Yum {CSI Case File No. 48}

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

I decided to document a favorite meal my husband makes. It's not a great picture, plus he's being silly and sticking out his tongue at me, but I was happy to have a picture of him making ghormeh sabzi, my all-time favorite Persian meal.

Clues I used: Evidence - clock, mosaic, silver metallic acccents, transparent element, Glossy Accents, plain brads, border punch. Testimony - Document something kitchen-related.

Here are some close-ups. I punched squares out of a variety of patterned papers, inked the edges, and added Glossy Accents to make them look like tiles. The papers with green are by SEI, the darker blue paper is by Little Yellow Bicycle, and the lighter blue with the green dots is by My Mind's Eye. The background paper is made from one of the CSI Coordinates patterned papers printed on ridged cardstock.

The two little sayings tied with Baker's Twine are also in the Coordinates. That gray chevron paper is by Echo Park. The transparent clock is by Maya Road.

I used texture paste and a Technique Tuesday mask that says "Love it" under the chevron piece at the top.

This shot shows a few of the layers. The notebook paper bit is a journaling card by Elles's Studio. The graph  paper with the three hearts is from the packaging from Elle's Studio journaling cards. I used some old vellum that had blue spots as a layer.

This next picture shows my journaling, which I typed onto one of the CSI Coordinates Spots. I was happy to use an old spiral clip which has been in my stash for nearly a decade.

The Viewmaster reel element is from an Echo Park paper. I saw Helena Virpi use Heidi Swapp photo corners for arrows, so I outlined a few blue ones and have them pointing to the ghormeh sabzi. I thought this BasicGrey brad looked sort of like mosaic tiles, plus it has the silver metal for that bit of Evidence.

You must come see what the rest of the team did...so many cool interpretations of the mosaic Evidence. And you should definitely play--your last shot at winning a prize from our sponsors, My Mind's Eye and Flying Unicorn.

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

Mutiny {CSI Case File No. 35}

We just opened our latest Case File last night at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. When I saw the image I used for The Scene, I fell in love with the colors and knew it would be perfect for our August theme.

I used Susan Stringfellow's Sketch #46 from her Sketch Savvy blog as inspiration for my page design. I always have a hard time scrapping two photos that have different orientations, and I knew Susan's sketches would be the perfect place to look for a starting point. I flipped Susan's sketch horizontally and vertically.

I made another page for Monica's book. If you know Monica's story, skip ahead. If not, read on. Monica is my best friend's daughter.  Her 23-year-old husband just died in July after a 6 year battle with bone cancer. Monica and James have thousands of photos on their Facebook pages, and I've been grabbing them from there to make Monica a book so she'll remember the many happy memories in their short life together.

Here's the page I made with this Case File. Clues I used: Evidence: Sun, heart, wood, photo corners, flowers, fruit; Testimony: I used a summer photo that Monica can use to document a summer, and a the phrase sticker I chose was inspired by the Inspiration Word happy.

Here are some details. Most of the stuff I used on here is pretty old, with the exception of the Martha Stewart doily. That mesh, which is the color of the beige in the palette, is ancient.Look at poor Jame's sunburn!

I made a sun out of the a lime cut from an old K&Co. paper. I was inspired to add stitched sun rays by my friend Tracee, who recently sewed rays on a sun she made.

The teal and green paper are old SEI papers that I thought were perfect for this Case File. The little tropical looking flower is by Prima, and the photo corner is by Heidi Swapp--really old stuff.

I didn't have very many tropical-looking flowers, so I used some yellow silk flowers. The metal-rimmed words are by K&Co.

I have so many interesting and wonderful textured papers from back when they were popular, and recently, I've been trying to add them to my pages. The yellow paper you see here has raised gold dots. I always love a chance to use my Fiskars wave border punch, and the yellow scalloped border is Doodlebug Frills. Remember those?

Not sure how that blue thread snuck in there, but it's not part of the layout. I just wanted to show my wooden heart button.

Gorgeous summery stuff to be seen in our reveal by the design team and guest designers. I hope you'll come play with us!

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

Case File No. 6 is Live!

We just went live with Case File No. 6 over at CSI!

I decided to work with a sketch so I went in search of sketches and found a sketch I had used back in August, from the Studio Calico blog:

I decided to scraplift myself and created this page.
Clues used:
Evidence - wood, metals, two patterns the same colors
Testimony - Illuminate your subject with the backstory.

I love color challenges because they have me digging through my stash to find the colors. I used a wide assortment of papers on my page--BasicGrey Origns, BasicGrey Offbeat, two different Crate Paper patterns, My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow, Scenic Route (the leaves), and SEI Dill blossom.

Here are some closeups. My story wouldn't fit on one journaling spot, so I decided to use a hinge to attach both to my page so the top page could lift up--plus it served as a metal accent for the Evidence. The hinge, which I bought a while back when they became trendy, is from a hardware store, and the sparkly yellow brads are by Doodlebug. My journaling reads:

It all started on our trip to Maine. We girls ordered lobster; you ordered a gargantuan steak as big as a whole plate. Everyone in the restaurant was astonished when you ate the whole thing. You bragged about it for a long time. And now, whenever you see a mammoth steak on the menu, you have to order it. And we always wind up reminiscing about that time you ate the giant steak in Maine.

These letters for my title (not a very original title, I know) are by Making Memories. They're actually made of wood. And the metal brad is really old, also by Making Memories.

The little printed chipboard circles are by SEI, from the Dill Blossom collection. I just love that line--an oldie but goodie!

I always like to add word stickers to my page because they just add that extra bit to help tell the story. I thought this phrase was a funny one--I put it because Farzad always thinks he can eat that giant steak, and I can imagine that he'll still be trying it when he's an old man!

The design team did an amazing job with these colors. You'll have to go check out what they made, and please play along! You might win a prize form our January sponsor, Boys Rule Scrapbook Kits, or be picked for our Under Surveillance lineup!

Thank you for visiting my blog today and reading about my page! I hope to see you over at CSI!

A Happy, Vibrant Summer Palette

Challenge 195 is live at Color Combos Galore! We're kicking of June with the theme of summer and have a happy palette and Designer's Challenge...

Here's the page I made. I have several papers with balloon images and even a balloon stamp, but I had a hard time fitting those with the page I made. I found some balloon images through Google instead. That's my husband in the middle and my best friend's daughter and brother-in-law rocking out.

I had picked out these pictures to go with the colors, and I was trying and trying to think of an angle for my page and then it came to me--air band--balloons, clouds... air--get it? I usually like to add a story to my page, but I in this case, I think the title says it all!

My page was inspired by Creative Scrappers Sketch 117. My pages don't always resemble the sketch because they're 8 x 8 and it's sometimes hard squeezing everything I want onto a page, but I used the basic design of the sketch as inspiration.

Here are some closeups of the balloons. The blue balloon was a black-and-white image I found--I recolored it with my photo-editing software. I lifted them up with pop dots and added some pearls for fun. I found I didn't have a lot of "true" blue papers in my stash, but this one by SEI was pretty close to the blue in the palette. The green paper is really old Scenic Route.

One of my favorite papers--the Sassafras Lass monsters. I originally didn't have them on there, but I've been leaving my layouts for a day before photographing them, and my page didn't feel humorous or whimsical enough to go with the pictures, and I remembered the monsters had blue and red in them. I outlined them with a fine-tip pen and did the same with the Webster's Pages letter stickers, which I have grown to love for their small size, perfect for my 8 x 8 pages!

The cloud paper came from my Work in Progress kit this month. I cut them out and inked the edges with dark blue (the edges were more aqua) and outlined them with pen and then ran them through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder.

I used a Tim Holtz mask with acrylic paint and a stencil brush and just brushed the paint outwards which gave it a fun starburst-y effect. I long admired how Emma Trout outlines her stenciled images, so I tried this out, and I like how it looks. I see that I missed a spot (gotta fix that). I added the "Rockstar" sticker at the last minute to form a visual triangle with the green papers.

I found some old Magic Mesh in my stash and put some snippets here and there on my page. The star stickers are Jenni Bowlin, and I added some black rhinestone brads, by Recollections. I tucked another Sass monster into this cluster. I dug out some old 7 Gypsies rub-ons (the "Check it out"). The metallic circle word "live" is old K&Co. Life's Journey. I thought it was perfect for this page if read live as in "live from New York..." rather than the way I think they intended to use it (i.e., live as if there's no tomorrow...). And I'm always picking up packs of word stickers when I see new ones I don't have because you just never know when you'll need them. I felt lucky to find the "jam" in blue for this page!

Not sure how I like this painty detail at the bottom, but the red masked image at the top made my page feel top-heavy, so I added some strokes down here and then added the scrolly rub-on (another oldie from my stash--BasicGrey). I wished I hadn't added that after I did--it felt really off-center, so I added some more bits from a rub-on border. I have a million of those tiny 7 Gypsies labels and always forget to use them, but I wanted to add a date and found this to be the perfect thing.

The CCG design team and our Featured Member made some awesome pages with this Combo, so hop over and check out what they made, and I hope you'll play with the combo this week--it was so fun to work with!

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page!

Party Time at Color Combos Galore!

Challenge 180 just went live at Color Combos Galore, and we have a fun and festive palette and Designer's Challenge this week!

Whenever I start my layouts for CCG, I put the color swatch up on my computer screen and then search for a photo that will go with the colors. I've had this picture of my mom on my computer for a while and have wanted to scrap it, but that bright red shirt was somehow not working for me. But when I got this combo, I knew it was time to scrap it. This one is for my multi-volume album called "Book of Silly," where I have all the silly family photos documented for eternity!

I pulled out lots of different papers for this one. The gray is SEI, the red polka dots is Girls' Paperie, the monsters are Sassafras Lass, the blue patterns are Scenic Route and Deja View, the red numbers are Making Memories, and I managed to use some "vintage" 7 Gypsies, too!

Here are some closeups: I just adore these little monsters from Sassafras Lass's Monstrosity collection. He was in a little frame, but the frame was the wrong color, so I cut him out and tucked him behind the number because he didn't have a body. He wasn't showing up against the blue paper, so I added that bit of 7 Gypsies paper. The numbers 6 and 5 are for my mom's age, 65.

The transparent tape measure is Teresa Collins. I was delighted to find the LOL sticker in my stash--the perfect color!

This scalloped border is an old Sassafras Lass stamp. I used embossing powder to give it some pizzazz.

Another little Sass monster. I cut off his body because was green and didn't go with the colors. The blue frame and the frame around the Jenni Bowlin ticket was cut out of that same Sass paper.

I can't remember who, but I saw someone have these free-floating pennants, and I thought I'd give it a try.

I have SO many of those old Doodlebug flowers, and I was happy to use one here. The speed limit signs are old Imagination Project stickers. One of the things I love about this challenge is that it gets me digging through my stash. The quote is another old sticker that came on a sheet by Narratives (Creative Imaginations, I think--they look like Chinese fortunes).

I tucked another little monster inside a frame. I forgot to ink him. That's really bugging me, so I think I'll take him out and give him some ink and then put him back. :)

Come on over to CCG and take a look at all the different ways the team did the banner challenge--so fun to see everyone's takes on the same challenge! I hope you'll play along. We have an awesome prize up for grabs from our sponsor, Unity Stamp Company. And we choose a layout to feature each day--it just might be you!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and looking at my page!

Color Combos Galore

A couple of years ago, a girl named Janet started a challenge over at Two Peas called the Pub Color Combo challenge. Janet came up with a color scheme each week and invited scrappers to create a layout using those colors. Anyone who knows me knows that I love a challenge. I didn't play along every week, but it became one of my favorite challenges.

Fast forward to about a year ago. Janet came up with the idea of gathering a team and set up a challenge blog called Color Combos Galore. She invited me to be a part of this color team. Every week, she chose a guest designer with whom she'd create a color combo, and she'd e-mail us a color swatch. It was so fun receiving a new batch of colors every week--almost like getting a package of scrappy goodies on my doorstep! I have to say, some weeks, I'd get the colors and think, "Ugh, what am I going to do with these colors?" But once I got rolling, digging through my paper stash and gathering embellishments, after my layout was all created, I would end up loving the color combo. I don't know how she does it, but Janet is a color genius!

A few months ago, Janet started a whole site, complete with a gallery and forums as our new Color Combos Galore home. Now it's been a year since I've been on the color team, and just last month, Janet put out a call for a new team. I'm happy to say that I'm on the team again, along with a whole bunch of very talented scrappers. Here are the colors we were asked to use:



And here is the page I made:




And I made a companion page, using the same colors, for Sketch This!:



(My [expensive] scanner has not been cooperating with me lately. I'm not sure what's going on. I really don't want to buy another scanner.)
Thank you, Janet, for letting me stay on for another year! I love this challenge!