Epic Journey

Good morning friends!

I hope you are all happy & well this morning.

Personally, I am freezing my hoobie off here in North Dallas today.

Which, frankly, just ticks me off.

 

I'm pretty sure I moved to TX and tolerate 120* summer days and living 1500 miles away from my family for the express purpose of NOT having to freeze my hoobie off.  

Clearly, I am getting screwed in this deal.

Anyway-

I have a non-Christmas-y project to share with you today.

As you know, I took a week-long vacation with my family at the beach just a few weeks ago. 

(Remember, back when it was warm?)

I printed the 8 bazillion photos that we took that week and am in the process of creating an album.

All of the photos are in the album, and all organized, I just have to make the layouts.

 

But, ya know, it's a slow process.

It's a huge album.

It's 8 bazillion photos.

So, I decided to make a mini-album from some of the left-over photos.

(As an FYI to the Fam-- this album and it's significantly larger sibling album are the reason that ya'll are getting store-bought Christmas cards this year.  

Just so ya know.)

Bound using 3" book rings from  an office supply store.

It's a little fat, but so am I, so I'm good with it.

Everything is 4"x6".  

I wanted to be able to just use the photos that I had, as is, so I cut all of my chipboard & PP to match the size photos I already had printed.

Here are some of the inside pages:

 

I really like the format of this album.

It was so simple and I love that the photos are the star.

And it was a great way to use a ton of older  supplies and stamps that I'd never even opened.

Supplies I used:

PP-MAMBI

Cardstock- Paper Studio

Flowers- Recollections

White Alpha Tiles- JoAnn Craft Essentials

Red Alphas- Spare Parts

Yellow Alpha- Chip Chatter

Acrylic Emblies- JoAnn Craft Essentials

Bling Swirl- Want To Scrap

Stickers- DCWV, Bo Bunny, Heidi Grace, K & Co, Colorbok, MAMBI, October Afternoon

Page Tabs- October Afternoon

Journal Tags & Left Over Word Strip- Creative Imaginations

Red Words & Brackets- Anna Griffin

Stamps- Theresa Collins, Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday, Clearly Wordsworth, Art Gone Wild

Green Bling & Pearls- Making Memories

Blue & Orange Pearls- Glitterazzi

Pens- Slick Writers from American Crafts

Ribbons- Scraps from my stash

I'm definitely going to do this style album again.  

It was so simple & freeing to think only about jazzing up the photos themselves and nothing else.

Ok, off to get some more work done.

Hope ya'll are warmer than I am.

Maybe I'll ask Santa for some flannel jammies for Christmas.

Or a hot tub... Yeah, a hot tub would be good....

Country Side

Happy Friday Friends!

Is it just me, or do you wake up Friday morning feeling 10lbs. lighter because it's Friday?

Or, maybe, it's like I'm about to be let out on parole... 

Either way, the day is always better!

I have a 1-page layout to share today.

It's one of my most favorite ones that I've made lately.

Supplies: Cardstock: Paper Studio, PP: Jenni Bowlin, Flowers: Prima, Journaling Spot: Making Memories, 

Stamps: EK Success, Other: Viva Pearl Pen in Bronze

And because I'm on this "Gobs of pictures on the page" kick lately, I had to add a flap to get some extra photos in there.

The little yellow flowers are my favorite part of this layout.  

I used a Viva Pearl Pen in Bronze for the centers, and I LOVE the look.  

I would normally have used Stickles, but glitter just doesn't work for the feel of this page.  

The Pearl Pen was perfect!

Remember when summer meant flowers in the fields, not gaping cracks in the earth due to drought?

Maybe next summer.....

This year, we'll just thumb our nose at Mother Nature & grow our flowers Inside!