CSI case file #53: Follow you dreams

CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration is turning one year today! What a great first year it has been, esspcially seeing how many wonderful layouts that have been posted every week. We have some fun surprises planned to celebrate CSI's birthday this month, don't miss checking out the site. A big thank you to Debbi Tehrani for starting CSI and for all her work with it.

Here's the first case file of the year:

I did a 8.5 x 11 inch layout:

From the evidence items I used: flowers, metal and embossed paper, and from the testimony items I was inspired by the inspiration words and the dream topic. When thinking about what to do for this case file, I came across a stencil that I hadn't used yet and remembered two gorgeous cards by my friend Anne Gaal using this stencil. I was inspired to do something similar, but on a layout instead.

I used Specialty Stamping cardstock from Ranger for my base (love it), and carefully inked through the stencil using dye inks and a Colorbox Stylus Tool applicator. I started from the bottom with Weather Vane, and continued with Soap Powder, Shaded Lilac, Tattered Rose and Lemonade, blending each colour a bit with the one below. I used a grey pen to get into the small areas of the trees. I had to move the stencil twice to do the whole lenght of the paper. Then I splattered a bit of water on the paper for some extra texture.

The title letters were die cut from Specialty Stamping paper and glued to the base cardstock for a tone-on-tone white effect. I used Word Play for the large letters and Typeset for the smaller, adding a little Tim Holtz crown on top of the 'F'.

I have a lot of photos of my son walking or running away and though this one worked nicely with the message of following his dreams. I used some Tim Holtz flower ribbon and a piece of lace trim at the base of the layout.

The butterfly with die cut from vellum and embossed, the body of the butterfly was die cut from Specialty Stamping paper.

A word band finished the layout, I rubbed a bit of white paint into it to highlight the text. I didn't want to add too much stuff to this layout, but tried to keep it simple with the focus on the trees and the message. I wrote a little bit of journaling on the back of the layout about the importance of daring to follow your own dreams, even when they might seem hard to reach (and maybe even especially then).

Thank you for the visit!! I hope you'll join us this week at CSI. If you have never tried the CSI challenge, I hope you'll consider doing so, they are wonderful and so inspiring.

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Dies: Sizzix: Word Play, Birds & Butterflies set, Typeset

Stencil: The Crafter's Workshop Mini Aspen Trees

Ink: Jenni Bowlin: Weather Vane, Soap Powder; Distress Ink: Shaded Lilac, Tattered Rose; Adirondack Lemonade

Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trimmings ribbons, Word Bands, crown charm; lace trim

Surfaces: Ranger Specialty Stamping paper; vellum