Personal Trainer | CSI Case File No. 298

I've been making pages for my friend featuring her dogs, especially this adorable one named Buster, and this photo was perfect for the colors on the current Case File at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I often pin digital templates from Designer Digitals onto my Scrappy Sketches Pinterest board. I apparently forgot to pin the one that inspired the basic design of my page, but that's where I got my inspiration for the composition.

Here are the Case File and clues for this challenge. 

Image Credit: Andrew Bannecker

I've been wanting to scrap this photo for my pastor and friend forever, and when I saw the yellow in the Case File, I decided this was the perfect time. I used the color scheme and used many of the Evidence clues: stripes, metal, monsters, googly eyes, speech bubble, string, circles, triangles, solid cardstock, scallps, stitching, dangle something, and chipboard. I had fun using lots of really old stash.

I really love using the clues for my pages because it gets me digging through my stash. I used a lot of older stuff on here, including all the chipboard buttons and the tickets, and that fun charm. I love to search for elements that help me to tell the story. I got that flair badge from my friend Lisa Swift, who surprised me by sending a little pack in the mail--she wanted me to use them for the pages I make for my students, but this one was perfect for this layout. The "breathe, sister" was cut out of a paper from Photoplay's Like a Girl collection.

I'm in love with these Bella Blvd letter stickers. The papers are all from my paper scrap drawers. I dug through my yellow die cuts box and found the ampersand and the vellum phrase, which were perfect here. Those stitched circle stamps are by Denim Tampons.

Since monsters were a clue, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use one on my page--monsters are one of my favorite scrappy elements. I cut this orange monster out of an old October Afternoon paper from the Night Light Louie collection. (Confession: I bought 4 sheets of this paper so I'd never run out of it!) The flair badge is from A Flair for Buttons. At the last minute, I added that clear Simple Stories "Fabulous" sticker. it just made me giggle, especially underneath that "hello my name is" label.

I hope you'll come play along with us. The Case File is Halloween-inspired, but as you can see, it's not limited to that subject. We've got 8 generous sponsors donating prizes to lucky players this month:

Our Gorgeous Girl | Paper Issues Secret Life of Pets Challenge

Paper Issues has a challenge this month called "Secret Life of Pets," and I made this layout for my friend who recently lost her beautiful cat.

As soon as I saw this photo of Lexi with her beautiful blue eyes, I thought of using Pink Paislee's Indigo and Ivy collection. I fussy cut the flowers out of two of the patterned papers from this line. The gold "Remember This" element is also from this collection. The butterflies came from the collections Sticker Sheet. I lifted their wings with pop dots.

There were so many pretty patterns I wanted to use that I decided I'd use a free cut file from Paper Issues called "I Love You Hearts" and back the hearts with them. The chipboard phrase is from the same pack as the gold phrase in the previous picture.

I tried lots of different word stickers and couldn't find the right one for the title, so I decided I'd make my own. I used Bakery font and my Silhouette Cameo to cut the "gorgeous" and used some old American Crafts Remarks letter stickers for the other words.

I hope you'll come play along with this or one of the many other challenges at Paper Issues. You may just win a gift certificate to the shop!

While you're over at the Paper Issues store checking out all the free cut files, check out all their new products! Use my code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off your entire purchase!

CSI: Case File No. 253

Did you know May is Creative Beginnings Month? I'm not sure exactly how that's celebrated elsewhere, but at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration, we used the occasion to make up a beautiful new Case File:



And before I share my page, I want to let you know that we're having a design team call, which you can check out here.

Here is the page I created. These were the Evidence clues I used, which can be found at the bottom of the reveal. I used all the Evidence clues, along with palette from The Scheme.

• solid background
• solid cardstock
• stripes
• wonky dots
• scallops
• textured paper
• die cuts/cut files
• hand cutting
• washi tape
• leaves/branches
• jar/vase shape
• hand-drawn elements
• paint
• circles
• combine colorful patterns with a black and white pattern
• metal

I'm creating a bunch of pages for my pastor. This is going to be a surprise. Basically, I'm snagging photos of her adorable dogs off her Facebook page and using the captions for either titles or journaling. This photo was taken shortly after her third dog passed away, hence the title.

Here are some details. I knew I wanted to use these awesome leafy dies from Simply Graphic. A couple of the dies were from Peachy Cheap.I originally thought of either hand-cutting a vase, but then I remember all these jars from Dear Lizzy papers that were in my stash. I was going to just use one and make a cluster on the page, but my page evolved as I kept adding more jars. I  added some butterflies from a punch and sewed through them, leaving some of the ends of the thread behind to look like antennae.

For the metal clue, I found this awesome clip by Evalicious and tied some old printed tags that I think are by Making Memories. The jar that has the heart and rhinestone is a stamped image. I used the packaging technique in the background and added some hand-drawn hearts, another clue.

The flair badge, which I used for the circles clue, is by A Flair for Buttons.

I found this cool double-sided mulberry paper to use for the textured paper clue and tore it at the bottom and then tucked a lacy scalloped border underneath.

I do hope you'll come play in this fun challenge. We've got a whole bunch of prizes up for grabs from twelve awesome sponsors:

A Little Bit Scruffy {CSI Case File No. 156}

We just opened a new Case File at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

Here's my page. Clues I used...Evidence: Text Print, leaves, stamps, mixed media background, liquid pearls, brush font, triangles; Testimony: "A Little bit..."

2Crafty is sponsoring us this month, so I've used several of their awesome chipboard pieces on my layout.

This is my 18-year-old kitty, Little Brent. His age is showing, poor boy.

Here are some details. I sprayed several colors of mist onto my craft mat, dabbed it with some plastic and smushed it onto my page. I used various stamps (Kaiser Craft, Denim Tampons) and drew some triangles.

Here's a look at some of the 2Crafty chipboard I used. I coated the arrows with stamp ink and embossed the other pieces. The checkered pattern is a stencil.

I put my journaling inside a raw 2Crafty chipboard frame. The circle frame and the "sweet" word are also by 2Crafty. I tucked a little punched leaf to go with one of the clues. My papers are all really. The text print is by Jenni Bowlin; the kraft paper is by Making Memories; the green inside the frame is by Collage Press; the orange dots is unknown---super old. Ack! Just saw that piece of hair on my page. I hate when that happens!

My journaling reads: My sweet boy. You're a little scruffy and a little stinky in your old age, but I still love you so, so very much. 

You'll definitely want to solve this Case File for a chance to win some awesome 2Crafty chipboard!

The Birth of a Monster {CSI Case File No. 150}

Our current Case File at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration is a super-fun one:

Here's my page. Clues I used... Evidence: stripes, Swiss dots, arrows, banners, lightbulb, holiday accents, decorative border, monsters, heat, something fuzzy, pom-poms, labels; Testimony: How-to format.

Here are some details: The texture paste kind of got smushy under my stencil. I think I added too much paint? I decided it kind of looked like the sand, so I went with it.

So, here's the story behind the story. I've been keeping bearded dragons as class pets for about 15 years, and my most recent one died, so I got this cute little guy from the pet store over the summer. Beardies are very docile reptiles, which is why I have them as class pets. Well, this little guy, who I was going let my class name, was cute and sweet for a couple of weeks, and then he suddenly turned into a little monster, as you can see from the pictures. He'd puff out his beard and snap at me. It was past the pet store's return date, so I named him Godzilla and talked my husband into taking him to his work as a pet (he owns an auto body/paint shop). He's grown quite large and is still a monster, but Farzad's employees and customers are quite amused by him.

Of course, I'm always delighted when I get to use monsters on my page. These little green guys are from an old October Afternoon Night Light Louie paper.  I also used old some papers by Scenic Route, (cream with red x's), Jillibean Soup (red dots), A2Z Essentials (blue circles). I couldn't figure out who made the red test paper.

The light bulb is by Prima. The "no refunds, no exchanges fabric sticker is also old--by 7Gypsies. The felt pieces are by Creative Cafe and were used for the fuzzy clues. They're really old too. I just love using old stuff on my pages!

I love it when I find the perfect sticker for a page. That "show me teeth" one cracked me up and is just so right for this page. That "from" brad is by Prima, I think, and is from a set of Christmas brads (hence, my Christmas accent clue).

Yeah, I know, that's a porcupine on the brad, but he's spiky like my beardie, and he was the right color green. The loopy border punch by Martha Stewart.

Come on over and see what the rest of the team and guest designers made with this challenge. This Case File is open until January 8, and look what you could win from our sponsor, Prima, if you play:

Invisible {CSI Case File No. 110}

I've gotten a little behind in my blog posts again. Busy week. I was happy to work with this Case File, which features one of Em Stafrace's fabulous sketches:

I took the opportunity to scrap some pictures my husband took with his iPhone of Miss Maisey. She has this habit of peeking around corners through windows and such.

Clues I used...Evidence: solid background, something sheer, jewels; Testimony: Journal about a pet, from a pet's point of view.

Here are some details. I did the journaling on the speech bubbles with the sketch pens on my Silhouette Cameo. Super easy to do! I'll definitely be doing this again. The transparent tickets are by Maya Road. That awesome chipboard filmstrip is by 2Crafty. I embossed it with copper colored powder. I used a text stamp with white ink in the background.

I used a bunch of different papers, by BasicGrey and My Mind's Eye. I love this picture of Miss Maisey peeking out the door when Farzad when out at night. So cute! Brads are by BasicGrey and Crate Paper.

The circles in the background were created with texture paste mixed with paint and a stencil by The Crafter's Workshop. I splattered a few different colors of mist. So happy to use some Heidi Swapp chipboard letters. I have a confession: I have about a 2.5 foot stack of Heidi Swapp chipboard letters. I bought up a ton of them in every color and style when those were pretty much the only chipboard letters available--it was in the days before Thickers.

It's always so cool to see how the same sketch, colors, and clues yield so many different results. Come see what the rest of the team and our guest designers made here.

Lizard King {CSI Case File No. S365-2 and ScrapFriends GD}

I recently discovered ScrapFriends sketch challenge, and have fallen in love with their sketches. Imagine my surprise, when my layout was chosen as a favorite and I was invited as a guest designer for October. Look at this awesome sketch I got to play with:

I've been so very busy with school, and I also needed to make a page for our special Case File over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration--our second collaboration with Scrap365, so I decided I'd combine the ScrapFriends Sketch and the Case File to make my page.

Clues I used...Evidence: spirals, crowns, stencils, tearing, needlework, tile-style letter stickers; Testimony: book title, begin with "Once Upon a Time."

Here are some details. Godzilla is a bearded dragon I got for my classroom when my old one died. Beardies are very docile lizards, but Godzilla turned out to be a ferocious little bugger, so I couldn't take him to school. He lives with in my husband's shop, and he really thinks he's hot stuff. I was looking for a book title that had lizard in the title, and came across the Lizard King. My husband is always saying "Life is Good," so I thought that little wooden Studio Calico bit was perfect here. That brown textured paper is something I've had in my stash forever, and its roughness sort of reminded me of Godzilla's scaly skin.The brown dots were made with texture paste mixed with some Mr. Huey's mist and a stencil by The Crafter's Workshop.

I struggled and struggled with where to put journaling, and it finally came to me that I'd write on the spiral I had cut out with the Silhouette Cameo. It reads: "Once upon a time, there was a dragon who thought he was king of the world. But really he was just a lizard trapped in a cage." 

I love the slide holder frames by Crate Paper. The washi tape is  a shimmery gold, which doesn't show up well in the photo.

The red paper is by Jillibean Soup, the background paper is by BasicGrey, the yellow stripe is My Mind's Eye, and the green is old Chatterbox. 

Thanks so much for looking at my page. I hope you'll come play with us at CSI. This special Case File will be open for the whole month. And you'll definitely want to play with the ScrapFriends sketch--so fun, and there's a prize up for grabs for both challenges!