Monday, August 15, 2022

August Case Files - Mid-Month Reveal | Deadline: September 4, 2022

Greetings! Our heatwave has finally broken here in Maryland and we're halfway through August, which means it's time for our mid-month reveal, where we'll show you beautiful inspiration from the design team and guest designers.

If you haven't yet had time to solve our first Case File, no worries--both challenges stay open until September 4.


PRIZES

This year CSI will be giving away a $20 (U.S. dollars) gift certificate to your favorite online craft store (must take Paypal) to one lucky player each month.

We'll also be inviting some players whose work catches our eye to serve as Guest Detectives.



CASE FILES 

Here in the United States, August is a month where everyone heads off on their last vacation before school starts, so we're celebrating vacations with our Case Files this month. As always, you don't have to scrap these topics. Draw your own inspiration from The Scene on the Case File, or you can use the traditional clues, which can be found at the bottom of this blog post.

Image credit: Happy Makers


Image credit: piZap

The traditional CSI clues can be found on our Facebook page in the first entry under the album. Just click on the Case File images above. They are also posted at the bottom of this reveal.

To submit your layouts, click on the Case Files in our sidebar, which will bring you to the individual albums in our Facebook group.


GUEST DETECTIVES

These talented ladies' work caught our eye in previous months' challenges, so we invited them to be guest designers for the month.

I have three children (21, 18 and 13) and a husband. My family lives on an island on the west coast of Norway. I am an engineer and work at a yard where we build oil-platforms. We are a busy family, so it is sometimes hard to find time to scrapbook. Therefore I really appreciate the time I get to just enter the scrapbooking world. I most like to scrap layouts, and I love CSI and its concept. I scrap new and old pictures, mostly of my kids, and I like to tell the stories as well. I do not have a particular style, but like to try things I see and get inspired by, and I like to start with a sketch, and make it my own way, as I play along .


How I solved the Case: I was inspired by the colors and I have documented a trip to the beach. Some friends and I went to Tønsberg in Norway, and it was so beautiful walking along the beach. I have used a bit of a grid- composition, watercolor in the background, arrow, flower, circles, twine and a flamingo


Hi, everyone! I’m delighted to be a Guest Designer (thanks so much, Debbi). My name is Nelya Lutsyuk. I get to be a stay at home mommy to 4 kiddos. My oldest is almost 8, and my youngest is 6 months (he was born around Christmastime!). I enjoy crafting, scrapbooking in particular. I love how broad this craft is - you could include mixed media, fabric, collaging, doodling, painting, stamping, and more! It’s so much fun to be inspired and pushed out of my comfort zone by various challenges. Everyday/random stories are my favorite to document - hearing funny stories from my childhood is something I’ve always enjoyed, and I want my kids to know theirs (such as the time when my kindergartener refused to have her school picture taken). Thankfully, I have an amazing husband who totally enables me and my scrapbooking. 😁


How I solved the Case: I knew I had some beach themed papers (including cut aparts) in one of my paper pads. Luckily, I also had some old beach photos that were already printed and ready to scrap!
I was inspired by the colors and the following evidence: grid composition, multiple photos, beach accents, other animals (butterfly and seahorse), signs, cursive/brush font, circles, arrow.



Heather Bellanger is small business CPA by day and a scrapbooker by night. She loves playing with paper, mixed media, cut files and sewing on paper. Her layouts are posted on Instagram @heatherlaugh.


How I solved the Case: This is one of my favorite colors palettes! It’s summer and we have lots of adventures in the water in South Louisiana. Boats, jet skis, and bathing suits - that’s the summer plan for these girls! I pulled paper from my stash to coordinate with the Simple Stories Sunkissed embellishments and a added the title from Color Cast Designs.


Jennifer Neuber Walth

I am a marketing professional that lives near Milwaukee, Wisconsin with my husband and two tiny humans. Scrapbooking is my creative outlet, where I don’t have to be creative on demand. I love building themes around pictures and preserving memories for my children. Totally proof that they had a great childhood so I don’t have to pay for their therapy later.


How I solved the Case: The inspiration was very soft and whimsical. These photos of our family trip to the Mall of America and the cloud ride seemed to be the perfect fit! The clouds and grid design elements really jumped out at me from the prompts. The colors were so fun to work with.


INSPIRATION 

And now, are you ready for some serious inspiration? Here's what our design team and Guest Detectives created with this month's first Case File. We will share creations for our other Case File on the 15th of the month.



The CSI design team masterfully cracked the Case. We'll share how we solved the Case on Facebook and Instagram.













CASE FILE CLUES 

Choose as many or as few as you are inspired to use! You don't have to use all of the categories of clues. use what inspires you, or challenge yourself to use as many clues as you can. Or just use the image to inspire you as you wish!

Testimony Links: August Prompts and Haiku


Testimony Link: Daydreaming on Paper


We trust we've provided enough clues for you to solve the Cases! You have until September 4, 2022, to solve both cases. We can't wait to see what you'll create! Upload your creations in our Facebook Group (album links in sidebar).

 

Saturday, August 6, 2022

July Prize Winners and Gallery Faves


We'd like to thank everyone who participated in our challenges, and a HUGE thank you to our generous sponsors!

PRIZE WINNERS:

Randomly selected from our June players:
Winner of the gift certificate donated by CSI - Jessica Navarro
Winner of the CUT to YOU prize -  Jane Howden


To claim your prize, please send a private message with your email and address via the CSI Facebook Page (please do not contact Debbi on her personal Facebook Messenger) by August 31. Please also indicate which month and which prize you won. 

If you won the gift certificate from CSI, please let me know which store you would like the gift certificate to come from (it must accept Paypal).

GUEST DETECTIVE INVITATIONS: 

The following layouts caught our eye, and we'd like to invite the creators to join us as Guest Detectives:


Jessica Navarro


Jean Marmo


Please send a private message to Debbi on the CSI Facebook Page to let her know you'd like to guest design, and she'll send you the case Files.


Monday, August 1, 2022

August Case Files - First Reveal | Deadline: September 4, 2022

Happy August! We're excited to bring you a new month of fun and inspiring challenges and lots of beautiful inspiration. 

For this first reveal, we'll be sharing inspiration from the design team and guest designers for our first Case File. On the 15th, we'll be sharing inspiration for our second Case File. 


PRIZES

This year, in addition to having sponsors donate prizes, CSI will be giving away a $20 (U.S. dollars) gift certificate to your favorite online craft store (must take Paypal) to one lucky player each month.

We'll also be inviting some players whose work catches our eye to serve as Guest Detectives.



CASE FILES 

Here in the United States, August is a month where everyone heads off on their last vacation before school starts, so we're celebrating vacations with our Case Files this month. As always, you don't have to scrap these topics. Draw your own inspiration from The Scene on the Case File, or you can use the traditional clues, which can be found at the bottom of this blog post.

Image credit: Happy Makers


Image credit: piZap

The traditional CSI clues can be found on our Facebook page in the first entry under the album. Just click on the Case File images above. They are also posted at the bottom of this reveal.

To submit your layouts, click on the Case Files in our sidebar, which will bring you to the individual albums in our Facebook group.


GUEST DETECTIVES

These talented ladies' work caught our eye in previous months' challenges, so we invited them to be guest designers for the month.

I have three children (21, 18 and 13) and a husband. My family lives on an island on the west coast of Norway. I am an engineer and work at a yard where we build oil-platforms. We are a busy family, so it is sometimes hard to find time to scrapbook. Therefore I really appreciate the time I get to just enter the scrapbooking world. I most like to scrap layouts, and I love CSI and its concept. I scrap new and old pictures, mostly of my kids, and I like to tell the stories as well. I do not have a particular style, but like to try things I see and get inspired by, and I like to start with a sketch, and make it my own way, as I play along .



How I solved the Case: I was Inspired by the colors and have documented a road trip from last year. Korona-summer made us explore our own country, and it was a beautiful trip. All the places are mentioned around the Edge, and I chose a picture from the mountain. My old hiking shoes and I got to go on a spectacular mountain Edge hike, and for me it was such a goal to achieve and a big accomplishment.
I have used triangles, sun, clouds, car, leaves and the inspiration Word : Explore


Hi, everyone! I’m delighted to be a Guest Designer (thanks so much, Debbi). My name is Nelya Lutsyuk. I get to be a stay at home mommy to 4 kiddos. My oldest is almost 8, and my youngest is 6 months (he was born around Christmastime!). I enjoy crafting, scrapbooking in particular. I love how broad this craft is - you could include mixed media, fabric, collaging, doodling, painting, stamping, and more! It’s so much fun to be inspired and pushed out of my comfort zone by various challenges. Everyday/random stories are my favorite to document - hearing funny stories from my childhood is something I’ve always enjoyed, and I want my kids to know theirs (such as the time when my kindergartener refused to have her school picture taken). Thankfully, I have an amazing husband who totally enables me and my scrapbooking. 😁


How I solved the Case: I had been meaning to document my love of the Pacific Northwest for a while now. When I saw the Case File, I knew that the time has come. Other than the colors, I was inspired by all the trees! I decided to use embroidery thread to lazily “stitch” them (can I even call it that?) - each line is one long stitch. This didn’t take nearly as long as stitching them for real would. I also happened to have a journaling card that had some forest items on it, which I just had to fussy cut. The clouds, believe it or not, became necessary when I accidentally got some smudges on the background! 😅 I love how the circle/sun came out: I stamped 2 arrows and stitched my title (PNW) to make an image like many car decals that I’ve seen.

Evidence: color scheme, trees, flower, branches, sun, clouds, circles, string, triangles (the trees), and also the rolling hills.


Donna Meyer

Hi my name is Donna Meyer. I moved to Philadelphia PA from New York 2 years ago with my husband, to be closer to our adult children and granddaughters. I have been crafting since I was born and scrapbooking since 1990. I scrap mostly 8 1/2 by 11 and have over 125 albums.


How I solved the Case: I was inspired to solve case 392 by prompt #1 in the testimony “Describe a moment today you don’t want to forget “ I knew I wanted to document how grateful I am to be part of my granddaughters early years. For the evidence I used the colors , flowers , leaves and triangles.



Heather Bellanger is small business CPA by day and a scrapbooker by night. She loves playing with paper, mixed media, cut files and sewing on paper. Her layouts are posted on Instagram @heatherlaugh.


How I solved the Case: I took my inspiration from the green in the palette. We took a trip to the Dominican Republic and I used a Vicki Boutin stencil pieces of the VB Let’s Wander collection.


Jennifer Neuber Walth

I am a marketing professional that lives near Milwaukee, Wisconsin with my husband and two tiny humans. Scrapbooking is my creative outlet, where I don’t have to be creative on demand. I love building themes around pictures and preserving memories for my children. Totally proof that they had a great childhood so I don’t have to pay for their therapy later.

How I solved the Case: The outdoor theme and organic colors made me reach for pictures of my son at my in-laws ranch in South Dakota. This is a road trip we take every year. The inspiration image of the trees gave me the perfect opportunity to use my new tree die cuts!!


INSPIRATION 

And now, are you ready for some serious inspiration? Here's what our design team and Guest Detectives created with this month's first Case File. We will share creations for our other Case File on the 15th of the month.


The CSI design team masterfully cracked the Case. We'll share how we solved the Case on Facebook and Instagram.








CASE FILE CLUES 

Choose as many or as few as you are inspired to use! You don't have to use all of the categories of clues. use what inspires you, or challenge yourself to use as many clues as you can. Or just use the image to inspire you as you wish!

Testimony Links: August Prompts and Haiku


Testimony Link: Daydreaming on Paper


We trust we've provided enough clues for you to solve the Cases! You have until September 4, 2022, to solve both cases. We can't wait to see what you'll create! Upload your creations in our Facebook Group (album links in sidebar).