Psychic Bond {CSI Case File No. 12}

We have our first monochromatic palette at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

This Case File is dreamy and magical and perfect for the story I want to tell. Clues I used:

Evidence: Hot-air balloon, clouds, silhouette image, stars.
Testimony: Write something unexpected, inspiration words: magic & mystery

I used a sketch by fellow Detective, Susan Stringfellow, as inspiration for my page design:

That's one of the few pictures I have from when Farzad and I were dating. My hidden journaling, which I placed on the back, reads: It was weird and mysterious how it happened the first time. I was at the bus stop, and when the school bus pulled up, I stepped onto it, then spun right around and stepped off. The driver gave me a puzzled look, but I just waved him away. After he pulled off, I panicked. "Oh, my God! What did I just do?" About thirty seconds later, as if by magic, a black Trans Am pulled into the parking lot, Farzad behind the wheel. Every morning after that, he traveled all the way from Hyattsville to Gaithersburg just to drive me to school.

Here are some details. Have you heard about CSI Coordinates? Michele Singh, a digital scrapper on our design team, has designed a set of fabulous papers, cut-outs, and journaling spots to coordinate with our Case Files. The journaling spot, balloon, hat, and the balloon print paper, which I printed out on textured cardstock, are all from this week's set of CSI Coordinates. I added Stickles to the balloon and a rub-on eye by 7Gypsies to the journaling spot. The clouds are cut out of a My Mind's Eye paper. Actually, all of the papers except for the white dot (BasicGrey) are by My Mind's Eye.

These banner shapes are also from the CSI Coordinates. The black letter stickers are by EK Success. I love the font and the size, which is perfect for my 8 x 8 pages. The round letters are old--I'm talking ancient--Sonnets by Sharen Soneff. The little arrow rub-on is by 7 Gypsies and points the way to my journaling. I found the cool flower rub-on, by BasicGrey, and it reminded me a little of the dandelion in the Case File, and since it was the perfect color, I had to use it here.

Here's another 7 Gypsies rub-on, which I thought was fun and perfect for the "psychic" story I have going on. The date label is from CSI Coordinates.

The frame, stars, and phrase "stickers" are also from CSI coordinates. The silhouette rub-on is by 7 Gypsies. 

This was a really fun Case File to solve. I hope you'll come play with us. And you'll definitely want to check out what the rest of the team made--awesome stuff in our reveal!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my page!

Top of the World {CSI Case File No. 11}

We have the most cheerful, playful Case File this week at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration!

I love documenting fun little stories from my childhood, and this was the perfect Case File to do it. I used a sketch from Page Maps as my starting point:

Here's what I made. The clues I used: Evidence: butterflies, string, patterned paper with vintage images, and tearing. Testimony: a story from my childhood.

My hidden journaling (on the 7 Gypsies tag tucked behind the photos) tells about how when I was a kid, we'd go to the school playground after hours and I'd sit on the top of those monkey bars singing the old Carpenters song, "I'm on the top of the world looking down on creation..." at the top of my lungs.

For you young'ns who have no idea who the Carpenters are or what the song sounds like, here you go...

Here are some details. I used a whole bunch of different papers on this page. From the following image, the black polka dot is by Jillbean Soup, the green grid is by Echo Park, the blue paper is by Ki Memories, the yellow polkie is American Crafts, the music print is by October Afternoon, and the vintage girl and flowers is Sassafras Lass. I added Stickles to my flowers.

These butterflies were cut out of a Jillibean Soup paper. The red number paper is by Jenni Bowlin, and the clouds are cut out of a Bella Blvd. paper. The kraft label is by Maya Road. I added "Random Memory No." with Headline Rub-ons. Love those things--they're really tiny and perfect for labeling things like this. You can find them at AC Moore in the fine arts section.

I elevated several of the elements on my page with pop dots. My title letters are American Crafts Thickers, old Foofala (red), and Echo Park (typewriter key-syle letters). The flowery border with the 4's is from a Sassafras Lass paper. The border punches are by Martha Stewart and EK Success.

The little banners from the sketch just weren't working out for me on my borders, so I added them to the top of my page, along with a 7 Gypsies phrase sticker, which I snipped into a flag shape. That little flower-shaped brad is ancient, by Autumn Leaves MOD.

The design team and all of our guest designers did amazing things with this challenge--you must go check it out--it's such a fun Case File!

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

Safe Harbor {CSI Case File No. 10}

Before I share the current Case File and my layout, I just wanted to remind any readers of my blog that we're having a design team call at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

You can read all about the details here.

We have a dramatic image inspiring our Case File and colors this week:

I wanted to do something dramatic (for me) with my layout this week, and here's what I came up with:

Clues I used:
Evidence: cloud accents, fabric, metal, create light and shadow, use contrasting textures.
Testimony: story about mother hood, compare/contrast people, shed light, and all three inspiration words.

My background paper is BasicGrey, from one of their original collections. The lighthouse came from a Webster's Page paper from their Yacht Club collection. There was a sailboat in front of the lighthouse that I had to cut out because it had happy words celebrating summer which didnt' go with my story. So I had a big gap where I had cut it off and scratched my head trying to figure out how to hide it. I was so happy to find a paper by Little Yellow Bicycle that had a sailboat I could use to do the trick. The seagull and sand dollar stickers are by October Afternoon. I used Distress Stickles to outline the sand dollars because I thought they have a rough, sandy texture.

I had been admiring how Brit Sviggum, who's on my design team, was using cheesecloth on her layouts and decided to give it a try. It was tricky trying to get just the right green, and it wasn't perfect but I managed to get it pretty close to the green in the palette. I first rubbed green distress ink on it, but it was not the right shade, so I tried putting the cheesecloth in a plastic bag, adding a couple of different spray ink, and smushing it around in the bag, and this is what I came up with. I also added a hand-stitched circle, which is something I rarely do--I generally use my sewing machine. The letters are old Heidi Swapp chipboard and old BasicGrey letters that perfectly match the colors.

I was using a sketch from the Creative Scrappers e-book, Creating With Sketches, which is a FANTASTIC book (I used the sketch on the bottom of page 24), and I knew I wouldn't have enough space on my 8 x 8 page to tell my story, so I added hidden journaling on the back, and let the reader know in the bottom corner to turn the page over. The "tell your story" bit is a piece trimmed off of a Webster's Page letter sticker sheet.

My hidden journaling reads:  Throughout the tumult and turmoil of my childhood, Gram was always our safe harbor. She was the solid rock that gave us refuge and protection from the storms of Mom's turbulent marriage to Jose. When the conditions of our defective family  turned stormy, we'd head to the calm and stability of Gram's safe haven. She was always there to welcome us with open arms. Countless times we'd pile into the car in the black of night to head to the light and calm of Gram's home. Three times we moved to Bolivia, and thankfully three times Gram brought us back. More than a dozen years we endured unhappiness and fighting and alienation and abuse but always we knew we could flee and return to Gram's safe harbor. In the midst of the turmoil and sadness, there was always that light of hope that one day, it would all be over.  

In the end, I was lucky enough to provide safe harbor for Mom when finally she left the source of her misery for good. After she came to see with clear eyes the evil he was, Mom stayed with Farzad and me until she could get on her feet. And I am so proud that she finally left him and worked hard to turn her life to light and happiness. Mom is now a rock of stability in our family. And now, in the gentle storms Gram's aging, Mom is Gram's safe harbor. It's not always easy for Mom to have Gram living with her and Ed, but Mom has always had a loving and generous spirit, and Gram is so lucky to have Mom to protect her. It warms my heart to belong to a family where we will always be there for each other no matter what storms may blow in.

The clouds were trimmed from a We R Memory Keepers paper. I outlined them with a very fine pen and added some Stickles. That compass came from the same Little Yellow Bicycle paper as the boat, and I just added a brad to the center. That pink was very hard to find in my stash, but I found the perfect match (even though the photo doesn't show it's a perfect match) in an old SEI Penelope's Potpourri paper, and as a bonus, it was velvet, to go with the fabric clue of the challenge.

Our Detectives, once again, did a phenomanl job with this Case File, and our members are already adding gorgeous work to the gallery for this challenge, so I hope you'll come check out what we made! And you will definitely want to play for a chance to win a prize from our sponsor, Words or Whatever, or if you're interested in applying for the design team.

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



Regal {CSI Case File No. 9}

We have a fantastic Case File open at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration this week!  (And in case you didn't see my post from yesterday, we're having a design team call, so scroll down if you'd like to be a CSI Detective!)

Here is my page, and the clues I used are:

Evidence: striped pattern (sort of), dictionary page, bird accent, hot-air balloon accent, something translucent
Testimony: six-word memoir (I'm also going to journal on the back with a little more detail about the six-word memoir). He's got a this decorative thing my mom has on his head.

I used this sketch from Sketchabilities. I considered flipping the sketch because Farzad's body is facing to the left, but he's got his head turned, and my friend Tracee convinced me that this was a good position for the picture because with his "regal" stance, it's better for it to look like everything's trailing behind him.

Here are some details.Papers here are Crate Paper (background), Scenic Route (the leaves--one of my all-time favorite papers), Sassafras Lass the postage-stamp looking paper). The border stickers are also by Sassafras Lass, all from the Indie Girl collection.

The bird is by K&Co. She was sitting on some green leaves, and I trimmed those off. Those little playing cards were images I found through google. I had originally wanted to use real playing cards but decided they were way too big for my page, and once I found this sketch, I thought shrinking down some cards would be great to substitute for the two smaller pictures.

That doily-looking blue bit with the pearl center and the heart cut from Little Yellow Bicycle papers. There's my six-word memoir. I wanted to add that sparkly blue brad that matched the glittery Thickers somewhere and just couldn't find a good place until Tracee suggested I put it on the heart, and it was the perfect spot. Thank you, Tracee! (We have the Atlantic Ocean separating us, but we can scrap together through Skype. Ah the marvels of technology!)

The hot-air balloon is from Webster's Pages, and I added Stickles to match the glittery title. The transparent frame is an old My Mind's Eye, and I tore the page that had the word regal out of an old dictionary.

And the design team really outdid themselves! We also have a number of guest designers who contributed beautiful inspiration, so you must go check it out!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my page!

We're Having a Design Team Call at CSI!

We're having a design team call at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration!

You can check out all the details of the call right here.