scrappassion

FEATURED AT CSI

Doing the happy dance since I was featured or put "under surveillance" at CSI  case file #7 with this layout since it has become one of my faves of all times!

CHERISH FOREVER

I played this week at TCR. Here's the color palette:

I'm not usually a big fan of red and blue together but the burgundy and the deep sea blue just struck a chord when I found the perfect photo.

 

It's of my son Andrea with his grandma last summer when he spent 5 weeks in Indiana with my American family.
Look at how he embraces her and covers her hand. Almost as if he wants to protect her. Pure love.

I gessoed some cheese cloth to the background and misted using Julie Balzer's fab stencil - love the effect of the mist on top of the gesso which wasn't completely dry. The "forever" ticket is downloaded from somewhere, sorry, can't remember where I took it, it was a free download, and underneath it I tucked a homemade acrylic heart. I sanded it to make it opaque and slightly swiped some burgundy paint on the very edges. As always I used a lot of stitching.

TFL

Journey and Heart

What do these words have in common?

They are both words to be used on layouts on the challenge blog "Bird is The Word". 

 

My first layout is about Andrea's upcoming trip to Welly to see his sister.

The title and the journaling: It will be a long journey

and a lonely one. You are flying from Rome to Wellington, New Zealand, to spend the summer with Kristina and Matteo. It is something you and your sister both want so badly that I didn't have the heart to say no even though I will be a nervous wreck by the time you arrive in Auckland where Kristina and Matteo will pick you up.

 

The next layout is for the word "heart". You have to use the given word either as part of the title or in the journaling. I used it as part of my title.

the photo is obviously our wedding photo. In my journaling I say that I love my hubby more today than on that day. And it's true.

 

TFL 

Dreaming...

of a vacation.

Vacation/holidays is the theme for Feb 15 challenge at Once Upon a Sketch. Here's the sketch

And here is my take

I just love how it turned out even though quite differently from what I had in mind:)

The photo is of Andrea back in 2006 when we went to Crete for a week in September. He's dreaming of going back and that will happen next June.

I started out the layout doing some background work: glued book pages and gessoed them, then I used Crafters´Workshop stencil and modeling paste, distressed it with 3 different Distress inks. Added some watered down acrylic paint in splashes and circles, stitched some, stamped another circle with Staz-on since it went over the photo. I added travel themed stickers as my journaling and placed them on the upper right hand corner of the photo instead of the lower left as in the sketch.

I'm almost in the mood for packing!!!

Layouts, layouts and more layouts EDITED

Here are some recent layouts that I haven't shared yet here on my blog.

The first one was for TCR #96. This is the color palette:

These colors are not so me, but when I found a photo of me and my mother I wanted to give it a go.

This is a photo of me and my Mom 20 years ago when she was 59 and I was 33 years old. In 5 years me and my DD#1 will have the same age difference. This is what I contemplate in the journaling which is written in Finnish (my native tongue)

It's been 14 months since my Mom passed away and this is the first time I have scrapped a photo of us two together. I miss her but I know she's in a better place. Now I'm able to reminisce and enjoy the good memories.

 

The next layout was for CSI#6.

EDITED: I JUST FOUND OUT THAT I WAS PUT "UNDER SURVEILLANCE" ONCE MORE AT CSI WITH THIS FOLLOWING LAYOUT!!!!

These colors were fantastic. Here's my page "Few and Far Between"

"Few and far between are the times we all get to be together. Maybe for that reason we cherish those moments so much. It's such a comforting thought that we all feel the same way. It's clear how our love for each other shines through"

 

And then I attacked another "case file" for CSI. It's the number 7.

Oh man! This must have been the most difficult color scheme ever for me. I definitely am not a pastel-kind-of gal and would have never ever used these 5 colors together BUT I'm so very proud of my finished layout. I have a feeling it will end up being one of my favorite layouts ever!

Evidence: distressing both with Distress Inks (the chevron stencil with Weathered Wood)and with sandpaper(the edges of the background paper), metal (made a metal heart from wire and the title chipboard circle has been attached with staples), stripes (washi tape, tissue tape and the journaling with dymo labels)

Testimony: my journaling is a list with "quantities". It reads: 30 years of marriage, 3 kids, 1 home, endless love

The random stitching and the distressed edges portray some of the rough patches of our marriage whereas the big and bold hand stitching on the heart is a symbol of our long and strong union.

 

And last but not least, the layout for TCR#98

Love this color palette. Here's what I came up with

Used some gesso, book papers, dug out old foam stamps and stamped with acrylic paint, splashed some paint and mist and used the sewing machine.

The journaling reads: Mission impossible to find me a hat that fits. My head is too big!! Franco took this photo in Athens in January when we went shopping.

I really do like hats, but have a really hard time finding any that fits properly:((((

EDITED: I WAS FEATURED AT TCR WITH THIS LAYOUT!!!

 

TFL!

Happy Anniversary to us :)

We celebrated our 30th anniversary on Feb 12 with friends from far and near.

It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day against all odds - it snowed in Rome two weekends in a row which was unheard of, and it happened right before the anniversary! We had a great time, went to the restaurant with a rented bus, had a beautiful lunch, came back home and danced to the best of 70's and 80's disco music until midnight.

Here are a few shots of us, the decorations (most of which I made) and the best and the most beautiful cake ever.

Franco and I on the way to the restaurant

 

I made a paper flower bouquet cutting book paper with a diecut machine and adding black and red flowers using decorative pins. Ecological and lasts forever:)

 

I sewed the crepe paper streamers for the house. Pininterest and Youtube are a remarkable source for tutorials.

 

We put 30 black, red and silver helium balloons + the "I love you" balloon in the living room. Loved the effect.

 

Bought inexpensive metal buckets, spray painted them black and silver, used some red bead strings (from Christmas) and made crepe paper roses which I pinned with wooden skewers to the florist sponge (placed inside the buckets) and got ecological, beautiful and inexpensive center pieces for the restaurant.

 

Painted and sewed the place cards 

I made a big card where all the guests wrote something for us. A nice keepsake.

 

The cake was made by my friend who makes beautiful AND delicious cakes. They are not only goodlooking but they also taste fab. The idea of the pile of packages was mine but she elaborated the concept.

 

Happy 30th Anniversary to us!!

 

CSI: color, stories, inspiration

CSI is a fantastic new challenge blog. It started at the beginning of this year but I didn't get to participate in their challenges until last week.

Their challenges are called Case Files and every week five layouts that capture the team's eye will be chosen as their Most Wanted and put Under Surveillance.

And guess what? My layout "No Clue" was chosen as one of those this week!!!!!

Here's the Case File #4 

 

And here is my layout:

I loved the color scheme: Tiptoe in the Teal, Gilded Frame, Patent Leather, Bouyant Beige and Watery Teal Green.

For evidence I used wet medium (teal acrylic paint and ochre Color Wash), I stitched a frame around my photo and I used some washi and tissue tape as stripes.

The testimony is my reflections on looking at the photo and I used the word "change". The journaling is in Italian and reads:

"When I took this photo of you at the end of April last year you had no clue whatsoever what you were going to do after the tsunami in Japan. Now you are on the verge of starting a new and exciting adventure. See, honey, change is almost always positive. It's us who don't give it often enough a chance. XOXO Mamma"

 

Need inspiration?

Do you like to create with sketches? 

Creative Scrappers' founder Kristine Davidson has worked for the past few months to create an eBook with

100 plus 1 sketches, 50 international AMAZING TALENTED SUPER DUPER designers, and NOADS! 50 fabulous pages of inspiration for you.

You can read more here on Creative Scrappers blog about how to order either the eBook (a pdf file) or the published book which will be available probably in March.

I'm extremely happy and honored to be one of those above mentioned designers.

And here's my layout based on one of Kristine's wonderful sketches

More 365+1 photos

Continue with my everyday photos:

9/366 - I knitted a huge scarf for Valentina for her birthday

 

10/366 - Nowhere without prosecco. This was on our flight to Athens

 

11/366 - Practicing with the self timer. Hubs was a good sport

 

12/366 - Saw this at the flea market in Athens (Monastiraki). I should have bought it!

 

13/366 - Helping to button up Elina's wedding dress

14/366 - The center piece at Elina's and John's wedding reception

15/366 - All the Christmas decorations are back in their boxes ready for next year

16/366 - Valentina's b-day present for me

 

17/366 - Sushi dinner. Luv sushi!!

18/366 - For Andrea's birthday we hid presents on his chair and under his plate

 

19/366 - Planning the seating arrangements for the anniversary reception

 

20/366 - Franco is checking on and pruning the vines

 

More later. All the 365+1 photos are unedited.

 

Miraculous snow in Rome

On Friday at noon it started snowing in Rome. For the most part of the day it was slushy. During the night it started snowing, and I mean really snowing and we woke up Saturday morning to this:

 

Andrea's nectarine tree :(

 

One of our lemon trees

 

Our neighor's mimosa trees

 

Franco cleaning his car

 

The cypress in front of our apartment building

 

Neighbor's palms

No train or tram passed all day Saturday.

And then also the kids came out to admire the snow. 

Valentina is ready for a snowball fight.

 

Andrea getting ready... (Franco decided not to participate and I was the photographer)

And here goes:

Daniele and Valentina against Andrea

 

 

 

My gloves are perfect for taking pictures, not so good for making snowballs

 

Here they weren't "fighting" anymore

 

Then it was time to make Frosty the Snowman

 

Here he is in all his glory. I guess he was a success since a lot of people came to take pictures of him!!

 

Last time it snowed in Rome like this back in 1985, the day I went to the hospital to deliver Valentina! It has snowed a few times during these years but just for a little while and then in a matter of minutes or an hour at the most, it melted away. This snow has stuck now for 48 hours! I hope it melts asap. I don't care for snow, I hate cold weather and we have our anniversary reception and party coming up next weekend. We do NOT need any snow! Actually it would be disastrous! Let's hope for the best.