Lots to Cover & So Many Photos

We're back from vacation and there's much to cover in this post.

Crafty Secrets & Cricut Haul

EDIT:  Picture Revised.  The original photo posted reference a haul from last week.  This photo was the one intended for this area.  Apologies from the author.

 Several items ordered before we left arrived in the mail today.  I referenced a vintage stamp, paper, postcard company a post or two back, the order shown to the left.  The order was a sampling of some of the many products available and not surprisingly, was happier with some items more than others.  The various stamp sets are perfectly suited for several projects I'm due to begin in the coming weeks.  The little boy alpha stickers will quickly disappear.  The postage card/journaling tags will slowly find secret spots as other projects evolve.  I'm not sure how much the baby book chipboard stickers and chipboard pieces will actually end up in the Graphic 45 Little Darlings mini-album I begin work on this month, but with product in hand I'm now certain the colours match perfectly.  This was more luck than anything else. The Flower Shoppe cartridge from Cricut also arrived and this one will save over $100 within a day of work.  These cartridge offers endless dimensional flower combinations that, for under $20, cost about the same as one standard punch of this type.  My deepest regrets, EK Success. 

Butterfly, Turtle & Potbelly Pig charms

Dinosaur charms

Along side the need for a quick buildup of paper and fabric scrapbooking flowers, I've also found my charms collection miserably lacking. 

Charms are used extensively to decorate the outside binding of mini-albums; a charm bracelet for a book, as it were.  During each major phase of the vacation I bought several charming (ahem) charms representing that event; and, other pieces I thought might come into use down the road.  The dinosaur charms are precious!  I plan to use these within the Texas vacation mini as tag danglies.  I'll post pictures of how they're used once put into pace.  The cute little pot bellied pig will be seen again in the upcoming mini album project using the Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe paper collection.  Unfortunately, the gift shop at the Japanese Gardens didn't have a koi charm of any sort, which was a major disappointment... the quest will continue.

July 27th, 2012

 I couldn't resist posting one of my favourite photos of Martin feeding the koi during our visit to the gardens. The fish practically climb out of the water for their kibbles.  The little guy's mouth is wide open waiting for him to drop in the pellet.  Is this a great shot or what?  I love it!

Next are the photos of the book's layout almost naked, before attaching the vacation photos and other memorabilia inside.  I've flipped at a breakneck speed through most of the pictures we took and can already tell I'm going to add a few more pages to the album.  I suspected this would be the case, and planned accordingly, but waited until knowing exactly what we had before committing to the work.  (See post: TP & Thinking, June 26th, 2012) Those, of course, aren't represented in this showing because they are still locked in my head and scattered throughout various parts of the scrapbooking room.

Front Cover

Inside Front Cover

Japanese Garden Pages

Museum Pages - Info Bundled, Ready to mount

Self-descriptive

Family Photos & Small Pocket Page

Flip Page Details

Glen Rose - With Back Inside Cover

 ( How nice it would be to quickly figure out how to neatly arrange the photos, but this is a first and it's late! :D  

Oh, well)

I'm particularly proud of this mini-album because, although I've learned many of the techniques from other great scrappers, the layout, paper combinations, and design are 100% mine... no scrap-lifting involved.

School starts back this week so I'll have many hours each day to devote undivided attention to several upcoming mini-album projects.  The baby book, the boy's younger years, and two identical copied-to-the-letter Old Curiosity Shoppe albums - one for here and one as a Christmas gift.  The album I plan to shamelessly copy - not once but twice - is shown on YouTube here.  Almost needless to say, but said, is that all the paper lines will come from various Graphic 45 collections.  Does the company sell stock?  If so, buying in could prove a solid investment.

I promised to cover a whole bunch.  Delivered, with a smile.  Blessings!

PS... The vacation was positively awesome.  We had a blast.