Grinchy | CSI Case File No. 401

Merry Day after Christmas! 

Today I'm sharing a super-fun layout I made for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

Here are the Case File and clues for this challenge. 

I used the basic color scheme of pink, red, white and two different greens. I tried to add all the Evidence clues and managed most of them: plaid, solids, geometric patterns, Christmas-themed items, bow, wreath, circle, animal, scallops, transparent elements, buttons, stamping, metal, pleats, and clothing (stockings). 

The greens in the picture made me think of this fun photo of my friend's dad dressed up as the Grinch on Christmas, and the combination of the pink, red, and greens reminded me of a super-old Ki Memories Christmas paper that's been in my stash for at least a dozen years. I made the wreath by fussy-cutting the ornaments from the paper. It's a shiny paper, a little tricky photographing. I distressed the edges to add another texture to my page.

Once I arranged all the ornaments in a circle, I stitched them down with my sewing machine and then set to finding other clues that I could add to the page. buttons, snowflakes, metal, stamping, and a few more clues found their way onto my layout and added lots of different details and textures. I added the stockings to the edge of the photo to 1) meet one of my clues and 2) I always add hearts to the layouts I give away.

I found a red cardinal puffy sticker in my stash that met the animal clue. Scallops, pleats, and transparent elements were other clues and I tucked those behind the photo. I made the pink pleated piece with a Martha Stewart scoring board. That green transparent loopy bit is an old My Mind's Eye transparent frame. I just cut a piece off of it.

The Florence alphabet by Bella Blvd is the perfect font for a playful touch. One of the clues was bows, and I found a pink plaid puffy sticker bow to go beneath my title.

This was lots of fun to make and I was so excited to finally use that old Ki Memories paper! I hope you'll come play with us for a chance to win a gift certificate or a guest designer spot. 

Christmas Tradition | CSI Case File No. 400

Merry Christmas!

Today I'm sharing a layout I created for CSI: Color Stories Inspiration's first December challenge.

Here are the Case File and clues for this challenge:

I had fun searching my stash for Evidence clues and managed to get ALL of them on my 8 x 8 page. I also used the colors from the Case File as well as documenting Christmas.

I was really inspired by the overall look of the Scene--the round scale face, the white on white snowflakes, and the pretty Christmas flowers and leaves. I didn't have a scale, but I had a large clock ace and a clock hand that mimicked the look in the Scene. I used Carta Bella's Hello Christmas collection for this page. One of the papers had tags that I fussy-cut I added some ancient eyelets and baker's twine for more detail and texture. 

I selected that brad because of the metal clue and also it has stars for the stars clue. I added the red glittery heart because I always add hearts to the pages I give away. And how fun are those red and white beads that I found in my stash? They look like peppermint candy to me! I love finding the perfect little bits for my pages!

Bows were a clue, and I found this sparkly red bow in my stash. The holly met the foliage clue. That beautiful red acrylic title is from Bramble Fox. You can see I managed to find some lace, which is sort of a kind of ribbon to add to the vertical strips in the background.

It's hard to see, but I sprinkled some shiny white star sequins on my page. I also added some rub-on snowflakes, which was another clue and of course another brad for the metal clue and the circle clue.

I really have fun poring through my stash in search of the perfect things for my pages and love to challenge myself to use all of the clues on my pages! I hope you'll come play with us for a chance to win a gift certificate or a guest designer spot. 

Ho Ho Ho | Bramble Fox + CSI

It's my turn over at the Bramble Fox Instagram page, and I used the fabulous sparkly HoHoHo Perspextive to create this page, which I also combined with our current challenge over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration to create a page for my friend using this adorable photo of her sweet kids:

Here are the Case File and clues for the CSI challenge. I used a lot of the traditional clues: stripes, plaid, text pattern, Christmas elements, frames, metal, cup, snowflakes, food, something fuzzy, fringe, ribbons, wood, trim, die cuts with printed text, and a tag. For the Testimony, I documented a Christmas moment. And I used the Basic color scheme.

Here are some details. I used Fancy Pants Home for Christmas collection, along with some odds and ends from my stash. I also used some Bramble Fox Hearts. I made my own fringed border using some scissors I bought for cutting herbs. I added some stars to my background with a stencil and some texture paste.

How awesome is that sparkly Perspextive title? I tucked some old sparkly brads and a fuzzy one too in with the Fancy Pants die cuts. And I always love the opportunity to use some of my old fancy fibers I have from when they were all the rage.

Don't you love all the cute gnomes that are in so many of the winter collections this year? I added a fun sparkly bow that I recently bought at Hobby Lobby. It matched the sparkly Perspextive perfectly. 

I found some more sparkly stuff in my stash. That green tree is super old, by Making Memories, and the sparkly poinsettias were another item I scored at Hobby Lobby.

I hope you'll come play with us at CSI. We've got a bunch of awesome sponsors donating prizes and gift certificates.

Oh What Fun | Bramble Fox

It was my turn to share a layout for Bramble Fox yesterday. Here's my creation:

I used the awesome script Oh What Fun title Perspextive from the December Fox Box as well as some of the fabulous hearts.

Here's a peek at the December Fox Box. You always get a couple of packs of Perspextives plus some exclusives.

I used Pretty Little Studio's Glitter and Ice collection and a few odds and ends from my stash, like the Doodlebug sprinkles and the Jolee's snowflakes. The vellum tree is a free cut file from Paper Issues called Under the Tree.

I just love the shine and dimension of the Bramble Fox Perspextives!

Christmas Tree-O {Paper Issues Scraplift Sunday}

I played in another Scraplift Sunday challenge over at Paper Issues, and made this page to document my three trees this year: Christmas Tree-O (trio--get it?). I love it when I can think of a clever page title!

Here is the beautiful layout by Olivia that I lifted:

Here are some details. I used Pinkfresh Studio's Holiday Vibes collection. I layered lots and lots of die cuts from the collection and made my own tag .

I loved that detail of the torn piece on Olivia's layout, so I lifted that too. I used vellum as one of my layers so more of those pretty trees in the background paper would show.

I wanted a cursive font for the title and couldn't find anything small enough, so I made my own by printing it in green on cardstock and cutting it out. The white sprigs are made with an old Martha Stewart punch.

This collection is so, so pretty! There are lots more pieces from the collection in the Paper Issues store, not to mention lots of other awesome stuff AND a gift card bonus sale going on. Use my code Debbi (no e on the end) and get 20% off your entire purchase of scrappy supplies.

Christmas Magic {Paper Issues Free File Free-for-All and Scrap the Girls Challenge}

I love a good challenge, and I found a fun one at Scrap the Girls. This is my page, which I created using the Paper Issues free cut file called Under the Tree.

The challenge at Scrap the Girls was to draw inspiration from one of these dresses. The one on the very bottom right caught my eye, and I drew inspiration from the gathered trees, so I decided to recreate that on my page. I also chose a photo of my friend's daughter all dressed up for a show in a pretty dress.

Here are some details. The colors in the photo were very warm, so I looked for papers with warm tones in my stash and found a bunch of older papers by Making Memories, Cosmo Cricket, and My Mind's Eye that did the trick. I backed the trees and fussy cut some of the poinsettias from one of the papers to add to some of the trees. I found some glittery accents to echo the gold glitter chipboard letters in the title.

The "Christmas" word in the title is from another Paper Issues free cut file called Pines & Needles. I added a little more shine with Heidi Swapp gold Color Shine and Liquitex gold ink, as well as some rhinestones on that celebrate tag.

It's a Ray Thing {Paper Issues Rolling With the Punches Challenge}

I used Paper Issues' Rolling with the Punches challenge to create this page for a friend:

Here are some details. I used a border punch and this twiggy sprig punch for this challenge. The die cut ephemera and papers are all from Fancy Pants' Cottage Christmas collection. That Santa hat is from Michael's, and the chipboard letters are old Heidi Swapp alphas.

I used adhesive foam to lift up some of the presents. The phrase stickers are by Tim Holtz.

I added a gold star brad to the tree and then decided to put some more gold on by adding teensy brads to the mittens.

The Cottage Christmas is such a nice Christmas collection with lots of classic images in a perfect Christmas palette. You can find this in the Paper Issues shop, and if you use my code Debbi (no e on the end), you can take 20% off your entire order! Plus you'll let Cassie know I sent you! :)

Merry and Bright {CSI Case File No. 268 and Sketches in Thyme}

We've got a new Case File open at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. Here's what I created:

Here's the Case File: I loved the plaid and started the whole layout by looking for a plaid pattern. The new Fancy Pants Cottage Christmas collection features several plaid patterns, so I started with that. I used the basic colors in the Scheme. Evidence clues I used are wood background, Christmas elements, circles, tie something, and greenery. And for the Testimony, I obviously chose the topic of documenting the holidays, along with the inspiration word merry.

I also played over at Sketches in Thyme, using this sketch:

Here are some details. The beautiful wreath cut file is from the Silhouette store. The gold puffy stickers are by American Crafts. Those black phrase stickers are by Tim Holtz.

The sketch showed a tag holding the title, but I didn't want to cover up so much of that pretty wreath, so I decided I'd make a tag with vellum, so the wreath would still show through.

I found some pretty red ribbon in my stash, and at the last minute added the pearls.  My layout is on the simple side, as I tend to enjoy adding lots of stuff on my pages, but I just couldn't make anything else work, so once I added those pearls, I stopped.

I hope you'll come play with us. We've got 13 sponsors donating prizes this month! And be sure to go check out all the beautiful inspiration on the blog.