56 - CSI Challenge- Smile & Birthday Blog Hop

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CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration turned one this month, and we've been celebrating with fun and festivities all month long. But what's a birthday party without presents?

We are rounding out CSI's birthday celebration with a huge pile of presents! The talented and very generous CSI design team, aka the CSI Detectives, have prepared special blog posts for you this week, and all you have to do is leave a comment on participating design team members' blogs for a chance to receive a present from them! The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you'll have to receive a gift!

We also have the brand-new company Blue Fern Studios joining our blog hop! Our very own Detective Michele Singh is the designer of this company's beautiful chipboard, and we are delighted to have Blue Fern Studios join us to celebrate our birthday on the month they were introduced to the world!

The CSI Birthday Presents Blog Hop will run from January 25 - 29. Winners will be announced in our Full Disclosure (Announcements) Forum the following week. A newsletter will go out to members once this announcement is posted.

Here is a list of the blogs you will want to visit:

Adrienne Ford

Anna-Karin Evaldsson

Annette Gearside

Ayeeda (Aida Domisiewicz)

Blue Fern Studios

Debbi Tehrani

Debbie Standard

Eila Sandberg

Heather Jacob

Helen Wallace

Jasmine Shea

Jeanette Lee

Lindy Gillespie

Michele Singh

Riikka Kovasin

Sascha Schmidt & Maria Schmidt

Shaunery Wharton

Tina Walker

Yumi Takasaki

Zanka (Zaneta Glowa)

 Everyone who leaves a comment on my blog has an equal chance of winning a parcel of scrappy goodness....good luck.

Of course I'd love it, if you became a follower too  :)

Here's a sneak peak of the contents of the parcel.

I hope you will join in the fun and try your hand at the challenge this week.

The super talented Michelle Singh has created these wonderful printables, if you’d like to use them for the challenge.

When I first saw the colours for this week’s challenge, I had no idea what to do with them.   Luckily, I was given this photograph recently. The photo is of our middle son and his three little boys.

Our five year old Grandson Lachlan is always fascinated by the Capital letter L.  He was rummaging around in my scrap room one day looking for L’s when he unearthed these very ancient metal alphas.  They are so old, I don’t even know who made them.  Any way, Lachlan’s favourite letter was the tiny spark from which this page grew.

A couple of close ups

I deliberately kept the page simple to showcase Lachlan's letters, so I decided to make the baubles from scratch.

First I drew the shapes free hand on a folded piece of scrap paper.  By folding the paper in half and only drawing half the image, each side is exactly the same shape. 

Cut out the shape while the paper is still folded, open drawings out to their full size, then trace around the shape with a pencil on your chosen card stock.  

The star is not made this way, it is a die cut.

You can make them any size you like.  

Mine are about 4 cm x 3 cm

Run them through an embossing folder and ink with distress ink.
They come out just like bought ones.

EVIDENCE

Strings - the stitching

Wet Medium - texture paste, glimmer mist and stamping

Something that dangles or hangs - the baubles

Plain card stock background

Doodled dashed lines

Something transluscent- the tiny star on the bottom bauble

TESTIMONY

I went to the rainy day journal prompts and chose to write about the many things that make me smile.

THE JOURNALLING READS

Lachlan makes me smile when he calls a spade a spade.  One day at lunch when he asked for more food after a substantial meal, I said. 

“How about we wait for a while to see if your tummy is really full”?  

“But why Granny”?  

“Remember one day you got a pain when I gave you too much and your tummy popped out in front like a soccer ball”?  

“Did it look just like yours Granny”?  

Xavier makes me smile when he tidies up after himself, liking everything to be in it’s place, all neat and tidy.  He likes to share and make sure everyone is included.  He makes me smile because he’s arbitrarily decided that the good car belongs to Pa and the clapped out bomb is mine.

Oliver makes me smile because he’s a bon vivant, a mover and a shaker, a rhythm man, who never sits still.   He’s got ants in his pants in the nicest possible way and a smile that would charm the birds out of the trees. He makes me smile when he runs for the sheer joy of it.

Their Daddy makes me smile, because he’s still a big kid at heart and likes nothing better than a good rumble on the floor with his boys.  When I see his little ones, throwing a tantrum, pushing the boundaries, having a bit of biffo and giving sloppy kisses, I smile, because their Daddy did it all before them.  It’s right and fitting that he now has a turn in the drivers seat.

MATERIALS USED

Bazzil Cardstock - Grayish teal and white

Martha Gardner punch, Cherish

Crafter’s Workshop Template, Mini Punchinella

Derivan Matisse, Impasto Medium

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Patina

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Ink, Broken China

Maya Road Clear Stamps, Scrolls

Xcut Die, Star

Couture Creations, embossing folder, Instinsic

Craft Queen Washi Tape, Black & white Chevron, Small red star, Grey Text

Francheville, Savoir Faire, alpha puffy stickers

Metal letters, unknown

Tombo Pen, blue

Star - unknown