Two Days {CSI Case File No. 75}

I'm so late posting this. The end of the school year is such a busy time for teachers. Oh, well. Better late than never, I always say. I loved The Scene and the soft, dreamy colors of this Case File.

Here's my page. Clues I used...Evidence: lace, chevron, flowers, jewels, wood, heart, gold, and a banner; Testimony: Document a wedding.

Here are some details. The framed text was cut out of a Teresa Collins paper. Papers I used are by My Mind's Eye (the stripe at the top, the teal underneath the vellum), American Crafts (the gold dot vellum and gray), My Little Shoebox (the grid), and Teresa Collins (the rest).

I used acrylic paint mixed with molding paste and a template from The Crafter's Workshop for the chevrons.

This striped My Mind's Eye paper had all the colors of the palette.  The ink that looks like mist is actually an old stamp by Stampin' Up.

The title lettering is by Webster's Pages. My journaling, on the back, reads: We were in love and had already talked about getting married. We had no specific time frame, but I figured it would happen after I finished school. Like all young girls, I had dreamed of a fancy wedding with a long gown and veil, bridesmaids, and all the trimmings that go with a wedding. As often happens in life, things don't always work out as planned. 

Immigration agents showed up at Farzad's work and hauled him away, set a deportation hearing, and threw our love into a whirlwind. Yes, I was dating an illegal alien. I didn't know it at the time, and Farzad didn't even realize it either. He had come to the United States five years earlier to go to school. When the Iranian revolution started, his parents were unable to send money to the States, so Farzad was forced to quit school and start working. He got a job flipping hamburgers at Roy Rogers in Georgetown. He worked his way up to manager over the next few years, and landed in the Gaithersburg Roy Rogers, where I was working as a cashier. We eventually started dating.

Fast forward six months. An old girlfriend showed up at the restaurant. She scowled at me. I didn't know who she was. Within a week INS showed up at the door to escort Farzad downtown. Seemed this old girlfriend reported Farzad to immigration.

There was no question in my mind that we had to get married, and pronto. There was no way I was going to lose the love of my life, so marry we did. We had two days to plan. File paperwork for a marriage license--Mom had to give written consent, since I was only seventeen. Find wedding garb--we drove all over Maryland, Virginia, and DC to find white bloomers in my size (I had seen them in a dream and knew that's what I was destined to wear). Invite family and friends (just our small family-Mom, Gram, Dawn, Tina, and Aunt Vonne--and our good friends Doris and Lama).

It wasn't the fancy wedding I'd dreamed of--just a civil ceremony at the Rockville courthouse and a gathering at Gram's house with some food and a couple of hastily-purchased wedding gifts, followed by a weekend honeymoon somewhere in the Shenandoah mountains a couple of hours away. But that's okay. I have the life of my dreams with the love of my life, and we'll be celebrating our 32nd anniversary next month. And that's really all I ever needed.

Sure {CSI Case File No. 53}

Case File No. 53 is open for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I was looking through pictures that would work with this palette and came across this picture of Farzad and me from when we were dating. I decided to try the oneword prompt for my Testimony. Basically, you click the button, the site gives you a word, and you have to write for a minute until the timer goes off. My word was "sure" and this is what I came up with. For my evidence, I chose flowers, metal, pleating, fabric (brads) and scallops.

I used a sketch from Sketchbook365.

Here are some closeups.I cut the doilies with my new Silhouette cameo. Still trying to get the hang of the blade settings. That yellowish flower on my page is more of a beige in real life. The butterfly is a Cheery Lynn Designs die. That fabric brad with the hearts is BasicGrey. The leaves are by Cottage Cutz, I think.

I learned how to make the box pleats from Susan Stringfellow. I found the gray striped paper at Mel Stampz blog and printed it on white Bazzill.

I used BasicGrey's LilyKate papers, which were perfect--they had the green, blue, lavendar, and pink in this collection. The green paper is by Autumn Leaves. Lots of old stuff on my page!

Here's my journaling.

You must go check out what the rest of the team and our guest designers did with this lovely Case File. And be sure to play along because Pink Paislee is our January sponsor, and the entire Secret Crush collection is up for grabs!

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

Like a Princess {CSI Case File No. 43}

We just opened Case File No. 43 for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration:

I decided to scrap this photo from my junior prom from 32 years ago. The photo was discolored and dark, so I decided to use a diffuse glow on it. That's my husband, Farzad, who took me to my prom.

Clues I used to solve this Case File...Evidence: damask, frames, something transparent, foliage, patterned brad, black and white patterned paper, and rub-ons; Testimony: Document a special event, tie the past to the present.

(Pardon the bad picture of my layout. Cloudy skies and no time to re-take it.

I had no space for my journaling because I scrap 8 x 8, so I added my journaling to the back of my page, which reads:

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Farzad and me. We look so young and joyful and beautiful. I remember every detail of that special night, and the days leading up to it, as Farzad took me in search of the perfect prom dress. We found my gown at Lord & Taylor in Bethesda, and I knew the moment I saw it that it was the dress I had to wear. It still hangs in my closet though I have no delusions that I will ever be able to fit in that size five dress, even if I ever do reach my Weight Watchers goal.

Farzad rented a tux that went just perfect with my dress, and he took me to dinner at Rive Gauche, a fancy-schmancy, expensive restaurant in Georgetown. Afterwards, as we walked to the car, I remember there were people wanting to snap our picture. 

Walking into the hotel ballroom where our prom was held, I felt just like a princess with my prince charming, and we danced the night away--fast dancing to Kool & the Gang and the Gap Band and slow dancing to Air Supply and Styx. Whereas I felt invisible in high school, I felt like a glowing light was on me that night. I felt just like a princess that night back in 1981, and you know what? Farzad still knows how to make me feel just like a princess 31 years later.

I used this beautiful sketch by Michele Singh as inspiration for my page:

I love that fluffy, sparkly yellow flower. It's by Prima, and I need to get some more of those. I wonder if they come in other colors? They're nice and small and perfect for my 8 x 8 pages.

My patterned papers are by My Mind's Eye (yellow), Paper Studio (light green), and Pink Paislee (darker green). The clocks are cut from a Teresa Collins transparency. The die-cut leaves are from a Cheery Lynn Designs die. I also cut a few leaves from a Webster's Pages paper and tucked them into the cluster.

I knew I wanted to put a crown on my layout. This one is a 7 Gypsies rub-on, rubbed onto a blank scrap of the transparency from the clocks. 

The fabric brad is by BasicGrey. I added those word stickers at the end, when I felt my page needed a little something more. I originally had a black-and-white patterned paper as the bottom layer of my page, but I decided to switch to plain cardstock. I wanted to use that clue, so I tucked a little black-and-white strip behind the green paper matting the photo. It's actually from the tear strip of a Teresa Collins paper. Her papers always have that lovely bit of decoration on the tear strips.

Here's a little closeup of the edge of my layout. I used an old Technique Tuesday stamp on the cardstock. The fancy borders on my page are cut from Cheery Lynn Designs dies. I'm not sure where I got those little tiny flowers--I had a little baggie of them, and they were just perfect for my page.

Thank you, Tracee for helping me decide where to put my title! The birdcage (or urn or whatever it is) is cut form a Webster's Pages paper. The frame is from a Teresa Colllins paper. The letter stickers are both by Webster's Pages.

As always, the design team and guest designers outdid themselves with this beautiful Case File. Come see, and play along for a chance to win an awesome kit from Scraps of Elegance.

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