Travelers Notebook - "Let life surprise you"

Went to a Crop at my local scrapbook shop with my two

best buds and we had a blast.

However, it's stressful packing for a crop (at least for me).

So I decided to go with premade and as you

may know, this puppy has been in the works for weeks.

It started with the making of the guts

with all TH stuff.

Then, I had to make covers of course.

And now, comes the photos....woohoo!!!

Well I skipped photos on the first 2 pages because

A. I like them as they are

B. Finding the right photo is stressful 

Love how the album "layers out" and adding the

photos was fun and in my head which is always messing

with me I had to pick the perfect picture.

Don't know about you but a lot of my pictures are 

not perfect.

And I mostly decided on 1.9x1.9 size because

a. you can get 6 to a 4x6

and b. they fit really well, except for a few.

And then some no need for a photo -

love that option because I am seriously 

running out of photos.

And some you may have seen before - gotta

do something with doubles.

I also included B&W photos of my family

and just dug these out of the way back machine on FB

so I didn't have to work that hard.

Some handdrawn flowers by moi -

I'm really having fun with that. 

I didn't do anything with the tags because 

I'm not sure what I want to do.

Maybe some journaling or maybe I'll just

zush it up .

I used quite a lot of ephemera and 

I totally love that.

Unfortunately, I have a lot left.

Imagine being shocked by that.

I also was kind of torn. 

More layers,

less???

However, my 2 scrappy pals were more than

happy to help.

Advice is mandated at a crop.

I love those owls and I have no clue how

I came to obtain them.

I must've done a swap with my pals.

It's good to exchange stuff -

keeps one of their toes when one

gets out of their comfort zone.

ooooo that little brad in the flower is a camera.

swoon.

I honestly didn't know what to do to the rooster and

I ran out of pictures. 

Even at home now I can't decide.

I used some personal ephemera on the back page

a Springsteen concert ticket.

Took my oldest on this one by the way.

And the back cover.

This was soooo much fun and love that I put it

together first and then added photos..

You can see the no photos one here.

http://murphyslaw-lynn.blogspot.com/2022/01/theres-fine-line-between-genius-crazy.html

I actually made this album in January...

 

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.

Love grows here-Studio Calico Stamp

Love this paper and went a bit old school here with

the gold topping the paper as a layer.

It was plain so I did some gold stamping over it

with a circle background stamp

to give it a bit of dimension.

Love the heart die cut (however annoying to punchout)

It's just cool.

 Spread some butterflies around with some

little flowers and enamel dots.

 Had fun with the stamping and used some

navy blue to tie it all together.

Sam being dapper in his cool hat and Easter outfit.

Love this page - may be a bit 'girly' 

but Sam can handle it.

Studio Calico, Tim Holtz die cut.

Incoherent word stamping

because well sometimes it just

works out that way.

Especially when one stamps AFTER

one puts all the stuff on the page.

One can only hope one learns from this experience.

Uhuh.

 And then there's a touch of green.

It just seemed to work out especially when I popped

a flower on it from G45 that was

in my die cut box

and didn't that quite marry the colors together

because I really wasn't sure what colors to do.

 Yup. 

I totally need to rethink the whole

stamping when the paper is blank.

 Since my white mist was really lame,

I used white enamel paint diluted with some water

to splat the about. They're hard to see here
but in real life it looks really cool.

It was fun with 3 photos and I didn't realize

one was landscape hence my design.

Its quirky and fun.

Lou having a ball!!!

In the pink-totally

It is soooo good to be home.

After doing a ton of laundry and washing the car

I was able to get to my scrap table.

I haven't completed my travel album yet, waiting

on the new 4.5" rings I ordered because I blew up the 3" LOL.

However, I had this one completed before I left

and in the meantime yesterday, I completed FIVE pages.

Therefore, rolling with the 6x12 size 

because I love the paper and whacked it up

somewhere along the way, I

layered in some other papers, rick rack (which I love)

and some puffy stickers and transparency roll out the top of the page.

 This paper is actually from a baby girl pack

from Echo Park.

Looks like it can be used for big girls too.

 Got in that Heidi Swapp heart - almost done with that pack.

Love using stash.

Turned out very fun.

That was not the original photo I was going with

but after I layered all the papers

this pix just seemed to fit better.

Annie girl sporting her biker helmet.

Evolution of a finished page

Raise your hand if you thought a page was done

and then decided that nope....it needed

just a bit more something - something.

Well on this page it happened

twice.

Love the cluster at the top and it sort of evolved

and it appears I'm diggin' the doily.

 I decided to be quite wild and do a cluster on

the side - I don't think I've quite done one

that I can recall. 

That poor cotton candy sticker was off and on

many times and looked a bit worn

so I threw some stickles on and it looked really

dumb next to the gold heart so

I wiped it off and decided that stamps would

cover up the "worn" look.

And the title - love that little bow.

So I called it a day and when I looked at the page

once I took the picture it - it was a nice page but it

looked incomplete to me so.........

 I used the wand on the same Heidi Swapp mists I used 

and drew lines around the edge and I really liked that as well

and called it "done." Again.

But wait.....

 somehow when I glued everything down - the photo shifted

on the pink circle mat and the right side

bothered me because it seemed "off" to me -

as in too much pink and then

I thought I didn't use any word strips and I'm on

a mission to use them up......so

 I found some that worked and NOW

I feel that the page is completed.

Each "ending" was good BUT - I'm glad I

just kept going a bit more.

All Studio Calico - except for the mist.

More layers and stamping!

I have had trouble with blogger scheduled posting. My apologies if this seems to be a rerun. LOL.

Can it be soooo???

Oh yes - this was another page I competed

on Saturday - and the mojo just kept on rolling

even with interruptions.

Love that.

 Some different stash - that "photo" - creative cafe

how old is that - I did get wild and punch out some cork 

embellies and they are fun.

Another rolling stamp in the background.

Lots of mat layers.

Bonus - because we don't have dogs anymore - I did get to use

the word strips from a kit gone by about dogs.

Love it.

 Those fun little foam tabs are going down.

So fun.

Love the title and that too came from a previous kit

and love how it works as they are

standing on a mountain.

Oh and that bird stamp - I love it and use it

quite a bit - since I'm binging you'll see it again.

Stamping and layering frenzy

I made this page 8.5x11 because I wanted

some of the B side - which is that grey and yellow

mat peeking through.

I used the stamps that came with the kit which was

fun and also a rolling heart stamp in the background to give

it some umph...

 More black and white photo love - 

 Embellies and alphas from previous kits.

Using that stash baby!

I decided it needed a frame and it turned into

messy lines after the lines came out messy and then I just went with the flow.

I wanted a big title but not to be overwhelming which by

the looks of it I succeeded.

Transparency letters from another kit worked here

and I also used some of those square tabs leftover from

Sticky Mosciac kits the kids were doing.