Christmas at CSI...

My last challenge at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration is also the last case file for the year as everyone is busy preparing for their own Christmas and precious time with family.

I have loved playing along as Special Deputy for this month and hope you have also enjoyed the challenges. The overall inspiration from the combined colour scheme and associated visual stimulus, the evidence and testimony at CSI is just amazing!  I find journaling quite difficult on my layouts, generally because I struggle to find a suitable place for it, so being required to do so is quite a challenge for me.  My favourite element though would have to be the colour inspiration.  I just LOVE colour and enjoy experimenting with different combinations that I would not attempt otherwise.

Debbi does an amazing job putting these challenges together and I found the visual stimulus and testimonial prompts to be profoundly inspiring.  Thanks Debbi.

So, onto my take on the final Case File for 2013, #103...

|snuggle|

And here are the case file details:

And some close-ups:

Solving the case went something like this:

Colours:  
As required.  I'm not really a fan of what I consider to be 'Christmas green', so kept this touch to a minimum. I quite liked the green and red surrounded by lots of crisp white though... and I think the 'chestnuts roasting' colour really offset the Christmas colours enough to make it not so cliched.  I also really loved the distressed red shutters, so tried to emulate that effect by touching up the red with some gesso when it dried.

Evidence:  
Circles and stars!  Love combinations of these shapes, so sort of made them the 'star of the show' if you like. Circle chipboard rings, punched paper circles, gears, epoxy Prima 'sugardots', buttons, doily, letter 'L' and flowers... accompanied by several Studio Calico fabric star stickers.
Distressing - all of my circles, including the photo have been sanded around the edges.  
Paint - not one mm of this page escaped the ordeal without some type of paint smothering!  lol  
Something Transparent - I printed my journaling on to transparency.
Metal Accent - Prima 'precious' zipper, 'L' letter and gears.
Twiggy Accent - Tiny snippet from a Prima vine, including 2 leaves and a little twiggy swirly bit.  :)
Brackets - Around my journaling.
Rub-Ons - Rub-on butterflies at the top of my photo cluster.

Testimony:
I was really inspired by the { hue.ol.ogy } tag at the top of the inspo pic for my testimony, so decided to put it in similar brackets.  I drew inspo for the content from the prompt link and decided to make it about a favourite Christmas carol, or words from it.  I had this really special photo of my youngest little guy all snuggled up in bed, so thought it just went together perfectly.

Thanks for popping in for a visit.  I'll have to take a break from challenges for a little bit I think, to concentrate on getting a couple of Christmas crafting projects (aka presents) finished!  lol

All the very best for a fantastic Christmas to all my scrapping friends... and anyone else who pops in to say 'hi' from time to time!   I hope you all have a fabulous break with your special people and stay safe and happy.

Oh, I might be back before Christmas to share some tags and cards... will see how I go! :)

Cheers for now,

Jules
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On the case again...

Amidst all of the Christmas shopping, school end-of-year events and parties, uni preparation for dd#1 and holiday planning, I have managed another guest detective challenge over at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration... just in the nick of time!  lol

Initially, not a colour combination I would normally gravitate towards - although I do love orange - I was pleasantly surprised by the way the colours came together on the page.  This case file is also accompanied by a fabulous sketch by the equally fabulous Em Stafrace.

|fly|

Here are the case details and sketch:

And some closeups:

I loved Em's sketch and as I love circles, I totally went with it - and then some... albeit a rather compressed and skewed version!  :)

My case work...

Colours:  All there!

Evidence: Circles - photos, chipboard rings on either side of the photos (inspired by the golden rings), button, gears and cogs, flowers, doiley, punched paper circles ... yep, circles are covered.  Leaves and branches in the Prima vine that I completely butchered to fit around my photos.  Feathers/birds in the rubon that I applied to transparency and cut around so I could mount it up on a branch. Gold accents are achieved with the gold acrylic paint that I swiped over the leaves, metal number and cog.  Finally, dots in the form of paint splashes and specs.

Testimony: I actually drew on the evidence and photo prompt for my testimony, using the 'flying the nest' analogy for my daughter leaving home for the first time and moving away for university.  My journaling is surrounded by leaves though I guess.  :)

As always, the inspo over at CSI is amazing, so please do yourself a favour and check it out.

Happy Christmas shopping everyone!  I'm really close to calling it done, now for the wrapping and making everything pretty...  :)

Cheers,
Jules
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December at CSI

Hello lovely scrappers!

I'm still here and have been diligently creating... although not much that I'm able to show just yet unfortunately!  I'll be able to announce some big news soon ... well, big for me anyway!  :)

It's December over at CSI:Colour, Stories and Inspiration too and I've been lucky to have been invited to act as a Special Deputy for the December challenges... thanks to this entry for a special case file challenge back in October.

Brilliant challenges and fantastic Case Files, CSI is a really fun site, and this month is no exception.

This is my first monthly challenge layout:

|one day|

I just ADORE this Case File, the prompt pic and colour scheme in particular:

... and here are some close-ups:

Like any good detective would know, solving a case is all about the background work, so here's a quick little step-by-step on how I put mine together:

 Firstly, I adhered some Tim Holtz 'Melange' Tissue Wrap across the top of a piece of white cardstock with modge podge.  Let dry before coating with gesso.

Tear the top section off a second piece of white cardstock that has been liberally coated with gesso.  Layer on top of the first piece of cardstock.  Randomly stamp partial images with a script stamp in black ink.

Take a chunk of seasponge and dab texture paste onto the top page in your desired pattern and allow to dry.  Apply colour mists or watercolours over the texture paste and when dry, swipe with gesso to highlight the textured pattern.

OK, so here is my casework...

The Scene:

LOVED.  IT.  This colour scheme is just so striking that I immediately fell in love with it.  I would not have used the olive green if not prompted to do so and I’m so glad it was included in this palette.  What a gorgeous non-traditional Christmas scene.

The Evidence:

Numbers - I used numbers with the Prima Mecahnicals Vintage Trinkets.  Something about numbers just resonates with me and I love using them on layouts.

Silver Accents – Silver galore on this page!  The graphite Glimmermist has the silver mica fleck and I have used that extensively in a watercolour application to shade the upper section and border.  I also dabbed the ‘christmas baubles’  (gems) with silver acrylic paint, in addition to swiping it across several other accents and around the border just as a highlight.  There’s also silver in the metal chains, the metal number 2 and sprays of gems on each side of the photo.

Something Dangling – My baubles of course.  J

Something Shiny – All my metals accents and swipes of silver paint.

Circles – Everpresent on my layouts, I’ve included circles in the Vintage Trinket number 1 and gears.

Christmas Holiday Accents – baubles!

Twigs – I really loved the twigs in the inspo pic, so used a snow scene in the picture with lots of bare twigs in it.  I also enjoyed playing with the patterns in the texture paste and highlighting them with gesso to bring them forward.  I think the effect is a bit twig-like too.

Something Transparent -  Vintage Trinkets ‘Us’ Lightbulb

Ovals – I think my baubles (which are really just glass pebbles) are somewhere between circles and ovals, so I must have both bases covered there! 

Testimony:

I journaled about the holidays in a sense as it documents a kind of holiday dream I have, to experience a white Christmas again... but this time with my hubby and kids.  It’s been a long time since I lived in the UK with my family for 3 years as a child.  I also used cursive text in the title and in the script background stamp and used the word ‘family’ in my journaling.  

Do pop over and have a look at what the full team of designers and guest designers have prepared for you this week.  It's AMAZING!

Thanks for dropping by, and stay tuned for more December challenges.  :)

Cheers,

Jules
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