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

Pizza Party!

Chris and I took a Wednesday this past February off from work to go to a Syracuse basketball game (and this time not get stuck in rush hour traffic) and be able to leave early for it. But we still had time to kill before heading out so he suggested we head to the Pizza Stop over on State St. in downtown Rochester and since it was a normal workday for everyone else, we should be able to hit them at their peak of the day and get some hot, fresh pizza! It was so amazing, and made me feel like I was right back in NYC!

OK, onto the layout itself! Take a look at the "Water Wars" layout by Summer Fullerton seen here and you will see my main inspiration!

Originally I was going to use a journal box or tag of some sort in the upper left corner, but ended up cutting out some pizza from one of the photos! I stamped the "Love You" bubble onto the pre-cut diecut that came in the SoCal kit from Studio Calico, originally stamped in Wet Cement, but ended up feeling it was too light so stamped over the gray with my new Versafine in Onyx Black stamp pad! With the gray underneath it stamped really well so it was a "lucky" mistake!

The lower right corner was the same idea, stamped the "This was a great idea" sentiment. I also stamped the pinking circle onto letter paper around a "P" for pizza, and hand cut it out using my awesome Fiskars fingertip craft knife.

For the main space where the title is, I added some subtle lines of washi tape to close it in and some hand stitching on top of the letters. My husband came up with the "New York Style" subtitle after I had tried adding "It's a" before the "pizza party" portion of the title in small gray letters that ended up disappearing into the background. Def liked this better and loved how this layout came out!


HOW-TO:

• Almost everything I used was from the new June "SoCal" kit by Studio Calico! Def loving this kit so far!
• The background paper (top and bottom) is exclusive Tim and Beck for Studio Calico and the orange paper with circles is called "Nice to meet you" from the Konnichiwa collection by BasicGrey
• The pinking circles in the upper left and colorful tabbed box in the lower right are exclusive from Studio Calico, as well as the Love You bubble stamp, and the "This was a great idea" stamp being from the Adventure Stamp Set
• The "like" on the tab is a rub-on from the Vintage Instaframes from the Heidi Swapp collection by Pink Paislee, as were the New York Style subtitle letters called bitty blocks from the Prairie Hill collection
• The Pizza Party cardboard letter stickers are from Pebbles
• I pulled the buttons from the Follow Your Heart collection by My Mind's Eye, as well as the "no. 1" paper clip
• I used washi tape from American Crafts as well as Freckled Fawn