I Mustache You {CSI Case File No. 71}

Case File No. 71 is open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration, and it's a fun one--great colors, fun evidence and testimony, and an awesome sketch created just for us by our Composite Sketch Artist, the beautiful and talented Em Stafrace.

I haven't made a page for my "Book of Silly" for a while, so I went in search of a picture for this book of silly family photos. I found this picture of my nephew and his girlfriend on my sister's Facebook page, and I knew I wanted to scrap it.

I've been saying for a while that I don't get the whole mustache trend, but I got sucked in for this page. Clues I used...Evidence: circles, birds, speech bubbles, clouds, doodling/pen work, vellum, and bicycle( I thought the circles sort of looked like bicycle wheels); Testimony: Use speech bubbles to hold journaling, make up a conversation.

My camera apparently hates yellow. I took about 50 pictures of this layout and it still doesn't look quite right.  Sigh.

Here are some details. I'm in love with those little Studio Calico wood veneer birds. I bought 3 packs of them on sale, so you'll see them on lots of my layouts for years to come! I used my Silhouette Cameo for several things on this page, including the clouds, speech bubbles (the grid paper ones), and the mustaches. Papers I used are Bella Blvd (yellow chevron), American Crafts (blue, and circles), Scenic Route (grid), Collage Press for Pink Paislee (red stars), My Little Shoebox (blue grid behind the yellow).

I got the Coordinates after I had finished my page but I just had to use this "carpe diem" word art. So fun! That little blue bit with a heart is called a metal dot, and it's by Colorbok--I got them from JoAnn's. I put the clouds on pop dots to make them float.

I thought the gray velvet Thickers were sort of like a fuzzy mustache and perfect for my page. Here's a closeup of those circles cut out of the Amy Tangerine paper. I thought they looked like bicycle wheels.

The "dialogue" speech bubble is also in the Coordinates. 

Come see all the cool interpretations of this Case File and sketch here.

CCG + HMITM = One Fun Page!

I've had an extremely busy couple of weeks between my scrappy life and my home life. We're buying a house and have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning to get our house ready to list. So I last week I had to choose between doing a page for Color Combos Galore or doing a page for How Much Is Too Much. In the end, I decided I couldn't decide, so I combined the challenges. Here's the Inspiration Board I had to work with:

Our challenge at HMITM is called Clowning Around (It's International Clown Week), and we had to use:

• 8 buttons
• 1 flower
• 11 different patterned papers
• 1 red circle
• mist or paint

From this prompt, I immediately thought of making a page for my Book of Silly (yes, I have an album of silly family photos--actually several volumes). Debbie had provided a picture of a clown to use as inspiration, and as I was going through my photos, I came upon this picture of my nephew with his hair dyed bright red for school spirit week, and I knew it was the perfect photo for both of my challenges. Here's the page I came up with (for the life of me, I couldn't get a straight photo of this page--sorry!):

I used sketch 166 from Creative Scrappers as inspiration for my page. (Ever since I got on the CS design team, I set a goal to go back and do all of the sketches--which will take me a long time since there are so many!)

Here are a few details. I love Brian Andreas. I have all of his Storypeople books, and I use a lot of his stories for my Book of Silly. I thought this quote would be fun to use with this picture. I made the journaling label by using the RGB codes to get the perfect colors and then printed it out on photo paper.

That electron thingy with the pearl in the center is a BasicGrey rub-on, rubbed onto a transparency.

Eleven patterned papers are a LOT for an 8 x 8 page, so I decided to use bits and pieces cut from papers. The background woodgrain is Hambly. They gray is by American Crafts. The red polka dots and the eye charts are by Jillibean Soup. The periodic elements paper is Reminisce. Those green circles with the off-white bubbles in them are cut from a Crate Paper pattern, and the circle numbers are cut from a My Mind's Eye paper.

Here you can see more patterned papers I used. The red circle with the star is from an old Scenic Route Christmas paper. The leaves are cut from a Luxe Designs Paper. They wre bright lime green, so to tone them down, I added an olive colored chalk. They were still too bright, so I brushed gesso over them, and that gave me almost the perfect shade of green for the palette. I got that electron image from the Internet and printed it on photo paper. The part of the HMITM challenge that was trickiest for me was the flower. I didn't want a girly page, so I hunted through my stash to find something that would meet the flower requirement and found this little brad. I found a bunch of gray buttons in my stash to meet the 8 button requirement.

You'll have to go check out the awesome work the CCG and HMITM teams did with these challenges, and I hope you'll play along. Both challenges are immensely fun!

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

WIP + HMITM = One Wild and Crazy Layout

I used my May Work in Progress kit to make my page for the current How Much Is Too Much challenge, which is called "Behind the 8 Ball," and we had to use:

8 patterned papers
8 rubons
8 brads
8 stickers
8 word title

Here's the page I made. That's my mom. This one's going into my Book of Silly. The WIP May kit featured the new Hometown Summer collection by Pink Paislee/Collage Press, along with some BasicGrey Life of the Party, so I thought it was perfect for this whimsical picture of Mom.

Here are some closeups. Those little circle people were on cards that were on the same paper as the letters. I used a circle punch, mounted them on circle-punched black cardstock and then added watch crystals on top. I've had those darn watch crystals FOREVER--two boxes of them, from when they were all the rage. I've been trying to use up some of my old stash. The cloud is a die-cut that came in the kit, and I ran it through a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The little rub-ons are really old, too--Imagination Project. I tied a little baker's twine around a couple of the letters for fun. I love the yellow woodgrain paper (BasicGrey Life of the Party). Note to self: Buy some more sheets of this!

My favorite paper in the Hometown Summer collection is the Thermometer paper--a whole sheet of these images! The triangle paper is from a zig-zag BasicGrey print that I cut out. I had a hard time figuring out what stickers to use for the 8 stickers because my pae was getting busy, and I found these round colorful stickers by Colorbok in my stash.

The eight-word title stumped me. I wanted to use this title, but it was actually nine words and said "Humor is staying in touch with your inner clown," so I just took out the word is and used a colon, and voila! I now had eight words. The rub-on letters are by Headline. Love those things! They go on like butter. I found them at AC Moore in the fine arts section, and they come in different styles and sizes. The letter stickers are by Webster's Pages. I love those also because they're nice and small and perfect for my 8 x 8 pages.

You should go take a peek at the fun pages the rest of the design team made with this HMITM challenge and all the awesome layouts in the WIP gallery this month! I hope you'll play with us at HMITM. Our challenges are really fun, and you might just wind up in our How Awesome Is Too Awesome Hall of Fame and be asked to join us as a future guest designer.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading about my page!

Caught in a Bad Romance {CP4U #61}

Challenge #61 went live today at Creative Prompts for You. Such a lovely prompt, provided by Kaori Fujimoto:

I usually start with a photo and story, but this time I knew right away I wanted to mimic those bowls and use the pretty red, white, and pink color scheme.  So I went in search of a photo that would go with these colors. An unexpected photo landed in my hand, and I went with it. Here's what I made:

It's going into my book of silly family photos. Obviously. That's my husband and my mom's husband blowing each other a kiss! Never a dull moment at our family gatherings, I tell you!

So, I set about trying to recreate those bowls with paper. Not an easy task. I misted punched circles with water and molded them into bowl shapes. They didn't quite look like those shiny bowls, so I painted them with Crystal Effects, which gave them a nice glossy finish. Here's a close-up. I didn't have the brads at first, but when I lined them up, I felt like they needed a little something-something. The lace was inspired by the tablecloth in the inspiration piece. I used lots of old papers from my stash, including 7 Gypsies, Wild Asparagus, Anna Griffin, and some others that I'm not sure who made.

The next picture shows how glossy the circles look. I got a Slice for Christmas, and I finally tried it out. I still need to get the hang of it, but I used it for the green leaves. The label is by K&Co, and the rub-on letters are by Headline. Love those things. They come in a bunch of different sizes, from quarter-inch to an inch tall, and they are just perfect for adding to labels and small spots. You can find them in the fine art section of AC Moore.

The stone wall in the inspiration photo made me think of the old faux stone texture papers I bought eons ago. Never purged them from my stash. The red print is old Wild Asparagus paper, and of course the butterfly is Jenni Bowlin. The pink artisan label is My Mind's Eye, and I thought the 7 Gypsies "You are so beautiful" sticker would be hilarious on this page.

That stamped frame is by Glitz Designs, coated with red embossing powder. Right before I photographed my layout, I felt something was missing, and I added the Heidi Swapp chipboard hearts.

Loved how the other design team members interpreted this prompt. Head over and take a peek, and play along with us. Besides having a great time with this challenge, you could win a prize from our sponsor!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my layout!

A Cool, Elegant Palette at CCG

Challenge 186 went live on Thursday night at Color Combos Galore!

So cool. So suave. So elegant. And I had the perfect pictures for this challenge!

Psych! (How's that for an April Fool's joke?) I have no recollection of taking these pictures, but it's quite typical of Farzad to give me gooberish poses when I ask him to smile pretty for the camera! This one's going into my book of silly photos. (Obviously.)

Since Studio Calico is sponsoring us this month, I wanted to try to use a kit for this page. I wound up dipping into several of the kits to find the perfect colors. I wasn't sure how I was going to embellish this page, but when I turned over the Sassafras Lass crossword paper, I discovered these fun hippos. The teal one was an incomplete image, on the edge of the page, so I just decided he'd be marching off the edge of my page. The "Waazuup" is a magnet I picked up from the Target Dollar Spot. It had a bunch of words and phrases from the TV show The Office.

I used Pencil Lines Sketch 231 as inspiration for my layout, and the sketch had a little bit up at the top left corner, so I used that to hold the first part of my silly quote. Other papers I used are by BasicGrey (the white dot background), Crate Paper (the teal stripe), and Studio Calico (the gray stripe--which I was delighted to discover matched that unusual gray on the inspiration board). The rub-on letters I used on the BasicGrey label are made by Headline. Love those things. You can find them at AC Moore in the fine art section, and they come in a bunch of different sizes, including these 1/4-inch letters, and they rub on like butter. The yellow circle was punched out of the We R Memory Keepers paper that I used on the middle section of my page.

My chipboard letters are by BasicGrey (black) and American Crafts (teal). I used the center of some of the letters as dots on top of the yellow circles. The rub-on phrases surrounding the photo are by 7 Gypsies (called Disclaimers)--I don't know if they still sell them, but I love them and bought several packs when they came out a few years ago.

The frames are cut out of another Sassafrass Lass paper. Again, I thought they were just the perfect shade of gray for the palette. I was inspired by the model's metallic shoes to dig out some old 7 Gypsies photo turns.

I matted most of my elements in black, as inspired by the photo on the Inspiration Board. And I always get a little thrill when I can use some eyelets!

The design team and featured member took a more elegant approach to this challenge. Go check out their beautiful work, and I hope you'll play along. You just might win some fabulous goodies from our sponsor this month!

Party Time at Color Combos Galore!

Challenge 180 just went live at Color Combos Galore, and we have a fun and festive palette and Designer's Challenge this week!

Whenever I start my layouts for CCG, I put the color swatch up on my computer screen and then search for a photo that will go with the colors. I've had this picture of my mom on my computer for a while and have wanted to scrap it, but that bright red shirt was somehow not working for me. But when I got this combo, I knew it was time to scrap it. This one is for my multi-volume album called "Book of Silly," where I have all the silly family photos documented for eternity!

I pulled out lots of different papers for this one. The gray is SEI, the red polka dots is Girls' Paperie, the monsters are Sassafras Lass, the blue patterns are Scenic Route and Deja View, the red numbers are Making Memories, and I managed to use some "vintage" 7 Gypsies, too!

Here are some closeups: I just adore these little monsters from Sassafras Lass's Monstrosity collection. He was in a little frame, but the frame was the wrong color, so I cut him out and tucked him behind the number because he didn't have a body. He wasn't showing up against the blue paper, so I added that bit of 7 Gypsies paper. The numbers 6 and 5 are for my mom's age, 65.

The transparent tape measure is Teresa Collins. I was delighted to find the LOL sticker in my stash--the perfect color!

This scalloped border is an old Sassafras Lass stamp. I used embossing powder to give it some pizzazz.

Another little Sass monster. I cut off his body because was green and didn't go with the colors. The blue frame and the frame around the Jenni Bowlin ticket was cut out of that same Sass paper.

I can't remember who, but I saw someone have these free-floating pennants, and I thought I'd give it a try.

I have SO many of those old Doodlebug flowers, and I was happy to use one here. The speed limit signs are old Imagination Project stickers. One of the things I love about this challenge is that it gets me digging through my stash. The quote is another old sticker that came on a sheet by Narratives (Creative Imaginations, I think--they look like Chinese fortunes).

I tucked another little monster inside a frame. I forgot to ink him. That's really bugging me, so I think I'll take him out and give him some ink and then put him back. :)

Come on over to CCG and take a look at all the different ways the team did the banner challenge--so fun to see everyone's takes on the same challenge! I hope you'll play along. We have an awesome prize up for grabs from our sponsor, Unity Stamp Company. And we choose a layout to feature each day--it just might be you!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and looking at my page!

Another Work in Progress Page

As I said in my last post, I think October is my favorite Work in Progress kit yet! I made three more layouts, and I would've done a lot more if I'd had time--there's so much cool stuff in this kit!

Hidden journaling reads:  Since our new TV doesn't have a clock on it, Farzad went in search of a clock for our family room. But when you're a gadget guy, an ordinary clock won't do. No, you need a fancy-schmancy, bells-and-whistles kind of clock.

Clock number one was the "Floating Message" clock from Brookestone. It has this arm that moves back and forth at lightning speed and displays not only the time, date, and temperature, but other messages you can program. The only problem: you have to sit and wait for the dumb thing to go through all those messages before you see the time. I just want a clock to tell me what time it is! So back it went to Brookestone.

Clock number two was the obedient clock. You were supposed to ask it what time it was and it was supposed to reply. The only problem: this clock wasn't obedient, unless you were right in front of it and didn't have a Persian accent. That one went back in the box.

Clock number three was the projector clock. This gadget shines the time on the celing. The only problem: you have to be right under the image to see it. Oh, and the room has to be dark. Yep, that one went back, too. So now, I am still clock-less. Can't we just get a plain-old clock that tells time? Nope, says my gadget guy. The quest continues.

My  layout started with the clock border in the kit. And then I noticed that the street map paper had all these 24s in circles on the, which seemed perfect (24 hours). I decided this would be the perfect kit to tell the funny story of the clock quest, and all the road-signs from the BasicGrey Wander collection were perfect, since Farzad's quest to find the perfect clock had him running all over town.

I knew I wanted to use that cute chipboard airplane, so I used it to hold part of my title. I mounted the Jenni Bowlin Stickers on a piece of the ribbon tape that came in the kit. It was bright yellow, so I inked it to make it match the gold-yellow in the paper and embellishments. I love those great big bold BasicGrey letters that came in the kit and I outlined them with black pen to make them even bolder.

 

I had to include a big clock somewhere on my, so I raided my stash and found this Maya Road sheer clock. The BasicGrey cog sticker with the arrows was perfect to go on top of it. Since he was sort of going round and round in circles looking for the perfect clock.I cut out the "Wander" title from the tear strip of the paper--it perfectly described what Farzad was doing!

There is an update to the story. Farzad found a clock that I can read from my scrap room. It looks like a plain digital alarm clock with big red letters. I thanked him profusely for getting a plain clock that I can read. It wasn't until that evening when we were watching TV that I looked up on the ceiling and there was the time projected! My sneaky gadget guy!

A Couple of Recent Layouts...

Our current challenge at How Much Is Too Much? is called "Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other." Paula challenged us to use 6 patterned papers and 6 stickers on our layout. I had these papers from an old Studio Calico kit sitting on my desk from my layout "Oh! The Places I've Gone," and decided to use them for this challenge. I hadn't done a page for my book of silly photos in a while, so I made this page:

A couple of weeks ago, it was my turn to make the challenge at Creative Prompts for You. This is the inspiration piece I gave the team:
And here's the page that was inspired by that image:

I love being able to combine old and new stuff on a layout.

We're Back, Too!

We took at holiday break at Sketch This!, too, but we're back. I always love working with Janelle's sketches--they're so versatile. Here's my take on sketch 96. It's for a book I'm making with pictures of my silly husband hamming it up for the camera.


And here's the sketch Janelle sent us: