Eat Pray Love

Bali is hot right now! At least it seems that way, with all of the cross promotional marketing going on thanks to the premiere of Eat, Pray, Love. Have yall read that book? It's a good non-fiction read about a writer going through an identity crisis. She takes a year to travel to Italy, India and Indonesia and in the process, finds herself again. I read it for the first time about 4 years ago, as I voraciously devoured any kind of real life travel lit I could get my hands on, never once for even a second thinking that I'd actually make it to that side of the world.

All of the promos and trailers have had me thinking about my own trip to Bali and wanting to scrapbook it in a big way! And thanks to Noell and her fabulous paperclipping.com video tutorials, I've done just that!

The latest video released is call Assembly Line Mini-booking. In it, Noell describes her method for getting a mini book together relatively fast. And without any "sacrificial layouts" or those tag-on pages that you throw together at the end because you just want to get the thing done!

BTW, that's my number one issue with mini books! I get so bogged down in the details and wanting to make them these awesome publish worthy specimens. But let's face it, that hype really only lasts for the first page or two. Then I get bored and the latter half of my mini's suffer. However, thanks to Noell, my mini's will suffer no longer! I really recommend this membership and have results to back it up! [See below] So if you haven't yet subscribed to Paperclipping, perhaps now is a good time to start! Just saying ;)

So here is my latest and greatest mini! The fab little Bali number that I am in love with! I got this sheer 8x6.5 in. binder from Target. (And I'm sorry but I can't find it on the Target website!! Will go hunting for the brand name though because they are awesome!) It's original purpose was as a planner. I very simply decorated the cover because you get to see some of the paper peeking through, which I love. The cute little palm tree is by Jolee's and the letters are American Crafts Thickers.

When I was going through all of my photos, picking out the ones I wanted to use for this mini, I decided on the green/orange/kraft/blue color scheme. So lucky for me, the title page that came along with the binder was orange!

I started the journaling with us getting off the plane, and the adventure that ensued even just then! But since I didn't have specific photos of any of them, I stuck them at the beginning along with the title page.

Journaling Reads:

Sarah and I got into Bali on a dark night after a full day of traveling. I remember we had issues trying to actually clear customs and get into the country, the primary issue being no monies to pay for our visas. Which is silly when you think about it! We were fresh off the plane, we hadn’t had time to get any Balinese currency yet! So Sarah had to make a break for the exit (just kidding she really only had to ask) to get to an ATM to pay our way in.

We had very wisely opted to take our hotel up on their offer to pick us up at the airport and Robert, our driver, was there waiting for us. We had no idea that it would take 2 hours to get to our hotel. Because come on, Bali’s suppose to be a tiny island! Even tiny islands take time to get across I have since learned. We drove clear across from North to South, going up the mountain in the process and winding (and I do mean wi-nd-ing) down to get to Lovina Beach where our hotel was located.

These were pretty simple and straightforward pages. I let the photos do most of the talking but had some fun handwriting the journaling direct to page. And I adore those Prima Flowers!! They're so lovely and tropical!

Journaling Reads:

Our hotel featured cute little bungalows right on the waterfront. There were gorgeous palm trees and tropical foliage everywhere. The beautiful shades of greens were welcome sites to our flora-starved eyes, having just lived in the concrete metropolis of Bangkok. And best of all, the beach was right there!

See that one?! That one right there? The one that I love, my most favorite page in the book. Yeah, that one! The one on the left =)

The "B" side to that lovely green scroll patterned paper was an equally lovely black and cream hounds-tooth. I decided to get artsy with it and painted it with a few shades of blue and some grey. I love how you can see bits of the patterned peeking through. I think I also like this page because of how well the color balances with the Spring layout. The black/grey/blue totally complements the green/white/orange of the next page. And again, another beautiful Prima Flower! Those orange flowers were the first thing I purchased when I was thinking about doing this album. I guess you could say, I designed this album around them!

Journaling Reads:

But...little did we know that we arrived in this luscious tropical oasis right in the middle of monsoon season! It was somewhat gloomy and overcast the majority of the time we were there. We made the most of it, and definitely got enough sun when we made our way to Lombok. But that’s another story.

Robert drove us on a tour around the Northern part of the island, to visit various sites and attractions. Our first stop was to these amazing natural hot springs at Banjar, where we lounged in the water and just enjoyed life, post-Bangkok, post-thesis and post-MBA.

The next couple of pages are divided by my little journaling insert. Which, btw is a digital overlay done by Ali Edwards (love!). I decided to print this one on transparency but with the busyness of the next page, opted to back it with white. But not before I added some 7 Gypsies printed tape to the edge, to give it a little reinforcement when I punched the holes out.

The previous page is a quick and simple layout of a stop off to see some rice paddies. I don't know what my deal is, but lately I've been adding food to my pages!! The "R" at the corner is a die cut that has rice glued on top. I added some Diamond glaze to it so it wouldn't be falling off and hit it with some brown Maya Mist to give it some color. I also spray misted the background with Green and Emerald Metallic Maya Mist, to help enhance the colors in the photos. That mousy green just wasn't cutting it!

Journaling Reads:

Another stop we made was just on the side of the road, to see these gorgeously verdant rice paddies that were planted along this hill. That’s Robert there next to Sarah, our lovely Indonesia guide and driver.

This was a super simple layout, just because the photos demanded it. I know I went a little overboard grouping all of these busy photos together on one page, but I think it lends itself to the design of the temple. Everywhere we looked there was something, not just one intricately carved statue, but thirty five!

Journaling Reads:

And we stopped at a temple, because you can’t visit Bali without seeing a temple. Having just come from Thailand, the land of glitz and gold and monstrously large temples, it was interesting to see the vast difference in this smaller temple in Bali, which featured lots of stonework and tons of greenery. I loved that huge fountain in the middle of the courtyard. I think this could have been Robert’s home temple. He knew everyone there and this lady we bought a drink from, told us she knew his mother. I appreciated the smaller homey feel to the place, the not so touristy option, even though it’s clearly very gorgeous and should be seen.

I also went artsy on this grey page! The original color was actually purple and if you look closely you can see traces of that. I "white-washed" the paper with grey acrylic paint and then stipled it in for a deeper gray. Then I hit it with some silver Maya Mist to get those fun blotches. I'm loving the texture of it and will definitely be creating more backgrounds with this technique.

That orange paper is actually handmade with some natural fibers running through it. I more or less let it and the photos do the work on this page and only added my journaling and a title to make them the focal points.

Journaling Reads:

Along the way, we stopped at an overlook of the Twin Lake (Tamblingan and Buyan Lake). It was very calm and peaceful up there, but very very hot! The humidity was weighing down on us then, as a storm was about to roll in.

Which is why it was raining when we got to Git Git, the famous waterfall in Bali. It was lovely and ethereal and very surreal to have it all to ourselves for a few moments, as who else would be touring during the middle of a rain shower!

These last few pages are fairly simple and straightforward, with some nice texture and lovely graphic elements. I love white rub-ons and this fancy scroll from Basic Grey is fabulous!

Journaling Reads:

The last morning we were there, we decided to go on the dolphin excursion. It was tough getting up at 6 am in the middle of our holiday but beyond words worth it!

So we get into this long skinny skiff thing that has a balancing pole on top and 4 bucket seats for passengers and the driver balanced himself near the engine. We scooted around in the water along with about 20 other skiffs, all in the pursuit of dolphins. We didn’t manage to find any, but being out on the water, starting our day with the sun and just realizing that we actually were in Bali was enough of adventure for me.

I couldn't make an album about Bali and not include a photo of their crisp cool aqua-y water! I cut the "timeless" title out of an American Crafts wave patterned paper which so perfectly matched the colors in the photo!

I also wanted to include some final thoughts and printed directly onto the "back page" that came with the planner. A quick tip, utilize your Windings font! That's where the fancy little scroll came from. And boo, I accidently crumpled the edge of the page. It's driving me nuts but I'm sure I'll get over it! ...or switch it with Sarah's end page (muahahaha!!)

Journaling Reads:

Bali has the clearest aqua-est water I have ever seen. This photo was taken from the top of the water, as I was sitting in a boat. Not with a fancy underwater camera. That’s how clean and beautiful it was.

As corny as it sounds, Bali was a place to detox from the hectic life we were leading in Bangkok. With all of BKK's hustle and bustle, the never ending stream of assignments and presentations, and that God awful thesis, getting to spend a week relaxing and touring Bali was heaven sent. I'm so thankful that I got to visit this island paradise and that I got to spend time with one of my best bff's, before we embarked on our separate lives without each other {tear}. Don't cry for us yet! Bali was only one part of a 2 week Southeast Asian adventure! Stay tuned...

If you've actually made it this far into the post, gold star for you! That was a lot of words! Didn't think I had it in me :) But truly, I love this mini for a multitude of reasons. The time, the place, the event, were one of the happiest of my life. I'm once again thankful for this little hobby of ours and how it helps me to never forget and always remember how truly blessed my life has been! Thanks for stopping by yall! Happy Scrapping!

xxbesos

j.leija