Friday, October 3, 2014

My Crush Album- Baltic Cruise Journal

Good morning!

This past August, my husband and I went on a trip of a lifetime.  We booked a cruise with Celebrity Cruises to the Baltic Seas.  We departed from Amsterdam and for 12 days, an interior cabin aboard the Constellation was our home away from home.  We docked in 7 different countries.  We knew we were going to like our trip, but we never expected to fall in love with the cruise life.  Going to bed at night and awaking in another country the next morning was so much fun.  I really loved the down time too.  I even got to scrapbook!
me working on My Crush album in the Reflexions lounge on the ship

I had packed in my luggage a CTMH My Crush album.  It would serve as my journal.  I chose the Wildwood album  and assortments as my base, but I also brought with me Skylark Picture my Life cards and the Wanderful complements stickers.  Along with those supplies, I also brought with me scissors and a journaling pen.  I had forgotten my glue, so one of our first stop was at a grocery store in Amsterdam where I purchased a glue stick (along with other necessities like food, water....).
The Crush album had none of my pictures.  I contemplated bringing my photo printer, but finally decided not to.  Instead I stocked up on tourist information flyers and other free documents at every port.

For the cover, all I added was a few stickers.  The Wanderful sticker set had the boat and the getaway stickers, the alpha stickers are from the Wildwood assortments. 
I added envelopes on the inside cover to place our receipts and other momentos that did not make it inside the album
I saved everything that was given to us and included it somhow in the album.  I don't particularly like journaling, but adding business cards, lists, cutouts of flyers and other documents was an easy way to get the message across without actually writing.
I brought journaling cards with me almost everywhere we went.  I wrote details like the menu so I did not forget later that night. 
After we sailed from Amsterdam, our fist port of call was Warnemunde, Germany.  I saved all our train tickets and entry passes.  I searched for maps of the region as soon a I stepped out of the boat.  I tried to get 2 - one to consult on our trek, one that was carefully placed in my backpack to be cut apart later for my album.
After a day at sea, our next port of call was Tallinn, Estonia.  We were given in our state room every night a destination guide which listed the excursions we could take and gave a list of things to see in the next port along with  and a schedule of activities on ship.  We actually had 2 copies of each, one in french and one in english.  I save an intact copy of each that I placed in a binder, the other copy was cut and pasted in my journal. 
 I loved that I was also able to reference the pictures in the album one I got home and compare them to my own pictures. 
 Our next destination was St-Petersburg, Russia.  We did not have visas to visit on our own, so for the only time during our trip, we booked a tour.  The only way to tour Russia without a visa is if you are on a cruise and you book a tour with a registered tour provider.  It turned out to be a great decision since we saw so much more that we could have on our own, and I think for a fraction of the price. 
We walked, we took the subway, we went by boat and hydrofoils, we covered a lot of distance!  I used the maps from our guides to trace our steps.   
I glued an envelope here to place cards and flyers that I did not want to cut.  I wanted to be able to take the out and read both sides of the documents. 
I traced out rout on another map where we went on our canal boat tour. 
Our amazing tour guide Maria in St-Petersburg brought each of us a copy of the St Petersburg Times.  She made us read this article and then brought us to see it.  I had to include it in my journal. 
We went to a traditional Russian pie restaurant.  Luckily, they had tiny menus.  I got to add one to the album.
 Our next destination was Helsinki Finland.
In Helsinki, we visited the Church in the Rock.  An amazing church that was created by blasting a hole into the rocks.  It was amazing.  They had prayer cards in so many different languages.  I added the french one to my album
From all of our port of calls, Stockholm was our favorite.  It was also the destinations that took the most pages in my album even though it was one of the destination where we spent less time.



Copenhagen was my second favorite.  We walked so much in this city, we were glad that we had a sea day the next day to rest up. 


 After Copenhagen, we had a day at sea.  Leaving the Baltic and entering the North sea, we encountered some very rough seas.  That is why I added a tab from our Gravol box.  Waves of 4-5 meters high had someone in need of some Gravol.
 Our last day in Europe was spent walking around Amsterdam.  We took a canal cruise, shopped for some souvenirs and prepared for our return home. 
 It was simply amazing, a trip of a lifetime, but at this time were ready to head back home and see our girls.   
 We look forward to visiting Europe again and to our next cruise.  Next time, I think we will bring the girls though. 
I love my album.  It was awesome reading it on the plane ride back home, reliving all the moments that I had already forgotten.  We experienced so much in those 2 weeks, it was a great idea that I set aside some time every night to journal what we had saw.  Otherwise we would never had remembered everything that is in this book.  Now when I sit down an work on my picture scrapbook.  I will be able to recall what happened on the day the picture was taken.  I will for sure bring a My Crush album on my next trip!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Blog Tour

I have not written on my blog in a long time!  I am so sorry!  I have not scrapbooked a lot this summer and I had technical difficulties logging on to my blog since we had changed internet provider and email-  What a mess! Obviously I have gained access to my blog again and will be posting more regularly.

So I have the perfect way to get back into the swing of things!  How about a blog tour? A blog hop, sort of like a train of inspiration. 
I was nominated by my friend Michelle.  I strongly suggest you check out her site here .
She is awesome and so very talented.  Prepare to be inspired! 

I was asked these questions:


1. What am I working on right now? 
Organizing my scrap space  in order to prepare for a crop this weekend.  I am planing my card workshop for later this month. I am also going to create a memory board for my mother in law using canvas and foam like I did for Let's Capture our Memories.

2. How long does it take me to create a project?
It varies but in general, not very long.  For a layout- 1-2 hours average.  I sometimes start a layout at night, leave it on my table overnight and return to it with fresh eyes the next day to finish it.  

3. What are my favorite things to create with at the moment? 
I love taking out a picture and doing a standard layout.  I used to be intimidated by cards, but I love making them now.  On my recent trip I made a CTMH My Crush book where I journaled everything we did.  I simply love it and will definitely make another one for our next trip. 

4. How does my writing/creating process work? 
Everything usually starts a picture and then I pick the paper, sketch and everything else to match the story I want to tell

5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired? 
I have to give myself deadlines, otherwise I don't set time for myself to scrapbook.  It really is a therapy for me, I love it, I need it.  If I have fresh pictures to scrap that is all I need to be inspired most of the time.  

6. What is my signature style?

My style is ever changing.  I love bright colors, flowers, bling and ribbon.  I guess it would be a mix of whimsy, romantic and fun. 

Digging into my scrap gallery, here or some of my favorite creations








Now I have to keep this train going and nominate some of the scrapbookers that inspire me.  Other than Michelle, there are lots of fellow scrappers that inspire me.  Not all of them have blogs though. 
My first pick is one of my biggest inspiration and the one that encourages me to expand my scrappy horizons.
She was already nominated but I think you need to see her work

Aurélie over at Rustic Scraps

My second nominee is a whiz with cards.  Her cards are always so pretty and inpiring.
Alyson Mayo at Create with Alyson 

That's it for now.  Come check my blog again tomorrow where I will showcase My Crush album.  Can't wait to show it to you!

Have a creative day!






Friday, March 14, 2014

kusudama and paper cones

My friend over at Let's Capture our Memories  recently gave me a challenge to use a 6X6 paper pack in an unconventional way.  I created this really fun flower using cones and kusudama flowers.

 

It was so much fun, I decided to make another!  I used CTMH Jubilee paper to make the cones.  I love how they both turned out. 

Hope you like it!  Have a great day everyone!

Monday, February 24, 2014

100th post!

I find it funny that I'm writing my 100th post while my daughter is celebrating day 100 at school today. It does not feel like I wrote that may posts. I still feel like a Newbie when it comes to blogging.
Today I'm going to feature some of the kits I prepared over the last couple months.  Every Sunday night is reserved for my scrapbooking time.  I open up my space for others to join me and I feature an optional 2 page layout kit every month.  I sell the kits for 7$ and it includes everything you need to make the 2 page layout.  I still have a few kits of each left.
The first one is this month's layout.  It features the new Jubilee paper with this month cute Stamp of the month Wild About Love
 The next layout was January's kit.  It features the Sarita paper.  I also made flowers using  Sarita textile and some Base and Bling jewels and adhesive dots
The next 2 layouts were the November and December layouts.  I still need to get some snow and Christmas pictures developed to finish them.  The paper used to make those are now retired. 

If you want any of those kits, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail, or simply come on over any sunday night at 7PM to make the kits on site.  Consider yourselves all invited!
I hope you all have an amazing day!


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

I'm back

Woah!  Has it really been that long since I last blogged!  I have been neglecting my scrapbook time I must admit. But I jumped right back in and while attending a crop last weekend I managed to catch the scrapbooking bug again.  I also got to play with some of the new products featured in the CTMH Spring idea book.
Here is the first layout I made using the Ivy Lane collection. So girly!  I love it!  I added some Prima flowers, a Bo bunny flower and metal butterfly and some CTMH Base and bling  in purple and pink and wood embellishments.  

I have also been busy on the LCOM blog.  I was asked to write a Product shuffle- to use Alphas in an unconventional way  here is the layout, go check out the blog for all the details.

Well, there you have it, my icebreaker post for 2014, hope to be able to scrap and blog about it more in 2014.  Have an awesome day!