Operation Sparkle {CSI Case File No. 228}

Our mid-month challenge is live at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration:

Here's my page. Clues I used...Evidence: Solid background, chevrons, arabesque shape, frames, monograms (sort of--I used an ampersand), architectural elements, flower, embossing folder, silver metal, transparent stuff, and puffy stickers. Testimony: Journal about your husband and inspiration word home.

Here are some details. I bought the Domestic Bliss ephemera pack on a whim because I liked the little potted plants. When I opened it and saw that little vacuum cleaner, my first thought was, "When will I ever use that???" Well, a few weeks ago, my husband and I started what I am calling Operation Sparkle, aka spring cleaning. It's now part of our Sunday afternoon routine. We're shining up everything in our house, one room at a time--cleaning windows, moving furniture and vacuuming up the dust bunnies, and just overall making everything sparkly! Operation Sparkle just sounds more fun than spring cleaning.

My husband is such a good sport and he happily came along on the ride and even grabbed some window cleaner and hammed it up when I was taking pictures of our first sparkled room! I found some sparkly silver Thickers in my stash that worked perfectly with the palette, and I love that I was able to find some phrase stickers that worked perfectly with my story!

When I started working on this Case File, I knew I wanted to use this We R Memory Keepers paper for the architectural element. I wanted to use it as a background, but it just wasn't working, and then I realized I should use plain white cardstock background, since that was one of the clues. I used some watercolor and then found a stencil that had an arabesque shape for another clue and added texture paste with that. I was happy to find that sparkly silver star to balance the silver title. The House + Love = Home piece is from that Domestic Bliss pack, as is the "Where's the Maid" speech bubble.

How fun that I found that puffy sticker mustache to add to the speech bubble?! And the Sunday and Home stickers in the perfect colors were a perfect find in my stash. The clues called for a transparent element. I found an old K&Co scripty transparency in my stash and stapled some bits on. The little metal dots are on strips and I used those in several spots on my layout.

Another little puffy sticker in the perfect color added a little something-something, and the potted plant, also from the Domestic Bliss pack sits inside a frame from my stash. I was trying to add a little paper flower, but couldn't make it work, so I looked in my wood veneer stash and found a flower, which met one of the Evidence clues.

I hope you'll come play along. We've got tons of awesome sponsors donating prizes. Oh, and we have a design team call running, and you can use this or our other April Case File for your entry.