Scrapbooking - CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration 158

Well hello there. 

I've been playing along at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration again, I can't help myself, I love the challenges and the fact that I can see my huge pile of crafty stash reducing, I get a tingly feeling whenever I throw an empty packet of embellishments away or use up the last few stickers on a sheet or the last scrap of a piece of patterned paper.

I really liked the colours in the palette for this challenge and one of the evidence prompts reminded me that I really enjoy hand stitching onto my scrapbook layouts.

The colours for this challenge were pale blue with a hint of green, light peach, olive or khaki green, cool dark brown and white. And when I saw this journaling prompt, "Document a favourite childhood toy or belonging" I knew there was only one photo I could use....

The photo is me aged 3, we were moving house that day, hence the boxes, I was wearing my dad's flat cap and my pink jungle pyjamas, and I was carrying an umbrella with a tea towel tied around the end to turn it into a bag and most importantly I was carrying Snowy the Bear, or should I say Snowy THE Bear, because he was and still is THE bear, no other bear has ever or will ever come close to this bear and I now consider him a treasured possession, he's been my bear all my life.

For the evidence part of the challenge I used stitching, fabric, stripes and polka dots from the list.

The journaling reads: "Snowy, the little white bear with the blue feet. Snowy was my constant companion when I was a little girl, I'm a lot older now, but he still has a special place in my heart and on my bed."

This case file runs until 26th March (it closes around 10pm uk time) you can get the full details of the challenge here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Claire xx

CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration - Case File 156

Hello there, 

CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration Case File 156 went live on Friday night, and you know how much I love their challenges, well today I've got my final layout as a Special Deputy for February to share....

For the scene I used all 5 colours which were: Bright coral - the coral I've used looks a bit orangey here but it is more coral in real life (it's that dress thing all over again), Yellowy Green, Warm Grey, White and Tan.

For my evidence I chose to use leaves - printed on the patterned paper and a couple of rub-ons, other rub-ons including parenthesis which were on the list, stamps - the journal spots and finally triangles on the bunting.

For the journaling I used 2 stamped journal spots and took inspiration from the words grow and spice.

The journaling reads "The best thing about growing your own pumpkins is large bowls of homemade spicy pumpkin soup"

You can find all the details of the challenge here over on CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration and you have until Thursday 12th March to upload you entry.

Thanks for stopping by and keep on creating.

Claire xx

CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration. Case 154

Hello there, how's it going?

I'm absolutely thrilled to be back with the CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration team as a Special Deputy. I really enjoyed being a Special Investigator in January and I get to do it all again this month, yay!

Here is what I created for case file 154

I used all 5 colours - Cherry Red, Black, White, Kraft and Olive Green.

For my evidence I used polka dots- lots of them, stripes on the Washi tape, Woodgrain patterned paper behind the photo, a book page (Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, I have one copy for ripping pages out of and one for reading). The red cardstock is Swiss Dot embossed so that's the textured paper and finally a metal key.

The journaling reads: She's a dreamer, a doer, a thinker. She sees possibility everywhere.

It was a quote I found on Pinterest using the words: Wisdom, Possibilities, Go. The author of the quote was unknown.

This case is open until the 28th February and you can find all of the details in more detail (oh dear) over here on CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I'm supposed to be having a major clear out and reorganise in my studio and office and I just can't face it, I think I'll have a cup of tea and a slice of cake and mull it over some more. What are your tips for re-organising your craft space? Please? Help me! lol.

Take care and see you soon.

Claire

xx

CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. Challenge 152 The Tale of the Teapot

Well hello there.

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a special investigator for CSI: Colour Stories Inspiration for the whole of January, and I'm really enjoying playing along, if I'm honest it's worked out really well as I've always enjoyed their case files and one of my goals for this year was to try and complete every case file, so for January I can confidently say I will complete each challenge and I'm off to a great start.

When I saw the scene, evidence & testimony for this challenge I did a little happy dance because I had just the photo and story that I needed to create this layout all about a teapot...

For challenge 152 the five colours you needed to use were Lime Green, Teale, White, Lemony Yellow and Tangerine Orange - normally I'd struggle with these colours but, these were all the colours in the teapot - oh how I love a bit of serendipity. I inked all of the papers with Pumice Stone Distress Ink then layered them up a bit.

For the evidence I used polka dots, ribbons, jewels, scallops, triangles (on the patterned papers) and stars.

One of the topics for the testimony (aka journaling) was "document a gift" - serendipity again, so, here is...

 "The tale of the Teapot" 

"Mum spotted this Beatrix Potter teapot at a craft fair we were at, she spent ages looking at it and admiring it and then she walked away! So, I got Hermione to keep her busy whilst I bought it for her, she was quite upset when she saw it had gone and had no idea that I had it hidden in my bag for her Christmas present"

I'm happy to say that Mum was thrilled with her teapot (which she now stores her teabags in - as you do) and she is now looking for a matching milk jug and sugar bowl.

All of the details of this case file are below, why not play along?

You can find a more detailed explanation of  Case 152 over here on CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by and see you soon.

Claire xx

New Year, New Start & Lots of Crafty Goodness

Well hello there, how are you? A very happy new year to you all.

Wow, it's dusty in here, hand on a tic ***grabs hoover, quickly dusts & removes cobwebs from blog*** That's better. Sorry for my absence towards the end of 2014 but the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was making life pretty awkward & I was banned from typing for a while back there, but I'm a lot better now, my hands are still a bit twingy so I can cope with that.

I have rather a lot of plans of for 2015 and seeing as I totally did what set out to do in 2014 I know I can achieve what I want to in 2015, I'm so looking forward to sharing my journey with you.

This year got off to a cracking start back in December when I received an email from the ever so lovely Debbi Tehrani at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration asking me if I'd be a Special Investigator for January 2015, well, of course I said yes, I love the CSI challenges and had already decided to do as many as I can in 2015 to help reduce the mountain of patterned papers and embellishments that I own.

So the  first challenge went live last night and here is what I created....

I used the sketch provided for this challenge and tweaked it slightly, for the scene I used all 5 colours required. For the Evidence I used a cream frame with a stamped image of a cupcake inside, I used 2 banner die cuts for the date, I doodled stitching around the border and used patterned paper with triangles printed on it.

For my journaling I used the inspiration word "Grumpy" and hand wrote it too. The journaling reads: "Oh dear, why does Grampa look so grumpy in this photo? Was it because we didn't put all 65 candles on his birthday cake? Who knows"

Here are all the details for the case file if you'd like to play along, this challenge is open until 31/1/15 so you've got plenty of time to play along, If you've never tried a CSI challenge I can highly recommend it.

I've got plenty of other things to share with you in the near future and promise I will be blogging more regularly throughout 2015.

Just before I go we're having our Winter Sale over in our Crafty Alchemy.com shop and the Crafty Alchemy Etsy shop, with 25% off selected items. In the Etsy shop all, yes, ALL, of our Elements and Embellishment kits are 25% off. Just thought you'd like to know.

So once again Happy 2015 to you all.

Take care & see you soon.

C xx