The story of pineapple

Lately I've been drawn to color yellow. Spring is finally here and we have more daylight and sunshine. I wanted to bring the sunshine to my scrapbooking too!

If you follow scrapbooking trends, you might have noticed that pineapples are really trendy right now! It's the same in interior decor too. Apparently pineapple is some sort of a symbol of hospitality. Anyway, I've been telling my husband about this pineapple trend. He clearly has paid attention and listened to me rambling about this as one day a couple of weeks ago he bought me a pineapple!

This layout has been done for CSI. This is my last DT layout as I decided to step down from the team this spring. I've been in CSI's DT for 1,5 years and I have loved it! It was my first design team. It was one of the first challenge sites that I joined. I feel that I learned so much about scrapbooking through the weekly challenges. I can't praise CSI's wonderful community enough. I've been fortunate to be part of such an amazing design team.

Evidence: Circles, stars, stripes, something transparent, labels, die cuts
Testimony: Inspiration word "unexpected"

Materials: Elle's studio, American Crafts, Doodlebug designs

CSI: The best of days

This week's CSI challenge had a bit challenging colors for me but the inspiration picture was so cool! I instantly knew that I would like to use the picture as my design guide.

I cut some semi circles with silhouette and used the negatives. For some reason, I don't just feel that the layout turned out the way I imagined. Something is just wrong there...

At least the story is good: it's about our trip to Yosemite national park and what we did and saw there. Oh happy day indeed!

Evidence: circles, stripes
Testimony: journal in a circular shape

The story of Tunnel view

This is one of the rare photos we have of the two of us from our honeymoon. Normally it's just one of us in the pic as the other one is behind the lense. And you can call me suspicious but I don't like handing my DSLR camera to complete strangers :D

That view of Yosemite national park was just breathtaking. I'm so happy one lovely lady offered to take a picture of us!

This layout was created for CSI based on Em Stafrace's sketch. An oh the colors! Fab!

Evidence: Frames, transparent items, decorative border

Testimony: Journal about a trip

Materials American Crafts, Heidi Swapp, Crate Paper, Studio Calico

CSI: Make a plan

I just loved the colors of this week's CSI challenge! Purple and turquoise together! A perfect opportunity to use the lovely Dear Lizzy collection :)

I wanted to make a layout about my adventure in this crazy planner hype. I got a gorgeous Kikki K. planner for Christmas and since then I have tried to figure out how to use it the best way. I did some basic decorating to the planner, but I'm not going to go overboard with it. The planner will really be a planner for me, not some artistic diary (but I reserve the right to change my mind about this!).

Materials: American Crafts (Dear Lizzy)

CSI: Family

Today I just want to pop in quickly and share my latest layout that I made for CSI. The colors and the sketch are so inspiring, come play with us!

I wanted to create a layout about our family of two. Like the sticker on the layout says, we are better together.

Evidence: circles, paint
Testimony: Inspiration word "family"

Materials: American Crafts

The story of the little violinist

That's me in that picture. I think I'm 5 years old, playing at my first concert.

I started playing violin when I was three. At first I started learning with Suzuki method where you learn the music and songs by listening. The idea is that everyone can learn how to play an instrument. There were these music books that contain many songs and after you learnt all the songs from one book you would play all the songs in a concert. And that's where that picture was taken.

Violin and music have been such a big part of my life. I played until I was 20. I got great friends, traveled  the world and recorded albums with our orchestra. Special memories <3

This layout was created for CSI.

Materials: Pink Paislee, American Crafts, Crate Paper, Doodlebug Designs, MME

The story of vacation fever

I need a vacation! I need sun!

We travel abroad typically once a year. It's a longer vacation in some where warm. Normally when we get back from the vacation we start to plan another one. Our last vacation was in May and no plans are made for new trip. Research and dreaming yes, but no reservations.

This means that I'm looking at the pictures from our trips over and over again. I actually don't know if it helps as the more I look at the pictures from these tropical destinations the more I want to travel again. But I can't help it! Be prepared to see some old vacation pics scrapped in the near future!

This layout was created for CSI.

Evidence: stripes, silver, 3 of something, glitter,
Testimony: inspiration word "frozen"

Materials: American Crafts, Heidi Swapp

The story of CSI basics

Hi there! As you have probably noticed I'm part of CSI's design team and share layouts based on the CSI case files on my blog almost weekly. CSI is so much more than just a regular scrapbooking challenge. It is a community with a capital C. All the design team and CSI members upload their CSI layouts to the gallery. You can find different forums from the site, like CSI Lab where members share their tips about scrapbooking, and you can even find a live chat room!

Each challenge contains a case file. This week's case file looks like this:

The case file contains three parts: 

1. Inspiration picture where the color scheme of the file comes from. You should use all these colors in your layout. You can add neutrals like white, black and kraft if you want.
2. Evidence: this is a list of elements and you need to choose at least two from the list and include them to your layout. This time I chose "triangles" and "stack something".
3. Testimony: This part quides you with the topic and journaling of your layout. CSI is all about the stories, so this is probably the most important part! You need to choose one option from this list. For my layout, I chose "thank you letter" as the picture is actually a thank you card that my cousin sent after her high school graduation to family and friends.

So here is my layout based on the case file:

Our former CSI DT member Riikka has made awesome instructions about how you can upload your layouts to the CSI gallery. You can check it out here!

I really hope that I see you and your layout in CSI! We have an awesome community there and we hope that you join us :)

The story of a little rock chic

The girl you see in the layout below is a very girly girl. She loves pink and make up. She loves nice clothes and shoes. Since she was a little girl (not that she is that big yet either), she has liked to have her hair short. No long hair or ponytales. Shorter the better.

I feel that there's some kind of social pressure for young girls to have long hair. This girl has never cared about that. She wears her hair just like she wants. She's a little rock chic!

This layout was created for CSI using the sketch by Em Stafrace.

Evidence: Triangles, banner
Testimony: Inspiration word "attitude"

The story of "structured" Christmas

I love Christmas. It's a time when you get together with your loved-ones.

Our Christmases are quite structured in a way. This might sound really weird to you but let me explain. We are spending Christmas in two locations every year. This year we were with my family-in-law the Christmas eve and on Christmas day we changed venue to my family's place. And next year we will do it the other way. I really like the way we handle this! It's so easy to know what you are going to do and our families know this "structure" too. No need for discussion and hassle on where to spend Christmas :)

This layout was created for CSI.

Evidence: stripes, flourishes, holiday accents, branches
Testimony: Document the holidays