EXCITING NEWS AND NEW STUFF TO SHARE!!

Hello again everyone!! As it is now the new year, I suppose I had best start with.... Happy New Year!!! I hope you have all had a wonderful and creative start to 2014!! I'm very excited to announce that I have been asked by the lovely Debbi Tehrani to join CSI Color, Stories, Inspiration as a 'Special Agent' for January! She approached me a few months ago and I gladly accepted. Today I get to share my first creation for this guest spot with you, created for case-file 104. For those of you who have already checked out this amazing challenge site today, then you may have already seen this layout. For those of you who haven't, please pop over there and check out this weeks gorgeous challenge along with all the other stunning DT work.

This months challenge:

My first thought when I saw these colors was 'girl page', and then I thought 'why not make a boy page'. I'm still not entirely comfortable with using pink on a boy page, but I have done it before and it ended up as one of my fave layouts so I decided to try it again. Obviously the color palette was just perfect for doing this. 

'Sunshine'

  For my evidence I have used quite a few things:
Frames... My twine fame around the photo,
Crown.... The little acetate crown at the bottom of the page,
Hearts... Black acetate hearts to the left of the photo,
Fabric... I have used the black mesh fabric, fabric flowers, and calico behind my photo,
Silver Metal... The Prima jeans Junk-yard Findings and the Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears,
Paint.... I have used gesso, texture paste and watercolor paints,
Quote/Phrase Sticker... The MME chipboard word LIFE, the Studio Calico wood-veneer 'You are Here', and the AC peg that says 'Hello',
Lace... I have used a Prima lace flower,
Ribbon... I have layered 2 ribbon bows together.
For my Testimony I decided to incorporate my title into my jounaling, keeping it simple, using the Inspiration words Smiles, Sunshine and Up (I have used all three), with the word Sunshine being my title.

Here are some close-ups:

As always I have created a mixed-media background for my layout, this time using my beloved brick mask, gesso, texture paste, watercolor, mists, glitter and some glass micro-beads. 

Some of the brands I have used include Prima (as always), MME, AC, Studio Calico, Teresa Collins, Tim Holtz and Pink Paislee. Of course there are a few other on here too.

I have used a combination of natural waxed twine and this gorgeous aqua baker's twine to create a frame for my photo. As you can see I have layered quite a few different embellishments here including Prima flowers, black mesh and some metal peices by Tim Holtz and Ingvild Bolme, with my fave Artisan Elements by Pink Paislee and wood-veneers by Studio Calico.

     

More Prima flowers and lots of paper layers here in all different colors... I really love the way this turned out, as it was the one thing I was not sure about when I first started.

As I mentioned I have incorporated my title into my journaling. Once again I kept my journaling short and to the point, and sometimes just a few words speak volumes.

 

These pegs from American Crafts would have to be one of my fave things about this page, I know they are pink, like some of the flowers, but I don't think they make this layout girly in anyway whatsoever. I'm particularly loving that little arrow!!

You all know how much I love dimension on a layout and this page is full of it.

I'm really loving these metal bottle caps from Finnabair's Mechanicals... I will need more soon.... I have been using them on just about everything lately. They look so good with a flower layered in the middle.

 

Thankyou so much to Debbie and the other ladies at CSI for having me along this month. 

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I also have a second layout to share with you today. This one I created purely for the purpose of playing with all the fun new stuff I received as a Christmas gift from my Mom.

I really loved working on this next layout, and I really love how it turned out. I have wanted to scrapbook this photo of my Son for so long... I love his face in it, and such big eyes!!! For some reason though I never seemed to be able to get around to it. Every time I picked it up and started to do something with it, it would end up back in my photo case. So.... after months of 'Umming and Aaahhhing', here it is.

'Journey'

I have used mostly Prima for this layout.... I got a lot of Prima stuff for Christmas which was very exciting for me as it is very hard to get Prima where I live, and our local store got a whole pile of stuff in just before Christmas. Unfortunately most of the stuff they get in is usually 6-12 months behind their releases, sometimes more.... I don't mind though, for me it's new and I love all Prima's products!!

 

Lots of close-ups.... again:

For my background I used the Sunset paper from the Songbird collection, covered it in a thin layer of gesso, then got to work with my texture paste and my new mask, the netting one by Finnabair. I'm in love with this mask right now!! When the texture paste was dry I painted using my watercolors, and finished of with the little triangle texture stamp, and butterfly stamps, both of which are Kaisercraft.

Lots of paper layers as always, this time combined with some fussy cut pieces of acetate and frames from the MME Chalk Studio Collection papers. I Have also added twine behind some of the paper layers, as well as on top of my photo.

Some of my new Prima flowers, along with wood-icons, which I have to say are really amazing to use... I will definitely be ordering more of these in the future!!

I have layered my flowers, and other embellishments on top of this great little chipboard piece from Dusty Attic. It is actually a little circle frame in the middle, as that is not something I would use I have instead placed my big brown flower over the top.
The little flag at the top of the page I made using a small frame/journaling spot I cut from a sheet of Teresa Collins paper collection, Memorabilia. I loved the unique shape this provided for my flag once folded in half around the toothpick.

I have cut out lots of those tiny orange flowers from a very old sheet of patterned paper, I can't even remember who made it, to layer amongst my clusters to help tie in the orange from my background.

I have tucked in half of a Prima flower to this top corner, then added the little wood icon rose behind it just for balance.

I'm not quite sure why I chose to add the very fine gold bow behind the blue AC bow, though I'm glad I did as I'm not sure it would have looked right without it there!!

Another broken piece of jewelery from my necklace, I'm almost out as I have been using bits and pieces from this constantly over the past couple of months.
I finished off my page by adding lots of these Studio Calico pearl dots to the background along with the little black Kaisercraft rhinestones.

Last but not least this great metal lamp from Ingvild Bolme's junkyard findings, and the quote by Kaisercraft, which doubles as my title and journaling. It is meant to represent my Son's journey through life, which began the day he was born, and also my journey through motherhood. It is not meant in a more literal way of him taking his first step, but as the steps we go through in life.

Thankyou so much for stopping by. I hope you like what I have done. I have lots more to share with you over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!! I hope you all have a wonderful week/weekend. Xoxoxo!!