More Disney

 

Here's a couple more layouts I've recently completed for my Disney album.

Key to the World used to refer to the Disney World key cards that allowed you entrance to your room, to the parks, and gave you charging privileges on your dining plan (if applicable) and/or your credit card (if wanted).  Now, there's the latest in Disney technology, Magic Bands, which we got to test out as a replacement to the old key cards. In this first layout, I highlighted all of our keys to the world, from our Magic Bands, old key cards (that we only had as backups) and my awesome Mother's Day gift, the photopass+.  

 

 

All of the patterned paper is from the Say Cheese line from Simple Stories, the title was designed on Cricut Craft Room (I resisted using this for so long, as I've got Design Studio......Craft Room is soooo much better!),  the Mickey head sticker (in place of the "o") was from an old Disney kit and the ricrac is some vintage stuff from my stash.

 

The next layout is of one of my favourite Disney moments. It's also all from Say Cheese, combining a large journaling spot (the big, red photo mat), with smaller ones, layered with border stickers, regular stickers and border strips.

 
And what's that? Journaling? Yes! This layout started the breakdown of my Disney writer's block!

This photo truly is a trip favourite for both Scott and me. In part, because of the excitement in our kids' faces and also because, as the journaling mentions, we had nothing to do with it. We weren't even in the room at the time. Kelsey, by her own doing, got her brother in a picture she sent to her friends via snapchat. If that isn't Disney magic, I don't know what is!

It's so magical, I only mentioned the grammatical error to her once.

How I Spent My Birthday

 

It's been a long time since I spent an afternoon shirking chores to scrapbook. What better day to do that than on my birthday?

September 19 marked 15 years of marriage for Scott and me. To celebrate, our family went to Disneyworld. Upon returning, I needed to recover from my "Disney hangover" and then solve my angst-ridden Disney album dilemma before I felt up to starting some Disney layouts. This first layout (actually 2 co-ordinated layouts that happen to be side-by-side in the album) shows us passing the time in Buffalo, both in our hotel and at the airport before heading to Orlando.

  

Most of the stickers, embellies and patterned papers are from Simple Stories' Say Cheese collection. I bought it as soon as my LSS had it in stock especially for this trip, at least a couple of weeks before we left. The green polka dot strip (that originally only said 'adventure') was from another collection, I believe by Carta Bella.

This next layout is Scott, as we waited in line for our bus to the resort. He'd taken some meds to make him more (ahem) manageable during the flight. This layout shows him trying to shake out the cobwebs as we waited in line for the Magical Express (that's Disney-talk for airport shuttle bus).

And that's what I did the afternoon of my birthday, while everyone else was at school or work! 3 pages in one sitting. I haven't accomplished that much at once in years! Happy birthday to me!
This last page is one I did today. It's possibly the first picture taken of me on our trip. Cole and I are on the Magical Express, waiting to leave Orlando airport and giddy with anticipation. I used the cover of our M.E. booklet and the transportation tickets inside as a title and embellishments.

I've yet to do any journaling on any of my Disney pages. I think I may finish the layouts first for the sake of flow and getting down all the info I want to share without missing or repeating anything. Ok, and I'm also hoping that by the time I'm done creating the layouts, my writer's block will be gone! There's so much to share about this trip, I just don't know how to begin describing it!

Halloween: Part 2

For my Halloween night layout, I used more photo-sleeve pages. There were a lot of pictures I wanted to use and this was the simplest, most effective way to include them all. 

 

The picture of me with both kids was taken landscape. To make it fit the portrait sleeves, I cropped and matted it, adding some patterned paper and journaling to balance it off.

The background for the title and journaling pieces on the next page came from the same sheet of paper. The title was cut from my Cricut (All Mixed Up cartridge, one of my favourites), all other elements are stickers, with the bat being matted and cut out to help it stand out better. All paper and stickers are from my seemingly endless Basic Grey Eerie stash.

Each year, Kelsey, Cole and I design our own pumpkins and Scott cuts them all out. Take a look at the first photo. Can you guess who designed each Jack o'lantern?

Halloween: Part 1

Here it is, nearly Easter, and I'm just finishing up and posting layouts from.....last Halloween?! Thankfully, I see scrapbooking as a fun, creative process instead of a race, otherwise I might be feeling like a bit of a failure right now. Not so! After Halloween comes very little else, which means I'm nearly done my 2012 album and will soon be moving on to 2013. Yay, me!

Before 2011, my Halloween decorations were pretty sparse and much of them cheap and cheesy-looking. Sad, really, considering Halloween has always been one of my favourite holidays and we even hosted costume parties a few years in a row. Two years ago, I found some cute witch signs on clearance and scooped them up. Then last year, Kelsey wanted to decorate the porch and house but I was just not in the mood. It confused everyone.

For my birthday, I got cash to be used towards new Halloween decorations in an effort to refresh my excitement. At first, it didn't work. Then, Kelsey and I found some a-ma-zing deals at Michael's for a flower arrangement and some fun add-ons. And some Snoopy/Woodstock wind socks (say that five times fast!). And some funky, glittery owl candle holders. It took a few visits and some clever sale and coupon coordination, but I got it all!

 And then there was the super-funky zipper owls. I saw them first at Winner's. Then I saw the same ones only bigger at Carleton Cards.....for 75% off.....AND they had a matching pair.....AND they had a co-ordinating crow....AND I only paid for the three what the crow alone would have cost me regular price. BOO-YA! Guess who found their Halloween spirit!

I really wanted a layout of my pretties, and it came together pretty easy using a photo sleeve page and more of my Basic Grey Eerie collection. Even the title just 'happened.' Then came the journaling. What is it with the journaling lately?

I wanted to talk about my shopping spree, about getting out of my funk, about how much I loved all my new decorations....and the old ones that didn't get trashed. All that talk just won't fit on the little journaling card I allotted myself. Had I just used photos of the new stuff, it would have been soooo  much easier! Anything that's a pumpkin in the photos below is old. The ugly, angry Jack o'lantern on the bottom right was Scott's from before I knew him. It's practically an antique!

 

I'm already excited about decorating next Halloween. The Christmas lights we got for the porch glow in both multi-coloured and all purple so they can be used for Halloween too. Not to mention, we'll be at Disney during their Halloween season. I know I won't be getting any deals, but you can bet  I'm coming home with some Mickey-rific Halloween souvenirs!

Seriously, I Overcame Writer's Block for This?

I love fall. It's generally cool, dry and bursting with beautiful colours. Seeing our street, our neighbourhood in fall is quite stunning. That is why I love this photo so much. That is why I made this layout.

 

This layout was a fun, technique-heavy project. To start, I used a couple of maple leaf die cuts as masks and sprayed yellow, green and red mists (a mix of Glimmer Mists and Mr. Huey's if I remember correctly) in the top right corner of my base cardstock. Next, I outlined the negative space in pen and cut out the inside. On a scrap piece of cardstock, I blended the Distress Inks  Orange Marmalade, Aged Photo and Barn Door, spritzed with water and splattered a few drops of Aged Photo reinker (which I'm not totally happy with, but whatever....). Once dry, I pop-dotted it to the back of my base cardstock to create this effect:

I used the pieces I cut out as well; inking them the same as the inside of my leaves in the upper right, but crumpling them after spritzing with water. The result was very realistic-looking fall leaves. This time I avoided the blackspot effect.
The title was cut from my Cricut, inked, misted and then roughly outlined in pen.
After all that work, the only thing left was the journaling. The layout sat for a week or more while I tried to figure out the wording. It was all too.....wordy. For some reason, it was of great importance to me to mention our street name, to mention that I'm facing downtown but it just wouldn't flow nicely. Finally, it came to me:

Yep, all that thinking, scribbling ideas, scratching them out, scribbling more, thinking more, shaking my head and leaving it til later just to end up perfectly happy writing it all out in point form.

More Fun With Ephemera

Back in September, Kelsey and I went to see the musical, Wicked at our local theatre. It was amazing, and I couldn't wait to start on the layout. But with 3 gift albums to start almost right after the show, plus all my other silly, boring old responsibilities, wait I did to start it and wait I did to finish it too!

Originally, I wanted to use paper from Graphic 45's Magic of Oz collection but I waited too long to search it out (I'm seeing a sad trend happening in this post....). There was nothing left at the one LSS that carries G45 and selection online was sparse and too expensive to ship. Instead, I used some of Basic Grey's Eerie collection I had in my stash and I'm quite happy with the results.

 

The background was created on a lilac cardstock base, covered with silver and purple paint and Slate Glimmer Mist, all blended together with my brayer. It took a couple of tries on each page to get it just right. I left it overnight to dry, which turned into something closer to a week. By then, it was good and dry!
The first bit of ephemera I used was a casting change insert. I inked it up with a couple shades of green and used it as part of my journaling card.

The other bit of ephemera I used was the program, which doubled as my title. I stuck it down whole, adhering the back page to the layout and then added two photo turns to hold down the pages. Embossing the photo turns with red glimmer powder gave them a little more pop and significance to the play.

I added a couple more red glimmer photo turns to the other page to give the layout balance. Above them is some vintage ric rac in purple and green, wonderful green brads Sondra made  in a brad swap from ages ago (these were the last 3 I had left), some stickers from the Eerie collection and all finished with a Stickled circle detail.

In the top right, is a sticker of a witch flying in the moonlight, framed by green spiderweb paper, with the webs Stickled.

So there it is. A layout that took forever to make, ended up nothing like I planned and yet somehow became exactly what I wanted.

Fun With Ephemera

 

In this layout about my last birthday, I wanted to include the cards Kelsey and Cole made for me. Being that the cards were so big, I struggled to come up with a design. 

I started with the paper line (the name of which escapes me now), and a large scrap piece gave me the idea to make a pocket to slide the cards into. Getting the pictures and journaling to fit on the smaller space of the front pocket proved to be another struggle for me, but I think it worked out pretty good:

 

A peek at the journaling:

Birthdays are pretty important in our home. The birthday boy or girl gets to pick the supper menu and there's always cake on their day. It's the little touches and details that have always made me feel so special and loved on my birthday. I hope Scott and the kids feel the same on their birthdays too!