Project Hawaii: final page

That’s right, I finished this page, added it to the album, and with a content sigh placed “Maui 2012” on the FINISHED scrapbook shelf. Let’s just say that a truly finished scrapbook is a rare thing in this house. I’m excited. I want to do that more.

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I don’t want to ever pressure myself to work in a certain order or make myself stick to one thing even if uninspired. That just isn’t my style. That said, there really is something to be said about a complete vacation album and I will be looking around at partially completed albums to see if any that I have would be candidates for this style of quick and simple scrapbooking in the future. For my final page I had a lot of random photos that needed to be in the album, and I went ultra simple. Just Project Life Olive cards + photos + journaling.

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There really wasn’t a title for this page unless I wanted to put “miscellaneous photos” as a title, which I did not. I really didn’t feel like it needed embellishing because of all the decorative cards. Basically, in an album FULL of techniques and embellishing and fancy stuff I was good with just adding a plain, flat, fast and very easy page.

I will continue to use my Olive core kit on more traditional scrapbook pages as well as pages like these Hawaii ones for sure. I still have plenty of them! I believe that I will also do another mini-series (like Project Hawaii) in the future and share here on the blog. I still have a lot of ideas rattling around my head after all, and goodness knows I have PLENTY of photos to scrapbook so having subjects to work with is no problem!

For now I encourage you to consider mixing in different styles of pages into your albums. Think about the possibility of doing a few single/few photo pages where there is more embellishing and creative play, and some that feature more photos and are very simple. I really like the end results of my album, and as I said before you haven’t seen the last of this kind of two page spread from me.

Happy Crafting!

Project Hawaii, smash winner, etc.

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Hey all! So I apparently ran out of blog posts and then I’m just lame enough that it took me a few days to actually finish a new project to add! So, I’m back!

First off, the winner of the Smash 365book is: Tammy Davis CONGRATS! Email me (mflaum @ Comcast. net) with your mailing info to claim your prize!

Next up, let’s talk Project Hawaii, or should I say Project Maui! In less than a month, and with MANY other projects happening, I’ve managed to make the remaining layouts (well, I have just one left!!) and finish this book! I’m really excited about that, and today I’ve got my next-to-last layout to share:

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As always, I went simple. This time I played with Maggie Holmes paper + embellishments and I left a lot more room for patterned paper because a) I LOVE this paper and b) I didn’t have a ton of photos. The journaling was light too, because I’d already done a journaling heavy “lizard” page that will be in the album before this one. this page, I just wanted more of the cute pictures and smiles being shown.

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I’m back to my crafty storm… and a birthday tea celebrating my mom & miss E. I’ll be back Monday to kick off a whole week of new inspiration – including more from this LOVELY Crate Paper Line by Maggie Holmes. See you then!

Project Hawaii: the one with no embellishing

Question: What’s wrong with a scrapbook page that is just paper + words + photos?

Answer: absolutely nothing. They don’t all have to be fancy with embellishments or take a ton of time. This week’s installment of Project Hawaii you’ll see a layout that is, well, boring.

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The thing is – I have lots of patterned papers and loads of photos and I said what I wanted to. I saw no need for embellishing beyond the bit of washi tape that I added to the edge of two photos. I was totally happy with it as-is. So, I let it stand! It’s fast, easy, and takes up less room in that quickly filling album.

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So my note to you this week I suppose is to just relax. It’s ok if you just stick pictures to paper, tell your story, and move on without techniques and embellishing. Just do your thing, have fun, and enjoy the process.

This was actually the second Project Hawaii layout I made, I just couldn’t bring myself to posting it early on because it was so, well, BORING! haha. But – I’m sharing them all and so even this one gets a turn. The supplies are simple – PL Olive kit cards like crazy, a Basic Grey Envelope, Pink Paislee raised word, my grey Hero Arts ink, and trusty G45 stamps.

Happy Crafting!!

Project Hawaii: food

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Progress is being made! There are just a few pages left to go – I can see the finish line! Project Hawaii has been fun. Today I mixed a lot of photos with a few areas of embellished fun.

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Oh yes, I have a whole layout about food! These aren’t all of the food pages either. You see some of the places we ate got their whole own (two page) spread. This is all the random shots.
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I love how this turned out, and I really like how I was able to mix both landscape and portrait oriented photos together on this layout. And… well that’s all I’ve got to say about that!

I used Elle’s Studio tags, my Tim Holtz blueprint (compass), Amy Tan accents and letter stickers, and Kelly Purkey stamps not to mention my trusty PL Olive kit which I’m enjoying tremendously because it’s neutral enough to not get in my way… but still lovely and fun.

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Project Hawaii: the Luau

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On the paperclipping roundtable this week I was a guest, and had a blast chatting with everyone! The topic? Ephemera/memorabilia and since this Luau seating ticket was STARING at me, and I’d not yet made the project Hawaii page to go with it… well I figured PERFECT motivation and timing to get this page made!

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The thing about ephemera, is you need to use it or dump it. What I mean is, I believe having a TON of it just sitting around does nothing but clog up and slow down your process. Be selective, keep really special pieces, and also know how you scrapbook. What I mean is, know what items will more likely get used than others. I keep the important stuff sure, but I also keep stuff that is pretty!
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Oh, and never be afraid to chop some stuff up!! You can punch, chop, and otherwise just treat it like regular “craft” stuff. Seriously people just make things too darn hard sometimes. Don’t try to think “oh geez I have NO idea how I’d use a ticket on a layout!” and instead think “well, what could I do with this little stub of paper?” Get more general, get more done!
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So this layout is all about the Luau we went to. I also have a big fold-out brochure on amazingly beautiful thick watercolor paper – I can’t cut it up. So, it’ll go in a pocket on the memorabilia “other” page. (more on that another week).
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The last thing I will leave you with this week, is to remember that you will get life details on these real items like nothing else. Seriously – I would NOT have remembered the exact date or seats we had… but I don’t have to. The ephemera is helping me tell my story…
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To hear the episode of PCRT you can check it out here.