Citrus Twist Kits | Project Life

Hi everyone,

as promised, here's the 3rd Project Life spread I made with my August Project Life Citrus Twist Kit.

Again, I added some white cardstock because I didn't want to let any journaling out. Love these owl stickers as the kids were called owls in our school in the US.  Also, I thought that this puffy sticker looked so much like a beach ball. :)

For this spread I felt like adding a little bit of layers. Just like we do on 12x12 layouts. I didn't go overboard though, I didn't want to overwhelm the page.

To get a polaroid look, simply leave some white under the photo when you cut it out from it's 4x6 canvas.

I absolutely loved that camera paper this month. Any scrapbooking project can use a little camera :)

I used the number puffy stickers to create some kind of story scheme.

And I carried the number over to the right page too.

There was a little piece of cork that said "Sleep in late". I used it to create a cute tiny frame around the "fingers crossed" piece of paper I cut out from a piece of patterned paper in the kit.

I did some stamping here with the before (which is right before the taxi picked us up at our house).

Saying goodbye to our lovely neighbors :'(

hat a sweet PL card! I wasn't sure if I could use it or if I should hoard it forever. So sweet these little pastel lines.

And I have the After stamp here, for when we arrived in Prague...

Some more layering and journaling. And the speed is done. I feel happy about it. Not too much, just enough. Perfect!! :)

Marie-Pierre 

Citrus Twist Kits | Project Life

Hi everyone!!


Welcome to my first month back on the Citrus Twist Kits team. I mean, I never left the team, but as you know, with the move, I had to take some months off. I actually took 2 months off. And I am back creating with the August Project Life kit. Ah how I missed my kits! And my studio!!!

So I made 3 Project Life spreads (for now).

For the 2 first one, to get back onto it, I took advantage of the photos I had left, unscrapped, in my album. It brought me back to the beginning of April where we went to the Zootastic zoo in North Carolina and where we had an encounter with baby Li-Liger (dad is a lion, mom is a Liger - half lion, half tiger) and with baby hyena who was pushed aside by his parents from the day he was born. :( He quickly became friend with baby Li-Liger and we had so much fun with them.

I played with dimension by adding foam adhesive. I thought the contrast was pretty cool with the transparency of the clear Amy Tangerine stickers.
 

I also placed puffy stickers under and over the label which also gives more depth.

I kept things really simple. I was trying to find my groove and get back to it. Leave my sorrows behind and let the creativity flow.

I used the pictures that were there, didn't dare to print new ones.  I guess the task of looking back to my thousands of photos I take monthly was too daunting. And that is why I have mixed some pictures from a field trip with my daughter to another zoo with the Zootastic experience.  I don't love it. I don't love that we can't clearly see what is what, but it's ok. I gave myself permission to just go with the flow and not worry about anything.

The second spread brings us to Atlanta, where we had to go to renew the girls swiss passeports. With my husband being in Prague often at that time, we didn't have much family time. That weekend was a good one spent all together.

Again, we went to the zoo...

And I'm finding my groove to create this time. I love that!!! :D

I've cut out some & in a piece of patterned paper, layered them with foam dots again and added clear stickers from the Amy Tangerine clear sticker booklet. I printed that small label with my computer on normal typing paper. I don't have my typewriters anymore :( One had a broken key (I should have brought it anyway! mhhh, why didn't I think of that?!!! and the other one was electric so I had to leave it in the USA)

Another clear sticker adhered directly on the photo, while I layered the little clear sticker hear on white cardstock before adhering it with foam adhesive so that it pops out better.

When I saw the million tiny things quote I thought of all the things we still had to do before the move! I wanted to used it in a pockets with a "million" tiny things like sequins for example and then the paper with the tiny cameras caught my eye and I figured I could use these instead of sequins. I decided to glue them in place on a card instead of leaving them floating loose in a pocket. I don't know yet if my fuse will work here. Suspense...

Some photos don't need much to shine!

For my journaling, I decided to use white cardstock. I rarely do this but I quite love the result. I dressed the white card with a piece fo patterned paper that grounds my yellow cab sticker. I wrote my text and added a cork star and some stamping.

I then spotted the yellow clear "weekend" sticker and added it to the card with some more stamping. The tiny stamps that always come in the Citrus Twist Kits are very versatile! I always find an interesting way to use them.

Meet Melissa, owner of Pretty Little Studio!! Melissa is the one who gave me the opportunity to become a paper designer. I already told you this I think so I won't make it too long here, but after I was on the Pretty little Studio design team, I stayed in touch with her and we became friends and she offered me to become a designer under the Umbrella Pretty little Studio. A dream come true!

So when we came back from Atlanta we basically drove by her town and I texted her, out of the blue, and she came and met us in a Chick-Fil-A. :) This was our first time meeting in person. It was so nice!!!

In the Amy Tangerine sticker booklet I found a Pretty and a please, which is the name of my brand. I paired them together to put on this photo. :)

Here are some more clear stickers and a puffy sticker on a couple of PL 3x4 cards.

On this plain white card on the right I added a small piece of patterned paper that i stapled in place and I added a clear sticker and a puffy sticker. I journaled a bit and finished my card with a feather clear sticker.

To add more journaling here i used a 4x6 card (I never have enough of these!!!! Love them for journaling!) and I added some small clear stickers to embellish. I really love the look of the clear stickers touching each other a bit. I also let one of the circle lead a bit out of the card. I find that it looks more organic. 

Join me tomorrow for my third Project Life spread made with my August Citrus Twist Project Life kit and go visit the Citrus Twist Kits blog for more inspiration or the Citrus Twist Kits website to get your own kit for next month! :)

Thanks for passing by and leave me some comments if you feel like it! :)

Talk to you soon!

Marie-Pierre 

SaveSave

Here comes the Sun!!!

Hi everyone!!!

Ha! I think I'm back at blogging and it feels SO good to be here!

The house is not completely ready, but my studio is more or less set up to work and I received the ink I ordered for my printer today (woohoo!! Yay for ordering online in Prague, it works!!!). So First thing I printed? Photos of our experience with the dolphins at Sea World in July. :D I was really eager to scrapbook Arielle's dream to become a dolphin trainer. <3 br="">
I was also VERY eager and excited to break out MY OWN PAPER COLLECTION, I'm sure you can imagine. :)

<3 br="">So without further talking, here is the first layout made with the Here comes the sun collection that you can purchase at Pretty Little Studio. I'll list to all the products I used at the bottom of this post.
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In the background I used a 8x8 paper called Cloudy Day. I then backed my 4x6 picture with the Higher patterned paper and a piece of gold glittery vellum from Cosmo Cricket I believe.
The die cuts are some of my favorite products of the collection. The whole creating of the collection started with these hot air balloons. :) Everything in the line was watercolored by hand by me. :) You'll find the sun in the To the Moon and Back die cut pack, and the Higher + clouds die cuts in the Higher die cut pack with the hot air balloons.

I really love these large gold foiled die cut letters.  Perfect for titles! And they can be paired with other words from the collection for an even more striking look.

I stamped the date on the cloud die cut and added some buttons, puffy stickers (Citrus Twist Kits) and enamel dots from my stash.

Like the gold foil die cut letters, there is a pack of numbers and icons gold foiled die cuts. They must be MY FAVORITE product of the whole collection. I can't wait to use them around Christmas time in my December Daily!

I added to this little cluster a gold paperclip and a very cute clear heart sticker.

Here is one more embellishment cluster with another positive word of encouragement from the Cactus die cut pack + some more die cuts  from the To the moon and back pack and a High 5 flair button. I really wanted my collection to be positive. You might also have notice the tiny sticker saying Believe in you? :) It's from the Think Positive sticker sheet.

This  smaller 4x4 photo is backed with a piece of the Sunrise 8x8 paper.  And I used the small sticker alpha in Watermelon to add details to the story. Again a clear heart sticker and a heart die cut that I adhered with foam adhesive.

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<3 br="">I finished my layout with my journaling. To me, a page without journaling is not complete. But that's just me. I know that we all have our reasons for scrapbooking. :) 
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<3 br="">Products used:
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<3 br="">Paper: Summer Party 8x8, Up In The Air 8x8; 
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Die Cuts: Higher, To The Moon And Back, Cactus, Gold Metallic A to Z, Gold Metallic Number;

Stickers: Think Positive, Mini ABC Watermelon, Higher;

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Flair Buttons: Fun.


<3 br="">Voilà, I hope you enjoyed my blog post today and I also hope very dearly that you will find something you like in my collection. I really made it with you guys in mind. I wanted a line that would be happy, fun and positive, yet with a wide enough range of motives, colors and words so that everybody could use it for any layout.
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<3 br="">I know I've mentioned it 100 times already, but make sure you tag me and Pretty Little Studio if you create with my collection. I'm @mpcapistran on Instagram. If you post it on Facebook or in a gallery and that we are not FB friends, please come and leave me a comment here with the link to your project. The best thing in that whole collection making thing is to see people use it and love it! <3 3="" nbsp="">
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<3 br="">Take care my friends and talk to you again soon!!

Marie-Pierre 

Update on the move

Hello everyone!

We are now in Prague!
It feels like we've been moving forever.
We still don't have internet at home (I'm publishing this blog post over my iPhone's data) and the girls can't wait to get connected to chat with their friends, play Minecraft and watch youtube videos about Minecraft.

So the move went pretty smoothly. It was scary by moment, but finally it all worked out. Let me back up a little and give you more details.

So during the last week of school, in June, we had the packing crew over and they made boxes for 3 days straight! I didn't think we had that much stuff. In fact, when the company came to make the survey (checking the things we have and calculating what size of container we would need) they told us that the container paid by my husband's company wouldn't be big enough to bring everything. We couldn't believe it. Everything electric was staying in the USA and we had many huge pieces of furniture (IKEA wardrobe that we had bought in Switzerland 15 years ago and which had already moved like 10 times!) that were not coming with us. So knowing that it was not fitting, we asked for a second smaller container. And we waited weeks for a decision to be made. We were starting to stress out and I started purging! The couch is going to the trash + the table and that table and the guest bedroom set and maybe I can get rid of more clothes and toys.... My parents came to help and me worked 4 days emptying the attic/storage spaces. We filled the garage of a neighbor with toys and stuff to donate, we filled my parents car with stuff they could bring to Canada and we filled my car with stuff we were bringing to the trash. I was hoping that all this would be fine to have everything fitting in the container now. Well, the day before the packing began, the company who did the survey called me to ask if I was ready (how can you get ready for packing while still living in the house?) and I told her that I was a little nervous that everything would fit in the container and she then told me: Ah my colleague didn't call you? Your company agreed on a 2nd container.

...

So the packing began. It was tough to be living in the house and seeing all the need I was still using on a daily basis being taken away. As I was seeing things I still needed I grabbed them and stored them in the guest room where were were staying because remember, we were not going to bring the guest bedroom with us. So that guest room became our sanctuary and was filled with things we would need during the next 2 months. Let me explain:

We had one container going by boat right now. And then we had one more container going by plane just a couple of days before we were flying to Prague. We kept some towels and kitchen things, clothes and some games and things to do for the girls. I don't remember the exact deadlines but the main container would leave on Friday (the day after the last day of school) and on Saturday we were leaving to Canada (my husband was going back to Prague. He was in the USA one week during the packing because he had to sell his car and take care of some paper work and he had to support me morally. I was pretty much a wreck at that time! It was a very, Very stressful week and leaving to Canada was such a blessing.) So anyway, we were leaving Saturday to Canada for a little bit less than 3 weeks. We were then coming back to Charlotte, NC for 3 days (Arielle had a dentist appointment for her braces and we had to take care of our green cards) and after these 3 days my husband was coming back to the USA and we were flying to Florida for a much needed family vacation. Some time together. We were living apart since April already! After these 10 days in Florida, we came back to Charlotte, but lived at the hotel at that point, for another 3 days. We had to go back to the dentist to take out Arielle's braces (yay!), we had to sell our 2nd car, we had to get rid of what was left in the house and to clean the house and we had to take care of our green card once more because it hadn't worked out the first time around. Going to the green card place is like going to the DMV, but worse. ;) We also had a small goodbye party with our closest friends and neighbors. The house was empty but we all hung out around the pool with drinks and pizza and it was just perfect! The kids had fun with their friends in the pool and we could say one last goodbye to those who helped us during our 2 years stay in NC.

We finally gave the keys to the people who will stay in our house while we are away and we left the USA July 14th. We arrived in Prague July 15th (it was our 16th anniversary).

We stayed at the hotel over the weekend. Didn't sleep one bit in the very noisy room. We showed Prague to the girls. Brought them to their new house. And we received our things Monday July 18. It took 5 weeks + some days for our containers to get here. That was a blessing since they had told us 6 to 8 weeks!! We are now in our house since one week (today!) and all is well. As I was telling you at the beginning of this post, we still don't have internet nor bars for the towels ;) but we are adjusting slowly and getting there. I am very thankful that I have 2 kids and that they can entertain each other with the help of Minecraft. My husband is working and going on business trips already and I am opening boxes. In fact, I still have a lot of boxes to open! For now we have one car, the company car, and hubby is using it to go to work. We went to buy me a car but it will take a good two months before I get one. We'll have to do with only one. Thankfully the bus is right around the corner and common transportation is really good in Prague.

Scrapbooking wise: I still have to unpack the 30 scrap supplies boxes and find out if my printer will work here before I can get back to scrapbooking. I am still on the Citrus Twist Kits Design Team (so thankful that Trina have let me take a break instead of dropping out!!!) and I'm finally staying on the Get it Scrapped team, part time. I love Debbie (Hodge) and Amy (Kingsford) and am thankful that they let me do this!!! As for Pretty Please, I can't wait to start playing with my collection and I'm SUPER EXCITED to see layouts and projects using my collection Here Comes The Sun popping up on my Instagram and Facebook feeds. Thank you for using my products and thank you for tagging me (@mpcapistran)! It's such an awesome feeling!

I'll have to get back to unpacking now. :) It's really fun to see things taking shape and to make this house our HOME.

Talk to you soon my friends!!

Marie-Pierre

PS: A HUGE thank you to my friend Tracie Claiborne who pushed me to do this blog post and get back to blogging even without having anything scrappy to share. :)

Get It Scrapped DT | the details

Hi everyone!!

Today I am sad to announce that this is my LAST project as a Get it Scrapped DT member. With the upcoming move, it was impossible for me to stand the rhythm and I also didn't want to promise that I'd be back in three month since I have NO idea of when I'll be settled in and when the girls will get used to their new environnement. They might need me a lot for the first months and I want to be there for them. So after 4 beautiful years alongside Debbie (Hodge) and Amy (Kingsford), here I am posting my very last project. *holding my tears

So the last assignment was to scrapbook a photo with details. I chose to go with a picture of Maya's 5 year old cake because as we were working on our cakes for this year we realized we had a hard time remembering our cakes we make each year. So I chose 3 photos. One showing me with Maya and her cake, one showing the whole cake and one even closer showing even more details of the cake.

I added elements around the pictures that wouldn't steal the show.

Voilà!!
Thanks so much Get it Scrapped!
I will miss you very very very much!!!

Marie