Sweet {CSI Major Case File No. 221}

Happy Birthday, CSI! I can't believe it's been five years since I started CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration! We are celebrating this month with some special surprises, including lots of prizes and many of our retired Detectives putting their badges back on for the month! And of course, we've got a super-fun and festive Case File:

Here's the page I created. It's another page for one of my students that I'm creating. Clues I used...Evidence: I used all of the evidence clues! Testimony: Inspiration Word: sweet.

Some details...I cut my journaling out on my Silhouette Cameo and backed it with some Simple Stories multicolored paper. That sweet little bunting is by Kaisercraft, and I just added some multicolored alpha stickers for one of the clues.

Animals weren't a clue, but I wanted my page to have a bit of childlike whimsy. That little bunny was cut out of a BasicGrey paper, and I added some googly eyes (one of the clues). The chipboard pieces are by Pink Paislee and satisfied the fruit and triangle clues. I've got several puffy stickers on my page (that was a clue too)--that little sugar cube on the triangle made me smile (plus it was a food clue), and the speech bubble puffy sticker by Skipping 5. I tucked in some leaves cut from patterned paper (another clue).

The "photo" and arrow puffy stickers are by Evalicisious. I've got a little jar cut from a Dear Lizzy paper (for the cooking/kitchen clue) with a little pink flower charm tied on for some extra pink. 

And ow adorable is this sweet little dimensional frog sticker? I had to stick him on here, even though he has a yellow belly.

Come play with us for a chance to win a prize from one of our many fantastic sponsors!

Playful {CSI Case File No. 87}

I love the colors on our current Case File at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I almost didn't post this because I hate how my layout turned out. But it's another chapter of Tracee & Debbi's Excellent Adventures, so I had to post it on my blog. As you can see, it's a hot mess. I worked on it for a whole week. I stitched the main thing on crooked. I kept adding stuff because it just didn't look right, and I should've quit while was ahead. I'm really disappointed because, as I said, I loved the colors. And I love this picture of Tracee.

Clues I used... Evidence: map print, butterflies, stitching, mist, arrows, rub-ons, word stickers. Testimony: Write about a trip (Tracee's trip here) and make your journaling wander across the page.

I used a sketch from ScrapFriends.

Here are some details. The background paper is by BasicGrey. The other papers are by My Mind's Eye and Echo Park. That hello button is from 2Peas. When I discovered my layout was crooked, I decided I'd add something to the bottom left of my cluster. I accidentally stuck that Spirit sticker and it STUCK. I tried to get it off, but it was ripping the picture, so there it stayed.

In the background, I used a Crafter's Workshop stencil with stamp ink, Heidi Swapp mist, and the pink flowers are old Fancy Pants rub-ons. That HELLO speech bubble is cut out of a My Mind's Eye paper, from the new Cut and Paste collection.

My title letters are glittery--they're by Sassafras Lass. I wanted to add arrows, and found a little stamp. YOu can see on the top of the layout I screwed that up too. They came out okay on the bottom. What a goober.

These butterflies are in the Coordinates this week. I cut the map print out of the Case File image--thank you, Tracee, for that idea. The "adore" bit is really old--a Heidi Swapp journaling spot.

If you want to see some real loveliness, go check out what the rest of the team and guest designers made with this Case File.

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.

Special Delivery {CSI Case File No. 59}

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

Here is my page. Clues I used...Evidence: Frames, bird, something transparent, branch, create a shelf, texture paste, embossing; Testimony: Document a Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day prompt.

I'm so lucky to have such a romantic husband who sends roses to school every Valentine's Day (he does it for my birthday too).

Here are some details.That red flower isn't quite as bright in real life. It's closer to the red cardstock (and the red in the photograph isn't so bright either--not sure what tricks my camera was playing on me!). The pink cabochon is by Pebbles. It's a little sparkly. The leafy punch is by Martha Stewart.

I used texture paste and a Crafter's Workshop template. The heart arrow and hearts were cut out with my Silhouette Cameo.

The frames and the "Love is in the Air" came from this week's CSI Coordinates. That little bird was also cut with the Silhouette Cameo. I used Cuttlebug embossing folders on the pink and green paper. The pink paper is the back of some old My Mind's Eye Bohemia paper.

I cut out the word "Special" with the Silhouette Cameo. The gray velvet letters are old Thickers. That gray stripe is by Echo Park.

Come see the beautiful layouts created by the design team and guest designers. And you'll definitely want to play for a chance to win a prize from our sponsors, 2 Crafty, Flying Unicorn, and Scrapbook Fantasies.

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

50 by Fifty {CSI Case File No. 56 + Birthday Presents Blog Hop}

CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration turned one this month, and we've been celebrating with fun and festivities all month long. But what's a birthday party without presents?

We are rounding out CSI's birthday celebration with a huge pile of presents! The talented and very generous CSI design team, aka the CSI Detectives, have prepared special blog posts for you this week, and all you have to do is leave a comment on participating design team members' blogs for a chance to receive a present from them! The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you'll have to receive a gift!

We also have the brand-new company Blue Fern Studios joining our blog hop! Our very own Detective Michele Singh is the designer of this company's beautiful chipboard, and we are delighted to have Blue Fern Studios join us to celebrate our birthday on the month they were introduced to the world!

The CSI Birthday Presents Blog Hop will run from January 25 - 29. Winners will be announced in our Full Disclosure (Announcements) Forum the following week. A newsletter will go out to members once this announcement is posted.

Here is a list of the blogs you will want to visit:

Adrienne Ford

Anna-Karin Evaldsson

Annette Gearside

Ayeeda (Aida Domisiewicz)

Blue Fern Studios

Debbi Tehrani

Debbie Standard

Eila Sandberg

Heather Jacob

Helen Wallace

Jasmine Shea

Jeanette Lee

Lindy Gillespie

Michele Singh

Riikka Kovasin

Sascha Schmidt & Maria Schmidt

Shaunery Wharton

Tina Walker

Yumi Takasaki

Zanka (Zaneta Glowa)

Here's a picture of my birthday present you could receive by leaving me a comment on my blog. Just some odds and ends from my stash--all unopened packages--things of which I had double or things from kits too large for my 8 x 8 pages. I just grabbed a bunch of stuff in various colors so that they might go with lots of different future Case Files. (Sorry for the not-so-great photo--hard to get a good one without the glare of plastic packaging.)

So here's our Case File that we just opened for investigation:

Look at these fabulous Coordinates Michele made for us this week. 

When I saw them, my mind went in a million different directions. Here is what I finally came up with. (Clues I used... Evidence:  clouds, strings, dangled something, plain (sort of) cardstock in the background; Testimony: Inspiration Word: optimism.)

How adorable are those little airplane characters? They're from the coordinates.

My design team is phenomenal, and I'm sure they're going to share all sorts of mind-blowing techniques. In my dreams I am a "technique-y" scrapper, but in reality...not so much. Instead, I'll just share my process and thinking behind the elements I chose. I love to try to include elements that help me to tell my story. Some of the things I included may not be so obvious just by looking at my page.

Here are some details. How could I not use this little lady? She's my favorite bit in the Coordinates this week. The papers I used this week are BasicGrey (the background and the black stripe), My Mind's Eye (the diagonal stripe),  and some super-old BoBunny (the red polka dot).

Here's my dangly part of the Evidence. I didn't have any letters in the right shade of gray, so I used some foam Thickers and colored them with gray chalk. The arrows are photo corners.

These two phrases from the Coordinates are what spurred the subject of my page. I'm on a mission to lose 50 pounds by the time I turn 50 in September. I've been saying "50 by 50," like a mantra in my head for the past week and a half since I went back to Weight Watchers after having fallen off the wagon and gained back almost all of my 60 pounds that it took two years to lose. I've been beating myself up about it, and I finally decided to listen to my Weight Watchers leader and give myself positive talk instead of negative. The brad is by BasicGrey, and the loopy border punch is by Martha Stewart.

A little closeup of the sweet doggie. I love that Michele put those stripes on the airplane! That gray element behind the dog is called Starburst from the Silhouette website. (Part of the star prompt in the Evidence list).

I wanted more stars to not only go with the Evidence but also to symbolize the stars we earn in Weight Watchers for positive behaviors and each time we lose five pounds. Hence the "Catch a Falling Star" (emphasis on the falling, as in dropping pounds...) These stars are made with a Studio Calico mask. I originally tried to use gray stamp ink, but they got all smudgy because the stars are so small, so instead, I just used a fine-tip pen and traced some of them. The Maya Road sheer ledger piece is part of the Evidence too, but I also chose one with numbers and turned it upside down so the numbers would be decreasing, as I hope my weight will do. :)

You will definitely want to visit the other design team members' pages, not only for the chance at winning some fun scrappy presents, but also to look in detail at their beautiful work.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my page. Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a birthday present!

Dragon Tea {CSI Case File No. 55}

Case File No. 55 is open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration, and what a fun case file it is:

This week, as part of CSI's birthday celebration, we decided to revisit our very first Case File and scraplift a member, design team member, or guest designer. What a fun blast from the past it was looking through the album. There were so many awesome pages I loved, but in the end, I took elements from design team member Tina Walker's layout, including the basic composition (turned on its side) and the painty strip:

and member Patricia Basson's layout--the shelf idea:

And I used the teacups from the fabulous CSI Coordinates Michele made for us this week:

Now, onto my layout. Meet Godzilla. You will likely see more of him in the coming months. I am a keeper of bearded dragons. I've had many over the past 15 years or so. They live in my classroom during the week, and they're the perfect class pet because they're very docile. My last adult beardie died last winter, so we got a new one. He turned out to be a fierce little guy--very uncharacteristic for bearded dragons--and I knew I wouldn't be able to let my students handle him, so Farzad decided he'd take them to his Maaco shop, and there he lives.

Farzad takes scads of photos and emails them to me. I decided it would be fun to make a scrapbook for Godzilla that Farzad could keep at his shop, and this is the first page I made.

I have to credit my brilliant friend Tracee with the idea of putting Godzilla in the teacups. Thanks, Tracee!

Clues I used; Evidence: Teacup accent, leaves, stitching, scallops, plain white background; Testimony: well, I got carried away and forgot about the Testimony, but I added a little tag with one of the inspiration words.

Here are some details. As I said, I completely got carried away and forgot about the Testimony prompts, so I added this little tag to the teacup. This is my favorite picture of Godzilla--he looks so sweet and innocent. The leaves are from a die by Cottage Cutz, I think. I'd been wanting to try the method of adding paint that Tina talked about in her video about her layout where she swipes paint across the page using an old credit card. It was super easy. I'll definitely be doing this again.

This big brad, which matches the palette perfectly, didn't show up well in the  picture of my layout. The fuzzy green brad is by Sassafras Lass. The green paper is by K& Co., and the brown dot strip was trimmed from a Scenic Route paper. The double scallop border punch is Martha Stewart.

I rescued some old lettering for my title--Heidi Swapp chipboard and Making Memories felt letters, which I stitched on because they'd lost their stickiness. The quote comes from Brian Andreas, creator of Storypeople. I adore him and have all of his books.  I thought a Brian Andreas quote would be fun for this whimsical page. The story I chose was: I was never good at hide & seek because I'd always make enough noise so my friends would be sure to find me. I don't have anyone to play those games with any more, but now & then I make enough noise just in case someone is still looking & hasn't found me yet.

I popped this teacup and one at the top up with pop dots for added dimension. The brads here are by Colorbox (the fabric) and American Crafts.

Come see the rest of the cool pages by the design team and guest designers. This month, Pink Paislee is sponsoring CSI, so you'll definitely want to play for a chance at the ENTIRE collection of Secret Crush.

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