Journey

Hello, my scrappy friends! I'm sharing with you a layout I created for my lifelong friend, Eric and for the CSI design team. The story is about a the journey that a book made over a fifty year period.

You can see for yourself if I met the criteria. Below the challenge you can see our sponsors. 

Back to the layout now...

It may be a little obvious that I have become totally hooked on 3-D scrapbooking. No, I have no idea what could have given you your first clue! 

Other techniques include stamping, fussy cutting, inking, masking, painting and paper tearing

For this piece I decided to place the journaling on the back of the layout. I went to "Curious as a Cat" for a prompt and chose, "Tell about a memorable journey." It reads...

The Journey

There was not a time when I did not know Eric. Our parents were close friends when I was born and I always looked up to Eric who was four years old when I came into the world.  He was a kind boy to put up with a little girl my age. We both grew up, went away to college, and married our respective sweethearts. He came back home to be a landscape architect and I came home to be an elementary teacher.

As a teacher I had many books for the children to read. It was called my classroom library and consisted of books that I earned from book clubs, books from bookstores and donated books.While cleaning up my classroom one afternoon I picked up a book titled, "Tall Tales of America". I had not seen it before and didn't know where it came from. It was well worn, and was not a library book. I was surprised to open the cover and see Eric’s full name written in a child's writing. What a surprise! It had been twenty years since my friend had been an elementary school student. Little did I know that I had been inserted into a JOURNEY that would last more than fifty years.

Through the years, that book followed me from one grade to another, through numerous years of staying home to raise my own children, through different schools and then back to teaching. It had been read by children and read to children. Year after year passed and I eventually retired, taking all of the books from my collection of class library books. I planned to return Eric's book to him, but retirement was surprisingly busy. I soon forgot about my plans for the cherished book stored in a drawer.  During late December of 2014 Eric passed away. The book had to be returned to the family and I knew that Eric's grandchildren were the perfect ages to appreciate the tales of Babe the Blue Ox, Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett and Pecos Bill. Eric’s entombment ceremony seemed to be the perfect time to get the book back to his family.

Now, the book is at Betty and Eric’s home and their grandchildren can read the book whenever they spend time with their grandmother. They can all enjoy the stories that their grandfather had read when he was their age. 

Products:

Blue Fern Studios paper, stamp and chipboard
Liquitex modeling paste
Petaloo flowers
Prima stencil
Stampendous embossing materials
Stayzon ink

Thanks for going along on this journey with me. See you next time! 

Hello

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing a layout that I created for the CSI design team and for my daughter, Elizabeth. She has had  a loyal little companion named Wit for twelve years. We all love him and I enjoyed creating a page about him. 

At CSI our sponsors this month are:

Our permanent sponsor is

Please check out their websites or blogs if you get a chance. Back to the layout now...

Look closely and you can see the embossing that I did on the bottom layer. I enjoy using that technique as it adds interest to the background. 

For the chipboard, I painted, then stamped when the paint was dry.

Other techniques used here are paper tearing and distressing, inking, 3-D work, stamping, spraying and masking. 

Products:

Blue Fern Studios paper, stamps, chipboard
Crafter's Workshop stencil
Latex modeling paste
Petaloo flowers
Prima ink, paint
Stampendous embossing products
StayzOn Ink

Here is what I said in my journaling:

Hello. It's me, Wit. I have been Elizabeth's constant companion for more than twelve years. I don't remember a time when I didn't live with my person but I've been told that I was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. My person and I share the same birthday so you might say that we were "meant to be".

I was the only boy in a littler of four dachshunds. All three of my sisters had long, curly black fur and I was the only one with silver spots. Being very unique, Liz had to have me! She named me after her favorite basketball star, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. I can relate to Dirk because I am determined and confident. When I went to puppy obedience school I learned to sit, speak, roll over, stay and play dead. I am very smart and graduated "Magna Cum Doggie".

The thing I love to do the most is beg for food until my person gives in to my demands. Then, I jump into her pretty pink bed. Sleeping on pink sheets is not a problem for me because I am comfortable in my masculinity. Usually, I dream about chasing balls, my girlfriend Lulu, the maltipoo and snuggling with Liz. What sweet dreams!

Thanks for your sweet comments! 

Smile

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing a layout that I created for our son and the CSI Design Team.
Lee and his girlfriend attended her sister's wedding in The Carribean and had a wonderful time there. This layout was created to remember the lovely occasion.

I have used this kind of mesh before. It is part of a net bag for oranges that has been upcycled. In order to get it the color I had in mind, I had to first paint it with gesso, then use green acrylic paint to meet the criteria of the challenge.





Here is how the challenge works: Use all five colors in the Scheme. Other colors may be used as accent colors as long as it/they comprise no more than 10% of the layout. In addition, black, white, kraft, cream, gray and brown may be used. Choose three or more pieces of Evidence and one or more choices from Testimony to include in the layout. When you are finished with your page, upload it to CSI to share with us. We love new members! You may just win one of the wonderful prizes from our list of sponsors this month: 

Wouldn't you love to receive this gorgeous kit as a prize for being Star Witness from Flying Unicorn?




Now, back to the layout...

I love to include a lot of texture, layering and techniques in my scrapbook pages. You can see the results in these pictures. So much fun! 

In my collection of summer embellies were the little mother of pearl buttons, seen above. I also found in my stash little beads, glued them all together and it made an original, charming embellishment. 

For the Blue Fern Studios chipboard frame and title I used a brayer to apply gesso.  Then, I painted it with accrylic paint and finally used crackle paint for a fun finish. Other techniques used were stenciling, painting, stamping, embossing and die cutting. 

Just FYI.....sharing a little trick with you. The brayer makes painting go a lot faster and is well worth the expense.
You can find brayers at most craft stores. Look in the painting department. They traditionally are used to apply ink during the process of printing, but I use mine for applying gesso and paint. 

Products: 

Blue Fern Studios paper, stamps and chipboard
Frantic Stamper die
Liquitex modeling paste
Petaloo flowers
Prima stencil, ink, metal embellishment
Ranger/Tim Holtz die
From my stash: metal fish, rafia, netting, buttons, beads

Here is the little tag that holds the journaling! Thanks to my blog friends for stopping by and leaving a comment.  

Fabulous

Hello scrappy friends! I have a tale of love here....just part of the ongoing story, actually. It is a perfect example of why we have been married forty one years.

The layout was created for the CSI design team and includes a lot of examples of technique. Participating in a challenge three times a month takes me to a higher level of accomplishment than I would probably otherwise achieve. 



Thank you Debbi Tehrani for all the encouragement and inspiration! Before we have more discussion of this page, I have to tell you that we have some great sponsors this month. They are: 

Here, I created a small bouquet using vintage lace from my paternal grandmother's collection. I only knew her for six years, so it is very special to me.  

Techniques seen here are 3-D work, printing, and painting. 

Can you tell that I love to use the 3-D technique? 

Here is a close up view of the embossing applied to chipboard elements. I'm crazy about the beautiful effect it has on my work. Also below, you can see the masking work used here. I added a little color to stay in line with the criteria for this challenge. 

Products used: 

Blue Fern Studio paper, stamps and chipboard

Prima spray mist and flowers

Ranger, Perfect Medium

Ranger/Tim Holtz alcohol ink

Stampendous embossing powders and mica 

Stayzon ink

From my stash: 

lace from my paternal grandmother's collection

hemp cord

jute cord

beads

wire

metal heart

Here is my hand written journaling. I have a little pocket attached to the upper back side of the layout to hold my journaling, and do this on every page I do. Without a story to tell, what is the use of scrapbooking?   

I hope you will be able to leave a comment below. Thanks for stopping by! See you next time. 

Happy Birthday Lee!

My son's birthday this week, so I decided to make him the subject of my LO for case file 132.

We're having all kinds of fun at CSI this week! The color scheme has been wonderful to work with on this layout, and particularly with this photo.   




Come play along. You still have plenty of time, as the challenge doesn't end until August 3rd.



Since this is a masculine layout, I decided to paint the chipboard gears and the flowers in a hap-hazard style to give the overall design a bit of a grungy look.

For the journaling, I wrote out my thoughts by hand on cardstock, trimmed around it, then painted gesso around the edges and glued it in various spots on the layout.

The background was created first, using Prima Blooms mist. While that was drying, I played around with the design and then using a cursive pattern stamp with red ink, I stamped in various places in the background. Next, I painted gesso over the flowers and chipboard gears. I thought the edges of the torn paper needed a little gesso, as well. Then, I did a little border punching around the edges of the paper that would directly frame the photo. Another technique I used was embossing.




For me, a layout is not complete without adding a little dimension, so I popped up various elements, such as the flowers and the photo.

Products Used:

  

     Bazzill Basics cardstock

     Daisy D's patterned paper

     Leaky Shed chipboard

     Liquitex modeling paste

     Prima Color Bloom, ink, mask

     Ranger Adirondack ink

     Technique Tuesday stamp

     Want2Scrap chipboard

Thanks for taking a peek!