Citrus Twist Sunday Sketch - Selfies

Good morning!  Today I'm sharing a layout I made from Kasia's Sunday Sketch over on Citrus Twist.  For this layout I used bits and pieces of kits from past months, and threw in some great feather doodles from Leann Pearce over at ScrapFriends.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

I stayed pretty close to the sketch, with the exception of the circle clusters.  I really liked the simple design and think it was the perfect design to showcase a few mother daughter silly selfies.

Like many of my layouts these days, I started out with a couple of Heidi Swapp mists (teal and mustard) that I focused on the lower right corner and overlapped to get a minty color in the middle.  I chose some patterned paper for the base, adhered the photos to black cardstock, and stuck another piece of white cardstock between the photos and the patterned paper for contrast.

I printed out the doodled feathers on white cardstock and colored them in with red, yellow and orange gelatos.  Then I outlined them with a black sharpie to make them pop a bit and colored an American Crafts basic white frame to match.

Love this mint green paper clip arrow from last month's kit.

That's it!  Today is the last day to upload your sketch-inspired creations to the Citrus Twist gallery, but be on the lookout tomorrow, when the new Sunday sketch is revealed.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Technique Tuesday - Masks and Distress Stains

It's Tuesday and that means it's technique tutorial day over on the Birds of a Feather Kit Co. blog!  This week I did a tutorial on misting with masks, and using distress stains for this autumn card.  You can register to follow the blog and see the tutorial here.

Enjoy the day, lovelies!

CSI Case File #89 - B is for Bright...

Man, I struggled with these pastels!!  Started with some gelatos and mists over gesso, then decided I didn't like the drippy look so gesso'd over that a bit, then decided the colors were too bold, so gesso'd over that too!  Holy moly.  How's that for an opening paragraph?  LOL

Anyway, this week's CSI Case File (which, as does every 2nd week of the month, featured a fabulous sketch by Em Stafrace) featured some muted pastels that I found incredibly challenging (ahem, see above...) but that is what I love about CSI.  The challenge to step outside your comfort zone, experiment with color combinations, but still get your journaling in so you preserve your family stories.  And despite the struggle of putting this one together, I am happy with the end result.  Afterall, how could I be anything less than happy with a smile that bright beaming up at me from the page?

Here's the case file and sketch:

And here's my layout and some close-ups:

Thanks for looking and TGIF!!!!  :-)

DT Reveal - AAG Lots of Flowers Challenge

Is it Monday already?  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the cooler fall weather!  We filled our weekend with fall-themed events and I can't wait until the work week is over so we can do it again!
Today's layout is for About a Girl's mid-month challenge.  The challenge is to use lots of flowers.  Sounds easy, right?  Well, if you are like me and don't often use flowers, it truly is a challenge.  However, I have a handful of photos from my daughter's ballet recital that are perfect for a flowery layout, so those were the ones I chose to scrap for this page.  I used a mixture of gesso, mists, gelatos, and modeling paste to create the background and color the patterned paper and doilies.  Then I added some perfect pearls and mists to the flowers and layered some tulle behind the patterned paper under the photo.  A very foo-foo, flowery layout perfect for my little ballerina. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Design Team Reveal for Birds of a Feather Kit Co.

Hey everyone!  Today is my very first reveal as a design team member for Birds of a Feather Kit Co.!  I received my September kit and was amazed at how many materials are packed into just one kit...gorgeous materials with endless possibilities!  I created two layouts for my reveal - the first primarily using the different patterned papers, and the second using primarily the embellishments (homemade background paper using mists, gelatos and a mask).  Here are the layouts.  If you are interested in seeing a full list of materials included in this amazing kit, click here!  Have a fabulous day!

AAG August 15th challenge...white space!

Time for the mid-month challenge at About A Girl!  This challenge is all about leaving white space on your layouts.  Lucky for me, I recently discovered that I could print my instagram photos in 4x4 through the Walgreens app on my phone, so I am stocked with little square photos with fun edits that are perfect for these type of layouts! Here is what I came up with.

I picked a sketch from the Scrap Friends sketch archive and reached for my trusty Heidi Swapp mists.

These Heidi Swapp mists get a whole lotta play in my scrappy rotation lately.  The colors are fun, bright, mixable, and versatile. They might just be my most frequently used product this summer.  And the coordinating products I get in my Citrus Twist kits never disappoint.  Always plenty to mix and match from past months too!  Here are a couple of close-ups.  Scroll to the bottom for a list of materials.  Thanks for stopping by - your comments mean a lot! xoxo

Materials

Papers
Alison Kreft Composition & Color - True Story (Webster Pages)
Summer Love - Popsicle (Cosmo Cricket)
Mambi Cards
Studio Calico Sundrifter 6x6 paper pad
Studio Calico journaling card

Embellies
Heidi Swapp mists (teal, chartreuse, cherry red, yellow)
Basic Grey stickers - Knee High Bowties
Studio Calico die cuts
American Craft flair button
Thickers letters
sequins

CSI Case File #74 - My Favorite Three...

Had a lot of fun with this week's case file over at CSI!  Great colors, great inspiration and best of all I got to scrap a very recent favorite photo of mine.  Here's the challenge:

And here's my take on it.  Introducing...my favorite three!  (Well, 2 actually...since the third one is me.  lol)  The journaling reads: They know me. They get me. They hear me...and they'd be the first people I'd call to help me bury a body. ;-)  Hehehe

CSI Case File #73 - You & Me Together

This week's case file over at CSI has a fabulous color scheme and this layout was a blast to put together.  Here's the scene:

And here's my take on it.  I'm really loving my Heidi Swapp masks and have been incorporating them into layouts a lot lately.  This time, I layered the mask. Used inks and mists and some great ombre thread and buttons that I got with this month's Citrus Twist kit.  Thanks for looking!

It's a good day for a sunburst!

I tried to scrap some fall photos the other day.  Didn't work out.  This is the time of year where everyone comes out of hibernation and basks in the sunshine.  So warm spring and summer layouts it is!  This one was really fun to make.  The hubs thinks it looks "unfinished" but I didn't want to cover up too much of the sunny rays so I think it's just fine the way it is.  What do men know about this sort of thing anyway? ;-)  Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

I started out by cutting a sunburst mask out of cardstock.

Placed the mask over another piece of white cardstock, grabbed a circle stencil, and added some yellow mist.

I layered a red mist over the yellow to get some firey orange in there.

Removed the mask and got a great contrast of the bright colors and the bright white!

Outlined the rays with a roller pen, stamped and added a bit of shiny bling 

Really felt like I had to bring the green from the grass in the photo into the layout and settled on  these green rosettes.

Materials used:
white cardstock
Heidi Swapp Color Mists in Mustard and Sweet Cherry
Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Lost and Found cling stamps
Sticko dimensional stickers
Webster's Pages bloomers in Happy Green
Graphic Call 45 Curtain Call Let's Dance patterned paper
vellum phrase from who knows where
Roller pen