CSI Case File #73 - You & Me Together

This week's case file over at CSI has a fabulous color scheme and this layout was a blast to put together.  Here's the scene:

And here's my take on it.  I'm really loving my Heidi Swapp masks and have been incorporating them into layouts a lot lately.  This time, I layered the mask. Used inks and mists and some great ombre thread and buttons that I got with this month's Citrus Twist kit.  Thanks for looking!

CSI Case File #72 - Shine

Hello there!  Happy Friday and happy long Memorial Day weekend!  This week's CSI case file had some challenging colors in it and I struggled a bit...and spilled red wine on it (blotted it up quickly and it kind of gave the paper a "vintage look" hehe), smeared ink...you name it. It happened...but really, how can you go wrong with a sunburst and a smile?

Here is the scene:

And here is my take on it.

Always Thinking...

My kid is a thinker.  If she doesn't have a furrowed brow wrinkle by the age of 16 it will be a miracle.  Since the day she was born she has always studied everything with a scrutiny I've never seen in a child her age.  She approaches every bit of new information with such seriousness - a pretty stark contrast to the rest of her personality, which is anything but serious.  But when she comes across something she is interested in, or gets lost in her own thoughts, the brow furrows, the lips tighten into a line, and I swear you can almost see the wheels and gears turning in her brain.  This photo sums up that piece of her perfectly.  

I was inspired by yet another awesome Sanna Lippert tutorial where she created her background with paint and a brayer.  I didn't have a brayer so I used a paint brush.  I added in some chevron masks with spray paint and pulled out my scraps of paper to use them up.  Not even the holes left over from the hole-punched vellum went to waste on this one. The embellies are from my May Citrus Twist kit, with the exception of the buttons, which are American Craft.  Thanks for looking and Happy Monday!  <meta name="p:domain_verify" content="8df407bc94197f5fdaca5730a29196a1"/>

CSI Case File #71...Guess How Much I Love You?

Another fabulous challenge this week over at CSI!  The color scheme was perfection...one of my faves!  So how did I end up with a layout that that is way overdone and has smeared stars?  No idea.  I was going with an evening moon theme, but sometimes the creative process goes awry and this happens.  No matter though...I scrapped some great pictures, and documented one of me and my daughter's favorite books.  So, all in all it's still a scrappy success.  Happy scrapping!

Here is the challenge:

And here is my take on it:

I created the gray background by mixing some white gesso with black acrylic to get a rich gray.

A couple of our favorite lines from the children's book "Guess How Much I Love You?"

Loving these Recollections wooden house embellies!  Note: Paint and Heidi Swapp masks don't mix...hence the smeared stars.  Oh well...live and learn! :-)

May 15th All About A Girl Challenge - Sunbursts!!

 Happy Wednesday!  Summer is just around the corner and we are ready over at All About a Girl!  The May 15th challenge is up and running and the theme is SUNBURSTS!  Come play along with us!  Sunburst layouts are a big favorite of mine right now.  Here is my Design Team contribution for the challenge, created with my March Citrus Twist goodies.

Autumn Joy

That's right.  I'm talking about the joyousness of autumn.  In spring.  When we are all looking forward to 80 degree days, consistent sunshine and warm water.  It almost seems blasphemous, doesn't it?  Playing along with an online sketch-of-the-week challenge this month on scrapbook.com, though, and the photos worked soooo...here it is.  I actually love, love, LOVE these photos so I'm happy I got them scrapped.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Love Always

For this week's CSI case file I went vintage.  This is not a comfortable scrapping style for me, and I always struggle with it.  But this file and photo felt like it needed a vintage layout, so I went for it.  Here is this week's color scheme:



And here's my take on it. (I used this sketch from the Scrapfriends Sketch Challenge #13 as inspiration) Thanks for looking!

Pulled out the bloomers again and a Heidi Swapp title word for the "Love"; handwrote a letter to my daughter and wrapped it in a scroll that I distressed with various Tim Holtz distressing inks.

Little birdie from my Citrus Twist kit, and I went outside and grabbed some twigs for it to perch on.

More Citrus Twist embellies, and a Little Yellow Bicycle word pin.  Bark from a tree in our yard to anchor the photo.

It's a good day for a sunburst!

I tried to scrap some fall photos the other day.  Didn't work out.  This is the time of year where everyone comes out of hibernation and basks in the sunshine.  So warm spring and summer layouts it is!  This one was really fun to make.  The hubs thinks it looks "unfinished" but I didn't want to cover up too much of the sunny rays so I think it's just fine the way it is.  What do men know about this sort of thing anyway? ;-)  Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

I started out by cutting a sunburst mask out of cardstock.

Placed the mask over another piece of white cardstock, grabbed a circle stencil, and added some yellow mist.

I layered a red mist over the yellow to get some firey orange in there.

Removed the mask and got a great contrast of the bright colors and the bright white!

Outlined the rays with a roller pen, stamped and added a bit of shiny bling 

Really felt like I had to bring the green from the grass in the photo into the layout and settled on  these green rosettes.

Materials used:
white cardstock
Heidi Swapp Color Mists in Mustard and Sweet Cherry
Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Lost and Found cling stamps
Sticko dimensional stickers
Webster's Pages bloomers in Happy Green
Graphic Call 45 Curtain Call Let's Dance patterned paper
vellum phrase from who knows where
Roller pen

This...is what it's all about.

Hello friends!  Happy hump-day!  Hope everyone is having a fabulous week! The weather is gorgeous here and it looks like spring is actually cooperating (finally).  75 degrees today? I'll take it!

Today's layout is one I created using my April Citrus Twist  kit for my design team submission for the About A Girl challenge blog.  This is our first full, sponsored challenge over at AAG, and this month we are lucky to have 7 Dots Studio sponsoring the challenges, and they will be giving our winners some fabulous goodies!  So come play along and introduce us to the lovely little ladies in your life.  Cheers!

Lots of layers from the embellies in my April Citrus Twist kit

To compliment the cloud-paper, I beefed up the title, made with ghost letters,  by adding some cotton .

I spritzed some white tags, added some random word stamps, and then embossed with white powder  to add some clouds.  Then I stapled some silver ribbon as pulls on the tags.

More cotton on the puffy clouds.  Really love the way these came out!