Citrus Twist Kits | Cinque Terre

Hi everyone!

I have a layout for you today, one of my last ones with the Citrus Twist Kits since I decided to resign my position on the design team.  If you don't mind, I'll show you my layout first and tell you the story after...

So here it is, one of my four layouts made with the April Citrus Twist main scrapbooking kit.

I love every paper with compartments like this one. They always call for many small photos and embellies and stories.

So first thing I did was choosing a story I wanted to tell and I settled on our day at Cinque Terre in Italy. I knew I had enough photos to fill in many little frames.

I looked at the frames and chose my photos to go with them. I mesured the frames and sized my photos and placed them on a4x6 canvas in Photo shop. It looked like this:

I then cut out the photos and placed them over the frames to give me a good idea of how it would look and to see also if I needed more photos.

I then started cutting the inside of the frames with an exact knife. It was really quick and easy. Especially when I decided I'd get rid of the scallops inside some of the frames. lol I was cutting around them when my husband came in my room and I realized what I was doing was a loss of time. I just simplified. ;)

I love the look of the photo behind the paper. I adhered them all with washi tape. (I always have to check which one is sticking enough for that task. I also stick to one I love less or have more of, because it is hidden behind the page).

Once all my photos where adhered, I started adhering small embellishments and adding details with words and letter stickers.

I also decided I'd color some of the frames with gold ink because the photos being so small were totally lost on a total black and white layout.

I like that the gold ink I chose is very yellow and happy and still has the shimmer of the gold in it.

Very simple layout. it took me less than an hour to finish it. But I still like it. I'll add more to the story in other layouts (we did a 10 days road trip through Germany, Italy and Switzerland, so I still have a lot of photos and stories!) Or I might just keep this page in our travel album and move onto a mini album for the whole road trip. Yep, that might be a good idea. :)

So now for the story of my decision of stepping down of the design team...

I don't want to get too much in the details of why, but just let me tell you that this move to Prague, even if I absolutely love Prague and my new friends here took a toll on me and I was stretching myself way too thin for all that was going on. Inside of me, I knew that I was going straight to a fail, but I kept trying to make everything work until my body said "Enough!"

Last time by body talked to me like this it was when we learned the news that we were moving to Prague and to make a story short, I ended with my worse fear in my hands!

Yep, a snake!

So anyway, this time, with the mindfulness techniques I've been practicing since January (thank god for that!), I could keep my nerves under control but it was still very scary and at that moment I was struggling to stay sane, I knew I had to let something go, even if that something is what I love most in life. I cried over my decision but really, I had no choice. I've hit a wall. I have to step back and readjust. Go back to a minimum of things to do is a good thing to start with. I think.

So for now I'm on a break of all my design teams. I'll see in September what happens when I get back from our summer vacation and readjust again to our life in Prague. I'm just hoping that I will still be able to make scrapbooking a priority. Because it really is what I love most.

Thanks for stopping by guys, and for all the comments you leave me here and on Facebook and Instagram. They really lift me up and keep me going when times get hard.

Marie-Pierre xo

Get it Scrapped | Principle of Proximity

Hello everyone!!

Today I have a page to show you that I made for Get It Scrapped.

This page is documenting the day I left Vancouver, at the beginning of June 1998, going back home and leaving my "future husband" behind. It was a tough day for both of us and I'm glad I finally documented it.

To design this page I used a design principle called "proximity". You can read all about it on the Get it Scrapped blog today.

Its to give you a little hint of the proximity principle, it's about how you place your elements on the page, together or appart, to create a feeling. Here I wanted to document the separation so I used two pictures that I separated with a line formed by the little plane. I also used a skyline picture to give the feel of something going away. Finally I placed the little plane very close to the side of the page to give the feeling of it flying away.

I used a paper from Crate Paper, from their Flea Market collection and I really like the big gold area which grounds my picture and also gives it a lot of shine and light.

I mounted my picture on a piece of raindrops patterned paper from my Here Comes The Sun collection to highlight the sadness of the day. By the way, that photo was not taken on the day I left, but it was the last photo we took with our two best friends in Vancouver the day they left. That was a sad day too. Sometimes you can't get caught up with the idea that you don't have the perfect photo to document a story. Just use what you have and explain the story in the journaling.

I added some die cuts to add importance to the photo. I love how all the colors of the products in different collections coordinate.

So as I said, I added a line between the two photos. I used my sewing machine and gold thread. I was easy to do stitch but it would have been easier if I would have stitched BEFORE adhering the photos and all the other elements. It happens to me all the time! Oh well, no now knows, right?! :)

To add to the theme of sadness, I used some acetate clouds from the Little You collection from Crate paper and since they were so subtle, I added a flair button, again from my Here Comes The Sun collection. Adhering acetate is tricky. I have special vellum adhesive, but it wasn't doing a good job so I decided so use some tiny staples.

This die cut from Dear Lizzy acts as my title and is accentuated by the golden "our" that I added. I love the look of the clear acrylic stars mixed with the cardstock die cut stars. I adhered the plane with just a little bit of hot glue. I added some stamping with white ink next to my title to add some more whimsy.

ut of course, the whole layout just comes alive when the viewer reads the journaling. .... it's always the most important part for me. ;)

Have a great day guys!!

Marie-Pierre

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Family Portraits | Mini album

Hello everyone!
Here I am again today with a second project made with my friend Mira's products.

If you missed my first post, you can catch up here.

To put you back in context, Mira, my friend on the Citrus Twist Kits design team, owns a small company called Family Portraits. They design their own products and also get some more products from other designers they love. Mira sent me a big box full (!!!) of lovely products and there was one mini album in the box, so I couldn't let this occasion pass me by! :)

Lucky enough (or very unlucky actually), my best friend in Prague is leaving this summer, so I decided to gather all our best moments and make her a mini album to remember the year we spent together in Prague. You know, making the best of a bad situation... I'm glad I have scrapbooking so that I can make things like that.

She's leaving at the end of the school year, so that leaves us a bunch of time to make more memories that I will add to the album. This means that the album is currently unfinished. I'll still show it to you in it's actual state and I'll show you the whole project once it's done, in June. :)

oh and for the records: lots of photos to come!!!

The album is really cute, small and compact! The page protectors fit a 4x6 photo (or card).

I wanted to use the page protectors, but I also wanted to have some textures in there so I decided to alternate page protectors and cards and photos out of the pockets.

The first page is a card (how perfect is it?!!!) on which I stitched some letter stickers spelling the word Prague. I added a small heart sticker (love these tiny hearts!!!) and the date.

You will probably notice that the album is sometimes made to look at from the left and sometimes from the right... that's because I used both sides of the cards. I decided not to get distracted by that and to just go with the flow. :) It made my life way easier!!

I used the back side stitching to add a sticker label.

I added a flair button on that big empty space. The orange clashes a little bit with the purple of the album but I thought it was getting all the oranges of the roofs. So for the color not to feel so awkward and out of place, I added a small orange sequin on the left page.

These watercolor cards have to be my favorites!!! Here again, the orange mixed with some pink this time.

Here I used a 4x6 card that I cut down to a smaller size and I attached it with a mint green paperclip.

I like to print my photos with a white frame around it. I added a small sticker label to the top of this photos and stitched in the white frame. I glue some sequins in different shapes and colors for a playful feel.

A kraft card with a hint of mint green was a perfect base to this photo of a painting exposition we visited. I used my brush pen to add a title and I punched a tab in on of my cards + attached a gold star with my tiny attacher.

This photo on the left page was happy on it's own, without any decoration. :)

On this one, I added a clear sticker under the photo and a mickey ears brad under my text. I bought these years (!!) ago and never used them. I'm glad I was organize a little and could find them easily when I needed them. Ha!

These circles in the middle of the card are fun! They make a nice journaling spot when a 3x4 photo is placed on the card. I added some white stitching, alpha stickers and a gold star from my stash.

I really like playing with sequins to make color combos and to give a little bit of shine, whiteout using glitter. That wooden smiley face (I don't remember from which company I have it. Freckled Fawn maybe?!) is hiding the back of the Mickey ears brad.

Then I had to work with Christmas photos! ha! I was glad that there was a pack of Christmas cards in my box. :) I really love the simple graphic on these cards and also the silly sayings. It was just the perfect touch to go with our silly Christmas photos. :)

I added a small red star. Perfect addition to keep it clean and simple. I also love the cascade all these next layers of different sizes created.

This is now of my favorite photo. We don't often go to Starbucks here in Prague and this was probably the first time I had Starbucks since we had moved here. My friend was eating her sandwich and when I took the photo it stuck with us that she was my hand model. :) Also that red twine is symbolic because I was looking for it everywhere to use in my December Daily. I didn't find any. This piece was sent to me by Trina with my Citrus Twist Kits. Problem solved. lol It's good to have good friends in our lives isn't it?!

On the other side of that photo I wanted to add some small trinkets from my own Christmas line because that was also a subject that came often in our discussions.  So here's a flair + a gold star die cut from my own collection.

Here I simply added a piece of golden ribbon that I folded in half to make a small textured tab.

A simple label sticker + a golden star is all this photo needed for the names. You know, this is a detail that I often don't include in my albums, the name of the people. But the truth is that years from now, we might forget the details as obvious as the names of our friends! I really wanted to include them all in this album!

Lovely card with just one big word. I added stitching (I checked the back of the card first to see if I could stitch without ruining the back side) an some sequins in Christmas colors.

On the other side I added a simple gold star.

The back of the stitching is not as nice as the front but when I stitch in white, it doesn't matter to me. Imperfect things only gives more texture and interest in my eyes.

I like that small label with just a hint of color on one side.

Here too, one sticker label does the job.

I added two small pictures that I adhered back to back. I wrote directly on the picture and I followed the side of the plate. I don't usually like to write on pictures but this time I think it looks cute.

And I absolutely love this card with a feather! For me, a feather means books and writing and ink.... so I added some black drops of ink. I was generous in the size of the drops. I like the end result very much.

I used a purple label to go with the purple feather.

Here I used a small photo and a sticker label in pink + a pink star from this sticker sheet.

This tree was my friend's favorite tree in the city. I had to include it in a special way. So I decided to pint it onto textured cardstock to give it the look of a canvas.

Look at the texture in the bricks.

On this picture of the kids, I used the white space of the table to add a clear sticker.

And here a label and a gold star. I really wanted to embellish this album a lot and give it a special chunky feel but somehow simplicity came forth.

I had in mind to make a shaker pocket, but I thought that this card with the watercolor wash would be perfect to house some loose sequins. I went with gold and pink stars. And added one more big golden star with a tiny attacher.

I'm not closing the top of this pocket. I'm pretty confident that the sequins will stay inside if the album is not flipped.

Here are some more clear stickers and I also added a sticker label and a puffy flower sticker. I really like the pops of purple coming on and off throughout the album, picking up on the color of the album itself.

Here again I printed the photo on textured cardstock. I really love the look of a painting it gives to the photo. It works perfectly with this photo of the church.

On the back of the cardstock there is no texture so it's the perfect place to write! Here I used a brush pen. And I added one single tiny red heart sticker.

This photo was also printed on textured cardstock and I left a wide border at the bottom to give it the look of a polaroid. + it's a perfect space to add some notes.

I cropped the "be happy" photo to fit behind the "polaroid" print.

I added a tiny red star on top of the page protector here. These tiny stickers simply make me happy. :)

This is the last page of the album (for now). It's a crystal exhibition we've visited and it was funny because my friend photo bombed my nice crystal shot.

I added some letter stickers and a puffy sticker on the white space.

And loved the green repeated in the photo and on that card. :) I added some stitching and a puffy heart sticker.

That's it for now, but I already have some new photos of our adventures to add so I'll keep adding and playing until the end of may! yay!!

Talk to you again soon!! 

Marie-Pierre