World Famous

I love this layout!  I know I say that a lot but I do!  The first reason I love this layout is because it is all done using scrap pieces that were left over from other layouts.  Because this layout uses a block design it was easy to crop my pieces to work within the blocks.  It saved me tonnes of time and the cost of more patterned paper.  And best thing is I bet you wouldn't guessed it was done with scraps!

And the second reason I love this layout is that I used a post card as my focal photo.  I couldn't get a good shot of Ricks because really unless you were on a boat, it was impossible.  My Mom saw this postcard in the gift shop and bought it for me (I used to collect them and still kind of do so I was instinct for her) and I am sure glad she thought of it!  I might just have to pay more attention to postcards when I visit places from now on!

Oh and thanks Ashley H. for you tip awhile back about underlining your journalling, it really does help ground it.  See I do read your comments and take them to heart ;)

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey -  For Lauderdale Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Basic Grey Alphas; Embellishments: Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Die Cut Stickers, Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Build a Flower Kit, Brads, and Buttons.

Lighthouse Tour

Sometimes it is so hard to scrapbook vacations.  There always seems to be either too many or too few (that's a rarity for me if I am honest) photos to do what I want with a layout.  This layout was a little hard for me.  I had tonnes of photos and as you can see I had a hard time narrowing down which ones to use.  I always start with my favorites but sometimes (like in this case) I had 15 photos I liked, yikes!  I managed to weed out 5 more based on which ones I could crop and fit on the page but I always feel bad about the ones I leave out.  I am curious about all of you.  How do you weed out photos?  Do you every find you take too many?  What do you do with the extras (if anything)?

Because I had so many photos, it left very little room for journalling.  I managed to find a long rectangular journalling spot and decided to tuck it in with the title.

I also managed to stick another little journalling spot on the top right with the flowers where I could put the date the Lighthouse was built.  Sneaky I know!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Making Memories Felt Alphs and American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Chipboard Elements, Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Brads, Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Journalling Spots, Brads and Making Memories Felt Flowers.

Snorkeling Adventure

Woah White Space!  I don't normally do a bunch of white space, it's like a blank canvas to me and always needs something.  But when I saw this sketch with the circles I knew it would be perfect for my snorkeling photos.  I decided I wanted each circle to be a different pattern of paper but that didn't seem to look good with a patterned background and coloured paper seemed to drown (no pun intended) out my photos.  So I went with white and fought the urge to add more colour!

The circles were so much fun!  I started with a 6x6 paper pad and cut out a bunch of different sized, different patterned circles for my layout using both punches and the trace something round and cut method.  Then while looking for something to accentuate my title I found the chipboard circles from the same line hidden in my stash so added those.  Now I could have an even number of different textures so I had to find something else.  I wanted something smaller but buttons were too big and sequins have been used on every water layout I had done lately so I needed something different.  That's when I remembered the glass beads I have had for years, don't they look like real bubbles.  Like I said, I had so much fun with these circles!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Basic Grey Chipboard Alphs; Embellishments: Basic Grey - Fort Lauderdale Chipboard shapes and Glass Beads; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking; Tools: Fiskars Circle Punch.

Hey Bert

So this picture is kind of an inside joke that goes back many years!  You see Steve has a laugh that sounds just like Ernie's laugh and he can also do an awesome rendition of Rubber Ducky, so when we noticed our Resort had Sesame Street characters roaming the resort, we kept our eyes peeled for Ernie.  Unfortunately, we never saw Ernie but we did find his good buddy Bert so I had to make Steve pose with him for this photo.  And because I wanted the photo and story to be the focal point of my layout I kept the rest of the layout pretty simple.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Echo Park - Splash Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and old Large Chipboard Letters; Embellishments: Echo Park - Splash Paper Diecuts and Borders, Echo Park Chipboard Elelment, and Journalling Spot.

Swim Up Pool Bar

We have always wanted to try a swim up pool bar. The concept sounded so cool but none of the resorts we had ever stayed at had one until this trip. I was excited. I'm not sure why really but it sounded fun! After now having tried it, I can't understand what I was so excited about. First off it is impossible to sit on a stool in the water. I kept falling off mine and no it was not because I had too many margaritas! When I was a kid I remember spending hours trying to sit on a floatie in the water and always kept falling off no matter how hard I tried. Well this was much the same thing.  It was definitely an experience, one I am sure I won't be so eager to try again ... I will take my margarita sitting in a beach lounger instead!

I decided to break out my circle cutter for this layout.  I haven't used it in years!  I remember when all my layouts had circle and oval photos or even squares cut out with fancy scissors.  It just seemed that it was a phase that I grew out of.  But this layout I had two photos I wanted to use but the one of Steve was mostly pool so by the time I cropped it, it was a weird size and didn't work with my layout.  Then I thought hey why not make it round and I did and it looks great!  And because it was so cropped I had space to use another Status Update post it note ... I love them!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Margarita Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers:American Crafts Thickers ; Embellishments: American Crafts - Margarita Stickers, Status Update Post It Notes, Bottle Cap, Resin Flowers, and Brads.Tools: .

Floatin Down the Lazy River

Our sister resort had a really cool lazy river that wound around the entire resort.  You hopped on an inner tube and the current drifts you all around the resort.  It was so much fun!  When I saw this blue background paper I thought it matched the tile pattern of the lazy river and was perfect for this layout!

I wanted a really long title but it looked weird at the top of my layout where the sketch had it.  So I move it to the bottom right where the journalling was supposed to go and then stacked it in different font types and I think it turned out way better.  For some reason. I find long titles look way better when the fonts are mixed up.  How do you do long titles?  Do you do long titles?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Margarita Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers, Fancy Pants Alphas, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type; Embellishments: Margarita Stickers, Jolee Dimensional Stickers, Making Memories Big Brads, Bella blvd Chipboard Words, and Jillibean Stickers and Journalling Spot; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking; Tools: Creative Memories Reverse Corner Rounder Punch.

Group Snapshot

Awhile back I won a stamp set from Swiss Girl Designs. She has some of the cutest stamp sets! In fact, when Rahel told me I had won a set I took the opportunity to purchase a couple more to be sent with my winning set. This was my first layout I did with my new stamps and I love them. If you are interested in her sets visit her site at http://swissgirldesigns.com/.  If you have time while you are there, look through her blog, she is so inspiring and she even does some really awesome how to videos set to her hubby's music!

I also stepped it up a bit and did a little bit of fussy cutting.  I really liked the flowery background paper in this collection but I found it really over powering.  So I cut out a small section, as well as a couple of butterflies, and then tucked it behind then placed it so that it looked like it was peaking out from behind the photos.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Margarita Collection; Alphabet Stickers: Old Chipboard Letters; Embellishments: Margarita Stickers, Swiss Girl Design Stamps; Inks: Colorbox; Tools: .

We Jamexican

The next several layouts you will see from me are from our second trip to Jamaica. This time around was way better cause both Steve and I managed to not get sick! It was a fantastic trip and because we had already been to Jamaica the year before, we didn't have the need to cram all kinds of sightseeing into this trip. It was way more relaxing!

We stayed at the same resort as we did the last time because it was a nice resort and we loved being able to spend time at the sister resort down the road. They had the best Mexican restaurant at the sister resort! I think we went 3 times this trip. We joked about it being not just Mexican food but Mexican food with Jamaican flair thrown in here and there so we called it Jamexican. And that is where the title we this layout came from.

This layout was so much fun!  I managed to use the left over bits after cutting out the large circle to cut out little circles to place around the rest of my layout.  Some of them were even popped up with foam dots for dimension.  And then came the heart.  I really wanted the heart to stand out but the pink felt heart I was using just seemed lost.  So I mounted it on blue cardstock but it still seemed lost.  So I broke out the washi tape and made a fun and easy ruffle.  There now it popped!  I repeated the ruffle in the middle of the layout to add some balance and more dimension and using the washi tape sure made it easy.  If you have never done it, it's simple really!  I started by tucking one end under picture and then loop up and stick down to the cardstock.  Don't be concerned about keeping everything straight and even, it looks better if it isn't.  In fact, I wanted mine to look wavy so I deliberately made it more so.  Be careful not to let you loops stick together and keep going all the way to the end where you can cut it any way you like - I did pennant style. Now go back and push all your loops down.  Tada!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Magarita Collection; Cardstock: Bazills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Felt, Washi Tape, Glass Beads, Embroidery Thread, and Chipboard Elements; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking.