Making A Splash With Crate Paper

This week's challenge at Crate Paper was Summer Splash. And I couldn't resist giving it a shot.  The prize is the entire collection from "The Pier" and some American Crafts Basics.  And The Pier is one of my favorite collections ever from any manufacturer.  Your layout has to be mostly Crate Paper and has to use at least three Crate Paper products.

When I've played with The Pier in the past, I've focused on the bright and pastel shades in the line. But this time I was inspired by the B side of the Frozen Treats Paper.  It is a kraft base with a green ombre effect that gets deeper as you move toward the bottom of the page.  It really reminds me of water and sand meeting at the beach.

I wanted to do something that used only blues, green and neutrals to emphasize that feel of water and sand.  First I pulled all the paper I had from the Pier that focused on those colors.  Then I pulled other Crate Paper sheets that were in my color range - I couldn't believe how much paper that was.  I added a sheet of white handmade paper that had great texture and started to layer.

And I knew that I wanted to play with my favorite embellishment from The Pier - the slide frames. I chose pieces in blue, white and brown for my project and used gold spray ink to soften the white ones.  Then I layered them to frame my layout.  I let a couple of them run off the page or under my photo block and cut the ends off them.  Those ends ended up being incorporated into the photo block.

I layered lots of bits of paper for my photo block.  The base is from the Fourteen collection and you can find other papers from that collection and from The Pier in the layers.  A couple of scrap of glitter paper and some pieces of the white handmade paper finished the block.

To finish the layout, I focused on embellishments from The Pier.  You can see a strip of polka dot tape from the washi sheet peeking out here and there and I used a couple of labels and a geotag from the sheet of label stickers. A MME enamel dot accented the geotag.  A clothespin from The Pier clothespin set accents the photo.

I don't usually like clothespins, but have to admit to loving these.  And somewhere I read a tip about taking them apart to reduce bulk which really helped.

I wanted to use a pinwheel, but it seemed to overwhelm my layout.  But when I cut it in half (which turned into three pieces), the smaller pieces worked perfectly. 

Finally I added a title using the fun thickers Crate Paper showed with The Pier.  And, of course, no layout is done without a few sequins scattered around.

And all of it works with the photo of my daughter playing in the Lake Erie waves.  Have a wonderful weekend.  I'm hoping for lots of play time in my scrap room.