I had been scrapbooking for several years before I figured out this simple trick. Sometimes I need a small border around an element or photo to make it stand out like in the example above.  The lion's mane is the same color as the background paper, so it blends in.  I want the word art to look more like a sticker instead of a stamp.  The easiest way to do this is to add a stroke.  I'll walk you through this simple method in the tutorial below [. . .]

One of the problems with changing my site is that subscriptions from Elle Designs do not transfer over to the new site.  Unfortunately that means that if you subscribed to email updates on Elle Designs and still wish to get updates, you will have to subscribe to Citrus and Mint to get email updates from the new blog.  It doesn't take long, but some people have had trouble so I've included a photo tutorial here to help.  

I highly recommend subscribing to email updates.  It is how I follow all of my favorite blogs.  What it means is that whenever I publish a new post, you will get that post in your email.  Then you don't have to check back all the time to see if I wrote something new (I'm not very consistent, sorry).  You should only get an email when I publish something new.  I also recommend creating a scrapbook-only or favorite blog-only email account.  It keeps things organized and doesn't clutter up important emails on your main account.

Another thing--to conserve space on the blog, I've added a "Read More" break to every post.  That means that you will have to click "READ MORE" (under the dashed line) to finish reading the whole post.  It is really annoying and I worried about people not seeing it, but I have to deal with it for now [. . .]

As much as I rely on online reviews of products, I never take the time to leave any myself.  So I thought I would share a few things that I have used lately (mostly related to redesigning the website and scrapbook designing) that I really loved. These are not sponsored, just my personal opinion.

I am a pretty blog addict. I could spend hours just looking at and pinning well-designed blogs.  I have never taken a graphic design or web design class but the more I looked at other blogs, the more I wished I had.  I wanted my blogs to be pretty too! [. . .] 

I've finally wised up this year for International Scrapbooking Day (May 4th).  Hallelujah.  Usually I wait until the weekend of to see if I want to take advantage of the sales and buy some kits. Of course everyone else has the same idea and the sites take forever to load so I end up buying nothing.  Not a bad thing per se, but this year I need stuff.  In particular, boy kits.  

I was really good with my daughter's baby book and never got a month behind for the entire year.  I'm not so sure I can keep up with that kind of schedule with baby #2 especially since he's a boy and boy papers and elements are hard to come by.  I've started to gather my iNSD wishlist early and thought I'd share my finds for others who may be in the same boat (they are all little boy kits, I don't even want to think about the scarcity of teenage boy kits yet). Click on the photo to see where to get the kit. If you have seen any other good ones, let me know!!!!

Side note: The Lilypad is doing a facebook hop and giving out a free kit.  Check it out HERE.

The Alexander alpha is the current fan freebie on the Citrus and Mint facebook page. Since alphas like these are more common for designers to buy, I thought I would share how to use this alpha for those who are unfamiliar. Alphas like this are really cool because you can basically create anything you want to match any kit [. . .]

Welcome to Citrus and Mint (formerly Elle Designs)! The purpose of this site is to share all things digital scrapbooking, design, illustration, and most of all, FREEBIES!  Check out the about page to learn more about me and why I chose Citrus and Mint. Go to the freebies page to download all my free kits and learn how to scrapbook under the tutorials page.  The Citrus and Mint shop is coming soon, but don't worry, it will focus mainly on Commercial Use products and Ai vector illustrations. I will still be creating scrapbooking kits for Personal Use for free. 

In preparation for my little baby boy coming in a couple of weeks and to celebrate the launch of my new site, I created a new all boy kit for y'all [. . .]

Downloading from Mediafire can be really confusing.  It works perfectly for most people, but then acts crazy for others. I have no idea why, but out of all of the free file sharing sites, it is the easiest for me to use.  I offer my kits for free so paying for a file sharing site just doesn't make sense to me.  To help avoid confusion I made the tutorial below [. . .]