A Shore Thing

I'm still alive! The end of the school year is always a super-busy, exhausting time. Now that I'm on summer break, I'm hoping I'll be able to start getting more current with my blog posts.

Here's my layout from the Case File before last:

I love these colors! They screamed summer and beach to me, so I made another page for my husband's niece and her husband.  I immediately thought of the old Scenic Route papers for these colors.

Clues I used... Evidence: chevrons, polka dots, ampersand, transparent items, crystals, something sweet, flourish; Testimony: stack your spots (I stacked word stickers).

I used this fun Creative Scrappers sketch:

Here are some details. That yellow sunburst was cut out with my Silhouette Cameo. The orange-framed transparency is an old My Mind's Eye transparent frame cut in half.

The chipboard letters are by BasicGrey. There's my crystal brad, which was one of the clues. I cut the waves out with my Silhouette Cameo.

Here's a peek at a couple other elements, which show some more of the clues I used--the chevron brad and the flourish brad that I thought looks like a wave (which went lopsided when I was photographing). The word stickers are by K&Co, and the arrows were cut out of one of the Scenic Route Papers from the Metropolis collection I used. That ampersand was sitting on my desk, leftover from another layout I did a few weeks ago.

This Case File just closed over the weekend, but you must go see what the DT and guest designers did with these colors, and the members have been making some awesome pages too!

Bedtime {CSI Case File No. 73}

What a fun Case File we have going at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration this week!

Here's how I solved this Case File. Clues I used...Evidence: Circles, swirls, tone-on tone patterns, pom-pom trim, architectural accents, something upside-down, birds; Testimony: Directions.

I had to make my page after work again last week, so being in a bit of a rush, I turned to a sketch. I used one of Em Stafrace's fabulous Page Drafts--the one currently up at Paper Stories. I love this sketch so much that I went pretty literal with it, and the page came together painlessly. (I tend to agonize for hours over the placement of everything.)

I lied a little. I struggled a bit with the upside-down element. I tried the bird, but it looked like a dead bird. The house looked awkward upside-down. My husband came into my scrap room and saw me frowning. I told him I needed to put something upside down. He looked at my layout and told me to put the pom-pom trim upside down, and I said well, there's not necessarily a right-side-up with trims. He came to my rescue and suggested putting one of the photos upside-down, and I loved how that worked out! I painted a Maya Road chipboard house and added glitter, but the glitter started sprinkling off, so I added Glossy Accents. It made it so shiny! 

I used lots of old paper on here--the old Scenic Route Metropolis was an almost perfect match for this palette. I also used some old October Afternoon papers.

The blue circles were made with a Crafter's Workshop template. I used molding paste mixed with a little blue paint. I was thinking how I'd love to add some mist, but I always screw up mist. I need to practice using that this summer. I remembered some old Stampin' Up Stamps that look like splatter, and that's what I used. I love how well that worked out! It's funny--I almost got rid of those stamps a few years ago, before the whole mist trend, and I'm so glad that I'm a packrat and kept them instead. The cut-out circles sort of reminded me of spirals, for the Evidence, but I also drew a few spiral-y outlines on some of the circles.

Here's a closeup of my journaling. I went with the Directions prompt, that I thought was a fun way to document my little old boy's bed-time ritual. 

I couldn't find the right color letters that would fit in the space, so I painted some Webster's Pages letters with the blue paint that matched my circles, and I added glossy accents to them.  If you click on the image below, you can see how shiny they turned out.

Here's one of those Studio Calico birdies that seem to be appearing on a lot of my pages lately. He looks totally different covered with glitter instead of left in its raw wood veneer state.

You must go see what the rest of the team and our guest designers made--really fun stuff in the reveal. I hope you'll play along.

Wonder {Scrap Africa Guest Designing}

Have you heard of Scrap Africa? It's an awesome scrapbook challenge with an amazing design team for inspiration. They feature a sketch challenge at the beginning of the month, plus an additional challenge mid-month. I'm so excited and honored that Denise van Deventer invited me to be a guest at this wonderful site this month!

Here's the sketch I got to work with:

And here is the page I made. Recently, my friend's mom died, and I've begun a scrapbook for her. My friend's daughter gave me a flashdrive with a bunch of photos, and I just thought these were the sweetest pictures.

I wanted to use the nature colors to go with the quote I was planning to use and also pull in blues to go with the blues in the pictures. I happened upon these old Scenic Route papers and paired them with a newer Echo Park paper (the blue in the background).

Here are a few details. That doily shape in the background was cut out with my Silhouette Cameo. How I love those Scenic Route leaves, and how sad I'll be when I use up the last of them. That was one of my favorite paper companies.

The photograph on the bottom was super dark. As I lightened it, it lost a lot of the color, so I decided I'd change that one to black and white.

This sweet little fabric birdhouse button  is by Colorbok. The butterflies were punched out of an old SEI paper.

Go check out what the awesome Scrap Africa team made, and I hope you'll play along. This was a fun, versatile sketch. They have a great giveaway up for grabs too!

Happy Trail {CSI Case File No. 20}

Case File No. 20 is open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration, and what a fun one it is!

And Michele's printables are just irresistible!

I had a million ideas floating around in my head. I had originally intended to go with the "retro" angle and scrap some pics of me and my sister from the 1970's, but then I had another brainstorm.

We moved to a new house back in November, which meant 20 added minutes to my daily commute. I was a little worried that I would find it a drag, but I've discovered that I love, love my commute. There's virtually no traffic. I drive along country roads, waving good morning to the cows and alpacas. And I cross through a tree farm as part of my commute, and I love that part of the trail, so I decided I'd scrap that.

I couldn't for the life of me get a great picture, but here it is...

Clues I used: Evidence: dots, mushrooms, bugs, stitching, kraft background, staggered heights, white space (believe it or not, I was going to add more stuff but decided to leave a little breathing room), and felt letters; Testimony: Inspiration Words: slow, trail

I used the current Creative Scrappers sketch:

Here are a few closeups. I just adore the little snails and toadstools that Michele made for us! The quotes are in the CSI Coordinates, to. Those leaves (and actually all of the paper) are by Scenic Route.

Those circles are from a Scenic Route paper--one of their Christmas collections, believe it or not.  And those dots are by Heidi Grace. They're called metal dots, and I think they're so cute. They sit on a little pop dot. I originally didn't have stuff outlined, but I felt my layout need a little something, so I added some brown pen outlining to the metal dots and the circles. Just added a little more definition.

I used one of the toadstools as an i in my title. My friend Tracee helped me me with a few things as I agonized over the placement of everything. I originally had different brown letters for "happy," but they were a little too big, and Tracee suggested these little Lily Bee letters that I had forgotten about. (Thanks Tracee! xoxo)

There are little ladybugs in the Coordinates, too. I printed my bits out on glossy photo paper because I wanted the colors to be saturated. When you  use cardstock, the paper absorbs some the ink and the colors come out a bit lighter.

At the last minute, I decided to add bee trails with baker's twine. Aren't those bees adorable? They're also in the printables. I also added the bits of patterned paper behind the photo squares and the 7 Gypsies stickers at the last minute.

I say it every week, but you MUST go see what the design team and guest designers did with this fun Case File! It just blows me away every week how everyone interprets the same case file in so many different ways! If you haven't yet had time to play, you have this week and next week's challenge to play for a chance at winning an awesome kit from C'est Magnifique.

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