Splash! Life's a Beach Layout

Hi Everyone! Monique Griffith here, and I'm so excited to get to share this layout with you, as this is soooo where I'm longing to be - at the ocean! I will give you the basics below on how to make the layout, OR you can pop over to my blog, MonkeyDoodle Cricut HERE if you'd like info on how to make it a bit easier on yourself and order this as a kit.

Btw, I want to say a big thank you to Joy and Melanie for their patience and understanding with me missing last month, and to my best friend Wendy Lawrence for stepping in for me. You ladies are all fabulous, and I appreciate your support. For those of you who may not be already aware, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast cancer about a month ago, so I am currently undergoing chemotherapy, but am doing very well with it, and have firm plans to kick this thing squarely in the behind. I write about my journey every day on my Caring Bridge site HERE, and I welcome you to follow along.



Ok, back to business. The patterned paper is from Imaginisce's "Splash Dance" line, which is just irresistible. I built everything on the white background sheets with all of the cute sayings, and then I cut the blue/green wave paper in half to create an underwater paradise at the bottom of each page. All of the cuts are from the Life's a Beach cartridge, and I will list those sizes for you below...



Sizes of Cricut Cuts...
Orange wave borders: 2 1/2" (Cut 3 and piece together for border.)
Sun: 3"
Snorkel diver: 4 1/2"
Octopus: 3 1/2"
Splash title: 1 1/4"
Palm Tree w/island: 5"
Dolphin: 3"
Treasure Chest: 2"
Shark: 3"
Coral and Seaweed: Various colors and sizes from 2" to 2 1/2"




I used dark brown chalk ink to ink pretty much everything - all of the cuts, photo mats, and the edges of the layout itself. The chalk ink I prefer is Versa Magic, and I used the Jumbo Java color. So after I inked and pieced together the orange wave border, I then covered up the seam with the colorful striped ribbon, which is also from Imaginisce. That gives you your basic background. Btw, the Imaginisce ribbon comes on a card. They give you a yard each of 4 different styles. When you unwind it, however, it leaves creases in the ribbon. Now here's a handy dandy tip. If you happen to own a flat iron, but don't have any hair to go with it, you can use your flat iron as a ribbon iron, LOL! It's crazy fast and works like a charm!! :)



Here are the photo mat sizes...
Outer photo mats (1 pink, 1 brown, 1 red): 4 3/4" x 6 3/4"
Middle photo mats (all 3 are white): 4 1/4" x 6 1/4"
Inner photo mats (all 3 are ocean print): 4" x 6"
Intended to hold 3 photos, each measuring: 3 1/2" x 5 1/5"

Ink all photo mats except for the white and dark brown. For each mat, layer the ocean print mat onto the white, and then use a 6" piece of Imaginisce ribbon across the corner, gluing it to the underneath side of the white mat. Don't glue the front of the ribbon down since you'll want to tuck photos underneath later. Use another 6" piece of ribbon to tie onto the first piece, creating a faux bow. Then glue this to the colored outer mat.



The journal box pieces measure...
Outer pink box: 4 1/4" x 4 1/4"
Ocean print box: 4" x 4"
Middle orange box: 3 1/4" x 3 1/4"
Inner polka dot box: 3" x 3"

Ink all of the layers of the journal box, and then use a couple of very small strips of the leftover striped ribbon to make another corner faux bow on the journal box.



Once all of my Cricut cuts were inked and assembled, I used 3D pop-dots to pop up many of them - the sun, snorkler, octopus, dolphin, green layer on the palm tree, treasure chest and shark. I added a few details (I'm a detail girl!!) such as white dots to the corners of the photo mats, white accent lines to the treasure chest, rhinestones and Gold Stickles to the treasure chest, and Diamond Stickles to the coral, bubbles, and Splash title. Oh, and don't forget the googly eyes on the critters - how fun is that?

Thanks again for stopping by and checking out my project. And don't forget you can find this kit and many more on my blog HERE, and I'll see you back again next month with another layout!





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