CSI S365-10 - Sunrise

I can't believe it but I have finished yet another CSI case (challenge)! For this case we had to use black, off-white, taupe, green, and muted coral/salmon colors. From the evidence list I used flowers/leave and raffia/string. And for the testimony I tried my hand at haiku which is a type of Japanese poetry. Here is what we had to draw from:

I decided to use some pictures of the beautiful sunrises we experience. Of course we are very lucky in as much as we get to experience both sunrises and sunsets over the water because of the ocean and the rivers and lagoon. I am at awe of the beauty I see all the time and I appreciate the fact that I get to experience it.

I used a black wood grain paper from Craft Smith, Natural Luxury collection as the background and a pretty distressed light colored paper to mat the pictures from DCWV, The Heirloom Collection. For the raffia/string I actually used a jute ribbon that was leftover from Christmas. The flowers are a combination of The Paper Studios and Recollections. I hand wrote the poem on a cream colored cardstock and then cut it into strips and just outlined the strips with a pen. The poem says: A beautiful spring sunrise, Rising on the ocean's edge, Explodes into colors. I have never heard of this type of poetry before so it was very interesting to try. You can learn about it here. Hope you enjoy it and happy scrapping!

CSI 149 - FRIENDSHIP

Hi everyone! Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday. I had a very nice Christmas; well actually I've had a really good month! I got a promotion at work which I have worked towards for the last ten years...YEA!!!!  I am doing both positions right now until we hire another person to fill my old position. Then of course I have to train them which will take quite a while but at least I'm there to train them because no one knows how to do everything I do there. I am so excited to be filling the new position. Then my daughter's dog had puppies on Christmas Day! She had 7 pups: 5 boys and 2 girls.  And my kids got me one of the antique cameras I have been wanting and of course I cried! LOL

With all the holiday bustle I haven't had time to post my last CSI challenge layout. CSI 149 challenge also had a sketch to follow this time. Here is what we had to go by:

So for the testimony I choose Friendship and did a layout about my little miniature dacshund and my son's Belgium Malinois who is a K-9 police dog and how they love playing together which makes them the oddest pair. She can't wait to see him when we go over there. And they will play for hours! So the colors were grayish midnight blue, lime green, light blue, teal blue, and bright yellow. For the evidence I used stars, hearts, polka dots, buttons which were the stars and hearts, mixed media background, string, and animals which were in my pics. I used all older stuff in my stash except for the bow, the enamel dots, and the arrows which Roni Sue sent me. She is Roni Sue Scrapper on YouTube and she also does different challenges. I have so much older stuff that I could scrap for years without buying anything but adhesives...LOL. But it does feel good to be using up the older stuff.

Enjoy and hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! 

Happy Mail from Roni Sue

Yesterday I got some happy mail from Ronnie who is Roni Sue Scrapper on YouTube. She had offered to send me some die cuts of the Tim Holtz View Finder die. Well, she sent me a beautiful card made from a small lunch bag and she had other wonderful die cuts in it. I am definitely going to use it in my December Daily album. Thank you so much Roni!!!  Check out the short video of the wonderful happy mail:

THANKS RONI!!!!

CSI Watch List

Wow...I can't believe it! I made it on the CSI Watch List again! I made the list for my layout "Always Dream Big" and I am totally honored to have made the list for a second time. If you do not know about CSI you should check it out. It stands for Color...Stories...Inspiration. They take a picture and that is their crime scene photo. From the picture they develop a challenge.They will pick five colors that you must use on the layout, a list of items which is your evidence list that you must use at least two of, and then for the testimony there is a list of things to choose for your journaling prompt. Once a month they will also use a sketch to use. It is a lot of fun and it will get you to do more journaling on your layouts. There is a lot of very talented ladies on there that you can draw a lot of inspiration from. Check it out and get inspired!

CSI 148 - Always Dream Big

For the CSI Case File No. 148 the color scheme was grayish green, light lemony yellow, light coral, white, and celadon green. I used some older papers that had a paisley print and a coral paper underneath that peaked through the scallops. I used all the colors and for the evidence I used flowers, branches, bird, tags, string, and pen work. I used the prompt idea for the testimony under Sunday Scribblings which was Finale. I found that so perfect for this layout. My journaling on the back: Sitting there I can only imagine what you are thinking. Your final years in high school and then on to college. So many things must be going through your mind. What college will be like? What will you major in? What does life have in store for you? No matter what is in store for you, just remember to Always Dream Big! Go after your dreams and don't let anyone stop you. You can do anything that you set your mind to! Never stop dreaming!

I liked using the birds because I think they represent leaving the nest and flying free. I also did some modeling paste and a stencil for a mixed media background but one I sprayed the ink it was darker than I thought and it is very hard to see the stenciled paste underneath. But I'm still okay with how it turned out. Just wished it showed better.

More Enamel Dots

I everyone out there! So I have never done a December Daily and I am determined this year to do one. As I have been doing with my past projects, I am trying to use more of my stash instead of buying all new stuff just because it is a new release although some of the collections are so adorable. But hopefully I can pick up some after the holidays really cheap. Anyway, I think I'm going to use the My Minds Eye collection from last year and anything else I might have that coordinates with it. But I wanted to make sure I had the right color of enamel dots before I got started. The MME collection is more of a vintage feel with burgundy red and a forest green instead of the bright reds and greens so I made more of the homemade enamel dots. I picked up a package of the Perler Beads that had a Christmas collection of colors and it had some of the darker colors. I also had a package of silver and white striped beads. The colors are perfect for my papers. Now if I can just manage more time to get everything else done...LOL. Ta ta for now!

Naughty or Nice Tags

I have come to the conclusion that Pinterest is very addictive! LOL But I did want to share with everyone the cutest tags I found and the best thing is they are FREE! You can use them for tags for your presents or in your scrapbooks or December Daily albums. Wouldn't it be cute to use them as tags and then after the gift is opened use them in your albums. I think they would be cute as can be if they were made into ornaments. Hmmm...now that I thought about that I will have to try and make some and of course I'll share if I do. The download is a pdf and you get 8 tags per page. Here is where you can get your Naughty or Nice Tags.
ENJOY!!!

CSI Case 147 - This Cat!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone has had a fantastic day with family and/or friends today and took the time today to reflect on things you are thankful for. I for one, spent the day with my children and my ex-in-laws. I know that sounds weird but I was very close to my mother-in-law and her husband and when I was getting a divorce some years ago we said we would never let that interfere with our relationship and we never have. They are very special to me and I am so thankful that we never let anything come between us.

After having a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with my family I finally finished up the latest CSI challenge. I had a very hard time with challenge. I don't know why other than I could not really think of what I really wanted to with the pictures I had chosen. The color scheme was to use light slate blue, slate blue, white, bright cherry red, and black.

I used all the colors and for the evidence I used stripes (paper), polka dots (washi tape), grid pattern (paper), mesh (on the black banner and I used some mesh and ink to distress the background), stars, stamps (date at the bottom) and animal accent (paper). For the testimony I documented something about a pet on the back of the layout. "This Cat! This cat cracks me up! She was my daughter's cat but when she moved back home and then later left for college she stayed with me. She loves to snuggle and give you hugs. But if she doesn't greet you when you come home chances are she is all snuggled in covers somewhere. She loves to sleep under the covers. She even tries to get into my sweater if I'm wearing one. She is a total love bug!

Here is the crime scene information and a close up of the sketch. As you can see I followed the sketch pretty much as it was. 

I am still trying to use up a lot of my older supplies which is going to take me quite a long time to do but I figure if I use something with each project it gets my that much closer. For this layout I used mostly older papers with the exception of the grid paper which is fairly new compared to the others. I used scraps of mesh on the page which shoes use the smallest of leftover scraps can be used. I also used a piece of mesh as a template to distress the background. I used Prima chalk ink in Blue Jay for all the distressing. For the title I used a wood veener from my stash as well as some old Thickers. For the stamp at the bottom it is the new Heidi Swapp date stamp. And the enamel dots are homemade. Here are some close-ups of my page:

CSI Case File No. S365-9 - FALL

Hi everyone! I completed another case file over at CSI tonight. I am getting more and more accomplished and using up more of my stash. And that is a good thing! Here is the case:

I used all 5 colors which is required.
Evidence (Must use at least 2): Leaves, Music Elements, Metal, String, Transparent Accents, and Mist
Testimony (Must use 1): Writing Format - Write Journaling as a Thank-You Note.
Journaling: Dear Mother Nature,
Thank you for all your splendid glory of the beautiful season we enjoy each year. Truly Amazing!

Again I used from my stash. I have so much that I am really trying to use up older products. The picture is one I took one morning in Tallahassee when we were up there to be with my son while he received Florida State Trooper of the Year award last year. We do not get to see the color of leaves changing in South Florida very much but in my young childhood years I lived in Virginia and seen it all the time and do miss that.

Here is what I created:

The background didn't come out quite what I wanted but I'm not totally unsatisfied with it either. I used papers from Studio Calico Snippets Collection, Colorbok Beach House and some cardstock from my stash. I used a Tim Holtz stencil and modeling paste and then spritzed it with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold and Chartreuse and also sprinkled it around the page. I used some older Making Memories brads, a wood stick pen, fall banner, leaves, and flowers all from Little Yellow Bicycle. A Recollections tag with some Hot Off The Press Cardmakers Ribbons in Eath Tones on the top. I used a piece of clock transparent element, a metal music note paperclip, and various bird veeners all from my stash. The string on the bottom is a very loose mesh that was actually in the Halloween stuff and I just cut a piece of it and put it along the bottom. Here are some close-ups:

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Happy Scrapping!

CSI Challenge CC-3 - Beautiful Nature

Completed another layout for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. This case challenge you had to use the following colors: turquoise blue, light yellow, chartreuse, marshmallow white and a medium brown.

From the evidence list I used bird accents, dots, feathers, and twine. For the testimony I used the inspiration word Nature and Document about nature. So for the testimony I wrote: I've loved these Banyan Trees since the first time I seen them. Nature is beautiful and amazing. We just need to open our eyes and discover what it has to offer. These trees can be found all over the county where I live. They are home to much of the wildlife and can withstand the storms we sometimes get. While the Redwood trees are known to be the tallest in the world, the Banyan trees are the most massive. It is the national tree of India and a tree in Calcutta is one of the world's largest. There are some that are recorded to be 250-300 years old and one that covers 2.5 acres. The first Banyan tree in the U.S. was planted in Ft. Myers, FL by Thomas Alva Edison. It is famously known as the home made in a tree in the Robinson Crusoe novel. And you thought there were only Palm Trees in Florida! LOL

Hope you enjoy it and thanks for stopping  by!

Case File 146 - 15 Things About Janna

The case this week over at CSI was a lot of fun. I am really enjoying getting out of my comfort zone with different colors. And on this layout I combined old products with newer ones using up my stash which is always a good thing.

For the case, the colors we had to use was magenta, white, bright lime green, light gray, and pale pink. I don't usually use lime green but the combination of those colors just screamed my daughter. The clues that I used from the evidence list was metal, something transparent, decorative scissors, and clips. And from the testimony list I chose the clue of writing format: make a list. So I did a layout of 15 things about my daughter.

There was metal in the center of the flowers from Recollections, a metal clip and the decorative staple from EK Success that holds the transparency in place. I used a transparent Heidi Swapp PL card with 'Love' on it that I placed on top of my daughter's photo. And the hearts are also Heidi Swapp transparent pieces. I used decorative scissors along one side of the light pink photo mat and then inked it with Ranger Archival Ink Magenta Hue to make it stand out a little better. I mixed different fonts together for the title. I used Recollections, Pebbles, Creative Imaginations Sonnets, and Foof-a-La letter stickers. The 'Adorbs' arrow was a Heidi Swapp PL card that I cut apart. I sprinkled Tattered Angels Key Lime Pie and Heidi Swapp Pink spray ink over the white cardstock. I used homemade enamel dots and Ranger Adirondack Brights in Clover and more of the Magenta Hue along the words for the list.

The different textures going from metal to transparent reminded me of the dramatic differences in my daughter. When I went to Michaels to get her wrestling championship framed the manager (I worked there part-time for over 5 years so I know him) said "Janna?...She's such a girly girl!" Which is so true because she is very much a girly girl but she is so talented and smart that she surprises people. She is very talented and can do anything she sets her mind to. Hope you like the layout and until next time...happy scrapping!