Mini album from scraps

When mojo is in short supply - I head to my

overflowing bin of used papers and

just start putting them together - no rhyme no reason

except maybe size - a piece that will fit when folded.

 Once the lil booklet is put together

 let the embellishing begin

 and I use ALL THAT STUFF that makes

 no sense in any pages I make

 and a lot of stash gets used.

 Sometimes I keep these lil albums for me

 and sometimes I give them away

 sometimes I leave them blank

and sometimes I leave them blank to the

 giftee can do what they want with them.

 I had two albums I previously made

and gifted them to my granddaughter Annie

 and when I was there a few months ago

we sat together and I showed her how to add her

photos and journaling.

 Annie is 7 and never to learn to figure it out

 especially when she rocks her own camera

 and now has tons of photos with nowhere to go.

I did add ribbon to close this album - something

I didn't do on the others.

I think it helps that it closes and I think Anni will

like this one too.

Here is the post where Annie and I scrapped together.

Another generation.

How cool is that.

Stamping and fussy cutting and paper tearing oh my

Well if you read yesterday's post you are aware

of my whining about all things changing in my scrapbooking

and in my head, scrapbooking to the storage.

So therefore, in defiance to that notion I made a feel good page.

Using a stampede stamp that was lolling about in

stash somewhere in a drawer that I had completely forgotten

about, and using some distress inks I stamped

some leaves because its October.

 And October in Florida just means the schoolbuses are out. LOL.

No pretty leaves changing or things like that.

However, it was a fun page.

I found this paper from the Paper Studio which was

rustic and cool enough to use for an October page.

I mussed it up and found my long lost tonic tool to muss it up more.

I backed it with Recollections cardstock in grey and

even stamped some leaves where it's torn and

now covered up with fussy cut leaves.

The entire page is all about Tim Holtz stuff, because I wanted

some rustic, shabby chic looking letters and dug

into some stash of grunge board alphas.

I used Studio Calico clean slate paint and some

plain jane white, along with some sandpaper and made

some funky rustic alphas.

And don't the Blue Ridge mountains just rock.

The colors are glorious.

Those little butterflies are TH too. 

There's a stamp tucked at the top left corner and

a little ruler as a mat for the photo.

Photo is courtesy of the Leaf Peeping Tour- 2016.

TN-Starting a new notebook

It's taken awhile mostly because my head is playing mind games.

I did the left side page awhile ago and it is

THE first page.

Using washi and PL card. thread, that cool bow and

some nuvo drops.

AND then, I had an attack of holy lack of storage batman

and do I need to do "fluff" pages thought.

 And didn't, and doesn't,  that just stifle creativity.

Second guessing pages and topics.

And not only storage of pages, traveler's notebooks and

albums, there's the paper, the embellishments and dimension.

And don't get me started flexible photographs, i.e., sizes,

shapes and strips.

WAH.... but back to the page... LOL

 So when we were invited to cruise the gulf with our

pals Wayne and Dara of course we jumped on it.

Of course I took pictures.

And of course it had to be a page in my book.

 Because there is a story there.

If you've followed me for awhile you know we've had boats

and we spent a lot of time on the water 

until we didn't.

We traded the boat for a land yacht but being on the

water yesterday (or day before) made me

realize how much I miss being on the water and on the boat

and on the gulf.

So yeah a page was needed.

Music to my Ears

Using Pink Fresh and a snapcatch from

instagram - a fun, sort of girly page evolved.

There's even journaling there - no need to add more.

 I whacked the 12x12 down to 8.5x11 because

that is one of the sizes I am using now.

I have used this size intermittently before because

I really love all sizes and hate to be limited in my choices.

But...

Again, a photo of Annie and I scrapping her photos

in the little albums I made for her

and Owen - the background (see arrow)

is playing his saxaphone.

And as you can see it wasn't a pleasant sound.

However, who doesn't love a sax and some music

to scrap by LOL.

Journaling by dad: When you start learning to play the saxaphone

you are more Goose than KennyG.

Took me a minute to get that.

But I gots it now!

Title is a mix of QK Spicy Chicken and Studio Calico alphas.

TN- Last pages for sure

LOL.

For sure.

Since there aren't any pages remaining in the book

it's for sure. Didn't realize until I was going

through photos that the Trolley Tour

in Nashville didn't make it.

 So using some really old washi tape

to ground the badges we wore

so we could hop on and off the trolleys and

basically be the title for this 2 page spread

and picking out photos I felt highlighted the tour.

It was a lot of fun.

 And then I forgot the parents visit mostly

because I didn't do well with the selfie.

 Always wanted to use this title lol

and that stamp.

Epic fail.

No shame there LOL.

 The Shakedown Cruise was alot of

fun despite the breakdowns.

It teaches one to roll with whatever comes along.

We are getting things in order to sell the house

and pack the coach. 

PL- Patrick Henry's homestead.

I wanted to try these smaller pocket pages and 

I had a hard time getting the size of the photos right.

I don't measure well so instead of

tossing out the pix I mounted them on kraft because

I thought it went well with the surroundings.

 I did get carried away with the flowers.

And in looking at it now maybe I should've used white

instead of kraft but it was looking

mighty fine as I was going along so there it is.

I also found some Tim Holtz do-dads that worked

well with the photos.

 And how often do you get to work a radish in.

I think its a radish. LOL.

Using that stash up.

Since the pages of Andrew Jackson and Patrick

Henry are together in the album I decided

to combine their pamphlets together.

Recollections Kraft & Flowers, Tim Holtz

Heritagy looking page

I love heritage and ancestry stuff and I kinda

miss scrapping them.

I did some ripping and tearing and don't

that make ya swoon.

I didn't want (to me) to showcase  these pictures

in the PL protectors because I'm still trying

to figure out the embellishments.

I don't want the photos to be overwhelmed but

I wanna be creative.

I'm finding it hard to meld the two.

So I'm just going to try different things until

I find something I like and works for RV living.

I saved the tickets and managed to find them prior

to completing the page.

I seem to have a real hard time holding on to

ephemera on the road and I usually complete pages

without since locating them in time to be

included on the page escapes me.

I can't be the only out there. 

 I did cut down the tickets to fit the page

and I did want to keep the part where we

got a rain check but didn't take advantage of it

because it was still raining the next day.

Studio Calico.

I keep trying to use up all the Halloween stuff

But it seems to no avail LOL.

Oh well there is fun in the trying.

Very old stamp-it says Clear Stamp

 This is a total mishmash of whatever paper I had laying about.

Would you believe there are no strips with mfg names on them?

Shocking I know.

fun stuff.

Now I just need to remember to mail them.

Final Alaska photos- Denali

and it is of Mount Denali that graced us with its

presence on the train ride.

I waited until our return so I could print out an 8.5x11

because it is sooooo stunning and it allowed

my oversized badge that you can purchase at any

National Park store to be on the page without getting in

the way of the mountain.

It did cuminate in a 2 page spread and I printed all

the animals I was lucky to see and take photos of and

 in a 8.5x11 collage.

I even ID'd all the critters, keeping it simple. 

I also was able to find all those itty bitty things I collect like

the national park stamp with the date and

park on it, and that cool pin of dahl sheep that we

saw as total pinpricks against the sky when they were

high up on the mountain.

 Using this size and not PL pages allowed me to tuck

the pamphlets about the park

 that is put together along with maps, do's and don'ts

in any national park you plan to visit

It also allows to keep the bulk down in my books by not adding an additional page.

I do miss 12x12 size but I'm embracing this size.

I'm still dithering about with the TN because I love dimension

and dimension in not a friend of the TN.

Anyway, YOU NEEEEED to go to Alaska - it's wild

beautiful and huge.

TN - It's been completed Sortof

I have found a couple more I forgot that need to be added.

Soon.

Working on those pages now. 

The Endeavor Shakedown Cruise as titled

you will see later.

I was gonna drag these out for a week, but it 

didn't make sense.

You're welcome!

 When I got to these pages in the book you may

or may not notice the thickness because I was

carried away by dimension.

It was at this point that I felt that dimension had

to go by the wayside.

 So these pages are a bit different.

I used stamping - that didn't go well on the above page.

I'm okay with that.

 I also tried to make as many 2 pagers as well and

employed the use of all that washi tape

I have and hardly used.

 Love that Tim Holtz bird stamp.

 I wanted a variety of alpha styles for the fun of it.

and I actually did most of the journaling

with Tim Holtz words.

 Using a Tim Holtz spilt coffee stencil and

then added a sticker and fussy cut

the cup of expresso (I'm going with because I don't

have a coffee mug)..

It was good coffee and liked that I got a sticker.

 Best BBQ ever had to be documented, eating at Jack's

twice. Nashville at night is a total honky tonk happening.

More washi tape and matched it up with

some cork alphas - I kinda like it

The stamps were fun to do and I finally got

to use some of those goofy puffy stickers.

 I did a white wash with watered down white paint on

the cork stickers as well as some kraft paper

to make it matchy matchy.

Every now and then I need some matchy matchy.

 It's been fun using up stash.

 I feel I was way more creative being home because

I had way more stuff and I could

actually use my wafer die cuts.

 Love the down by sea look of it.

 And you can never go wrong with googly eyes.

 Again, with Tim Holtz using his arrow stencil.

I daubed black ink over them, traced

with a black pen and then decided to not 

fussy cut them out.

 I really like how they turned out an felt

the arrows were all that was needed.

 The next title says it all.

The wooden nickel is from Patrick Henry's estate

but it just worked here.

AND TA-DA the finished product.

I felt the flamingo was required because

we do live in Florida.

And here is the thickness and it was making

me crazy toward the end of the book when trying

to scrap.

Sideways view.

So going forward I will need to think really hard

about using so much dimension in these

books. While I do love dimension, I really had a

great time creating these last few pages because for me

I had to think out of the box.