Citrus Twist Kits: September Kits

Yesterday, the latest kits from Citrus Twist Kits were revealed! Yay! September, for me, is always a great month in regards to scrapping. It just seems that that the kits leading into Spring and Fall always hold so much promise and excitement. At the end of Winter and Summer I am ready for a new season and the kits at these times of year help satisfy that craving for a change of scene and weather.

Here's a look at the kits I worked with this month:

September Main "Lombard" Kit

September "Little Old You" Embellishment Kit

September Sprinkles Kit

This month my projects have pretty much been putting themselves together-love it when that happens :).  Up first is my Main Only layout:

This month's kits features several pieces of Crate's new Wonder collection and I LOVE every single piece of it! The wood veneer from Pink Fresh Studio came in a close second on my list of faves--they are so detailed and fun.

I also included a pocket page to go along side my layout. I used only the Main Kit plus some sequins from my own supplies.

This next layout is a combination of the Main and Sprinkles Kits. The giant paper clips are such a fun element and I just had to include that little fox! 

My final layout that I am sharing today is a mix of all three kits and features the stickers from the Embellishment Kit.

Stickers are always a no brainer for me and I would have to say that they rank right above epherema as my go to embellishment.  The funny thing with the stickers though, is that I am always adding pop dots to them to add some dimension, which sort of makes the whole "sticker" part null and void! Haha.

 

And these wonderful alphas---love them! Typically I sort of struggle with mix patterned/colored alphas, but not with these. I think that the colors and patterns just clicked with me.

September is certainly turning out to be pretty awesome and I am looking forward to sharing a fourth layout with you next week! Meanwhile, make sure and head over to the Citrus Twist Gallery to see what the rest of the Design Team created!

Michelle

The Cut Shoppe: Dive In

Hello! Today I want to share a new layout using a fun title from the Make a Splash cut file.

As much as I love cutting out shapes to use on my projects, it's the cool phrases and titles that really get me excited. I sometimes feel totally uncreative when it comes to picking a title for a project and to be able to browse through the selection of cool and unique cut files at The Cut Shoppe means I am able to add some fun variety to my titles.

For this next layout, I cut out the stacked "Dive-In" title after sizing it to fill approximately half the width of my page. Since it is on the narrow side, I also increased the width to bulk it up a bit. Here's what I came up with:

When I began to work on this layout, I knew I wanted to go with minimal color-something that normally isn't my style-and this led to me making the decision to cut the "Dive-In" out of white cardstock, the same as my base. To make sure the title stood out and was easy to read, I used pop dots to raise it up off of the background.

 

Wishing you a great day!

Michelle

Celebrate

Happy Saturday everyone! I don't know about you but I have been so looking forward to the weekend! Two of my kiddos started school a week and a half ago and I have been slow to adjust to my new schedule. This past summer I gave myself permission to take the break easy-no real schedule, hanging out at home, being mellow.....and I have certainly been paying for it! And to be perfectly honest, the only reason I am able to sit down and write this post is the fact that my daughter is home sick. Having already taken my (grumpy) 9th grader to school, I am pretty much on chill status this morning and finally have some time to share a new layout! Yay!

Despite having a Silhouette Portrait, I still regularly use my manual diecut machine--sometimes when I want a simple shape it's is just so much easier and less time consuming to pull it out and cut my shapes. This is especially true anytime I want some circles, like I did for this next layout:

I went into this layout knowing that I wanted to do some sort of a grid using a mix of patterned papers and that I wanted them to be circles. I ended up going with a two by two grid. Then, to take my grid idea even further, I machine stitched a grid connecting the four circles.

To balance my layout I "floated" one of the remaining circles in the top left corner of my layout. Anytime I am working with this type of layout design-one where the bulk of the layout is either at the top or the bottom-I will usually "cut" my layout diagonally into two triangles and will make sure to fill one of them.

 

I used a mix of products for this layout that includes bright and colorful papers and embellishments from Chickaniddy, Seven Paper, Dear Lizzy, Crate Paper, and October Afternoon. 

Wishing you a great day!

Michelle

Gossamer Blue Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the August Design Team Blog Hop!

I know that the "kit world" moves pretty fast and when most of you are receiving your kits the design team is receiving the next month's kit which means sneaks of the new kits start happening.

At Gossamer Blue we know that can be pretty overwhelming, so we've come up with a solution-each month on the 15th we are going to inspire you just as you are receiving your kits!

This month the August Kits were amazing and I truly had so much fun creating with them. Today I want to share a brand new layout made with the August Kits that features a fun mix of papers from Scrapbook Kit:

One of my favorite techniques is to layer up my patterned paper simply because it means I don't have to exclude any papers--I can include any and all of the ones I want!

I didn't limit my layering to just the patterned paper either! To fill in a little bit of blank space at the bottom of my layout, I cut some strips of white cardstock and adhered them with stitching--this added a subtle bit of interest and texture in a space that I felt was too "blank."

Now as much as I hope I have inspired you to drop everything and get those August Kits out, I want to encourage you to continue on with the hop because there is an amazing amount of talent in the line up and I wouldn't want you to miss a thing! Here are the links:

Alex Hunter
  Anabelle O'Malley
  Andrea Gray
  Brenda Smith
  Brenda Weaver
Diane Payne
Emily Spahn
Erin Taylor
  Eyoung Lee
  Felicitas Mayer
  France Wisniewski
  Heather Leopard
  Jill Cornell
  Jill Keller
  Kasia Przybyt
  Kathleen Graumuller
  Kellie Winnell
  Kelly Xenos
Laura Rahel Crosby
Michelle Wedertz <----You are here!
  Michiko Kato
  Olatz Garaiyurrebaso
  Patricia Roebuck
  Rebecca Luminarias
  Sian Fair
  Stephanie Buice
  Yana Smakula

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle

Citrus Twist: August

Happy August everyone! I am not quite okay with how fast the summer is rollin' by, but lucky for me I have a new kit from Citrus Twist  to console me!  Ha ha.

The August Kits from Citrus Twist were revealed this past weekend and today I want to share those with you! This month I worked with the August Main, Embellishment, and Pattern Play Kits. Here is a look at what you will find in them:

August Main Kit

August "Go There" Embellishment Kit

August Pattern Paper Play Kits #1 and #2

 

My first layout that I want to share with you today uses a mix of all the kits:

Whenever I see stickers in a kit I get excited! They are one of my favorite embellishments and the Journey stickers (from Crate Paper)  in the Embellishment Kit are just so pretty! 

Currently at Citrus Twist, we are holding a fun #JUSTSTAMPIT Challenge on Instagram. 

If you haven't already checked out Jessy's stamps that she designed for Citrus Twist, you can check them out here in the shop.

Wishing you a great day!

Michelle

Gossamer Blue: August Reveal

The first of August means a brand new kit from Gossamer Blue is available! Yay! This month, Lori put together a beautiful kit featuring a mix of products that include Crate Paper, Simple Stories, and October Afternoon.

Today I am super excited to share two of the projects that I have made using the August Kits! First up is "Favorite Things:"

 

The colors in this kit really compliment this outdoor shot of my daughter and the fun greige grid paper worked so great as a background.

Next is "A Park Adventure:"

So much to love on this page! The colors, again, were a huge hit with me. The cloud paper just begged me to use it and the exclusive cork hearts and wood veneer were just the right touches.

 

 

I have been watching the rest of the Gossamer Blue team load their projects into the gallery this past week and I have been in awe of what I have been seeing. I am constantly inspired by the work of my teammates and I want invite you to head straight over and check it out for yourself-you won't be disappointed!

 

 

Michelle

Hip Kit Club: Happy Days

Hi guys! Today I am super excited to share my first layout made with the July Kits from the Hip Kit Club!

When I saw that some of October Afternoon's latest collection Summertime was going to be included in this month's goodies, I was stoked! And finally, when my box arrived, they were the first things I pulled out when I sat down to make this next layout:

   

I have some major love for my square punch and it made this layout come together pretty quickly. I had initially thought to make two rows of squares that went all the way down the page, but I stopped midway through simply because I liked it.

   

When it came time to embellish, I went with two simple clusters made up of a mix of the Elle's Studio die cuts, Crate Paper chipboard pieces, and enamel dots from OA.

   

Don't forget, the Hip Kit Club is still running a fun special for new subscribers-here's the details:

Wishing you a great day!

Michelle

The Cut Shoppe: Every Picture

Hello! Today I want to share my latest layout featuring the very fun Stay Focused cut file from The Cut Shoppe!

I love, love the "every picture has a story to tell" cut file because it really cuts straight to the purpose of my memory keeping. Each picture that I choose to scrap tells a story-sometimes that story is small and sometimes the story is big, but no matter what, the picture holds a special meaning for me and it is always my goal to communicate that through the layout that I design. Using this cut file as my title in the next layout seemed like a perfect fit for the single photo that I had from the day my youngest began her first gymnastics class.

As I was working in Silhouette to size the title, I thought that it would be fun to also cut the circular "smile" piece out from the red patterned paper.  This worked to bring the focus from the title straight down to the photo as well as to add some dimension to my relatively flat page.

Wishing you a great day!

Michelle