CSI case file #67: The Thinker

Hello! We have a really fun case file at CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration this week and since it is the second week of the month, there is also a PageDrafts sketch.

My layout:

The inspiration photo really depicts all the things going on in my son's head at the moment, and it inspired me to do a layout about the things that he is saying. He baffles me every day with the things he observes, conclusions he draws and all the events that he remembers. From the evidence items I used: robot, bird, car, clouds, airplane, punctuation marks and fussy cutting. From the testimony, I was inspired by the 'think' theme. I turned the sketch on its side, since I wanted to use one vertical photo instead of two square photos. I was inspired by the inspiration photo to sprinkle a lot of images around, symbolising all the things going in on in the head of a little boy.

I used watercolour paper for the background and a for me new medium, Fiber Paste, which was mixed with raw umber paint. It was spread through a woodgrain stencil and left to dry (clean the stencil immediately). This created a really cool texture, which is hard to photograph, rough like bark, and with little fibers inside. Pretty cool. When it was dry, I mixed a weak mix of raw umber watercolour paint and painted it in between the embossing to create more of a woodgrain look. I thought this worked both with the photo, which is taken in front of the trunk of a tree, and with the theme of growing up.

I used mainly Tim Holtz Blueprint stamps, since they fit with the theme of thinking and making up your own blueprints of how the world works. The images were stamped on watercolour paper with Archival Jet Black ink and coloured with watercolours. I mixed the paint to fit with the case file palette. The bird and clouds were die cut with Sizzix Thinlits dies from kraft-core cardstock, sanded and inked.

More blueprint images and a Darkroom Door robot. The light bulb was perfect to symbolise bright ideas and the camera is there to depict observation (and because I am no longer the only one who wants to press the button on my camera).

A Thinlits boat floating on top of a blueprint globe, a compass, key to knowledge, and gears turning. Anton loves to cut with scissors and here they are cutting apart the strip of numbers.

I tried to capture the texture of the background better here, not sure if I succeeded.

The journaling is typed on the tag behind the photo and consists of a whole bunch of fun things Anton has said lately. Such as noticing a vase a friend of mine gave me, which he had earlier seen at her place, and being very concerned about her flowers no longer having water. And repeating whole sections from books we have only read once or twice. Every evening we also read at least two scrapbooks ('large photobooks') and Anton says the funniest things when we look at them. I've never read my own scrapbooks this much before.

Thank you for the visit! I hope you will have a great weekend with lots of creativity.

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Mini Blueprints 3, Mini Blueprints 4, Travel Blueprint, Worn Text; Darkroom Door Robot Vol 2

Dies: Sizzix: Hello Summer, Little Boy, Note to Self, Arrows, Banners, Chevrons & Clouds, Stacked Artful Words, Tag & Bookplates

Ink: Ranger Jet Black ink; Distress Ink: Gathered Twigs

Paint: Daler & Rowney watercolours; Golden Raw Umber Fluid Acrylics

Stencil: The Crafter's Workshop Woodgrain

Surfaces: Core'dinations Tim Holtz kraft-core cardstock; Daler & Rowney watercolour paper; BasicGrey Basics pattnerned paper

Mediums: Golden Acrylics Fiber Paste