Explore

I did have a white/black debate background on this one.

And I had to roll with black.

8.5x11

It's just way more dramatic and you know I love dramatic

in scrapbooking.

 This photo doesn't even begin to do justice to the

actual scene - moonrise and sunset.

How cool is that.

It just begged to have it's own page and be the star.

Recollections, Tim Holtz, thickers and no clue

on the "explore" - got it at HL.

We also toured the Air Force Museum

That had every plane and then some under it's roof.

Including some Russian MG's.

So there's the infamous blue tag, that was made for

the previous page.

 It works here which is just as well as I didn't

want to re-write the journaling because 

sometimes you only get it right once.

Why tempt fate.

 I used the map of the museum as my

'page' because it was cool and why not.

And there's my title with popped up jets.

Love that they had fun with the planes and

the faces they had.

It was already quite busy so I kept everything

to a minimum.

I broke out the ole die cut machine for that eagle.

And don't it work perfect. 

That is placed strategically on the Arizona State

from The Paper Studio.

46 more to go.

 LOL.

8.5x11

Birthday cards

This year I got not only ONE card from the bro

but TWO.

And if you look closely at the stamp, it's a photo

of the bro on the stamp.

How cool is that.

Stamp.com.

 And the return address.

LOL.

 One card was for last year, and one card for this year.

How fun is that.

Certainly unexpected.

Of course it had to be scrapped.

Watercolors, doilies, and a tag with hidden journaling.

Some of my favorite projects in 2018

A fun acrylic album made with some Pink Fresh.

See the rest here. 

 Loved using that girly stencil!

 A Flower and/or Pinwheel.

You pick LOL.

It was a lot of fun to make.

 Love pinterest!

And M&M's.

 My first hand drawn embellishment and hand stitched.

 It was so much fun the first time I did it again

although the mask was downloaded from the internet.

 QK dies. 

Very fun!!!

 And who doesn't love minions.

 My first Traveler's Notebook.

You can see some of the pages here.

 And an 8.5x11 sized photo.

I love doing that size - especially for oversized beauty.

 What an exciting year 2018 was.

So much exploring was done and a big decision was made.

2019 is gonna be so exciting.

Can't wait.

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.

Switching up to 8.5x11

Because I liked both sides of the paper and

I wanted 2 photos on the page

and because this is for Jill's album and I usually do 8x8.

 Love the snow capped mountains and the "snowflakes"

that came in the Studio Calico December kit.

And when would I ever use Winter Wonderland.

 And there's new snowboarding jargon that has been

reflected in the title that has snowy glitter on it.

How perfect is that.

Love that title.

Anyway the grands love the snow. 

The love snowboarding which looks to be a lot of fun.

Maybe when I was younger. 

Nope Nope Nope - don't like heights.

But its fun to watch.

And the #1 biggie - I am NOT that coordinated.

When you can't find that perfect paper on NSD

These photos came across the wire just in time for NSD

and became 3rd in the line of pages.

I did print smaller photos and a 5x3 and then I searched

my entire box of papers (which is quite small by other

scrappers standards) and while I found possibilities

(that I will keep in mind for mom's album) 

they just didn't float my boat.

So...

 I blew that baby up to 8.5x11 and shazam.

What a gorgeous pix and seriously her poise.

I don't have that poise yet.

Miss Amelia all dolled up for a dance.

Not using a lot of stuff so as not overwhelm, I love 

how this turned out. The photo blown up

is okay at this size for an iphone in low light

but it still doesn't take away from the overall 

look I wanted for this beauty.

Also, I put a smaller insert photo in there

that looks pretty cool.

My Mind's Eye, Michael's butterflies and a doily.

Same photos - different pages

I do little 8x8 pages for the family and I also

make pages for me....

Since I used the same photos it made sense

to post the pages in the same blog post.

I made an 8.5x11 for me of the granddaughter snowboarding

using a series of photos sent to me.

Using the Tim Holtz  coffee splatter stencil about

the page using white ink - I was disappointed when the ink

dried - as it was going on, and I layered it quite a few times

it looked like "snow." As it dried, however, it looks

like a spill. Used up an acetate ticket.

 Tucked some  QK snowflakes around

along with some bling.

 Studio calico paper going on with some red things glued about too.

So below since the entire family went snowboarding

I did a 8.5x11 pocket page for them

using the same sequence of photos along with 

the others.s

Used some of the Pink Fresh Christmas embellishments

scattering them about, some punched arrows

and Studio Calico stamp.

Tomorrow we're headed to the keys for a few days

of camping. Internet will be dicey but we're gonna have some fun!

Oversized photo to point to a mini album

I love this photo - and I stalked

these horses for 2 days to get it so when

I wanted a photo to point people from my main album

to the mini album I put together on the road this

was THE photo to use.

Making it 8.5x11 is a great eye catcher.

 I think I have a mix of Kaiser craft and

maybe some Tim Holtz - I can't be sure because

all the packages exploded in the huge baggie holding them all.

 My journaling is on that tag hidden behind the photo

in order to get it into the page protector later.

I will also slit the page protector to get it out to read.

They are gorgeous animals that are totally wild.

They get no doctor care, nor are they fed.
The only time there is any type of interference is
to use birth control to keep the herd down
because the land can only support about 96 horses.

I kept it all to a minimum and I love it.

I also used those great Adorn-it letters that I used in

my road album so that ties it all together.

Oversized photo

This photo needed to be 8x10 more or less.

I wasn't going to back it but the photo paper I printed

it on was so flimsy and it needed some stiffness.

I was also out of my mind with printers this day.

My HP-8250 that I've had for a lot of years bit

the dust by spewing ink that couldn't be cleaned up.

Then for some reason my remaining

printer took FOREVER to print - because the lid

was up (which it wasn't), then I needed to change the ink

(which I did) and then it couldn't "see" it.

(which it finally found it).

SIGH.

Because of the "white space" at the bottom

I kept most all the embellies there.

 I did get a bit over the top with words but

they worked.

Added this at the top because there were "legs" there.

Soooo. Now there aren't.

We take this photo annually and it's mostly family

and some friends.

The dynamics seem to be changing each year, people come and go.

And it was windy.

Really really windy - if you noticed.

I actually tossed mist on the photo.  *gasp*

I love doing pages like this - and need to do more.

If I could find 12x12 photo paper I'd be doing that too.

Pointer pages in regular album

That point you to "The Album."

For those of you that followed our 2 month

travel escapade you'll remember that I did an album

as we went, so except for one page the

entire album was completed before we returned home.

I know it still boggles my mind as well.

This album is the West of the Mississippi Tour.

 This double spread (more or less) are our adventures

in Yellowstone park - And yes I did get the kit from the park store.

As you may or may not know, Tom and I don't do a lot

of pictures of ourselves and I decided that

we were going to include some for this trip because 

why not. 

So to make a statement or two, I printed the photo 8.5x11

and decided to scrap straight on that photo.

 With a note on the page to check out our road trip album

for more details.

 Because the story of this photo was fun.

 It's a gorgeous place and if you ever want to

go anywhere and only one place to go

check out Yellowstone Park.

You will NOT be disappointed.

 And because we took another photo together

that had another fun story with it, I printed two of them

because I wanted to frame one. When I

decided the photo to be frame needed to be tweaked,

I decided to scrap the second 8.5x11.

The Grand Tetons are the breathtaking mountains

you see on the ride to Yellowstone - if you're coming in

from Jackson Hole Wyoming - you

get a gorgeous ride to a phenomenal park.

Win-win.

Of course we stopped at the ranger station to get our

passport stamped and I picked up a couple of do-dads perfect

for scrapping.

Again pointing out the road trip album.

 Love how these 2 pages turned out and I

may also pull out other photos - maybe to tell a bigger story.

Its pretty hard to do that because it was so cool scrapping

as we went so the stories have already been told.

I also have a better idea of what to take now

although stopping at a scrapbook shop on the road

was a total win and I documented that.

If you go back through my posts started about mid-July in 2015

you can read about our exploits starting with Packed and Ready to Go.

The photos in my road trip album were printed from Canon Selphy printer.

Its a great road trip printer - small and compact however, the largest

photo size is 4x6.

It is also not the most cost effective printer but it was the convenience

of being able to have the prints instead of adding

them after the fact...

I also kept a separate "daily journal" that I'm going to

try to combine this next time around.

Cutting apart cut aparts

We are back from the cold northern part of Florida

and its good to be home.

Thanks for your prayers for Shane - he is doing very well.

I'm so proud of him.

This photo was orginally being scrapped as a 6x12 and

what a disaster that turned out to be.

Somehow the gesso and watercolors I used on that

base paper looked well-stupid, and

there was no fixing that

which bums me out because I really love the paper -both sides

and that is why it was to be 6x12.

Anyway - I "scrapped" it (literally) and

began again after I returned home.

I found some Shimelle papers that I started for a page 

that somehow was tossed aside.

I seem to do a lot of "scrapping" yunk yunk.

The Shimelle papers really seemed to rock with the Studio Calico mats 

that I had glued to the photo - I then

added a few more touches and wa-la, mojo has somewhat returned.

I really liked the you and me from the cut apart sheet

but alas, it was too big to use on the page

So I fussy cut the & and whacked down the you & me

and wa-la, a lovely title that fits perfectly.

 That red hatch marked papers behind the photo looks

in real life more orange then red, until you

use orange.

And I wanted that title - so I just added more orange

stuff to pull it together and make the orange title less lonely

- and  then noticed the inking behind on the base page

is the same sort orange-red as the mat paper

so it really all works together.

And whacking it down - perfect fit.

 However, AT this point if it didn't work together

I was rolling with it anyway - because

seriously, is this gonna matter 100 years from now

if it lasts that long.

My new intention is to not sweat that kind of stuff.