Wednesday 11 August 2021

Smile Often - Echo Park - Under Sea Adventures

Hello, Rebecca with you today sharing my first layout using Echo Park’s ‘Under Sea Adventures’. It’s a fun collection full of sea creatures such as sharks, fish and whales and I’ve had a great time using it to create some layouts for my little boy’s album. You can find the collection in the store here


I had the idea of creating a layout with an underwater scene so started with the ‘Whale Hello’ patterned paper - the B side of which is a blue scale pattern so I thought it would work well as a backdrop. I get a bit nervous using patterned papers as backgrounds though so needed to create some white space! I tore the patterned paper to use a section on the bottom half of my layout and tore a second thin strip to place at the top. This gave me some white space in the centre of the page, phew!!

I matted my photo using two of the coloured cardstocks from the Matchmaker Pack and placed it to the left of my layout, half on the patterned paper and half on the white background. I fussy cut a banner from the 4x4 Journaling Cards paper which reads 'Let's make some waves' and added it to the left of my photo as an embellishment. To the right, I added my title - I've used a sticker from an older Vicki Boutin collection, and matted it on yellow cardstock to help it stand out, and also because I knew I was going to add a yellow sun to the top of the page.


I used one of the border strip stickers from the Element Stickers sheet to add some detail to the bottom of the page, and to create an ‘ocean floor’ for my scene. To this, I added some hand-drawn seaweed, cut from a green Bazzill Cardstock, and a couple more stickers from the Elements Stickers sheet. I then fussy cut some sharks from the Sneaky Sharks patterned paper, and some submarines from the Swimming Submarines patterned paper and added these to the bottom half of my layout. 


I've raised the sharks and submarines up on foam pads to give them a 3D appearance, and I've weaved some in amongst the seaweed to give them a more realistic look. I love these sharks because they are a perfect match to my little boy's swimming shorts in my photo - and that's what originally drew me to this collection!


I also fussy cut some whales from the A side of the Whale Hello patterned paper and added these either side of my photo. I used a glitter Nuvo Drops to add air bubbles to all of the sea creatures. I love using Nuvo Drops in this way - it's not the first time I've done it and it definitely won't be the last!


To the top right of my layout, I've added an acrylic cloud and sun (both from Bramble Fox) to the blue strip of torn paper to give the appearance of a sky. I've also added an acrylic seagull above my title.

I've finished the layout off with a couple of tiny word stickers to the top left of my layout, purely because it was looking a bit bare!

I hope you've enjoyed this fun layout - it's a bit different for me but I was in the mood to create something fun and childish (if that's the right word!). If you'd like to watch the layout come together, there is a process video up on my YouTube channel, which you can find here.

I'll be back later in the month with another layout, but until then,

Take care

Rebecca x




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