citrus twist kits july 2013 layouts

This month I was on vacation when my July design team package from Citrus Twist arrived, and then the weekend after I arrived home (a mere seven days before my assignments were due) I was on the road again to visit my family and run in a 5K. So what did I do? I packed all the kits and add-ons up and tossed them into my car along with a basic tool kit and a basket of paints and markers and took them along to play while I was at my parents' house! I spent two days bouncing between visiting family, playing with Sophie (who loved watercoloring at the table next to me), and working on layouts in bits and pieces. I finished two layouts while I was there, and the third had to be completed back at home since I filmed it for a video tutorial. I also made a Project Life layout with this month's kits, but I'll share that another day.

My first layout was made during watercoloring time with Sophie. I'd mixed up a rainbow of DIY watercolors in an empty ice cube tray for her to play with, and I used a bit of pink and yellow to add some depth to the cardstock background on my Main Kit only layout this month.

The photos on this page are a pair I snapped of Mom and Sophie as they sat talking in a corner during a family birthday party. I've found that I love using a combination of two smaller photos of an interaction on lots of my layouts- they take up the same visual space as a single 4x6, but you get to see slightly different facial expressions and mannerisms in each.

I started this next layout, which draws heavily from the Travel Add-On and Project Life kits, with just the photo and some embellishments from October Afternoon's Travel Girl Miscellany pack. It wasn't until I was almost through with the layout that I finally picked a background paper, and I loved the process of creating the clusters first and then grounding them later. I took step-by-step photos of putting this one together and will be posting them on the Citrus Twist blog later this month.

And that photo? Oh, my, did I really buy that globe in my living room two years ago?!? It doesn't seem like it's been that long! Since then it's been joined by lots of smaller map prints and a really big map canvas from IKEA, so it really ended up setting the tone for decorating that space.

I didn't really have a good space to journal on the text print background, so I made a pocket with patterned paper behind my photo and tucked a journaling card in to hold my writing.

I mentioned earlier that I filmed this last layout for a video tutorial, and that part will be available on the Citrus Twist blog on Tuesday. I'll come back here and share it then, too. I mixed all of the kits together when I made this page (love doing that!), so there's a bit of everything included here.

The photo for this one was actually taken the evening before Darren's grandfather's funeral. His whole family, including his brothers and their families, traveled in and we all stayed in condos that night. Elyse and Natalie don't get to see each other very much since they live so far apart, and it was really fun to watch all of the kids together.

I'll leave you with a video of the July kits along with pretty pictures of everything, and you can find even more information and inspiration over on the Citrus Twist main site!