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.

Lillian Morvik

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

Nelya Lutsyuk

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 Hirschfeld Bellanger

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).