Resume of a Reptile {CSI Case File No. 68}

We have another fun Case File open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I made another page for Godzilla's book. For those who don't know about Godizilla, here's the scoop: I've kept bearded dragons as pets in my classroom for over a dozen years--I've had several. My last one died about a year ago, and we bought a brand-new baby beardie who was so cute and sweet, as beardies tend to be, but after having him for a couple of years, he turned into a ferocious little monster, and I knew I couldn't keep him in the classroom, so my husband said he'd keep him at his shop (he owns a Maaco--auto body repair and painting). So I have two new sweet beardies, and the monster is now Farzad's. We named him Godzilla for his charming personality.

Here's my layout. Clues I used...Evidence:  circles, dots, stripes, scallops, small brads, stitching, paint, pen work, and triangles; Testimony: document something silly, and the prompt I chose was something about writing a resume.

I used a Page Drafts sketch by Em Stafrace for my page design. It's the current sketch challenge for Paper Stories.

Here are some details. This picture cracks me up. Love how he's just dangling there. Papers I used are by Crate Paper (teal, red,checks, and gold ledger), BasicGrey (the stripes), and My Mind's Eye (the arrow paper). That spiky sun is cut with my Silhouette Cameo. I couldn't work polka dots into my paper but I found this big fabric polka dot button, which is by Cloud 9. The gold brad is by BasicGrey. The 7 Gypsies word stickers were perfect for this page.

Here's a close-up of the journaling. I used 2Peas Tasklist, one of my all-time favorite fonts. One of the prompts in the link I gave for this Case File was to write steps to writing a resume or something like that, and  I thought that would be a really fun approach for the journaling for this story.

I went a little crazy with the paint splats and then added that ink with a Crafter's Workshop template and wished I hadn't added that once It was on the paper. I'm so bad at those artsy backgrounds. I mixed a bunch of colors of paint and water to get a matching color.

The BasicGrey "call me" brad cracked me up when I saw it, and how lucky that the color worked out for this page. I added some small brads for a tone-on-tone look to the red paper and the triangles. I love these brads by Lasting Impressions--they have a matte finish. Those circles are cut from a Crate Paper paper.

You must go see what the rest of the team made--a fabulous reveal, as always!

Fancy Dragon on Sale {Soul Scrappers Guest Designer}

Shazza Bishop, from Soul Scrappers, invited me to be a guest designer this month. Look at the cool graphic she made for the front page of the site:

Shazza asked me to make a special Case File for Soul Scrappers. April is National Humor Month, so the Case Files at CSI, and the one at Soul Scrapper, are all inspired by images I found humorous. I found the Scene on this Case File from illustrator Nuria Diaz:

And here is the page I made. Clues I used...Evidence: banner, gingham, polka dots, stripes, birds, mixed letters, paint drips, scallops, decorative punch, something transparent, white background; Testimony: journal as an advertisement. This is Godzilla, a bearded dragon we bought after Leo, my older beardie, died. I take my beardies to school because they're such sweet, docile pets. Unfortunately, Godzilla wasn't so good-natured, hence the name! So instead, he lives in my husband's shop, and I'm making an album for him. Here's the other page I made.

Here are some details: Since I was making my journaling to read like an advertisement, I thought it would be fun to add a price tag to the title. It didn't show up in the picture, but those black letters are sparkly. I chose to use pinking scissors on the red paper to symbolize the spikes on my beardie.

Here's a little bird I used--a wood veneer piece by Studio Calico. The transparent circles are cut out of a Hambly overlay. I stapled them on with my new Tim Holtz tiny attacher.

I rarely handwrite my journaling, but I decided to give it a whirl. I've always admired the paint drips on other people's pages, but I was always afraid to try because whenever I try out those artsy things on my background, mine always looks like a mess, but I like the way this turned out. I added water to a yellow Making Memories acrylic paint--the color was just perfect for the Case File. I applied some with a paint brush and then blew it across the page with a straw. Then I just plopped some drops here and there.

I used a bunch of older papers for my page: BasicGrey (black stripe), American Crafts (yellow stripe), Pink Paislee (red gingham), Lasting Impressions (really ancient pink polka dot--I outlined the dots). I also used some red rice paper and pink vellum. That chevron stamp is by Creatiate.

I hope you'll come play with this Case File. I've got a prize from my stash up for grabs. Come see the details here.

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!