The Story of a Girl {CSI Case File No. 95}

So I wasn't pleased with the photograph of my layout from this week's Case File, and I had wanted to retake it, but the week was so busy and now it's raining. Sigh. Anyway, we had a really pretty monochromatic palette in the Case File:

Here's my page. The transparent wing on the butterfly shifted (or maybe it was the shadow from the sun), which is the reason why I wanted to retake the picture. Clues I used...Evidence: paint, distressing, wood, fabric (canvas chipboard letters), metal, tearing; Testimony: Document an old memory, feeling blue (sad memory).

I used this sketch from ScrapFriends:

Here are some details. These butterflies are by Pink Paislee. The dots are on their leaves are sparkly. Papers I used on my page are by Little Yellow Bicycle (gingham and background), Echo Park (darker blue), and My Mind's Eye (brown inside the frames).  I printed my journaling on the gingham paper and it didn't quite show up, so I brushed gesso on it and ran it back through the printer. My journaling reads:

Gram says that if you looked at me cross-eyed when I was a kid, I'd break out into tears. Great big, fat tears. Crocodile tears, she'd call them.

I don't remember the cross-eyed part, but I do remember indulging in gargantuan sob-fests. The kind that clench your heart and don't let go. The kind that make your whole body shake. The kind that get you gasping for air. The kind of crying you just can't stop once you get going.

I cried a lot in school--problems at home made me sad. Kids being mean made me bawl--and that was the worst. Mom always told me that I was just giving them what they wanted when I cried, but I just
couldn't help myself.

I've always been sensitive--even now as an adult. I cry when my feelings are hurt, and I cry when I'm angry. I sob at sad movies. I cry at church. Every time I've been pulled over by a cop, I've cried. It's embarrassing, really. One thing I must say, though, I always feel better after I've had a really good cry.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the frames. I felt there was too much brown showing, so I tucked some pieces of doilies in there--I was happy with how that turned out.

I've been trying to be braver with getting messy on my backgrounds. I used a distress stamp in the background and then I mixed gesso and white acrylic paint and used a Crafter's Workshop stencil. I outlined a couple of the circles. I also did some spritzing with spray ink.

This Case File is open until Sunday, midnight. I hope you'll go check out the awesome layouts that the rest of the team and our guest designers made. This is your last chance to win some awesome prizes from our October sponsors, Wycinanka and PaperCrafts Scandinavia/Inkado.

Rather {CSI Case File No. 42}

I adore the Case File we we just opened for investigation at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration!

Clues I used: Evidence: Circles, flowers, texture paste, grass (which I see I forgot to add to the Case File--aack!) polka dots, textured paper; Testimony: Would You Rather prompt. Here's my page:

I used this awesome sketch by Em Stafrace's Page Drafts:

Here are a few details. I used texture paste for the first time ever, and I can't believe how easy it is to use! Why did I wait so long to try this? I used a template by Crafter's Workshop. I love how it looks on this ridged cardstock.

The fun circular flower elements are from this week's Coordinates. Michele does such a fabulous job each and every week to make the perfect printables for our Case Files! Love you lots, Michele! When I was trying to think of how to add a grass element, I immediately thought of the fringe-y Doodlebug Frills. The red number paper is by Little Yellow Bicycle.

The Yes, No, Maybe circle is in the Coordinates too. I made the concentric circle elements by just making circles in Print Shop, changing the colors using the RGB codes of the Case File, and then printing them on Photo paper. I duplicated my photo and flipped it horizontally.

There's another doodlebug frill. I added the striped paper at the end, right before I photographed my page. It's by October Afternoon. The navy blue textured paper with the silver polka dots has been in my stash for years and years. The little aqua doily is cut from a a die by Die-Namics.

I decided I'd add more detailed journaling about each of my "rathers" on the back. I cut these bits from patterned paper tear strips to point the reader to the back. That green bit of paper is pretty old too, by Ki Memories.

Here's what my journaling on the back says The questions came from this site, which was one of the Testimony prompts in the Case File: I would definitely rather see someone start dancing out of nowhere--that would just crack me up and make me smile big. Besides, I've tripped and fallen before, and I don't find that amusing, even though a whole cafeteria of students once thought it was quite entertaining when I slipped on a tater tot and fell on my face!

I would rather discover the whole world than go to outer space. It would be awesome to explore outer space and go "where no man has gone before," but it might get old after a while. I know I can't go to so many places because of the atmospheres, and after a while, planets and stars from a safe distance would probably start looking alike. Earth is such a marvelous, gorgeous gift to humans, and to be able to explore the whole would would be a dream.

For superpowers, I chose the ability to read minds and fly over invisibility and teleportation, but in retrospect, I meant to underline the reverse. I think it would be so cool to be able to instantly teleport myself anywhere. Think of the time I'd save commuting to school. I could visit Tracee in an instant. I could pop over to a friend's house for a cup of tea and then back home. I could go kiss Mom and Gram goodnight and then be back in time for bed in a flash. I could have lunch with Farzad and be back to school instantly.

I am not religious, but I cannot imagine that this amazing planet and universe just started as a bang out of nowhere, so I have to believe it was created by God. 

People always say they wouldn't want to live forever because all their friends and family would die off and they would keep going, but I think you'd make more friends. There are so many amazing things in this world and so many people to meet and so many things to learn that I think I'd never get bored or tired of living. Being the richest person would be awesome, but I think living forever would make you even richer.

I would rather be able to speak all foreign languages than be able to talk to animals. When I first read the question, my impulse was to say talk to animals. I'd love to know what my cats are thinking. But then I got to thinking...part of the magic of animals is that their thoughts are a mystery to us.

Although it would be fabulous to look young until I die, I have seen first-hand the torment and anguish of being sick, so that question was a no-brainer.

This was a really fun Case File. I hope you'll play along. You must go check out what the rest of the team and guest designers made.

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

Safe Harbor {CSI Case File No. 10}

Before I share the current Case File and my layout, I just wanted to remind any readers of my blog that we're having a design team call at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

You can read all about the details here.

We have a dramatic image inspiring our Case File and colors this week:

I wanted to do something dramatic (for me) with my layout this week, and here's what I came up with:

Clues I used:
Evidence: cloud accents, fabric, metal, create light and shadow, use contrasting textures.
Testimony: story about mother hood, compare/contrast people, shed light, and all three inspiration words.

My background paper is BasicGrey, from one of their original collections. The lighthouse came from a Webster's Page paper from their Yacht Club collection. There was a sailboat in front of the lighthouse that I had to cut out because it had happy words celebrating summer which didnt' go with my story. So I had a big gap where I had cut it off and scratched my head trying to figure out how to hide it. I was so happy to find a paper by Little Yellow Bicycle that had a sailboat I could use to do the trick. The seagull and sand dollar stickers are by October Afternoon. I used Distress Stickles to outline the sand dollars because I thought they have a rough, sandy texture.

I had been admiring how Brit Sviggum, who's on my design team, was using cheesecloth on her layouts and decided to give it a try. It was tricky trying to get just the right green, and it wasn't perfect but I managed to get it pretty close to the green in the palette. I first rubbed green distress ink on it, but it was not the right shade, so I tried putting the cheesecloth in a plastic bag, adding a couple of different spray ink, and smushing it around in the bag, and this is what I came up with. I also added a hand-stitched circle, which is something I rarely do--I generally use my sewing machine. The letters are old Heidi Swapp chipboard and old BasicGrey letters that perfectly match the colors.

I was using a sketch from the Creative Scrappers e-book, Creating With Sketches, which is a FANTASTIC book (I used the sketch on the bottom of page 24), and I knew I wouldn't have enough space on my 8 x 8 page to tell my story, so I added hidden journaling on the back, and let the reader know in the bottom corner to turn the page over. The "tell your story" bit is a piece trimmed off of a Webster's Page letter sticker sheet.

My hidden journaling reads:  Throughout the tumult and turmoil of my childhood, Gram was always our safe harbor. She was the solid rock that gave us refuge and protection from the storms of Mom's turbulent marriage to Jose. When the conditions of our defective family  turned stormy, we'd head to the calm and stability of Gram's safe haven. She was always there to welcome us with open arms. Countless times we'd pile into the car in the black of night to head to the light and calm of Gram's home. Three times we moved to Bolivia, and thankfully three times Gram brought us back. More than a dozen years we endured unhappiness and fighting and alienation and abuse but always we knew we could flee and return to Gram's safe harbor. In the midst of the turmoil and sadness, there was always that light of hope that one day, it would all be over.  

In the end, I was lucky enough to provide safe harbor for Mom when finally she left the source of her misery for good. After she came to see with clear eyes the evil he was, Mom stayed with Farzad and me until she could get on her feet. And I am so proud that she finally left him and worked hard to turn her life to light and happiness. Mom is now a rock of stability in our family. And now, in the gentle storms Gram's aging, Mom is Gram's safe harbor. It's not always easy for Mom to have Gram living with her and Ed, but Mom has always had a loving and generous spirit, and Gram is so lucky to have Mom to protect her. It warms my heart to belong to a family where we will always be there for each other no matter what storms may blow in.

The clouds were trimmed from a We R Memory Keepers paper. I outlined them with a very fine pen and added some Stickles. That compass came from the same Little Yellow Bicycle paper as the boat, and I just added a brad to the center. That pink was very hard to find in my stash, but I found the perfect match (even though the photo doesn't show it's a perfect match) in an old SEI Penelope's Potpourri paper, and as a bonus, it was velvet, to go with the fabric clue of the challenge.

Our Detectives, once again, did a phenomanl job with this Case File, and our members are already adding gorgeous work to the gallery for this challenge, so I hope you'll come check out what we made! And you will definitely want to play for a chance to win a prize from our sponsor, Words or Whatever, or if you're interested in applying for the design team.

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



Work in Progress November Kit: Not Just for Fall

The November Work in Progress kit certainly has a fall flavor, but as always, Trish manages to include an eclectic mix of papers and elements that make her kits so very versatile! I've shared some layouts in previous posts that show the autumn side of the kit, and now I'm going to share the other, brighter side. Here's a layout I made featuring a summer photo. The Little Yellow Bicycle "Savor" collection was designed, I think, for kitchen/cooking pages. I used a bit of that and the fun Bella Blvd cloud paper to create this page:

The blue border was from an 8 x 8 die-cut paper, which posed a challenge for me, since I scrap 8 x 8. I cut out the interior of the paper, leaving just the frame and pieced it together and filled it with the yellow cloud paper. I cut out one of the clouds and popped it onto my page with pop dots. I added some buttons from my stash and tied them onto the cloud with the baker's twine that came with the kit.

The kit comes with some cool canvas borders by Little Yellow Bicycle. Those, too, are designed for 12-inch pages, but I simply centered the border on my page and trimmed it. The blue frame that holds my title was from that same die-cut paper that I used to frame the top of my page. The blue parts of the design are glossy and look embossed.

Here's anther page I made with the kit that has a bright, summery feel. Trish had a post about teen idols on the WIP blog and she challenged her readers to create a layout using a similar collage. So I took the challenge! When I was a little girl, I was totally infatuated with Donny Osmond.

I used a border of one of the papers to frame my collage. Again, since the paper was 12 x 12, I had to trim it and piece it together. I placed my clouds strategically to cover the seams, mounting some with pop dots. Aren't those clouds so much fun? There are two cloud papers in the kit--a yellow one and a blue one. I can't tell you how long I've had that blue heart brad in my stash. So happy to use it!

And I thought glittery letters would be the perfect way to go with this topic.

I'm amazed at how versatile this kit is--I scrapped heritage, fall, teen idol, summer, and a friend picture all with the same kit--and still have so much left over to make more pages. Come take a look at the gallery and see what the rest of the team made with this great kit.

More Work in Progress Layouts

Here are my other two layouts from the August Work in Progress kit. This month's kit has a travel spin to it, but I thought it was so versatile and lent itself to scrapping a great variety of topics. I loved the giant "Enjoy Life" die cut that Trish included in the kit, but it was too big for my 8 x 8 pages, so I cut it into two words. Now I have the other part for another layout!

I made this layout to document some things that are making me happy this summer.

I had this picture of me that had only partly printed out and it showed just the top part of my face. I'm not sure why I saved it--I guess it was waiting for me to make this layout!

As I was building this page, i originally didn't have the ruffled strip and that bottom strip, but it was looking kind of plain so I added those bits of patterned paper. Once I had added those, I thought the page looked sort of like a window, with the ledger paper resembling blinds and the ruffle at the top seeming like a valance, so I added a piece of twine to look like the cord that pulls the blinds.

And here's a travel-themed page I made with the kit. I really wanted to use that map paper, but I didn't want to cover it up too much, so I decided to go with hidden journaling and a silhouetted picture of me.

Hidden journaling reads: Sure, I have a very long list of exotic, faraway destinations I'd love to visit some day, but what I really want to see is the U.S.A. I dream of going to Hawaii and Alaska. I want to visit the north- west coast. I long to see natural wonders like Sedona, Yosemite, and Yellowstone Parks and the Everglades of Florida. But I'd also like to stroll through the city streets of Savannah, New Orleans, Seattle, and San Antonio. And I'd love to revisit favorite places I've already been, like the Pacific Coast Highway, Boston, Charleston, San Francisco, Maine, San Diego, New York, Chicago, and Tennessee. How fun it would be to rent an RV someday and drive across the United States with Farzad, visiting the most interesting spots in each and every state. Or I'd like to stay in Bed and Breakfasts and visit quaint little tucked away towns. And once I've seen all the well- known spots, I'd buy those "Weird" travel guides and see all those states with brand-new eyes. Yes, I'd love to travel abroad, but I'd much prefer to see all the beauty of my own country first.

These corrugated letters are so fun. I inked them lightly with brown ink. The little "Pack Your Bags" is from the tear strip on the patterned paper.

Love the Little Yellow Bicycle ticket book that came with the add-on. It has a whole variety of tickets with neat glossy, raised images.

How cool is that wood-grained fabric strip? Love that Trish includes these unique finds in her kits!

I loved working with this kit, and I still have TONS of stuff leftover that I'm looking forward to playing with!

Work in Progress - August Kit

I made four more layouts with the Work in Progress August kit in addition to the one I posted last time. The kit is still avilable for purchase here. I love that Trish puts together kits that coordinate so well but also have varied elements that allow me to do really different kinds of pages, too. I'll share a couple more pages today.

Here is the first page I made. I usually write stories on my pages, but this one is for my album of favorite photos, and for those often don't have stories--the photo speaks for itself.

I thought the Little Yellow Bicycle sand dollar paper was perfect for this picture. I love that it's printed on kraft paper, and it goes so well with red.

Really cool mix of letters in the kit and add-ons this month! The red Pink Paislee letters have the perfect weathered feel for a beach layout, and the kraft corrugated Making Memories letters add wonderful texture. I wanted a lot of texture on my page, so I used some textured and handmade papers. I dug out a seahorse charm from my stash and tied it onto one of the letters with some twine. I cut one of the sand dollars from the paper to use as an O and adhered it with pop dots.

I love, love, love the My Mind's Eye tickets, and five came in the kit so I still have plenty more to play with. I added the date with numbers that came in the Pink Paislee letters from the kit.

Echo Park has burst right onto the scrappy scene, and lucky for me, Trish grabbed them right away! Love how colorful and whimsical their prints and stickers and journaling cards are, and they were perfect for this layout about a quirky childhood memory.

Don't you just love those little duck stickers? So adorable. I mounted a little parade of them on pop dots.

I'll share my last two layouts I made with this awesome kit tomorrow. Have a terrific Tuesday!