Case File No. 251 - Deadline: April 30, 2018

Happy April! We're excited to start a new month. At CSI, that means new challenges, new sponsors, and new guest designers.

Our challenges stay open all month long. And did you know that you are welcome to submit as many layouts as you'd like for the challenges?

We'll be having a design call soon, so stay tuned for that!

So, are you ready for the new challenge? Grab you forensics kits, CSI players, and get ready for some serious sleuthing as we open Case File No. 251.

CASE FILE

Did you know April 1 is officially known as International Llama Month? April Fools! It's not really llama month world-round, but here at CSI, we're going to go with that because we know how trendy and fun llamas are right now. The adorable llama who's the star of our Case File is by British illustrator Aless Baylis.

Feel free to interpret the Case File in any way that inspires you, or for our traditional clues, scroll down to the bottom of this post.

For our Russian players, Detective Anastasia has translated our Case File into Russian:

Правила на русском языке вы можете прочитать здесь.

SPONSORS

We're so excited to have seventeen generous sponsors this month! Holy llama that's a lot of sponsors! Our sponsors are among the best in the crafting industry, offering unique and trendy products. CLICK HERE to read more about these generous sponsors and the prizes they're donating.

GUEST DESIGNERS

We're excited have the talented design teams from Bramble Fox, Cuts2Love, and Denim Tampons join us this month as Guest Detectives!

INSPIRATION

So...are you ready for some serious inspiration?

Our talented Guest Detectives from the Bramble Fox design team solved the Case like this:

Cristina's blog

Morag's blog

Niki's blog


Raechelle's blog

Bramble Fox is offering a discount this month to CSI players!

The design team from Cuts2Luv rocked the Case File too:

Badbarbie's blog

How Badbarbie solved the Case File: I was totally inspired by the color combo and the image because I breed alpacas. Actually I have 25 alpacas. I also used a lot of circles to create movement in my creation with texture paste and ornements.

Caroline's blog

How Caroline solved the Case File: I was inspired by the beautiful combo and the animal thing. I had this lovely picture of my kitty and Cuts2luv flairs from the meow kit were simply perfect match! I used flowers, texture paste, stamps and a big Hello as a title. I also used some sticker phrases to relate about my little fur baby.

France's blog

How France solved the Case File: I loved the youthful fun image included in the challenge. I opted to start my layout on a blue background, then added a white section. I chose whimsical papers to lighten up the page of my little dog Maya, she is just adorable and brings us so much joy on a daily basis. My evidence: solid background, textured papers (stripes & dots), Picture of my dog, Paper flowers, Hearts & flower stamps & word phrases & color combo.Testimony: This layout is how my little dog is ADORABLE and such a ray of light in our lives, we truly love her so much.

Plumo's blog

How Plumo solved the Case File: I let myself be inspired by the color combo and the flowers to create this layout. I found the case's picture funny, so I chose to use funny pictures too. I choose photos where my daughters are having fun in front of the camera lens.

Sandra's blog

How Sandra solved the Case File: This case challenged me a lot, I got out of my comfort zone by using some elements like cactus, pastel colors and cute animal. I also got inspired by circles, textures paste, fabric, flowers and textures. Have fun!

Torsa's blog

Valerie's blog

How Valerie solved the Case File: I was inspired by the colors, fabric, flowers and fuzzy cut.

The Denim Tampons design team did an awesome job solving the Case File:

Aurore's blog

Lydie's blog

Maska's blog

Here is how the CSI Detectives have expertly cracked the case. You can read more about how the Case File inspired them on their blogs (links on sidebar).

How Nina solved the Case File: We have lovely memories of Ernest Hemingway´s home in Key West, where 55 friendly descendants of his son´s cat Snowball lived peacefully in the house and garden. Some of them had the special feature of 6 toes, like Snowball had. Just look at the cat on the right!I picked the following clues as evidence: animal/cats, cacti, flower and circle.

How Debbi solved the Case File: I have a confession to make: I created the Case File with the express purpose of creating a layout about this story. Tracee and I went to visit our local llama farm to take some pictures, and the llamas had disappeared! The sign was empty. The fields were empty. The llama barn was empty. So we took some pictures anyway--sad face selfies, with the intention of scrapping the story of us going to the llama farm. I used several of the Evidence clues: solid background, llama, cacti, flowers, word/phrase stamps; and the Testimony clues: document a memory about an animal; journal directly on the background. I used the white, pink, and green from the The Scheme.

How Lisa-Marie solved the Case File: I absolutely LOVED this challenge and from the moment I saw the image, I knew EXACTLY how I wanted the basic design of my LO to look! I used several semi-circles on this piece, which echoes the saddle on the llama! I also used smaller circles - much like its rosy little cheek! Then I used alot of hearts and heart inspired paper, as to me, the little cactus on the bottom left is shaped quite like a heart!

How Annie solved the Case File: No llamas in my stash, but I loved the whimsical feel of the inspiration image and tried to capture that in this page. I used all the colours; several pieces of Evidence from the Case File - clouds, flowers, stamping, solid background; and I wrote some journaling straight on to the page. This was SO much fun to make

How Magali solved the Case File: I solved the Case with the combo color, phrase stamp, tiny brads, solid background and circles.

How Wendy solved the Case File: Decided on inspiration from the little blanket on the llama ! It reminded me of sewing and quilt making hence this story!

How Anastasia solved the Case File: Love this color scheme. I used ... textured paper for clouds, clouds, animals, circles, fake zig-zag stitching, tiny brads, stamps, phrase stamp and decorative border. Wrote journaling directly on the background, though it didn't turn out as good as I expected.

How Natsuko solved the Case File: I didn't have any llama elements, so I chose a picture of my daughter feeding a monkey. The funny thing is, we go inside the cage instead of them, because they are wild. They get the food from us outside the cage. I used textured paper for the background, fussy cut some flowers, used textured paste to create a pattern and zig-zag stitched with the colors of the color scheme.

How Carina solved the Case File: That llama on the pic is so cute and I love the colors of this scheme. I ended up doing a layout about our sweet kitty that passed away at the beginning of this year.

How Carrie solved the Case File: I had this great plan to use photos of my son when we were housesitting at an alpaca and llama farm (I mean, how perfect was that?!). When I tried to find them on my hard drive, they were gone. Poof! Vanished. So I went with a kitty theme instead. I used the traditional case file and solved the case with a solid background, textured paper, clouds, animals, a rainbow, and flower, and journaled about my memories of my first cat, Pie. (Lo and behold, I found the alpaca pictures just before I uploaded my project!)

How Nupur solved the Case File: The fun, happy , playful pastel colour pallete made me think that there is always something incredible which is about to happen, have faith and never lose hope. Believe in the magic of fairy dust. WIsh upon. The amazing pop of colours in the scene made me appreciate the little things we have in life. Its all about the beginning and you must start here...

How Laura solved the Case File: I went old school using solid background, clouds, zigzag stitching, stamps, stamped words, and circle

How Libeeti solved the Case File: This time I took the free style way.I was inspired by the airy feeling of the inspiration photo and by the colors. My journaling is about my Mom's love for flowers, how she cultivated her garden on our balcony.

How Debbi solved the Case File: I started out not planning to be "traditional" but then I found this rainbow/cloud die in an older Snap Collection and the rest is history..I loved the colour palette for this little fur baby, Maggie, on the day she found her new home and stole all our hearts.

How Patty solved the Case File: I was inspired by the gorgeous colors and the journaling prompt, "Write a joke or riddle.

How Kim solved the Case File: I did the traditional colors and some of the clues.

CASE FILE CLUES 

Choose as few or as many as you are inspired to use!

EVIDENCE

• solid background
• textured paper
• clouds
• llama (or other animals)
• cacti
• circle
• something fuzzy
• rainbow
• zig-zag stitching
• tiny brads
• flower
• fabric
• rub-ons/stamps
• texture paste
• word/phrase stamp
• decorative border

TESTIMONY (JOURNALING IDEAS)

• Topic: Document a memory about an animal.
• Prompt Idea: Choose a random question.
• Presentation: Journal directly on the background.
• Writing Format: Write a joke or riddle (in honor of April Fool’s Day).
• Inspiration Words: hello, whimsy, high

THE SCHEME

• 199.224.228 – powder blue
• 255.255.255 – white
• 236.142.160 – pink—somewhere between ballerina pink and carnation pink
• 198.217.41 – lime green
• 142.212.204 - turquoise

We trust we've left enough clues for you to solve the case!

The deadline for completing this Case File is Monday, April 30, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Be sure to link your layout using the link tool in the sidebar, and mention the Evidence and Testimony clues you used. Also, please title your link with your name and country.