AT MY BEST...: Washi Love

'You and Me' - Kraft +

10:31 AM

New Zealand Holiday Journal - Midori Travellers Notebook Style

9:30 AM

After putting up the post (which can be found here) while I was on holidays about the mini kit that I took with me, I have been asked by a lot of people to share the end result. The mini kit consisted of the journal, ink pad, stamps, washi strips/rolls, scissors, pen, stamp blog, adhesive, instax film and my SP1 Share Printer.

I loved this project as it was a great way to document the daily activities and the trip, but also to feel like I have achieved a form of scrapbooking without having to add it to the never ending 'to-do' list on my return home.

I have been watching a lot of Amy Tangerines YouTube videos.... Who am I kidding, I think I have watched just about everything I could get my hands on... And I have realised that even the pros make mistakes and have to cover them up. They are just as normal as each of us, so I have been spending a bit of time stamping on cards and planners, so this book wasn't going to be any different. The only challenge with the stamping is that once it is in the book, I can't go and tear out the page if I didn't like it or it didn't work. I think I was so excited about this project that that last thought never even crossed my mind. It was purely a thought process that I would be able to simply cover it over with a piece of washi tape, or move items around to make the page work.

And work it did :-)

This note book is a passport size rather than the full Midori Travellers Notebook size, which worked, but I would like to try this same style project with the larger size to see if I liked it better.... Looks like I need to plan another holiday!

All of the photos have been simply printed from my iPhone or iPad onto the instax film through the SP-1 photo printer (which is super small and portable).

This project was also a great way to incorporate small bits of memorabilia, as you will see throughout the notebook.

Using available items on hand such as the luggage tag for the airline is a great item to incorporate into any travel album.

This album became all about good placement of stamping and washi tape, but worked so well.

Memorabilia items such as serviettes and tour group stickers are perfect elements for a travel book this size.

I have used a straw packet from Wendys to help identify where we were at when that photo was taken. The ticket to the Agrodome was the perfect addition rather than photos and helps identify the date and time of the event.

Using rub-ons were a great addition as they were flat and could be overlayed onto the photos as well as the paper.

Where there are no photos that help tell the story, use business cards such as the above, in a full or partial manner.

Entry tickets and passes are perfect memorabilia to include.

Drawing a page outline can help isolate different days in the journal.

I will give you the tip, instax photos are hard to photograph well for blog posts!!

Spelling mistakes, stamping mishaps and all, this journal/album tells the basic details. When I travel I tend to write pages full of detail and get halfway through the holiday and then don't have the time to keep up. This one was different. But the only thing different is essentially this is a dot point version of each day with a main event photo. This method worked well and I will be trying it again on my next holiday.

If you have any questions on this project or process, please leave them below and I will give you all of the tips and techniques that I can to help you achieve something similar for an event in your life.

Catch Up

Hens Day Mini Album

6:30 AM

This project..... Lets be honest, there is absolutely no reason why this project took me so long. I have no idea what I was thinking when I started this, but I can say that maybe waiting to get it done was the best thing to happen to me. It has now been completed at a time where I am not over worried about everything. A time where I spend way too long over thinking things. A time where my confidence is high enough to just get one with it and move on. And I love it!

My hens day was back in November of 2012 - nearly 3 years ago now - and the album was purchased and prepared ready for photos back in January of 2013. I had all of the photo ready to go. All I had to do was chose the ones that I wanted to use and pull it all together. Apparently this just didn't happen.

Now that is a bit of a blessing in disguise. While I have forgotten the absolute minor details of the event, all of the memories that exist are the story that I have told with this album. They aren't over run with so much detail that I would have had no room for photos. And finishing a project like this so long after the even also gave the change to relive such a fun day.

The album us made up of 8 chipboard pages, each of which have been covered with the same Teresa Collins paper collection. As there were so many photos that I wanted too keep, I have had to add a few extra 'pages' as I went. This wasn't an easy task as the chipboard pages take up pretty much all of the space on the binders, but I think I have made it work ok.

I found a couple of sticker sets in my stash, which I have no idea what I was really saving them for, but they have now been used on this project and they matched wonderfully. Also the addition of a few enamel dots made for minimal decoration.

To gain the extra space needed, I have inserted shipping tags. These allowed me more photo space, but also more journaling space.

Washi tape was a wonderful addition for this album as it takes up no space dimensionally. It was the perfect accent for each page.

Its hard to see here, but I have also added a square transparency in this gap, just to add a bit more interest to the project. Its all in the details!

There are two different types of shipping tags used on this project. The larger tags sit horizontally and the smaller, darker tags sit vertically. These have had the yellow ribbon tied to the top of them and have primarily been used to journaling only about each location we stopped at on the day.

This page is a really good example of the two tags working together and how they fit into the album. A couple of enamel dots was all it needed to dress up the journaling tag.

There was a lot to write about a couple of the places we visited. The hardest part to working with these dark tags is that they are very thick. This means that they take up a fair bit of room in the album, so I was limited as to how many I could use and where.

The shape of the pages was a bit of fun to play with in getting all of the photos I wanted into the album and positioned in such a way that there wasn't much lost of the photo. This page was a good one where I had a bit of room to play.

I loved the ability to double up these photos, especially the two on the right hand side.

There is another transparency in this gap. I wanted something to add to it so that it wasn't the only place where both full pages had nothing in between and very similar photos on both pages.

This album size gave me the ability to use both 3x2 size photos and 3x4 photos. By adding both sizes, it gives the ability to add some variety into the album, but also highlight a few particular ones that are special to me.

I found a way to include as many photos as possible onto these two pages so as to document one part of the day without needing too much additional space. Again done so with the journaling tag in the centre continuing to tell the story.

It was a super fun day with so many people that I love, and I am so glad that I decided to start this album to remember it by. Looking back at it now, it was one of the best ways to spend my hens day.

One thing that I did do in this album was use the very last page as a way to document all of the relevant information from the day. This has the list of wineries we visited and in what order, who attended the tour during the day, and who came to the dinner at night. This page wont be easily accessible with how full the album is, so I thought this was the best place to make sure that all of the finer details were not forgotten.

I really, really love how this project turned out. It is currently sitting in a prime place in my scrap room (with another mini album that I love). It feels good that I don't keep seeing the cover of this album and thinking its another thing that I really need to finish.... Its now marked off the to-do list!

I hope you have found something inspiring in this project that would entice you to try a mini album for a special even too.

12x12

'Picture Perfect' - Delights Retreat Layout #7

7:00 AM

We are back to the Delights Retreat shares for today, now that I have you scared about thinking December is so close! The challenge was to use 1, 2 or all 3 of the Flair sponsored but the Scrap Girls. 2 worked perfectly for me on this one.

This layout was an interesting one to pull together. I had an idea which I wasn't too sure about to start with, so I started playing around with it to see where it would take me (all while chatting and laughing with friends). I just wanted to see what the idea would look like if I just layed it out there. One of the main things I was worried about with this layout was my colour choices. It is such a special photo that I was putting a little bit of pressure on myself to make sure I did the photo justice.

I chose my papers and went to work playing around with the washi tape background. And it turned out that my colour choices were never anything to worry about. The photo popped just as I wanted it to.

Picture Perfect

When playing with so many patterned layers, you will always need black or white to ground the layout and I was able to use more of the transparency from an earlier challenge to do so on this one. The chipboard title is from Words or Whatever and has been gold embossed. And another couple of those gorgeous resin dots from The Resin Rainbow.

One design element that I have never been able to use was the small frame over the bigger photo. I has just always looked wrong. This layout was the perfect one to use it on. It highlights both the 3 of us in it, but also the best part of the view in the background. It draws your eye, and this was exactly what this page needed for this story.

You can see how the washi tape background sits here too.

I love having these little clusters at the top or bottom of the page to tie all of the elements back in. This one has a little bit of everything that is on the rest of the page, including one of those gorgeous flair buttons (one of my all time favourite elements)!

I just love how this page pulled together. And that giving something a go and not being scared to make mistakes (or fail) isn't a bad thing.... its simply a learning curve for the better!