Best Friends For[n]ever {CSI Case File No. 37}

We have a brand-new Case File open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration! We're partnering up with Once Upon a...Sketch all month, and the OUAS designers are serving as Guest Detectives, and the CSI Detectives are guesting over at OUAS. Double the fun! You'll definitely want to play this month!

Here's my page. I took a break for Monica's book and made a page using a childhood photo of me and a random memory. I thought the colors were perfect for the picture.

Clues I used: Evidence - stripes and dots, labels, circles, buttons; Testimony - breaking journaling across several spots (I originally had it in 3 places but it looked better in two spots--thanks Tracee!); Journaled on note paper (sort of); I couldn't bring myself to handwrite such a long story, but I chose a handwritten font.

My journaling reads: I had a lot of best friends when I was a kid. But never a BFF. We were always moving. I was a shy kid, so it was hard to make friends. And whenever I finally did find a best friend, we'd move. Of all the best friends I had, the one I can remember most vividly was Diane Ryan. I remember going to her house a lot. I remember she had  an enormous Great Dane, and  I could ride him like a horse. I remember Diane had the most beautiful bedroom with a princess bed built right into the wall. Curtains shrouded the bed and we'd hide in there and play I Dream of Jeannie.        

                            

I remember we'd play dress-up with her mom's trunkful of fancy dresses, the kind with layers and layers of ruffled tulle under the skirt, and we'd twirl around and feel just like princesses at a ball. I remember staying up late at night watching scary movies and playing Ouija board in her basement until we'd get goosebumps from imagining there were ghosts in our midst and then  we'd cram that board back in its box. I remember leaving my favorite sandals at her house and I couldn't  go get them because we moved. away again.

Here are some details.The ledger paper is by BasicGrey, as is the black-and-white stripe. The red polka dot paper is Jillibean Soup, and the gray chevron is by Echo Park. The Remember bit is cut out of an old K&Co. paper.

The hexagons are cut from a My Mind's Eye paper. I used my favorite stamp by Catslife Press. It's a stamp they made at my request! The label is by Jenni Bowlin.

I was happy to use some buttons. I have SO darn many. I was thinking about adding some brads sprinkled amidst the buttons, but I wasn't sure if I was going to regret it, so I punched some small circles to see about placement and how it would look with some small brads, and I ended up liking the way the tiny punched circles looked, so I stuck them on. That blue label is an old Fontwerks label.

If anyone recognizes this story, it's because this is an extreme makeover of an old layout I made several years ago. Wanna see? :D I revised the story to add a little more detail, too.

Eek! How embarrassing! I think at the time I thought it was a pretty cool page. How we evolve!

It's funny. I wasn't sure how I was going to like working with the colors. I just loved the inspiration and had to use it, but once I got to playing with it, and then when I saw all the amazing things the CSI Detectives and our guest designers did with this Case File, I fell in love! I hope you'll go check out the reveal and play with us!

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