Cruise Layout - Two Ports of Call

It's time for more cruising layouts!!  I have six more pages, or three double page layouts, to share with you today.  These pages are representative of what I did with the shore excursion pages.  The two pages above are of our Freeport visit.  We acted like goof-balls getting off of the ship, playing with the Captain's Wheel.  We then took a tour of the Island and visited some shopping areas.  After we completed our shopping adventure Doug and I enjoyed a local cafe/pub where we cooled off and mingled with locals. 

Above are the first two Key West pages.  I included out City Tour pamphlet as well as various photos from around town.  I wanted this page to be an overview of what we found special about Key West, and that is what I included in my journal block on the left hand page.

Below are our last two Key West pages, but ironically there are at least four more pages that will go between the pages above and those below.  I have yet to complete the pages of the Butterfly Conservatory and our other stops.

 As I said above, these two pages are the final Key West layouts.  These photos were taking at the port, except for the lower two pages on the right page, which were taken from the top of the ship.  The port was so pretty with cute shops, pubs, and a wonderful ice cream shop!  We both enjoyed cooling off in the ice cream shop and sharing out table with one of our fellow passengers.

I may not have a new post tomorrow.  We *just* received a call from Doug's uncle and aunt announcing that they are coming to town tomorrow for a visit!!!  Good thing I did so much house cleaning today!  Yikes.  I will be back by the end of the week.

At Long Last - A Few Cruise Layouts

At long last I am finally ready to begin sharing some of the layouts from my cruise scrapbook. I still have eight or ten pages more to scrap but I have 18 pages that are ready to share. I will share a few layouts today and then more next week.

I am not sharing the opening page as I did not use the Cricut on page one. I ordered a custom die-cut ship with custom wording from Scrap Your Trip for the first page. After page one, I tried to present an over view of each aspect of the cruise: The ship, our stateroom, activities on board, food, night life, and ports of call.

The photograph at the top of the post is pages two and three in the scrapbook.  I used gray-blue cardstock as a base.  I cut a postage stamp trimmed sheet of decorative cardstock in half and used it as base mats for my four photographs.  Each photo is double matted with a white matting in addition to the decorative layer. 

Pages three and four offer an overview of the ship and includes our sail and sign cards which we reserved to use as memorabilia.  These two pages began with printed cardstock.  I added lime green mats and navy blue border stamps to add to the page.  The Welcome Aboard die cut was ordered from Scrap Your Trip.  These two pages also feature border stamping.

Pages four and five are an overview of our cabin and includes photos of our towel animals.  I used blue and yellow mats, as well as fun trim at the top of the page.  I added the multi colored stripes and the yellow ribbon to finish the page.  As on previous pages, I printed my journaling on vellum and added it to the page.

Pages six and seven are the first of two double page spreads featuring on-board dining.  In the photo on the left page we are celebrating our anniversary.  The other photos were foods or beverages that we actually consumed.  Each of the other nights on the cruise we sat with other couples.  Each time I photographed one of our plates I had to explain that I am a major scrapbooker and that food photos were a must!  They seemed indulgently amused though I could tell that they did not get it.  However, I am equally sure that each of you understands my need to photograph everything.

I will be back on Monday with another BBTB2 project to share and next week I will share more of the cruise layouts.  I hope you each have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Anniversary to ME!

I must apologize for being away for so long!  I so enjoyed our 30th Anniversary cruise; neither Doug nor I wanted to exit the ship!  We are already talking about our next cruise. 

We arrived home last weekend and after unpacking and making my way through a mountain of laundry, I began to settle back into normal life.  Or so I thought. On Monday I came down with a virus - an unpleasant virus.  I am feeling totally, completely recovered today, which is wonderful as today is my actual anniversary! 

30 years ago today this cute little couple married:

I think we were 12.  Okay, maybe we just look 12!!!  We were 21 and 22!

I am going to share a few photos of the cruise with you and offer a promise that by cyber Monday I will be paper crafting again! 

View of the Lido deck from deck 12:

View of the Atlantic Ocean:

The Atlantic by night:

The food was AMAZING:

Loved the towel animals:

More dessert:

Key West:

First formal dinner:

 A tiny Key:

Goofing off in the Bahamas!!

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels!

My Crazy Dog's Craziest Moment Yet....

I have mentioned my dog Duncan so often in the past that I could not pass up the opportunity to share his craziest moment ever... Or at least his craziest moment to date. 

You may recall that I told you how Duncan reacts when I receive a delivery, barking and whining, trying to get to the box and open it for himself.  Well today's delivery from UPS (my new Creative Memories Cartridge, by the way) arrived, Duncan immediately went into delivery dog mode! 

I took the package and put it on the kitchen counter, stupidly thinking that would discourage Duncan's crazy behavior.  In the meantime I went into the next room.  I heard Duncan made a couple of jumps and yelps at the box, but I thought he would realize that he could not get the box.  Then I heard a drawer open and Duncan gave a little bark.  The photo above is what I found when I went back into the kitchen to investigate. 

There he hung by his harness, looking pathetic.  After screatching OH MY GOSH, DUNCAN!  I ran to the other room and grabbed the camera to snap a couple of photos.  If I had taken the time to check I would have realized the camera was set on micro mode - so the photos were a bit grainy.  However, at least I captured the moment!

And here he is, Duncan the wonder dog, resting atop dad, getting his tummy petted. None the worse for wear, and still my crazy fur-boy!!

Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration

Good morning royal watchers and blog readers!  Today is the big day for Prince William and Catherine Middleton and here in Aiken, MFK (my friend Kathy) is hosting a Royal Wedding Breakfast event.  She has worked all week to be ready to host the Aiken location (Buckingham, Southeast??) of the Royal Wedding.  Rumor has it that we will be enjoying some of the same amenities as the wedding guests at Buckingham Palace - or "Buck House" as the late Queen Mum liked to refer to the palace.

My plan is to update this blog post all morning to ensure that you stay up to date on the Royal happens here in Aiken.  I am supposed to arrive at Kathy's house around 6:00 am.  I think Kathy thought if I could get up for the E2 launch, I should be able to get up for the Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration. 

  

I bet you are wondering what you might expect to see at Kathy's Royal Wedding Breakfast?? Well every woman attending a royal wedding needs head cover.  Of course royalty will be sporting diamond and other precious gemstone tiaras, but the vast majority of the female guests - friends, family, celebrities, dignitaries, etc will be wearing hats or facinators.  You can expect to see something appropriate in the way of head wear here in Aiken.

When attending a royal wedding you can also expect to see fine linens, china, silver and crystal.  The same hold true for our venue here in Buckingham, Southeast!  You can expect that Kathy will "put on the dog" for us and pull out her best silver, china, linens, etc.

When attending the royal breakfast, one would expect lovely food.  I am not going to reveal more right now, but I am going to tell you that you can expect to see some fun and surprising food items at Kathy's Royal Wedding Breakfast.

Drop back by regularly today for updates on Busy with the Cricky's and The Laker Scrapbook Guild's morning adventures at MFK's Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration.  I will be taking my laptop, camera and video camera to make sure that you feel like you were "almost" there with us!!!

For your copy of today's Royal Wedding Program click on the name to download a pdf copy.  

8:00 AM update:

Kathy had a breakfast buffet for us:  English muffins, jams, bacon, tomatoes, and strawberries and clotted cream. Our beverage choices included orange juice, champagne, mimosas, and coffee. 

Here were are, in our glory (and PJs), modeling our facinators that Kathy and her sister Kimberly made for us.

 Our happy hostesses and Minnie the poodle, all wearing their Royal Wedding facinators.

 Kathy found the recipe for Prince William's groom's cake from a link provided by The Today Show and made this for us.  We are currently all sugared up on this fabulous cake.  We all completely understand why this is William's favorite cake. The cake is like eating a large candy bar.  

Here in Aiken there we have a British store called The Curiosity Shop.  It is a wonderful store and I shop there for quilts, hats. scarves, Dr. Who toys (!), Beatles items, etc.  They also sell British foods and that is where Kathy found many of the ingredients for the cake.  The cake was completely worth the effort!

Simple Pages in a Flash for a Multi Scrap Page Event

Today I want to share the idea of using simple layouts to help you deal with a multi-page scrapping event.  As part of my 50th birthday celebration last year we went to the Aiken Spring Steeplechase on my actual birthday.  After the Steeplechase we had friends over for a party picnic/party with games.  It was a wonderful birthday!  But scrapping the day took many pages.  I had the elements of the Steeplechase as well as outdoor and inside photos from the evening.   I had previously scrapped four pages of of the evening party, but I had not yet attempted to scrap the Steeplechase.

I began by dividing the photos and memorabilia into categories:  Intro, family and friends, carriage parade, and Steeplechasing.  I combined the memorabilia with two photobooth looking photo strips and a photo of a single horse and rider.  I used two coordinating pieces of black and white print cardstock, white cardstock matting, and a white pen for doodling and created the first two pages. 

Above, I had saved an extra copy of the invitations we sent to family and friends to join us at the Steeplechase, matted it on white cardstock, and combined with the photo strips to create an intro page.

Page two includes my admission badge from the event, the actual event program, a single rider photo, and bit of ribbon and a cardstock sticker.  Easy peasy yet nice looking.  The print cardstock was a great touch.

Pages three and four contain five of my favorite photos from the many taken during the carriage parade.  HINT:  Do not feel like you MUST use every photo.  You can select photos to represent the event/location (I chose my favorite of the Grand Canyon too, and did not scrap all 70+ photos).  The largest of the photos is a 5x7, three are 4x6's, and the smaller photo is 2.5x6 inches.

I chose a simple black cardstock background and cut a single sheet of traditional equestrian looking plaid paper in half to decorate the page.  I chose a pale yellow color from the plaid and matted the five photos on yellow.  I added chipboard brackets and a chipboard sticker, along with layered flowers.  Again, simple and easy - let the focus be on the photos.

Pages five and six were the easiest.  I had enlarges some of my photos to show details of the event.  I had four photos - an 8x10, a 5x7, a 10x4, and a 4x6.    I matted the photos on white and light blue cardstock.  The 8x10 and a title fill the first page - with a "take the jump" sticker. 

Page six is a bit crowded, but I did not want to spread the "Chasing" photos over another two pages... So I squeezed it all in.  I have very few embellishments, again, because the photos are the focal point.  I felt that too many embellies distracted from the photos.

Pages seven and eight are the final two Steeplechase pages - family and friends.  And while I added a little detail to these pages, again they were quite simple.  The pages were created with a speckled navy blue cardstock base, a sheet of blue and green print cut in half, and a blue and white print.  I picked up on the green in the print to use as base matting. 

The letters were cut from the M.S. Seasonal Art cartridge.  And the final embellishments were the layered flowers, in blues and whites. 

And that is how you make eight quick pages of the same event using a limited number of photos to represent the overall event.  I broke the event down into phases - and scrapped two simple pages for each of the four phases. 

Early Delivery Surprise

We had a pleasant surprise at our  home yesterday - our new pieces of furniture delivered early!  We purchased a new leather sectional and a new occasional chair.  I am posting photos for MARY and anyone else who may care!!!  Note: Duncan was not cooperating during the photo session.  And yes, we are Easter-ized at the moment - lots of antique linens and Easter porcelain. 

Additional note - the baker's rack will be replace with a cherry buffet as soon as the buffet is delivered.  I will be adding a large clock between the buffet and the plate rack.

I love the chair (not so much the amplifier cord sneaking out from under the chair).  The real life colors are rich and it is so comfortable.

I decided to show you the whole room.  This is, of course, the entertainment center.  The crazy painted cabinet on the left is from Michael's and I painted it.  It hold CDs.  The crazy mini-UK-phone booth on the right housed DVD (as do the shelves in the bottom of the cabinet). 

The fireplace and an antique rocker with hand-knit throw..... Very warm on winter nights.   Note the Cricut vinyl over the shelves - and YES, I needed an eight foot ladder to install the vinyl!

And basically this is the room view from the dining room.  Very warm comfy, while somewhat neutral.  And though the Fender guitar area is a bit messy looking, it is my concession to Doug's hobby.

Spring is popping out in my yard

Yesterday was a grey and rainy day here in Aiken but even the dark sky could not suppress the beauty that is beginning to emerge in my back yard.  Our Tulip Magnolia tree is covered with amazingly beautiful bloom and is focal point of our yard.

This little tree was planted two and a half years ago. In that time it has doubled in size and has become a true spring time gem.  In the summer the tree is covered with lush green leaves, and will someday be a wonderful shade tree.  But the spring is is truly a wonder.  I love the bold pink blooms.

I think my camera did a great job on the close ups.  Did you notice the rain drops on the petals? 

I will be back with photos soon with a few photos of my redecorating efforts.  Don't you love Spring changes???