Big Mini Book

I have been terrible at keeping up with my scrapbooking. I still have vacation photos from 2006 that aren't scrapped. I wanted to get busy creating, but was a little tired of doing 12x12 albums. So, I decided to make my own album that is the perfect size for scrapping these vacation photos from our 2006 trip to Florida.

The album measures slightly larger than 8x10 inches. I made the front and back covers with chipboard that I covered in paper and fabric. Here is the front, covered in a piece of barkcloth. The embellishments are resting on a burlap base. I tied a little grungy tag and some stained cheesecloth to the top binder ring.

Here's a peek at some of the pages inside. I went for a minimalist design to make the layouts quick and easy. I used a "sea and sand" color scheme for all the pages and used just a few embellishments on each page.

I also didn't do a lot of journaling - basically date, where we were, what we did. For pages that included more journaling, I hid the journaling. Like this page highlighting our day at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach. (It's actually a two-page layout.) Each of the four photos (two are shown) lifts to reveal two more photos. Tucked under each photo "book" is a tag that I wrote the journaling on. This way, I've preserved the memories and information, but it doesn't clutter my page.

I used pop-dots to raise the photo of us at the Southernmost Point landmark.



One of my favorite memories from this trip is visiting the Key West Butterfly Conservatory. I took a ton of photos and it was hard to choose just a few. I had one enlarged, so that little beauty got her own page.

I selected more of my favorites and made a flip-out book. Because these extra photos would be too heavy to adhere to a piece of cardstock, I created a page, slightly smaller than the others, from cardboard. The cardboard is sturdy enough to handle the weight of the flip-out book. I covered it with patterned paper and a few neutral embellishments.



On the left below is the back of the cardboard page. It's the perfect background for this photo of Husband, taken as we were driving out of Key West. On the right is one of my favorite photos of us, taken at a fabulous Cuban restaurant in Palm Beach - The Columbian.

I want to show you what I did with all that memorabilia that we collect on vacation. I didn't want it to clutter up my pages, especially since it didn't match with my color scheme. On the inside of the back cover, I created a pocket out of burlap and tucked all these momentos inside - menus, ticket stubs, maps, you name it. To make sure the papers didn't fall out or slide around, I criss-crossed and tied a piece of twine to keep them in place.



I was able to scrap my entire trip within a week. I was thrilled to get it done. I was very selective in the photos that went into the album, which helped keep it manageable. Now I can move on to our Savannah trip...

 

We're Off to See the Wizard

Actually, we just got back. We took advantage of the long weekend and jetted off to Orlando. We spent a few days in Disney World and one magical day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios. Here are just a few pics from our trip.

On our first night, we bought tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It was a lot of fun and the park was not crowded, so we got to ride many of the rides.

See that bag husband is holding? We got to trick or treat through the park. He loved it!

Special Halloween fireworks. (I preferred the Halloween fireworks in Disneyland, but these were beautiful.)

Then it was off to Hogwarts Castle at Universal. Here I am with the Hogwarts Express conductor.

My favorite ride was the one through the castle. I thoroughly enjoyed the wait because you got to see many Hogwarts artifacts, including the moving paintings, Dumbledore's office, and the Sorting Hat.

Hagrid's hut as we're waiting to ride Buckbeak.

Here I am with my second cup of frozen butterbeer outside the Three Broomsticks.

Husband's favorite part of the trip was the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT. We literally ate our way through all the countries, sampling food, wine, and dessert from each one.
 

Yes, we're still eating the next day. Here I am at Disney's Hollywood Studios, after riding the Rock n Roller Coaster and just before we got on Toy Story Midway Mania - a new favorite! 

We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again!