December Case Files - First Reveal | Deadline: January 4, 2023

Happy December, CSI Investigators!  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

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.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: NEWLY RECRUITED DETECTIVE

We're excited to announce our newest Detective! Cynthia Baldwin has been a long-time, loyal player at CSI, and we just love her style and especially her journaling and her ability to incorporate multiple photos on her layouts! Please give Cynthia a warm welcome!

Here's a little about Cynthia, in her own words:

Hi, I'm Cynthia Baldwin. I live in Cypress, Texas (northwest Houston) with my husband of over 25 years, John. We have two kids, Nick and Aly, plus our fur baby Lucy. I've been papercrafting/memory-keeping for over thirty years, and I still love the creativity, photography, generous community - and of course the pretty supplies! - that come with this awesome hobby.

You can see more of Cynthia's work in her gallery.

CASE FILES 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! And that's what we're celebrating 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: Live Internet Russia

Image credit: Pinterest

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.

GALLERY FAVE GUEST DETECTIVES

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

Ali Thomas Steer

My name is Ali and I have been scrapbooking since 2005 when I discovered all the beautiful products I could play with, and I haven't stopped since! I live in the London suburbs with my family and two of my three grown-up children, who are the main source of my photo inspiration. I love CSI as it challenges me to use up my stash, mix and match collections and indulges my love of scraps (I can't throw anything pretty away!) I also love travel, birdwatching and crochet. I am a member of the Cheam Paper Party crop in my local area.

Here's how I solved Case File No. 400: I used the festive colour palette and the inspiration picture, stars, bows, stripes, snowflakes, big stitches, a tag, stems, leaves and foliage to celebrate our visit to a Christmas market in Winchester.

Antonia Sherlock

 Hi, I’m Antonia and I live in the UK with my family. I’m an occupational therapist by day, avid scrapbooker by night and nature wonderer on the weekends. I started scrapbooking about twelve years ago, wanting to capture and record the special moments in my children’s lives, as they grow up. It has since become a passion and a form of therapy – it keeps me sane when life gets a bit crazy! I am a traditional patterned paper sort of girl at heart and enjoy creating single - and double page layouts and journal pages. You can find me on my blog, on my YouTube channel, and on my Instagram account…

Here's how I solved Case File No. 400: The starting point was Stars and Stripes and the Christmas theme. I used a candy-striped patterned paper for the background and I did some festive stamping at the top and the bottom. I wanted to use the gold foiled star vellum paper on this layout, because the photo is as special as the product itself! More stars were needed, so I added some around the photo, and sprinkled some enamel dots with a star design around the embellishment clusters

Debra Beer

My name is Debra Beer, I live in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW, Australia.

I am mother to 2 beautiful daughters and 5 amazing grandchildren.

I have been scrapping for over 25 years, and love it, especially entering challenges.

My interests include scrapping, photography, travel and spending time with family.

I am thrilled to be Guest Designer for CSI Challenges.

How I solved the Case: I was inspired by the colours and images from the Moodboard. Using spots and stripes in my background papers, I then added Christmas themed elements to highlight my photo.

I used stars, sequins, flowers, foliage to give that happy Christmas vibe to my layout.

INSPIRATION 

And now, are you ready for some serious inspiration? Here's what our design team 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: December prompts

Testimony Link: December prompts

We trust we've provided enough clues for you to solve the Cases! You have until January 4, 2023, 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).