Echo Park

Earlier this month, I was surfing my favorite blogs and stumbled on a call from Echo Park for a monthly Fresh Faces challenge, and the winner will get to use their super fabulous products to design projects which will be featured on their blog the following month. It's called the "Fresh Faces" Monthly Designer Call. How exciting!! I decided to take the plung and send in a submission for the first month! Why not right...I LOVE Echo Park!! So, be warned...this is going to be quite a long post as I have THREE projects to share. While I have a few of Echo Park's collections in my stash, I decided to play around with the Playground collection for these projects! Oh and don't forget to check the very bottom of the post for complete supply lists for all the projects I am sharing today!!

First up, I have a two page layout. I had originally thought these two pages would each be single page layouts that would sit side by side in my album, but as I was laying everything out for the left side, the right side came together naturally...and stretched my original idea into a two pager. Ultimately, I love how it turned out!

For this layout, I used photos of me and my niece at the playground near her house. Tell me this collection wasn't fitting for these photos!! She loves to swing and was just learning how to go down the slide...now she's a little monster on the slide...up and down, up and down....you get the idea!! But at this time a few years ago, she would swing by herself in the kiddie swing then wanted to swing higher with her Aunt Debbie...so we went a little higher then she could get in the kiddie swing (only a little higher...I am crazy, but not THAT crazy).

This is the left side of the layout above...punched some circles out of the Double Dutch pattern paper with my 1" circle punch to create the border along the side. Then I punched a few more for the spot next to the photos and added some buttons tied with some red baker's twine for dimension.

Love those buttons (clear from various Basic Grey collections). And the heart pattern paper is divine (I picked up a few more sheets when I was at my LSS a few days ago). That's the Heads Up Seven Up paper (love some of these titles...I totally remember playing that game in elementary school!!).

For the date in the photo above, I got out some circle punches and the Say Cheese, Too stamp set from Lawn Fawn. The whimsy style of those stamps fits perfectly with these papers!!

For the right side (above), I brought the punched circles over, though I used a border from the Simon Says Border sheet. I also used borders from this sheet along the top and bottom of both sides of the layout as well. And my little journaling block is from that sheet too. Love when I can get a lot of use from just a few sheets of patterned paper...love to stretch my supplies!!

This is a shot of my title (Fun at the Playground). I used the alpha stickers for this (you'll see these on all three of the layouts I am sharing today). Love these alphas!!!

And finally a shot of my journaling block and the circles I carried over from the left side. This block has numbers (for list type journaling), but I decided to just hide the numbers so I could use the block for the story rather than for a list.

For my second project, I have a single page layout to share. My sister is in a community band and we spent the morning at a park listening to her band play a concert for Memorial Day in 2008.

For this layout, I used some kraft cardstock as a base, then layered on some more Playground pattern papers and borders. I also made a border from the new May Studio AE Stamps from Technique Tuesday using various inks that matched the patterned papers.

Here is a closer shot of my stamped border. It fits so nicely with the colors from the paper collection. I love the sentiment too...especially looking back on these photos from three years ago. I still can't get over how much my niece has grown!!

I used some Echo Park shapes from my silhouette on this layout too...the sun and the clouds!! I cut out two suns in two different shades of yellow and layered them to create the sun, and then I just used one set of the three clouds to balance out the top with the border strips along the bottom. Added some more alphas (thanks One Republic for the title!!) and added some hand written journaling.

On a side note, I am really starting to listen closer to music for titles and I am really starting to get more into adding hand written journaling to my pages. I still add some computer journaling, but every now and again I go with my handwriting (it's just quicker than the typing and printing and sometime's I am very impatient about getting it done).

Finally onto my last project, another single page layout...made to sit opposite the one above...so of course there will be more Playground!!

Since I knew I would position this layout near the layout above, I went with the same kraft cardstock as a base for the layout. Then, I just layered patterned paper to create my background. I knew I also wanted to use the polariod pattern strip from the borders paper...and it fit perfectly on this page.

I added some Doodlebug bottons with more red baker's twine in the open picture frames to balance out the layout. The right side seemed a little heavy with the layers and photos and the empty frames were just too much white space. I added the shipping tag under the title so it wouldn't get lost in the various patterns that it would sit on...and you'll spy some more handwriting in my title. This was not intentional...I acutally just didn't have enough t's to use the stickers!! HA!!!

For my journaling blocks under the photos I made some stamped labels using the dies and stamp set from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is another from the Say Cheese, Too stamp set by Lawn Fawn. And, I told you I mix handwritten and typed journaling...I went with typed on this layout. Those heart stamps finish off the block (and they are from the Just My Type, Too stamp set from Lawn Fawn).

This is a great photo of all of those yummy patterns layered together to make the perfect background! Such a fun layout!! I really loved putting all of these projects together!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Deb

Supplies:

Fun at the Playground:

Cardstock: Red (American Crafts)

Patterned Paper: Playground Collection (Simon Says Border Strips, Heads Up Seven Up, Merry Go Round, Monkey Bars, Double Dutch - Echo Park)

Stickers: Playground Alphas (Echo Park)

Stamps: Say Cheese, Too (Lawn Fawn)

Ink: Real Red (Stampin Up!)

Buttons: (Basic Grey)

Other: Multi-liner 0.3 (Copic), Red Bakers Twine (Martha Stewart), various circle punches

This has gotta be a GOOD life:

Cardstock: Kraft (Bazzill), Yellow and White (American Crafts)

Pattern Paper: Playground Collection (Capture The Flag, Merry Go Round, Hopscotch, Simon Says Border Strips - Echo Park)

Stickers: Playground Alphas (Echo Park)

Stamps: Real Life Studio AE (Technique Tuesday)

Ink: Certainly Celery, Marina Mist, Real Red (Stampin Up!), Chewing Gum, Chicken Feed (Jenni Bowlin)

Punch: Double Embossed Dotted Edger (EK Success)

Other: Multi-liner 0.3 (Copic), Sun and Clouds Silhouette Shapes (Echo Park)

Little Miss Sunshine:

Cardstock: Kraft (Bazzill), Solar White (Neenah)

Pattern Paper: Playground Collection (Capture The Flag, Merry GoO Round, Monkey Bars, Double Dutch, Heads Up Seven Up, Hopscotch, Simon Says Border Strips - Echo Park)

Stickers: Playground Alphas (Echo Park)

Buttons: Happy Holidays Assortment (Doodlebug)

Stamps: Label Basics (Papertrey Ink), Say Cheese, Too, Just My Type, Too (Lawn Fawn)

Ink: Marina Mist, Real Red (Stampin Up!), Chewing Gum, Chicken Feed (Jenni Bowlin)

Ribbon: Red Dot from On Holiday (The Girls' Paperie), Red Bakers Twine (Martha Stewart)

Dies: Angled Labels (Papertrey Ink)

Punch: Double Embossed Dotted Edger (EK Success)

Other: Multi-liner 0.3 (Copic); Shipping Tag