Sweet Tiny Butterfly | CSI Case File No. 432

I made this layout for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration's first April scrapbooking challenge. I have to say I was a little nervous about the red with the pastel colors (see Case File below), but I decided to embrace the red, and I really love how this turned out!

Here are the Case File and Clues. I usually choose the images, but this time, I invited my design team to select the images. Cassie chose this image and I made the clues, so it was my fault, LOL, that the red was a part of the palette, but like I said, I'm happy for the red!

I used the basic color scheme and most of the Evidence clues (my favorite part--I always like to try to get them all on my page. So fun going through my stash!): solid background, polka dots, spring-themed items, flowers, butterflies, strawberries, ribbon, bows, bicycle, sprinkle something, watercolor, metal, and circles.

Here are some details. I looked through my photos for some spring pictures that would go with the palette and came up with these three sweet pictures. I sometimes find multi-photo layouts a challenge in terms of composing the design. I decided three horizontal strips would be the way to go. I searched my paper collections for the colors and nothing really had all the colors, but the New Day collection from Echo Park had pink, green, and yellow, and I decided I could draw from another collection for the aqua.

I tore strips of paper (polka dots were one of the clues) to spread across the page in three sections on a solid white background (another clue). The layout was already looking crowded and I had to think of where to put the title. I settled on making a 3-word title that I could spread down the page.

Once I had the papers in place, I was still left with what to do with red. I couldn't quite find a good red paper to match, so that's when I thought of using a film-strip die in red. Once I made that decision, I could start adhering things and looking for embellishments. If you look closely, you can see I used the packaging technique with some pink watercolor (a clue). I did some stamping in the background for the circles clue with the Bramble Fox Doodles stamp and sprinkled (another clue) some pink splatters. I found a bicycle and some flowers on the Echo Park sticker sheet, two more clues. I added some ribbon (another clue) that had green and aqua from the colors. I added a bow to the basket on the bike (two more clus). The Bramble Fox heart wasn't a clue, but I always add hearts to the pages I give away, and it added more red. Metal was a clue, so I added some silver brads to the bike tires.

Butterflies were a clue, so I added a butterfly charm to this jar of flowers and punched some butterflies and added some metal dots to their centers. Strawberries or other fruit was a clue and I thought maybe that would be a stupid addition to my page, but I thought, what the heck, let me fussy-cut some from a paper in my stash and see how they look, and I really like how they look on my page--a perfect bit of whimsy.

Here's one last close-up. These plastic letters are from Heidi Swapp and the packaging says they're from 2005! That's almost 20 years they've been in my stashing waiting for me to make this layout. See, this is why I never purge!

If you've read this far, I hope you'll come play with us at CSI and would you please jot a note in the comments that you've read this post? Just curious to see if scrappers are still reading blogs... I feel like blogs are sort of the old-school version of process videos. I'd love to create videos, but this page literally took me all day to make!

A Lovely Day | Bramble Fox

I can't keep up with this blog the way I want to, but I'm going to try to post more. Here's a layout and the blog post I made for Bramble Fox. 

Spring is in the air and it's time to scrapbook all those lovely days spent outdoors; whether it's just time out on the farm, a trip to the park, or any excursion really, the May Fox Box has the perfect titles and embellishments for these occasions. I chose the pretty pink "Lovely Day" title, the sweet chicken Woodies, and the stencil and Paper Snips from the Fox Box Plus, along with some other awesome Bramble Fox goodies, to make this page about my friend who lives on the farm. Please note that I scrap 8 x 8, so the products look a bit larger on my layout.

My starting point was the title and the lovely Paper Snips from the Fox Box Plus, particularly the chickens and the trees and flowers, so I picked out some matching Distress Oxides I could brush through the beautiful stencil in the Fox Box Plus. The Blending Brushes in the Bramble Fox shop are perfect for brushing different colors and detailed stencil work. I decided to compose my layout in two horizontal arrangements because I had a portrait and a landscape photo. Since I used a metal brad in the lower right part of my page, I added the two metal dots near my title.

Here's a view of the opposite side of the top vertical arrangement. I found some patterned paper in my paper scraps drawers that matched the elements from the Paper Snips I was using. That light green piece is actually something I tore out of an old calendar. It was a perfect complement to the green trees.

I layered up the photo with some frames and tickets that also matched the colors nicely. The "everything is awesome" is from the Paper Snips in the kit. How adorable is the chicken Woodie from the Fox Box? (There are actually two chicken Woodies--I'm saving the other one for another layout!) My layout needed more pink to balance the pink title, so I cut some chevron arrows using the Stamp Frame|Chevron Dies. This is a must-have die set because it is so versatile and I've used it on almost every layout I've made since I got it! You can see I also used the Barbed Wire Fox Dies #4 as a layer.

That cute orange chicken from the Paper Snips made me choose that old My Mind's Eye orange patterned paper. I adhered the chicken with pop dots to make her more dimensional. I used a lot of the same elements in the lower left that I used in the upper right to add cohesion to my composition. The happiness word embellishment is from the Paper Snips. Isn't that font the cutest? Its color matches the "Everything is Awesome" and is the reason behind the color I used to mat the photos.

I needed something big and pink on the bottom right to balance the pink title in the upper left, so I found a matching pink cardstock and created a View Master Reel using Fox Dies #17 (another must-have versatile die that has recently been restocked--so be sure to go grab yours now!) That cute wooden sign is from the paper snips. I also adhered the sign with pop dots for extra dimension. The brad I chose for the center of the View Master reel not only matched the colors but has a sort of vintage, rustic look I was going for on my layout.

I hope I've given you some ideas for using the May Fox Box Plus. This kit truly has something for all sorts of spring and outdoor happenings. The kit ships on May 4, so be sure to subscribe before then!

Please share your creations with us by tagging us on Instagram and by adding your creations to our Bramble Fox Friends Facebook Group. I can't wait to see what you'll make with this Fox Box!

Until next time, have fun scrapping!