CSI Case File 10: My Heart

It is already time for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration Case File 10. I hope you can play along with us this week, Debbi has chosen a very dramatic colour combo and inspiration photo, here it is:

I just loved the dramatic photo of the dark green clouds with the opening in the clouds where the sun shines through and I wanted to do something different with this layout. From the evidence items I used: clouds, create shadow and light and contrasting textures. And I was inspired by the motherhood theme of the story items. This layout doesn’t have a lot of journaling, but sometimes, a few words can say a lot and I have wanted to do a layout using this great quote by Elizabeth Stone. I thought the quote worked well in combination with the inspiration photo, which has a sense of both dark and light, worry and happiness.

I decided to do a watercolour painting for the background, using the three shades of green in the colour combo. All of them were mixed using only two colours (Yellow Ochre and French Ultramarine). I hope I got it right, watercolours dry lighter so it was a bit tricky getting the right shades. The painting was very inspired by the inspiration photo, but I also added a tree, symbolizing growth and strength. Here’s the finished painting (8.5 times 11 inches):

When it was finished, I didn’t want to cover it up, so I made a second one to use as a background to the layout. Here's the second one:

And here it is turned into a layout:

Manila cardstock was inked in red and pink (using Spun Sugar and Fired Brick), the hearts were die cut from the inked pieces and then stamped with a scrip stamp using a slightly darker shade of ink (Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany). They were stitched to the page and then folded up a bit to add dimension. I used of photo from when my son was just a few weeks old. I also added some stamping and white embossed some grass and birds. The edges of the layout were distressed.

Two close-ups:

Thank you so much for looking at this long post!

Supplies: Stampscapes: Duck Trio in Flight 023A, Flock Lg. 113B; Hero Arts Earth Flowers CL428, Old Letter Writing S4878, alphabet stamps; EK Success alphabet stamps; Daler & Rowney watercolours, Versafine Onyx Black ink; Distress Ink: Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany; Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder; vellum; Tim Holtz Sizzix Tiny Tabs & Tags die, Mini Hearts; twine; chipboard butterfly; glossy accents; watercolour paper; Ranger manila cardstock.