Taipei Skyline at Night

We had a beautiful city view from our hotel room in Taipei Taiwan. I really wish I had a panoramic feature on my camera but unfortunately I don't so I did it old school by mythodically taking pictures and matching them up on the layout. To make the photos seem more seamless I inked the edges of the photo paper in a color of the photo (in this case black) and this hides the white seam caused by the photo paper. This is one of my favorite things to do when taking scenary photos.



I really love this paper from the Basic Grey Lime Rickey Collection. It's so whimsical to me.

Waterfalls and Koi

The temples in Taipei Taiwan are absolutely amazing. These photos were taken of the waterfalls at Longshan Temple.


I have recently discovered my addiction to crackle paint and this is one of my first layouts I did with it. I love how it turned out! You simply paint this paint (I used Tim Holtz's Peeled Paint Crackle paint by Ranger) on the cardstock and let it dry (about 30 min) and then ink over top to expose the cracks. It looks so awesome!

After uploading this photo I realised I spelt Koi fish wrong in my title ... oops!

Longshan Temple

Whenever we go on a trip I usually come home with more memorabilia then souvenirs. I normally try to always incorporate this memorabilia into my layouts some how. In this case I want to include the prayer pamphlet. The whole thing is in Chinese so I don't understand it (the way most of the trip went) but it reminds me of the feelings I had when visiting these places. I also incorporated a sewing applique on the layout (the dragon). You never know where you will find cool embellishments :)

Waiting to Leave

I love how this layout turned out! All of the stuff I used was from my stash of scrapbook goodies. Aren't the little embellishments too cute, especially the little travel gummies from Martha Stewart Crafts.

Roof Top Views

The resort roof top views were absolutely amazing. These pictures were taken when a storm was rolling in.

Chaweng Beach

Known as one of the most beautiful beaches in South East Asia, Chaweng Beach lives up to it. Water crystal clear and warm. Sand so soft and warm. It really was beautiful.



The big white flower I actually made by hand by cutting out individual petals out of fun foam and then gluing them all together and then top it off with a raffia wrapped button. I added some lace underneath, a beautiful starfish pendant and some pearls, all on top of a glimmer misted beach bingo card. I love how it turned out.

Floating Flowers

The flowers in Koh Samui were so amazing and all over our resort there were pots filled with water and floating flowers. They were so beautiful and fragrant!

Here's a little tip for you. That flower on the bottom right hand corner is actually an iron on decal I bought at a fabric store. Instead of ironing it on I just glued it using fabric tac. How cool it that!

Koh Tao

Have you ever used material on your layouts?  For this layout I found this great piece of fabric that tied in perfectly with my them.  I frayed the edges of the material and then adhered it to a piece of cardstock.  I then added the bubbles running up the side.  Pretty cool eh!

Under the Sea

I liked the little tabs I found on one of my journalling sticker sheets and their what I started with for this layout.  I used those colours to decide what colour of patterned paper to use.  It pulled together perfectly.

What an Adventure

Another layout about the life we saw under the sea.  I love how the colours of the photos are brought out by the colours of the patterned paper.

Koh Nang Yuan

I did this layout as kind of a title page for the Koh Nang Yuan diving trip.  I used a picture of a map to show exactly where we were diving.

The Highlight of My Day

The Nudibranches we some of the coolest things to see while diving.  Apparently they are quite rare to see on a dive but we had the oppotunity to see several of them.

Numuang Jungle Trip

What a great experience and magnificent animals! Although it was hot and humid, having the opportunity to ride and elephant was awesome! This beautiful and very agile elephant took us for a trek through the jungle and I couldn't get over how well she navigated the obstacles on the jungle floor. Our tour guide was awesome! He jumped down and took my camera and snap tones of photos for us. I am so grateful he did!



Basic Grey's Marrakech Line was perfect for these photos! It's like the new I would be doing this elephant trek and created it just for me!

Elephant Trek

Happiness

Woah Baby

The Hotel Gardens

A simple grid layout of the hotel gardens, I really just wanted to focus on the photos.  I love the top center picture of the dragon fly, so georgeous!  I had never seen a red dragon fly that big before.  Thank goodness he stayed still long enough for me to get a great picture of him!

Hin Ta & Hin Yai

Another stop on our island tour was at Hin Ta & Hin Yai (Grandmother and Grandfather rock). Hopefully the journalling came through clear on the picture but if not it's about these rock formations that are in the shape of male and female "parts"! I couldn't get over how popular a place this was.

Frangipanis

I know it's a weird title but it is actually the name of the flower in my hair.  I really wanted the title to flow with some kind of swirling motion over the picture but everything I tried seemed to over power the layout.  I then had an epiphany, create it on a transparency.  So that is exactly what I did.  I created an image in Photoshop and found a brush I liked that did the swirl and then typed my title over top.  I then added this image to a word document and then printed it on a transparency.  Pretty cool and it gave me just the look I was looking for.

Golden Arches

I thought it was really funny to see familiar North American stores and restaurants in Thailand. It really wasn't something I had considered. I'm not sure why not, I just didn't. Anyways, I had to take a picture of Old McDonald in Koh Samui because of his stance. You would never see that in Canada! Just another way in which our culture and theirs is so different.

Big Buddha

I really like the collage look these days. It seems to work with copious amount of photos I have to work with. For this layout I used a Basic Grey 6x6 paper pad for all the different little patterned paper pieces. I feel less guilty cuting one of those up then a full 12x12 sheet of paper.

Mummified Monk

Happy Hour

Oceanside

The ocean views at our resort were beautiful and I took so many photos! This layout was awesome because it allowed me to incorporate so many of those photos.  The chipboard letters I wanted to used for this layout weren't quite the right shade of blue so I sanded them down slightly and then rubbed an ink on them to bring them closer to the right color.  If you try this technique be sure to allow the ink to thoroughly dry otherwise you will end up with blue fingers like I did!

Relax In The Sun

I had so much fun with this layout as the picture gave such great options for colors and the Basic Grey Lemonade line worked great with it. There's lots of embellishing too which is always fun!

Tour Guide

Mom & Me

A fun layout about my Mom and Me. I had been saving this paper for the perfect water layout and as soon as I saw this picture I decided this was the one.

Q-Signature

Room With A View

Paradise

This layout about our resort on the island of Koh Samui was done with Facy Pants Summer Soiree Collection. I really like the color combination of Green, Blue and Orange.