Hi everyone! Noreen Smith  here from OrganizedandCreativeMom.com with a layout using the super fun summer themed Sun-Kissed Papers, Embellishments & Stickers, the new embossed Tropical Leaf Punch, and some sunshine-y Cut Files that I created and want to share with you today!Creative Memories’ Sun-Kissed Collection was inspired by the cool art-deco vibe of Miami’s South Beach and features colors and imagery that will work well with any tropical vacation, zoo, beach, pool or outdoor photos! Besides the paper, stickers and embellishments I‘m showing you today, the collection also includes a gorgeous Turquoise foiled Album Cover and pre-designed Fast 2 Fab Album Pages. I had fun combining the papers with some recent photos of my older son enjoying the much-anticipated spring weather! In one photo he was sitting with his face turned towards the warm spring sunshine and it reminded me of the Walt Whitman quote – “Keep your face always towards the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you.” That got the wheels turning as to how I could incorporate the photos, quote and a sunshine theme with the Sun-Kissed papers. I ended up creating a series of digital images that I cut out with my Cricut: an open sunburst pattern, open and closed suns and “Sunshine” word-art, which also had the benefit of providing the individual letters to spell the word sunshine!Then I decided it would be fun to make these images into Cut Files for YOU to use with the Sun-Kissed papers or any product line that features a sunny theme! You can head over to the shop on my Blog to download the free zip file containing JPEG, PNG and SVG versions of these images!Working with Cut Files is a fun way to add that extra “something” to your layouts. Cut the images with your electronic die cutting machine from plain white cardstock, then back the open spaces with a variety of patterned papers. I love how the white cut file makes the whole thing work together cohesively!

It was really easy to create the large sunburst in the layout. I imported the sunburst jpeg image into my Cricut Design Space, set it for 11” x 11” in size, pressed “cut” and my Cricut did all the work! After carefully peeling it off the sticky cutting mat, I placed the sunburst on top of my patterned paper, traced the inside of the open shape lightly with pencil, then cut slightly outside the lines to give me the overlap needed to add the adhesive. I used the Precision Point Adhesive Pen to adhere the paper onto the back side of the sunburst and then repeated the process for each of the open spaces.
Then I flipped it over and placed the whole thing onto a 12” x 12” piece of the golden pineapple paper.
I added the two photos of my son, both matted onto scraps of the same papers used in the sunburst, and then wrote my inspiration quote on the solid section of the sunburst with my Black Dual-Tip Pen. I had planned on using the cut file letters for the word “sunshine” in the quote, but the Gold ABC/123 Stickers were the perfect color and size, so I used them instead! (Pssst…these sunny stickers are retiring soon, so grab them while you can!)

I punched some embossed leaves with the new Tropical Leaf Punch from scraps of green cardstock and layered them with various stickers and embellishments in clusters to highlight the photos. I mounted some of the stickers with Foam Squares for dimension, but as you can see, some embellishments like the flamingo are layered and already have that beautiful dimension I love…they are so easy! I hope you get a chance to see the Sun-Kissed collection in person – it’s so beautiful! And don’t forget to head over to the shop on my blog to download your free cut files

All Creative Memories products featured in these projects are available in Canada on my CM website, and you can find advisors in the US and other countries by using the Advisor Lookup feature. Please drop by my blog,  Facebook group, YouTube Channel or my Instagram feed for more ideas and inspiration – I create layout sketches, cards and other projects which showcase Creative Memories products & tools on a regular basis.

Happy scrapping!

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