This Is Why We Came

I made this layout for this week's Sunday Sketch Challenge from Studio Calico, my first time doing one of these challenges! I def had the pics to go with the sketch for this one, so went to work!

This was the first morning we were in Miami Beach, Fl and went down to the beach first thing! Hardly anyone was out yet, but it was gorgeous! We signed a sheet behind our hotel to order up 2 lounge chairs and an umbrella for the day and charge it to the room... and almost everyday after that for the rest of the week, it was perfect!!

I used papers from the Elmwood Park kit by Studio Calico, but after creating the background for the sketch, I realized the colors were starting to look a little dull altogether like that, so I added some "punch" with the Sand Dollar bits diecuts from American Crafts and of course the glitter foam thickers really added some much needed contrast!

The title is so true - we were trying to think where to plan a trip and since we just took a longer trip in October, we wanted something simple to plan (like no car rental needed) and I just wanted a beach, no matter if it's in the States or not! So Miami it was, and it worked perfectly since we didn't need a car rental, we stayed right on the beach and we just cabbed it when we needed to, and ate some really amazing meals!

Normally I'd add journaling to this page, but with the word paper background, it didn't look unfinished without it, so I'll probably add more to the next layout!


HOW-TO:

• I used the Elmwood Park kit by Studio Calico
• The back most paper, that you see at the top is "Buttercup puddles" by Lily Bee Design, I left about 2" showing
• The thin strip of dotted paper is a Tim and Beck exclusive for Studio Calico
• For the bottom part, to get the rays cut out without a machine, I outlined a circle in the lower left, found the center and just started drawing lines in pencil from that same point in the center of the circle outward (onto that yellow paper by BasicGrey for Studio Calico, which was pre-cut at 8.5" by 12"
• Then I cut along the lines with good old-fashioned scissors from the outside till the circle and cut around the circle, the pieces that I wanted to get rid of
• I cut the paper with words, called "Lovely Chevron" from the Sweet Day collection by Echo Park Paper Co for Studio Calico, to 8.5" by 12" and layered my hand cut sun with rays on top of it
• After many failed attempts at being satisfied with some circular stamps to put as the center circle, I went back and cut a circle from that back paper and layered that on top of the yellow circle
• The die cuts along the top and over the "sun" are Sand Dollar die cuts from the Shoreline collection by American Crafts
• The stickers for the "This is" part of the title are Pelican Remarks letter stickers, and the rest of the title is made from Boardwalk glitter foam stickers, both for the Shoreline collection by Studio Calico