in the Studio Calico gallery, on Instagram, on the Studio Calico blog and on Pinterest. I will be making cards, and Project Life spreads with the Documenter kit.
ETA: I will be making cards and Project Life spreads, not every month but every few months. So excited to get started!!
There have been several changes in the past year at Studio Calico, and a new rewards program was announced this week that benefits long-term subscribers. Having been a subscriber of their Project Life/Documenter kit since the very first one offered in January 2013, I have to say I really love their products and love receiving my box each month – this has never changed. I hope I can continue to contribute to the fabulous inspiring and encouraging community there and share my excitement for the upcoming products!

December Daily 2015: Day 5

| cristina

I have a 2-page spread for December 5, with an additional tag added in. I had so much fun making this spread!

I love how the red and gold pop off against the dark background! Oh and you can get a peek at how I decorated the inside cover of my album – I attached a paper from the Jasmine Jones mini kit with washi tape. I love having the calendar for the month right there.

I’ve had that cute little tag for years (I bought it in a shop and then couldn’t get myself to use it!), but finally this year it ended up in my album. 🙂

I added my journaling on the back of the tag. Then I put some of my numerous alpha stamps to good use on a 4″x6″ piece of card stock (stamps mostly by Studio Calico, but the all caps one is from Kelly Purkey) and I love how this card turned out! 🙂

My story for Dec. 5: The photo and story for today is actually from November, but I put it here because 1) I wanted to include it in my Christmas album and 2) the actual story for today is that we went to a memorial service (I even gave a speech.. so hard!) and while I will certainly document that in my Project Life album, I didn’t want it in this album. I’m so glad I gave myself the freedom to include photos in this album that don’t fall in December!

December Daily 2015: Day 4

| cristina

I made a double-page spread for December 4th. That night we went out with two friends for dinner, and while it wasn’t necessarily Christmas related, it’s something that makes me happy and I wanted to include it in this album.

The paper and card are from the December Daily kit and from Jasmine Jones’s kit, respectively.

I just added some stamping and puffy stickers to embellish.

And as you can infer, I don’t stick to a single color scheme for the whole album. I love trying new things for each spread. 🙂

December Daily 2015: Days 2 & 3

| cristina

I had a short story to tell on each of these two days, so I only dedicated them 1 page rather than a full spread.

My approach for this album is to document the Christmas events that happen during the month and, if nothing Christmas-related happens on a particular day, use the occasion to tell a story about my Christmas loves / traditions / hopes.

My story for Dec. 2: I love Advent calendars. I go a bit overboard actually (we have nine!), and every night my husband and I spend five minutes opening them all. I documented on a journaling card from the kit all nine of our Advent calendar for this year, tracking which are old and which are new. I accompanied it with a photo of two of my favorite new ones. I chose the deer paper on the right pocket since it goes with my story for the right hand side of the spread.

I used some Pinkfresh Studio embellishments on this page.
My story for Dec. 3: we added a new Elf Pet to the family this year. 🙂 This reindeer is the cutest and it even comes with an app that is just adorable. I highly recommend it!

December Daily 2015: Day 1

| cristina

Hello! Today I am sharing my December Daily spread for December 1st.

Everything I used is from the December Daily kit, except from the foam glitters star from my stash, and the plastic embellishment and gold phrase sticker from Pinkfresh Studio.

In all my past albums I’ve only included things from that day, but this year I was inspired by Ali to include what else we’ve been doing before December that is Christmas related. So the left page of this spread is dedicated to what we did before December.
I’m so proud of myself – I took an online lettering class by Amanda Arneill (I love her!!) – and this is my first time putting it to use. I scripted the “Before” with a brush pen directly on the paper and I love how it turned out!

The right page of the spread is for my December 1st story. The first pocket has three 1-inch circles with stamps embossed with gold glitter and red glitter. The photo is of my tree, and I used foam dots to pop up the “twinkle” sticker. I embellished the bottom left card with stamping, and wrote down my story for the day. I love the fourth pocket – I stamped the date directly on the wooden tree from the kit.
Today’s story: My husband bought an awesome little tool, fixed our Christmas tree lights and saved the day. Highly recommended! 🙂

My album is coming along nicely – I am working on my Dec. 7th spread; alas, I will be traveling for the next couple of days so I may fall a bit behind. It’s all good. And I have some posts scheduled for the next few days to share a few more days’ worth.

December Daily 2015: Title Page

| cristina

This is my sixth year putting together a December Daily album, and for the first time I’ve bought a December Daily kit from Ali Edwards. I also got a mini kit. Not that I needed any Christmas product, since my stash was quite full already, but I just couldn’t resist. 🙂 I am using a 6″x8″ ring album.

I started working on the album this past week, and today I want to share with you my title page – I love how it turned out!

I ended up layering 2 pages for my “title page”, since I loved them both so much and didn’t want to pick. 🙂

The first layer is a page protector with 2″ square slots, that I filled with bits and pieces.

I filled the pockets so that there’s something pretty to see on either side of the page. The stitching is a bit messy – I do not own a Fuse tool, but I think it would have made wonders for this page.

The second layer of my title page builds on one of the awesome transparency sheets in the December Daily kit – I love how thick it is! I added some acetate letters that I had saved from my October Wink Wink Studio Calico kit for this reason, some puffy alpha stickers from Studio Calico, and the rubber “December” was cut from one of the banners included in the December Daily kit.

As a backdrop for this page, I have a page protector with two 4″x6″ slots with one of the papers from the kit that I absolutely love.

And here are all the layers stacked together. It makes me so happy to see this when I open my album!

My days 1-4 are done and photographed, so they will be posted on this blog very soon. Have a merry December!

Hello December

| cristina

December is here, and I have some super exciting news to share – I am the guest Designer at Citrus Twist Kits this month! They sent me the scrapbooking kit (“Wonder”) and I was amazed at how packed it is!

The kit comes with 6 patterned papers (Crate Paper, Basic Gray, Seven Paper), 2 pieces of cardstock (white and cream), a 12×12 sheet of stickers (Maggie Holmes Shine, Crate Paper), a set of puffy gold stickers (love!! Pink Paislee), wood veneer plus signs, an exclusive stamp set, a set of 3″x3″ die cuts (Seven Paper), gold doilies, an acrylic heart shape, embroidering thread, a sheet of phrases and labels, and the most gorgeous turquoise puffy alpha (Amy Tangerine).
I haven’t had as much time to play with the kit as I would have liked (mostly for a good reason – my mom came to visit for ten days, and left yesterday – but also having to deal with a work emergency that is never-ending – ugh!). So far I have made 3 layouts and a mini album, but I have lots of items left to make more, so I am not done with this kit yet! 🙂
The first page I made is a Christmas page – even though this kit doesn’t have a holiday theme, it works great for holiday pages. As soon as I saw that tree paper by Basic Grey I have wanted to use it for a Christmas page, so that’s what I did.
I had so much fun embellishing the tree with wood veneer and stickers! This page is up on the Citrus Twist blog if you want to check it out, read a bit about me, and take a peek at my craft space.
My next project is based on a sketch that will be up on the Citrus Twist blog later this month. I will be posting the page here once that goes live; in the meantime here’s a detail shot:
I thought the geometric patterns of the paper matched my shirt really well! 🙂
Another page will also be up on the blog later this month with a step-by-step tutorial – here’s a close up shot for now.
So look for these pages to be posted here in the next few weeks, along with the mini album I made.