She Gave Me Wings Layout

Hello fellow scrappers!  I'm sure you're all aware by now that during this month of September, Once Upon A Sketch (OUAS) has teamed up with CSI.  It's finally my turn to present my project!  I thoroughly enjoy CSI & have been a fan since it's debut.  I play along whenever I can--so for me this was a very fun experience!

I also recently discovered Berry71Bleu & saw that they're having a mixed media challenge this month--I decided to submit this page to their challenge as well.

I decided to do a page based on my mom.  That would be her in the photo and believe it or not, that's me she's holding!  :-)  I was about 3 months old in this photo. Up to a certain point in my life--my mom raised me by herself.  She played a big role in shaping the person that I am today.  She made me to be very strong, independent, proud & ambitious. She was big on education--and thanks to her support I'm the first in my family to earn a college degree.  I didn't stop at a Bachelors either--I have both my Bachelors & my Masters in Management Information Systems.  She's also to thank for me being fluent in Spanish.  Being 100% bilingual has been extremely beneficial in both my personal & professional career.  It's no surprise that most mothers play an important & loving role in our lives--mine is no exception and this is my tribute to the role she played in mine.

Here's the CSI challenge & the sketch provided by Nadia from OUAS that my page is based on.  I absolutely loved the color palette for this one.  To me they were bright, happy & just right for the theme of my page.

For my evidence I included: bird, little bits & pieces & a frame.  For my testimony I have: my journaling in the form of a booklet.

Here's one of the two birds I included on my page.  The resin bird is by Prima as is the cute little nest.  I included a glass vial as part of my random embellies filled with beads from my stash.  I also included some tiles that I've had in my stash for ages.  The title was printed on a transparency.

Here's my little hand made journaling booklet.  I have made a brief tutorial on how I went about creating this booklet.  I loved the idea!  This is yet another way of including large journaling on your layout where the journaling doesn't crowd your page, you can keep it private & it actually adds a unique embellishment to your layout.  You can find the tutorial here.

You can see my 2nd bird here.  This bird is an image I printed via my own computer.

Here are my bits & pieces embedded into my background which is full of texture.  I absolutely loved how my background came out!  It was the first time I got dirty & messy with gesso.  A big thanks goes to Nadia Cannizzo who provided a tutorial on her blog on how to create mesh & gesso backgrounds.  You can find that tutorial here.  The only thing I did differently was that while the gesso was still wet, I added both chunky leaf glitter by Martha Stewart and beads from my stash to add even more texture.  I then let it dry overnight.  TIP: make sure that in the areas that you plan on adding beads or glitter or any other bits & bobs; that you are very generous with your gesso.  You want your items to sink into your gesso without being drowned so that when they dry--they stick & stay!  I colored my background with a mixture of Riptide & Yellow Daisy glimmer mists.

This very pretty flower I bought from an Etsy shop called Funtoolas.  It's fairly large, made out of fabric and very colorful & bright in person.  I tucked a bit of light aqua tulle underneath my flower as well as a yellow & teal feather.

The chippie frame around my photo is by Imaginarium Designs.  It was inked in both a light & dark orange acrylic paint then heat embossed with Star Dust transparent embossing powder by Stampendous.  In person this frame is very shimmery & blingy!

Here's what my journaling booklet looks like when unfolded.  See how much info you can store in this lil' booklet?  Love it!

Thanks for stopping by--I very much appreciate your visit.  Do take the time to visit both the CSI & OUAS blogs to check out what the other talented DT members did with this challenge--you won't be disappointed!  As always, do play along if you can!

Have a great day!