Lil Bit Dangerous

Happy last February CSI reveal! Love love love the colors of this case!

I was sitting at my desk the other day, working away. I went to wash my paint brush off and nearly chucked into the tea cup instead of the wash water! Painty tea does not sound very appetizing. I decided that maybe this isn't the best resting place for my morning tea (update: in making this layout, I just about put my dirty paintbrush into my tea mug again...apparently I don't learn very fast)

Evidence used: text print, stamps, mixed media background, triangles, postage stamps

Testimony: Use Lil Bit in your title and continue in your journaling. "Lil Bit Dangerous to keep your tea next to the wash water."

Enjoy The Journey

Confession: I had the hardest time with this CSI case. It took me weeks to even pick a photo! I do not love a pastel palette.

There, now that that is out of the way, we can get on to the fun stuff. I finally took my inspiration from the prompts about cycles of life and where you are right now. I decided to use this photo I took whilst killing time during the drive from really, the first vacation with just my husband since our honeymoon. That's right, our honeymoon. We've either gone on trips alone or with the kids. The kids are all grown up and the reason for him traveling so much without us is in the past, so we grabbed the opportunity to use the waning days of 2014 and go away the week before our anniversary; our 24th! We decided to go to San Fransisco, visit Alcatraz, poke around the wharf, and head home through the Redwoods. It was an amazingly fantastic time.

I used this cloud SVG cut, that I just fell in love with, from The Cut Shoppe. I love clouds, they are my flowers, and aren't these cute? I cut them out of white card stock and used the colors from the case and randomly watercolored over the piece. Then I cut out a few banners, coloring the base banners, and added to the bottom of my photo, a little different than the sketch, but hey, sketches are a starting point. I also cut my photo in four pieces instead of using four photos. I like to think they represent different stages of life, so it really plays into the theme of the layout also. I added a little car and steering wheel, tied it off, added a bird to the top, in the clouds (because, hey, there should be a bird, right?), and used a metal embellishment for my title. I think the sentiment is perfect.

Evidence used: transportation element, bird, paint, grid.

Testimony: I wrote about a stage of life. "We've reached the stage of life where the kids are all grown up and on their own. We can just jump in the car and take off on a trip, you & me. Let the adventures begin!"

Come play along with us!

Ka-Boom!

Welcome to February CSI. This month's theme is Cold Case. Case files that just never got released for one reason or another.

I really loved the colors of this first case. I like the bold, sophisticated palette and thought with the nautical decorations in the background, I would so something costal. Then Kitchengetton happened....

I quickly realized that the color combo went so well with the huge mess that my daughter made in my kitchen. She was hosting our bunco group at my house because she lives in a third story apartment in a facility with little parking. She came over the night before to fill my crock pot with a pork shoulder that would become barbacoa pork for a salad. This recipe uses lots of Coke. The pork marinates in Coke over night, I add more Coke, plus seasonings in the morning and turn the crock pot on. She came over right after work to shred the pork and add the sauce. Of course the sauce calls for two more cans of Coke, plus enchilada sauce, brown sugar, and green chilies, you can begin to see where this is going to end up... The recipe calls for the sauce to be blended. The requires a blender, right? You try putting these ingredients into a blender and see what happens! Think Diet Coke and Mentos. From my relaxation location in the living room, I hear the briefest whir, a small splat, and "DON'T COME INTO THE KITCHEN!" I know she'll clean up any mess, so I don't worry. Then I hear, "Oh, I'm glad I brought extra clothes....Don't come in!" Now I'm curious. "Oh, my eyes... Maybe you should come see this... No, don't come in" *getting out of chair moving toward kitchen* All I can say was it was an impressive mess for so little sound effect. There was sauce EVERYWHERE. And it was sticky... I laughed. Then I started helping clean up. AFTER the photos were taken, of course. I think the floor was clean enough that we didn't have human flypaper after about the sixth wash with a bath towel. And the paper towels were next to the blender. Not helpful. We got it all sorted and what sauce was left got added to the pork. I told her that next time she could maybe blend all the ingredients except for the Coke and just stir that in later. The night was a success, meal delicious, fun was had, and I have photos and a story.

Evidence used: polka dots, stripes, wood, words as a design, metal, and string

Testimony is an acrostic poem
Always messy
Born this way
Chaos reigns in
Destructive waves
Explosions abound
Food like a Kraken
Getting into cracks
How did this happen?
I can’t believe it
Just go get a towel
Kitchen is a mess
Let out a good howl
Mop it all up
Never try that again
Oops…it’s sticky
Putting off my zen
Quiet, it will be ok
Really, I’m not mad
Sixth time mopping 
Totally not too bad
Underneath the cupboards
Very hard to reach
Wipe it all up
X-ray vision, I beseech
Yay, done!

Zzzzzz

Be sure to come and play with us this month to be eligible for some great prizes. This case will be open ALL month, so you have plenty of time.

Who Girl

I'm taking part in a weekly art journal challenge. It's super fun and a great community. This week's, week 6, prompt is TV. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, mostly sports, but I do love to watch BBC and my favourite show is Doctor Who. My friend Ashley Horton has a cut file shop for die cut machines and when I saw this file, I knew I had to get it! It went perfectly with this week's prompt. I cut out the TARDIS and the saying and put them on a Gelli print I had that I felt represented the show well.