Birthday cards -boys

This one is for Owen who has a dream of traveling the world

and found this amazing map paper from

Basic Grey South Pacific - paper pad.

REALLY REALLY old.

So glad to stash bust and love how it turned out.

The triangle is a cutout and added is age

and love the itty bitty geo tag stamp.

Not a clue about the stickers.

except for the TH one and MS alpha punches.

Best purchase EVER.

 This is for Connor (they are about a week apart)

and had fun with the cupcake paper

(he loves cupcakes)

And this also came from an old Basic Grey paper pad called RSVP.

Love that. 

The stamp is in a set from Tonic.

Very cute set.

TN - Completed already!

Shocked me too.

For some reason - I thought LAYERS as oppossed to DIMENSION

would make a difference.

 LOL!

And it did in the fun, but not so much how fat 

the book became.

But I love how it turned out.

I found these pages in the book really, really fun to do.

 Mostly because I let myself not worry about

design, embellishments (whether they matched or not)

or if it was cohesive.

 It was a blast and I'm gonna do it again

as soon as I create my next journal.

 I do love the rings - because it appears I canNOT resist

dimension or layers. LOL.

I really would love the use the premade books

but alas, I can't contain myself to keeping it flat.

 Using up so much stash has been fun as well.

Some of these cards I had literally from forever.

I'm okay with using old stuff.

 Because in a 100 years from now no-one will know its

not the latest and greatest.

 This is a mix of a lot of different mfg's.

The mix works well I'm thinking.

 Those envelops - I am totally gonna miss them when they're gone.

 The paper for this is from a 6x6 basic grey pad.

Tea garden.

So this is how fat that bad boy is and would believe

there are only 5 WHITE PAGES in the book?

LOL.

It's all the other layers of patterned paper that make it pudgy.

I'm okay with that.

However, I'm gonna have a lot of books LOL.

Sigh.

TN - Wherever your heart is....

A few more pages in my new TN.

Love how its coming together with layers and journaling.

I do have thoughts written in pages as we roll down the road and

I have decided that some need to be in the TN.

Not necessarily in any order - just how 

the mojo flows and the story I want to tell.

 My pal Holli has sent me some premade tages - and "take note"is

one of them and it ias perfect for this page.

And on the flip side. 

💝

 I am so diggin' the layers and I'm loving that I

finally "broke out" into whimsical and I don't obsess that

maybe that may not be the perfect embellishment.

And I'm okay being out of order with the journaling.

It means that someone has to pay attention when perusing my TN.

 Whimsy is working out mighty fine and this TN

has been the most fun because...

Just because.

Another embellie by my pal Holli - I just added the sunglasses

because it just work with the photo - color wise.

Whimsy.

Does a body good.

My new Traveler's Notebook.

Finally finished the previous one and needed to begin

a new one. I really like creating them myself 

because I can make it the size I want - but most importantly.

RINGS.

It allows for dimension, which I love,

however, I'm reallyreallyreally trying to keep it to a minimum.

😂 

Using some transparencies from the "I have no clue department

as to the mfg" 

but they look cool and go with the washi-tape.

I used some old cardboard box "lids" -

not quite "fitting" the size I want to roll with, so I've

used washi tape

around the edges to "finish" it.

I'm going to try to document more, better journaling.

Some to be seen, some to be hidden.

Hidden in this case means - NO room on the page

if I get windy LOL. 

 I decided layers would be fun - but I wanted

this post to be a bit private.

(yet I'm sharing with you).

 Love those layers, and the envelop for journaling.

This is to document the spreading of my mom's ashes

that was a long time coming.

All the pages are held together by that adorable butterfly

so you have to undo them to see what's behind the layers.

 I printed random, small photos, that may or

may have nothing to do with anything.

Concentrating on better journaling,

 taking random photos taken on the fly

or those photos I've stopped and taken

my time to get to go with the better journaling.

It all started with my rereading the "featured post"

at the top of and to side of my blog.

I had no idea how waxed poetic I was with that

post and found I really liked it.

Of course it may be an unrealistic goal but

what the hey - I have time,

if only the brain will start cranking. LOL.

Love that fish popping its head out of the water 

 determined to get the food being tossed by my

main man mostly to stir them up.

I documented that somewhere else, but I like

using the photo to document how long we've been

"on the road" - taking our house with us

wherever we go and taking our time

 to stop and smell the roses and breathing.

Enjoying the sights and scenes 

while flying down the highways and byways.

I've been using lots of leftover scraps, negative 

punched out papers, and hopefully using up one 6x6

paper pad at a time.

Homemade Traveler's Notebook

It's not fancy - Very basic.

It all started because the TN I already had

had flamingos everywhere.

I live in Florida, I like Flamingoes and usually I don't

have a problem with "makin' do" but I

couldn't get past the Flamingos as a TN for

our trip to Alaska.

Well it was raining, and I was being lazy, so I checked

the TN and decided it can't be that difficult.

Welp....

 I then measured (I know right) anyway I have a ton

of recollections 8.5x11 white cardstock and decided why not.

 I whacked it down to 8.5x8.5  and folded them in half.

My flamingo book had 15 pages so I rolled with that.

But it needed something else - like a cover.
So using black recollections cardstock - I whacked it down
a bit bigger than the pages and glued to the
front and back of the pack.

 The hardest part was actually stapling the pages together.

I had a small stapler that could be opened (you know what I mean)

so I had a brilliant idea to split the papers in fives and

wa-la semi easy stapling.

I had a ton of Basic Grey stickers that I wanted to use up

and Also some Studio Calico and Inkadinkado stamps that I thought would be cool too.

 And just started decorating the pages randomly.

 I'll be taking photos on this trip of course, but I

won't be printing any, and because CRS (can't remember stuff)

has kicked in, I needed a journal, if you will, to document

our days so I can remember later when I actually scrap the pix.

FULL DISCLAIMER - The black and white striped cover for the journals 

was made by my pal Nat. The cover actually houses our women's devotional study 

and well it totally works for my Alaska stuff.

So now I'm gonna see if she has extras - because 

I need one for my devotionals.

Recollections cardstock, Basic Grey, Studio Calico

Fun birthday page

Using ledger paper from Studio Calico.

I love ledger paper.

Did some background stamping using a block

dot stamp and TH distress inks - spiced marmalade

and peeled paint. 

 Also used stars stamp from a SC pack with black ink

and I don't remember the MFG on the birthday candles and "presents".

There's some old Basic Grey in there too.

Owen turned  9 - this past September.

That went really fast and it wouldn't hurt my feelings

if all the grands slowed this down a bit.

February Faux Travel Journal Entries

 Well by the look of my faux journal it wasn't a 

very happening month.

Although to be honest I'm still dithering about as

to what I really want to put in there/out there?

I do keep a diary type journal that I'm way more chattier

than I sometimes need to be.

Know what I mean?

In fact, it's sad that a couple of these entries are totally

out of order, but hey 'tis done.

And it's my faux journal so I'm thinking at least

I got the entries in there.

My goal is to use the entries for those things we did,

or didn't do, or photos that really don't need pages.

I'm at the point where I'm considering 

building a wing on our house just to store my albums.

LOL. 

Basic Grey, Studio Calico, bits and pieces.

March should be a little livelier!!

I think.

Remembering favorite things

photo 1-1

photo 1-2

Everyone has favorite things -

 things you enjoy

things that make you happy

things that bring you comfort

things passed down.

These are a few of my mom's favorite things

and some were my Gram's and then mine

and I thought it would be fun to showcase and

pocket pages worked it out the best.

Such a nostalgic page for me because some of the items

are not in my possession anymore

so it brings me comfort to see the photos of the items

especially when I see them as they were arranged

in mom's home.

Basic Grey, Bassil, various Studio Calico stuff, Doodle Bug stickers,

and thickers (which I turned the F around to make T's because

I was over finding a font that had letters I needed.

Another Fond Food Memory

Back to Kraft and using some Basic Grey again because it really just

worked with the rustic B&W photo that I downloaded

from Lehigh Valley history on FB.

The moose is adorable and that just worked too.

I broke out some Studio Calico stamps and fussy cut

them out and found some wooden asterisks

and don't they add that extra touch to the page.

So this is Joe's Steak shop and when I was young we

would get some of his steak sandwiches for dinner

and his sauce totally set the bar for every other steak

sandwich I have had.

Love how this turned out and another story down

for my heritage album.

Peek a boo ....

Loved this paper and it I think it really works well

with the photo, so I tapped this little bird 

to assist and that heart is gonna get a work out

because I really didn't think it all through.

 I scrapped this photo a long time ago and

it was basically a page about who the baby was underneath

this towel because seriously there are no hints.

Both my boys had little fat Fred Flintstone feet and

there's no hair, clothes or anything that can date the photo

which would help in figuring things out.

Well I happen to be plowing through my mom's wayback

box and low & behold there were both photos

showing which baby it was - and drum roll

it is Nick, my favorite eldest son.

So in looking at the above photo maybe I could've

added some dodads on there.....

However, I forgot to photograph the entire page before

I put it in the page protector and I didn't

want to pull it out - because I did a slice in plastic

to just slide the to top out so it can be lifted so I apologize

for that.

Love how it turned out. 

Studio Calico with some Basic Grey.

I HATE MISTS.....

So back in the day prior to McDonalds other than

diners there were few eating places for

quick food and one of them was Jimmy's Hot Dog Stand

where as a kid we would be treated to his hot dogs.

Jimmy served his hot dogs with mustard, onions and a dill

pickle - with no chance of having it your way.

I HATED ONIONS AS A KID but I scarfed down

that hot dog. LOL. And that is really the memory I wanted to record.

 I happen to have joined a group called Lehigh Valley History

and there is a group of photographers that

have taken and/or found old photos from back in the day

and this is one of them of Jim's Hot Dog stand (it was Jimmy back

in the day). And I just had to include it in my

heritage album.

 So I grabbed some recollections kraft paper 8.5x11

and a really old Basic Grey scrap that is perfect for the page

and then layered that photo up and added

 some quickutz stars and Pink Fresh stamps

and dodads along with some Studio Calico enamel dots.

HOWEVER,

whilst adding some black splatters on the page there

was a slight mishap. 

I managed to knock over that open bottle of mist and

3/4 of the bottle is all over the desk on my page 😱

Sooooo... because I set it up basically everything on that strip I was able

to whack around it and move it to a new kraft page

where I thought it was a good idea to try splatters in black and

then in blue again. Which as you can see........

When I made the change on where the journaling was

located - originally it was around the paper strip

but I had way more to say so I decided

it would go to the left on the page and

was soooooo excited did I wait until the mists dried??😕

Noooooo 

and I decided that it was just going to stay that way.