Echo Park Summer Fun Collection Kit Layout

My goal this summer was to start scrapbooking more. Which is difficult, especially during the summer. But after purchasing some new product, paper kits, and embellishments, I have been itching to sit down at my crafting space. It’s been a really long time since I’ve done a traditional layout! But, the Echo Park paper that I got recently worked perfect for a summer layout.

I was inspired this month by the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook group. Each month, the group has scrapbooking challenges. It’s fun to see everyone’s entries. It helps to push your creativity when you are given a challenge. Each member comes up with a different layout and it’s awesome to see the variety of pages!

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Supplies

• Echo Park Summer Fun Collection Kit
  • Sweet Treats paper (gray wood)
  • Tropical Floral paper (green palm leaves)
  • Sunny Day paper (yellow pattern)
  • Flamingo + Palm paper (pineapples)
  • 4×6 Journaling Cards paper (pink flamingos)
• Echo Park Summer Fun Frames & Tags Ephemera
• Cricut Explore Air 2 (check out my review here)
• Xyron 1.5 Inch Sticker Maker
• Baker’s twine in yellow/white
• Black cardstock
• Black pen
• Persnickety Prints Press Print Matte finish photos (3×3 with white border)

Sketch Inspiration

Since I was following the Paper Issues sketch, I needed a few main elements. Three to four photos, a main title banner, and layering behind the photos.

I used my favorite square Press Print photos from Persnickety Prints of my daughter. These photos are square cut with white borders and worked great with the sketch. Since the photos were from summer, I knew the perfect paper that would compliment the photos – the Echo Park Summer Fun collection kit.

I chose the green palm paper leaves paper and the gray wood design to be the main background. These papers were included in the Summer Fun.

Layering with the Summer Fun Frames & Tags

Next up I decided to tackle the layering behind the photos. This is a challenge for me, since I generally don’t do a lot of layering, so it’s great practice with a sketch to guide me. I happened to have a tag in the Echo Park Summer Fun ephemera pack, plus a few cute phrases and die-cuts that I wanted to use.  I loved the hints of watermelon!

Creating a Custom Banner Using the Cricut

After I worked on the layering, I wanted to come up with a title of “hello sunshine”. After looking at a couple different options of Thickers, I decided to make my own title. That’s when I thought making a banner with the Echo Park kit and my Cricut Explore Air 2 would be fun. I tested a few sizes and then found some baker’s twine to attach the banner to the layout. It ended up working out and I love the look!

Also, when I made the banner on the Cricut, I actually learned how to use my scoring stylus. Plus everything that I used to make the banners were free in Cricut Design Space. The font I used was called “Cricut Sans” which is free. Then, I made the banner out of basic shapes which are free.  I used the rectangle and two pentagons to slice the bottom of the tags. It was fairly easy and working with these shapes opens up a lot of possibilities for future layouts and projects.

Last was finalizing the layers, which I think I did a good job for being way out of my comfort zone. The layering pros would probably tell me to add a ton more and give the layout more dimension. But I’d like to say that I did pretty good for the first time back in traditional scrapbooking.

The Final Summer Fun Collection Kit Layout

Overall it only took me 4 hours to make this layout. Which for me is a miracle! I usually take 8+ hours to do a single 12×12 traditional layout. I think the biggest factor to my success was that I stuck to one kit and worked within that kit. Limiting my supplies helped me focus on just using those products and not spending hours searching for the “perfect” products to use on the layout.

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I hope you enjoy the layout! Have you used Echo Park’s Summer Fun collection kit? I’d love to see what you made – leave me a comment!

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Julie