Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a timely theme challenge for you to work with:

Whilst lots of us are already starting to work on Christmas projects, it is still very much summer time and I chose this week's theme with that in mind. As the rhyme goes, 'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea' - sand between your toes, fish and chips, buckets and spades and more - the seaside is one of my favourite places to be. I decided to break from my usual card and make a scrapbook page to share with you for a change this week.

I live in Northampton which is very close to the very centre of England, so is about as far from the coast as you can get. I recently took the James Juniors to visit their grandparents, my parents, in Wales for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic and the first place they always ask to visit is the beach. This left me with lots of great photos ready to scrapbook. I am mostly a Memories and More pocket scrapbooker, but occasionally I do make full 12" x 12" layouts and with the gorgeous 'Friends are Like Seashells' bundle in the annual catalogue I couldn't resist. Take a look at today's layout:

Here's the low-down on today's project:

I captured a great photo of Rebecca jumping the waves as I followed her down to the shoreline, so thought it would be perfect for my layout. Here's a close-up of my photo and the surrounding decoration in more detail: 

 I backed my photo with a piece of 'Expressions In Ink' designer paper and added a strip of the gorgeous Night of Navy ombre glimmer paper down the left side, to pick up on the bright blues of the sky in the photo. I embossed and diecut the seaside shells from pearlescent paper, then used the corner to decorate my photo whilst snipping the the other shells and seaweed apart to add as decoration elsewhere. I did a little background stamping beneath my layering and my main sentiment is fussy cut from one of the 'What A Year' Memories and More cards; you can see that more closely below:

I love that sentiment and it totally sums up the mood of the day and Rebecca in particular in that moment. Both of the James Juniors were so thrilled to be at the beach that day, jumping the waves, fishing in rock pools and generally enjoying the sea air.

In addition to a sprinkling of sequins and gems, I also added a sentiment tag to the corner of my page, decorated with a fussy ribbon bow:

My layout is actually quite simple, and very much like my card making style - although if you could see the pile of patterned papers that covered my desk as I made this page you would think that it must have been anything but and I did procrastinate for quite some time before deciding on my final papers and design!

So what do you think? Did you enjoy my scrapbook layout today for a change? Should I share more of this kind of thing on my blog? Feel free to leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I can't wait to see how my theme inspires you this week!

Since I did something other than a card today, I am going to link up over at Just Us Girls where that happens to be their theme this week.

Enjoy your day; I have a family day at home today, with nothing special planned. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRIENDS ARE LIKE SEASHELLS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£50.25)	SEASHELLS 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	PEARLESCENT SPECIALTY PAPER (£3.75)	OMBRE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (£9.25)	EXPRESSIONS IN INK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)
WHAT A YEAR MEMORIES & MORE CARD PACK (£9.25)	BASIC WHITE 12X12 (30.5 X 30.5 CM) CARDSTOCK (£7.25)	PALE PAPAYA 3/8" (1 CM) OPEN WEAVE RIBBON (£6.50)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)
ARTISTRY BLOOMS ADHESIVE-BACKED SEQUINS (£6.50)	PALE PAPAYA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)

 

I've had a busy day today, having spent the morning with a group of lovely ladies hosting my latest online class. That was all about pansies; the card I'm sharing here today though is all about seashells for the current Fusion challenge:

I used both the sketch and the jar of seashells as my inspiration and this is what I came up with:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

This card really did evolve as I made it. The starting point for my card was the sand dollar-patterned DSP I used on my card base and I decided to use the same colours for my trio of shells. Rather than stamp them though, I fussy cut them from another of the sheets of Sand and Sea DSP as I wanted to use these shell designs but not ones that were as large as the stamped versions. I fussy cut my shells, embossed them with the Seashells 3D embossing folder, added some frosted white shimmer paint then added clear Crystal Effects to give them a glossy shine:

Having heat-embossed my sentiment in white, I added a shadow by stamping again in Early Espresso to make the words stand out a little better against the sandy background. A few opal rounds complete my card.

I really love the effect of those glossy shells - with the frosted shimmer inside and the embossed detail beneath the glossy exterior, they really are quite eye-catching in real life.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SAND & SEA 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	OPAL ROUNDS (£7.00)	FRIENDS ARE LIKE SEASHELLS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£24.00)	SEASHELLS 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)