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