CSI #126 - Megawatt Smile

Happy Sunday.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!  We had a busy one again...once summer arrives there's hardly a day that we aren't on the go.  Lots of fun though! :)

Today I'm sharing my layout for CSI's latest case file.  You can CLICK HERE to see what the rest of the design team came up with.

I had originally planned to scrap a color photo of the centerpieces from Ireland's birthday party last year, but when I put the black and white up against these colors I had to do a switcheroo...I love the contrast!

Here is the case file:

For my evidence I chose chevrons, polka dots, scallops and textured (watercolor) paper.  I didn't have a bunch of journaling because the photo was a last minute switch, but seeing that big toothy grin definitely makes me cheerful and is definitely cause for celebration daily, so I chose those 2 inspiration words and created corner sentiment on the layout.

Here are some closeups:

These white canvas American Craft Thickers have been my go to on so many layouts. They are so versatile and the font seems to go with almost anything.  I covered these ones in orange and yellow gelatos, then outlined them with a black ballpoint pen.

Some of my corner journaling.

A closeup of that infectious grin.  And the layers that I put behind it.  It's a bit hard to read in the photo, but I used a Citrus Twist Kit stamp that says "you fill my heart."  The flair button is Basic Grey Hey Girl.

I used gelatos and a watercolor brush to do the base layer of the background, then went over that with a sunburst stencil and some modeling paste.

Thanks for stopping by!!  See  you soon. :)

xoxo,

Shawna

Tree Pose

Good morning and Happy Friday!  Today will be a day of blog posts, as several of my design teams have reveals scheduled to go live today.  First up, Sketchabilities!  Sketch #116 is live and ready to inspire.  Even better, we were lucky enough to receive some fabulous chipboard from Creative Embellishments to work with.  Creative Embellishment sells some seriously awesome, high quality chipboard.  CLICK HERE to visit their online store.  And, CLICK HERE to see what the rest of the talented design team came up with combining their chipboard with the sketch!

Here is my layout.

And here is the sketch.

I chose some awesome geometric shape chippies to work with and covered everything in a layer of gesso to start.  Then I went over the shapes with lots of gelatos to pull in various colors in the photo of my little yogi.  

Here are some closeups.  Because the shapes made such an impact, I kept the rest of my embellishing to a minimum.  For my background, I started with some Heidi Swapp color mist in Blush and Gold, then went over it with some green ink and a Tim Holtz mask.  I added a little bit of shading with a sharpie and some gold Liquid pearls on some of the squares, as well as on the background of the page.

Great gold title letters from American Craft Thickers!

And there you have it!  Make sure to stop by Creative Embellishments and check out their chipboard.  Then come on over to Sketchabilties and put your chipboard to use! :)  See you later this evening with the latest CSI reveal!

xoxo,

Shawna

Play!

Good morning!  Sketchabilities is back with another fabulous sketch for you all!  Come play along with sketch #11 by clicking HERE!  On another note, Sketchabilities is having a design team call!  These girls are super talented and lovely to work with and I hope that some of you will check it out and apply!  You can click HERE for all of the details.  Now back to the sketch:

And here's my take on it.

 I wanted the layout to feel as fun and playful as the photo, so I went mixed media crazy on this one...the background contains paints, mists, gelatos, gesso....it's all on there.  Then I added a sunburst stencil with a slightly transparent white mist, and scribbled some yellow gelato in the rays, outlining it all with black sharpie.

I painted some fabric Thickers for the first "play", the second is an embossed stamp, and the third is a Heidi Swapp sticker that I covered with white acrylic paint.

The circle was just cut from cardboard, and then covered with paints and acrylics.  The white parts were embossed with white embossing powder, then the whole thing was outlined with black ink.  I love the way this circle turned out!

I layered frames over and under the photo and added a bit of a paper strip at the end.

The clouds were great dimensional stickers, which I covered with modeling paste to make them "fluffy." Then I added some pink glass beads just to pull in some of the pink from Neighbor Joe's shirt.

And that's it!  This sketch is seriously awesome so please do come play along with us!

xoxo,

Shawna

CSI Case File #111 - Friend

Finally sitting down after a busy week and realized I hadn't yet posted CSI's latest case file reveal!  Here it is...and it's a yummy one!  CLICK HERE to play along!

No closeups this week because, well, I just sat down...and realized I never took any.  Did I mention I just sat down?  And I'm too lazy to get back up and photograph the details?  Anyway it's dark out.  And it's Sunday!  LOL  Anyway, I hope you enjoy and that you will come play along with us at CSI!

xoxo,

Shawna

Fierce...

What can I say?  It's been a productive couple of days in the scrapbooking department!  LOL  I'm double-posting again today...I hope that you checked out my mixed media layout!

For this post, I'm sharing a layout I made for my first try on one of the awesome challenges over at Scrap Around the World.  I love that they give you a mood board that you can interpret in any way you wish.  The only requirement?  Be inspired by something on the board.  Here is the board I worked off of.

I was inspired by the awesome paint/gelato look in the chevron image on the top left, and the quote on the bottom left.  Had a blast putting this one together.  The great thing about working with gelatos and wet backgrounds is that you don't have to pile on the embellishments.  Here is what I came up with.

As always, I am appreciative of the feedback and comments.  Thanks for stopping by!!

xoxo,

Shawna

Sketchy Solutions...

So I recently discovered a great challenge blog and online scrapbook supply store called  The Memory Nest and I decided to play along with their January sketch challenge.

+

Looks pretty easy right? Nope.  Not for this girl.  It's these simple sketches that stump me. Especially with a vertical 4x6 photo.  I've grown quite used to scrapping smaller, usually square photos, so to scrap a larger photo was more of a challenge than I expected (and I still had to skinny it up so it's more like a 3x6).

I started a layout with the larger squares of paper layered behind my photo.  Agonized over it for a couple of hours, then tossed it and pulled out a light grid covered cardstock and my good old Faber Castell gelatos.(shocker, right?) ;-)  Every time I have struggled with a layout I have ended up coming back to the gelatos and I always feel happy with the outcome.  So here's a bit on my process of putting together a layout using mediums as substitutes for paper elements on a page.  Give it a try!

For this layout, I used the gelatos as a stand-in for the lighter gray paper layer shown in the sketch.

First I put a decent layer of gesso over the background paper.  Once that dried, I scribbled big lines of color with the gelatos, finger blended them, then went over them with water and a watercolor brush.  If you want your gelatos to blend well without hard lines, apply them softly to the paper - you don't have to press down hard at all.  Then wet a watercolor brush and apply a generous amount of water on the lines that separate your rows of color.  Blend the colors out until they look the way you want them.  I stood my paper up and tapped it on my desk to get the colors to run into each other and make some dripping and pooling.

I used a stencil and added some circles with modeling paste over the gelatos, then layered strips of vellum to stand in for the darker gray paper in the sketch.

 A few hearts, a button flair, and a little bit of doodling.  Viola.  A super cute pastel page of the kiddo. :)  I switched the elements but stayed pretty close to the sketch shape.

I hope enjoyed this little how-to...and link me to your layout if you give this technique a try! :)

Have a fabulous weekend!

xoxo,

Shawna

One Little Word....

It's a New Year and the perfect time to hop on board and play along with us at Challenge YOUrself! Afterall, isn't that what we all resolve to do in January of each year?  Challenge ourselves.  To do better. To be better.  Or just to love ourselves more just the way we are?  I don't make a huge deal out of resolutions, because I have a hard time sticking to them, but I do have a couple biggies this year and I intend to put my all into incorporating them into my life.

On that note, here's our next challenge for YOU.  Choose a word that you will focus on and reflect upon throughout the year.  Your One Little Word.  Your mantra.  Your "I can do this" and "I will do this."  Pair it with a photograph of you.  Once again, you have an entire month to complete the challenge (deadline is February 5th), so plenty of time to think about your word and get your layout in.  All you have to do is link up your layout on the blog and you will then be eligible for these adorable Tim Holtz, Basic Grey, and Crate Paper button packs!

My One Little Word for 2014 is "present."  And not present like a gift under the tree.  Actually present..for life.  Less time plugged into electronic devices and behind the camera and more time spent actually living.  I want to be "all in" the moments of my life.  Be totally there -  hearing what is being said, doing what is being done.  This is a biggie for me and I will reflect on my word frequently.

What will your One Little Word be?

The splashes of color were done with the 50s Diner pack of Faber Castell gelatos...if you are a gelato fan like me,
this is an amazing color combo of gelatos worth checking out!

Enjoy your day!

xoxo,

Shawna

My favorite snow star

I'm on a scrappy streak lately!  Loving winter vacation where I can stay in my jammies and just play. :)  This layout is for Scrapfriends' December sketch challenge and I will readily admit, I got a little carried away and this page MIGHT be slightly gaudy LOL...I had this page of woodgrain paper with some modeling paste on it leftover from a page gone bad awhile back and for some reason I didn't throw it away.  Worked out to simulate the snow on this page.  I added some blue gelatos and let them drip to the left, and pulled out the modeling paste again for some little circle dots and to make the snowman.  (These photos were taken of my little one making a snowman earlier this winter.)  I couldn't find a good spot to put my journaling so I will likely add it to the back of the page to tell the story of her silly faces.  You see, Frosty the Snowman came to life when the top hat was put on his head and the first thing he said was "Happy Birthday!"  This is my daughter's replay of that scene, so gaudy or not I love this page. :)

Here's the awesome (and challenging!) sketch from Scrap Friends.

I love your visits and comments so thank you for having a look!  Have a wonderful Sunday!

xoxo,

Shawna

It's Friday...and you know what that means!

Time for CSI's latest case file reveal!  This was one of my favorite color schemes from the past few weeks and I had a blast putting this layout together.

Here is the case file:

And here is my take on it.

All of the colors are there, though the greens are subtle and used in embellies.  For my evidence I chose butterflies and wood, and for my journaling I used the inspiration word "fly" and included the lyrics from a song by Dave Matthews Band called "You and Me."  For me, it perfectly captures the essence of the crazy ride of life that my husband and I are on together.

My favorite part of this layout is how the gelato drips naturally fell into what, to me, looks like two people, with the taller person's head bent down as if kissing the forehead of the shorter person.  I added a couple of wooden hearts to them to hopefully make them a little easier to "see." And now that I look again, I think it kind of looks like a person being held up like she's crowd surfing in the taller drips.  LOL  I swear, I haven't had a drop of wine as I write this...

The embellishments are a mix of a bunch of stuff I had in my stash - some October Afternoon Travel Girl from a previous month's Citrus Twist Kit, some Maya Road wooden squares from a prior month's Birds of a Feather Kit Co. kit, some Yellow Bicycle canvas butterflies, and some Tim Holtz stamps.  A little bit of this, and a little bit of that! :)

Thanks for stopping by and having a look.  I hope you will come play along and solve this week's case file!

Have a fabulous weekend!