CSI case file #61: Going to the library

Hi everyone! This month Sizzix is sponsoring CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. Join us and you can win some fun goodies! That also means that some of my design team mates at Sizzix will join us this month at CSI guest designers. Don't miss their layouts, or the layouts of the CSI team. This is our pretty case file for this week:

I used the 'Daydreaming on Paper' prompt and it gave me the fun topic of 'my first library card', I adapted it a little bit and made a layout about library memories:

I've loved libraries ever since my dad started taking us to the local library to borrow children's books when I was maybe three or four years old. There is something so special about the smell, all the books and stories to be discovered, and the quiet environment. From the evidence items I used: gold accents, pleating, and a white background (although it didn't remain white). I made my own stencil using the Word Play die for the background. Here's how:

Use the Word Play die and die cut a strip of Eclipse tape, with the sticky side facing up. Eclipse tape is great for masking and can stand pretty much water. If you don't have Eclipse tape, you can do the same with a sheet of transparency and just spray it with temporary spray adhesive first. I've done that in the past and it works just as well and also gives you a more durable stencil which you can use again.

Place the homemade stencil on your paper and press it down. I used watercolour paper. I also wanted to use the die cut letters for the title and placed them at the top of the layout. So we are making both a negative and a positive mask/stencil. I misted the paper with clean water and then swept Distress Stains across (Wild Honey, Scattered Straw, Rusty Hinge). If you want to you can use mists or watercolours instead. Leave to dry and then remove the masks. I wasn't aiming for a perfect result and a bit of ink seeped in where I hadn't pressed down the tape properly.

Tim Holtz Vintage Typewriter was die cut from black Kraft-Core cardstock and sanded to reveal some of the kraft core. I removed all the lose parts and placed a dictionary page underneath, which just happened to have the definition of 'Lilleput' - the place where Gulliver goes in his travels, with the very small people. The golden finger points to that text. Love those types of little details. A word band was attached with brads and I stamped a white paper with my favourite alphabet background stamp from Tim Holtz and placed a photo booth photo of my dad, my sister and I on top, tucking it into the typewriter.

The masked title letters were a bit too stark white, so I inked them a with Scattered Straw.  I used a date stamp and stamped it all over the background.

Lots of more stamping on the background, some of it with grey ink and some with black. The alphabet stamp used on the typewriter paper was stamped repeatedly in grey ink, using first and second generation stamping. The edges of the layout were distressed and I also added strips of tissue tape here and there, some of it was pleated.

I love using dies in ways that might not seem obvious at first, and my mini-book for the journaling was made with Eileen Hull's Square Box die, which is meant to make a box (see this project). I was looking at it, thinking it would make a fold out panel for hidden journaling, which I often need since I tend to journal a lot. I die cut it from manila cardstock, and cut the two flaps off on both ends, rounding the corners. Since the Scoreboards dies both cuts and scores the paper, my hidden journaling fold-out flap was really easy to make. I stamped and inked it a bit.

I printed the journaling inside the folder and stamped the second flap too.

Here's the whole journaling panel folded out. The journaling is a bit long to translate, but it is all about memories from all the different libraries I have gone to. When I had just gotten my very own first library card I walked off to the library and took out Astrid Lindgren's Ronja book (see this layout), only to realise when I came home that I had by mistake taken the Finish version and could not understand a word. Off to the library again to get the Swedish one. I also wrote a list of some of the writers I liked as a child (only some, I was a constant reader from the moment I learned how to read). I loved classic books and read everything from Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Dickens, and all the Narnia books, Gulliver's travels, all Astrid Lindgren's books and I loved Enid Blyton's 'Five' books, among others.

Thank you for the visit! Have a lovely weekend and I hope you will join us this week at CSI. If you have never done a CSI challenge, I hope you will, it is really wonderful challenge and a very friendly community.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Dies: Sizzix: Vintage Typewriter, Word Play, Cargo Stencil Numbers, Square Box

Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: School Desk, Mini Ornates, Classics #5; Hero Arts: Love Books ST506, Calico Borders 331074; Artistic Outpost: Favorite Book; date stamp

Ink: Distress Ink: Scattered Straw, Walnut Stain; Archival Ink Jet Black; Versafine Smokey Grey

Stain: Distress Stain: Wild Honey, Scattered Straw, Rusty Hinge

Surfaces: Core'diantions Tim Holtz Kraft-Core cardstock; Ranger manila cardstock; Canson watercolour paper; Eclipse tape

Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Word Bands, Pen Nibs, Terminology tissue tape; twine; Making Memories gold embellishments; 7Gypsies photo turn