Tuesday 25 March 2014

"Miss You"Layout {CSI Guest Designer} Special Agent - Prima/2Crafty/Lindy's Stamp Gang





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This month I have been the Guest Designer {Special Agent} at CSI.  Debbi Tehrani's Ning Challenge site HERE.   For those of you who don't know, Debbi & I have a long history together when we were both very involved at a very beautiful & sadly terribly mismanaged Colour Challenge Site called Color Combos Galore, that used to be THE place to play in it's heyday, until it was eventually abandoned by it's owner for months leaving the Design Team not knowing what to do.  Aaaaah the memories!  It's all quite funny now but at the time it was quite something.  When it was good it was  GREAT & we all LOVED it!!


Well I was very flattered & honoured to be invited as CSI's Special Agent for March & the first case file I was sent to crack was one of their most beautiful to date I think!  Case File no. 113 HERE.  I have a Q & A HERE which I am also going to share in a separate post soon, just in case one day the Ning site is no longer.  It is fun to read & see "the stage"I am at in my crafting journey now.

How you play is you use ALL THE COLOURS, 2 pieces of Evidence & 1 Testimony, as a minimum.  What I've learnt about colour is that it's not necessary, or actually a good idea, to use them in equal amounts.  It actually looks a lot more effective to have one main colour & touches of another couple of colours.   So I used the white & the blue as my main colours & added a tiny smidgeon of pink to the bottom of my layout. The paler pink features in my Prima Sugar Dots & light misting & the grey in the chipboard, tinsel, alphas, photo & background design of the paper.


The EVIDENCE {where you choose 2}- 

1.  Ledger Paper - My paper is not ledger paper but this prompt did inspire me to use a very old sheet of 2009 Fancy Pants paper with a lovely geometric graphical design.

2.  Camera/Typewriter - these actually didn't end up featuring either but the thought of them prompted me to use this awesome stamp set from Jodie Lee Patterson for Prima "Delight".


Completely adorable I'm sure you will agree & Jodie Lee herself actually spotted my layout & shared it on her own Jodie Lee Patterson Designs page HERE - woot!
Evidence 3 -  Hearts, Stars - okay THOSE I ACTUALLY DID USE!!  The heart is a silver pvc one with a pink edging up above my photo on the top left.  I dabbed some gesso on it to mute it.  I cut it from my daughter's old pencil case :-p  The stars are some  VERY BEAUTIFUL Tim Holtz Idea-ology ones available HERE & more beautiful than you will have any idea of until you see them in person.  I am never without them & never will be.  The reflection on these is AMAZING!


Evidence 4 - Birds, Eyes, Butterflies - NOPE
5 - Scallops YES {the braid beneath my photo}
6 - envelope - NOPE
7 - Doodling/Pen Work - kind of - my journaling & the stamping & rub-ons to give the effect.
8 - Beads - NOPE
9.  Title Banner - not exactly although I did use a banner design repeatedly by way of a stamp.
10.  Stripes - I used some zig zag washi tape that, when the design is broken down, consists of stripes!


For my TESTIMONY I went with an appreciation letter & wrote to my son Jack about the fantastic time we had together recently & how it was even more awesome because we were together.


To get my journaling to blend in with my background I first sponged down the side with white, dried it off completely then added my lettering in with a black fineliner, using some stickers for some of the words, which I ended up going over with a black pen as they weren't standing out strongly enough.


I started by stamping all over my background using the Prima Delight Stamps by Jodie Lee.  Because I used black archival ink this meant that when I colour washed over them with mists & watered down gesso none of the designs bled or ran.


To keep the grey colour visible I left my chipboard raw, just with a touch of white acrylic sponging.  Attaching it using staples added a manly industrial touch which is what I was after with this page.  Proving that cute colours can be used on a masculine page too & work.
My chipboard comes from 2Crafty in Australia of course.


I used an older Lily Bee paper to back my photo, as it mimicked a doodle design.  Underneath my photo I used a bit of Christmas tinsel {a finer variety from Webster's Pages} as well as some lovely grey lacy braid underneath that too.


I created more layers with crocheted flowers, 
a doily & some fussy cutting. I will be sharing my
 next layout for CSI Case File 15 here very shortly.
Good to see you again :-D




14 comments:

Adriana B said...

fabulous page, loving those stamps too :) congrats

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

I always wondered what happened to CCG ... I remember people posting their creations for the challenges and then everyone just stopped! LOL!! I loveeeeeee your lo! LOVING the colors and the bikes!! HUGE CONGRATS on the GDT!!!!!!!!

Sandi Clarkson said...

So excited that your blog is actually coming up on my feed like it should! Wheee! But anyway, congrats on the GDT spot. Love this color combo and how you've cracked the case in your own unique way! Love the journaling on the side and that great stamp work!

Terhi Koskinen said...

This so beautiful page, with lots of texture and details - I love it!
And I didn't know of you and Debbie's history, always delighted to get to know these things - you both are so talented ladies, so much fun to follow your creations :)

Linda Eggleton said...

Oh yes, I remember colour combos galore, and the long wait between challenges :-/
Love how youve created a masculine layout with these more feminine colours...and I love the minimal use of some of them. Breat to have you back in my notifications :)

Lizzy Hill said...

Good on you with the 'share' ---& this is a beaut page....the journaling looks really neat...good on you being up at CSI this month, too :):)

Helen Wallace said...

A wonderful page about your shared experience and great to have you GD at CSI. So happy to have you back on my feed again. :)

Margaret Mifsud said...

Fabulous page Helen and lovely for it all to be back to normal again!! Love your mix of the colours and that, even though you've used a fair amount of feminine bits, the whole page looks entirely masculine!! Brilliant!!! ox

Lynette Jacobs said...

I love CSI and was a special investigator for this month. I love that I can get through a lot of my old stash while enjoying a great challenge.

Love your mixed media page. You always rock whatever you put your hand to.

Val-Belle said...

So glad that you are joining us at CSI this month. Will be a treat to see your layouts in the gallery. I have to say I am so jealous that you and your DS got to see Eminem. I tried so hard to get someone to go with me... :( never mind.Love the little pops of turq. You rocked this one... those stamps are gorgeous.

ALINE said...

This page is gorgeous!

Tusia Lech said...

Wonderful layout! Congrats on being CSI special agent :) xxx

Denise van Deventer said...

Gorgeous page and love the design, with the journalling down the left hand side! The chippies are awesome!

Bellaidea said...

great page, very nice stamps you used!