Good Advice - CSI Case File No. 2 Is Live!

What a fantastic launch we had at CSI! We already have over 300 members in just a week! And I'm so excited to see so many jump right in and "solve" our first Case! If you haven't had time to play with our first Case File, you still have time to play. I've set the challenges so that they run for a week plus an extra weekend, so the deadline for Case File No. 1 is Sunday, January 15 at 11:59 pm EST. You'll definitely want to play in January because we have The Dusty Attic sponsoring us!

Well, the week flew by and before I knew it, we were ready to reveal Case File No. 2 last night. Here it is (you can find more details about the clues at CSI -- just scroll down to the bottom):

And here is the page I made. (It photographed a little lopsided--still gotta master that--and I had to do some creative cropping since I wanted to pull out my hidden journaling a little.)

Here are some details. The "advice" part of the journaling prompts comes from this Alice in Wonderland quote, which I included on the yellow Webster's Pages journaling card:

"Good advice. If I listened earlier, I wouldn't be here. But that's just the trouble with me. I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it." --Alice

My page is for my weight-loss album. I've been really struggling with my weight-loss journey for the past year, and I really fell down the past 6 months since we started the whole process of selling our home and buying a new one. I used a picture from a little over a year ago when I was well on my way, having lost 60 pounds. I've gained half that back. :(

Anyway, the rest of my journaling is stream-of-consciousness (another bit of the CSI Case File Testimony) and just contains good advice and messages I was telling myself when I was being "good," and they're now going to serve as reminders for me now that I'm getting back on track:

This is the last time I will do this. I will not let little slip-ups derail me. Tracking is the solution. I can do this. I can exercise a little each day. Keep a journal and set little goals. I can get through this one meal. This one day. I can do this. (On the "Remember When You Said" My Mind's Eye journaling card.)

I will treat Weight Watchers like a class with assignments... cook the recipe in the little weekly book, do the assignment on the back. I'll look at the scrapbook I'm making. Look at this picture where I was well on my way. I can do this. (On the third card.)

Reading my friend Wendy Mitchell's story on her blog prompted me to get my butt back in gear, so you could say she inspired this page.

I used some old stash on this page, including the clip, which is from that old Rebecca Sowers Attic Collection, the striped paper is by Daisy D's, and the red torn bits of paper are old Christine Adolph papers by Creative Imaginations. The polka dot paper is by My Mind's Eye (Bloom & Grow).

When I was looking for the lavendar color, I came across this ANCIENT mulberry paper and knew I had to use it. So happy to finally rescue that from my stash! The blue papers on the picture below are both by Fancy Pants, also pretty old. The brad is by K&Co. from the Wild Saffron collection.

I think that yellow flower is by Prima and the red one is by Petaloo. The lavendar flower was from a cheapie bunch of silk flowers I bought at Michael's. The leaves are from an old Scenic Route paper, and I'll be sad when they're all gone.  I scored them in the center and bent them up a little for dimension. I also love the Webster's paper lanterns cut out of one of their papers, and I'll be sad when I use them all up too. That's another K&Co. fabric brad. I added some swirls that were part of the Case File Evidence, as were the flowers.

I was happy to use this Dusty Attic gate as part of my Evidence. I coated it with embossing ink and sprinkled on a blue embossing powder that was lighter on paper. Note to self: Next time I want to use embossing ink on chipboard, try it out on a sample first instead of just going by the sample I have on the white cardstock. The butterflies are cut from a DCWV paper.

And here's an experiment gone bad, but once I set my mind to something, I don't give up. I found these lavendar letter stickers that I've probably had in my stash for close to 10 years, and I was determined to use them. I stamped them with a texture stamp and embossed them with clear embossing powder to give them a different sort of look. Well, it didn't show up really, so then I got the idea of coating them with Glossy Accents and after they dried, I bent them back and forth to give them a cracked look. Didn't quite work out the way I had imagined, but I went ahead and added them to my page because I had put so much effort into them, LOL. I added those yellow "metallic dots" topped with lavender rhinestones to cover up some of that darker purple.

These colors were tricky but I love how pretty and happy they are, and I had great fun digging through my stash to find the right blues. I hope you'll come play with us and go take a look at the amazing work our team and guest designers made!

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page today!