Precious | Cocoa Vanilla Studio for the CSI Challenge

Hi everyone!
I hope you have been celebrating {inter}National Scrapbook Day this weekend and have been participating in some online challenges.
Today I am sharing a layout that I created on behalf of Cocoa Vanilla Studio as a guest designer for the CSI Challenge.

Here's the case file I was working with...

And here is what I created...

I drew lots of inspiration from the image and from the list of additional clues provided. As soon as I saw the colour scheme I thought it would be match perfectly with many of the pieces from the 'More Than Words' collection, so that is predominantly what I used for my page.

I started with the spotty pattern on the reverse side of the Radiant paper as my base, and added some yellow watercolour to it (using a Faber-Castell gelato) where the focal area of my page was going to be. I also added a few small pieces of torn washi tape that featured a script design. 

I then took my two photos and framed the main one using a matching spotty frame from the Die Cut Ephemera pack. I added a grey doily from my stash under the photos, cutting it in half and placing the two halves above and below my photos. Then it was simply a case of building all the floral layers under and around my photos.

I used a combination of large cut file flowers (these were from the Caite set by Cut to You and were cut from white cardstock); which I layered with some smaller flowers (from the 3D Flower Stackable cut file by Paper Issues that I cut from the Collage paper). These were mixed with fussy cut flowers from the Precious paper; die cut flowers from the ephemera pack; and a few vellum blooms I had left over from the 'Love Always' collection. 

On top of my layered flowers I added some messy cotton thread topped with a flair button. I also added a few 'Hello Lovely' Enamel Dots as flower centres, some fussy cut butterflies from the Collage paper; and the precious Chipboard Accent Sticker for my page title.

To balance the "heaviness" of my title at the bottom of the page, I created an extra embellishment cluster at the top of my page using pieces from the Die Cut Ephemera pack an an extra fussy cut butterfly. 

For my journalling, I created a small pocket behind the main photo that I could tuck my tag into, and embellished it with a vellum heart and a small piece of twine.

I managed to tick off lots of extra clues provided by CSI, including dots; black and white print; hearts; (flair) button; string (on my tag); lots of white space; cursive fonts; and things that look hand-drawn (the sketch style butterflies and flowers); a pocket and also used the word "precious".

I had so much fun playing along with this challenge, thanks for having us CSI. If you would like to join in with one of this month's challenges head over to the CSI blog or CSI Facebook page

Until next time, happy scrapping! X