Amsterdam Complete!

It's done! One more country to cross off my list. I made 11 pages for Amsterdam!

That's a lot for a 3 day trip!

I have to say, I think this is my favorite layout I've done in awhile.

It's the colors. The colors!

I love the gray/yellow/pink/blue color combo. All of it (bar the blue cardstock and bike paperclip) is from the Boardwalk kit.

I heat embossed, using white embossing powder, with the awesome map Studio Calico/Hero Arts background stamp. I seriously bought the add-on only for that stamp. And it was perfect for this page about the streets of Amsterdam.

And how can you not love this awesome bike paperclip?! I got it from Paper Source. (BTW, it's really dangerous to live within 8 min walking distance of this place...and a Sprinkles cupcake!)

And this next page was so fun and super easy to do. The paper already had the lines and all I had to do was add some tape.

I mixed and matched my letter stickers and a Sassafras border sticker to create the title. I love how it turned out! It so makes me think of the crazy lasers and things that they have going on down at da club :)

Tow more pages for my Europe pages and two more for Shimelle's challenges! And now I get to go play with the bestie as she's coming for a visit.

See yall next week!

xxbesos

Shimelle Challenges

Since I was hauling boxes and painting walls in San Antonio this weekend, I missed out on Shimelle's online crop!

Lucky for me, the challenges are still open for participation (until midnight Sunday GMT). They were just the pushed I needed to finish my Amsterdam photos.

The half page challenge is the inspiration for this page. I've had this lattice die cut paper for at least a year. It vaguely reminded me of the lights in this page.

I used it + my Studio Calico Boardwalk kit to create this and the next page . I loved the teal in this kit and it went perfectly with the sweater I was wearing and the scarf Kori was bundled up in. Did I mention it was cold?!

I just love this big graphic black shape against the Kraft background.

This next page just happened to work out for the red, teal and white challenge. Although I didn't originally plan on doing this one. It just worked out that those colors were in this month's kit!

I used this sketch found via Pinterest as the basis for the design.

I misted the fabric banner with Barnwood Mister Huey and the thickers that came with the kit, as a stencil for my title. The cream color was a bit off on the layout, so this was my solution.

And what I love about these photos is how random and varied they are. Looking at them just made me miss these 2 so much and hence the idea for the page theme!

xxbesos

XXX

Did you know that XXX is not a symbol for promiscuity and debauchery, but actually an old world trade symbol for the city of Amsterdam?

Or so I'm told...

Back in the day, freight bound for Amsterdam was for some reason or other, tagged with an XXX. And because of Amsterdam's red light "reputation" it then became the symbol for all that aforementioned promiscuity...

Just a random tidbit (that I haven't actually googled to verify) to initiate this post on Amsterdam pages :)

Here's my favorite photo from Amsterdam.

It's of my two besties, Christian & Kori. It was a cold and rainy November, when we visited A-dam. So when we weren't trying to see the city, we'd duck into a bar to wait out the rain. Which was actually awesome, considering we'd only met the month before and were still getting to know each other.

I love that the bartender got the stained glass in the background.

And that it has Amsterdam on the bottom!

As far as the page, the details are what does it for me. I discovered that I had a windmill stamp stamp (hehe!) in a variety pack from Tattered Angels.

And I had been saving this cool bottle cap from a few months back, that went perfectly with the green in this page.

Oh, and I forgot to add that this is a Sketchbook 3 sketch! Day 7 or is it 12? I think...I'll need to look it up. But that's definitely 14 layouts from the class now :)

And now to the infamous red light district...

Dum, dum dum....

This is the only photo I took. And to be honest, we didn't spend too much time there.

There's not much going down on the street. You'd have to walk into the places and being in a big group of girls, we weren't really down to do that.

It's still a beautiful spot.

All of Amsterdam is really!

So the layout was based almost to the T, on an older Sunday Sketch from Studio Calico. I thought it was perfect for my red light theme!

Also to emphasize the circles, I used my bubble stamp to add some texture to an otherwise plain sheet of paper. I cut out two larger circles and backed them with some of my favorite red paper scraps. And added a random assortment of brads and buttons for texture and depth.

I think the reflection of the lights on the water are what makes this photo. It would definitely be missing something without it.

So there you have my not so sordid adventures in Amsterdam. Still a few photos form this trip left to scrap. Check back soon for more!

xxbesos

Amsterdam

This girl I know is afraid to travel.

Whaaa???!!! was my first reaction

Does. Not. Compute. was my second

I love to travel probably more than anything else in the world! Half of what I scrapbook are travel photos, don't ya know? So you can imagine my shock that there are people out there who are scared of doing the one thing I find exciting above all!

In an effort to alleviate her concerns about an upcoming trip to the Netherlands , I decided to throw a little lunch party for her, her husband and a few friends.

The theme? Operation Get Susie Excited about everything Amsterdam!!

I've been once, MT's been twice and Kim has been once, so between the three of us, we're hoping to get her mind off the uncomfortable part of traveling (the plane, immigration, etc.) and onto the food, the culture, the scenery!

I also figured it was the perfect time to get some overdue pages of Amsterdam done!

So this is kind of epic for me.

It's been years and years and years since I've made a double page 12x12 layout using only 4x6 in photos!

But I figured I could knock out a big chuck of some lovely A-dam photos, using one of this month's sketches from Ella Publishing.

I also pulled out March's Studio Calico Into the Woods + Babbling Brook kit, which went perfectly with the colors in the photos.

I cut out that awesome "C" from the Cosmo Cricket patterned paper, which was perfect for my layout about Amsterdam's canals, and nestled in a longer rambling title (as Noell would say). But it looked a bit sparse, so I pulled up all the stickers and hit it with some Teal Maya Mist to anchor it all a bit.

I added white Basic Grey micro mono (my absolute favorite letter stickers EVER) directly to the photo and printed my journaling onto a transparency. Also cut out the "A" from the same sheet of CC paper.

And then stamped a border of bikes, using Studio Calico's jetsetter stamp set.

This second page is a bit tongue in cheek. I traveled with 4 other girls and Christian, who was teased about his trip with the "skittles" aka the colors of the Rainbow. I have to admit it was a clever nickname. Among the group was an African American, a Jewish American, a Korean American, an all American and me, the Mexican American =)

I found the perfect sketch to go with my skittle themed page, which I hadn't even remembered is what they called us, until I saw this sketch!

It also features the Babbling Brook add on, plus a few extras (i.e. that pleated ribbon border).
I had a lot of journaling to add. This photo inspired so much! So I printed it, inked the edges and tilted it on an angle at the top of my page.

The photo cut off the sign of our hostel (thanks Christian!) and thankfully I had another photo of it that I printed smaller to include on the page.

The rest was just fun details for the kit.

That's 2 more pages to add to my Europe and hopefully a little more convincing for Susie! I'll let you know how it turns out :)

xxbesos