CSI has been published! - Road Trip {CSI Case File No. S365-1}

I'm so excited to finally share a secret I've been keeping since January. CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration has been published in Scrap365, UK's biggest and best scrapbooking magazine. The August/September issue begins our collaboration of special Case Files created especially for Scrap365. Three of our CSI Detectives (Heather Jacob, Sylvia, Mellander, and I) have layouts published in the CSI article, which begins on page 41). Here's a look at the cover of the current issue (arrows added to show our CSI feature):

We opened this Case File for investigation yesterday, and it will run all month.

Here is my page. Clues I used... EVIDENCE: map, stripes, metal, photo corners, circles, sunburst, travel accents, something transparent; TESTIMONY: road trip, 8 fun(ny) facts, journal across 3 labels.

Here are some details: These circles were cut out of two different papers, one very old by A2Z Essentials and the other by American Crafts (Amy Tangerine). The mask in the background is from The Crafter's Workshop, and I used stmap ink.

I was going to do the 8 fun things and then I started remembering all these funny little bits about this road trip to Maine Farzad and I took with my mom and gram years ago, so I went with that. I used Headline rub-ons for the label that says 8 FUNNY THINGS. Love those things--I've had them for years and they still go on like butter. They're really tiny too.

This camera was cut from an Amy Tangerine paper. The brad is by Colorbok. I used papers from lots of different companies on this page--October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye, Lily Bee, Pink Paislee. I love mixing up papers.

This transparent item is by Glitz Design. The border punch is Martha Stewart.

These letter stickers are by BasicGrey. I cut the little geotags out with my Silhouette Cameo.

We hope you will play with us this month. One lucky winner will win the latest copy of Scrap365. If you've never seen this magazine, it's awesome. I've subscribed to just about every scrapbook magazine over the years, and I must say, this is the very best publication I've ever seen. Each issue is chock-full of gorgeous layouts from scrappers around the world, every single one accompanied by commentary from the designer. There are numerous articles in each issue: trendy technique with step-by-step instructions; tons of inspiring articles on topics ranging from journaling to designer's styles to tips for using products by top-notch designers; pull-out sketches; and so much more. Scrap365 has an amazing design team, including some of our very own CSI Detectives: Emma Trout, Heather Jacob, and Riikka Kovasin. You really must check out Scrap365! Check out the Scrap365 blog too for added inspiration, too!

Oh, and I have a second layout published in this issue, too. Here's a peek at it:

Just Because {Creative Scrappers Book!}

Have you heard? Kristine Davidson just published another eBook with her fabulous Creative Scrappers sketches! The book has 60 pages, 56 designers and 125 brand-new sketches and is full of wonderful inspiration. The eBook is available now, and the printed book is available for preorder.

I am fortunate to be a part of this awesome publication. Here is my page. I usually like to scrap stories, but when I was looking for a picture, I came across this one of Farzad...it's one of my favorite pictures, and it's going into an album of favorite photos.

Here are some details.I used a combination of BasicGrey and My Mind's Eye papers on this page, as well as Echo Park (the viewmaster reels). That little love flag is an old Pebbles tag sticker that I cut into a flag shape. I used a Crafter's Workshop template and texture paste to make the diamonds.

Some hand-cut hearts...

The arrows were cut with my Silhouette Cameo and mounted on pop dots.

A little Studio Calico wooden arrow.

I always admired how Lilith Eeckels uses the lose thread on her pages, and I thought I'd give it a try. The scalloped border was made with an EK Success border punch.

Now for something special for you...Kristine has generously given us a promo code to give to friends!  Go to the Creative Scrappers Store  to order your e-book, and enter in code: CWS2Discount  and you will receive $2.00 off of the cost of the book! Tell Kristine that Debbi sent you.

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

Scrap n' Art Featured Artist

Have you heard of Scrap n' Art? It's the very first digital scrapbooking magazine. This month, I'm in the spotlight as a featured artist, and that means I get to share this month's issue with my blog visitors.

How fun!

To see my article--and the whole magazine--just sign up (under the Subscribe tab) and where it says coupon code, type in DebbiT. You might also want to check out their facebook page and make a comment that I sent you there. They'll be having lots of giveaways in upcoming months.

Creative Scrappers e-Book Giveaway!

Do you like to work with sketches? If so, then I have exciting news! Kristine Davidson, founder of Creative Scrappers, has just published an e-book featuring 100 sketches and 50 international designers (including me!). Creative Scappers is my very favorite sketch site, and the sketches in this new book are just fantastic, as are all the wonderful layouts in this book.

You can purchase the e-book here. Or, if you're like me and you'd prefer a printed version, you can purchase that here.

Or, you can leave me a comment on this post by Sunday, February 12, and I will randomly choose one person to win a copy of the e-book.

Published!

It always takes me by surprise when I'm leafing through my latest scrappy magazine and I find one of my pages in there. I send them months and months in advance and as time passes I sort of forget that I had sent my layouts. I was surprised three times this month!

I'm in here:

with this page. It's for the Challenge column called "Who Inspires You?" They asked people to submit layouts that were inspired by another scrapper's style. I submitted this page, which was not inspired by another scrapper but by a graphic designer. I used a Work in Progress kit. 

I'm in here:

with this page, another one I made with a Work in Progress kit. It was for a Vintage call.

And I'm in here:

This page was the most surprising. Jen Lessinger commissioned me to make a heritage page using non-traditional (browns, etc.) for a column addressing reader questions, and here was the question:

I have a stash of photos of my great-grandparents, but I have no idea how to scrapbook them. I want the layouts to be as special as the photos. The problem is that I don’t have much information about the photos. Do you have any ideas?

My idea was to just look at the photo and write down your thoughts and questions.

Jen e-mailed me a few weeks after I had sent in my layout and said that column was being canceled by SBE, but that they might be able to find a way to include my layout elsewhere.

Well, months passed. Then a year. Then another year. I was wondering why they never sent my layout back if they weren't going to publish it--and I was just certain that they'd never publish it after all this time. After all, styles change so fast in scrapbooking, and my page would just seem like "old news" by now.

Well, imagine my surprise when I was leafing through my latest issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. and found this:

And I'll just throw this one out there because I never posted it on my blog. I was in here:

With this page. Jen Gallacher saw it at the 2Peas Gallery and peamailed me to ask if she could publish it in her "Stories to Tell" column about making layouts "shine." Nothing shiny on my layout, lol, but of course I said yes! It's another page using a Work in Progress kit. I've had good luck with those kits!

I've been lucky to have had my work published quite a few times, but I still feel a huge thrill seeing my pages in print! And it certainly makes it more fun when I happen upon my pages by surprise!

Thank you for stopping by my blog today and reading about my pages!

Work in Progress December Layouts Revealed!

The Work in Progress December gallery went live today, so I can start sharing my layouts! This month's kit is probably my favorite so far! And I don't think it's sold out yet, so if you want to grab it, you can get it here.

Here's my favorite layout I made with this kit. The Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 was, of course, perfect for heritage pictures. The little girl is my mom, and that's my Gram, her husband, and her parents in the picture. I haven't had time to journal yet, but I'm going to write my thoughts on the back of the page.

Here are a few detail photos of this page: That sheet of chipboard stickers has so many pieces! I really layered them onto all six of the pages I made, and still have quite a few pieces left!

I made this next page for Creative Prompts for You. It was my turn to choose the inspiration piece, and this is what I chose:

And here is the page I made, using  the December Work in Progress Kit. The little houses are from a previous WIP kit.

The inspiration piece inspired the overall design, colors, the details, and the theme of my page. The blue wall with the white molding is imitated by my polka dot strip. The mesh in the windows inspired my use of the grid paper. My transparency strip was inspired by the windows. I added the leaves when I noticed the potted plant sitting on the windowsill. I drew several of my details from the photo--the little row of houses, the frames, the clock. My journaling on the back talks about how I've reread my favorite book, Alias Grace, several times.

Here are a few closer looks at this page:
 

Thank you for stopping by and looking at my work! I will share some more about my other layouts in the next couple of days.

 
Oh, and if you'd love a chance to WIN this awesome kit, come play with us at Color Combos Galore this month--Work in Progress is our generous sponsor this month!
 

Nose Crinkles {BasicGrey Newsletter}

Every time I look in the mirror, I see more white hairs sprouting on my head and more wrinkles invading my face. It's not a pretty sight. And the more weight I lose, the more the wrinkles come out to play. So, imagine my dismay when my mom pointed out--on my 47th birthday, no less--the wrinkles I hate most on my face--those deep, horizontal lines between my eyes, crowning my freckled nose. "You have the same exact wrinkles I do on your nose." Ummm, thanks for pointing out my wrinkles on my birthday, Mom.

Well, my mom, being the kind soul she is, made the best of the conversation, and I documented it on a layout. I was thrilled when Kelly Goree asked me to make a layout for this month's BasicGrey Newsletter. I just adore BasicGrey, and it gave me the perfect excuse to play with the Oliver collection. I had bought the paper with the monkeys because it was so darn cute--not having any idea how I was going to use it, but this story turned out to be the perfect one to break out those monkeys!

Here's the sketch I got to work with (the sketch was made by Allison Davis):

 

And here's my layout. Scrapping 8 x 8 poses lots of challenges, especially when there's a lot of journaling I want to include. I tried to stay true to the sketch, but my lengthy journaling  made it necessary to make a few adjustments. I love the colors in the Oliver line, and did I mention, I adore those whimsical monkeys?

 

I hope you'll take a peek at the BasicGrey Newsletter to see the awesome layouts Kelly Goree, Allison Davis, and Lady Grace Belarmino made with this sketch. 

Work in Progress + Creative Prompts for You = A Really Nifty Page

The September Gallery went up today at Work in Progress, so I can start sharing the layouts I made. There are still some kits left, and as always, the kits and add-ons are full of really cool stuff--some new Cosmo Cricket Togetherness, some of the awesome new Kaiser Craft with the balloon images, Echo Park's latest collection, and just too many other goodies that you'll have to go check it out for yourself.

Today I want to share a layout I made with the WIP kit for Creative Prompts for You. I got to choose the prompt this week, and I shared a really cool image by Tabitha Emma I found online:

Here's my take on this piece:

I had wanted to use "Apartment Life" for the title, but I was running short on letters. After staring at the letters and coming up totally blank, I turned to A2ZWordFinder, a nifty word generator designed for Scrabble fans. What's great about this site is there's no limit to the number of letters you can input. So I put in my letters and out came scads of words. It turned out Boxy was the perfect title and geared my journaling in an unexpected direction. I decided to substitute the O with one of the Kaiser Craft buttons in the kit, as inspired by the Tabitha Emma piece.

I just love the little houses on the Echo Park paper. I cut out the ones that reminded me of apartment houses and popped them up with pop dots. I really like that they had a grunged-up, weathered look that went perfectly with the feel I was going for on my page.

I've been realling into heat embossing lately, and I used the cool stamp from the add-on as a design element rather than as a journaling spot. I love how the copper colored embossing looks with the pink paper.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my layout. I will share some details about the rest of my September WIP pages over the next few days. In the meantime, head over to WIP to see what the rest of the girls did with this awsome kit and check out what the team did with my prompt at CP4U.

So Vibrant! So Summery! So Fun!

That's what I said when I opened my July Work in Progress kit (unfortunately, it's sold out--gotta snag these awesome kits early!). I'm so excited to show the layouts I made for my first month designing for Work in Progress. The kit features the new Echo Park Sweet Summertime papers and elements, along with a bunch of other goodies, including some Jenni Bowlin stuff. This kit is perfect for summer pictures!

When I saw that giant balloon sticker, I knew that I had to use it and scoured my brain thinking of the perfect photos to use with it, and I remembered these pictures from a trip to Maine about ten years ago and thought the baloon would be a perfect accent. I mounted the balloon on pop dots and embellished it with brads and a Doodlebug frill. I added a swirly image I found online, made it blue, and cut it out. With three pictures and that great big baloon, I didn't have a whole lot of space for my story, so I kept it short and sweet and made it into a border. I matted everything in black to make each element visually pop out of the page.

For my next page, I knew I wanted to use the cool sandcastles that Trish included in the kit. And it was perfect because I had to do a beach inspired layout over at Creative Prompts for You. I wished I had some sand to cover the castle, but I didn't want to drive 20 miles to the craft store, so instead, I heat embossed it with some bronze-colored powder. I so wanted to use that awesome Jenni Bowlin die-cut sun paper, but, alas, it was too big for my 8 x 8 pages, so I cut it in half and cut out the sun and added machine and hand stitches. I just love the little pinwheels in the Echo Park paper! Trish also packed some cool corrugated paper into the kit. I sanded it to give it a bit of a weathered look.

I found this fun picture in my stash and thought that colorful outfit my Gram was wearing would go well with the colorful papers. That tree is gigantic and so fun. I embellished it with circles punched out of one of the Echo Park papers and stitched on some tiny buttons.

Here's the fourth layout I made. I knew when I opened the box that I wanted to use this cute picture of my Gram sitting under an umbrella picnic table on my sister's deck. There was this cool burlap in the kit, and  the frayed edges reminded me a little of that fringe on the umbrella. The fun banner came on the sheet of Echo Park stickers, as did the sun. I wanted to use that sun and some more of the cloud paper, but I wanted to save some of the clouds, so instead of using a big piece of it, I tucked a small bit behind the top layer and folded back the edge and had the sun peeking out. That pretty yellow butterfly is from the kit, too--Jenni Bowlin butterfly banner (the yellow letter stickers are also in that set). The pinwheel patterned paper made me think of making a pinwheel accent, which looks fun with the double-sided paper.

For my last page, I wanted to show that you could get a whole different look than the vibrant summery ones I made. The green and yellow papers are both Echo Park, and I used some of the Jenni Bowlin paper (the red with the suns). I made the flowers with these cool fabric strips that Trish included in the kit. The brown background is Core'dinations paper, sanded, which I had bought from Work in Progress a while back.

This page was published in Scrapbook Trends.

I still have a TON of stuff leftover from this awesome kit, and I'm saving it for summery pictures I will take over the next two months!