MJ Live {CSI Case File No. 116}

We have a rockin' Case File open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration this week!

I'm finally getting around to scrapping a picture from my 50th birthday. All the pictures were taken with iPhones at my party, and I am not at all happy with the way I looked. Sigh.

Farzad had a surprise party for me and hired a Michael Jackson impersonator. So fun! Anyhow, here's my page. Clues I used...Evidence: music elements, monogram, circles, metal, buttons, labels, silhouette, electricity, solid black background. Testimony: journal on several journaling spots.

Here are a few details: Papers I used are We R Memory Keepers (green triangles); Simple Stories (stripes, grid behind picture); Echo Park (viewmaster), Pebbles (gray stripe). The music paper is something I found online and printed on cardstock. The wood pieces are all by Studio Calico. Enamel dots are by My Mind's Eye. Those little chevron metal dots are by Cloud 9. The tickets are by My Mind's Eye.

I cut the title (both the MJ and the Live) with my Silhouette Cameo. I used a Stencil by The Crafter's Workshop and some pastel chalks for the red circles. I rescued some very old Fontwerks labels for my journaling spots. That red label under the MJ is also really old, by Creative Cafe.

The white stuff in the background is a Kaiser Craft stamp which I stamped repeatedly with embossing ink and used white embossing powder. I've been on a mission lately to use up some of the gazillion buttons I have.

This was a super-fun Case File to work with. If you haven't had a chance to play this month, you'll definitely want to give this one a try--you have until Sunday midnight for a chance to win a voucher to A Piece of Cake Designs to buy some of the sweet scrappy goods below:

White Q&A {CSI Case File No. 115}

Here's our current Case File over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I decided to try the Friday 5 for my Testimony Prompt, and came across the questions surrounding the word "white." That's when I got the idea to make a mostly white layout, which I thought was perfect for a sort-of monochromatic palette.

Clues I used...Evidence: bird, leaves; Testimony: Friday 5.

Here are some details. I used my Silhouette Cameo to create the circle background. I hadn't planned on using that gray striped strip on the background, but I didn't place my cardstock on my mat exactly right, so the edge of one side was cut off.

I got a little carried away and forgot about the Evidence clues, and I was nearly done with my layout when I discovered that! So I checked the list and tucked in some white velvet leaves.

And for another clue, I tucked a little Studio Calico wood veneer tweet into one of the circles. 

This Case File is open through the weekend. Come see the beautiful work by our design team and guest designers here.

Miss Maisey {CSI Case File No. 114}

I had planned to get back on schedule with my CSI posts, but that didn't happen this week. This was a really fun Case File, created in honor of Pi Day:

Em's sketch was really fun to work with. I used a picture of my sweet girl, Miss Maisey. Clues I used: numbers, technology accent, speech bubbles, loopy border, circles; Testimony: journal about a name.

I forgot to take closeups, but I can tell you about products I used:

Papers: Studio Calico (white grid background); Lily Bee (green hello); SEI (green with the sketchy lines and green with the circles); Simple Stories (red stripes and chevron, gray chevron); Jillibean Soup (polka dot); Echo Park (view master reel)

Letter Stickers: American Crafts (black foam); Lily Bee (red)

Embellishments: Jenni Bowlin (bingo card); Cosmo Cricket (fabric brad); Two Peas in a Bucket (polka dot flair); the telephone flair I'm not sure.

Stamps: Glitz Designs (Triangles); Sorry I can't remember the speech bubble at the moment.

Stencil: Technique Tuesday

Silhouette Cameo: chevron arrows, paw prints (used sketch pen)

My post at the 2Crafty blog went live yesterday.   As soon as I saw the Circular Panel, I knew those round openings would be perfect for housing accents.  The Circular Panel comes like this:  

If you're like me, you have jars and jars of buttons gathering dust, so that's what I decided I'd use with this chipboard element. One of the wonderful things about 2Crafty Chipboard is that you can cut it and use parts of it, so that a single piece can go a long way. I scrap 8 x 8,  so this feature makes it easy to tailor the chipboard to my smaller-sized pages.

I painted the chipboard with white acrylic paint. I love the look of white on white. 

I adore the font of the Happy Loopy Font word--so fun and fanciful!

I used a couple of arrows from the Assorted Arrows Set to hold the beginning of my title. This is an awesome set to have,  you get 30 chipboard arrows on one sheet!

I used some 2Crafty Chipboard on some other projects I recently made, which you might have seen on my blog.  Here's a page I made for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration, using this Case File.

and this Creative Scrappers sketch:

I used an arrow from the Assorted Arrows Set. I used white embossing powder to give it a textured look.

On the quadrant below, I used pieces from Gears and Giant Gears.  I painted the red and blue gears to match my palette and used clear embossing powder. The gold one was coated with American Crafts Zing gold embossing powder, which gave it a perfect glittery finish to match the letters I used on my layout.

The "Hey You" speech bubble is from the Word Bubble set, which comes with six fun pieces.  I used yellow embossing powder on this piece.

 

I chose to use the chipboard raw on the following page, which I also made for CSI:

 

  I tucked a piece from the Giant Gears collection behind my photo. The thickness of 2Crafty chipboard is just perfect for layering. It gives great dimension without adding too much bulk. I used a text stamp on one of the trendy chevrons from the Chevron Bits (another great set to get--it has 46 pieces on one sheet!) for added interest.

Here's a look at one more CSI page I created using 2Crafty chipboard. I just love the film strip piece tht I used below. It's from the Film Strips-Medium set.  Each set comes with two film strips, which you can actually double if you cut it in half and tuck it between layers, like I did.

 

 

I coated the chipboard with copper colored embossing powder to give it a great shiny, textured look.

  Thank you so much for stopping by and reading about my pages. For those who are asking where can you find this gorgeous chipboard in the United States, there is one shop, The Scrapbook Diaries, in New York, which carries some of the products. If you inquire about ordering, perhaps they might carry more.
 I'll be back in May to share some more work with this awesome chipboard!  

Hello, Happy Home {CSI Case File No. 113}

I'm a little late posting last week's page I created for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. This Case File is still open until midnight tomorrow.

Clues I used: ledger paper, camera, hearts, stars, birds, scallops, envelope (on back for journaling), pen work, stripes. Testimony: Put journaling in an envelope, and all three inspiration words.

I created another page for my mom's album. For those who don't know, my stepdad died the day after Christmas. I'm writing the journaling as if Ed were speaking to her and tucking those stories into an envelope adhered to the back of each layout.

I used this sketch that I found at Grand Diva's Creative Corner:

Here are some details: The little frames, of course, are by Dear Lizzy. The speech bubbles are from another American Crafts paper. The blue papers are by Love, Elsie (ledger) and Simple Stories (dots and stripes), and American Crafts (the triangles). The pink heart paper is Pebbles, and the text paper is by Studio Calico. And of course the little wood veneer bird is by Studio Calico.

The stars are also by Studio Calico. Those fabric covered chipboard letters are Thickers, and the hearts are old Heidi Swapp hearts.

That little camera clip is by Prima. I tucked an ANCIENT epoxy sticker by Autumn Leaves MOD in there. That little heart tab came from the inside of the frames I cut out. The grid stamp is Kaiser Craft.

I added some words to the background with roller stamps by American Crafts. The pink paper at the bottom was from a tear strip at the bottom of a paper, and It wasn't wide enough, so I just used two pieces. Those circle elements were cut on my Silhouette Cameo. 

I haven't yet had time to write the journaling, but it's going to be about how much Ed loved his home with my mom.

Awwww Shucks {CSI Case File No. CC-1}

This month, at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration, we've got a special bonus challenge, our very first Collaboration Case File.

A few months ago, Julene Matthews, founder of Archi-Scraps invited me to submit one of my layouts for her challenge. I was delighted to discover a new challenge. Archi-Scraps is a creative take on the inspiration challenge, where players are presented with an architectural image that inspires elements for your layout. I've long been a fan of and cheerleader for challenges, which is why I often will combine other challenges, like sketch challenges, with my CSI layout. CSI has been blessed with a great following, so I thought it would be a great way to pay it forward and create a joint challenge to bring attention to this very clever challenge blog. So, I proposed the idea to Julene. She sent me their March Archi-Scraps image, and I created a Case File using that image.

I created another page for my mom's album. For those who don't know, my stepdad died the day after Christmas. I'm writing the journaling as if Ed were speaking to her and tucking those stories into an envelope adhered to the back of each layout.

Clues I used...Evidence: stripes, decorative border, trees, architectural accent, clouds, wood, zig-zag; Testimony: Inspiration Word: See.

Here are some details. It was fun picking through my stash, old and new, to find elements for this page. I used some old rubber accents, like this tree from the Detours Collection by October Afternoon. The chipboard speech bubble is new, from the Daily Flash collection by October Afternoon. The wood piece is Studio Calico. Those labels are really old, by Fontwerks.

I used two stencils by The Crafter's Workshop in the background and rubbed ink over them. Then I used several stamps. "This is Good Stuff" is from an October Afternoon roller stamp; the green splotches are from a stamp (I can't remember the brand--it was on a wood block. Tracee and I took it off the wood and cut it in half." The triangles are by Glitz design. That  Fabulous bingo card is by Simple Stories.

I had to add a little Studio Calico wooden Tweet, of course. The yellow scallops are an old Doodlebug "paper frills" that I outlined.

I cut out the clouds with my Silhouette Cameo. That blue paper is by American Crafts. Other papers I used are by Glitz Designs (green triangles), Simple Stories (red polka dot, gray stripe, red stripe, chevron), and Echo Park (yellow). I used an old Maya Road chipboard window for my architectural accent clue. That little rubber charm on the "Good Times" speech bubble is by Ki Memories.

"The story" sticker is by Echo Park, and I cut out the "on back" from a tear strip on a patterned paper--it said "coordinating paper on back." My journaling reads:

What folks can plainly see in this picture is my love for my family, the joy I get from celebrating summer with juicy silver queen corn that I'd always get from a farmer's market, my readiness to take charge and pitch in wherever help is needed. What they might not see, but I'm sure you can hear is the way my brain is always cranking out corny puns. I've always been quick with a play on words, and how I love to hear laughter when people giggle at my corny puns. More often than not, my puns evoked groans, but I knew inside you were giggling--I could tell from the smiles on your faces. What delights me even more is knowing how I've rubbed off on you guys. I'm up in heaven chuckling and smiling every time one of you makes a pun and thinks of me.

This was a super-fun Case File to work with. You'll have to come over and see what the rest of the team and the Archi-Scraps team made. The Case File is open for the whole month of March, so I hope you'll find time to play along!

Two Tickets to Paradise {CSI Case File No. 112}

We just opened a new Case File last night.

I used some pictures from our trip to Atlantis for our 25th anniversary (which was almost 8 years ago)--a dream vacation for sure.

Clues I used: Evidence: patterned background, something sheer, something puffy, frames, flowers, buttons, crystals. Testimony: Document a dream vacation.
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Here are some details. The beautiful chipboard flourishes are by 2Crafty. I painted them with acrylic paint. The flowers are by Recollections--I thought they look tropical. I dug out some old bling swirls that were so fashionable a few years ago but are gathering dust. The frames are by Crate Paper.

I love these old BasicGrey chipboard letters. I stuck a puffy heart on the D. I sort of messed up on the texture paste. I guess it slid under the template, but I just hate wasting paper. It's an affliction, I tell you!

I've got my journaling on the back since I didn't have enough space on the front. It reads: It was a special anniversary to take a special trip. Farzad surprised me by booking  us two tickets to paradise to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Atlantis was indeed a paradise. A luxurious room overlooking the ocean. Lush tropical gardens surrounding the hotel. Wondrous sealife right inside the hotel. A crystal clear sea like I've never seen in my life. Amazing architecture. Exhilarating adventures. Our trip to Atlantis was a once-in-a-lifetime dream vacation.

Here's a better picture of the puffy sticker, by Evalicious.

Come by and see all the gorgeous creations by our design team and guest designers here.