Hello, Ocean {CSI Case File No. 32}

We have a beautiful new Case File open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I used this awesome sketch by Em Stafrace from her way cool sketch site Page Drafts as inspiration for my design.

I used the following clues to solve my page: Evidence: textured paper, wet medium, vellum, softened edges, mesh; Testimony: Document a beach trip; inspiration word seek.

This is another page for Monica's book. In case you don't know about her story, Monica is my best friend's daughter. Her 23-year-old husband just died a month after a six-year battle with bone cancer. I'm grabbing pictures off of their Facebook pages to make her a book to remember all the precious memories from their too-short life together.

Here are some details. Most of the stuff on my page is really old. I get a little thrill from using old stuff! Here you can see a few different papers I used The seashell, starfish, and sand dollar came from a Creative Imaginations paper. The twiggy looking bit is from an old Making Memories 5th Avenue paper. One of my all-time favorite papers. I only have a few bits left and will be sad when I run out. The "Keep Calm and Go to the Beach" is in our CSI Coordinates this month--I inked the edges with two different colors, brown and aqua. That awesome button is by Jenni Bowlin. I stamped on the cardstock rings and added liquid pearl dots. Those blue doilies are cut out of a Heidi Grace paper with a Cheery Lynn Designs die.

I love the stacked pictures in the sketch, but I also hate wasting ink, so I put a white rectangle in the middle of the photos that don't show so I'd save ink when I printed them.

You can see I tucked in some really ancient textured mulberry paper that looks sort of like it's flecked with sand. The blue paper with the gold writing is also really old--it's by Creative Imaginations. The polka dot paper is ancient from a company called Cross My Heart. I think it's out of business. The funky scalloped paper is cut from the edge of a die-cut paper by Crate Paper. I also tucked some ancient blue vellum in there.

I used some really old Scenic Route letters that were the perfect color, paired with the awesome tiny Lily Bee letter stickers, which I adore.

At the last minute, I decided to add the pearls. There's a layer of paper beneath the polka dots that's a sort of beige with a matte metallic gold that I've had FOREVER--I'm talking about eleven years. And the lantern is from one of my all-time favorite Webster's Pages papers--another one I'll be sad to use up.

We have a gorgeous reveal. You'll have to come see what the rest of the team and guest designers made.

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