"Sand Sun Fun" for LOAD Mini Summer Lovin'

Hey everyone, I have some good news! I won a spot in Scrap Happy's "LOAD Mini Summer Lovin'" event this week from Alison at Alison Day Designs! How cool is that? This is the first time I've tried a LOAD, or LayOut A Day, so even though this is the fifth day, I'm still getting into the swing of things. The layout above is the third I've finished, though, so that's pretty speedy progress for me!

I used this fabulous sketch from Let's Get Sketchy for inspiration: 

First I scraped on a layer of gesso over the middle of the white card stock. Then I applied some Salty Ocean Distress Ink using the packaging technique to create that beautiful watercolour effect. The die cut is part of a freebie from Scrapbook Nerd:

The circle was fun to do. First I traced one of those Creative Memories cutting circles with a pencil. Then I took the nozzle out of a bottle of black Dylusions spray, and just drew freehand around the circle a few times, making that messy, scratchy look. I love how that turned out!

And here's a close-up of the journaling, basically telling the story of how I thought Jason was nuts to want to take the kids swimming in the river. I didn't think it was safe, but at that time of year, the water was pretty shallow - an adult could probably walk across to the other side without going in over their chest, and the current was not very strong. Still, they were the only kids with life jackets there - I guess maybe I'm a little paranoid, but better safe than sorry, I say! 

And another closeup of some of the papers, cork arrows and gems (CTMH):

I took these photos outside on my deck in natural morning light, but I don't know, the background paper looks awfully blue! It's white, I swear!

Thanks for looking, and hope you have a great weekend, whether it's summer where you are or not!