Scrapbooking Summer Fun! || Kathy McElfresh

This scrapbook layout is all about Summer and using items from the August Fox Box.

As I walked to the neighborhood pool a couple days ago I looked down the hill from the sidewalk and saw no one was there. I even snapped a photo and thought to myself "Yay, I have the pool to myself!" Then as I walked the rest of the way and picked the prime seating under the big shade tree a different feeling emerged. That's when I began to reminisce about the crazy, noisy, chaotic place this used to be when we walked down with noodles, floaties, balls and kiddos to play with them all. Even if the pool started out quiet it didn't stay that way for long once we arrived!

I'd already started looking for the right photos for this month's awesome mood board challenge and the image that stood out to me was the flamingo floatie. But when I entered the quiet pool that day I knew what I'd do -- I wanted a page with a photo of a quiet, serene oasis but embellished with a chaotic mix of fun images from all of my summer stash! So I cut the photo into 4 strips and set out to make the perfect background to go with the perfect title from the July Fox Box.

The photo above shows the variations in texture that I achieved using the Fox Cut Scallop Stencil that came in my July Fox Box Plus. I started with a 12x12 sheet of synthetic paper (like yupo) made especially for alcohol inks and then I randomly squeezed alcohol blending solution onto the paper so that my inks would immediately dilute and blend. I added 2 colors of watery-looking ink and more blending solution until I had an effect I liked -- and then I tried something I'd never done before: I dipped the stencil into the wet ink and moved it to make uneven contact with the paper that was still white and the effect was better than I'd even imagined. Alcohol ink dries very quickly so I was able to go back to a few areas with the stencil placed either directly in line with the ink stenciling or slightly offset and I scraped light texture paste through unevenly to get a random wavy effect. After placing my photo strips I immediately knew where my title would go and I assembled the umbrella and sun from Paper Snips 30 and the seagull from Paper Snips 33, adding in an epoxy Doodlebug floatie to repeat the epoxy toppers I'd added to the Paper Snips.

I love the Summer Fun title SO much! It's the kind of piece I'd almost want to hoard but once I settled on the concept for this page I knew it would set the tone for all the color that I'd assemble below. You can see more of the texture from the Fox Cut Stencil here as well as a glimpse of the little scene I superimposed atop the photo panels using a chair from Paper Snips 33 and an epoxy-topped circle from Paper Snips 30.

Just to the right of the title I assembled another cluster including some florals from two Cocoa Vanilla collections and a few tiny accessories from Doodlebug to accompany the cute bikini Perspextive from the July Fox Box.

The lower part of the page is an explosion of all the fun, colorful elements I could mix and match from Paper Snips and Perspextives and fussycuts and chipboard and epoxy and metal -- all representing the burst of activity that occurred when we used to all go to the pool together. There are flip flop Perspextives and a lovely orange hat and more flip flops from Paper Snips 33 and 30 beside an underwater photographer, recalling days when the kids used to fight over the underwater camera so they could record all the goofy faces they'd make.

On the right side of the page, just underneath the canopy of the chipboard ice cream stand (and there really is an ice cream stand out front on summer weekends when enterprising neighborhood kids organize one with their parents!) I've combined the "fun in the sun" strip from the August Fox Box with the "hello summer" disk Perspextive and teal sunglasses Perspextive from the July Fox Box -- and lots and lots of other colorful summery images that fuel my memories of days before the kids turned into teenagers and no longer begged for rides on my back or for John to toss them the tennis ball he always had ready.

So this month's challenge called up all these memories and the colorful goodies in the July and August Fox Boxes -- not only the gorgeous Perspextives but the amazing stencils and Paper Snips in the Fox Box Plus -- got me started on the colorful road that led to this layout! And did you know that the labels and circles at the bottom of every Paper Snips sheet can be professionally die cut using Fox Die 16? AND when you buy the die you get the two summery Paper Snips sheets I've used on my page!

There's still lots of time for you to give this challenge a go and upload your entry into the August Challenge Album on our Facebook page to be eligible for the sweet prize to spend in the shop on MORE BrambleFox goodies!