'Escape' Layout - CSI Guest Detective and Sponsor

Today I'm quickly sharing this layout that I created when I guest designed for Color...Stories...Inspiration or CSI in August.  I was also happy to be one of the sponsors donating a $25 gift voucher to my online Etsy shop, The Midnight Kraft Desk for the month of August.

As you can see I'm a bit behind in posting this--we'll blame 'life' itself  as getting in the way as usual eh?  :-)

Here is the case file that we had to solve along with the inspirational photo which helps determine the overall look & feel of your project.  If you have the time, I definitely recommend playing along with CSI.  I always have so much fun whenever I get the opportunity to participate in one of their challenges.  The cases are monthly & there's always many fabulous prizes for several lucky winners!

I was able to create a good ol' fashioned layout which I haven't had the chance to in ages.  As you can see, I tried to incorporate all of the colors from the case file.  My layout is based on our most recent family vacation to the Caribbean.

The pink fabric star flower seen here is from my own stash.  I have these plus flowers in additional colors available for sale in my Etsy shop The Midnight Kraft Desk.

Here are more detailed closeups.

The background of my layout was a plain piece of textured white card stock.  To this, I added several strips of leftover designer paper that I had in my stash along with several strips of washi tape in order to create the striped layered background.

I've hidden journaling on my layout as well.  My journaling is the flower tag seen in the photo above.  I made the tag by adhering the flower image (which was actually a sticker) to a piece of leftover white card stock.  I then hand wrote my journaling on the back of this tag & tucked it behind the photos.  It's kept in place with the arrow paper clip.

I also tried to add several travel themed embellishments, bits & bobs such as camera images, the passport acetate embellishment & words such as 'Destination' & the title of the layout which was 'Escape'.

Supplies: Paper - American Crafts (Amy Tangerine), Foam Stickers - American Crafts (Amy Tangerine) Card Stock - American Crafts, Pink Fabric Star Flower - The Midnight Kraft Desk, Other - Washi Tape, Paper Flowers

Thanks for stopping by!

A Dog's Point of View Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers!  Hope you're all having a wonderful Valentine's Day.  It's the day of 'Love' so make sure you give all your loved one a big hug & kiss.  Let's not forget that love encompasses much more than just the love between you & your sweetie.  There's the love shared between parents & children, the love between you & your parents, the love shared amongst friends & I can't leave our four legged companions behind--there's also the unconditional love that our pets provide.

This layout just so happens to be based on our family dog Toby.  I 'made' time to play along with CSI's Case No. 110.  First of all, I once again loved the theme & second Emma provided one of her fabulous sketches!  I couldn't resist.  Her sketches cut down my scrap time practically in half since I don't have to sit there for hours trying to figure out a design that I'm happy with.

One of the options for the testimony is to journal from a pet's point of view--which is what I did...but I also took the pictures from Toby's point of view.  So in all the photos you'll see my husband's oh-so-sexy legs!  lol

Here's Case No. 110.  I incorporated all of the colors & Em's sketch.  For my evidence I have: crown, flowers, pearls, jewels & a somewhat solid background (I added my own design--it originally was a solid piece of cream colored card stock.

For the testimony, I wrote my journaling from Toby's point of view--or at least what I believe he may be thinking.

As mentioned, I started off with a solid piece of cream colored card stock for my background.  I added all the designs & texture with the use of masks, stamps & embellishments. 

Once again I did some coloring on this page.  With a white gel pen I 'colored' in the splats & splatters that I traced with the use of a Crafter's Workshop stencil. 

I used molding paste to add a bit of texture along with a Prima Marketing stencil.

To mat my large circular photo I used a 5" inch gold doily.  I applied some stamping & tissue tape along the right bottom of my page.  Wow, so I've recently discovered the wonders of tissue/washi tape!  As usual I'm eons behind everybody else.  I just never had any in my stash until recently & I'm enjoying the different effects & things you can do with these tapes.

Here's my journaling stored in one of my fave ways which is in a scroll.  I include journaling/story/thoughts in every one of my layouts.  So I've experimented with different ways to store my journaling besides writing onto the back of my pages.  If interested how I make these scrolls--feel free to check out a tutorial I made for these here.

I wrote the journaling based on how I feel Toby thinks just by observing his personality through all these years.

Journaling reads:  I've seen many legs in my lifetime & after 6 years (that would be human years--I've lost count as to how much that would be in dog years) I'm pretty sure that I'll be seeing many more legs in the future.  To me, seeing legs is about as common of a view as faces are to you humans.  How you balance yourselves on just two legs is beyond me--I personally need all four of mine.  

However, none of this matters--you are my family & though I may not be able to talk, I do listen & communicate my thoughts through my eyes & tail. I do not have a shoulder for you to cry on but I do my best to comfort you by lightly laying my head on your lap.  I may not be able to hug you but I will stand by you when you are lonely.  I feel that I should always try my best to make you laugh--even when you're feeling sad & I know that I love you unconditionally & have pledged my everlasting loyalty to you. 

To my sweet Toby--the best dog in the world!

These felt flowers are items that I bought off an Etsy shop called The Felt Shoppe--they are so well made & the felt adds a soft touch to my page. The owner has several items all made with--you guessed it...lots of felt!

Once again I used my Dymo label maker to make my title.  I'm loving this little gadget!

Don't forget to pay CSI a visit.  Don't forget that I'm one of the sponsors for February & one lucky person will win a voucher to my shop.  

Supplies: Paper - American Crafts Card Stock, Authentique, Stencils - Prima & Crafters Workshop, Embellishments - Um Wow Studio, Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn, Scrap Désirs, Flowers - The Felt Shoppe, I Am Roses, Stamps - Tim Holtz, Prima, Hampton Art & Stamping Bella, Inks: Ranger Distress Ink, Archival Ink

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit--enjoy the rest of the week!

Knowledge Is Power Layout

I'm so very happy to be one of CSI's (Color, Stories, Inspiration...) main sponsor for February!  I'm offering a voucher to my Etsy shop to one lucky winner!

In addition to being CSI's main sponsor--I also get to be one of their guest detectives.  How fun!  I've been a fan of CSI since their very first case file was revealed.  In fact, if interested--feel free to check out my entry for their first case file here!

I fell completely in love with Case File No. 109.  First of all--I'm such a book worm myself.  Anything involving books is a good thing in my opinion.  One of  my biggest aspirations for my son is that he'll love books just as much as I do.  Which is why I started buying him books before he was even born!  Yes--by the time he came into this world he had a reasonable collection of Dr. Seuss, several fairy tales that I myself grew up with, educational books, picture books & much more in his always-growing book collection.  Also since I'm fluent in both English & Spanish--many of these books are bilingual which absolutely thrilled me to no end to find books printed like this!

So when I received this case file--I took a few of my son's books out & spread them around him & snapped these photos.

The colors for this case file are excellent for boy themed pages--they worked just right for my overall theme.  They're a combination of colors that I don't usually work with & I loved the challenge this brought.

For my evidence I have: book pages, silver accents, birds & frames

For my testimony I've created a mini book to hold my thoughts & journaling.  I have a tutorial available on how I make these mini books--you can find it here if interested.  All of my layouts include journaling.  So I'm always trying new ways to store my journaling onto my page.

Layers, layers & more layers was how I tackled this page.  I have many little bits & bobs, papers & embellishments layered one on top of the other.  I also did a bit of masking, painting & even included some mixed media & stamping onto my background.

Here's my booklet that holds my journaling.  I love creating these little booklets--they make for really cute unique embellishments for my pages as well.

Here you can see a bit of the mixed media & stamping.  The word 'Books' was done with a fine tipped Sharpie marker & the use of 1" letter stencils that I bought at my local craft store.  TIP:  Go back to your childhood & color!  With a couple of Prismacolor pencils I 'colored' in the letters for the word 'Book'.  I then took a metallic gel point pen & randomly highlighted the letters.  You can do this technique for anything...designs on paper, letters, titles etc.  Use pencils, markers & even crayons!  Color them in for a different effect or look.

The title was made with my Dymo label maker & adhered onto my page with pop dots.

The bright red organza star flower & small yellow ribbon flower are items from my own personal stash.  I have both of these in more colors available in my shop.  They make for excellent fillers to clusters & are really cute embellishments.

Here's what my journaling book looks like when opened.  The main point in my long list of thoughts is that I hope to inspire my son to find the wonders of books regardless of all this technology available in this day & age.  Cell phones, Face Book, the Internet & who knows what else will be invented in the future--I know there's no way to avoid that & that's OK but, I hope that he'll still pick up an old-fashioned book once in a while & read.

Primary Supplies: Paper - 7 Dots Studio, Stamps - Tim Holtz, Prima, Mask - Crafters Workshop, Paints/Mists - Shimmerz, Tattered Angels, Embellishments - Prima, Kay's Kreative Korner, Tim Holtz

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the week!

Recipe For Making Love Layout

Hello fellow scrappers!  With Valentines Day just around the corner (can you believe it?) I'm digging out my wedding photos and/or re-doing wedding pages that I've done in the past & just wasn't 100% happy with.  This one is actually a re-do.

The current challenge going on over at Colors...Stories...Inspiration (C.S.I) triggered this re-do. I found the color palette to be just right for this page.

So here is me & my hubby over 5 years ago on our wedding day.  Yes, it's been 5 years already!  I know for those of you who have been married 10, 15 or 20+ years 5 is probably not such a biggie.  However, I'm more surprised not by the number but by how fast these 5 years have flown by!  It just feels like yesterday that we were exchanging vows & here we are going on our 6th year together.  I'm sure pretty soon I'll be talking about our 10th anniversary--sigh...tick tock tick tock...

Here's the C.S.I challenge I based my page on.

For my evidence I have: tickets, swirls & music pattern

For my testimony I've used the song title & lyrics from a song

I've also based my design on the provided sketch.

The 'Love' part of the title is an Acrylic Expression by Clear Scraps.  I kept the texture of the title simple.  All I did was highlight the edges of the letters with a red Sharpie Oil based Paint pen.  This gave my title the simple & perfect effect I wanted.

The Love tickets are by Tim Holtz.  The lyrics are from Harry Connick Jr.'s song "Recipe For Making Love"--which is also the title for my layout.

We also played this song at our wedding:  A little bit of me & a whole lot of you.  Add a dash of starlight & a dozen roses too.  Then let it rise for a hundred years or two.  And that's the recipe for making love.

We found this to be a very cute song to be part of our wedding--it also helps that I'm a huge jazz fan!  :-)

The light blue pearl string I've had in my stash for ages.  In fact I have various pearl strings in my stash that I really need to use up. So you'll be seeing these trims on several of my projects.

The little glass vial is filled with tiny little red hearts that I had in my stash.  I knew those little hearts would come in handy one day!

The large handmade flower I bought from an Etsy store called More Paper Than Shoes.  Anna the owner, creates various handmade flowers that add a perfect touch to layouts, projects & even weddings!

The little paper rolls are just scraps of left over patterned paper from other projects that I've rolled up & glued to my page.

The floral frame that surrounds my photos is actually a stamp.  It's the large cameo frame stamp by Stampendous.  The stamp itself is much smaller than what you see here--however you can make any stamp to be any size for your needs with the use of a scanner.  So if you have a scanner at home--just do the following.

TIP: If you have a stamp that you wish to use on your project but it's too small or too big--stamp the image with black ink onto a sheet of plain white card stock.  I use Staz On for this step because Staz On tends to provide a very sharp stamped image. Scan your image & import the image to your computer.  Then with a photo/image editing tool like Photoshop or even Picasa resize your image to the size you need.  Then just print the image out & you're done!  For my page, I needed the frame to be transparent.  So I printed it onto a printable transparency sheet--cut the image out & then adhered it to my page.  Voila!  Instant frame!

The wedding couple I cut out from my original take on this page.  I decided to keep this image from my original page & use it here.  You can also see how much my scrapping style has evolved through the years.

I've created the veil for the bride by adhering a bit of black tulle to a decorative brad & then attaching it to her head.

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the week!

My Greatest Gift Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers!  For those of you that celebrate it--I hope you had a very Merry Christmas alongside your family/loved ones!

I had a peaceful one at home with my parents, husband, our furry son Toby & newborn son.  This was a special Christmas for us all since my husband & I were celebrating it alongside our first child & for my parents their very first grandchild.  :-)

So when I read about the latest challenge going on over at Colors...Stories...Inspiration (C.S.I)--I decided to set some time aside to play along.  One of the journaling Christmas prompts instantly grabbed me which was 'What was the best Christmas gift you ever received?' Well for me, it's been my son--so I based this page on him.

Here's the case this challenge is based on.

For my evidence I used: snowflakes, beads, texture paste, something shiny & puffy paint.

For my testimony I used: Xmas prompts--the best Christmas gift you ever received.

This pink flower is handmade.  I made it by using the Carnation tutorial that I did a while back.  If interested in this tutorial--please go here.

As usual, I had a story to tell with this page--a lengthy one!  So I stored it in a scroll which has become my fave way of storing my journaling.  I have a brief tutorial on this as well.  If interested, you can find a tutorial for these journaling scrolls here.

Most of these flowers are from my stash.  The large turquoise fabric flower was plain--I added the gold glitter with Stickles to some of it's petals to match the Prima turquoise poinsettia in the upper left hand corner.

As previously mentioned, this poinsettia is by Prima.

The large snowflakes used on this page I bought at my local Target.  Every year for Christmas they stock these in all colors.  They are meant for Christmas trees but they also work wonderfully for Christmas or Winter themed scrapbook pages.  They come in packs of 4 for $1.00.  Sold!

The background was made by using a combination of splatter stamps, glimmer mist & Shimmerz.  I used the Splats stamp set by Recollections & a grungy splatter stamp by Vilda Stamps. I randomly spritzed the background with Riptide glimmer mist & Cotton Candy Spritz.

Here's my smallest winter tree--both flowers seen here are from my crafty stash.

Here are my two larger chipboard winter trees.  These chippies are by Dusty Attic.

I gave these trees a lot of texture by using several techniques & mixed media.  You can find a tutorial on these trees here if interested.

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit--as always...it's greatly appreciated!

Enjoy the rest of the week, have a wonderful New Year & I'll be back in 2013!

You Should Know... Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers!  Well, first it was hurricane Sandy--now we're going through a snow-storm.  Hmmm...Mother Nature doesn't seem happy with the East Coast lately.  :-(

Being snowed in though did give me time to play along with the latest challenge going on over at Color...Stories...Inspiration (C.S.I).  I actually finished this page in one sitting.  It was just a burst of inspiration--don't you just love it when you get those!

I'm also entering this in the current 'Go Crazy' challenge for Berry71bleu.  I used bold colors on this page, combined several different elements onto one page & actually did a first which was to spray the entire page with a shimmering mist--more details on this coming up.

This page is actually about me.  Once in a while I'll do a page on just lil' ol' me.  Simply because us scrappers hardly ever do that.  If you think about it though--if there's one bit of legacy you wish to pass down to your future generations; what better legacy than yourself?  So that's exactly what I'm doing here.  Now that I'm actually going to start a new chapter in my life--that of a mom--I keep thinking to myself what would I want my child to know about me?  As parents we spend the majority of our lives trying to understand, guide & just plain figure our kids out.  But our kids don't really figure us out or truly understand us until they become young adults themselves.  At least that's how it was for me.  I didn't really understand my mom & all her hard work until I was in my early 20's.

So the journaling on this page consists of four things that I'd like my future child to know about me.  It's a bit on the private side--meant for his eyes only--but like the title of my page states--it's four things about me that I feel he 'should know'.

Here's the case file my page is based on.

For my evidence I have the following: stripes, flowers, swirls, transparent element, doily pattern & something that rolls up

For my testimony: I journaled 4 things about my subject--which is me

I actually cut one large doily in half & positioned both halves to make it look like one extra large doily in the background.

My title was printed on a transparency & adhered with clear dry glue.

As previously mentioned, I actually did a first on this page too--I spritzed it entirely (except for the photos) with Shimmeringz Bronzed Bombshell.  It actually added this nice soft brown/goldish shimmer to my entire page that I really loved.  You can kind of see that shimmer in this photo.

I combined several elements on this page when it comes to embellishments.  I had this large felt flower in my stash that I had been itching to use & I finally found the chance to do so on this page.  I bought several of these lovely felt flowers from an Etsy shop called KnockKnocking.

The grey & orange flowers are by Prima as are the flourishes, the light bulb & the wooden 'dreams' trinket.

Including something that rolls up on my page was easy enough!  I've been doing that a lot lately on my pages in the form of my journaling which I tend to store as a scroll.  Here's my journaling once again tucked away in a scroll.  You can find a tutorial on how I go about making this scroll journaling on my blog here.

The cute little resin bird is also by Prima.

I tucked a bit of cheese cloth behind my photos.  The transparent black, swirl frame was by Hambly Screen Prints.

Another little embellishment that has become customary on my pages lately are my little glass vials full of beads.  I've adhered one here yet again right next to one of my photos.

I've tucked two organza ribbons underneath my large felt flower.

The grey resin cameo tucked underneath my ribbons is by Webster's Pages.

A closeup of the other half of my doily peeking out from the rolled paper.

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit!  Enjoy the rest of the your week...