Die cut inspiration

If it hadn't been for wanting to use the die cut from the Big Fluffy Clouds lite kit then the journalling wouldn't have taken the turn that it did.

May isn't really summer after all but it was a summery day and in fact one of the only ones that we have had in (not so) sunny Devon this year!
And look - not white cardstock base! OK so I covered most of it up but it is still there! I thought the peachy tone went quite well with the cliff fall in the background of the photos (there was a house up there. For the first 18 months of our time here it was fascinating to see the cliff drop and the uninhabited house disappear)

I didn't have that much paper left so did a bit of clever layering (the cloud paper is just strips rather than a whole piece). I added in two cards from the cut apart paper then basically emptied out my embellishment kit and found lots of lovely die cuts and wooden elements to use. That knife and fork. Oooooh!

I added some cardstock behind the washi tape - but that was after I had stuck some painted on acetate behind it. Slightly a mistake as you can see the paint through a little bit. I could pretend that was deliberate but...

Another mistake that in the end worked (I think) the little wooden arrow that is now black became black because the Sharpie pen bled TERRIBLY

I did enjoy all the embellishment layering

I was pleased with how the die cut outlining went - I have been practicing cursive handwriting which helped me think about where to put the lines in.

The prompt of writing about Phil's birthday from the perspective of "Hello Summer" was a good one as it meant I could add in the fact that it was freezing in June!

A background dilemma

I had this photo from last summer

of my husband and my brother that made me laugh. The only trouble was that bored looking woman behind them. I couldn't work out how to eradicate her from the scene without it being ridiculous. So I tried something I have never done before. I cut them out.
What do you think?

I did try to put the layout on the bright yellow cardstock but in the end felt just a few pops was better. I layered up the papers from the Saltwater Smiles main kit, making sure there was enough of the black and white dots to be seen to go along with the planned title. I raised the boys up on foam pads to give extra dimension. I didn't outline them with black pen as I reckon it could have been a disaster, but everything else has that fine line of Sharpie pen along the edge. 

As well as the main kit, I broke into the Sorbet Brain Freeze embellishment kit for this page. In all honesty we had a carvery (veggie one for me and Phil) but I decided the mention of food was enough of an excuse to add in one of those cute ice lollies - or popsicles as they are known in the US and Canada. 

I think those giant letters are fab and the perfect size of title for this silly layout. Because I wanted to use the tag at the top with some gold I decided to add a little more gold elsewhere and it is just as well. I tried adding black pen to the debossed parts of the "I give this 5 *" wooden tag and it looked terrible. But I stuck it into a Delicata gold ink pad and it evened the colour up beautifully.

 The "lunch" tag looks even better. The "time" sticker is a Tim Holtz word but everything else is from the kits. 

I enjoyed layering up the sun with 2 other items

The see through items from the Poolside Ephemera pack are lovely.
Just a warning about the Jillibean Soup Saffron Yellow Pepper Soup Label Stickers. They are VERY sticky. When I am outlining stickers I first stick them to the back of their sheet (normally pretty non stick), outline and write on them and then stick them on the layout. This one didn't want to peel off again at all (as you can see in the close up). I ended up gluing it to the other same shaped sticker on the sheet to give it stability. All worked ok in the end though I think

Simply stripy

For my first layout using the Lite kit this time round I wanted to be able to show off all the rather yummy patterns that Big Fluffy Clouds has to offer. I decided to do that by the tried and tested formula of layering strips of paper together. Having chopped the papers about a bit I noticed that there was a lot more aqua in the papers than in my photo so I decided to also add some aqua watercolour in the background. Now I look at it, it reminds me of Bloo toilet cleaner which I guess fits the theme of the page! I smooshed watercolours onto an acrylic block and added it to the top right and a little across the far left of the page. 

While that was drying I added black lines around the edge of each of my papers. I do love the graphic look it adds and feels it also gives uniformity to lots of different patterns without taking them over. Using distress inks works as well with softer patterns. 

If you wonder where the polka dot paper came from - that is the brand strip for one of the papers!
 I layered the strips up and added the paperclip to the heart paper. This was adhered with foam pads, as was the photo.

Love that clip so much!

I added two elements not from the kit. One intentionally and one because of a boo boo.

Those puffy letter stickers are amazing. But I thought that the title could do with a different style of letter as well in order to give some emphasis to it so I dug out the alphabet from the Make Your Mark kit and the right letters were still there (amazing as I always run out of these three!)

The little lime green sequins were a last minute addition to hide some blue paint that migrated from my fingers to part of the layout that I wanted to stay clean looking. Sigh. You would think I would learn!

I adore these papers and was glad to find a way to make sure I still had loads left for another page.