sketch support | disney highlights, 2011

 

Two page week just wrapped up at Sketch Support, so it’s time to share my layout. Head on over there to get a free copy of this two-page sketch & check out what the rest of the creative team came up with.

I decided to scrap some photos from our vacation last November to Disneyland. I hadn’t done much, other than another layout of the holidays at Disney. I’m planning on making a photo book  on Shutterfly with all of our photos, so I chose to just pick a few highlights. I even had my (almost) six year old daughter help choose photos & come up with her favorites from our vacation for the journaling.

Supplies – patterned paper: American Crafts, Crate Paper, Echo Park, Jillibean Soup; buttons: Crate Paper; label & letter stickers: Jillibean Soup; ink: Tsukineko; corrugated letters: Jillibean Soup (all from my February Green Tangerines Kit Club)

Variation #1 – I used a cute mini-heart print from Jillibean Soup rather than striped paper. I didn’t have a good stripe to match all the patterned paper I was using, and I liked how this paper coordinated & had a small enough print to work.

Variation #2 – Instead of using labels & a swirl on the far right, I used little letter stickers & a couple of buttons. I was able to write the sentiment I wanted to in the same space without changing the overall design.

Variation #3 – For the title, I kept the embellishments & actual title similar to the sketch by using letter stickers & a button, along with a small label. However, I omitted the actual block behind the title.

Disneyland, June 2010

Three months after we got back & it's scrapped!

I used a Becky Higgins' sketch that I've used before. I love it because I can fit quite a few photos on it, and still have ample journaling space.

I used my fun spiral notebook punch again. I just love that look, and I'm sure 10 years from now I'll look back at my layouts & laugh.

I'm not big on using "themed" stickers on my layouts, but come on, it's a Disneyland layout! I originally had different colors picked out, but then Mickey didn't match. I was going to ditch the mouse, but my husband then pointed out that it just looked like any other layout. And it's not like we go there all the time. Besides, the Mickey sticker came with three epoxy Mickey heads, perfect for here:

legoland

My detailed Legoland experience can be found here. My scrappable story is here:

For this layout I used a sketch from Becky Higgins. I'm sure it's from her sketch book or Creating Keepsakes, but I found the inspiration on her blog here.

The papers are a mix from American Crafts' Heat Wave line & my Apr/May Green Tangerines kit (have you heard? They're reopening sometime in September! Woo-hoo!). I had fun using lots of bright colors on this layout. And, that cute strip of paper at the top with the diamonds on it? It's the reverse of the paper "edge" that's meant to be torn off (with the line name on it). How cool that AC has made that strip functional! Fortunately I had two sheets of the Kahuna Kiwi paper so I was able to do the strip across both sides of my layout.

Although I didn't ink the edges of everything, I did ink the circles. They just needed a little more definition. Becky didn't have them in her original layout, but mine just lacked "something" so I punched some out with my 3" circle punch, inked them, & slid them into a few spots. Perfect!

For my journaling, I used a sheet of lined paper that I trimmed down to size, and then I punched the edge to make it look like I tore it out of a notebook. I've been seeing this a lot lately, and so I recently picked this border punch up at Michael's (40% off!). I'm having a ton of fun with it!

winter wonderland

We got back from Tahoe 6 months ago...so now I can scrap it! As you can tell, I'm not the best with scrapping things right away. And if I do, then it means something gets put off for a few months. Sometimes I get my pictures uploaded to the computer & I'm immediately inspired. And sometimes, after five days in Tahoe, I have so many pictures that even if I am inspired, I'm overwhelmed by having to select 10 photos out of 500+. So I wait a few months until I'm not so emotionally attached to the 27 pictures of Abbie eating snow, and then I can objectively decided that one is cute, the rest can go.

And then I can make this:

Originally I was planning on using my stash from my December kit. But that was a bit too Christmasy for the colors in these photos (though I was able to use the glitter snowflake die-cut paper again! Fun!). Then I found some Christmas My Mind's Eye paper sitting around (literally scraps! yay!) from this layout. Perfect!

I cut the snowflake out from a die-cut sheet by KI Memories.

The die-cut title words are from My Mind's Eye also. It's such a great feeling to get my stash pared down!

To get this look, I cut both the striped & spotted paper into 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch rectangles. I glued the striped to the back of the white paper (before I had adhered anything else. Then I folded the corner over a ruler to get an even fold. I did it using the corners of the striped paper for a rough guide. Then I attached the spotted paper to the back of the white paper, exactly on top of the striped and attached the folded corner with a pretty brad. I hope that make a little bit of sense!

Adventures in Legoland

We were blessed by four free tickets to Legoland from David's sister Nicole. Since we were going to be in Southern California for a wedding, we figured we might as well make the drive to Carlsbad so we could take the kids to Legoland.

Originally I had wanted to do two days at Disneyland, and then head to Legoland on our way home. However, Carlsbad (near San Diego) isn't "on the way home" to Sacramento from LA! So we went there first. Because it was our first day of activities, the kids were full of energy! Looking back, I wish we hadn't told the kids about the tickets to Legoland, and had stuck to my agenda. The kids were so exhausted by day three that they didn't really enjoy Disneyland. But that's another post...

Back to Legoland.

The pros: the kids had a GREAT time!

They got to go on a train ride (a few times).

And squirt water at the Lego.

They got to drive the cars in a race.

(Well, Brandon & Olivia go to drive, Abbie was too young.)

There were lots of fun Lego things to put your head in.

And a very cool area of mini Lego cities. I got to snap a few pics on the way thru as we were on a mad dash to the bathroom. And honestly, as cool as I think it was, I don't think the kids would've last too long.

The cons: We only lasted about four hours because really, there wasn't much more to do. The lines were long, and didn't have "fast passes" like at Disney and people were cutting in & out of them. And they were just "rides". I'm so thankful we didn't have to pay $67 admission (per person)! The play areas were nice, but we have free parks here that are nicer, and TONS of Lego at home (that hasn't been touched by lots of dirty hands...just my kids!).

My HUGE complaint: The first ride we went on had a 45 minute line. When it was our turn, the worker let Brandon & David get on their car. Abbie screamed because Daddy had left her. Fine, I can handle that. The next car came, so the girls & I stepped up to get on. The 17 year old worker told me I could only take one child on with me, but I could leave one of them behind & their nice little play area (where I would not be able to see her while on the ride).

EXCUSE ME?! Of course we waited for David to come back & took a few turns to get everyone on. I was irritated at the stupidity of the worker's comments, until I noticed that all of the rides had these Lego play areas with signs that said "kids play while parents wait." Cool concept, except, really? Who's going to do that? And these were on the little kid rides too.

(Fast forward to the next evening at California Adventure at Disneyland. David took Brandon & Olivia on the bumper cars. I waited outside with Abbie. Again, the ride was designed for one parent, one child. So one of the employees went on the ride with Brandon! What a different experience! Kudos Disney!)

All in all, the kids had fun at Legoland. They were bummed that we didn't let them buy any Legos, but I honestly didn't see anything there (Lego-wise) that you couldn't get in the Lego store or online (which, by the way, if want something that is available online but not in the store, you can have them order it for you at the store for FREE shipping).

My recommendation: not worth it. Especially if you're going to Disneyland (where they have a Lego store in Downtown Disney) or if you live 30 minutes from a Lego store.

Tahoe

We just got back from five days in Tahoe with my family...so now I'm in the midst of mega laundry! It was well worth it though :)

I was smart this trip & brough three scrapbook kits for me to do in the evenings. I still need to finish up the journaling on one (on the computer), but otherwise I finished three layouts. Yay! Okay, not one of them was "my" design, but hey, I got them done :)

Before I get back to the laundry pile, here are a few pics from our trip:

I took all of my photos in RAW this time, so I have to edit them before I can print or share them. But the colors came out great this time! I usually shoot & JPEG + RAW, a great feature on my camera. However, that takes up a LOT more room on my memory card. It makes it take a bit longer to share anything, but well worth it when you take way too many pictures :)

Palm Springs

David's dad & stepmom moved to Palm Springs right after Brandon was born. After having visited down there twice, I can honestly say they couldn't have picked a better place to move, except maybe Hawaii or Florida. But then we couldn't afford to visit very often!

We've stayed at the Indian Wells Resort & LOVE it! Basically we go & play in the pool the entire time we're there. We did also visit David's step mom & grandma (the kids only great grandma).

For this layout, I finally got to use a layout design from Becky Higgins that I'd torn out quite a few years ago. Turns out my friend Brenda used the same layout recently too! I also got to use more of my goodies from the May Kit from Green Tangerines, as well as some fun Cosmo Cricket Snorkel stuff.