scrappassion

SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR AT CSI!

I was honored to be asked by Debbi Tehrani to be one of the April Special Investigatos at CSI. 

Just head over there and read my interview if you are interested:)

The case file #14 

This is my page

And how I solved it:

As my evidence I used ruffles sewn on the bottom of the page, wet media - gesso, acrylic paint and inks and I sanded the edges of the photo.

The journaling which is partially hidden in a pocket created behind the background paper and partially visible through the ripped paper reads:

"This is the story of how we ended up in Lisa Bearnson's backyard in Utah.
I met Lisa on a Mediterranean scrapbooking cruise back in 2006. Being the wonderful and friendly person she is, she invited all the participants to come and visit her, but I'm not sure she REALLY expected someone to come over from Italy.
I did.
The following summer Franco, Andrea and I spent a few wonderful days in Utah as Lisa's guests. She and her husband Steve pampered us so well that I went back the following summer when CKU was held in Provo, Utah.
Don't ever invite me light heartedly: I might just take up on your offer :) "

 

Here are some close-ups

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!!!

Crafting in the Caribbean with Tim

Just random pictures and random thoughts in random order about the cruise:

 

- probably the best cruise ever craft-wise. Loved ALL of Tim's projects

- couldn't have hoped for a better travel/craft companion than Chiara (elsewhere known as Maria)

- the weather was gorgeous - just some clouds and some showers which were actually welcome

- liked the Royal Caribbean better this time (last time our waiter sucked!)

- loved room service (for breakfast)

 

- I still don't like eating at Windjammer

- love shopping onboard AND onshore

- I still like Carnival better

- impeccable organization as far as Tim's classes were concerned (as always)

- met Elsa and Roxie, my new best friends from Florida and Texas

- made 117 ATCs to trade

 

 

- very little interaction between the two groups probably due to different class times and our later dining time

- beautiful ports of call; hubs and I raided the stores:) Well, I raided, hubs strolled along.

- Portofino onboard was a fabulous surprise

- the ship's "house champagne" comes nowhere near Prosecco

- our waiters and cabin attendant were excellent

- didn't spend too much at Mario's Market place - speedy shopping at Michaels and Joann's prior to embarking may have had something to do with it;)

- took less photos this time but I am quite pleased with them

 

 

- Chiara and I had 8 evening wears - one for each night and one "just in case"

- got a head cold from the darn air-conditioning on at full blast - especially in the dining room

- the staff at Royal Caribbean deserves kudos - they sorted out problems for us that hadn't been taken care of beforehand and some that occured during the cruise

- better not put the key card close to iPhone or other electrical devices - learned that first hand

- I hardly ever eat desserts but couldn't resist all the yumminess 

- cool ice show - Franco didn't like the magician and his tricks...

- some ladies assaulted the Market Place as soon as the doors were opened. Geez what manners!

- bought the most beautiful carryon onboard - it pays to be nice to Hubs :)

Splash

in Mykonos.

This is the layout I made for Kraft It Up! June challenge. We had to create a layout using a timeline with at least 3 photos and naturally on kraft paper.

This is Andrea who was doing flips and somersaults in the pool at Kouros Hotel in Mykonos in 2009. He wasn't aware that making splashing and jumping into to pool in a 5 star hotel is not really appropriate but Elena and John were gracious enough not to say anything. Andrea had the time of his life!!!! And he wants to go back!!!

 

 

TCR#61 + CCG#195 + Sketchy Thursdays

I have two layouts to show today. The first one is for TCR#61. Loved this week's His Room color palette.

This is my take. I actually followed the sketch quite closely.

 
 This is Franco walking down the Whiritoa Beach in Coromandel, NZ this past Christmas. I just looooved that place. Actually I loved all of New Zealand and I really hope to go back there one day.

I used gesso, paint strokes and splatters, a chicken wire (thanks Hubs), machine stitching, a clock from Tim Holtz's Lost and Found paper stack mounted on chipboard with a game spinner as the clock hand, Tim's film strip and adage ticket, a plain chipboard butterfly and a few odd buttons.

closeups

 

 

 

 

 

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This is the Inspiration Board #195 for CCG.

I didn't have any hot air balloons but as soon as I saw the image I knew which photo I wanted to use.

When I was in Athens at the beginning of April, we went to visit the Plaka, the oldest part of Athens. It is full of colors, shops, tiny traditional restaurants and cafés and you can stroll along the narrow streets for hours just looking at different things.

I had to take a photo of these colorful wine jars hanging on strings outside the shop window. 

I used this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch  for my layout.

Misting, stamping, hand stitching around the circle, rub-on stitches

stamping and hand stitching

the looped string mimics the strings the jars were hanging from. I also colored the red and blue letters of the title since I only had green and white Thickers.

 

a detail of the title where I used some ANCIENT (Lil Davis??) alphabet stickers

 

Now I'm off to do other challenges :)

heart Shopping in Athens

The color palette of TCR #56 is really not one of my faves but having found a photo with just the right colors + adding the turquoise I came up with a layout that I'm really pleased with. Maybe also because I was so pleased with my shopping:)

Used mists, paint, stamps, watercolors (on the mat behind the photo), alcohol ink (behind the Heidi Swpp transparent heart) rub-ons and bling :)

some details

 

 

Soak Up The Sun

is the title of my layout as a Guest Design Team Member for Scrap Our Stash April Bring in the Sun Challenge.

The photo is of Franco and Andrea this past Christmas in Cathedral Cove in Coromandel, New Zealand.

 

ATHENS IN APRIL

I had a lovely time in Athens with my friends Bruna and Roberto last weekend (from Thursday to Monday).

We met with Lydia from Luxemburg and Nathalie from Germany at the airport where our host's Elina's boyfriend John came to pick us up.

 

Thursday night we went for a walk and for some shopping in Glyfada with another friend Zeffy.

 

Friday we visited Acropoli and the surrounding areas.

 

A group shot inside one of the metro stations. All the stations were amazingly clean and well kept - at least for us who live in Rome!

 

The Propylaea, the gateway to Acropoli

 

Me amongst hundreds of tourists at the entrance. It was a real challenge to manage to take photos without hordes of (other) tourists in them.

 

The temple of Athena Nike (nike=victory). Athena was was worshipped as goddess of victory in war.

 

Parthenon, just a small part. Tried to avoid the above mentioned tourists and the scaffolding but couldn't avoid the cranes in the shot.

 

The Erechteion, the temple on the north side of Acropoli with the famous...

 

Porch of the Maidens (Caryatids)

 

All of the above and much more we learned from our marvelous tour guide Zeffy. Thank you so much!

 

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus where there are still held concerts and other events during the summer.

 

And a lovely poppy in between the ancient stones.

 

The Dionysos theater at the foot of the Acropoli.

 

A view of Plaka, the old historical neighborhood of Athens, seen from Acropoli.

 

After the visit to Acropoli a nice "cappuccino freddo" was in order.

 

After a delicious lunch our next stop was at the Monastiraki flea market where tourist shops, jewelery shops, new and old all blend together in a burst of colors.

Yummy strawberries.

 

The octagonal Tower of the Winds near Roman Agora in Plaka.

 

Colorful wine jugs

After the tour in Plaka we dashed to Syntagma square (or Constitution Square) to see the Changing of the Guards which takes place every hour on the hour.

The Evzones or Evzoni (or Tsoliades as they are commonly called) are an elite ceremonial unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Hellenic Parliament and the Presidential Mansion. These guards wear the blu winter uniform. On the photo above the Evzones who took place after these, wear the traditional uniform with white bell-like sleeves and a white foustanella, a kilt like garment, with 400 pleats commemorating the 400 years of Ottoman occupation. It also has a silver brokade-like waistcoat. This traditional uniform is used on Sundays and on special occasions, so we were quite lucky to see two different uniforms.

After the solemn moment at Syntagma Square we were all ready to go home.

 

We had two lovely mixed media workshops with Nat on Saturday. Will post photos of the finished projects as soon as I finish them:)

Elina's mom kiria Katerina had prepared a succulent dinner for us Saturday night.

 

Me and kiria Katerina Sunday morning

On Sunday we went to Vari for lunch and had two of my favorite things in Greece: lamb chops (paidakia) and...

yogurt with honey!

Here I am with my dear friends Elina and John

 

 I managed to go shopping Monday morning and found some really cute outfits. Such a satisfactory end to a wonderful long weekend in Athens.

Thank you Bruna, Roberto, Nat, Lydia, Zeffy and a special thanks and hugs to Elina, John and kiria Katerina. I love you all!

Leaving for...

the airport in a couple of minutes! I'm going to Athens and I'll be staying with my lovely friend Elina, will have the pleasure of doing two great mixed media workshops with Nathalie Kalbach (and meet some old friends) and will finally have the opportunity to VISIT ATHENS! I  practically know the Elefterios Venizelo's airport by heart from my numerous visits to Crete (have to change planes always in Athens), but I have never really been to Athens. Can't wait!!!

Will be back Monday night.

"Pagerize This Challenge" + other goodies

Among other fun challenges, at Scrap Our Stash there is a Pagerize This Challenge which is a sort of scraplifting challenge. 

I won Joni's Pagerize This Challenge with this layout.

It's a layout in grid form about my American sisters and Mom who came to visit us in 2004. I used Glimmer mists, Glimmer Glaze (on the birdie) and Glimmer Glam (on the leaves die-cut) and Wendy Vecchi's background stamps. I also made my first Rosette with Tim's alteration die. Loved that! The journaling is written on a Prima Marketing packaging.

And now it's my turn to provide a page for the other readers to "pagerize". Here is the one I've chosen.

I submitted my page for Joni's challenge last weekend while I was watching the news on Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Many of you may not know that my daughter Valentina was living and studying in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. By Monday we were convinced that it was best that she returned home. She arrived on Wednesday after having spent long and exhausting hours first at Narita airport and then on the plane. To make a long story short, we are just enormously grateful that she's back home. The previous post was about a layout I made after she got home.

Now that we can breathe again, and life is returning normal here in our household, I've done some layouts for various challenges.

 

This is for The Color Room's color palette #50. There's also a blog hop going on there. So many beautiful projects for everyone to enjoy and take inspiration from.

Loved playing with gesso and paints and stamps and inks and mists (used everything I had to get the right colors!). And of course I used my sewing machine.

 

This next layout is for Cocoa Daisy's March sketch/lift challenge.

Also here I played with mists and Distress inks + my sewing machine. And with some paint.

 

On the Italian blog Scrappando Carta e Ricordi the challenge for March is to do a layout with a big title, using a border punch and hand written journaling. The theme is Food and/or Beverages. This is my page.

I really don't get Fried chicken and Waffles for breakfast but maybe it's just me:)