The First of Many

Hi everyone!  Well I've done my first layout from our California vacation.  :)   I plan on making several, so this is kinda like my introduction to my California layouts.

Here's my layout:

I bought those cool window decals when I was at Disneyland and I thought it'd be cool to use them on this fantastic chalkboard paper.  The whole layout uses the Memories Captured collection from Fancy Pants Designs.  And then I wrote in white pen to also look like chalk on my paper.  :)  I am really lovin' this line!

Here are some close up's of my layout:

I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  :)

Well thanks for stopping in today!
I hope you have a fantastic day!!!

Vaca Recap and Winner

* This is a long post, sorry :)

Hello all!  We have just returned from a journey.  :)  We went on vacation to California.  We hit Legoland, Sea World, the beach, a wedding, California Adventure, and of course, Disneyland.  And I am tuckered out...just exhausted, but it was so much fun!

Here are some photos and recaps from our journey:

The Beach
My kids had never seen the ocean before so this was a completely new experience.  We walked down our first night in La Jolla and saw the beach covered with seals.  There were also surfers all over which the kids were fascinated with.  Then the next day we were able to go sit on the beach and enjoy the sand, but they were still warning us not to really go out because of high currents...or whatever.  The lifeguards told us it was an angry sea that day. But it didn't stop us from enjoying the sand and sticking our feet in the water.

Yes, those are all seals!

Legoland

Legoland was fun but it was more aimed at the young kids.  There were rides, but they included LONG lines for very short rides (almost all what I would call kiddie rides).  I'm glad we went once, but I don't feel the need to ever go back.  What I did enjoy were all the AMAZING things built with legos. They had all these fabulous cities and structures...I wish I could have spent more time looking at those.  But the kids wanted to find the rides.  Here are a few pics from our day:

Sea World
I have such fond memories going to Sea World as a kid and it didn't disappoint this time either.  It was mainly shows...and timing things right, but they do have several rides there now that I didn't remember as a kid.  One thing I really liked that I didn't see the other parks do: they opened the park with the singing of our National Anthem which I thought was really cool.  The one show I thought I was willing to skip ended up being the one I enjoyed the most...it just totally made me laugh, that was the Sea Lions show.  The kids really enjoyed all the shows too.  They didn't expect to, but they loved it all.

Here are a few pics from Sea World:

In that last photo, Hayden is signaling to the whale to splash.  :)

California Adventure
Even though this park is connected with Disneyland, it is very different.  The rides are more like typical theme parks, like Six Flags and like fairs/carnivals.  There is a lot more I can't do at this park simply because I get motion sickness and can't go round and round or upside down.  I think it really just depends on what kind of rides you enjoy more as to whether you like California Adventure or Disneyland more.  But there were a few rides that were just awesome, like the new Radiator Springs ride in Carsland.  Loved that one!  And there was a lot of hype about World of Color, which was cool, but I still thought Fantasmic (in Disneyland) was better than World of Color.  Fantasmic tells more of a story and includes more in the show than just water and screens.  But World of Color was still enjoyable.

Here are a few pics from California Adventure (I found that I didn't get as many here...don't know why):

Disneyland
They claim to be the happiest place on earth, and it certainly is one of the happiest for us.  But it is PACKED.  The best times to go are in the morning and then late at night.  You can get 5x more done in the morning then in the afternoon.  So we go back to the hotel during the afternoon for "naptime" and then return in the evening.  This works pretty well, then the kids can stay up late and the adults can rest their feet some.  This is the park I enjoyed the most.  In fact, if I was to plan another trip like this, I think I would skip all the rest and get a five day pass to Disneyland or something...so you don't have to rush and try to get it all done but just get to enjoy it all more.  This time around, we had a three day pass and spent one day in California Adventure and two days in Disneyland.  And we still did not get everything done.

Here are some pictures from Disneyland:

(Hayden was picked for Jedi training)

My favorite moment of the whole trip was when Eryn got to meet Cinderella.  She just lit up, face and body and grinned from ear to ear.  It was the sweetest thing.  She's been talking about meeting her.  I'm just glad she was able to.

I actually have a ton more photos that I want to post...but I don't want to make the post any longer than it already is.  :)


And I also owe you a winner!  There were so many fabulous entries to our last sketch...thank you to everyone who participated!

And the winner is...

Congratulations Wendy!!!  Send me your address to pamelacy@msn.com and I will get your goodies mailed out to you!  :)

And thanks again to everyone who played along!  

Have a fabulous day!!!  

Using Ribbon

Well, I'm getting up a bit late today.  I have had stuff to post, but I just seem to crash at night, which is when I usually type up blog posts.  But instead of scheduling it for next week, I thought I would just go ahead and post it late this morning...if I don't get many comments...it's ok, I don't need to plan things out in a way where I think more people will see it.  It's things like that I just need to let go of (I have this strange notion that if I don't post early, I might as well not post at all that day and save it for later).  But if most people miss it--it's all good, I'm not going to stress about it.  :)  I think this whole blogging thing can get consuming, especially if you are trying to please readers instead of just posting what you do when you do it.  I have seen many bloggers out there strategizing to get the most viewers and comments....what do you bloggers all think about that?  Do you post things when you think the most people will see them?

Anyways...kind of went off on a tangent there.

Today I wanted to share a layout that I made for the Fancy Pants blog.  We were to focus on using ribbon creatively.  So I used this fun ribbon:

And created this fun layout:

I folded over small pieces and tucked them behind my paper, essentially making two borders of looped ribbon. I also added little pieces of the pink floral ribbon to my layout as design elements.  The layout uses the Summer Soul collection from Fancy Pants.  I really love combining brown with bright colors.  :)

Here are some close up's of my layout:

And in case you missed it, you should check out this post to see what the fabulous Betsy Veldman did with this ribbon.  Well thanks for stopping by today!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Construction of a Mini

Hi everyone!  Thanks for the advice on yesterday's post!  I know we've all been there.  I imagine that can be said for any hobby.

Today I wanted to share a small mini with you that I made.

Construction:

I love it when companies make those 12x12 papers with 4 6x6 designs on them!  I think they are perfect for mini albums.  We R Memory Keepers does that.  My album today uses their Down The Boardwalk collection.

First I started with one of those papers to make my inside pages.  I knew I wanted them to be smaller than the 6x6 and I really wanted to make them shaped.  I used the perfect beach day die cut as inspiration and template for my inside pages.

I took the die cut and place it over each design and drew my template for my pages.  I wanted to keep the inside uncut as it would be the middle of my mini, where the fold was.

Typically I would draw with a pencil and then erase, but since I was doing this for a tutorial I used the black sharpie to make it more visible.  However, I highly suggest you use pencil.  :)

So my paper ended up looking like this:

Then I cut it out.

Next I took another one of those fun papers with 4 different designs to make my cover.  I started by cutting it and using 2 designs for the cover and back, keeping them 6x6.  (But I later cut them down some).

Then I just ran it all through my sewing machine to create my book.  

I also knew I wanted to use that fantastic die cut in my mini too, so I adhered it down as the center of the album.  :)

So here's my mini:

Completed Album

After this point, it didn't take long to add my photos, journaling and embellishments.  Here's my completed album:

That lace serves two purposes.  It adds to the design of the album and it keeps the album shut.  So you just untie it to open the album.

What do you think?  It's actually a very simple mini album.  Surprisingly, I didn't have too many pictures from my cruise, so I used what I had.  It was one of the most relaxing things I have ever done!  I can't wait to go on my next cruise.  :)

Thanks for stopping in today!  I hope you have a terrific day!!!