Thai Temple

Refresh is launched for the season! For Day One's assignment I decided to tackle a page from my unfinished box. There aren't too many pages in there. More than 10 less than 20 or so. 

Awhile ago, I printed out these photos from a temple I visited in Thailand. I had originally intended to scrapbook them with a kit but then decided, adding too much product would overwhelm these already detailed photos. So I put them in the box with two sheets of Kraft cardstock, to complete another day.

Today was the day! Here's the finished page:

Day One's assignment had a specific time limit. Well, I took more than the time allotted. Ok, like a lot more time than was allotted! But I'm ok with that. I don't want to rush this process. For me the fun part is hemming and hawing over the details until I get it just right. And today I had time to do that, so why not, right?

I used Elle's Studio Travelogue Journaling Tags, Labels and Stamp Set + the Jonah Alphabet Stamp. Love that guy! I used black and two shades of gray ink for the stamping, which ended up being the only embellishing for the left side of the page.

It was fun to just create for the sake of creating! I love that every Refresh (and really just about every event Jennifer hosts) gets kicked off with a bit of creative time. It's why we're all participating, right?

cheers & besos,

SBC & The Cut Shoppe Blog Hop

Hiya! Welcome to the awesome Scrapbook Circle & The Cut Shoppe collaborative blog hop. Scrapbook Circle teamed up with The Cut Shoppe to bring you this fun hop.

**Giveaway & promo closed but comments still open**

I've been a fan of Ashley's designs for awhile now (see other projects here). So it was super easy to integrate her fantastic cut files into my pages this month.

For this hop, I'm sharing a double page layout featuring the Geometric Graffiti background. The layout is about my neighborhood in Bangkok.

I have a single feature photo on one page. And this is where I incorporated the cut and nearly all of the papers from the June Have a Little Fun Today kit and You are Here add on.

The cut makes it look really complex but it's actually a really simple page. Just the photo, title, patterned paper filled cut and one flair badge (I love! More flair badges in SBC kits, please!)

This second page is equally as simple and that was totally intentional. There's so much to see in the photos, that I didn't want to distract from them. I added in a die cut here and there as well as a label where I stamped the date.

There was so much going on in the photos and with that cut file, I wasn't sure where to include my journaling. So instead of over complicating the design, I just added a pock page insert. That's where I added more embellishments, like a few of the die cuts from the Pink Paislee Atlas ephemera pack and that great silver airplane vellum in the Main kit.

I added two additional photos that I hadn't had room for before the pocket page, as well as my journaling.

That second pocket has two die cuts back to back that I stapled just at the top. I like that it's kind of floating there and that you can see what's behind it.

The bottom pocket is where I added the vellum. I love playing with transparency and vellum is an awesome way to do that.

Journaling Reads:
"I went back to visit MT in Bangkok after I left. I'm so glad I managed to take pictures of the old neighborhood and the streets we walked every day. Our apartments were at Sitara Place which is in the Ratchadapisek (Ratchada) part of Bangkok, just off Soi 3 (Saam). It was a nice "suburb" with lots of modernization. We were in between two sets of malls, the Boma (or Bowling Mall) and the Tema (or Tesco Mall as we dubbed them). Every day we'd get up and walk (or take the apartment Tuk tuk) to the metro station in front of the Tema. On the weekends, we'd head to the Boma for food or massages or other entertainment. Walking the streets you'd see lots of concrete and garages, Thai flags and the King's flag, mini temples with offerings. And it wouldn't be Thailand without a stray dog or twenty. On this particular day we were walking to the Boma and I snapped a ton of photos on the way. Just as we were approaching a corner I saw this little Thai girl through my viewfinder, she was so excited to see us. It was Ana, who I hadn't seen in months. She saw me before I saw her and it made me laugh when I was looking back at these photos and saw her reaction. It's still crazy for me to believe that I lived in Bangkok for a season. It was such an amazing time in my life."

Alright then! Be sure to hop along with the rest of the Scrapbook Circle team (start here) and comment as you go. We will be selecting a winner from all of the blog hop comments to receive $20 to The Cut Shoppe Hop.

ALSO, be sure to stop by The Cut Shoppe blog to see what their team created with our June kit. Comment on The Cut Shoppe post and you are entered to win one of the Have a Little Fun Today kits!

Finally, here's a wee promotion for you to use during the hop. I'll be jumping on this one myself. There's a ton of new cuts I'm excited to play with.

Next on the hop is Diana!

cheers & besos,

Simple Scrapper-June

Happy Friday! I have my latest Simple Scrapper layouts to share with y'all.

The first features one of the sketches from the June issue of Spark Magazine. I used my Hello Sunshine SBC kit which had this awesome green leaf patterned paper, plus the little elephant paper clip. Too perfect!

This layout feels just super old school to me for some reason. And not old school in a bad way. But more like a return to my roots. I can't put my finger on what about it makes me feel that way, just that I do. Maybe it's the patterned paper background + kraft block + distress ink on the edges + handwritten journaling? Who knows? I just know this page makes me happy!

I used an older Story Starter to as the prompt for this page, which was to scrapbook about an outdoor adventure. This weekend in Chiang Mai was the most action packed outdoor adventure I've ever been on. It was nice to be out in nature but I still prefer my city escapes. I'm just happy I did it at the time.

This next layout features a Story Starter from June 2015 and a Sketch from January 2013. The Story Starter was to scrapbook about a historic place I have visited. This page was all about visiting the World Trade Center in July of 2001. 

I saved my ticket. I'm a scrapbooker, it's part of my nature, it's what I do. Even at 16, when I had been scrapbooking for just a few years, I saved all kinds of ephemera. This one was particularly special, for obvious reasons.

I used a scan of my ticket for this page. The real thing is in a little display case, alongside these two photos, in my living room.

Stars & Stripes were the subtle theme. Even though half of the stripes are running diagonal across the page. The "remember" is an Ali Edward's Story Stamp that I stamped with versamark ink onto vellum and covered in white embossing powder. I really like adding texture that way.

I'm really happy with both of these pages. As always Simple Scrapper pushes me to document stories that I might not have otherwise, or at least in a way I hadn't thought of before. I had never scrapbooked about visiting the World Trade Center. And that's a really huge story, especially considering the timing!

Just wanted to flag up that Jennifer is running a sale on a 6 month membership. It's a one time payment with a 20% discount that gets you access through the end of the year. The offer expires in just a few days (5/31/15) so if you're interested I'd jump on it. We just recently got a new member site that Jennifer documents on the blog. Head to: https://www.simplescrapper.com/join for more info.

cheers & besos,

Elephant Trek

Thanks Camp Scrap for getting pumped to scrapbook this summer! I went digging through my photo box to see what photos I wanted to use. 

These were two 4x6's that I knew I wanted to scrapbook. 

I loved this sheet from Crate Paper and thought it brought out the best colors in the photos and also added in some great accent colors as well. It's how I pulled in the different colored scraps that I stamped those ellies on.

I dug into a whole slue of new goodies that just arrived with my last (for the next few months!) Two Peas order. Like those great Crate Paper plastic alphas. I also think it's the first time I've ever used that Amy Tangerine stamp set. For shame! 

But seriously, this is one of the biggest reasons why I decide to stop buying new product. It really forces me to use what I have.

I also initially decided that I wanted to write my journaling directly on the photo. But it turned out horrible! Not to worry, re-printing took only a few minutes and my problems were solved. But as I was going back through my files to find this photo in particular, I realized there were so many more photos I wanted to include.

Hence this second page:

I pulled a whole smatter of photos and cropped them into 2x2 in squares, knowing I wanted to create a grid layout. I also pulled out my Acorn Avenue 6x6 paper pad and some scraps of that great kraft Elle's Studio polka dot.

To decorate some of the squares I used my new Travel Girl stamps (LOVE THESE!!!) and that line's die cut pack. I also busted into the Simple Stories brad pack and added one of those fun cork medallions. I opened up a lot of new packages for this page and I love that.

The cardstock background is this amazing-in-person gray orange peel texture. When I saw it in the store I immediately thought, it looks like elephant skin!! So I definitely wanted to use it here. It cools down the whole page & that's ok. I'm just really glad that patterned paper sheet I decided on in the first place included some gray as well.

Since I didn't like how the journaling on my photo looked, I decided I wanted to add an insert page but with a twist!

I've had this idea to print a photo onto a full 12x12 sheet of vellum for awhile now. I'm so glad I did it! It's how I decided to incorporate the journaling and was a fun "technique". The photo wasn't that great of quality and the printing not exactly perfect, but I love the look and feel of it so much!

So here's how my loose double pager looks next to each other. I pulled a lot of the same elements onto both pages and made sure to repeat the patterned paper and tape on both, as well as the little stamped ellies.

And here's the vellum page with the next page peeking under it. I think it looks awesome!!

Wow, that turned into a big share! And I think that's perfectly ok.

But seriously yall, this is why I'm so excited about Camp Scrap! For me, it's been about just working on projects & getting my stories told. I can use any supplies I have and any photos that I want. This doesn't look like anything May has shared and everything goes! I'm quickly realizing, that's my kind of class =) So check it out if you have the chance. Registration closes on the 12th.

cheers & besos,

Done!

Hullo!!! Long time no blog. You know that mojo I'd been talking about a few weeks back? Yeah, it completely blew away. Along with any desire to blog, craft, or create.

I'm trying to get back on the bandwagon. It's been awhile since I've made anything but at least I can share some pages that hadn't yet been blogged.

Here's another Sketchpad layout, that I created based on a past Glitter Girl challenge to use transparencies. I've had this gorgeous gray damask from Hambly for awhile now, and pairing it with the deep purple made for a bold look. Like literally think of the bold Crayola color pack :)

The photos are from a night out in Bangkok. We were celebrating being done with finals and thesis and just wanting to spend time together before the whole MBA & Mountbatten experience came to an end.

I miss this cast of characters so much sometimes. Especially as I'm marooned in Houston at the moment. Why do we have to live so far away from each other?!

cheers & besos,

Khao San Road

Another page from Bangkok! I'm well chuffed (quite proud) to have these 3 random Thailand pages scrapped! They weren't about trips or any specific event. They were just pages about what I was like when I lived there.

And that is how my scrapbooking has evolved lately.

"It's not easy being green." Know who said that? Kermit the frog is who. Love me my Kermie!

The Boardwalk kit had a lot of great green papers and I thought they contrasted nicely with the reds in my photo, so I just started playing with some left over strips.

Had to use my favorite neutral gray for the background and I think it made the green, cream and white pop even more!

I liked that the design is a bit busy and chaotic, but not so all over the place that it drives your eyes crazy. I wanted to mimic how packed in all of the signs and stalls were.

And ok, so maybe I added baker's twine, a Thicker or 2 that wasn't a part of the kit. But I think they were the final touches needed for this fairly flat page.

Which, btw is about the famous backpapers area of Thailand. If you ever make it that way, I'd recommend stopping by. Touristy yes, but none the less fun!

Happy Scrapping =)

xxbesos

Sitara Place/Monsoon

Sunshine Broadcast makes my heart go pitter patter. It is one of the most exquisite lines, in my opinion.

When I was throwing photos into that "to print for crop" file that I was talking about yesterday, I didn't even realize what I had stumbled upon. I was just hurriedly nabbing photos that caught my fancy, and for some reasons these monsoon photos did the trick. (Perhaps Hurricane Irene was on the brain.)

Then I hurriedly grabbed some products to take with me to the crop and my latest Studio Calico kit, Boardwalk. Lo and behold, there was the paper, the most perfect paper for these photos of the monsoon and my the view of my balcony from my flat in Bangkok.

Not only are there clouds, but in the buildings in the photo are the peaches and the yellows and even the teals! It's the colors that did me in.

This was the view from the balcony attached to my apartment. I lived in a complex call Sitara Place in the Ratchadaphisek (shortened to Ratchada) part of Bangkok. Good old Sitara place...

As you can see the details in the paper and the coordinating embellishments included in the kit, made for a happy resting place for my photo.

The companion page was all about watching the monsoon roll in from the comfort of my balcony. It was a daily occurrence for that first month or so.

The page has lots of white space with little details, more from Sunshine Broadcast and a little from Basic Grey.

And the journaling was done a la Maggie Holmes =)

And there we have a memory captured. It's a small memory,but one that enhanced my experience in Bkk. I'm happy it's scrapped :)

Thank you so much for checking in. Happy Scrapping!

xxbesos

Converge

Hello lovelies! I have to share what an absolute blast I had yesterday, cropping with 2 sweet girls from the Studio Calico message board.

Actually, I met Meghan at CKC Houston, while we were taking all of the SC classes with KP :) We'd chatted about meeting up for a crop via the SC message board and that's how we snagged Lindsay to jump on our 3 women crop bandwagon =)

So we met up at Archivers and had a nice time scrapping and yappin'.

I got 6 pages done!! Well, how I get them done (i.e. no journaling or nearly complete but waiting for something I know I have at home).

I wasn't as prepared for this crop as I was for my last. I didn't plan my pages or print photos to size or anything. In fact, I didn't even show up with the photos I had intended to crop!

I put a huge 150+ photo order in with Scrapbook Pictures, but didn't get it in time (it was waiting for me when I got home from the crop of course...) so yesterday morning, I was literally just throwing a random hodge podge of photos into a file so that I could get them printed at Wal-mart.

But guess what? I'm soooo soooo sooooooo happy I didn't get those pictures. Instead, I was able to help tackle some of the littler memories from London and Thailand, that I wasn't going to get to anytime soon.

And that, my friends, makes me very happy.

Those two places have so many memories, so many quiet times, so many big moments. And sometimes it just gets so overwhelming to tackle all of that. So as I'm chipping away, photo by photo, memory by memory, I'm happy to add more to my London album and my Thailand album, which in the tally are so far behind all of these smaller trips and place I've had the good fortune to visit.

I still have a long way to go but I'm getting there. And even though I have 1000s of photos yet to scrapbook, there's 10 less that I can now call complete!!!

Whoa, that was long winded =)

And now on to a page....

I am so stoked to have some Amy Tangerine products in my grubby little hands. It's an absolutely fabulous line! The colors are awesome, the details superb and the theme..come on, yall know it's right up my alley :)

This page is not at all about traveling in the US as the background paper suggests, and is all about the journey it took for all seven us, each from a different state, ended up 1000s of miles away from home, but all together in a little bar, on a night out in Phuket, Thailand.

For me, that's just plain cool.

It wasn't at all where I intended to go with this photo, but seeing the lovely papers and looking at all us people, I couldn't pass up the chance to make a page on how, at this particular stage in our life, we all converged on this programme called Mountbatten and ended up a big part of each other's lives for that bit of time.

I just love how perfect Amy's products were for this page. I even did some stitching a la Ms. Tangerine =)

Thank you to everyone who made it through that post! And now sneak peaks for more pages to be shared in the coming week =)

Happy Scrapping!!

xxbesos