Cheese!!! CSI: Case File No.11

This page is for CSI: Case File No. 11 and as you can tell, I had too much fun creating it! For the "evidence" I used butterflies, paint, and tearing. For the "testimony" I documented something from my childhood. When I was growing up...well, lets just say, my whole life Daddy always said, "Cheese Mouse, Cheese!" Meaning that I needed to say cheese for the camera. Usually this meant that my eyes were shut and my teeth were bared in a crazy fake smile way. Clearly all I care about in this photo is where the water is that he has promised. I was a bit spoiled.

The papers are all DCWV Spring Stack from a couple of years ago, with the exception of the red gingham which is Echo Park. Love this floral print in the Spring stack for cutting out flowers and it gave a bit of a coloring book feel. Then I am not sure why but I needed to curl some grassy fringe paper. LOL! It was just a fun page to do.

got bad photos?

Oh you know you do. Those old photos from when you had a crappy camera, the faded ones, too dark, silly faces, washed out people when the flash hit them and not the background, and how about BAD colors?! We all skip those photos when its time to pick photos to scrap. The problem is that there are memories hiding in those photos and we need to try to use them.

I have far too many bad photos to ever scrap but some of my terrible but important photos are from a Disney World trip that we took in 2002. This was the first time my husband and sons had been and we went with my Dad. It was Daddy's last trip so I am scrapping ALL the photos he was in - even the bad ones. Daddy hated his photo taken so many have him looking away. Why am I telling you all of this? I am going to try to scrap at least one terrible photo every week or two. Its a new goal. I think everyone should give it a go. What do you think?

 Today's photo is for sketch #74 at Sketch Savvy. I used two lousy photos and they even had crazy colors that I decided to embrace. Seriously, purple, yellow/gold, teal, white, black, and RED??? yep. I pulled out a bunch of kind of weird papers and they came together to work with my silly photos. It was pretty fun to just go with it. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

CSI: Case file No. 10 is live!

AND I got another holiday page done! lol! You know we buy alot of holiday papers, but we rarely scrap Christmas layouts. Its not like you don't have a huge pile of photos that need to be scrapped. Yes, some are not the most beautiful photos or best composition and lighting.... that's ok, scrap them! For CSI: Case file No. 10 the colors are just great for many of your outdoor photos, but its a great excuse to pull out holiday photos. For "evidence" I used metal (brads) and fabric for the leaves. If you want your fabric shapes to have some shape and not go flat, adhere the fabric to cardstock and then cut out the shape, it will give the fabric stability. I took one close up of the side so you can see the cardstock. For the "testimony" I was inspired by the word open and that's actually what made me think to do a holiday photo.  Visit CSI HERE to see LOTS of layouts, I promise you will be inspired to play along!

For my layout I used a bunch of older Basic Grey papers, most are from the Wassail collection. I still just love that paper. For the flowers, I cut a circle pattern from patterned paper using scalloped scissors and then cut inward from the scallops. For an example of this type of flower, click here.

collections?

Everyone collects something and maybe some of us collect more than others.:) This layout is for a Disney challenge about Disney Collections. Many people collect things when they travel to the parks, things like: character photos, autographs, Disney Trading pins, menus, photos of hidden mickeys, mouse ear hats, tshirts, charms, beanie babies, vinyl characters, .... I collect pins, dated mugs, ornaments, and charms. I only have about 3 sterling silver charms because I just started that collection on my last trip, but I have been collecting the enamel charms for years and I have a very jingly bracelet. Its getting a bit worn, but I will still wear it when I go to the parks because it makes me happy. I used all October Afternoon papers and then made some flowers out of cardstock. Oh and the challenge was also to use Sketch #70 from SketchSavvy :).

wanna join the CSI DT???

((click to enlarge this image so you can read it clearly))

usually sticky, always sweet *CSI:Case file #9

You are going to love the colors for this week's CSI: Case File #9 Challenge. Click here to see the rest of the Design Team's interpretation of this challenge. Since you get to pick your own embellishment and journaling prompts, it really changes the themes, but these designers are so diverse in style that each week's reveal is full of so many varied layouts. My page is about my sticky little brother when he was 2 years old. I found a photo of him with water dripped down the front of his pajamas and since he really hasn't grown out of this spilling thing, I thought it was appropriate. :D

I used some old dictionary paper that my friend, Lara, gave me, along with some older Basic Grey papers. The bright blue doily is from Prima and the chipboard doilies are American Crafts. For the "evidence" I used a dictionary page and striped paper (background). Then for the "testamony" I chose to use a definition.

Simple Box Pleats "how to"

I did this tutorial awhile back when I made my King Triton page but somehow I never posted it here on my blog. So better late than never...

Simple box pleats
The last time I did a page with lots of layered box pleats, I got so many emails asking how to create them that I decided to make a little “how to”. Honestly I just sat in front of the tv and hand folded the strips of paper with no measuring and that’s ok, but to just make it a bit simpler, I have added some measurements.
You can cut your strips of paper any width you like, but go ahead and cut a 12” length one 12” strip folds to be about a 6” length. You can make straight cuts, use your decorative edge scissors, or use border punches. In diagram #1 and 2 you will see that I have scored the paper strip between the scallops dividing into sections of 1 scallop and 3 scallops repeating.

Fold as shown in diagram #3. This will give you a very uniform box pleat following the design of your border.

If you would like to make a straight border, you can use any measurement in thirds. For my example I have scored in sections of ¼” and ¾” repeating as shown in diagram #4.

The measurements I have given you so far create a box pleat with space in between each raised “box”. You can also make closed pleats. In diagram #5 I have scored in a repeating pattern of ¼”, ¾”, ¼”, ½” repeating. You will have the ¾” as the top of your “box” so when you fold keep that in mind.

In diagram #6 I just want to show you that I have punched a strip of paper and randomly folded without any measurements, not following the punched design in any way. It’s just another look that you might want to add when layering a bunch of pleats.

After creating several of your pleated strips, lay them on your layout to see how the colors and patterns will fit on your page but keep in mind that these strips will shrink quite a bit when you actually fold them flat and attach them. Diagram #7.

Finally let’s talk about attaching these pleats to your page. Most patterned papers are cardstock weight and once you have folded them, they do not want to lay flat for you. You will need to really secure your pleats well before attaching them to the layout. The easiest way for me is to use my sewing machine and run a straight stitch along the top edge, but a low temp glue gun or red line double sided tapes might work for you as well. Next layout your pleats on your page because they are now the size they will be. At this point you can use any type of strong adhesive to attach your strips or machine stitch of course. Diagram 8

Here is my finished layout so you can see the effect of my mixed box pleats. I hope you will try some box pleats. I think you will find that they are a simple way to add impact to your projects.

Unexpected colors *CSI Case File #8*

We all like our layout colors to work well with our photo, to make it shine or pop off the page, but other things also effect our colors on our pages. Sometimes we are influenced by the theme, such as Holidays, Beach, Zoo, or Disney Parks. I have wanted to scrap this photo for a long time. I have alot of photos of us standing at the entrance of Disney World and you are tempted to use Disney fun colors, most likely red, blue, black, yellow, green... I saw this weeks CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration Case file #8 Challenge and then I found this photo and I thought it wouldn't work for Disney, but my guys are wearing the right colors. I really like the way it turned out. I used some MME, Basic Grey, and Pink Paislee papers and I was totally inspired by the Star theme. I cut my stars with my cricut, and the edges are just a couple of punches with a border punch - sometimes it's fun not to punch the whole edge.

 For "evidence" I used lots of stars, Stickles (liquid element), a solid background, my title is glittery for the sparkle. Can I say that I really love the "Evidence" category of the challenges :) Then for the "testimony" category, I went for the stellar inspiration and used words from "When you wish upon a star".

Valentine tags

I hope all of you guys had a nice Valentines day and maybe some chocolate too :) I spent the day with my mom and it was awesome! Did you send your mom a Valentine? if you didn't, put a note in your calender for next year right now. I wanted to share a couple of little tags that I made to put on gifts. I got my husband some chocolates and made a super simple tag and then put them in his suitcase to surprise him when he went out of town. I also made a much cuter tag for my mom. I planned to put them on her flowers when I gave them to her. Then I bought flowers that didn't match the tag so I still put it on the flowers, but it wasn't quite as cute as I planned. LOL! She loved it. I used the beautiful Yours Truly Collection by Cassandra Cooper for Echo Park, and then added embellishments that my sweet friend, Denise, gave me. Thanks again, Denise, I am having so much fun with these goodies.

cozy *CSI: Case file #6*

Check out Case File #6 at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration! Not colors you would normally choose but scroll down for the DT Pages - wow, huh? All so different and gorgeous! I found this old photo of Alex and Stripes on the couch and they are both so cute that it had to be scrapped. Alex was with me when we first saw Stripes and had to adopt her. She was a great kitty and we do miss her.

I used Crate Paper patterned papers along with some fabric for a ruffle and a yo yo shape. For my "evidence" I used woodgrain paper, fabric, and pleating. For my "testimony" I was inspired by the word: comfort. And when I found the little chipboard couch element from Crate Paper, it just pulled it all together.

Well Hidden *CSI: Case File #5*

Well I don't know how it happened but somehow I forgot to post this page last week. I just love CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration Case File #5 Challenge and I am really happy with my page, so I don't know what happened. Sorry. The good thing is that now you get to see two CSI posts this week. :) For the evidence I used leaves, cutting tools (punches), and created a border of small elements (leaves). And then for the journaling, I journaled around the edge. I really like doing that. The patterned papers are My Minds Eye and the border punch is EK Success. I cut the leaves from an ivory decorator fabric for thickness and then a nice green cotton calico print. I layered a paper leaf on top of some of the fabric leaves too. Then because I like fibers, I sort of mixed a brown fiber in with the leaves. The cool thing about this particular hidden mickey is that its so well hidden that I didn't even see it til I got home, saw the hidden mickey online somewhere and then went back to my photos and found it. LOL! Good thing I took the photos from that angle. If you look at the close up photo just above my felt mickey, you will see a mickey shape in the "mud" grey color on the trunk just to the left of the buffalo.

christmas 1965

I finally got some October Afternoon Holiday Style and I just had to do a layout. Also my sweet friend, Denise, sent me some wonderful valentine colored goodies and I used a few on my layout. Thanks Denise! This collection is ideal for photos that I have from slides from holidays as a kid. Love the colors and little retro santas.